April 23rd – the day has come to fly back to the UAE and start this years motorcycle trip.  I woke up in Pennsylvania at the parents house at 9am to start tattooing.  I did a free hand chrysanthemum which is going to be part of a bigger piece to cover up some tattoos she had done.  Worked for about 5hrs and afterwards I already had my bags packed.  My best friend from my hometown Adam was coming along on the first two weeks of my trip.  So he got dropped off at my parents since my client was from Virginia she was going to just drop us off at the airport on her way back home. 

I said good bye to mom and dad and on the road down to DC we were heading.  We arrived at DC airport in plenty of time so she actually dropped us off near the airport so we could grub down some food and my boy Nick who lives near by was going to meet up and get some beers in.  Did some pregame and then off to the airport Adam and I went.  He was flying a different airline so he went his way and I went mine.  We shall meet again tomorrow.  I hit up the lounge for some free booze only to have my flight being called to board..  Boarded my flight and off I was going to Germany where I had my layover

April 24th – landed in Frankfurt Germany around 11am and had 2hr layover so of course straight to lounge to get some free booze waiting for the flight to Dubai to be called.  Finally was on the plane and heading about to the amazing country of UAE.  I landed at 10pm Adam landed at 930pm so he was already there waiting for me when I go through immigration.  We grabbed some beers at the duty free and hop in the cab to our hotel.  Was happy to hear I got upgraded to a suite so we instantly had to shotgun a beer and decided to find a place to eat.  Front desk suggested us of a rooftop bar across the street so didn’t take much for us to both agree rooftop bar it is.  Had some food and drinks before heading back to the room to drink listen to music and laugh.

view from the rooftop

April 25th – Got up early since of the damn time change that’s why I always try to stay up late as possible when I first get in.  Well we passed out around 5 and guess that was not late enough cause I was up at 9.  Adam was still crashed out some how but I needed to get shit done so I woke his ass up and see if he wanted to go to the Iran embassy with me.  I got approved for my visa 3 months ago but I was picking it up here in Dubai.  He wanted to shower and said he would come with. When he was all done with that we grabbed a uber and got to the embassy.  The place was crazy in fact when I pulled a number I was 60 number from the number they were on.  Now the embassy closes at one and its 11 so I was like I best not have to wait here till one to be all of a sudden told they are closed and come back tomorrow.  Thankfully that was not the case they did get my number in and I received my visa.  Grabbed a uber out of there back to the hotel.  Adam stayed behind and I went to the motorcycle shop where my bike

Bernard sitting and waiting patiently for pick up

was stored.  I thought I could just arrive pay and leave but that was not the case.  They forgot to add the usb plug and then were waiting to find out how much the owner was charging me for storage since he was in Colombia he was not actually up cause of time difference.  So I literally sat there for hours till I went down and ironically he called them back.  I paid up and off I was with Bernard back on the roads in beautiful UAE.  While I was at the motorcycle shop I asked Adam if he would want to go snowboarding because it was half off Monday for guys.  For those dont know yess dubai has a sky resort with only 2 hills but its something rad to do in a blazing hot desert.  Adam agreed so when I got to the hotel i dropped off my helmet grabbed another uber and to the mall we went.  Now Adam snowboarded years ago so he thought he still had it in him.  Needless to say its a 30 second hill I tried to wait for him a bit but then thought o I will just go down take the lift back up and come back down.  Well I passed him a second time.  Waited for him at the bottom but when he finally got down he said “dude I’m going to with the board out for skis”.  So I said okay i’ll stay here hurry back.  I did another run and when I get down I get a text from him he said he’s over it sorry enjoy the rest of the time.  Its not really that fun of snow to do solo. Its not like there is a bunch of shit to do its only two hills.  I told him no worries man i’ll do one more run and be down.  Afterwards we just went back to the hotel and stayed in that night just playing Yahtzee listening to music for like 4hrs drinking and taking shots.  It was honestly a fun ass time haven’t done anything like that in forever.

