Desert Safari

I FINALLY got to pet a camel! Gail, being the brilliant one, found a two-for-one deal on a desert safari, through Phoenix Tours. We got picked up at three, then had to make a couple stops to pick up the rest of our fellow dune bashers. We got totally lucky and met some great ladies from Houston that moved here a couple weeks to be school teachers. Our sixth was a very sweet young lady from Japan. Her English was spotty, but she was so friendly and tried her best to communicate.

After about an hour drive we went through a couple gates and onto the sand! Gail was commenting on the drive out that the guy drove a little slow. That all changed once he hit the sand! He punched it and ran it up to about 45 mph sliding all over the place. After a couple hundred yards he skidded to a stop and told us we could get out and get some pics. So we did. When I looked back toward the gate I noticed more Land Cruisers coming. In all there were six parked side-by-side. We stood around and talked and snapped pics while they let air out of the tires.

We all jumped back in and played the sickest game of follow the leader than you could ever imagine. I was fully prepared to be under-whelmed by the dunes, but they were magnificent! We were going up and down 60-70 foot dunes. As you can see in the pics, we came down sideways a few times. After a bit of this we stopped at the camel farm. They are so cool! They came over to us to suck up some attention and get their neck scratched. They're like big puppy dogs, if dogs had lips. We threaded our way through the land mines and got some great pics. There was a few city folks that commented that they smelled bad. I kinda liked the smell. Reminded me of the fair.

We said goodbye to the camels and hit the dunes again. Poor Bernadette was not enjoying it. She was like a southern baptist preacher. Lord, Jesus, Father, help me Lord, oh Jesus, let me out! There were times I was sure we were going to roll, but our driver has probably been doing this since he was 12.

After a short drive we arrived at the compound in the desert. Nothing fancy, but it was very cool. We were able to ride a camel and do some dune surfing. The heat was getting to some of the folks. Gail and I were thirsty, but good. As the sun started to set I climbed up to the top of a dune to get some pics. It is bizarre how tall the dunes are. When I got to the top, there was nothing but sand for as far as I could see. Very cool!

After sunset, we broke fast and had a simple, but tasty Iftar dinner. After dinner I took a little shisha and then they turned all the lights in the compound off. We just sat in the dark looking at the stars. Again, very cool. The trip ended abruptly when the lights came back on. It was like, thanks for coming, now leave!

It was a great experience that I will never forget. When Kayleigh and Rob are here, we hope to do an overnighter in the desert. That would be amazing to get up and do a sunrise walk in the desert.

That's all for now.....keep following!

Atlantis Weekend

August 12th Gail and I traveled to Atlantis,Dubai with an American couple that Gail met through the American Women's Network here in Abu Dhabi.

The week prior, Mary (our new friend) told Gail that she was booking her room for NEXT Friday. So Gail got online andbooked our room for the 19th. The next day one of her lady friends told her to have a good time this weekend at Atlantis. She checked with Mary and she said, "oh ya, it's this week" No worries, Gail changed our reservations.

Friday morning Jim and Mary picked us up in a taxi for the 1.5 hour drive to Dubai. I've been there five times now and I'm starting to learn my way around. When we passed the big building on the coast, I knew we had gone too far. The taxi driver, who swore he knew where we were going, was completely lost. We told him to take the next exit, and we flagged a Dubai taxi. Minor complication, but no worries, right?!

We got there and the place is impressive! The lobby is monsterous. See the picture of Gail standing in front of the glass sculpture. Amazing!

So the adventure wasn't over yet. Gail and I checked in no problem. We looked over to where our friends were checking in and there seemed to be a bit of a rucous. Jim walked over and calmly told us that Mary HAD booked there room for the 19th! The following week! Fortunately they had a room available, and here's the kicker. They got on the Island side of the hotel and we got the ocean side. In this case, ocean view is not the most desirable. Oh well.

We made plans for pre-dinner cocktails and went our separate ways. Gail and I went and checked out the aquarium them put the suits on and headed for the water park!

http://www.atlantisthepalm.com/marineandwaterpark/aquaventure.aspx

We spent time on the lazy river, the rapids, the water roller coasters, and did the 9 story water slide that goes through a tube in the shark tank. You actually feel airborne for a couple seconds! Very fun.

We were getting ready for pre-dinner drinks and Gail suddenly goes "oh no! I wonder if they thought to change the dinner reservations!" One of the main purposes of the trip was to check out the nice steak house they have there. Turns out Jim had taken care of it, so again, no worries. The steaks were great! Jim and Mary are early to bed people, so they headed off and Gail and I went to the lounge to meet a couple guys that I've met through work. They actually live on the palm island that Atlantis is on.

