Dubai

Welcome to Dubai!  After a super long trip (I collected three boarding passes between Denver, DC, and Zurich and another 3 on the way back: Dubai, DC and Dallas), I landed and was hit with the wall of heat Matt kept warning me about.  It was nice and cool in the airport, but that's when I started realizing we didn't think this pick up thing through very well.  The airport was huge and it took me awhile to get to baggage claim.  Along the way is also where I got my first glimpse of native Arabs in traditional Muslim dress and I'm embarrassed to say, as a product of American media, I was a little freaked out as a lone American woman in my t-shirt and jeans with my hoodie tied around my waist.  I felt very differently leaving 10 days later, but I was originally self conscious, careful, and apprehensive.  The passport control lines were loonnnggg and when I finally got to the front I couldn't answer where I was staying (I forgot the name of the hotel, but I was getting picked up, so I didn't stress), what my husband's contact information was (he had a local cell phone from work, but I couldn't call it from the states, so I never thought to ask.  I was now sure hoping he was out there waiting for me!), but I could say how long I was staying (I just hoped it wouldn't be at the airport the whole time.)  Meanwhile Matt WAS outside waiting and wondering what was taking so long and thinking he had absolutely no way of getting in touch with me either.  Luckily, it all worked, but it gave us food for thought concerning the next overseas trip with what will be 3 jet-lagged kids.

I slept on one of the planes for maybe an hour and I landed at night, so I should have been exhausted and ready to crash, but my body was just waking up thinking it was mid morning.  I had my first glimpse of the city by night.  There were lots of big buildings and I saw the mall with the weird crooked flying saucer on top that housed the indoor ski slope.  Matt walked me around the hotel suite, told me to make myself at home, and drove back to work before having the next few days off.  After a wonderfully long hot shower, I tried to get some sleep, but that wasn't going to happen.  I ended up not being jet lagged on my return by just staying on Colorado time, since Matt was on that schedule too.

This was our first big trip together without kids since our honeymoon.  We had gone on a couple of weekend trips, but nothing long enough to really test if we would run out of things to talk about without the kids in the equation or not.  I admit I was a little worried that 9 straight days of just me might get tedious, but Matt has convinced me otherwise.  It was a wonderful vacation for both of us, even if Matt had to work a few nights in the middle of it.

Monday we got up around 2pm local time and I got my first instructions on money.  The currency is called Dirhams and it's about 4:1, $100 = 27dhs so just dividing by 4 gets you close.  The money is colorful and sized from small to big like all foreign money I have come across.  There are only 3 coins they bother using anymore.  1 dhs, a 50 (cent), and I honestly don't remember if it's 10 or 20 (cents).  Shops would almost always round to the nearest 50.  Bouyed up by this wisdom, we hit mall #1, Mall of the Emirates.   

This shows the biggest bill 1000dhs ($270) compared to the smallest, 5 dhm ($1.35)

Matt was keen to show me his routine so I could function for the few nights he had to work.  I was given lessons on the new Garmin GPS that saved my bacon while there and will continue to be my fall back while in Germany and Italy.  I was shown the peculiarities of parking both at the hotel and the mall.  Make sure you remember where you park!  We walked and walked and walked till I was worried we wouldn't be able to find the parking garage let alone the car, but there are helpful signs pointing the way to important things; such as, washrooms, prayer rooms, cinema, parking, and ski Dubai.  All signs are written in Arabic and English.  We passed stores like Claire's, Gap, and Nike.  We passed others like Bvlgari, D&G and Cartier.  Our first goal was the main food court.  Matt introduced me to his new favorite cuisine: Lebanese food.  We had chicken Shwarmas and they were very good.  The pickled vegetables on the side were a little too pickled for me.  I didn't know a carrot could taste like a pickle.  The food court has big windows looking into the ski resort area.  You could see the rope pull, kids sledding, and people zipping by on the slope.  We didn't try it, but will if we ever end up living there.  

