If It's The Beaches...

Beach along the corniche in Abu Dhabi, with the Heritage Center and the world's tallest freestanding flag pole in the background.

Last weekend began with a  trip to the beach in Abu Dhabi.  Because this country was very conservative, a person might expect the beaches to be filled with people in modest clothing, and the public beaches are.  It's not appropriate for women to wear regular bathing suits there.  But next to the public beach there was a "private beach" that we paid 10 dhs (about $3) to visit.  It was a "family beach" and they wouldn't even let our male friends in until we said they were with us.  I guess they didn't want random dudes on the beach babe-watching.  I thought it was interesting that people in bikinis go to the family beach instead of the public one. That doesn't seem family-friendly.

Beach with the city in the background.

 The body of water we swam in is an inlet that is part of the Persian Gulf. The water was very warm and very salty but actually refreshing.  The boys rented jet skis but the girls just swam and sun-bathed, although the sun wasn't nearly as hot as I thought it would be.  Sadly enough that was the first time I have worn a bathing suit all summer, but I didn't even get sunburned. I think some of the haze blocks the harmful rays.  Plus, it is fall now!

Beach at sunset.  The sun looks like that because of the haze.  The structure that looks sort of like the space needle is a restaurant at the mall.

Later I will be writing about the best part of our weekend- a desert safari!

ET


ps The title of this post is in reference to one of my favorite songs by the Avett Brothers.

Dubai, Round 2: Ski Dubai and Burj Khalifa

I was able to break free of my low-security prison and go into Dubai this past weekend.  The main purpose of the trip was to hang out with my friend Anda who has been travelling around the world for the past few months.  The secondary purpose of the trip was to cross two thing off of my to-do list: ski in the desert and go to the top of the world's tallest building.

I was a little late meeting Anda at the hotel, so when the bus dropped me off at the airport I ran to the taxi stand, where there is always a line of red taxis waiting.  But as I approached, the man working at the stand shook his head.  "No, no, you have to go in that one" he said, and pointed to a PINK taxi.  No kidding.  The pink taxis are for ladies or ladies with small children.  This might be slightly discriminatory because they are a little more expensive, but I was happy to pay a few extra dirhams for a friendly female driver and a taxi that smelled like talcum powder instead of body odor. I regret not getting a picture.

We stayed in a hotel near the Mall of Emirates, and it had a nice little pool on the roof.  I was able to get some pictures of downtown from the roof.  You can see the Burj Khalifa, but notice the haze.  Nevertheless, it was probably the clearest day I have seen in this country thus far.

View from the hotel roof. 

On Friday we went to Ski Dubai. I can't remember being so excited for something in a very long time.  I was like a little kid before Christmas.  I love skiing.  It is my favorite activity on earth and sometimes I don't even let myself think about it because I get so sad that I don't live in a place with mountains and snow.  I first heard about Ski Dubai about 5 years ago in a ski film, and I never imagined that I would actually get to go there!

That white tunnel is Ski Dubai from the outside.

Ski Dubai, for those of you who don't know, is the world's largest indoor ski hill.  It has one main lift and two runs, and the total elevation is 60 meters, or about 200 ft.  In comparison, the vertical elevation change at most decent western resorts is 1,000 meters. They gave us pants and jackets to wear, along with equipment rentals.  I approached the situation with very low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Also, it wasn't very expensive or very crowded.   Honestly the snow was a lot better than snow at resorts in Virginia/West Virginia.  That is probably because normally the sun melts that snow and then the snow refreezes, and this complex was obviously covered.  It felt amazing to be in the cold temperatures and to make some good turns in the snow.  The only weird part was that one half of the complex is a glass wall, and on the other side of the glass is the mall.  So there were lots of people watching us ski and take pictures.  An image of me carving up the slope is forever saved in a vacation photo album somewhere in the Middle East.

Freezing on the chairlift.

Anda making some turns.

Overall, Ski Dubai was a smashing success.  Any adventure that includes the phrase "I can't stop smiling" is a good one.  We skied until the very last second that we could and then rushed to the Burj Khalifa, where we had tickets to go to the observation deck. Walking outside in the 100+ degree heat after skiing was bizarre, and it made my skin tingle.

