jordan and uae travel updates
Jordan/UAE Days 1 & 2
btw right now jamie and I are in our hotel and Arab Idol is on tv. it is TERRIBLE, and hilarious. our tv must be from 1992.
my travels here were fairly easy... I slept much less than I usually do, as I have been captivated by the first book of the hunger games. I read 300 pages yesterday (70% of the book), and I'll probably finish it today. for those of you who know me well (um, most of you), I don't read. literally do not read. this is probably more reading I've done for pleasure in the last 4 years. the book is SO good and I keep talking about it with jamie. our whole trip has turned into the hunger games. last night I dreamt I was in them.
almost all of the people on my flight from NYC to Amman, jordan were Arab... I was definitely odd man out, but it was an easy flight and jamie was waiting for me outside of immigration. I was extremely excited to see her, considering I haven't seen her for 4 months. jamie lives in Abu dhabi now while she finishes up her masters in engineering management on a full scholarship from a university called Masdar. we decided to meet and vacation in jordan before I go visit her in Abu dhabi and Dubai.
last night we went to a hip part of town last night and ended up at a hookah bar/restaurant, even though we had no intention of smoking. in fact, everyone is smoking cigarettes inside the restaurant, or well, everywhere. so bizarre and SO gross. our hotel is nice, it feels safe and there are lots of other tourists staying here. transport is very inexpensive... like $2-$3 for a 10 min ride. English is generally spoken, but I'm struggling and I'm really glad jamie is here. people just start talking in Arabic and forget we speak English or something. jamie knows quite a bit of vocab so it helps a lot.
last night we came home fairly early, I was anxious to get home and read. jamie and I slept very well, and I think I'm somehow already adjusted to the time difference. jordan is 10 hours ahead of California.
this morning we got up fairly early and had complimentary breakfast at the hotel. other countries sure do have the whole free breakfast thing down WAY better than the US. there were SO many different options... some American and some middle eastern. lots of sauces and breads. yummy mango juice. thumbs up from jamie and me.
then we headed to the gold souk, which is like the jewelry district in NYC. there's a bunch of different gold jewelry... all really pretty and supposedly Amman has some of the highest quality and inexpensive gold in the world. I didn't find anything I loved, so I'll keep looking. then we headed to citadel hill, which is the Hercules monument and palace from 130 AD. it exposes a beautiful view of Amman, and there are lots of cool rocks and ruins to climb on. it reminded me of Masada from israel, except we were allowed to climb on things. on the way up, we got stopped by 5 boys, probably age 9 or 10 who said the way were going was "danga! danga!" we weren't sure if we could trust them, but we ended up following them a different way and they actually did lead us in the right direction. we got to the top and jamie mentioned her travel book had said we'd have to pay 2 JD's to get in ($3 us dollars), and we thought it was weird that we didn't have to, but it turned out we had entered up the backside of the hill, bypassing the main entrance. sneeeeeeaky us!
we walked around downtown, which reminded me of chinatown, and then headed to a Turkish bath house. jamie and I expected everyone to be naked, but when we got there most of the women were in bathing suits. so the Jordanian ladies brought out bathing suits for us. oh jeez, hilarious. line one pieces from 1995. the first one she gave me was this tiny yellow one piece, needless to say it did not fit. hilarious. then we found another one that fit much better. I looked like I belonged in the Olympics. once you walk into the main room, there is a hot tub bath, with massage tables surrounding that look like cold stone creamy stones. we rinsed off and then sat in the sauna for a whole. the whole area is really warm and steamy and there is very cool architecture and lighting. there was about 10 women there when we got there. many on the stone tables getting scrubs and massages, and many in the hot tub. although everyone is in bathing suits, the women on the tables are nearly naked... so lots of public nudity, which clearly I have no issue with. after the sauna we sat in the hot tub until they were ready for us. then was the scrub. a dry scrub. it was borderline painful but you should have seen the dead skin peeling off my skin. SO gross!! then they pour water on you to rinse you off and then you get a wet scrub. like full body, full soap suds scrub, on every inch of your body. they even scrub your face! I felt like I was 5 again getting bathed by my parents. the water they pour on you just goes on the floor... the floor is basically a later of water. the massage was pretty standard except that there are naked women also laying next to you, and of course they massage your stomach and boobs. very interesting. then we laid around on this warm stone for another half hour or so. we were there for like three hours... it was all very relaxing and our skin is SOOOOO soft! highly recommended! and it was only 25JD ($35 us dollars).
then we walked around rainbow street which is a trendy street with lots of shops and restaurants and found this adorable artist cafe. best. sandwiches. ever. so good! food is pretty cheap here... we have spent little money on food and transport, and hotels will end up being the biggest expense. after our late lunch we wandered around the city to find a taxi back to the hotel. although the city looks crowded with buildings, there were not crowds of people in the city. oftentimes things were very quietly. it was surprising, but later in the day it seemed like more people were out. there were lots of cars and little markets with food. very busy.
we are back at the hotel now... we got a glimpse of the sunset and will go out tonight to dinner and drinks with one of Jamie's friends friends. so far we have had a lot of fun and today was a perfect day.
tomorrow we rent a car and head south to Petra. should be an experience... like the amazing race or an arena in the hunger games. everything feels VERY safe here... no need to worry about us!
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Jordan/UAE Day 3
last night we went out to drinks with one of jamie's friends from school's friends, amro. he's a local jordanian and it was very interesting getting to know about him, the culture, and more about amman. we went to a swanky place called the blue fig, that could have been straight out of Santa Monica, except everyone was Arabic and smoking inside. it was a very cool bar/restaurant and I think you had to be good looking to work there because all of the men were super attractive. I find the men here pretty attractive... they have really pretty eyes and they are talk dark and handsome. but some of them are also really scary looking. anyway, I usually find men attractive when most people done, but jamie agrees with me on this one. and amro is one of the good looking ones. we mostly just chatted about Jordanian life, the seven Islam sins (which include homosexuality and drinking), how his family has property in palestine (aka israel) but he can't get back into the country. in jordan, they call it Palestine, not Israel. needless to say, we agree it’s a complicated situation that is unlikely to find resolution anytime soon. Thursday nights are like Fridays, so the place was pretty popping, but jamie hasn't been feeling very well so we were gonna head out, but then I decided I was hungry because we didn't eat dinner, so amro took us to this traditional Jordanian place. it was like 11:30pm and the place was PACKED. mostly there are men out... this is pretty common. the dishes are like hummus, garbanzo bean and falafel and they bring out this wonderful bread that is basically pita on crack. amro showed us how to properly eat the pita and hummus and it was by far the best hummus I've ever had in my life. to die for. so fresh and smooth and delicious. we ordered SO much food and didn't eat that much because weren't THAT hungry, but for whatever reason they don't let you take away food. so bizarre, and kind of a waste. and all the food was only 12JD ($17 us dollars). it was really good to meet amro and learn about local life... it’s always the best way to travel when you can meet locals and be submerged in the culture.
