simple easy and quick

Missing Dubai

2011-03-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

Even with all the unrest in the Mid East, I'd probably still go back, even today.

Leaving Dubai.....

2010-08-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

After three wonderful years the Dubai dream is over. The family returned to the US this past June. Currently I am living in a hotel in Mahwah NJ waiting for our house to close while the rest of the family is spending the summer in Utah, also waiting for the house to close.

How to best describe our time in Dubai… let me think of some one liners that capture what life was like in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is..

Leaving the house in the morning and the temperature is already pushing 100F

Weekends at the beach and Wild Wadi with the kids

Trips to Oman with the family, we went to Sahlala and also Muscat

Flying Business Class, Flying First Class to Saudi

For the first and last time not having a farmers tan

Random and arbitrary decisions from the government that come out of nowhere, like shutting down Blackberry

The fact that everyone wants to come a visit, While in Dubai, we had visits from friends, both sets of parents, sisters and brothers

Such amazing diversity. At the office, we had employees from Lebanon, India, Syria, Egypt, Oman, UK, US, Philippines, Singapore, and Russia.

The best Shwarmas ever, only 4 from Eat and Drink Restaurant

Community pool, and wonderful neighbors

The five times a day call to prayer (I actually really miss it)

The business breakfast radio show

The National Newspaper

Day trips to Abu Dhabi

Eating Sushi at the Gulf hotel in Bahrain

The Crown Plaza hotel (our home for two months) and the place I ate so many lunches I can’t even count them.

British tourists doing dumb things, and getting caught

The Beach Club

Maria Bonitas Mexican Restaurant

Calling the family on oovoo

Shopping is Satwa

The fact that the kids had to wear uniforms everyday to go to school

The Flex

Taking the Metro for lunch

Dragon Mart

Having someone pump your gas for you

People ask what it is like leaving Dubai. After being back for a few months, the best way to describe it: It's like waking up from a long dream and finding that you are right back where you started and wondering if you ever even left.

Saudis 'foil major al-Qaeda attack on kingdom'

2010-03-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Saudis 'foil major al-Qaeda attack on kingdom'

Times Online - Hugh Tomlinson - ‎40 minutes ago‎

Saudi Arabia claimed today that it had foiled a major terrorist attack in the kingdom, and had arrested 98 alleged members of al-Qaeda in raids in and around the capital Riyadh.

The Interior Ministry said that those arrested comprised 47 Saudi nationals and 51 foreigners. Most of the foreigners were from Yemen, sources said.

Thee arrests are the latest in a series of strikes against al-Qaeda by Saudi security forces over recent months.
In August last year, troops arrested 44 members of the group in raids across the capital. A large cache of weapons was seized, including machine guns and electronic detonators. Some had undergone training within the kingdom while others had visited camps in Yemen.

A Day in the Life - Dubai

2010-03-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

Thinks are starting to settle down for the family as we are in a new villa and finally out of the hotel. Today was a busy day. Quick wife took about 5 boxes of unwanted clothes and toys to a friend’s villa in the Jebal Ali compound. The compound is a ways out of town, past the Ibn Buttutha mall. The good thing about the compound is that word spreads quick among the Pilipina and Sri Lankan Maids when there is a sell. Right at the crack of dawn there were probably about 50 people waiting to get in. Even if the clothes don’t fit, they will buy them and send them home to the extended family.

After the garage sell, it was time to take ZaZa to the finale of Dubai Little League. She was on a T-ball team (the Royals) that I helped coach. It was hot so the cold ice cream and the hot dog tasted extra good today. They handed out trophies to all the kids and on the way back she asked if I was proud of her. Of course, I couldn’t be prouder. She never complained, always paid attention and out hustled most of the boys on her team. All and all it was a great experience. Tomorrow is the last game and a team party out at Arabian Ranches.

We were so hot that once we returned home, it was straight into the backyard swimming pool. We share a pool with 8 other villas so once everyone saw that we were out there, they came out to join us. We even brought Bubacakes in with floaties, but he was freezing cold. A few more weeks and the water will be perfect.

After swimming, I tried to help ZaZa ride her bike. The next door neighbors came over. There is one girl that is ZaZa’a age and they play together very well. This girl was determined to try and sell something in front of our villa. Kind of like a lemonade stand except that she wanted to sell toys. After they played around outside for a few hours, low and behold, some Emeriti neighbors came by and wanted to buy something from the ‘stand.’ There was a bunch of them, and the grandmother even had on the old school face covering (the golden one made out of leather). We took some pictures. I will post them if I can figure out how to get them off my Blackberry.

Some friends came over and admired our dowry chest and then took our eldest son for a sleepover. They are heading back to Canada in a few weeks and so are trying to sell their Expedition and Escalade.

Time for dinner so I headed to the local East and Drink for the best chicken shwarma in all of Dubai. It’s only 4 AED, so very reasonable. Took the sandwich home and put on the most recent episode of Lost that we downloaded to our Apple TV. Then it was time to update the bog and head to bed.

