...and Good Morning to You, Too!!

Aaah, Sunday. That day when you can sleep in just that little bit to remind you that it is in fact Sunday and that you don't have to do anything (perhaps church for some, or sports games for others, but those things generally start later that weekday work would). And so it was that this morning I got out of bed at 8:00AM and took a shower. It felt good to have slept in two and a half hours longer than usual, and I was in a great mood, ready to seize the day. Oh, and it was sunny too!!! Hooray for SUN!!

After my shower I moved into the lounge and opened the curtains.... and they they all were, looking back at me!!

Now, I apparently didn't get the memo that today was in fact clean the drains and weed the paths day. Outside our lounge window stood about fifteen or twenty men in overalls holding hoes of some description, some scraping the black dirt out of the storm drain there, and others weeding the dirt track that runs past the back of our place.

Now, for those of you who have visited us here, you will know what I mean, and you'll understand that there isn't much of a fence, or any distance between our lounge window and the storm drain and dirt track. Maybe two meters tops. Our window is a full length one (actually it's more of a sliding door) and so standing there looking out at all those guys who were now looking back at me was a pretty strange start to my Sunday morning.

Anyway, as I write this, sitting here in the lounge with my feet up and the laptop on my lap (at 8:35AM), it seems the early bird workers out there have decided to take a smoko break...RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW!! So there they all stand leaning on their hoes talking about next week's festival (yes, I can hear their conversations even with the window shut because they are THAT CLOSE! haha)

So yeah, that was a sociable start to Sunday. I'm actually pretty glad I DIDN'T get that memo. I think I would have passed on early bird drain scraping, thank you :)

I wish I could take a picture for you, but I can't bring myself to just open the door/window and point a camera at them all and take a picture. They aren't far enough away for that. Sorry.

But here's a completely random and irrelevant picture of me and Liz in Kyoto last week:

Camels and Malls and Malls and Malls

So, we were on our way from Duabi to Al Ain the last time we updated. It's about a two hour drive to Al Ain. It's a big highway through the middle of the desert. The roads are lined with trees which I'm sure were meant to block sand from blowing onto the roads. I could see how they could be needed since it was a windy day and sand was blowing everywhere, making it seem quite hazy out. (Apparently it's against the law to have a dirty car in the UAE, and with sand like that you need to wash your car every week or so to keep it shiny! The malls all had people with car-washing carts wandering around the parking garages, so if you don't like to wash it yourself you can get it done while you shop - pretty convenient!) I spent the entire drive pointing out every camel I saw to Bryn...and I saw a lot of camels!

Al Ain is quite different from Dubai. First of all, it is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (an Emirate is sort of like a state or prefecture). It is a bit more conservative than Dubai, so many of the women also kept their faces covered while they were out, and there were signs prohibiting shoulder bearing tops in at least one of the malls went to. Good thing the air conditioning was turned up causing me to want to wear a sweatshirt over my tops! Also there are no tall buildings in Al Ain. Building restrictions keep places from building over 5 or 6 stories. The sand is a lot darker inland as well...in Dubai the sand was very light and white, while in Al Ain it was an orangy-red color. It is an oasis city located right on the border of the UAE and Oman. Therefore it is a lot greener than other cities (lots of date palms) and is surrounded by mountains. The roads in Al Ain are wide and lined with date palms and bright flowers, so they are quite pretty to drive on. I was surprized by the number of round-a-bouts...one at practically every intersection! For an American they are a bit daunting! They are cool though because each one has a different sculpture or decoration in it to help differentiate it from others. Unfortunately we didn't take a whole lot of pictures in Al Ain for some reason...we did take some from the car on the way out of Al Ain and back to Dubai.

There are camels in that truck!!!

On the first night some of Robert and Jan's friends joined us for a BBQ on their patio. It was a lot of fun since everyone there was like us - loved to travel and had lived in some really interesting places.

The next morning we woke up early. Jan had to work, but Robert had the morning off. After some breakfast and a few errands, we drove up to the top of Jebel Hafeet (I hope I spelled that right...I tried to Google it at work and every site for this MOUNTAIN is blacklisted...hmmm). Yeah, so it's a mountain. I want to say it's the highest point in the UAE, but since all the sites are BLACKLISTED I can't confirm that...Anyways, it's a twisty turny road to the top, and unfortunately it was too hazy to get any good photos. Later we checked out one of the malls (which has a Zara and a H&M, making it an acceptable mall) before heading back to the house and having some of the leftovers from the BBQ for lunch. Robert had to go to work, so Bryn and I spent the better part of the afternoon sitting out on the patio enjoying the summer-like temperatures.

On the way up Jebel Hafeet

View from the top

The luxury hotel at the top of the mountain...There was also one private residence that was bigger than the hotel!

The rest of the time in Al Ain was a bit like that...visit a mall, sit on the patio, watch some TV in English...(side note...Bryn and I like cooking shows. We were watching some Master Chef while we were there and it was a challenge using pork as the main ingredient. They bleeped out the word every time someone mentioned "pork"!!! anyways...) It was a fairly relaxing and very warm couple of days.

Before we knew it we were preparing to head back to Dubai for some last minute sight seeing before our flight out in the evening. Jan had to work again, so we said our goodbyes and set off for the big city. We visited three different shopping malls/shopping areas (as you do in the UAE apparently). The first was an Egypt-themed mall (Wafi Mall)...it was HIGH CLASS...I seriously don't think there was a single thing in that entire mall that I could ever dream of affording! The decorations were quite cool though. Next we went to Souk Madinat Jumeirah, that was built to look like a traditional middle eastern souk (market). It was really something with gorgeous views, lots of restaurants and good touristy shopping. Last was Ibn Battuta Mall...WOW. It is themed after a Moroccan explorer's famous journey. Each "court" of the mall had a theme...China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia...really, really cool. We really had a good time taking pictures of that one and Bryn got some good ones.