I'm also learning lots more about the next leg of the trip: abu dhabi and Dubai. I was pretty wrong about Abu dhabi, as I thought Jamie's impression was that she hated school, and not Abu dhabi, but no, she doesn't like Abu dhabi. well, I'm not sure if that's fair to say, but Abu dhabi is very traditional and strict and Dubai is much different, much more westernized. it appears both cities are very corrupt, but have advantages too, and I'm excited to go and see what all the buzz is about. I won't be able to wear short shorts in Abu dhabi, but I also won't have to wear a headdress or anything. needless to say... this is quite a learning trip. sometimes I travel to relax at tropical locations (Hawaii and florida this year) and sometimes I travel to learn about other cultures (Taiwan) and sometimes both (Bali). this is definitely a cultural trip, and so far I'm loving it.
that brings me to our next story. this morning we planned to wake up and leave Amman by 9am to get to jerash by 10am for a chariot race. Jerash is about 40 min north of Amman and is home to some of the most intact roman ruins in the world. we had talked to two different people about a rental car, and told them we needed it this morning. when we asked yesterday, the guy said the car would come in the evening to be ready for us this morning. when jamie went to get the car, it was 8:45am and the man said the car wasn’t coming for an hour. i walked out for a minute while the man was telling her this, and i just saw jamie saying no. I went back to the room and missed the whole debacle because I was in the room trying to get directions, but about 15 min later jamie barged in and said, we're leaving now, they are hiring us a driver, and we'll pick up the rental when we get back. basically, there was a miscommunication between the two hotel guys and neither of them actually reserved us a car. jamie explained we needed to get to jerash by 10am and the man said he could get a driver to take us there but it would cost 50JD. she said no, he made some more phone calls, and ultimately she got the guy to take us for free. apparently jamie has gotten really good at negotiating with arabs, claiming you just have to say the same thing over and over again without getting mad. obviously this would NOT work in the us, but apparently it worked this morning. a nice man took us to jerash, we bought tickets for the chariot race but there was a lot of uncertainty about the timing. some people said 10, others said 11, but when we bought out ticket the sign said 10:15am and we walked in, thinking it started at 10:15. but then there was a large group of people who started walking, so we followed them out of the amphitheatre. the whole thing was very confusing so we kept walking and asked the guards what time the show started, and they said 11am. by then it was about 10:20am so we walked around the ruins, took a bunch of fun pics, and then headed back for the 11am show. when we got there at about 10:55am, the actors were standing outside the amphitheatre and said we misses the show, and pointed to the sign that now said 10:30am. wtf!! the original sign said 10:15am, but nothing was happening, and then we were told it was at 11 but somehow it got switched to 10:30?!? jamie put on a very very convincing puppy dog face and the guys felt bad, gave us our money back, and led us in first to take pictures with the actors. so if anyone asks, we were there. we left pretty bummed though, and headed back to Amman to get the car. fortunately, it all worked out because getting in and out of Amman is a nightmare, and we didn’t have to deal with finding our way to jerash, and the best part was once we got the rental car the driver waited for us and let us follow him out of the city, which would have been a nightmare to do alone. jordan just got street names and numbers very recently, and the streets have no grid and are filled with roundabouts. anyway, we made it out of the city with no hassle and were on our way. lesson of the day: be very very clear about time!!
since jamie isn't feeling well I took over on the road, which I was very apprehensive about but warmed up pretty easily. this is my first time driving outside of the us, and people drive crazy and sometimes there aren't lines between lanes on the freeway. fortunately there was like NO ONE on the road (where is everyone?!) and we made it to wadi masa safely. wadi masa is right outside Petra, because you can’t drive or stay in Petra. I really don't know much about it, which is partly what I'm so excited for. it's supposed to be absolutely amazing, and we can already tell people are here from all over the world. we checked into the hotel, picked up a bunch of drugs for jamie, and laid low. wadi masa is a quiet city, with not much to do, and we plan to have a big day of walking tomorrow in Petra. I'm already super sore from all the stairs, so I need as much rest as I can get.
ah, one thing to note is that jamie and I have continued on the tradition of Ching-Ching, which originally originated from my sister and Ava on their trip to South America. basically it's a wallet that we both contribute money to, and we use the money together so we don't have to try and split anything. it works grand, although we didn't thing Ching-Ching was very fitting here, so we tried to rename it to tamtam, which is a sign we saw (no real significance in the name), but we are still calling it Ching-Ching. some habits are hard to break. anyway, a great mechanism for traveling!
love and miss you all. merry Christmas and happy hanukkah to everyone and wishing you the best! this will be my first year with neither Christmas NOR Hanukkah... I guess I've got the rest of my life to celebrate, right??
xoxo,
yesterday we woke up early and headed to Petra. btw, jamie is sick with a cold, not food sick, but we did get some good advice from debby to not eat inside of Petra, so we stocked up on some sweet bread, flat bread, cheese and Pringles for the day. you cannot actually drive in Petra, so you park outside and walk a couple of miles in between large rock mountains until all of the sudden the city of Petra is exposed. Jamie's jordan book had claimed it was 25JD to get into Petra, but when we got there it was actually 50JD, which is about $65 us dollars. it was pretty annoying, but what were we gonna do? not go? not really an option. we stood there whining about it for a while but then paid and went in. while many ancient ruins consist of large buildings made of stone, Petra is unique in that the inhabitants carved INTO the stone, rather than building out of it. the carvings are intricate and rise very high, with small cave-like places where I imagine the inhabitants slept. since Petra is in the middle of jordan, it once had a supple water source and provided a place for travelers to stop while heading across the desert. Petra is one of the seven wonders of the world, and amazing it is. the Bedouins (Arabs who live in tents in the desert) run Petra and there are vendors all over the city selling scarves and jewelry and rocks and coins. it's all junk, but it's interesting to see the culture. Jamie and I kept taking pictures of each other, and decided we should hire one of the little kids selling postcards to take pictures for us. a few minutes later we were climbing up to see the huge amphitheater when we met ranya, a 12 year old Bedouin girl who was trying to sell us necklaces. we asked her if we could pay her 5JD to be our photographer, and she graciously agreed, but not before she gave us both matching necklaces for free. ranya knew the best spots for pictures, the best poses, and knew how to work the camera amazingly. her English was also REALLY good, and we quickly were surrounded by three or four other little girls who were her sisters and friends. it was obvious they were jealous, but they hung out with us and showed us the best spots. inside some of the caves are the most amazing colorful stones, and the girls would rub the red stone, and then put it on our cheeks for blush. so stinking cute! we spent about a half an hour with them, climbing rocks and squatting for silly poses. ranya literally was directing us where to go and snapping away photos like she was a professional. finally we decided we needed to continue on, and we gave her the money and were on our way. we got photos with all the girls, and they wanted to see all of the pictures before we left. unfortunately all the photos she took are on my camera and I won't have access to them until I'm on a real computer in Abu dhabi in a few days. maryjo, you would die over these girls.