After dinner (lunch? breakfast?) we went to Carrefour.  It's a big store in the mall that's kind of like a super Walmart.  It's a grocery store/drug store/basic clothes/electronics/luggage. . . .  Matt got his standard brotchen and some cheese.  I found some yogurt and fruit, but we forgot to have it weighed before the registers, so we surrendered it at the register rather than go back.  In the produce all the fruits and veggies have signs announcing what they are and where they hail from: Kuwait, New Zealand, Swaziland, Iran. . . . I felt a little guilt having just read Animal, Vegetale, Miracle thinking of the food's carbon footprint.  One fun thing to look at were the spice barrels.  Dozens of barrels were displayed three deep with every spice imaginable plus a bunch of unrecognizable varieties that you could self serve scoop up into plastic bags.  Three scoops of cinnamon please.  It's cheaper than Costco, but I would miss the handy plastic dispenser.  I passed up everything until I came to the 5 different varieties of coconut.  One bin contained big flakes of dried coconut.  I had to get a couple cups (estimation) for chef Isaac.  He can use that up before leaving Colorado so we don't have to pack it.  

After leaving the mall, we hit the beach.  I know there are miles and miles of beach, but I always hung out on the beach along The Walk.  It's where I first went with Matt and so it was known to the GPS.  We parked, ("Would you like a car wash, sir?  "No thanks.")  and walked down to find hot, fine powdered sand and thousands of shells.  The first goal was to find the parasailing folks and sign up.  We only signed me up having seen the violent videos on Youtube and not wanting Matt to lose all mobility in his back.  It turned out to be the most gentle, peaceful thing.  You don't even feel too high up, unless you look down at the tiny toy boat, because the ocean is so big whether you are up or down.  Plus the tall buildings along the shore don't help with scale either.

Our driver and the skyline on the beach.

Matt looking back towards where we left.  These buildings look boring, all the same, just because they are part of one big resort chain.

Here I am getting my harness hooked onto the cable.

And there I am, way out, floating along. The driver says you can go 150-200 meters up (that's up to 600 feet!) but it doesn't feel that high.  Depending on the speed of the boat and the wind, I would go higher or lower.  As they reeled me back in the guy said to Matt, "I would like to dip her in the water.  Do I have your permission, sir?"  I got dipped.  

I had Matt take a picture of the next customer going out for a ride.  A black Abaya will not stop these women from having some fun.  

We went back to the hotel to clean up, but still felt like the night was young.  I think it was around 11 by then, but neither of our bodies were expecting to go to bed for another 5-6 hours.  We decided to go back to the mall to catch a midnight movie.  Matt was determined that I drive there and back.  It was dark, but no traffic to speak of, and I did very well.  We were almost the only people in the theater.  We treated ourselves to some fabulous gelato for the show and watched Green Lantern.  It was alright.  Who really cares what the movie is when you are on a date with your husband in Dubai and are relieved that hand holding in public is not taboo.  They do movie seating like Germany.  You pick your assigned seat when you buy the tickets.  Other nights we saw the new Pirates (much better than #3) and Super 8, which we both loved.

After the show, we went back to tryout the Magic Jack I brought to call the kids.  This was an almost daily thing.  One day the hotel internet was more flaky than usual and it didn't happen, but the kids were always great.  They had grand adventures and happy wilderness experiences, which I shall chronicle in another entry. Suffice it to say that they were never sad or lonely but could easily chew up an hour talking about their day.

The main adventure for the next day was cart racing.  These little things are fast and between the tense gripping and pedal work and the fireproof suits you have to wear, it's quite the workout.  We might have been dripping with sweat even if it wasn't 100 degrees and humid outside.  I was the slowest in our group (you get a printout of your lap times compared with your group the the best of the day) but had lots of fun.  Matt is good.  If we ever live in Dubai or Cyprus, Matt wants the kids to get cart racing lessons.

A map of the track over my shoulder.

By one of the little carts with a 13 hp engine that can go FAST!

This is a shot of the living room of the suite.

The dining room.

The kitchen.  Yes, that's a little washer/dryer.  It does both.  You put a small, seriously small, load in, put in soap, push all the right buttons and 3 hours later your clothes are clean and dry.  No need to wash towels, take out the trash or buy toilet paper--all that's done, plus someone comes and makes your bed 2-3 times a week.  Not bad for a group of guys deployed for 3 months.  

The next day we went on a modern day safari--Dune Bashing.

