Sunday, February 21, 2010

Dubai - Airport

Poster in the smoking room at Dubai airport - yes, Sydney, it can be done.

One for the advertisers. See the healthy young girl basking in the smokey goodness. Now, if we can get images like this onto Australian fag-packets...

Dubai - Palms

The Palms is that funny-shaped, man-made island connected to the coast. We had to check it out.

This is the hotel / entertainment complex at the end.

The breakwater. As the whole think is made of sand, you wouldn't want it all to get washed away.

Everything is new in Dubai including the metro rail back to the mainland.

From the metro.

One of the arms waiting for houses to be built. This was worth seeing but it's a lot more impressive on Google Earth than the ground. Still, gotta be done.

Dubai - City Tour

I always like to get myself on a city tour when arriving somewhere new.

Though you do often end up being taken shopping. This was a small Indian craft mall and these are a couple of UAE symbols - coffee pots (all about hospitality).

Dubai bus shelters are brilliant. Fiercely air-conned and they come in pairs; smoking and non-smoking

The only mosque in the city you can go inside if you want.

Some more of those buildings.

Had my eye on this boat.

And that's us down by the water.

Dubai - Burj Khalifa

As of today, the tallest building in the world. And we went up it!

Of course, you can see this from anywhere in the city. This is from the taxi on the way in.

From the bottom by day.

And by night.

The ticket office is in the mall next door.

This from the 124th floor. That's 442m of it's 828m total height.

Over the city.

Now, in front of the building is a lake. A lake, not a pond. Every night about 20min apart, the fountains and lights in the lake do a little (actually, big) dance for the public. This is what it looks like from above.

And this is what it looks like from the lakeside.

This is what the people who watch it look like.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Dubai

The return stopover was Dubai - and Dubai is all about buildings and bling. Were a bunch of bedouin win the mother of all lotteries - you would get Dubai.

Kim on the beack in front of the world's only 7 star hotel. Did we have a look inside? Nope, they have security to keep people like us out.

This seems to be part of the same complex. Probably where the poor have to sleep.

One of the vast shopping malls - not long after xmas.

Me with a drinkey in front of a load of skyscrapers.

Another hotel.

The same hotel at night.

These are the guys doing the building off home for a sleep - presumably in the 7 star hotel.

Egypt - Cairo Market

Last stop in Egypt. Back in Cairo before our flight and we went for a look around the old medieval market.

There's a big mosque in the square next door.

This is all the stuff you can get; trinkets, obviously.

Smells.

Silver.

Ivory - probably not but it's supposed to look like it.

Antiques - including an old AVO (the black meter).

Light shades.

And finally, islamic art.

Egypt - Luxor Temple

Last temple - and at night. This is a lot smaller than Karnak but is stunning all light up.

This mosque is actuall built over part of the temple.

This pylon has its own obelisk.

The lighting really brings out the rock carving.

See what I mean.

Well, this place is just wow.

That's me lurking.

The other end of the causeway. The plan for this is for the government to buy up all the land between the temples and restore the causeway.

The pylon from the causeway.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Egypt - Karnak Temple

Right, this is the big one - Karnak Temple. This is on a vast scale. It's on the opposite side of the Nile to the Valley of the Kings, i.e. the life side as opposed to the death side. This was added to over the centuries and has the mark of Rameses II and Hatsepshut.

The first pylon (there are 4). This row of status are part of a causeway that extends all the way to Luxor Temple the other side of town.

Bit of graffiti. This from Napoleon's mob when they turned up for a look-see.

Doesn't look like much but this is important. Why? Because it shows you how the temples were built. To the left is part of a mud-brick ramp that the stones were dragged up. You can see from the wall that they were stacked up rough-cut and then finished in-situ.

Everything is big here. This is the hypostyle hall.

There's even some of the original colour on the parts out of direct sunlight.

Everyone gets directed to this spot for a photo of an obelisk through the columns. Shame the colours didn't come out better.

Me. With an obelisk. And a hat.

Kim with a couple of pointy things.

One of the obelisks. There are about 5 in the complex. There were more but one is in Paris, one in London and the other in New York. These were the work of Hatsepshut.

What do you know - Rameses II's cartouch.

Kim and a few of the people from our group, including Mahmoud explaining the finer point of something.

A great big granite scarab. Rumour has it that, if you walk around it a few times, good luck will ensue. Therefore, a bugger to get a photo.

The sacred lake. It doesn't look like much of a lake or very sacred but it was important when the temple was up and running. The crane in the background is putting back together a different axis which was built by Hatsepshut.

This is such a large complex, there is always more restoration work underway.

A bloke with a stiffy.

And we'll see the other end of this lot at the next temple.