We visited Istanbul in late March for 5 days with our friends Jess and Andre. The weather was great, sunny skies and cool around 50 degree, a big change from the heat we are used to in Abu Dhabi. We even had a bit of welcomed rain the final two days, which was fine by us as we usually go an entire year with in AD without seeing it!

Istanbul was great and it seems like all we did was eat, which isn't a bad thing and always an important part of experiencing a new place. We stayed in Sultanhamet, which is just at the edge of the Bosphurus river on the European side of Turkey and is the old part of Istanbul. It's a pretty famous area, known for its history and we spent plenty of time visiting these must sees: The Blue Mosque, Ayasofya, Basilica Cistern as well as the old central souq and various other places along the way.




We took a cruise up the Bosphurus and what a very busy waterway. We weren't on the biggest boat, but there were much smaller ones that I swear were either going to capsize from the wake of the big ferries or get hit as they weaved in and out of traffic. It was an afternoon cruise and headed along the shore on the European side where we saw all of the Istanbul Universities lined up along the waters edge and some extremely expensive hotels too. As we crossed over to the Asia side, it was line with plenty of very expensive houses, castles and palaces that have existed for hundreds of years. Heading back we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the Ayasofya from the water and despite the cold temps, we managed to stay up on the top deck the whole tour, thankfully laid out and kept warm by some huge comfy pillows.


Nick's no. 1 to do in Turkey was to eat as many pides as he could. Australia has a ton of pide shops all over town, which are Turkish pizzas and he was hoping to not be disappointed by visiting the place where this favorite originated. Thankfully it wasn't hard to find these and we ate plenty of them. I think almost one each day! I still think though the ones in Australia were even better, sorry to say. In addition to pides we feasted on plenty of other turkish food and plenty of mezze platters with some very delicious items on them. One of our favorites was a simple spicy diced tomatoes called Acılı ezme, which was delicious on bread. I enjoyed eating the loaded potatoes (kumpir) and awesome waffles filled with chocolate, fruit, nuts, etc. that we found one afternoon. What was great about Istanbul was all the outdoor cafes, where you could sit down warm up with some tea, coffee, or this drink that tasted like rice pudding and was delicious and just relax. Most of them had backgammon sets, so we found ourselves taking in the afternoon a few times trying to remember how to play and enjoyed doing some people watching around us.

Our hotel, the Sebnem, was a great little hotel/guesthouse close to the water and nearby restaurants in Sultanhamet. We picked it based on the roof top terrace we saw in the photos and hoped for some sunny skies while we were there to enjoy it. The hotel far exceeded our expectations as the staff was extremely friendly and we had a wonderful spread of fresh pastries, coffee and juices each morning while enjoying the rooftop terrace. In the evening we would often go up to see the lights come on at dusk and have a drink before dinner. Most houses/hotels in this area all had rooftop terraces, but this one was probably one of the best.


It was a great trip and escape from Abu Dhabi with plenty to see, do and eat for a few days!

We saw Stevie Wonder last night here in Abu Dhabi. Definitely impressed...60 years old and still rocking out...2 1/2 hours playing on stage..an encore, a proposal from some guy in the audience and a great venue, made for an awesome night.

This time I got to participate in the 2nd race here in Abu Dhabi. It was suppose to be a 12km distance...would've taken over 1 hour and half...but ended up being much shorter, only about 40 minutes long. Nick got 5th in the men's over all, but I am sure he had a bit saved at the end thinking it was going to be a lot longer then it was. And for me, I won the women's race and took home a new Pau Hana SUP board for 1st prize. Not too bad for a days work.

It was great to paddle somewhere new and Muscat was the destination. We had our sights on paddling the Muttrah harbour in Muscat and were about an hour into our paddle, coming in from the sea side of the harbour around from the giant incense burner, when the police finally stopped us. While we weren't sure if we were able to paddle there or not, we made it quite a fair way into the harbour, almost close enough to get a great picture of the blue mosque with some dhows in front before they stopped us. Unfortunately, the police had to follow us out and told us that they didn't care what we did as long as it was past the buoys into the open sea. That means we probably won't be back to paddle here again.