Petra is huge. it would be an insane arena for the hunger games... there are so many hiding spaces and the weather is hot during the day and cold at night. plus, it's limits are almost endless. I must talk to the gamemakers. I'm almost through the 2nd book and I'm still dreaming about it every night. I highly recommend it to any of you who haven't read it.
so Petra was unbelievable. definitely unlike anything I've ever seen before. we walked all day. like 6 hours. and up to the monastery, which was the highest point in Petra, which the guidebook said would take about an hour and jamie and I did it in 25 minutes. jordan = stairs. lots and lots of stairs. pictures to come. lots of people take donkeys and camels around Petra, but jamie and I are young and healthy. in fact, there were hardly any young tourists in Petra... it's very weird but the Arab kids love us because we are girls and young.
after the turkish bath version 2.0 we did some major reading. quite honestly jamie and I were really tired from all the walking through Petra. and of course jamie is trying to get healthy... so went to sleep and woke up early to head out for another day.
when we woke up this morning it was much colder than it was yesterday. in fact, yesterday it was sunny all day, with some mild winds at the top of Petra, but the weather was amazing. today, it's overcast and looks like it’s going to rain. we have been so lucky with the weather. we left Petra and headed north to our next destination: the dead sea.
on the way to the dead sea we stopped at kerak castle. it's a big castle that was built around 1100 AD. it was only 1JD, and that was pretty worth it. it was freaking FREEZING so we didn't last very long. the castle basically overlooked much over the city of karek, and along the way we saw Bedouin camps, vast desert, and eventually great views of the dead sea.
okay, now it's later. we finally made it to the hotel I'm staying at, which is on yas island. this place is hard to describe... it half reminds me of Vegas, with a little bit of San Diego marina... basically it's a bunch of hotels with an indoor amusement park, an ikea, the F1 race track, and a bunch of boats and other cool shit... all on a manmade island. we met Jamie's boyfriend, addi (pronounced ah-tee), at the F1 track. the track is used for racing.... it's a huge track (5.5k) that winds around so you can't see the other side at any particular point. on Tuesday's the track is open to the public for free... cyclists ride counterclockwise and runners and walkers go clockwise on the outside. addi was riding Jamie's bike, jamie ran and I ran half and walked half. it was the first time I've run in like 4 months, but I felt pretty good. most of the people are westerners, but it was a very cool experience.
Hello from Jordan!!! Jamie and I arrived yesterday evening and are having a great time so far. First off, this will be one of many email updates... and you've been put on this list either because you asked or because I thought you would be interested. if at any time you'd like to unsubscribe, please send a reply email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. also, feel free to delete and/or not read at all. these things tend to get long, but exciting. and please excuse my poor grammar, typos, and language. I'm on an iPad here, give me a break ; )
btw right now jamie and I are in our hotel and Arab Idol is on tv. it is TERRIBLE, and hilarious. our tv must be from 1992.
my travels here were fairly easy... I slept much less than I usually do, as I have been captivated by the first book of the hunger games. I read 300 pages yesterday (70% of the book), and I'll probably finish it today. for those of you who know me well (um, most of you), I don't read. literally do not read. this is probably more reading I've done for pleasure in the last 4 years. the book is SO good and I keep talking about it with jamie. our whole trip has turned into the hunger games. last night I dreamt I was in them.
almost all of the people on my flight from NYC to Amman, jordan were Arab... I was definitely odd man out, but it was an easy flight and jamie was waiting for me outside of immigration. I was extremely excited to see her, considering I haven't seen her for 4 months. jamie lives in Abu dhabi now while she finishes up her masters in engineering management on a full scholarship from a university called Masdar. we decided to meet and vacation in jordan before I go visit her in Abu dhabi and Dubai.
last night we went to a hip part of town last night and ended up at a hookah bar/restaurant, even though we had no intention of smoking. in fact, everyone is smoking cigarettes inside the restaurant, or well, everywhere. so bizarre and SO gross. our hotel is nice, it feels safe and there are lots of other tourists staying here. transport is very inexpensive... like $2-$3 for a 10 min ride. English is generally spoken, but I'm struggling and I'm really glad jamie is here. people just start talking in Arabic and forget we speak English or something. jamie knows quite a bit of vocab so it helps a lot.
last night we came home fairly early, I was anxious to get home and read. jamie and I slept very well, and I think I'm somehow already adjusted to the time difference. jordan is 10 hours ahead of California.
this morning we got up fairly early and had complimentary breakfast at the hotel. other countries sure do have the whole free breakfast thing down WAY better than the US. there were SO many different options... some American and some middle eastern. lots of sauces and breads. yummy mango juice. thumbs up from jamie and me.
then we headed to the gold souk, which is like the jewelry district in NYC. there's a bunch of different gold jewelry... all really pretty and supposedly Amman has some of the highest quality and inexpensive gold in the world. I didn't find anything I loved, so I'll keep looking. then we headed to citadel hill, which is the Hercules monument and palace from 130 AD. it exposes a beautiful view of Amman, and there are lots of cool rocks and ruins to climb on. it reminded me of Masada from israel, except we were allowed to climb on things. on the way up, we got stopped by 5 boys, probably age 9 or 10 who said the way were going was "danga! danga!" we weren't sure if we could trust them, but we ended up following them a different way and they actually did lead us in the right direction. we got to the top and jamie mentioned her travel book had said we'd have to pay 2 JD's to get in ($3 us dollars), and we thought it was weird that we didn't have to, but it turned out we had entered up the backside of the hill, bypassing the main entrance. sneeeeeeaky us!
we took lots of pictures and we got asked to take a picture with some other little boys... very cute. there aren't that many white people here... and people on the streets stare at me. jamie kinda fits in, but me, not so much. the weather was GORGEOUS today. it was supposed to be super cold here but we walked around in a t-shirt and jeans all day. even the sun was out. Amman is much more hilly than jamie and I expected... there are stairs everywhere throughout the city... we definitely burned some calories.