You are picked up in a Toyota 4Runner and taken into the sands of Aladdin on a make-your-own-roller coaster ride.  Barf bags were distributed and might have been needed if anyone had started with a full stomach or if it lasted much longer.  It's intense.  Those poor cars got worked.  Toyota should really consider using this in their advertising. 

View out the front, notice that the horizon is gone?  We are going down.  There was our driver, Muhammad from Dubai, a pleasant Frenchman and his daughter, us and two young guys from South Africa on holiday.  The group got even more international than that once we got to camp.

I don't know if it's more the car or the camera that is tilted here.  We slid sideways down some steep slopes a couple times.  

The roots on this tree amazed me.  It must keep sinking them deeper as its original foundation is blown away.  The landscape is always changing.  When we stopped a couple time to get out and take pictures (and catch your breath) and let the engines cool off (the drivers always popped the hoods first thing), you could see the tire tracks disappearing in the light breeze.  

A few people tried sand boarding. 

Our driver.  He always left his shoes in the car whenever he got out.  After fighting with the sand the first couple times, I learned to not bother with shoes either.  It's so fine and dry, it dusts right off when you get back in the car. 

We have arrived at our Bedouin camp for dinner and entertainment.  

A merchandise hawker got Matt to try this on, but not to buy it.  Funny story--Matt's angry face reminds me--the guy who was in charge of handing out drinks was playing on his laptop whenever there was a lull.  After a couple tries, Matt saw what he was playing.  Call of Duty.  He was shooting "towel heads" as Matt affectionately dubbed the enemy in his American's Army days.  The more we think we're different, the more we are the same.  

Camel ride.  Standing up and sitting down is the hardest part.  Those guys have really long legs and you really have to lean.  The lady behind me was from Wales.  There were Australians, New Zealanders, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and, um, now I'm forgetting, a couple different other Euro countries and India.  We didn't ask everyone, but didn't hear any other American accents.  

Dinner was buffet style, mostly vegetable and very good.  

This is a traditional -- dancer who is missing the dizzy gene.  His dance mainly involved spinning around fast while balancing various things and making his skirt go from one to two and travel off and on and even light up.  He spun for a solid 10 minutes.  It was crazy.  He was dripping with sweat in the heat and with all those heavy clothes, but I kept thinking how much Jess would love that outfit.  Bright red boots, pink sequined pants, fancy skirt with a green sash, puffed sleeves and a fun hat.  

The next few nights I was left to my own devises as Matt had to actually go to work.  Sigh.  But we're grateful for the job that paid for me to be there.  I hung out at the beach until sundown the first day.  I tried running on the beach and went somewhere between 2-3 miles barefoot on the wet sand.  I was probably horribly slow due to the heat and humidity, but it was still so fun, until the last stretch back to my towel when I realized the pads of my toes were really sore.  I don't know if it was the sand, the temp or just running barefoot, but I got massive blisters on the pads of all but my big toes (too calloused already).  I skipped running for the rest of the week, but enjoyed swimming laps at the hotel pool, which was thankfully cooled.  Jumping in the ocean in late June is NOT refreshing.  It's great to walk around in and casually play, but don't even think about cooling off after running or sweating on the beach reading a book.  It's almost perfectly air temperature.  You hardly notice you are getting wet as you walk into the surf.  It's like a warm bath or the Reese's hottub--not HOT, but warm.  Bizzarre.  I have never seen so much water not be refreshing.  Very salty too.  I'm told it's lovely to swim in around Thanksgiving.

One other beach note.  I loved all the shells, the beautiful shells, but I was apparently alone.  After that first parasailing day when I didn't see one solitary person pick one up, not even the kids, I read the sign carefully to see if it was discouraged.  Nope, not a word.  So not only was I thought to be touched in the head for picking up and collecting shells, I went a step further and asked some other visitors if I could please have their Starbucks cups, with which  they were apparently finished, so I could carry my collection home.  I didn't bring any container myself and litter is impossible to come by.  I did this two different days.  I didn't much care what they all thought because I knew the kids would love looking through them when I got back to Colorado.  Though I did feel a bit sheepish when a local would come up to me with a shell or two and ask, "Would you like this too?"  Yes, thank you.

