PeterLambTravels

segunda-feira, 3 de novembro de 2014

Day 2 - Dubai

Dear all,

We could not wake up that early after all, but I think that's ok, right?

Luckly we could have Jihad's and Vaida's company for the day and that was awesome!

We started the day by having some delicious breakfast together with some very nice turkish coffe!

Peter lamb at Jihad's front door

We decided to visit the old Dubai, trying to enter the Dubai Museum as well.

The first museum was already closed, but we knocked the door anyway and Vaida's was persuasive enough to tell the guys we came all the way from Europe and the museum was closed for only about 5 minutes, could we check it out? Surprisingly (or maybe not?) they agreed to let us in. It was a museum about Dubai's traditional architecture, very interesting! It is remarkable the wind towers (check it out on google)!

Afterthis museum, Jihad drove us to Dubai's museum! The entrance fee is pretty cheap (thank you so much for inviting us there Jihad). The museum has a lot of information about Dubai, its origin, climate, desert, traditional jobs, fauna, etc!

At the entrance of Dubai's museum

After the museum we headed to Dubai's creek. It is basically a water channel that is full of sea water. It goes inland for quite some distance.

Peter Lamb flying picture

We parked the car and walked for some time, catching then a traditional boat to the other side to visit old Dubai!

UAE flag on typical boat

Marta and the guys on the traditional boat

When we get to the other side we headed to the market to check it out (spices, clothes, gold & jewelery, etc.)

Couchsurfers in old Dubai

Marta at Dubai's market

Peter lamb enjoying his cup of tea

Peter & Marta at the currency exchange office

The sun was setting soon and we realized that I had forgotten my mobile at Jihad's home, so we needed to go back to his place to pick it up! I felt quite bad about it, but what were the choices?

Peter & Marta on their way back

One hospital. I like the helipad made in grass

Jaafar, who I've met due to work in Saudi Arabia and also in Dubai, was joining us for dinner, great!

We headed to Dubai's mall, all of the area is impressive due to its size. First of all you have the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building on earth with its impressive 830 meters. The Dubai mall is also impressive! Just outside of the wall there is a super large water tank, with a fountain. Every half an hour they have a water performance. It is great.

Burj Khalifa

Peter, Marta & Burj Khalifa

We met Jafaar near the fountain and we headed to the mall, for the Lebanese restaurant. Nhiami, what a tasty food! Cheers Jafaar, it was great!

View from Restaurant's balcony

We were starting to be late, so we needed to start heading to the airport. I thought that we would take the metro (as I heared that is a full automated system, with no driver, which I am not sure), but Jihad told us that he would not mind to drive us there, so we took that option).

Jihad, Marta, Peter & Jafaar

The ride to the airport was pretty fast, so it was time to say goodbye to our host. Jihad, your hospitality was absolutely great, thank you so much for everything! Please feel very welcome in our places anytime!

It was then time to pass through security and find our gate, where the stunning A380 would be waiting for us for the night flight to Bangkok, our next destination.

Gate already open for our flight to Bangkok

That's all for now folks!

Best,

Peter & Marta

Postado com o Blogsy

Day 1 - Lisbon - Dubai

Dear all,

It is not easy to wake up early, when you are exhausted from demanding weeks at work and you are axtually with lack of sleep. Anyway, the excitement of our larger trip so far left us a smile in our faces and go to the airport.

My father gave us some help to carry the bike boxes to the car and drove us to the airport! Cheers dad!

Marta & my father after carrying the first bike box

The airport was very very empty, as there was a(nother) strike on TAP, so quite a lot of flights were cancelled.

TAP check in almost empty

It was our turn to head to Emirates checkin and get out boarding passes for our flight to Dubai.