Traditional wind towers, meant to catch the wind and cool the houses.

Hookah anyone?

This is the Inb Battuta mall...insane, and very cool!

The main gate to the mall

By then it was time to go to the airport (still not a fan of Dubai airport) where we caught our overnight flight to Singapore. We had just enough time in Singapore to join the free tour they offer to passengers in transit with a long time between flights. (We figured we had spent ample time in the airport on the way there, so why not get out of the airport this trip!) It was a two hour bus tour that allowed us to see some of the sites in Singapore, get a stamp in our passport, and make me REALLY want to go back and see more! It also was a great way to pass the seven hours before our flight to Japan.


It was good to get home once we did, but I immediatly missed the warm temperatures at the equator and in the desert. Now we are patiently waiting for the warm temperatures to make their way to Japan - and the cherry blossoms. The blossoms are starting very slowly, so we will head to Kyoto this weekend to try our luck...fingers crossed they will be blooming for us!

Let's go to the mall...

After the long wait, we were pretty happy to see that our flight was less than half full, so the flight attendants immediately told us we were free to spread out and get more comfortable. One thing we have learned through all of our long flights is that having a seat where you can stretch your legs makes a HUGE difference!

We were really excited to finally arrive in Dubai and be off the airplane and started following the growing crowd to the immigration area. We walked...and walked...and walked...and walked a little bit more. Each step found us surrounded by more and more Russians. Finally we came down a 5th set of stairs through a room and found ourselves in the immigration area and got a place in line. Line is a bit of a grand term for the mob we found ourselves waiting in! We stood in this barely moving mob surrounded by pushy Russians (who didn't understand the concept of personal space and wanted to stand on top of us breathing down our necks) for an hour or so...Dubai certainly took their time checking passports and papers. Luckily the hour in immigration gave our luggage time to come through and be waiting for us through the doors. Apparently there is no such thing as customs in the UAE...we didn't fill in cards about what we were bringing into the country or have to be inspected by a customs officer. Interesting...

After we finally made it out, we could see Robert and Jan (Bryn's father and step mother) waiting for us, however we couldn't get to them! We first had to walk outside into a mob of Indians before going back inside...crazy and not the sort of welcome you want in a country. To tell the truth had Robert and Jan not been there waiting to drive us off, I might have turned right back around and gotten on a plane back home!

After a shower and change of clothes the warm desert became MUCH more welcoming! I was finally getting the chance to wear some of the summer things I had bought in Yokohama in February, and didn't need lots of layers and thick socks to go outside...LOVE IT!

We went to Festival City, a shopping and dining area right on one of the canals in Dubai. First impression of the first mall we saw...AMAZING! The choice of restaurants...OUTSTANDING! The evening air temperature in March...FANTASTIC! If you can't tell, I am a fan. We walked around a bit, saw a ball room dancing exhibition, got our first glimpses of the Burj Khalifa (currently the tallest building in the world) and then sat outside for some dinner.

The Burj Khalifa...really tall! I would say about 75% of our pictures were taken through the window of a moving car, so bear with us!

Arabic Coke

After dinner we went to the Intercontinental Hotel for a drink. Since the UAE is a primarily Islamic country, they don't serve alcohol in restaurants - only hotels and in special liquor shops (which you need a special license to buy). After that I could barely keep my eyes open so the hotel bed was very welcome!!

After breakfast the next morning, we set out for a whirlwind tour of Dubai. We started at the Dubai Mall (you will soon learn that the only thing to do if you are not a multi-millionaire is window shop in the numerous malls...I think if you are filthy rich there are loads of exciting things to do). No complaints about the malls being the places to see though...they have literally every store you can possibly imagine and all the ones you've never heard of! The Dubai Mall also featured lots of pretty cool water features, an aquarium, and an ice skating rink (I'm sure there was more we missed on our quick trip). Just outside is the base of the Burj Khalifa (remember, the tallest building in the world?) And one of the biggest fountains in the world...go figure they were doing maintenance on it the day we were there though.

Bryn checking out the aquarium in the Dubai Mall

One of the many crazy fountains...

Looking up at the tallest building in the world

Up close we had to take the picture at an angle to get it all in!

We drove through Sky Scraper Alley...I tell you what - the UAE must be an architects dream...it's like anything goes. We stopped briefly at a beach to take a picture of the Burj Al Arab...the sail-like building which is the only 7 star hotel in the world. Apparently you can now only go inside if you have a reservation at one of the restaurants. I'm sure it costs at least $100 for a glass of water so I will probably never see the inside of that building!

The Burj Al Arab...7 star hotel

The infinity Tower...it twists...crazy! They are still building it.

Then we drove out on Palm Island. The Atlantis Resort is out on the very end, and from there you can also see a bit of white sand out in the water - the edge of The World. Pretty cool.

Out at the end of The Palm. The world is out in the water past my head.

In front of Atlantis Resort

We had a quick lunch at the Mall of the Emirates which is also home to an indoor ski slope. Crazy. Afterwards it was off to Al Ain.

There were pictures of the Sheiks all over (pronounced like "shakes"...yeah, I didn't know that...)

My first, very brief glimpse of Dubai was good. It's amazing what money can do, and really surreal to see women wearing their black robes and veils shopping for Gucci and other fairytale brand names...I mean they can't show their hair or wrists but they can use iPhones...It almost seemed like a confused time machine or something with people stuck in the wrong century. A very interesting place indeed.