At the Hotel

This week, we are staying at the hotel where my husband works.  We can stay for up to a week.  Apparently the boss of my husband is concerned that I may get bored holed up in the compound, so this is a way for me to see a little more of the city and gradually wade into Saudi living.  The Mutawa or religious police, generally do not circulate on the hotel grounds, so the rules are a little more relaxed.  I am able to do things like shake hands when I meet a male colleague of my husband.  (Something that I was a little unsure about.)  Basically, if someone offers me their hand, I shake it.  If they don't, I don't.  Attached to the hotel is yet another mall.  The mutawa does circulate throughout the mall, however,  so the rules are a little more strict there.  I got told to cover up my hair while I was there, but in the hotel, I have been walking around in just my abaya with no problems.

We have a very nice suite at the hotel.  When we arrived we found it very nicely decorated for us.  Someone was very busy with the rose petals.

Basically, oversized bathrobes (I sooo want to keep mine), balloons, towel swans and roses tucked in the robes.

More rose petals, and some non alcoholic champagne.

Still more rose petals and plastic lip prints on the mirror.  Also, check out the TV in the mirror... that was pretty cool.

The TV in the bedroom.

The TV in the living room playing pictures of roses and beaches and such.

The sitting area/ living room.

The dining area with a bowl of fresh fruit and still more rose petals.

And this was a hanging towel monkey.  Not sure what they were implying by this... but at least it wasn't hanging from a chandelier.  In this picture you can kind of see my most favorite part of the whole room in the mirror there.  In the hotel, the gym is only open to the men and the women are not allowed to use it.  I guess Matt had mentioned to someone that I liked to run so they had a treadmill sent up and installed in the room.  Can you believe that?  How nice is that?

                           Set up with a water bottle and towel.  So happy!

Shortly after we arrived, we went downstairs to go to the Iftar buffet.  This was the breaking of the daily fast of Ramadan.  You are supposed to break the fast with a date, (which was one of the best dates that I had ever tasted in my life) and then we followed that with a teeny tiny cup of Arabic coffee... also good. The food was amazing.  I had a little bit of many different things and there was nothing that I didn't like. It probably doesn't look all that appetizing on the plate because I plated it myself... but trust me it was delicious!

I really only thought to take the picture after I had already started eating... but oh well.  Sorry!
We also followed this up with 3 different kinds of dessert.

This one is the one that I liked best.  It is called Om Ali and it is kind of like a bread pudding (my favorite) made with puff pastry instead of bread.  Very rich.  It also has almonds and raisins and sweetened rosewater.  Also has milk and cream.  I liked it because it was not too sweet.  A lot of the desserts seem to be loaded with honey which is just a little to sweet for my taste.  I am sooo loving the rosewater.

The little oh thingies  are baklava, very sweet with honey, and the little cookie thing was good, it seemed to have ground nuts inside.  Looks like a Mexican wedding cake or Norwegian butter cookie and tastes similar.
When we got back to the room after all of this eating we found that we had been given the turndown service which included more dessert.

I did taste it... but there is only so much dessert that one can eat.  Oh and in case that wasn't enough... well you never know when you might want to have dessert in the bathroom.

I couldn't even bring myself to taste this one.  Sorry!  I think I may need to go hop on the treadmill for now!