we walked around downtown, which reminded me of chinatown, and then headed to a Turkish bath house. jamie and I expected everyone to be naked, but when we got there most of the women were in bathing suits. so the Jordanian ladies brought out bathing suits for us. oh jeez, hilarious. line one pieces from 1995. the first one she gave me was this tiny yellow one piece, needless to say it did not fit. hilarious. then we found another one that fit much better. I looked like I belonged in the Olympics. once you walk into the main room, there is a hot tub bath, with massage tables surrounding that look like cold stone creamy stones. we rinsed off and then sat in the sauna for a whole. the whole area is really warm and steamy and there is very cool architecture and lighting. there was about 10 women there when we got there. many on the stone tables getting scrubs and massages, and many in the hot tub. although everyone is in bathing suits, the women on the tables are nearly naked... so lots of public nudity, which clearly I have no issue with. after the sauna we sat in the hot tub until they were ready for us. then was the scrub. a dry scrub. it was borderline painful but you should have seen the dead skin peeling off my skin. SO gross!! then they pour water on you to rinse you off and then you get a wet scrub. like full body, full soap suds scrub, on every inch of your body. they even scrub your face! I felt like I was 5 again getting bathed by my parents. the water they pour on you just goes on the floor... the floor is basically a later of water. the massage was pretty standard except that there are naked women also laying next to you, and of course they massage your stomach and boobs. very interesting. then we laid around on this warm stone for another half hour or so. we were there for like three hours... it was all very relaxing and our skin is SOOOOO soft! highly recommended! and it was only 25JD ($35 us dollars).
then we walked around rainbow street which is a trendy street with lots of shops and restaurants and found this adorable artist cafe. best. sandwiches. ever. so good! food is pretty cheap here... we have spent little money on food and transport, and hotels will end up being the biggest expense. after our late lunch we wandered around the city to find a taxi back to the hotel. although the city looks crowded with buildings, there were not crowds of people in the city. oftentimes things were very quietly. it was surprising, but later in the day it seemed like more people were out. there were lots of cars and little markets with food. very busy.
we are back at the hotel now... we got a glimpse of the sunset and will go out tonight to dinner and drinks with one of Jamie's friends friends. so far we have had a lot of fun and today was a perfect day.
tomorrow we rent a car and head south to Petra. should be an experience... like the amazing race or an arena in the hunger games. everything feels VERY safe here... no need to worry about us!
love and miss you all…
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Jordan/UAE Day 3
hello hello! hi from Petra!! thanks for all your kind words and lots of love. jameson (jamie) and I are safe and well!
last night we went out to drinks with one of jamie's friends from school's friends, amro. he's a local jordanian and it was very interesting getting to know about him, the culture, and more about amman. we went to a swanky place called the blue fig, that could have been straight out of Santa Monica, except everyone was Arabic and smoking inside. it was a very cool bar/restaurant and I think you had to be good looking to work there because all of the men were super attractive. I find the men here pretty attractive... they have really pretty eyes and they are talk dark and handsome. but some of them are also really scary looking. anyway, I usually find men attractive when most people done, but jamie agrees with me on this one. and amro is one of the good looking ones. we mostly just chatted about Jordanian life, the seven Islam sins (which include homosexuality and drinking), how his family has property in palestine (aka israel) but he can't get back into the country. in jordan, they call it Palestine, not Israel. needless to say, we agree it’s a complicated situation that is unlikely to find resolution anytime soon. Thursday nights are like Fridays, so the place was pretty popping, but jamie hasn't been feeling very well so we were gonna head out, but then I decided I was hungry because we didn't eat dinner, so amro took us to this traditional Jordanian place. it was like 11:30pm and the place was PACKED. mostly there are men out... this is pretty common. the dishes are like hummus, garbanzo bean and falafel and they bring out this wonderful bread that is basically pita on crack. amro showed us how to properly eat the pita and hummus and it was by far the best hummus I've ever had in my life. to die for. so fresh and smooth and delicious. we ordered SO much food and didn't eat that much because weren't THAT hungry, but for whatever reason they don't let you take away food. so bizarre, and kind of a waste. and all the food was only 12JD ($17 us dollars). it was really good to meet amro and learn about local life... it’s always the best way to travel when you can meet locals and be submerged in the culture.
I'm also learning lots more about the next leg of the trip: abu dhabi and Dubai. I was pretty wrong about Abu dhabi, as I thought Jamie's impression was that she hated school, and not Abu dhabi, but no, she doesn't like Abu dhabi. well, I'm not sure if that's fair to say, but Abu dhabi is very traditional and strict and Dubai is much different, much more westernized. it appears both cities are very corrupt, but have advantages too, and I'm excited to go and see what all the buzz is about. I won't be able to wear short shorts in Abu dhabi, but I also won't have to wear a headdress or anything. needless to say... this is quite a learning trip. sometimes I travel to relax at tropical locations (Hawaii and florida this year) and sometimes I travel to learn about other cultures (Taiwan) and sometimes both (Bali). this is definitely a cultural trip, and so far I'm loving it.
jordan is also very safe. I think it's a common misconception in the us that the middle east is all one country, but jordan is hardly ever in the news, and I feel incredibly safe here. with my belongings, with the people on the street, everywhere. i don't think it's unsafe, and people have been incredibly nice and helpful. quite frankly, nothing but nice and helpful.
that brings me to our next story. this morning we planned to wake up and leave Amman by 9am to get to jerash by 10am for a chariot race. Jerash is about 40 min north of Amman and is home to some of the most intact roman ruins in the world. we had talked to two different people about a rental car, and told them we needed it this morning. when we asked yesterday, the guy said the car would come in the evening to be ready for us this morning. when jamie went to get the car, it was 8:45am and the man said the car wasn’t coming for an hour. i walked out for a minute while the man was telling her this, and i just saw jamie saying no. I went back to the room and missed the whole debacle because I was in the room trying to get directions, but about 15 min later jamie barged in and said, we're leaving now, they are hiring us a driver, and we'll pick up the rental when we get back. basically, there was a miscommunication between the two hotel guys and neither of them actually reserved us a car. jamie explained we needed to get to jerash by 10am and the man said he could get a driver to take us there but it would cost 50JD. she said no, he made some more phone calls, and ultimately she got the guy to take us for free. apparently jamie has gotten really good at negotiating with arabs, claiming you just have to say the same thing over and over again without getting mad. obviously this would NOT work in the us, but apparently it worked this morning. a nice man took us to jerash, we bought tickets for the chariot race but there was a lot of uncertainty about the timing. some people said 10, others said 11, but when we bought out ticket the sign said 10:15am and we walked in, thinking it started at 10:15. but then there was a large group of people who started walking, so we followed them out of the amphitheatre. the whole thing was very confusing so we kept walking and asked the guards what time the show started, and they said 11am. by then it was about 10:20am so we walked around the ruins, took a bunch of fun pics, and then headed back for the 11am show. when we got there at about 10:55am, the actors were standing outside the amphitheatre and said we misses the show, and pointed to the sign that now said 10:30am. wtf!! the original sign said 10:15am, but nothing was happening, and then we were told it was at 11 but somehow it got switched to 10:30?!? jamie put on a very very convincing puppy dog face and the guys felt bad, gave us our money back, and led us in first to take pictures with the actors. so if anyone asks, we were there. we left pretty bummed though, and headed back to Amman to get the car. fortunately, it all worked out because getting in and out of Amman is a nightmare, and we didn’t have to deal with finding our way to jerash, and the best part was once we got the rental car the driver waited for us and let us follow him out of the city, which would have been a nightmare to do alone. jordan just got street names and numbers very recently, and the streets have no grid and are filled with roundabouts. anyway, we made it out of the city with no hassle and were on our way. lesson of the day: be very very clear about time!!