This showed up my last beach day.  It was a huge iceberg Coca Cola advertisement.  Quite surreal to be sitting on the beach dripping with sweat and looking out on the gorgeous, warm, water to see . . . an iceberg on a boat.  Bizarre.  

After sundown, I would grab a bite to eat; once at a fabulous French Cafe, once at possibly the oldest eatery in Dubai--proud record of service of 20 years! and once I just ate gelato and waited for Wagamama's much later.  Then I would head to see one of the suggestions on Matt's list.  

These next few pictures are from Dubai Mall, the largest in the world.  (They admittedly like to take other people's/country's ideas and make them bigger and grander and sometimes just dip them in gold.)  

Super nice ice skating rink visible from 3 levels.

Sign for these crazy, yummy rolls.  Originally created in Hong Kong, better known in Malaysia--a roll that might really be dessert. 

Cool big waterfall with divers.  Mind, these are all taken with my dinky camera that travels well. So the pictures aren't great, but they are preserving memories.

Huge, huge aquarium.  Can you see the round tunnel/tube inside?  You can pay 50dhs to walk through and see the sharks up close.  Or if you are scuba certified, you can pay more to get in a shark cage and get really close.  

View looking down from one end.  Restaurants and cafes on the bottom, Italian clothes on the second, and jewelry and antiques up top.  

This is a pirated close up of the millions of butterflies from the butterfly corridor and butterfly room (at least. that's what I call them)

Pirated view, backed up.  This is the hallway, the main room has 10x the amount.  Gorgeous.  

This picture is out of order, but it a lousy shot of the other most famous building, the Burj Al Arab.  It looks like a full sail on a sailboat.  It's quite lovely, sitting right on the ocean.

This is the tallest building in the world, the Burj Kalifa.  It doesn't really look it from here, but later there is a horizon shot that makes it obvious.  It's right next to the Dubai Mall. And between them is. . .  

the awesome fountain show.  They hired the same folks that did the Bellagio years ago, and you can tell, but of course this one is bigger.  I'm guessing it uses double the space, but has even more spouts interspersed to add more variety and pizzazz.  The first song I heard was Thriller!  There were also two songs from the region (one a very famous Egyptian song from the 60's, I was told) and an Aaron Copland cowboy classical.  The fountains start at 6 and go till 10 weekdays, 11 on weekends.  They perform every 1/2 hour.  Yes, I'm a fan.

Watching the fountains is where I had my first conversation with an almost local.  It was a man from northern Iraq who has worked in Dubai for the last 4 years and is also going to school for mechanical engineering and English.  He had a friend who was in and out of the conversation because he didn't speak so much English.  He was from southern Iraq.  In their country they would have been supposed enemies ("Look at our skin, you can see the big difference."  "Umm, not much difference," I said.  "In my country, the difference is much bigger and mostly, we get along fine.")  Well, in Dubai, they get along fine too.  They were so open and friendly answering dozens of my questions about living in Dubai and living in Iraq, plans for future, religion, dress, customs and more.  They asked plenty too.  It was an auditory cultural show and tell.  I let them buy me a drink.  That means juice.  Mint Lemonade was my choice.  Alcohol is very difficult to come by as it's against the Muslim religion.  I kept thinking they were trying to be over the top Las Vegas just without the alcohol, gambling or nudity.  Perfect place for Mormons to vacation.  They even excel at family values.  One funny thing was that I was worried I would be scorned a bit because I was American.  He was worried that admitting to being Iraqi would be bad.  No problem.

Archway into the Batuta Mall

This mall is smaller, but with themed areas (reminiscent of the Venetian or Caesar's Palace).

This one might be Tunisia.

Obviously Egypt.  I almost bought Jess a dress at a shop here, but the line was too stinkin' long.  This was Saturday and the weekend shoppers were out in force.  BTW, their weekend starts Thursday night.  Friday is their holy day (the Mormon wards meet on Friday too), Saturday is Saturday and it's back to work on Sunday.  

This is the Arab section.  This massive sculpture/display shows some mathematicians setting up a astrology sphere.  There are plaques all around that tell about the origin of trigonometry, the arabic numerals, the study of angles and more.  I wanted to take some pictures of the plaques, but my battery was almost out of juice.  