We had a great visit, some nice martini's and headed back to the room around midnight.

The next day was low key. We spent some time at the pool then headed back home. We are excited about planning our next trip, for more nights!

Next blog, desert trip that we leave for in an hour!

Mark out!

Ramadan

Lots of trouble getting this post on the blog, so sorry it is all out of order. At least I have in now in some form of english and the pictures are here now.

Our Iftar dinner and lecture held at the Heritage Village. Hosted by the journalist Ali Al Saloom, and several of his Emirates friends, we partook in a traditional Iftar dinner. Is was a very informative and enjoyable evening (except for the 3 hours sitting on the floor, & food that I had NO idea what it was) ok they told us but eew.

These Posters are on display in the malls, and I found the translations quote interesting.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Every day during this month, Muslims around the world spend the daylight hours in a complete fast.During the blessed month of Ramadan, Muslims all over the world abstain from food, drink, and other physical needs during the daylight hours. As a time to purify the soul, refocus attention on God, and practice self-sacrifice, Ramadan is much more than just not eating and drinking.Muslims are called upon to use this month to re-evaluate their lives in light of Islamic guidance. We are to make peace with those who have wronged us, strengthen ties with family and friends, do away with bad habits -- essentially to clean up our lives, our thoughts, and our feelings. The Arabic word for "fasting" (sawm) literally means "to refrain" - and it means not only refraining from food and drink, but from evil actions, thoughts, and words.During Ramadan, every part of the body must be restrained. The tongue must be restrained from backbiting and gossip. The eyes must restrain themselves from looking at unlawful things. The hand must not touch or take anything that does not belong to it. The ears must refrain from listening to idle talk or obscene words. The feet must refrain from going to sinful places. In such a way, every part of the body observes the fast.Therefore, fasting is not merely physical, but is rather the total commitment of the person's body and soul to the spirit of the fast. Ramadan is a time to practice self-restraint; a time to cleanse the body and soul from impurities and re-focus one's self on the worship of God.So for the rest of us non-muslims, we must abide by the guidelines above "while in public" for it is actually illegal to eat, drink, chew gum, play joyful music, and show any form of PDA. Everything changes here, the business hours are shortened about 2-4 hours a day, and many businesses close from 1-8pm, then remain open until 1-2am. Most restaurants, coffee shops and bakeries all close during the day and only open again once fast (itfar) has been broken. Those that stay open to provide a service must blacken or drape the windows and partition the doors so for those fasting, they will not see others eating and drinking.

30 days of randomness and Ramadan

Yea, we are back in business!!!! We have been without our new Macbook pro for almost a month now. We could only find one authorized computer store to work on Apple here, and it took 3 weeks to get the new hard drive shipped here. We now are starting over, re-configuring and downloading programs, we lost everything! The most important for us is our VPN (virtual private network) it allows us to access websites that the UAE blocks, like Skype, an other network programs. It kinda places us (our computer) out there in the unknown. Moving on...........

We spent 2 nights out at Yas Island, an up and coming hot spot created 2 years ago for the Formula One Race that is held here every November. It is definitely a destination, not alot going on right now, but watch out come November! The hotels throughout Abu Dhabi and Yas Island sell out, and the city goes nuts with many events, movies, beach parties and of course days of racing. Thought it might be fun to take part in the action, but not for $450-550 USD per ticket, guess we will try to catch a beach party instead!

We upgraded to a nice room over looking the pool, with the golf course beyond that and the gulf beyond that. Very lovely. The crowd was very sparse also. I had a meeting the first night, but hung up just in time to hang up and head over to the Rotana hotel for dinner. It was great! Gail had french onion soup and a rib eye, and I had lobster bisque and a rib eye. yum!

Soon after walking out my stomach starting to do flip-flops. The following couple hours was not my finest. I finally fell asleep when the cramping subsided. At 2am the fire alarm went off! Gail and I scrambled around the room to find something to wear, grabbed my laptop and headed for the stairs. Here's the embarrassing part. We exited the stairwell with all the old folks and young adults with children right next to the night club.....that was still going strong! We were in our jammies with our hair going every which way and they were still out partying. oh well.

Next day went to the Yas Island golf course and had a nice lunch and a couple beverages, then walked over to Ferrari World. (look it up) Then checked out Yas Hotel, which is interesting on the outside, and just plain ugly on the inside. Then Tex Mex for dinner. I had to try a margarita of course, and as I suspected, it disappointed.

We had a very memorable weekend and the upgraded room was only $116 us. Quite the bargain.