since jamie isn't feeling well I took over on the road, which I was very apprehensive about but warmed up pretty easily. this is my first time driving outside of the us, and people drive crazy and sometimes there aren't lines between lanes on the freeway. fortunately there was like NO ONE on the road (where is everyone?!) and we made it to wadi masa safely. wadi masa is right outside Petra, because you can’t drive or stay in Petra. I really don't know much about it, which is partly what I'm so excited for. it's supposed to be absolutely amazing, and we can already tell people are here from all over the world. we checked into the hotel, picked up a bunch of drugs for jamie, and laid low. wadi masa is a quiet city, with not much to do, and we plan to have a big day of walking tomorrow in Petra. I'm already super sore from all the stairs, so I need as much rest as I can get.
ah, one thing to note is that jamie and I have continued on the tradition of Ching-Ching, which originally originated from my sister and Ava on their trip to South America. basically it's a wallet that we both contribute money to, and we use the money together so we don't have to try and split anything. it works grand, although we didn't thing Ching-Ching was very fitting here, so we tried to rename it to tamtam, which is a sign we saw (no real significance in the name), but we are still calling it Ching-Ching. some habits are hard to break. anyway, a great mechanism for traveling!
I finished the hunger games in two days. I'm still talking and dreaming about it nonstop. I'm onto the second book and can't quite figure out what more could happen in the next two books, but I'm starting to have some guesses. sooooooo addicting!!
love and miss you all. merry Christmas and happy hanukkah to everyone and wishing you the best! this will be my first year with neither Christmas NOR Hanukkah... I guess I've got the rest of my life to celebrate, right??
xoxo,
shonnagaga and jamie!
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Jordan/UAE Days 4 & 5
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Jordan/UAE Days 4 & 5
salam from the dead sea!! jamie and I have been on a jordan adventure, and I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas and Hanukkah! it's Christmas here now and I think jordanians think all Americans are Christian, but whatever. merry christmas!
yesterday we woke up early and headed to Petra. btw, jamie is sick with a cold, not food sick, but we did get some good advice from debby to not eat inside of Petra, so we stocked up on some sweet bread, flat bread, cheese and Pringles for the day. you cannot actually drive in Petra, so you park outside and walk a couple of miles in between large rock mountains until all of the sudden the city of Petra is exposed. Jamie's jordan book had claimed it was 25JD to get into Petra, but when we got there it was actually 50JD, which is about $65 us dollars. it was pretty annoying, but what were we gonna do? not go? not really an option. we stood there whining about it for a while but then paid and went in. while many ancient ruins consist of large buildings made of stone, Petra is unique in that the inhabitants carved INTO the stone, rather than building out of it. the carvings are intricate and rise very high, with small cave-like places where I imagine the inhabitants slept. since Petra is in the middle of jordan, it once had a supple water source and provided a place for travelers to stop while heading across the desert. Petra is one of the seven wonders of the world, and amazing it is. the Bedouins (Arabs who live in tents in the desert) run Petra and there are vendors all over the city selling scarves and jewelry and rocks and coins. it's all junk, but it's interesting to see the culture. Jamie and I kept taking pictures of each other, and decided we should hire one of the little kids selling postcards to take pictures for us. a few minutes later we were climbing up to see the huge amphitheater when we met ranya, a 12 year old Bedouin girl who was trying to sell us necklaces. we asked her if we could pay her 5JD to be our photographer, and she graciously agreed, but not before she gave us both matching necklaces for free. ranya knew the best spots for pictures, the best poses, and knew how to work the camera amazingly. her English was also REALLY good, and we quickly were surrounded by three or four other little girls who were her sisters and friends. it was obvious they were jealous, but they hung out with us and showed us the best spots. inside some of the caves are the most amazing colorful stones, and the girls would rub the red stone, and then put it on our cheeks for blush. so stinking cute! we spent about a half an hour with them, climbing rocks and squatting for silly poses. ranya literally was directing us where to go and snapping away photos like she was a professional. finally we decided we needed to continue on, and we gave her the money and were on our way. we got photos with all the girls, and they wanted to see all of the pictures before we left. unfortunately all the photos she took are on my camera and I won't have access to them until I'm on a real computer in Abu dhabi in a few days. maryjo, you would die over these girls.
Petra is huge. it would be an insane arena for the hunger games... there are so many hiding spaces and the weather is hot during the day and cold at night. plus, it's limits are almost endless. I must talk to the gamemakers. I'm almost through the 2nd book and I'm still dreaming about it every night. I highly recommend it to any of you who haven't read it.
so the first day we were in Amman and went to citadel we met a taxi driver who offered to be our driver for our trip. this is very common for tourists in jordan. we got his card but already had plans to rent a car. when we left Petra yesterday to get our car we ran into him!! very small world! he gave us some tips for the next couple of days and we said goodbye. in jordan Nissan makes a car called the sunny. it gets great gas mileage... that's what we're driving. and the taxi driver has the same car. i'll get back to him later.
so Petra was unbelievable. definitely unlike anything I've ever seen before. we walked all day. like 6 hours. and up to the monastery, which was the highest point in Petra, which the guidebook said would take about an hour and jamie and I did it in 25 minutes. jordan = stairs. lots and lots of stairs. pictures to come. lots of people take donkeys and camels around Petra, but jamie and I are young and healthy. in fact, there were hardly any young tourists in Petra... it's very weird but the Arab kids love us because we are girls and young.
on our way out of Petra we see ranya again with her friends. they are so adorably cute. we took a bunch more pictures and said goodbye. it was so good to meet ranya and I hope she becomes a professional photographer someday.
we went home and did the turkish bath at the hotel. it definitely was a different experience than in amman, but it was cheaper and so i guess you get what you pay for. after our scrub down we were hanging out in the lobby enjoying tea when a HUGE cockroach was hanging out around the couch area. we told the guy and a few minutes later he picked up the cockroach with a towel, and just put it with the rest of the used towels. it was really bizarre! so we left. obvi.
after the turkish bath version 2.0 we did some major reading. quite honestly jamie and I were really tired from all the walking through Petra. and of course jamie is trying to get healthy... so went to sleep and woke up early to head out for another day.
