Dubai

The day after the Madonna concert we had been planning to rent a car and drive out to Dubai.  Luckily, however, in our usual laid back, lazy fashion, we had neglected to bother renting the aforementioned car.  I say luckily because the next day we were both EXHAUSTED!  We barely got up on time to make it to the 10:30 AM cutoff for the breakfast buffet.

Part of the reason we were so tired was because after the concert it was impossible to get a taxi out of there.  If you could find a taxi, they wouldn't let you in the cab because they were all looking for fares back to Dubai.

There were, however, a bunch of guys in regular cars offering rides to people (for an elevated price of course) in their own cars.  After about 40 minutes of walking around trying to find a taxi we ended up getting in the car with some dodgy looking guy who said he would take us back to our hotel for 100 dirham.  (This is about $27 US and about 45 dirham more than a taxi.)  Fine, whatever!  We got in.

The only problem was that he kept driving up and down the strip trying to get more people to get in so he could make more money.  When it became clear that he wasn't going anywhere until he got more people in the car we started to become a bit more concerned.  Especially since every time he got someone even remotely interested in getting in, he would tell them some ridiculous price.  (Like 300 dirham.)  Naturally they would wave him away.

Eventually, he got 3 young women to get into the car with us.  Obviously the only reason they got in, was because we were already in there and we looked pretty normal.  Unlike everyone else though, they didn't ask the price.  They told us they were teachers living in Abu Dhabi and they lived near where our hotel was.  While we were driving down the street I mentioned to the one sitting next to me that they might want to establish a price with the guy before we got on the road.  I told her that we had agreed to pay 100 dirham.  So they asked the price and the guy wanted each of them to pay 200 dirham apiece, which was ridiculous.  So they laughed and insisted that he let them out, which he did very reluctantly. Then he proceeded again to drive around very slowly yelling at people to get into the car.  (Picture some greasy looking guy yelling "Come.... COME! ... COOOOOME!!!" at people and you can see why no one went anywhere near that guy.)  So at this point we had been in the back of his car for at least 20 minutes and we decided we had better get out.  So we demanded he let us out. Which he very reluctantly did... eventually, and then proceeded to follow us along the street trying to convince us to get back in.  Finally we yelled something like "GET THE ---- AWAY FROM US!" and he finally drove off in a huff leaving the many people still milling around wondering (and asking) "What the heck happened?"

Then we saw an empty cab so we ran up and asked if he would take us to our hotel.  Again, he said "No!" and then he drove off.  So I said to Matt, "You know, I think we are going about this the wrong way.  We need to say, we will give you $100 dirham if you take us to our hotel."  So we tried this with the next cab we saw and the guy did a quick tabulation in his head, and said, "OK."  And that is the story of how we finally made it back to our hotel and how we are not always all that smart when we are traveling and tired.

So the next day we lazed around the beach and pool all day and did absolutely nothing except rest, eat, and swim.  The following day we felt ready to visit Dubai.  So we rented a car and drove off.

Dubai is about 80 kilometers away from Abu Dhabi and it took us about an hour and a half to get there.   We had also rented a GPS so that we wouldn't waste time getting lost.  First stop, the Burj Khalifa, which is currently the tallest building in the world.  It is 160 floors and 828 meters tall.  I must say that it was quite impressive.  Much more impressive than Taipei 101. (A previous tallest building.)

I couldn't fit the whole thing into a picture so here is a quick video.

As with pretty much everything in the middle east, it is attached to a mall.  So we went in to make an appointment to go up.  Unfortunately, all the appointments for the day were taken and they only had immediate entry available.  (This means about 4 times the usual price.)  But, what is the point of going without going up?  (Tip- Call ahead and make an appointment if you want to see it!!)

So up we went.  Here are some views of downtown Dubai from the top of the Burj Khalifa.

All in all I would say the Burj Khalifa is a must see if you are ever in Dubai.  In fact, my friend's son has a blog that is all about the Burj Khalifa and legos.  So if you want some more Burj Khalifa facts check out his blog. (Or if you really like Legos.) It's called:
Burj Khalego

After our trip up to the top we had lunch at PF Changs, followed by a stroll around the attached mall where we came across this HUGE aquarium inside the mall! I love a good aquarium.

You can see the shops on the other side of the aquarium through the glass.

It had a tunnel that you could walk through (for a price) and also you could go diving inside.  It was really cool.

After that mall, we went off to another mall because I wanted to see the indoor ski slopes that I had heard about.  Yes, you can go skiing in Dubai!

So first off, here is what it looks like from the outside.

The metal thing at the top is the ski slope.

Here is another view from the highway.

Clearly this isn't a double diamond run but it is kinda cool. 

Inside it looks like this:

 Basically the ski slope is up above and down below are other activities.

My apologies for the bad pictures.  There is some glare off the windows as we didn't go inside, we just looked through the windows.  

The whole area is surrounded by restaurants so you can eat and look in at the skiing and sledding going on.  We stopped and had a coffee outside the ski area and this was the view:

And, some more views from all around:

Also, somewhere in there are some penguins.  We didn't pay to see them but I'm sure that kids would love this place.  And all inside a mall.