Burj Dubai

2010-01-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Just saw the grand opening of the Burj Dubai, now re-named the Burj Kalifha (Must have been one of the conditions Abu Dhabi put on the Dubai bail-out). We watched from the 20th floor of the Crown Plaza. We've been at the hotel now for about 2 months and are so much looking forward to moving out in about a week.

This is definately worth watching on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al5iNnOo5MA

The fireworks display rivals the opening of the Atlantis in the Palm. It was absolutely amazing. The kids loved it! It's hard to even describe how tall this building is in real life. It is truly one of the wonders of the world.

Sri Lanka family vacation

2009-12-31T03:43:00.000-08:00

The Tamil Tigers (who by the way were the original inventors of the suicide bomb tactic) were finally defeated earlier this year, ending a 30-year civil war in Sri Lanka that is believed to have killed over 100,000 people. With the country now firmly controlled by the Sri Lankan government, seemed like the perfect time to pack up the kids and take the entire family on a Christmas vacation to the ‘beautiful island.’

From Dubai, Air Arabia by far has the best travel package to Sri Lanka, they are thousands of dirhams less than Emirates. They even have better prices compared with Emirates cash plus miles. Despite some issues getting the return flight correct, everything went smoothly. We arrived at 3:00 AM into Colombo and were met by our tour guide. A nice friendly Sri Lankan named Khiti. He had a Toyota van waiting. The Van would be our home for the next three days as we toured the country.

Our fist stop was to the ancient city of Kandy in the center of the country. This was the capital of the country before the British took it over and moved the capital to Colombo. The highlight was visiting the temple of Buddha’s tooth. The tooth can’t actually be seen, it is behind seven doors. But once a year, the tooth is brought out and paraded around Kandy as part of a Buddhist celebration in August.

While in Kandy we stayed at the Regency Hotel. When we awoke following our trip from the airport, the first thing Gavin said was, ‘this must be paradise.’ It is so green and lush, such a big change from the typical dry and dusty scenery the kids are accustomed to in Dubai. The hotel, as well as much of Kandy is built on the side of a mountain.

After taking a tour of the Buddhist temple, we saw a traditional Sri Lankan dance. This includes fire breathing and walking on coals. The dancing was very similar to what we saw when we went to a Sri Lankan Independence day celebration here in Dubai.

We toured the botanical gardens. They have plants and trees that date back to when the grounds were part of the British Empire. There is one tree that is so large it covers 10 square meters. They also have a palm tree which has the largest seeds of any plant in the world.

The next day we attempted to fit in 2 days worth of activities in one day. So we started at 8:00 AM and didn’t get checked into our hotel in Colombo until past 10:00 PM. We went, ‘up country,’ along the twistiest road you have ever seen to a tea plantation. Mostly women work the plantation, pulling tea leafs by hand in the misty mountain air. It very much reminded me of Costa Rican coffee plantations. They get paid about 1-2 dollars per day. There was a little kid’s playground and a café. We asked for milk for Hugh, and they brought it out hot. This wasn’t the first time in Sri Lanka. I don’t think they drink a lot of cold milk.

On our way back down we stopped at a restaurant that had a wonderful view of two amazing waterfalls. Then it was off to the elephant orphanage. Basically this was started as a sanctuary for elephants which had been found in the wild. Once they come to the sanctuary they cannot leave. Why? They will not be recognized by their own herd and smell like humans. Elephants can only survive in groups, so if they are rejected in the wild they will perish. Somehow all elephants at the orphanage are willing to accept each other as family and stay as a herd. Each morning and afternoon they parade down from the orphanage to the river to bathe and cool off. Only one elephant has to begin this walk and the rest follow single file. It is amazing to witness up close and feel the vibration of 20 elephants 6 feet in front of you. There is even one elephant that is missing a leg. It was blow off by a land mine (remember there was a civil war with the Tamil Tigers).

The highlight of the entire trip was probably the family elephant ride. I was worried due to how high up Carolynn, Hugh and Eliza sat on top of the elephant. But Carolynn loved it! In fact she wants to go on an elephant safari.

It took forever to get to Colombo. There was an accident and the road was backed up so our driver took us an ‘alternate route,’ through some of the poorest parts of the city. Finally we arrived at the Colombo Hilton, had a fantastic dinner and went to sleep.

The next day we toured around Colombo visiting another Buddhist temple and a shrine built to commemorate Sri Lanka’s independence from Britain. Our flight was in the middle of night, so we tried to get some sleep before heading to the airport. We departed at 4:00 AM and arrived back in Dubai as the sun was coming up.

Just a few words about traveling to Sri Lanka: I would absolutely not advise driving in the country. You should hire a driver while you are there due the extremely aggressive way pretty much anyone with a car drives. I can’t even tell you how many times we narrowly escaped a head on collision. Our driver would pass on blind corners and pull out and pass even when there was on-coming traffic. He would just assume that ‘they’ would get out of the way. During the trip, we must have traveled over 300 km, and yet, I can count on one hand the number of times that we were passed.

The people are very friendly and the ones associated with tourism speak pretty good English.

The country is extremely poor. Its non-stop wooden shacks, stray dogs and people in flip flops carrying their belongings in plastic bags. A lot of houses don’t have electricity, or flushing toilets. As someone told us, if you want to visit a clean place in India visit Sri Lanka, we are happy we did and would gladly return again!