one thing to note is that all of the hotels, and a few other locations, have metal detectors. but they are optional. optional metal detectors. hilarious. like they don’t require you to use them... or at least not us. also, you'll be driving on the freeway, and there will be huge speed bumps. like you have to slow to 5 mph. it's very disruptive to the driving, but in general the driving here has been very easy. amro said we were brave to rent a car and drive, but we have been fine. jamie is a good driver.
when we woke up this morning it was much colder than it was yesterday. in fact, yesterday it was sunny all day, with some mild winds at the top of Petra, but the weather was amazing. today, it's overcast and looks like it’s going to rain. we have been so lucky with the weather. we left Petra and headed north to our next destination: the dead sea.
on the way to the dead sea we stopped at kerak castle. it's a big castle that was built around 1100 AD. it was only 1JD, and that was pretty worth it. it was freaking FREEZING so we didn't last very long. the castle basically overlooked much over the city of karek, and along the way we saw Bedouin camps, vast desert, and eventually great views of the dead sea.
the dead sea is beautiful. I've seen it before from the Israel side, but it seems more turquoise here. our hotel is really quite unbelievable. there are infinity pools everywhere and the grounds are huge. we got here in the afternoon and read at the beach. the weather here has to be at least 10-20 degrees warmer than kerak. quite nice actually. not quite bathing suit weather but we hope it clears up tomorrow and exposes a much nicer day.
oh I forgot that when we were about one mile away from our hotel in the dead sea we got passed by the SAME taxi driver. he had a passenger who was also going to our hotel. what a crazy coincidence! we talked to him for a few minutes... jamie thought for sure he was following us, but it really was just chance. what a small world!
sorry this email is a little all over the place... I'm sleepy and I've had a lot of wine. merry christmas to those of you celebrators. much love! xoxx
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Jordan/UAE Days 6 & 7
Jordan/UAE Days 6 & 7
hello from Abu dhabi! we are certainly not in jordan anymore. I'm currently at a Starbucks in the airport waiting for jamie. on her way here she accidentally left her house key at security, so she went to go pick it up at the police station, but she's been gone for nearly an hour and a half. I'm starting to worry, but I've got all of our luggage and leaving my post may be a bad idea. I hope she returns soon.
the last couple of days have been really relaxing... a wonderful way to end the jordan leg of the trip. on Christmas night amro came to have dinner with us at the hotel. we got dressed up, had dinner and watched a belly dancer. there's not a whole lot going on as the winter is a low travel season, which means peace and quiet for us.
yesterday morning (monday) we slept in a little and woke up to an amazing breakfast. basically the works. mövenpick sure does breakfast right. they had so many choices, including waffles, many types of breads, fruits, and my personal favorite: cucumbers and hummus. pretty sure I could live off that. my favorite thing was the labeled milk: skimmed milk & long life milk (aka whole milk). very clever you jordanians.
we headed to a city called madaba, which is most famous for an old Greek orthodox church with very intricate mosaics. jamie and I were tired of wearing jeans and tennis shoes, so we decided to wear workout clothes to be a little more comfortable. jamie hasn't heard or experienced lululemon, so I let her borrow one of my pairs. of course, she loves them. in our rental car I was wearing my Nike workout tank top and we kept getting honked at by a couple of cars. at one point the a guy was honking and flashing his brights so much we decided to pull over, thinking for sure something was wrong with the car. as it turned out, he just wanted to ask for my number. jamie and I realized the men aren't used to seeing shoulders, so I immediately put on my jacket. the guy was not threatening at all... just hitting on us. we politely said no and he politely turned around and drove off. really?! the funniest part was when we drove off jamie and I both looked at each other and said to each other "he was cute."
also along the way we were stopped at a couple of police checks. this is standard along the freeways in jordan, but this was the first day we got actually got stopped. the men were pretty serious, had big guns, asked us where we were going, and as soon as we said we were American they would send us on our way. all it took was the word American. again, it's not threatening and it makes you feel safer that they are checking cars, although I'm not exactly sure what they're looking for.
madaba is a small city, but with lots of shops and hustle and bustle of people. we went and saw the church, which featured a huge map of the jordan/dead sea/Israel area. it was made long long ago and was very impressive. also at this very old church was a painting of the virgin mary and baby Jesus, and the painting had an extra blue hand. as the story goes (from Jamie's travel book), one day the blue hand just appeared, out of nowhere, and it is now known as some kind of miracle. people are weird, dude.
after madaba we headed back to the hotel to soak up some sun at the hotel. we got very lucky with the weather because yesterday was really nice, and the day before it was lightly raining. despite the sun, it was a little windy, and when we attempted to get into the dead sea, the "lifeguard" stopped us telling us the water was too rough to get in. now let me tell you, these were like half foot waves. for a girl from Ventura, who has done a triathlon in 2.5 foot waves, this is nothing. jamie and I are no strangers to the waves, and we can't believe the guy won't let us go in. his English is bad, and he just keeps pointing to the red flags that are flying in the wind. we put on our best puppy faces and he tells us 2 minutes, then extends it to 3 minutes. jamie and I are good. unlike the wide beach in Israel, the water here stops abruptly at rocks, which are covered in salt. literally salt blocks. I get in the water quickly, but it takes jamie a few minutes of convincing to get her in the water. at this point it's been about 5 minutes, and the lifeguard is getting a little annoyed because jamie won't get in the water. but after practically forcing her, she did get in, and we got a picture.
the dead sea is super salty. I'm almost certain nothing lives in there, and our skin felt so weird afterward. you can't shave a few days before you go in, because the salt will burn intensely. I haven't shaved since I left California, but my calf still burned a little. it definitely is unlike any other experience, and I was happy to get to experience it with jamie.
we laid at the beach reading for another couple of hours, and spent the rest of the evening lounging in the cabana reading more and watching the sunset. it was quite relaxing, since both jamie and I have such crazy lives and it was just so nice to spend the day truly being at ease.
last night we ordered room service and watched a movie in our room.
