The Dubai Diaries
My life as a flight attendant in the Middle East!

Blissful Borneo: Sea Turtles & Orang Utans in Sandakan

Day 2 of our trip to Borneo had us up at the crack of dawn, ready for the next adventure. This time it was back to Kota Kinabalu airport, ready for a 30-minute flight across the island to Sandakan, the former capital of British North Borneo.

Kirsty was lucky enough to be sitting on the left hand side of the aircraft, which is the best place to get a great view of Mount Kota Kinabalu.

Air Asia, who we flew with, doesn’t let you choose your seats and since the flight was full, we couldn’t sit together, so I’ve borrowed her pictures of the mountain!

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Blissful Borneo: A steam train through time

After my adventures in Australia it was time to jet off to the next destination. I flew out to Hong Kong to meet Kirsty, where we had a bit of time to catch up before our 3-hour flight to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo.

Having let Kirsty do most of the planning (she’s on maternity leave so was more than happy to gather all of the info and make plans!) I was excited to be visiting a new country, which I knew surprisingly little about. We arrived late at night and after a quick taxi ride to our hotel settled in, ready for an early start the next morning.

Our plan for the day was the North Borneo Railway, a steam train ride which runs twice a week and takes you from Kota Kinabalu to Papar, through the lush landscapes of Sabah.

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Adventures in Australia

As you may have noticed it’s been rather quiet over here on the blog…I’ve been off work for a few weeks and have been making the most of my staff travel benefits and time off and have been visiting several different countries this month!

I started off with a trip to Australia to see my grandparents, who I don’t get to visit very often. They live in Canberra, next door to my aunty and Uuncle, so I decided since I had a bit more free time I would pay them a visit. I flew with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong to break up the flights a bit, and with only a small amount of drama (forgetting that I needed to apply for a visa to Australia!!!) I made it first to Sydney, then on to Canberra.

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Alligator Hunting in The Everglades

On a recent layover in Fort Lauderdale, having visited Miami the previous time, I decided to head out to the Everglades in the hope of spotting some alligators.

Once again we had a 50-something hour layover, which gave us plenty of time to do some exploring. After getting a few hours of sunshine in by the pool (which the hotel forgot to mention was empty and under construction …. at least I got a tan!) 6 of us met for dinner.

Our captain had hired a car big enough for everyone to fit in, so we drove down to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, which wasn’t too far.

We had a recommendation for a restaurant called Aruba Beach Cafe, and it was a great choice! We got a table out on the terrace, and ordered up a seafood feast.

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October Roster

Sorry for the silence over here on the blog – I’ve been on leave for the past couple of weeks and am actually not going back to work till October, so I’ve been very much enjoying just having a bit of time off and relaxing!

If you follow me on Instagram you might have spotted that I flew down to Australia to spend some time with my grandparents and aunty and uncle in Canberra, and my cousin in Melbourne. I then flew on to Hong Kong to meet my friend Kirsty, and from there we jetted off for a week in Borneo! A new country for the both of us, and we made sure to squeeze in as much as we possibly could, despite having her 4-month old baby Theo in tow! 🙂

Now I’m back in Dubai with just enough time to unpack, do some washing, and repack my suitcase, as I’m still not done travelling and will shortly be heading off to Portugal! I’m taking Joe with me, and we’re meeting my parents and one of my brothers and his girlfriend for a week of cycling along the coast. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the last of the summer weather as I wouldn’t mind coming back with a bit of a tan!

Enough rambling for now and onto my roster for October. I’ll be flying to:

  • BEY – Beirut, Lebanon (turnaround)
  • MEL – AKL – Melbourne, Australia & Auckland, New Zealand
  • JNB – Johannesburg, South Africa
  • JED – Jeddah, KSA (turnaround)
  • MUC – Munich, Germany
  • ACC – ABJ – Accra, Ghana & Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Starting the month off with a not-so-lovely nighttime turnaround to Beirut, I’m still hoping some miracle will happen and someone will give me their days off for this, but let’s be real here…that’s never going to happen, haha!

Then I’m off to Australia and New Zealand for a 6-day multi sector trip, and I’ve already made sure my cousin Sarah is free in Melbourne. I’ve been to Auckland a few times now, so if anyone has any other fun ideas or suggestions of what to do there, do let me know!

In between my MEL-AKL and JNB I have 5 days off, so if flights are ok I will hopefully be flying to Manchester to stay with my best friend Lucy for a long weekend! We were meant to go away together in September but it didn’t work out, so this should be a long overdue catch-up!

Next up is a trip to Jo’burg, which I’ve only done once (and is actually the flight I met my boyfriend Joe on!) so I’ll be happy to head back for a delicious steak and some wine!

Of course there had to be a turnaround to Saudi Arabia in there, but let’s hope its nice and uneventful.

After that I’m off to Munich, and I’ll be visiting my brother Matt and his girlfriend Miriam and their new dog, which I’m very excited about! Matt likes so cook so I’m already hoping he’s going to be whipping up something nice for my visit! 😉

Lastly a new destination for me – Accra! Africa is my least-visited continent, so I thought it was about time I bid for some new African destinations, and for this trip we fly to Accra and stay there for 24 hours, then on to Abidjan and back (I believe it’s only around a 1 hour flight) and then stay another 24 hours in Ghana. So any tips or must-do’s are much appreciated!

Somewhere between Canberra and Melbourne – thanks Qantas for the ride!

P.s. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