April 26 – Yesterday I asked Adam what did he want to do tomorrow and gave him a few options of things we could do.  One being going to the water park at the worlds largest water park which I never even been to.  He of course thought that sounded like a grand time so we got a call over to the Atlantis hotel to the worlds largest water park.  We forked out the extra dollars for the fast past and we didnt wait more then a minute all day so that was well worth it.  Adam is semi scared of heights so I took him to the tallest slide in the park right away.  Its the

iconic one most of you may have seen where you go through the shark tank.  I will say it was fun but you can not see shit its way cooler to see it from the outside then doing it haha.   There is I think 4 main attractions and each one has a few slides on them.  So we did the rounds of hitting all 4 and majority of the slides at each.  We also did the lazy river which was truly fun time. The park closed think it was 6 so back to the hotel we went.  At midnight was Adams birthday so we figured lets go back to the rooftop for some drinks and then we walked down to the future museum since it was nearby.  This museum was not even finished in nov when I was just here last.  Now it was like 2am so of course it was closed but the thing is really impressive during the day and the night is that much better.   We grabbed some photos and just walked back to our hotel and called it a night

Future Museum

boat ride down dubai creek

April 27th – I suggested to Adam we could go up to old town and walk around the souks visit some museums and eat camel at this restaurant that I usually taken everyone that comes with me to.  He was totally on board so I actually got the uber driver to take us to Dubai creek so this way we can ride on one of the old arabian boats on the water way.  Took one to the main hub then we hop on a even smaller traditional boat to the souks.  Walked around the gold and spice area before hopping

gold souk shop

back on the boat to the other side to visit some museums.  I honestly forget what the museum was called as I write this a week later but it was actually linked to like 6 museums.  You would walk one and when u exit the other one was nearby each one was completely different from the prevoius.  It was really cool and againit was something I never done  before.  Afterwards it was of course camel meat time.  I was bummed they didn’t have the outside seating which was on the ground the traditional way so we sat inside in one of the more traditional arabic rooms.  I got the camel dish and mix grill as we were just sharing the two items.   Again I have had it several times but Adam loved it.  After we finished up with dinner we made our way to the Burk Khalifa the worlds tallest building which is attached to the worlds largest mall that has the worlds largest water fountains. 

Burj Khalifa and its fountain

Did the typical photos as waited for the fountain show. Afterwards we walked around the mall for a bit

before heading back to the hotel.  We couldnt just go to sleep since it was still Adams bday so we said fuck went out again.  The front desk suggested a bar in the basement  that is more of a sports bar.  This sounded more like our style as the other place was more like a lounge like set up.  The place was cool definitely busier then the rooftop and had some live cover music going on.  We did the boozing there and then asked the bartender about going to an after hours bar.  Even though we were to check out tomorrow I said fuck it lets go.  I end up becoming friends with the DJ there so he order Adam bday shots a little firework sparkler.  Hung out there till the 4am closing and went back to the hotel.  Of course we were feeling good so we drank some more at the hotel and no idea what time we passed out. 

April 28 – Checkout was at 12 but since im titanium elite member I can check out at 5 and well we used all that time up.  Originally Adam was going to rent a bike today but our next stop we will be on island and leaving our bikes on the mainland.  The rental cost of the bike was triple of the car so it just made sense to get a cheap car for now drive down there and grab a motorcycle on the way back.  We finally got on the road I think by 7 and I drove the car down the Saudi border 4hrs away.  Was a bit bummed cause we got a beach hotel but didn’t even get to enjoy it at all.  So grabbed two beers to take to the room and called it a early night.