Alana and Heidi in Dubai

2009-11-29T11:39:00.000-08:00

Just finished a fun filled week with my sister and her friend Heidi. For a complete rundown, please visit her blog at heidiannhughes. It was so much fun to act as a tourist in Dubai and spending quality time with my sister was wonderful. I recommend spending the day in your own city, pretending that you don’t live there. I have to admit, if it wasn’t for my sister. Here are some pictures from Heidi's blog. Alana is the blonde.

I probably still wouldn’t have gone skiing, or spent the entire day at the beach club. I hope they had a great time, and just as a reminder anyone who reads this is always welcome to come visit us in Dubai, but please come after Jan 10th. That’s when we move into our new villa. Currently we are staying at a hotel due to some landlord problems.

Goat Next Door

2009-10-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

I was coming home today and I noticed that the next door neighbor (who is Emirati) now has a goat tied up in his yard. I guess you can take the Bedouin out of the desert, but you can’t take the desert out of the Bedouin.

Oman Vacation over Eid

2009-10-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

The kids had a week off of school for the Eid break. So we decided to go to Oman with another couple and their two young kids. The trip was fantastic, and as always Oman did not dissapoint. We stayed at the Shangri-La hotel just outside of Muscat. It has a private beach and a great swimming pool (even a lazy river).

The first day we went to Nizaw to see the Al Hoota cave. Unfortunately the tram wasn't working so we had to walk 1 km in 100+ degree heat. Luckily for us, there was a wheel chair for Quick wife as she had broken her leg the day before. But talk about a high pain threshold. She got around on a broken ankle for 2 weeks before a Dr. determined that it was broken and put it into a walking boot.

Before the cave we stopped off at the Souk in Nizwa. This was our second visit here. It seemed like the souvinerrs were more expensive this time. Or maybe I was a little cheaper.

On the way back we passed the hungry bunny, which made us all laugh because the sign is so goofly looking.

It even rained on the way back to Mucat which was amazing since it hasn't rained in Dubai since February. I guess that's what tall mountains will do for a place.

The next day was even better. We lounged around the pool. Later in the afternoon, I took the kids snorkeling. I was very impressed with how Za Za did. Afer she swalloed that first big gulp of sea water, I figured she'd want to get back on the boat. But she was a trooper, and kept at it.

The drive home consisted of stopping at each gas station along the way looking for some chocolate milk. Once we crossed the border, we ate at the Hatta Fort Hotel. Nice views and reasonibley priced food.

Over all a wonderful time. I would highly reccomend Oman to anyone who lives in Duabi as a quick and easy weekend get-away.

Jet lag and First day of School combined

2009-09-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

After returing home from a long summers vacation, there is sure to be some jet lag and tiredness. This is what the first day of school was like after we had been home for a week.

Obviously not enough time to get adjusted because when I came home this is how I found the family. One the couch

On the Futon

In Za Za's bed

In our bed.

Keep in mid it is only 5:00, and everyone is compeltely wiped out!

Not Good

2009-09-22T12:09:00.001-07:00

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/17/uae-kept-tight-lid-on-disrupted-terror-plot/

You can Bank on it

2009-09-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Even though, on the surface, the banking system looks sleek and modern (underneath it just makes you laugh). Luckily we have been able to keep our US bank account and just withdraw money via ATMs. In the past, I rarely had more than $40 in my wallet at any given time. (I was burning up the plastic debit card.) But due to the way things are set up here (for example Gas stations don’t take cards), it’s pretty much a cash based economy. As a result, it’s not unusual for me to have $200-$400 equivalent in the local currency in my wallet at any given time.

The reason why I mention this is so that you realize my interaction with the banking system here is very limited. However, in that short amount of time, here are some issues I have encountered, or heard about.

The best one has to be something that recently happened to quick wife. She withdrew 2000 AED from the ATM at the bank (about $500). The money was dispensed in a pair of 1000 AED bills. These are very difficult to break as most stores don’t have change for something this big. So she went into the bank to get change for these bills.

This was the teller’s response, “sorry, we can’t make change unless you have an account at our bank.” Are you kidding me? Who has ever heard of a bank that won’t make change? I can see not cashing a check unless you have an account, but breaking a 1000 AED bill?

Next story- Bank won’t cash check because the date is wrong (here it goes day, month, year) so there is room for confusion.

Another case involved the bank not cashing a check because, all the t’s weren’t crossed, and the i’s were not doted… literally. When you go to cash a check, the bank pulls up an image of the signature and looks to exactly match the two. One friend forgot to dot the I in his name, and the check wasn’t cashed.

Your nationality also greatly increases your chance of getting a check cashed. Westerner’s can get checks cashed at banks pretty easily, but if you are from the Philippines, the banks look for reasons not to cash the check. I’ve heard of checks not cashed because there were smudges of ink on them.

One last note of caution, don’t ever bounce a check. This is treated as a criminal offense, not a civil offense, and in a worst case scenario, you could end up in jail until you can cover the check.