Bad picture taken by me in a moving car driven by me.  Please don't report me.  This was the only Lambo I saw, and also the lowest license plate I saw until a couple days later with Matt when we saw a two digit.  His coworkers saw #5, that same week.  But this is an example of our road companions.  There were plenty of normal cars, but it wasn't abnormal to see Ferraris, Maseratis, pimped expensive SUVs, a Mercedes Gull-wing, a Rolls Royce, and I don't even know what else.  The "there's a corvette" game we used to play with Jess in Vegas quickly got old in Dubai, except we only saw exactly 2 corvettes.  We were playing with Porsche Cayennes.  There was not a time that we parked and couldn't see one nearby.  They must have 1/2 the Cayenne production line in that city.  

Again, taken by me.  A view along Sheikh Zayed Road (freeway).  I drove on it every day.  A note about driving, left turns are hard to come by.  There are medians on almost all roads, so you end up driving 1/2 a mile or so past your turn till you come to a U-turn spot (not for trucks) or a round about. 

Any architect student would have a ball here.  The crazy thing is that these massive skyscrapers didn't even exist a mere 10 years ago.  

This area is where I spent my last night of Matt's work.  The Bastakiya is listed on "things to do in Dubai" but not very high.  It turned out to be one of my highlights, but not because of any of the buildings.  The area was a little ho hum.  I'm a spoiled European tourist who wants anything labeled "old" to be at least 500 years if not 1000.  The old Dubai wall wasn't even built when our founding fathers kicked out the British.  The Batakiya is an older area of family homes that were bought by the government a to preserve old Dubai.  In exchange, the occupants were given big fancy houses and lots of land.  I didn't learn this till later though.

It was quaint and reminded be of a section of the Batuta Mall.

View from a rooftop, easy to picture the Aladdin chase scene over roofs. 

In a library, first place I took off my shoes to enter. 

Info on the Wall of Dubai.  This is no Warwick Castle.

What's left of the wall.

On my way back to the car, I was being waved in by men I thought were trying to sell me something.  After many attempts of walking past including, "my parking ticket is going to expire in 10 minutes," which was true, but didn't work because they claimed, "don't worry, we'll take care of it," which was a little curious, I gave up and walked over.  They didn't try to sell me anything.  They just wanted me to sit down and chat and have some tea.  I begged for some cold water instead of scalding, hot tea.  I ended up spending 3 hours there and will try to make a long story short.  These men used to live in the houses that now make up the historic Bastakiya.  They grew up together.  When the government bought the area, they also built them their little clubhouse--for lack of a better term.  They enjoy coming here after work to chat and relax for an hour or so, then go home after sundown prayers.  They love visitors and are warm, friendly and inviting.  It turns out that these are all successful, well to do men.  Some are in government and some business.  Very humble and disarming.  If more people could come together and sit and share figs (I learned how to pick out good figs and enjoy them) and talk, so many of the world's problems would go away.  After talking with the Iraqi at the fountain show, and then these men here, I think I have a new view of the region and the world.  (Oh and the tour of the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi cemented this.)  Muslims are not bad or scary.  Every country, including mine, has crazies, but mostly the world is filled with good people.  

One funny story that contrasts with the humble setting.  I was talking with a fellow who was leaving the next morning with his wife, 4 kids and the nanny for a month long trip to California.  He loves to travel and has seen more of the US than I have, which is saying something considering I have lived in 6 states and 3 time zones.  I was asking if he thought driving was difficult in the states (he has a driver here).  "Oh, much too difficult.  I am getting lost and frustrated, my wife is yelling, the kids are crying.  It's not worth the hassle.  I just get a driver.  It's only $250 a day, after all."  Did I mention they are all flying 1st class? Mom, dad, 4 kids and the nanny?  I was drooling over those 1st class beds on the last leg of my trip.

The wisest comment.  I asked about how it works having so many people from different countries coming in and working and only 20% of the population are actually citizens--you cannot be naturalized, you can only be UAE by blood.  Are there gangs, fights?  "No, of course not.  Why would they fight?  They have food to eat.  They have somewhere to sleep.  They don't have big problems and they have a job.  They want to keep their job and not be sent back home.  If you are not hungry, why would you fight?"  I asked if he had read Les Miserables.  He had not.  But he rather summed up one of Hugo's main points.  The social experiment known as Dubai certainly seems to be working so far.  I never saw any rudeness, let alone agression, even on the roads (with the exception of Matt on the last day when he was tired and trying to stay awake :-)).  There are so many people with different dress and accents and it all seems to work.  And it is so clean.  Yet during my 9 days, I only saw two or three police cars.  The people are doing well without being hounded.  