Peter Lamb & Marta queing for check in

Almost there

When we got to the check in counter, I thought that everything would go smooth, but well, I think that lately it is never that smooth! The lady asked me for how long are we staying there. I responded that we have our flight back in about 5 weeks, but we are going by bicycle to other countries. She asked for a proof for it and I said that we do not have, because we are travelling by bicyle. She replied that Marta only has a 15 visa on arrival, so if we do not have a proof that we leave the country meanwhile she does not allow us to check in! Gosh! Well, we fortunatly bought a flight from Cambodja to Singapore, so we do have a proof that we are leaving Thailand! She asked the supervisor, they were not really sure if we will have problems in Bangkok, but we got the boarding passes to Dubai and Bangkok!

We were the last passengers to be checked in and we still needed to go to the oversized luggage to drop our bikes.

Bikes dispatched all the way to Bangkok

The lady on the oversized luggage told me right away: "I do not think thwt that HUGE box fits the scanner, and if it does not you cannot take that luggage"! I replied, with a smile: "Good morning to you too! It does fit the scanner, I came last weekend to measure it, and it should fit!" Well folks, it was tight tight, but I still had about 1 centimeter margin! :)

Peter Lamb & bike boxes

Well, it does fit the scanner, but there are some curved luggage belts just after the scanner, so we needed to carry the bikes through a corridor and 2 or 3 doors till a storage hall, where they would come to take the bikes later on!

Uff, all of that cannot be called really smooth, lets go through security and catch thst flight!

We bought some Port wine for our couchsurfing host in Dubai. Afterall he saved us from a night slept at the airport! When we were about to pay, there was a lady in front of us with quite a lot of goods to pay and an Asian guy that despite of having arrived there after her, was quite in a rush to catch his flight so asked her if she would mind to pay for hist things before her. Well, the guy was really nervous that he could miss his flight so he was first. She asked him where he was heading and he said that was going back home to Singapore, so he really needed to catch the flight to Dubai! He left the store running, we waited for that lady to pay her things, we payed ours, and went slowly to the bording gate! Jesus, there are stressed travellers in this world!!

We reached our gate, number 46, and our beautiful bird was waiting for us! Good to be back on the B777-300 ER! What and enormous plane! Our ride reg number was A6-EGR.

Our B777 that will take us to Dubai

Martita with our boarding passes to Dubai

Boarding the plane took quite a while but soon it was our time to head to Lisbon's runway 03 and have a powerful take off! It never stops to amaze me how this super large jets fly!

Bye bye Tejo river!

Flight to Dubai takes around 7h15, so there is time for a movie, for a nap, for blogging, for testing the camera, for being bored, for having some dinner...

The flight was very smooth, passing through Spain, Algeria, Tunis, then heading towards Malta, Cairo and Saudi Arabia. It was nice to spot Riyadh from up high. I've been there with my colleague Rui Vaz last year working for about 3 weeks, remember that mate? :)

Well, Dubai's airport is quite crowded, so we have been in a holding pattern for about 1h40 minutes, which means that our flight was delayed and we only reached our gate at 2AM.

I immediatly called Jihad, our couchsurfing host in Dubai, apologising for our delay and to say that it would be more than fine for us to stay at the airport in case he was still at home, as the following day would be a working day! His first words were: "Welcome in Dubai! We are waiting for you outside". Woow, you gotta love this hospitality!

Our story with Jihad is quite simple: We decided not to send couchsurfing requests, as we would be landing in Dubai after midnight. Anyway we left a message in Dibai's main page saying that we would arrive that day and maybe some kind soul would like to host us and save two experienced couchsurfers from a night slept at Dubai's airport. After three hours or so we got a message from Jahid saying that we have found a host! Great news!!

We got out of the plane as soon as possible, went through immigation and found our way outside the terminal building! Some great 27 degrees were welcoming us into Dubai!