I believe I mentioned it before, but it is quite interesting to recognize how strange it is that the Arabs don't acknowledge Israel as a country. all of their maps still say Palestine. it's like that for most of the middle east... and I am understanding more and how one-sided the American view is, and the other side is quickly being painted. ultimately my viewpoint is unchanged- it’s a difficult situation that is unlikely to be changed anytime soon.
this morning we left our hotel fairly early, filling up our bellies with another big breakfast. I felt like katniss in the hunger games gorging myself before heading into the arena. I finished the 2nd book today but I have committed to reading a required text for school before I read the 3rd book. hopefully the anticipation of the 3rd book will motivate me to finish the school book. nonetheless I've been waiting here for jamie for two hours and I've avoided it completely.
we rented a car, the Nissan sunny, remember? when we drove to madaba yesterday we needed gas, but could not find any gas stations. when we left the hotel this morning, about 45 min from the airport, we REALLY needed gas. the light hadn't come on, but we kept passing through small towns and NO GAS. we hadn't seen a gas station in 2 days! about 30 minutes pass and we're getting really concerned. the light comes on. no sign of gas. we're pressed for gas, but also time. it's almost 8:45am and our flight is at 10:30am and we're still another 20 minutes away, that's assuming we find gas. jamie and I are both a bit (a lot) in panic mode, and unfortunately we keep having to drive up hill. we finally saw a gas station, but there was nowhere to turn around for miles, so eventually we had to change our route and keep going. jamie has devised a plan to abandon the car if it runs out of gas, hail a taxi and tell the rental place where we left the car. I'm not quite on board, and at this point I'm just holding my breath. why do I feel like I'm back in Taiwan with Karen taking the bus through town eventually realizing we're not headed to the airport, and we jump in a taxi just in the nick of time. anyway, then, all of the sudden, we see a gas station! hallelujah!! we had driven 613 km on the sunny. that's 380 miles, on one little tank! and when we went to get gas, it only cost 30JD (42 us dollars) for that whole distance! very cheap! anyway, we made it! found the rental car guy, and got through the crazy airport. what a day!!!
OH! I found jamie! phew! after all that, they don't even have her key. typical abu dhabi.
okay, now it's later. we finally made it to the hotel I'm staying at, which is on yas island. this place is hard to describe... it half reminds me of Vegas, with a little bit of San Diego marina... basically it's a bunch of hotels with an indoor amusement park, an ikea, the F1 race track, and a bunch of boats and other cool shit... all on a manmade island. we met Jamie's boyfriend, addi (pronounced ah-tee), at the F1 track. the track is used for racing.... it's a huge track (5.5k) that winds around so you can't see the other side at any particular point. on Tuesday's the track is open to the public for free... cyclists ride counterclockwise and runners and walkers go clockwise on the outside. addi was riding Jamie's bike, jamie ran and I ran half and walked half. it was the first time I've run in like 4 months, but I felt pretty good. most of the people are westerners, but it was a very cool experience.
tonight I'm staying on yas island in a super modern hotel, while jamie and addi have some time alone and they go to work tomorrow. another adventurous day awaits!
love and miss you all!!
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Jordan/UAE Days Abu Dhabi + TENNIS!
hi hi! I'm alive! sorry I haven't written... I've been relaxing in abu dhabi and yesterday (friday) was an incredible day!!
a while back (like two months ago) jamie told me she had gotten me the best Christmas gift ever. like she was SO excited to give it me. she didn't give it to me when we were in jordan and eventually she told me she'd give it to me the day of. I love surprises, so I really didn't want to know much more about it. well yesterday we pulled up to the zayad sports center and the excitement was killing me! jamie got us tickets to the Abu dhabi world tennis championship. it's a small tournament that doesn't count towards
the players records and is basically just for fun. I am OBSESSED with tennis an REALLY obsessed with Novak Djokovic. well he was there! and federer and nadal (and monfils and ferrer and tsonga). the tournament is three days and I got to see a federer/Djokovic match and nadal/ferrer match.
the stadium is pretty small so we were super close!! before the matches started we wondered to a VIP area and found nadal at one of the practice courts. we sat down and watched him warm up.... no joke jamie and I were 10 feet from him! he is soooooooo strong!!
Djokovic beat federer pretty bad, but federer was pretty favored as he lives half time in Dubai. after the match jamie and I wondered to some area where the players come out after the matches. we waited about 20 min and got to see federer. he was so calm and mellow. walked right up to us, kindly took a picture with us, autographed my program and I told him he played a good match, and he said thank you. holy good day! I just couldn't calm down.
it was one of the best Christmas gifts ever... jamie knows how much I love tennis, and she gives incredibly thoughtful gifts. I actually am planning to go to the US open in new york sept 2012 but honestly I'll probably never get as close to the players as I was yesterday. this is an incredibly unique tournament with the highest ranked players in the world, and I thank Abu dhabi graciously for hosting the event, thank jamie for the amazing gift, and federer for being so kind. the weather was so perfect, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to ring in the new year! what great timing I had!!
anyway, back to the rest of the earlier part of the week.
on Wednesday jamie and addi were working, so I walked a couple of miles through yas island to the ikea to get breakfast and buy a housewarming gift for jamie and addi from our friend Alexis. I also got ice cream that was only 1 AED, which is about 30 cents. score!
Wednesday afternoon I napped, packed up and took a taxi to Jamie's apartment. similar to jordan just a few years ago, Abu dhabi doesn't have addresses or street names. jamie literally had to draw me a map from one of the mini malls because otherwise I would have never found it. apparently everyone just tells the taxi drivers where to go... wtf how stupid is that?! anyway the taxi driver was very impressed with Jamie's map. luckily we found Jamie's apartment, which is a small studio but super cute.
I walked about a mile to the mini mall, which is sort of like a indoor strip mall with higher end stores. jamie had told me about the sexy emirates girls... they dress in abaya (the long black gowns and the head coverings), which is supposed to cover their hair completely, but they wear the head scarves so their hair shows, and they have fancy shoes, expensive watches and accessories, and very expensive bags. and TONS of makeup. I saw a bunch of them outside of the mini mall, and jamie is right, they are incredibly sexy. so much for being modest.
i wanted to get my nails done, and jamie recommended a place in the mini mall. the place is ladies only, and it was the most sanitary nail place I've ever been to. they have different nail polishes for hands and feet. and different towels for hands and feet. they even make you sanitize your hands before they start! it was also pretty inexpensive and they did an amazing job. I swear the girl spent like an hour painting my nails.
jamie picked me up and we went to her school. masdar university is part of a bunch of businesses, with the university included. Jamie's class is only the 2nd year of students and they pay for everyone to go, including room and board and a laptop. the university was originally intended to be a city, but they still have lots of construction to do, and it's very behind schedule. what is built is really quite incredible. everything is very architecturally pleasing... modern and somewhat space-age. it's a very cool school, and I can understand why people would be interested in the program. Masdar has the only sushi restaurant in Abu Dhabi, which we went to and was actually pretty good. I just don't want to know where the fish came from. Masdar is a gasoline car free campus, so to get on and off of campus you have to take a shuttle or these little futuristic Disneyland cars that drive themselves. it's very cool!
then we went to a hotel on the water for shesha and beer (jamie and I had hot chocolate). shesha is hookah, but for whatever reasons they call it shesha here.
Thursday I basically watched episodes of happy endings, this sitcom jamie and addi have got me obsessed with, and read this book for school. I need to finish it already so I can start the last hunger games book... but it's slow reading, and obviously nowhere where as exciting.