After that we drove out to the palm, but unless you are in a huge tall building looking down on it, or cruising above in an airplane, (a la Flo Rida) there is really not much to see.  This is a building at the tip of the palm.  Everyone else was taking pictures of it so I did too.

Then the sun went down and we went back to Abu Dhabi.  A very good day indeed!

Also if you want to see some much better pictures of Dubai that I didn't take you can look here:
http://totallycoolpix.com/2012/01/dubai-from-above/

Madonna in Abu Dhabi!!!

We got back to Saudi at the end of April and we pretty much spent the month of May here in Saudi doing the same old thing.  But, since both of our birthdays are in May we planned a trip to Abu Dhabi to go and see Madonna at the Du Arena on Yas Island.  She was playing on the 3rd and 4th of June.

Neither of us had been to Abu Dhabi so we decided to make a very long weekend of it and we went for 5 nights. We arrived the day before the concert.  The flight from Saudi is less than 2 hours.  It was such a nice change from the usual 24 hours it usually takes me to get home!

When we purchased the tickets back in March, there were three sections.  General admission, Golden Circle, and Grandstand seating (which was way at the back of the stadium.)  Both the general admission and the golden circle were standing room only.  The problem was that even though we bought the tickets the day after they announced a second date for Madonna, they were sold out of the basic Golden Circle tickets so if we wanted Golden Circle we had to purchase a special package which was twice the price and basically the only extra thing that we got was early entry.  We decided to call it our birthday presents and an anniversary present and we spent the extra money to get the better seats. (Or area rather, since there were no seats to speak of.)  

We really couldn't have cared less about early entry (especially since Madonna showed up totally late) but we went early anyway so we could get our special "extras" which came with the package.  (It was a really crappy watch... Nicole... guess what mommy is bringing you home!!)  Anyway, while we were waiting to get let in, we would occasionally hear people in line start to cheer and we couldn't figure out why.  About every ten minutes or so, someone would scream and clap and we would look and we couldn't figure out what they were getting so excited about.  

Eventually, we saw this woman with an iPad going down the line.  She was having everyone in the line touch this button on it and she would either say yes or no.  Usually no.  Everyone seemed to want to touch this iPad.  So, naturally... I wanted to touch it too.  So I walked down the line to where she was and where everyone was gathering around shoving their fingers toward her.  Touch, no, touch, no, touch no... and eventually it was my turn and I touched it and she said, "You got it!" And I cheered! And I had no idea what I was cheering about but I figured it must be good!  Then she asked me who I came with and I pointed down the line to where my husband was standing and she said that he should come up and then this guy gave us both wristbands that he said would get us into the Golden Triangle and we would get super close to Madonna.  Needless to say, I was super excited!!

If there was ever a concert I would want to see up close and personal it would be Madonna! And you would not believe how close we were!!! We ended up actually inside the stage!!

The Golden Triangle is actually inside that triangle thing on main stage!!

 This is where you walk in and everyone would walk in, look left, and say... 

Oh my God, that's the stage!!!

And once you are in, you realize that you just walked under part of the stage! And she was going to walk down those stairs and all along the outside of the triangle.

Yes, this is a crappy picture because there wasn't enough light, but that is the stage right behind us!!

So then we waited for a couple more hours and finally she came out! And my pictures totally suck... but there are a couple where you can actually see Madonna so here they are...

And yes, my pictures are pretty bad but I was taking them with my iPod and I was RIGHT THERE!! I took some video and while the picture is decent, the sound is horrible.  But someone else posted some much better footage on YouTube using an actual camera so here is a link if you want to see it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thmV3KVTjZc

There are definitely better videos but this one was short and you can see how close we were.  She was freaking touching people!! 

That was the closest that I have ever been at a concert and it was Madonna!!  Can you believe how freaking lucky I am??? You can't buy those tickets!!!!!!  Happy Birthday to ME!!

Bermuda

Wow! How lazy have I been with the blog?  I guess... very.  I could claim to have been very busy... but that is probably not completely true.  But, since the last blog post was at the beginning of March... I guess, I need to catch up.

At the end of March I went back home for a quick visit and a vacation.  It all seemed so hurried and I barely got to see anybody.  But, I did manage to get in a quick race in Carlsbad.  It was only a 5K since at that point I was still having difficulty with the (now officially diagnosed) ITBS.  We did the Carlsbad 5000.  It really hurt, but I finished in just under 30 minutes.  Not my best time, but considering I had to stop a few times to shake out my leg, I was OK with it.

Andrea on the other hand did really well.  Notice that she is wearing a medal in the picture!

Way to go Andrea!!

After that, Matt came and we headed off to Bermuda via New York.  I must say Bermuda was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen!  When we got in it was dark so we really couldn't see anything, but once I woke up, I went out onto the deck and this was the view.  

Amazing, I tell you.  We ate breakfast out on the deck every morning for a week and it never got old.  

 The whole island was just beautiful everywhere we went.  But the hotel/ resort was just amazing.

 This was the family pool.