Metro now Open

2009-09-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

I think I'll wait to take the first 'trip' until Eid. They should have all the bugs worked out by then

Trip to Luxor

2009-08-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

This was our tourguide for both days. A local Egyptian who was very knowledgeable and friendly. She wanted us to buy her a cell phone in Duabi and mail it to her, because they are so expensive in Egypt.

Check ou the National Geographic April 2009. This is the temple that the lost Queen on the cover built. After she was dead, her son had all of her engravins and monumnets defaced.

This trip was amazing. Don’t know why it’s taken so long to post the pictures from it. The hotel was increadable, right on the Nile rivier. It was worth cashing in 80,000 FF points.

Jeddah Film Festival canceled

2009-07-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

The poor guys in Saudi, they just can't catch a break.

Jeddah Film Festival canceled

If only they would have called it the 'Visual Festival Exhibition’ they might have gotten away with it.

In other news from the tragic kingdom:

Frustrating experience

What was in the commission’s booth showed clearly what they thought of the book fair and what they think of books,” one Saudi writer and intellectual told Arab News yesterday.
The book fair, which ends on Friday, has been marked with controversy once again — with liberal and literary minded people complaining of harassment by the commission. For their part, religious authorities have complained, not just about the mingling of men and women at the fair or how women are dressed, but also about how they claim their voices are being quelled by the visitors. Like last year, it was also often difficult to differentiate between official members of the commission and men who simply dress like them.

Yaqub, who wears a full veil, said that conservatives at the fair (it was impossible to tell if they were actual commission members or just conservatives) attacked her verbally for her tight-fitting abaya, demanding that she “thickly cover everything and wear decent clothes,” she added.
“It’s so ridiculous,” she scoffed. “I’m covering everything with my plain black Abaya and — I don’t know what they consider ‘decent’ — but I believe their main issue is the presence of women at the fair.”

Najet Mield, a representative of a French publishing house, said she was verbally harassed, too, for speaking to men who came to her booth to discuss the books her company sells.
“They questioned my respect for my religion by doing so, which is something they should be punished for doing,”

When men and women started to approach the stand, Halemah was stunned by the commission members sending away men and forming a human wall to prevent her from signing books for men or even talking to them.

“It was my surprise to find them waiting for me with a pre-intention to stop me from signing my book and even from talking to the crowd, among whom were my fellow writers and theater-specialist colleagues,” she said.

Arab News tried to obtain comments from the commission members; they said they would not speak to women who didn’t wear full-face veils.

Vice cops reject accusations over Madinah arrests

Madinah vice cops attacked by women

MADINAH: A group of three women attacked members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice at a commission office in a commercial center in Madinah.
Details of the attack were mentioned in a commission statement issued on Friday.

The statement said that an unrelated young couple was arrested walking together in the commercial center and taken to the commission office. A woman later came to the office claiming she was a relative of the arrested woman. Commission members advised the woman that procedures would be completed and that the young woman’s identity would not be revealed. The woman, however, refused to leave and began screaming and attacking a commission member. The statement said that a young man then came to the office and claimed he was a relative of the girl. It was then that the three women barged into the office and blasted commission members.

Women’s presence at Eid Al-Fitr festivities sparks heated debate

The festivities included myriad public, family-friendly events, including children's activities, plays, circuses and firework displays citywide. Al-Suwailim objected in the local press to the lack of segregation of single men from families, non-Muslims entertaining audiences and live music that was played in one of the theatrical productions.

For its part, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice more or less refrained from interfering, but what sparked the ire of conservatives was that the public events didn't have concrete barriers in place to separate families from single men. Instead, the seating was separated by about 30 meters of open space.

Vice cops accused of attacking married couple in Madinah

JEDDAH: A 22-year-old Saudi woman told Arab News yesterday that she and her husband of four years were stopped on a road by the religious police of Al-Jurf, west of the holy city of Madinah, accused of being an unrelated man and woman in an illegal state of seclusion (khulwa) at about 1 a.m. on Sunday.

After the two were pulled over, said the woman, “one of them pulled my arm and was shouting at me, telling me to get into their car. I was shocked. How could a man from the commission touch a woman when he is not her mahram (a woman’s legal male escort or guardian)? He ordered me to get into the commission car and said they would keep everything secret in order to protect my reputation.”

Stab the Crab

2009-03-31T14:00:00.001-07:00

I went with my son to Um Al Qwain, which is the most under developed Emirate in the country. There is a hotel called the Flamingo that is surrounding by a run down shipyard. The hotel mostly caters for budget minded Russian and Indians. At the hotel they take you out in some rickety boats to ‘Stab Crabs.’

What exactly is ‘Stab the Crab’ you might ask? It involves walking through waist deep water, shinning modified car lights connected to a battery into the water while holding a spear in the other had. Once you see a crab, you stab it!

Back at the hotel the crabs are cooked up and served as part of the buffet dinner.

Lots of fun.

http://www.flamingoresort.ae/

Is Dubai Dead?

2009-02-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

Just saw this articel on the New York Times website.

Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down

A couple of thoughts. We've all heard the rumors of 'thosands of cars' left at the airport. The government says it's more like hundereds. There's still plenty of people here, and with all the cut backs and layoffs in Europe I imagine there will be job seekers a plenty. Work on the metro is still continuing, and car sales have not collapesd, although they are down vs. last year. There's still a bunch of cool things going on. Cold Play is coming to Abu Dhabi and there is even rumors that U2 will be here in December. Dubai was going crazy, and this slowdown will allow it to catch it's breath.

Za Za's Birthday

2009-02-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Sweetest Girl in the whole world just turned five

Random Thoughts

2009-01-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

Accoding to Express - A Dubai based newspaper, there are only 12,000 Emiraties working in the private sector. That is in a total population of 3.13 million expat workers. The vast majority of Emiratis work for the Government. Without expats the economy would collapse.

Never thought I'd hear these words. I traveled to Qatar recently business class. As I was about to deplane, a flight attendant stopped me, and said, “please sir, we have some royalty in fist class, and they need to be the first one’s off the plane.”

Empty Cars at the Airport. As more and more people lose their jobs, there is an increasing problem with cars being left at the airport. Expats are giving up on Dubai, cutting their loses, and flying back to their home countries.

Speaking of flying - The new first class lounge in terminal three is amazing. They have a restaurant where you sit down at a table with a white table cloth. You can have whatever you want to drink. And then you get to order off a menu of food that is prepared to order by an Emirate’s chef. The best part of the menu – there’s no prices listed. It’s all free. I had the Chilean sea bass, I highly recommend it.

High Water Mark of Dubai - When historians look back at Dubai 50 years from now. Surely the high point would be the grand opening of the Atlantis Hotel. The entire palm was illuminated during the show. Check out the you tube video.

Holiday Break

2009-01-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

The holiday break was a great time for reflection and relaxation for our family. Santa Claus was able to find us, even all the way over here in Dubai. The kids got everything they wanted for Christmas, and then some.

After Christmas, it was time to take the show on the road. We headed out to Fujeriah, an ocean front town located next to the Indian Ocean, on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. The hotel we stayed out was fantastic, it had a pool, and a play area for the kids.

We even went swimming in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately there was an algae bloom which reduced visibility to the point that snorkeling wasn’t possible. The kids had a great time and enjoyed hunting for fossils (even found some) and climbing around on the rocks.

After our Fujeriah vacation, mom and dad went to the World Tennis Championships at Abu Dhabi. Now this is the way to run a tournament. Only invite he top 6 players so that the first day is the play-in, the second day is the semi-finals and the last day is the finals. We had a chance to see Federer, Nadal, Murray, and Rodick. Our seats were excellent and the weather couldn’t have been nicer. It was nice to leave the kids with the maid and just have some mom and dad time at the tournament. The next thing we are looking forward to is the tennis tournament in February.

Mixing Religion and Car Sales

2008-11-27T10:56:00.000-08:00

This is from a Kuwaiti fleet manager who heard some feedback from a fleet customer that attended last year’s GM Mid-East Auto Show gala dinner. The event started out with a reading from the Holy Koran, which is fine since many events and gatherings start out that way. But the Koran reading was immediately followed by a performance by a scantly clad female belly dancer. Needless to say, many in the audience were highly offended. Belly dancer is OK, but don’t start the event with anything religious. It’s like having the preacher offer a group prayer in the strip club parking lot on the way in the door. Needless to say when we had a belly dance at our vehicle launch in Bahrain, the Koran was nowhere to be seen.

How to stop Jihadists

2008-11-23T11:33:00.000-08:00

Very interesting story in the NY TIMES on how Saudi Arabia is attempting to 're-educate' Islamists. Usually the job that ex-criminals that have been rehabilitated get is to be part of the religious police.

Only Three More Head Chops

2008-11-20T11:29:00.000-08:00

I recently returned from a busy week of travel. UAE on Sunday, Oman on Monday, Riyadh on Tuesday, Jeddah on Wednesday and Kuwait on Thursday. Five different cities in five days. It’s amazing how different the countries are. If I had to rank them on a scale of liberal to conservative, I’d say they would go in this order Saudi Arabia of course is the most conservative country, probably on earth, maybe with the exception of Afghanistan. Next would be Kuwait, then Oman and finally UAE is so liberal it’s easy to forget that it is at heart a Muslim country.

While I was in Jeddah, I had a business meeting in a building that overlooked the square in Jeddah in which public executions take place. There is a white tent set up inside a parking lot, and signs warning onlookers not to take pictures. The criminals are executed by beheading. My understanding is that there are a couple every week.

At the bottom of the building where I had my business meeting, there is a car dealership. I talked to one of the members of the sales staff about the public executions that take place across the street. One of the sales staff related this story, which I believe is probably true:

One day a guy came into the dealership looking to purchase a new car. He explained that he worked for the government and wanted to know how much a down payment would be on a new car. The sales consultant told him 15,000. The man replied that he would be back in a week with the money. The sales consultant asked him why it would take a week to get enough money for the down payment. The man replied, “I’m the executioner and I get a 5000 bonus for each execution. This week I have three executions scheduled.”

