A Few Answers for TJ and 8th Grade

While we were in Dubai, we didn't get the chance to visit the Burj Al Arab Hotel or any of the other fancy hotels along the coast. We stayed at the Miami Hotel in the Gold Souq area (with satelite TV). Wendy was right about the budget!

UAE has several different Emirates (like little provinces) so all of the UAE isn't the same. But, Dubai is very western...with huge shopping centers filled with western shops, restaurants, Hollywood movies... Dubai is very international! It's very modern and is even in the process of building an indoor snowboarding facility.

Oman is a desert...but it is also very colourful. There are many wadis (desert river beds)that are a source of ground water so you can find many palm trees and plants. During the summer khareef (monsoon season) in Salalah (where we are right now) it rains alot and turns the entire landscape green The dry winter wadis become waterfalls and lagoons. The people here also plant flowers and grass on the roadside in many cities and water them to keep it colourful. The desert hills are like layers of chocolate with many shades of brown and the sand in some of the desert dunes are reddish in color.

As for Africa...we hope to visit many countries but we also don't want to rush like we did at the beginning of our trip through Eastern Europe.

Grab a map or check this one out: http://www.africaguide.com/afmap.htm

Here is our planned route...Yemen, Djibouti, Eritrea, (back to Djibouti if the Eritrea/Ethiopia border is closed), Ethiopia...(fly over Sudan)...Chad, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde Islands...(fly to Sao Tome/Principe)...Equitorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon...(Fly to Madagascar via South Africa)...Reunion, Mauritius, Comoros, Mayotte, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa (including Lesoto and Swaziland).

Thanks for reading and asking such great questions!