 This was where our hotel room was.  We had the top corner room... hence the amazing view.

This was the pool and part of the golf course... not that we golfed... but we did swim every day.

 And this was the beach club.

 And the beach.

 That's Matt in the red shorts.  He went in.  The beach water was COLD.

 But the beach club had a heated pool if the ocean was too cold!

Freaking amazing I tell you! I have never seen anything like it.  

And while we were there we did leave the hotel and head into town.  You can't rent a car there but there are plenty of taxi's and you can rent a scooter which we did for a  couple of days.  

 Here is Matt with the scooter.

 I think he looks a little bit like this guy from the Flintstones.  I believe they called him the Great Gazoo.

 We took the scooter to see this lighthouse.  

 This is the view from the top.

 This was the city of Hamilton.  We went there quite a bit.  It's right in the center of the island.

 We also went to see some caves.

 It was 100% humidity inside there.   Can you tell??

And that was our trip to Bermuda.  It was gorgeous and I had a great time... but I really don't feel any need to ever go back there again.  But you never do know!!

The Edge of the World!

Before the sandstorm I had actually gone to a place called "The Edge of the World."  It's a big cliff that (on a clear day) has a view below for miles of desert.  We had gone out once before to try and find it but we didn't quite make it there.  Previously we made it to a sort of desert checkpoint where the road was blocked by a long arm barrier gate.  There was a guy there manning it, but he basically just shooed us away and wouldn't let us through.  At that time, we tried to go around but we just ended up on a main road eventually and just went back home.

After another try (on another day), the guy driving eventually found a way around (the other direction) that bypassed the checkpoint by using Google satellite pictures and a GPS. So last Friday, we went to go see it.

We drove out on the road and eventually we came to a point where you are supposed to turn off and drive down a desert road.  It is at this point where things start to get a bit bumpy and it is necessary to have a four wheel drive vehicle.  We bumped along for about a half an hour where we came to the same checkpoint and saw four other vehicles sitting there because they had been refused to be allowed through the checkpoint.

So we drove up to them and the driver (Matt's boss) asked them if they wanted to follow us because he knew a way around the checkpoint.  Now if you have made it out that far already, it is kind of a bummer being stopped before making it there so it was no surprise that all four SUV's decided to follow.  So off we went, now a group of 5 cars total.

The desert here is this vast open space that all looks very much the same, so it would be very easy to get lost.  There are "roads" all over the place, but all the "roads" are just tracks where someone has previously driven.  They are randomly all over the place going all directions.

It was a bit of a windy day, so the visibility isn't all that great.  Basically, the desert just stretches out like this in all directions.  It would be very easy to get lost and just be stuck out there.  Not surprisingly, cell phone reception out here is sketchy at best.

So we kept on driving and eventually we came to a place that was a bit hairy.  It was about 3 kilometers away from the Edge of the World.  But, you have to drive over it if you want to get there.  It was at this point that I am certain that the people following us started to have second thoughts or rather started questioning why they followed some random people so far out into the middle of the desert without knowing where exactly they were going.

The thing that you can't see on the video is that on the left of the vehicle is a rather far drop off the side, so if the vehicle tilts left, you could easily roll off the side and then roll down to the bottom.  Not a very desirable outcome.  This was probably why the last SUV decided to go more towards the middle.  Please note that another car had previously done this successfully.

What you don't see in this video is the water draining out of his now cracked radiator.  One of the guys tried to seal it up with some sort of putty but it didn't really work.  They were able to get enough water into the radiator so that they could drive it back over the hairy part and then tow it all the way back across the desert with a tow rope.  (And this is why you probably shouldn't go out into the desert alone!)

In the meantime, the family in the broken car piled in with the people in the other cars and we drove the remaining 3 kilometers to get to the Edge of the World which was definitely something to see.  Here are the pics.

Hmmm... does this picture look familiar? 

Same shot, but without me blocking the view.

The other side.

Notice that Sammy is back.  Matt went to Germany in January to go pick him up.  So Sammy has lived in the US, Macau, Germany, and now Saudi Arabia.  (Note* he also had stop overs in Taiwan and he was ferried over to Hong Kong as well.) He is looking a bit older, but none the worse for the wear.

In other news, today was the Marathon.  I am sad to report that I was unable to run.  I was holding out hope but yesterday I realized that it just wasn't going to happen.  To say that I was disappointed is an understatement.  It just seems so anti-climactic!  All that training and then no race at the end! Currently, I can't seem to make it past a mile without my IT band giving me trouble.  But, I can still walk, bike, and swim with no problem so I have been doing that.  It only hurts when I run. :(

I am looking into finding another marathon to run when I figure out how to get rid of this annoyance!  But, I hope that the race went well for the others who were running today.  It probably wouldn't have been the most exciting race anyway as there were only 15 people signed up to run the full marathon.  Others were competing in relay teams but in total, it probably would have only been about 50 people in attendance.  This would have been much less than the previous half marathon we ran and that was quite  a lonely race! So, I didn't get to run my race, and finishing the rest of the running season here is not looking good, but the injury doesn't seem too bad so it could be worse.