Meet me at the Marriott

2008-09-23T12:25:00.001-07:00

Have a friend who stayed at the Marriott 10 days before it was blown up. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7627791.stm

Trip to Petra

2008-09-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

Cashed in some Emirates frequent flyer miles, booked a night at the Marriott, took an extra day off, and left the kids in Dubai – Jordan here we come!

What a beautiful place! In contrast to Dubai’s glitz and glamour and conspicuous consumption, Jordan is down the earth and very poor. Unlike the Arab Gulf countries, Jordan doesn’t have any natural resources. In fact the main thing it has going for it is that it’s not Iraq, Syria or Saudi Arabia, or Palestine (all four neighbor the country). It has mountains, the Dead Sea (lowest place on earth), rock canyons, orchards and beautiful cities that predate the time of Christ.

Here is what we did in our action packed three day trip

Day one

Leave for the airport at about 5:00 (unfortunately using your miles you don’t get the Emirates chauffer pick up). Arrive in Jordan at about 9:00. A guy meets us holding a sign. We go to a quiet corner of the airport and sign the rental papers. The guys says, when you bring the car back on Saturday, just call my cell phone and I will come pick it up from you here at the airport (great service).

Head off to Madab, fantastic mosaics form Byzintine churches (bought a mosaic for the Dubai villa). Ruins of old Greek churches.

Dead Sea – Visit to the ‘baptismal site.’ You can see Israel on the other side of the river. I’m surprised at how narrow it is, and also how deep.

This is the ruins of ancient Christian churches that were built on the site of the baptism. They built a font and diverted water in order to baptize fellow believers. In fact they have the whole bapto-tourism thing going on with a basin filled with Jordan river water for those who sprinkle, and steps down to the river for those who are immersed.

Next was lunch at the Dead Sea hotel, and then a long drive the entire length of the country to Petra. We got there just in time to see Petra Nights. They light the way down the Siq to the Treasury using over 1500 candles. An amazing experience.

Day Two

Spent the entire day exploring Petra.

This guy climbed to the top. You get an idea of how large these monuments are when you see someone standing on top of it.

Yes, the donkey climbed up the side of the cliffs. Going up was fine put when it come to coming down, we decided to ditch the donkey and walk.

Day Three

Drove through Amman, and ended up in Jerash. The best preserved Roman city in the world. Even better preserved than the ruins at Rome. That’s because they haven’t built over the top of the city as has been the case in so many other past Roman cities. (Bought a Greek coin – Alexander the great).

Back to the airport and home in Dubai by 9:00 PM

What a weekend.

Great date night

2008-09-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about living here is having a maid that can watch the kids every Thursday night. Simple wife and myself usually go out on Thursday's (It's the equivalent of Saturday in the States). We've probably been on more 'dates' in the year that we have lived in Dubai than in the past five living in the US. It was always such a chore to find a sitter (not to mention expensive).

Anyway, I decided to suprise the wife tonight. When I arrived home I told her to hurry and have the maid come over so that we could drive to Abu Dhabi and catch the last day of the Picasso exhibit at the Emirates Palace. The art was good (If you like Picasso), and the Emirates Palace is amazing.

After we finished looking at the artwork, pictures and sculpures, we had some pastires at the Palace. They have a chocolate cake to die for. According to the Philipina servers, the chocolate is sprinkled with 24K gold filings (which might explain why it was so expensive). I couldn't taste the gold, but the chocolate part was amazing. So rich in fact that Simple wife couldn't even finish her part. The drvie home was nice with only one wrong turn in Abu Dhabi and not a lot of traffic (due to Ramadan I bet).

Until next week.....

Back from Saudi Arabia

2008-08-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

Just back from Saudi (Riyadh) with some thoughts. It’s still weird to see that half the society is missing from daily life. Talked to business associate (from Egypt) who has been living and working in Saudi for over 18 years. We talked about the Al Hamra bombings that were carried out by Al Qaeda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riyadh_compound_bombings). That night in 2003, he was going to visit some of his friends that live there. When he arrived at the compound the fires were still burning. He said that two of his friends (Expat Arabs) were killed in the explosion. On our way back from lunch, we drove past the compounds. Now, like many of the Expat compounds, and Saudi government buildings, there are 13 foot high fences topped with barbed wire, armed guards and barbed wire surrounding them.

The contrast between Saudi and Dubai is so stark. In Dubai, security is minimal, or non existent. Most compounds aren’t guarded, and it’s rare to see any type of police presence outside the occasional cop pulling someone over on the side of the street for speeding. Women are allowed to work and can wear what every the want and travel when and where they want unescorted by a male guardian. There’s music on the radio (Western, Hindi and Arabic), movie theaters, plays (High School Musical just concluded at the community arts center) and beaches.
Saudi Arabia and especially Riyadh border on a police state, with heavily armed guards at multiple checkpoints, and machine gun mounted F-250s at western hotels. In the Four Season’s mall, there is an entire floor that is ‘Women only.’ There is no movie theaters, and CDs and magazines have images of Hindi gods and women covered over with a black magic marker (although they are still for sell). Shops close during prayer time, although we were able to keep eating inside one trendy Lebanese restaurant, albeit behind drawn curtains. The villas all have small windows

I imagine it would be extremely difficult for western expats to have a normal live here. Even the Arab expats find it difficult.