Nick left for a couple days to visit his sister, Natahsa in snowy Edinburgh and see if he could brave the bitter cold! I think he forgot what cold really felt like, we've been living here way too long I suppose. I stayed in Abu Dhabi to hold down to fort and stay warm.

I helped organize the 1st SUP race in Abu Dhabi on the 28th of January and with over 60 people, I think it was a huge success. Had a great day although it flew by and was pretty busy that don't remember much. This one I didn't race in and was on the mic the whole time, but enjoyed watching all of those paddle in their first race. Even Joe entered the 1km race and competed! Nick got 3rd place and won 1000 AED!
More photos can be found on www.standuppaddleuae.com

I copied my post on my uae sup blog for this one, just another weekend in the UAE!

Four paddlers from Abu Dhabi took to the road early Friday morning with a crazy idea to paddle the entire UAE in 36 hours. Of course this didn't mean paddling the whole way around the Emirates, but at least making a stop in each one.Cars packed with our portable C4 isups, it was such a treat to actually drive around 140ks the whole time instead of adjusting our speed because of boards on top.

1st stop was Dubai. The plan was to get there early enough to be out on the water to watch the sunrise with the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in the background. It definitely was a chilly start to the day, but well worth the early drive to see the sun come up with the shadow of light reflecting against the Burj.


We drove up to Ajman, where to our surprise.... was some proper surf happening! We thought about ditching the idea of our 7 Emirate paddle to play in the waves the rest of the day, but we all decided we had a mission to do. 3 hours was enough, right? Empty waters, just us out there and while there is no swimming allowed the police didn't seem to mind that were surfing! We even got our pic snapped and our names taken by an Ajman freelance journalist, not sure where that photo ended up.


After Ajman continued north to Umm Al Quwain in search of our sea turtles. Unfortunately, there were no sea turtles, but plenty of flamingos! We paddled here for about an hour against a strong wind that was starting to pick up. I think we were a bit disappointed by the lack of marine life here especially with all the coral. Oh well.


Our last stop on the West coast was Ras Al Khaimah. It was about 4pm by this time and the winds were really up, waves were choppy and it was cold! At least for UAE and us wusses who have been here way too long. We got our our boards pumped them up for the last time Friday and hit the water. While we can pretend we enjoyed this paddle and stayed out there long, in reality we were done in about 20 minutes and were on our way out in 25.




We drove across the country to the East coast where we arrived in Fujairah near Snoopy Island to camp for the night. We set up camp, enjoyed some real sausages (pork!) on the fire and drank a few well deserved beers! Buggered from a day of driving and paddling that started almost 14 hours earlier, we were ready for bed. Unfortunately we didn't realize that at 1 am we were in the direct path of the fishermen who were bringing in their lines and nets for the day. Eventually we all fell asleep.


In the morning we got up extra early before the sun came up to get the boards pumped up and headed out for another sunrise paddle to Snoopy Island. Our sunrise paddle was followed by breakfast (reheating left over sausages) and warming up by the fire. By 7:30 we had paddled 5 Emirates and only 2 more to go.


Around 9:30 we took off after we explored more of the marine life around Snoopy Island and headed south to Khorfakkan, which is technically Sharjah. We paddled out to a beach that is only accessible by sea while taking in all of the fish swimming below. Again no sea turtles, shame. About an hour later we were all deflated and packed up ready to make that long drive back to Abu Dhabi for our final Emirate!


We arrived in Abu Dhabi and while we had planned to get some good shots of the Mosque between the bridges, there was a sandstorm and was far to hazy to see anything. This combined with the fact that we were running late and I had a lesson at 19th street beach, made this the location to finish her off! So at 3:30 just shy of 36 hours we paddled in Abu Dhabi and celebrated conquering all 7 Emirates. Next time? 24 hours ? possible, but I think these two days were busy enough.