Jihad was outside, in his car with another couchsurfer that he was hosting. His name is Vaidas, a 28 years old traveller from Lithuania, that started his trip around the world 4 months ago, trying not to catch any flight! He just got into Dubai coming from Iran ( by boat) and will stay a couple of days more, trying to get his India's visa. He is then to Oman, trying to work for a month or so in a scuba diving school, getting a diving certificate and a place to sleep and some food in exchange for his work there. Well, 4 months of travelling and plenty of time ahaed, on a tight budget, makes you feel jealous, right?? :)

Jihad is a super friendly guy, born and raised in Jordan, studied and worked for a while in the UK and is living now in Dubai for about 2 years! His couchsurfing spirit is great, super welcome and looking on his profile, yes, I found a lot of similarities between him and myself!

Well, we headed to Jihad's place, chatting all the way there where we continued for a while more! Super nice to talk to these guys!

All of us were tired about 4 AM (local time), so a crash on his living's room matresses seemed like heaven for us!

That's all for now folks!

Best,

Peter & Marta

Postado com o Blogsy

Day 0

Dear all,

The days before a larger trip are demanding and in fact there is a lot to do. My job was very demanding on the weeks before the trip, so the only thing I actually did was to go to Decathlon for bike maintenance and ask for two bike boxes to pack the bikes. I did't do anything more, not even testing the new electronic gadgets. I simply had not time, working way too long every single day!

Last year I had troubles with dispatching the bike box, as it did not fit the airport scanner, so last weekend I drove to the airport just to check the exact scanner's dimensions. No matter what I had to box the bikes at 95cm top!

On Friday evening, I picked up Marta at the airport, and we headed to Ricardo's birthday party! Time passes quickly when you are having a good time and, as everything was yet to be packed we came home to have things done.

Getting my ride ready to be packed

Packing always takes a bit longer than you wish, but we managed to have everything ready before sunrise!

We could not wait till it is morning again and time to go to the airport!

That's all for now folks!

Best,

Peter

Postado com o Blogsy

domingo, 5 de outubro de 2014

Saturday ride to the beach with Zita & Jose

Dear all,

What a blast!!

Well, Zita, my friend from Lithuania came up for a visit to lovely Portugal and I was delighted to show her around! Zita was my host in Kaunas, during my trip in the baltics last year. Moreover she helped me a lot with planning my trip, so it is an absolute pleasure to hsot her here in Lisbon!

She came with Jose, my former couchsurfer from Chaves, Portugal. I can really say now that they are two friends of me! Cheers guys!!

Jose, Zita & Peter Lamb

We cycled a bit towards Belem, afterall Zita haven't been there before!

Torre de Belem

Peter Lamb close to Padrao dos Descobrimentos

Padrao dos Descobrimentos

The weather was quite dull and the light difuse, so making the best pictures was not easy!

Sailing boat

Presidencial Palace

Of course that a stop by the Pasteis de Belem was mandatory. Someone had to have a look at the bikes, so I could resist the temptation of having one pastel de belem!! :)

Pasteis de Belem

After Belem we headed up for Carcavelos beach to meet Julia for an acroyoga jam.

Zita loved the way there and yes, I realise how nice is part of my cycling path towards work every day.

Caxias

Peter Lamb & Zita

On the way to Paco de Arcos

Then we slowed down a bit to cycle on the path after Paco de Arcos. We feel that cycling about 8 km/h in such path, although forbidden should not be a problem. The problem is the biker that path through us fore sure at more than 15km/h and makes this paths forbidden to all bikers untill 20h! Honestly, what a Jackass!!

Zita loving her cycling path, jose a bit more at the front

There was a quite big cruise ship departing Lisbon. I did not see its name though, but it seemed very big!!

Jose and the big cruise ship

Jose Magalhaes

The Acroioga jam was due to start at 16h, but we ended up arriving there closer to 17h. Julia could gather together around 15 people, some of them for the first session ever and some people with more experience.

Julia was explaining how to make such exercises and demonstrating them as well. After that she was always willing to help the others with hints and corrections when needed!

My partners for the practice were Milena from Poland and Genia from Lithania. They are both living now in Lisbon, finishing a PhD and post-study research.