Back from the states

2008-07-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the states. It was nice to be home. everything is predictable. Very hot here and very humid. Typical Dubai Summer.

Visit from Dad

2008-06-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

Recently my father came out to visit us here in Dubai. I took some time off work to show him the sites. We took the ‘BIG BUS’ tour of Dubai, which was much better than being stuck in the terrible traffic in a small car. Of course we did all the ‘Dubai’ things. We took him to the Beach Club, the Mall of the Emirates, the Dubai Museum, and some great places to eat.

The highlight for me was going to Oman together. We loaded up the Montego, put in a Beatles CD and drove all the way to Muscat. The journal was wonderful. We stopped by the Shoar beach hotel to go out and see the Indian Ocean. The place we stayed at in Muscat was amazing, and I never get tired of Muscat itself. Unlike Dubai, with its huge skyscrapers, Muscat is they way most Americans would picture Middle Eastern cities. There’s no building over five stories tall and its set amongst dark red rocky mountains. Muscat feels authentic. In Dubai it’s rare to run into an actual Emirate (they’re only 15% of the population). In contrast, Muscat is filled with friendly Omanies, that are actually working in private sector jobs. In Dubai, because everything is so new and manufactured, you get the feeling of fakeness, in Oman there is a genuineness that permeates all aspects of Omani society. It’s a beautiful country and a beautiful people. It’s sort of undiscovered, but It’s sure to be the next big tourist destination, especially given how expensive and crowded things are here in Dubai.

The road trip was a great time to catch up with my dad. I thing he’s enjoying live so much better now that he’s retired. It’s such a long trip (over 4 hours) that it was nice to have some company. And because it’s my dad, we had to visit all the cool parts of Muscat and take plenty of pictures. My dad was taking pictures of everything, every mosque, roundabout and building. One cool thing we saw as the preparation for the Olympic torch (Muscat was the only Mid East city to host the relay). We read in the morning newspaper that anyone disrupting the relay would be ‘severely dealt with.’ Needless to say there were no protests during the relay.

Pink Finger Nails for Bubacakes

2008-06-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

Maid painted Bubacakes fingernails yesterday. A nice pink color. I guess I'm OK with that, after all she is the one who, without consulting quick wife, cut his hair (along with Zha Zhas hair) for the first time. She really loves him. She has a ton of pictures of him on her cell phone. He helps her clean each morning. It's really quite cute. He will pick out the window spray from the bucket containing the cleaning supplies, and carry it over to her. Then he will get a rag and start 'cleaning' the windows. Sometimes he doesn't want to leave her arms.... Hum....

Anniversary

2008-04-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

Anniversary

Today was our 11th wedding anniversary. My the time has flown by. Every day things happen and you say that you need to write it down so that you can laugh at it some day. Today was sort of that day.

The original idea was to go out for a nice dinner, just simple wife and myself, no kids. There are plenty of high-end places to eat in Dubai. Some are even very romantic. Unfortunately, our maid / baby sister’s father passed away in Sir Lanka, so our maid, along with her husband and two kids flew to Sir Lanka last Thursday to attend the funeral. We fell very bad for her, he was only in his early 60’s and wasn’t sick for very long. I’m relating this because any idea of leaving the kids behind went out the window once the maid left the country.

So the day starts out in typical fashion, I take Zah Zah and Big G to the beach club. We swim in the hotel pool, and then go down to the ocean. Big G insists that we go out on a kayak, so all three of us go out in ocean on this little kayak. Of course Zah Zah is to small to paddle, and Big G is having trouble making the ore work correctly. After paddling around for a bit, we try the big tricycle paddle boat (don’t ask).

We get home around 1:00 PM and I realize that I’m burnt to a crisp on my shoulders. Easy wife goes out to get a pedicure, and I watch the kids. We play Wii and watch some Backyardagins. When Fast wife gets home, we load up the car and head out to a new area of Dubai that we haven’t been to yet; the green community.

There are several different ways to get there, but we end up taking the route that includes a broken down truck. What should have been a 10 minute trip, takes 45. Once we arrive at the restaurant, we decide to sit outside. The weather is very nice and it’s still cool enough to sit outside and enjoy a meal. (about 96 today). This was the first mistake. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by flies. They were everywhere.

Big G said he wanted an apple juice, but the restaurant was out, so instead he said he wanted some mango juice. Well the juice arrives and it is perfect, fresh squeezed directly from the mango not more than 10 minutes ago. Of course for Big G (very picky eater) it’s too thick, so Simple wife has to go find some apple juice at the adjoining mall. Guess what, there’s only a place that makes ‘fresh apple juice’ so she has to wait until they blend about 10 apples to make the juice.

Meanwhile, the food comes and Big G takes a bite out of his corndog and complains that it’s too cold. I just blow this off, because Big G always complains about his food. I keep telling him to eat it, and he’s in tears telling me that it’s too cold. Finally, I touch the corndog to see for myself. It’s solid ice. I doubt the corndog even made it into the fryer. We tell the server who takes the corndog away and promises to bring another one.

Did I mention the flies?