Thursday night went downtown to eat traditional Lebanese food, see emirates palace, which is a huge hotel and palace that feels much like Vegas, and went to the mall. oh the malls here. since many people here don’t drink or go out, people spend their free time at the malls. this mall was HUGE. store after store after store. with a grocery store at the bottom level and hundreds of people everywhere. definitely a UAE experience.
in the UAE you can't use PDA. only holding hands if you're married. in Dubai you can go to prison for 10 years for homosexuality. in abu dhabi it's really not very acceptable to go out in anything less than a t shirt and jeans. you must have a license to buy liquor. and locals are treated like royalty, while the working force is practically slave labor. social class is a big problem here, and in general the government is extremely racist. I realize the US has its own set of problems, but Abu dhabi has opened my eyes to the freedoms in the US that I often take for granted. ah, I love traveling.
yesterday jamie surprised me with the tennis awesomeness, and then we headed downtown to go out with her friends as a sort of new years eve celebration, even though it was the day before. we decided NYE is just so crazy expensive and busy that we would make a big night on Friday, and do something mellow on actual NYE. Jamie's friends were all going to see Coldplay and I don't like Coldplay so we went out Friday night. i'll leave out the details, but needless to say we had a blast, and we didn't go to bed until 5:15am. Jamie's friends are really fun... and she's right, I do like the Arab boys.
this email has gotten way too long, so I'm gonna stop here and write more tomorrow.
happy new year to you all... many wishes for a wonderful 2012!!
xoxo, JAS (jamie, addi and shonna)
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Jordan/UAE Days final days
my emotions are running crazy. it's 1am and I'm sitting in the airport about to start my journey home.
but first, I must recap on the rest of my adventures before I say goodbye to the UAE. I forgot to mention in my last email (and I don't know HOW, because it was basically my favorite attraction in Abu dhabi), that we went to the grand mosque. quite possibly the most beautiful structure I've seen in the world, or maybe tied with guadi's church in Barcelona. the attention to detail, exquisite materials and tasteful design make the mosque incredibly unique. and it's huge. and thoughtful. a tribute to the late king zayad, who has basically built the city of Abu dhabi. words can't describe much more, but this truly was a treat, and I will likely never see any church/building like this again.
since we celebrated NYE the night before, actual new years eve we planned to keep it pretty mellow. we headed to Dubai and watched the mission impossible movie in the VIP movie theaters. you get your own reclining leather chair, and blanket and pillow, and you can order food and drinks. it definitely was the best way to watch a movie. and part of the movie was in Dubai, at the burj khalifa, which is adjacent to where we were watching the movie, so it was very cool to actually BE there. the burj (tower) is the tallest building in the world. from further away it doesn't look THAT tall because it's so skinny, but up close it's REALLY tall!! after the movie we walked around the mall for a bit. the dubai mall is the biggest mall in the world with an aquarium, skating rink, and just about every store you can imagine. and there were about 50,000 people there, i swear. idk, probably more. it was nuts. we decided to leave knowing after the fireworks it would be madness and it would take forever to get out of the mall parking lot. we watched the fireworks about a mile from our friends apartment. there were cars just parked EVERYWHERE to watch the fireworks. literally stopped on the freeway. in active lanes. on the medians. it was the craziest traffic situation I've ever seen. the fireworks were mainly based around the burj khalifa and it was definitely on my top 5 fireworks shows ever. Dubai certainly does it big. probably too big.
Sunday we slept in and went to the beach and then to the Dubai creek for dinner and a boat ride. our friend who used to work in Ventura now works in Dubai, so we stayed at his apartment. it's very big, but it's also falling apart. it was probably built in the 80's but it looks like it was built in the 30's... tiles falling off the walls, crazy shit. stuff is just built terribly here because it's constructed with slave labor. I swear the whole country is going to implode on itself in 50 years. Dubai creek was super cute and the boat ride was really special. I then tried to bargain for some postcards, struck a deal with the guy, and then he ended up giving them to me for free. I guess I'm that good??
jamie and addi left Sunday night to head to work Monday and I slept over to do some more Dubai exploring. I took the monorail around palm island and Atlantis, which is a huge hotel with a major water park. I had no idea palm island was so inhabitated. literally there are streets and houses between each fawn of the tree. huge apartment buildings. definitely nothing like we have in the us. then I went back to the burj khalifa to get some pictures and explore the mall, although I left fairly quickly as I was completely overwhelmed. the place is nuts. I took the bus from Dubai to Abu dhabi... it was only AED 25 (7 us dollars)!! it's about the distance from thousand oaks to los angeles, and took about 2 hours. $7 to go 2 hours... you can't beat that!
today I got up, packed and read, then jamie picked me up to go get henna. we found a very authentic place, and it took the girl about 10-15 min to do the intricate henna from below my knee to my little toe. it looks amazing and it was really cheap. then we headed out for our last adventure: the desert safari.
the safari starts out with driving outside of the city, then a stop to let out air of the tires and pictures with camels. then begins the one hour journey "dune bashing." don't worry mom, we were in Toyota land cruisers with seat belts on. there was about 6 other cars in our group, all filled with 6 people. we had three kiwis and an american from boston, and they were all super cool. the dune bashing was basically an emirates man driving crazily up and down the sand dunes, almost threatening to tip over at any minute. i literally felt like I was in the real Indiana jones movie ride. super fun, borderline sick, but beautiful. we stopped for some pictures and then drove some more until we got to the Bedouin village. there we rode a camel, climbed to the top of a huge sand dune (not easy!), dressed up like emirates locals (I dressed as a man), ate traditional Arabic food, watched and joined in belly dancing, and smoked more shesha (hookah). the desert is really something else, and it was a perfect way to end the trip.
the UAE is bizarre. people come here to work, to live the "UAE dream," make more money than they would in their home country, so they can live the lavish lifestyle. most of the westerners are there to save money, but it seems nearly impossible to give in at least a little. the locals are basically royalty, with the phillipinos and Pakistanis treated like slave labor. getting lesser salaries and treated unfairly. I understand the draw, but it's not a place I plan to reside anytime soon. I wouldn't last long.
it's bittersweet, me leaving and all. this trip has been incredible, seeing jamie has been like we never missed a day, and the break from school and work was much needed. I think I'm about ready to go home to my own bed though, and see all your faces, but I'm still having a hard time gripping I have to go back to reality. to work. fortunately starting school means I'm almost done, but coming home from eye opening, international trips always feels funny. wanting to escape forever. but I can't, because I love you all too much! so alas, I will make my 19 hour trip home, go back in time, and have a couple of days before I have to face real life ("is this real life?!"). my belly is happy I'm leaving too... it's grown a vacation food baby that needs to be removed immediately.
jamie was an exceptional travel partner. she took care of me, and I took care of her. I definitely understand why she's there, but I hope maybe she can come back sooner, rather than later. I miss her and addi already : (
but until next time............
xoxo,
shonnagaga
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