Going away for 10 days

I am going to be away on a work-related trip from July 2 - 12, and while I will bring my laptop, I don't know how much time I will have to blog. I hope I will be able to check in here, but since I am going to be out and about most of the time researching, I am not sure. I have prepared some posts to be published while I am away, so that this blog doesn't die down completely.

I am going to United Arab Emirates. I will be landing in Dubai and then travel directly to the small, northern Emirate called Ras al-Khaimah or RAK as it is called for short. RAK begun developing tourism only a few years ago. They were standing in the shadow of big brother Dubai, and since they have some wonderful beaches and amazing natural scenery in RAK, they thought that, hey, let us try and lure some of the many visitors to Dubai up here to our little emirate. So now there has been build some wonderful hotels on the beaches, which are perfect for relaxing and sunny vacations, but still only about an hour's drive from Dubai with all its trademark craziness, mega-buildings and what not.

Our base will be at the great Al Hamra Fort Beach Resort, which you can see a part of on the image below, lower right corner.

I have never been to UAE, and am looking much forward to it. I am going to do some research on various tours like beduoin camel-trips, dune bashing, shopping-trips (YAY) and much more.

The image on top of the Dubai skyline has been taken by momentaryawe.com and the beach image was shot by Henzelle - be back soon. Both images can be found on flickr.