The new corndog arrives, and this time its way over cooked. Charred is the best way to describe it. Well know Big G. really loses it. We tell the server to forget the corndog, and we just give him some of Zah Zah’s chicken nuggets which she has decided she doesn’t want to eat either. (did I mention we went to a Mexican restaurant?) Well now Bubacakes is just losing it. Crying and squirming and wanting to get down and, I’m sure, make a B-line to the large lake that is next to the restaurant. Flies are crawling everywhere. It’s time to go.

Instead of waiting for the server, I just go inside and attempt to pay the bill directly at the cash register. Of course they are out of change.

We make our way through the shopping center, Big G see’s a Darth Vader costume that he can’t live without, Simple wife checks out some contact lenses, and Zah Zah decides that she wants a pet dog.

We get home at 7:30, everyone gets a bath, we watch something in Animal Planet then the kids are off to bed, the wife is asleep on the couch, and I’m writing this Blog.

Happy Anniversary.

You Know You're in Saudi When...

2008-03-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

Top 10 list - You Know you're in Saudi Arabia when....

1) On the Saudi Air flight, you listen to a saying from the Prophet right before the plane takes off
2) At the hotel, women are not allowed at the swimming pool, or the gym
3) A letter to the editor in the English language newspaper suggests that as penance for the Holocaust, Germany should carve out a sate from it's territory, call it Zionstine and give it to the Jews, thereby solving the main conflict in the Middle East
4) Job's normally done by women, are now done by men, in fact you rarely see women in public
5) A women is thrown in jail for having coffee at Starbucks with a man who is not related to her
6) Unemployment is a high problem in a country that imports 30% of it's workers
7) You eat dinner at 11:00 PM and the restaurant is packed
8) There's sandbags, Humvees and soldiers with machine guns in front of all the government buildings and even your hotel has a tank, a metal detector and armed guards
9) Women aren't allowed to drive
10) It's so hot that you can barely breath

Meet me in Yemen

2008-03-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

I met with a business man from Yemen last Thursday. A very nice guy, who attended college in LA. I asked about the potential to come and visit him in Yemen someday. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080318/ap_on_re_mi_ea/yemen_attack;_ylt=AslV72bmJVgWk5HDvDN7KBELewgFGiven the bomb attack on the US embassy, I think I'll pass.

Life in the Dumps

2008-03-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

I was taking a Friday afternoon (Friday here is like Sunday in the Christian world) walk with simple wife and the three kids. As we were walking back toward our villa we noticed a dumpster up ahead. Items kept flying out of it, a small Mickey Mouse stuffed animal, a used humidifier, some kids clothing. At first I thought it might be a cat. Every dumpster around here as a wild cat that lives of its contents, but as we got closer, two brown eyes rose up above the level of the dumpster to meet mine. It wasn’t a cat, but an Indian. There is in fact many extremely poor foreigners who eek out an existence combing through dumpsters, looking for things to sell. One man's junk is another man's treasure.

Almost but not quite

2008-03-14T11:01:00.001-07:00

Something we say all the time over here is that everything is “almost, but not quite.” This phrase applies to many things here in Dubai, from the food, to the roads, to the local bureaucracy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to Satwa (an Indian neighborhood in Dubai where you can buy almost anything) and purchased a part for a hose, or a screw or a door lock, and I get it home and it just doesn’t quite fit or work properly. I learned the “almost but not quite,” rule the first night we were here. One of our light bulbs was burned out in the master bathroom. These are the small LED type lights that are very popular here. I bought what I thought was a replacement bulb, inserted it into the socket (it doesn’t screw) turned on the light switch and…. BAMM!! The light exploded and send sparks everywhere and the braker tripped (luckily) plunging the whole room into darkness. My simple wife thought I had just electrocuted myself after she heard the explosion, and all the lights went out. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last time that our circuit braker would go out (remained me blog about the GREAT FLOOD on of these days).

Borne Identity

2008-02-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

Just the other day I was about to leave on a business trip to Jeddah Saudi Arabia, and I instictivley opended my lower right hand desk drawer. In that drawer, I have envelops and each one has the name of a country written on it. In each envelop I have some petty cash in the local currency. For example, I have various amounts of money from Bahrian, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman. Just like Jason Borne, before each foriegn visit, I have to take some petty cash for those incidentals when I just can't use a credit card. When I return to Dubai, I place the contents of my wallet into the drawer, ready for the next voyage. Now only if I had some fake passports to go along with my petty cash........

First blog

2008-02-10T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here it is the long awaited blog from Dubai. Even though mostly only family and friends will care enough to read this blog, I will use pseudonyms to protect the identity of the innocent. Let me fill you in on our family's situation. We are currently living in the United Arab Emirates, in the emirate of Dubai. In fact the title of the blog comes from our expat experiences here in Dubai. The reason I have chosen simple easy and quick is that even the simplest of things are never simple easy and quick; in fact, most of the time they are complicated, difficult and slow. Don't get me wrong, we love it over here; however it does take some getting use to, especially when you assume that something you can do in the states with relative ease will be accomplished in a like manner here. This is a phrase that we use with each other all the time when things don't exactly go our way.