April 29 – We had to get on a ferry at noon so we woke up and went to the liquor store to grab some more beers and liquor so were

what they call a ferry lol

not paying hotel prices on this island.  Today was super windy which means the boat ride to the island was rough as hell.  It was not a normal ferry it was literally more like a speedboat which led to water come splashing in as we crashed into the oncoming waves.  Once we got closer to the island of course the waves stop since the island itself blocked the waves. Which then we cruised at a whole other speed to get us to the dock faster.   There was three hotels on the island.  The main hotel a

after we checked in we watch these guys fight

beach villa hotel and a bush hotel.  Adam and I got a villa in the bush hotel.  Now your probably think why the bush but let me say it was fucking amazing.  When we arrived there was like 100s of animals – various types of deers running around the property turkeys peacocks several other ground birds (i guess there called that haha) and goats. It was incredibly peaceful all you could hear is the sounds of just animals not a squeak of any other sort of noise.  In fact I think we literally were the only people on the property.   Around 6 that night they took us on a safari to see the other animals.  This involved a bunch more deer rams/goats (whatever want to call them) giraffes and cheetahs.  It was great day after being in such a massive city for the past few days.  To come to such a peaceful place like this was like we went into a different world.  We booked dinner at the main hotel that night which was Arabian food.  After dinner we came back to our villa chilled on the balcony drank and listened to music.

there was 40 giraffes on the island but we only saw this one

April 30 – Now we did not have anything planned we talked about going horseback riding today but decided to just relax nothing

relaxing and watching the deer eat

and just chill by the pool.  Since we literally been on the move from minute we touched down.   So it was nice to just relax and that is exactly what we did for 5 hrs.  Today families started to show up so around 4pm it was not just us in the pool which kinda sucked.  Of course that kinda killed our vibe so we decided to go back to the villa where we had our own little pool on the porch.  We continued the party over there as we started to clean up and go to dinner around 8.  Tonight we did the African restaurant which of course being we were in the bush near the safari it was right at our hotel.  Afterwards enjoyed the night and just how amazing this place was but also pretty let down we were going to have to leave it all tomorrow.

the famous season finale formula 1 track ABU DHABI

May 1st – Packed the bags up and went to the front to catch the boat back to mainland at 1pm.  Tonight we were staying in Abu Dhabi which was only 2 an half hrs away.  I suggested the stop at the grand mosque since Adam never has seen a mosque before.  He was of course down for that as well.  Now I been to this mosque a bunch of times and in the past they would give women and men the arabic dress to wear when you arrive but last year in nov they do not do that anymore cause of big bad “Covid”.  I told Adam he would have to wear pants or they will make him buy the mens dress to wear inside.   Also prior you just enter at the top and it was a short walk well now you have to enter in the basement.  We parked downstairs Adam changed in the Parking lot and now its this long ass walk underground just to arrive back to the top in front of the mosque.  Took the usual photos and made our way back to the car and to our new hotel for the night.  Yet First we had to stop and get more liquor and beer at a store cause the prices at hotels are not pocket friendly.   The hotel I booked is literally in the center of the formula one track.  I always wanted to stay at this hotel and when I Got checked into the hotel I got upgraded again this time into a massive suite on the corner of the building that had this wrap around balcony with several views of the track.  Now thanks to my home girl Ashley I do not pay full price for any Marriott hotel thats the only reason why im titanium member.  Otherwise I be titanium at the motel 6 lol but really cause I don’t need anything fancy at all.  Tonight we booked the driving experience which means we get to drive at night under the lights in a fucking indy car on the same track f1 is held.  I was so god damn tickled to do this especially as we sat on the balcony as drivers before us took the course.  We had a beer or two and before we knew it we had to walk over to the track ourselves for our time.  I literally could not stop smiling the whole time it truly was an unreal experience and would be gladly to do it again an again if could.  This was again a first for me and such an unforgettable experience to actually to do it a friend a friend that went to high school with me and only imagine such things could never be achievable.  As I write this I have goose bumps going on and down my body fuck I will relive that over an over again.

adam and i staring down the track

ready to drive this bitch