My first host.  After some figs and 20 minutes of conversation or so, he went inside the clubhouse and came out with two postcards, a shell (someone picked up shells!) and beaded necklace and a pin of Sheikh Zayed and presented them all to me saying, "to remember your time here with us in Dubai."  Put these guys in charge of tourism.  They sure know how to make people feel welcome.

These next few shots are pictures of some of their photos on the walls of their clubhouse.

This is Dubai, taken from a helicopter about 70 years ago.  It's changed a bit since then.

Their neighborhood, 40 years ago, now known as the Bastakiya. 

Their wall of fame.  There are pictures of the likes of Prince Charles and Camilla, the First Lady of France, the head of NASA, and President W. Bush walking around the very area I had been for the last couple hours and two of them taken in that very room.  

Another fellow asked if I would like to try on the traditional clothes--tradition, not religion or law.  He chose the clothes from their dress-up corner (They have women's, men's and kids clothes in many sizes.  They love visitors!)  then he took my camera and proceeded to conduct a full photo shoot.  Stand here, very nice, now we must take off the {mask}, ah, much better.  Come, stand by my friend.  Now sit down here.  Turn this way.  It was pretty funny and I'm trying not to laugh in most of them.  Especially after the comment about "my boss" pointing to one of the pictures in front of the room.  His boss is the Sheikh of Dubai.  Hmmm.  None of the pictures are all the great, but it's all in good fun.  I put in a couple below.  I did learn that the UAE women are most likely wearing the abaya with a head scarf, but no face covering.  "Those with covered faces are visiting from somewhere else like Saudi Arabia.  Why would we cover the face of our wife?  It is the most beautiful."  Though the one Saudi woman I met had on pants and a colorful scarf.  

The outside area.  A few locals with a few visitors.  The woman on the right in a regular.  She is French, but has been working in Dubai for several years.  She was less keen on Americans.  I kept my mouth shut because the general attitude was already highly slanted in my favor.

View of the simple inside.  Pictures and plaques on every wall.  Cushions on the floor lining the walls. Sets of shoes left outside the door.  One guy was surfing YouTube on the cushions in back, looking for new music ideas.  This is his keyboard and mic.

Ah.  This is the skyline picture I mentioned earlier.  Those little buildings are actually all over 50 stories high.  And the Burj Kalifa is more than triple.  This was taken coming back from a visa run with Matt.  I drove into Oman with him.  Now THAT was HOT!  Dry heat.  Gone was the humidity, but goodness I felt like a fried egg trying to stagger from the car to the border control office. And the landscape was drastically different too.  No dunes.  Big rocky mountains sprung up everywhere.  He said Oman (at least that part) looks like where he spent his last deployment.

This is just a little place in one of the Dubai Mall food courts.  We ate here after coming back from Oman.  I was just so impressed with all the fresh bread being cooked in a brick oven, with panda express next door. 

Adorable little tea shop, I just had to take a picture.  There were about 20 little tables with mismatched chairs.  It was so quaint.  It's called Shakespeare and Co.  Tea and crumpets are their speciality.

Matt was bound and determined to get me some Henna artwork.  The main goal: freak out the kids.  Oh, yes, it worked well.  They saw my face in the house and ran, "yeah, mom's here. Hi mom!" and then stopped a few feet away staring agast.  One of the first comments I remember was, "good thing we're driving on Sunday cause I don't think you can go to church like that."  Oh good grief.  We had a talk about judging after that one.  Most people were highly complimentary.  Others including my father and father-in-law aren't too sure and are hoping my skin sheds fast.  

I took Matt back to see the fountain show, the crazy, glitzy mall and tallest tower.  One of the great things about me visiting, was that it allowed him the chance to see the city too.  I don't think he would have done any of this (except maybe cart racing) without me there. So fun to do together.  

The last day we went to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque and the Palace that is now a hotel.  I will mostly let the pictures do the talking.  We had an hour and a half tour--they have 2-3 free tours a day plus visitors are welcome to walk through anytime as long as you respect their customs about dress and shoe removal.  Our guide started out with some basics of the Musslim religion, but spent the majority of the time detailing how great lengths have been taken to make this building a symbol of international unity, tolerance, peace and learning.  They used dozens of different architectural styles/details and art forms to form a marvel that can hold tens of thousands of people.  And they proudly used the best materials from all over the globe.  I was blown away by the inlaid marble flowers especially.  52 colors of marble were used to make the flowers and vines stay true to their real life counterparts.

Hundreds of these pillars enclose 3 sides, all unique. 

Beautiful etched glass, some colored, some not.  

The minarets have square bases, then an octagonal section, with round on top--pillar construction from 3 different countries. . . um, one of them was Egypt.  

That's me, but it's way too bright behind me to tell.

We were always squinting, so we finally took one with our sunglasses on.

Flowers close up. 

Our friendly guide pointing out the Moroccan detail inside the domes.  

An attempt to show the scale. 

The ceiling inside one of the main entry ways.  

The walls were textured flowers--the vines and flowers stuck out.  My mom can fill me in on what that's called and I can update it.  A marble garden.

Inside the main room.  Huge, with the hugest carpet ever! It stretches out really far on either side, but the picture doesn't show that. 

Inside the flowers and vines were made of inlaid mother of pearl. 

On the wall behind me are 99 different names for God, such as The Merciful, The Benevolent, but there is one more star/flower left blank acknowledging the possibility for more.  

Looking back at the entrance room.  There is more color on every wall except the front--so as not to distract the worshipper.  

One of two more commonalty used prayer rooms. See the plain front wall contrasting with the colors on the side and back?  

The mosaic floor in the center must be amazing from a helicopter.  It is supposedly the biggest mosaic in the world and the giant flowers frame the square.  

This is the view from the freeway as we left.  

We left to go get some food.  We left the hotel in a rush and hadn't eaten for a long time. While driving to the nearest mall, it felt like while Abu Dhabi is the main seat of the country, it's behind the modern building frenzy in Dubai.  I am still unclear about how the different cities (emirates) relate to each other.  After some Iranian food, which according to the clubhouse guys consists of nothing but kabobs, we set off to find the Palace.  I'm going to insert a few pirated photos again because you need a wide lens to capture the colossal thing.  The Sheikh used to live there, but now it's a hotel and he has a new palace.  How do you get tired of living there?  Maybe it's too big.   It was by far the most opulent place I have ever seen.

I took these in a bathroom--good grief!  Just a basic bathroom downstairs in one wing by a couple of restaurants.   

Instead of paper towels. . . .

This is one of the potties, which although lined with marble and containing gold plated controls, is very typical.  EVERY bathroom in Dubai has a sprayer hose to the side of the toilet.  Didn't really experiment, so you'll have to ask a local when you are there next.  

This epitomized the Palace. "Gold to Go" ATM in the lobby.  You can buy gold bars in differing weights.  Just in case you left home without your own.

When we left to drive back to Dubai, the mood got sad.  The agenda for the rest of the evening consisted of last minute errands: pick up some more Rambutan fruit for the kids (to hopefully clear customs), take a picture of a Stop sign (which are everywhere and always make me think of canoeing), and pack.  Matt and I ate a late dinner at Wagamama's together, and then just moped that our time was near the end.  My flight left just after midnight.  I had been there long enough to feel moved in and comfortable with the city and Matt's routine.  We had talked frequently of how we could really live here as a family.  We both were thinking, "How about I (you) don't leave, we just send for the kids to join us."  Sigh.  We still have plenty of packing up (though not a whole house for quite awhile) and moving around to do before the year is up.  Over the next few years, who knows, we could make a year stop in Dubai.  When I was dropped off at the airport, we figured that Matt had 5 weeks left, definitely over the half way hump.  Now as I'm trying to type this out over a week later, it looks like there are still 5 weeks, which is lame, but we'll get there in the end.  I'm just going to put in the last couple of photos and call it good.  I don't want to dwell on the end of the trip. 

Indoor ski resort.  Isaac made us promise to take him if we ever live there. 

Two guys in a canoe, right?