You can read one of my previous entries for more information about the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.  We rode the incredibly fast elevator up to the observation deck, which is only on the 124th floor (out of 160 floors total).  The elevator went so fast that my ears popped.  The views of the ocean and the sprawling city were amazing.  We could see the edge of the artificial islands that are in the shape of the world along.  Again, the view would have been better if it hadn't been so hazy, but it's dusty over here.

Persian Gulf.  The edge of the world-shaped island group is visible.

View from the 124th floor.

Observation Deck

Burj Khalifa at night.

After the Burj Khalifa we watched the fountain show at the Dubai Mall.  This fountain show is the largest in the world (surprise, surprise). Everything is bigger in the UAE. After the fountain show I got on the astonishingly clean metro to begin the trip back to Abu Dhabi, and Anda left to get ready for the next stage of his trip, which is to ride a bicycle from Barcelona to Amsterdam.

I only have two weeks left in this country!  I miss America so much that playing Miley Cyrus's song "Party in the USA" doesn't even help. I especially miss it on days like today, the tenth anniversary of 9/11.   In 2001 I was sitting in math class when one of my friends looked at me and said "I have the worst feeling of impending doom" and then minutes later our teacher turned on the television, and you know the rest. Who would have thought that ten years later I would be in the Middle East.


Later,
ET

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Last weekend we visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. I have been pretty busy with tests, presentations, and class so I am just getting around to posting.  The good news is that I have been getting decent grades so I'm not going to be fired or deported anytime soon.  Sweet.

We decided that we needed a cultural experience, plus like I've said before, there is not much to do here during Ramadan except go to the mosque.  The mosque is named for HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.  He used to be the president of the UAE. Here are some pictures of the outside:



Grand Mosque from the south entrance.  Unfortunately it's more impressive from the front.



Outside of the mosque. Probably the longest about of time spent without air conditioning since I got here.

Some interesting facts about the Grand Mosque:

-It is the size of five football fields.

-It houses the world's largest chandelier- it's 15 meters high and cost $8 million.

-It has the world's largest single piece of carpet.

-It has 82 domes.

-It can accomodate about 40,000 worshippers (no one was worshipping while we were there).

The most interesting part of this cultural experience is that the ladies have to wear abayas.  This is a traditional conservative outfit for muslim females.  After yelling at us for taking pictures outside of the mosque (females are not allowed to be photographed without proper clothing), security guards herded us into a room where they handed us the main part of the outfit.  Then we had to wait for ages for scarves because they didn't have enough.  I am 100% sure they were not washed between users which was unsettling.  Meanwhile, our male friends were waiting very patiently for us and draining their camera batteries.  The guys don't have to wear anything special if they are wearing long pants.  The ones wearing shorts had to wear white versions of our abayas, minus the scarves.

The whole deal was actually pretty comfortable, even in the heat. I had a lot of trouble keeping the scarf on, but the security guards were kind enough to remind us when our hair was showing.  Overall, but had a great time just admiring the amazing and intricate features of the mosque, both inside and out.  Here are some more pictures, but they honestly don't do this place justice.

The largest chandelier in the world.

Sitting on the largest piece of carpet in the world. It took 1200 Iranian women to knit it. It's 5000 square meters, 35 tons, and cost about $10 million.

I hope to go back to take pictures at night when all of the domes are lit. One other observation from Abu Dhabi this week- it is more complicated than I anticipated is getting from our compound to... anywhere.  If there is no company bus there then we have to take specific taxis for safety reasons, which means waiting a lot.  The biggest problem is the language barrier. And the fact that taxi drivers have no idea where anything is.  Some of them don't even know how to get to the airport! I am convinced that they just claim ignorance so they can drive around in circles and charge us more!  I suppose I could try to direct them, but there is a lot of open space in this country so there are a lot of round-abouts.  Round-abouts are efficient because they prevent stopping and starting, but they can be disorienting, especially when the taxi drivers don't slow down at all. 

I'm in class this weekend because this coming week is Eid, which is the end of the month of Ramadan. Basically it means the end of a month of fasting, so people are not allowed to fast.  It is also a holiday, so we have two days off in the middle of the week.  Unfortunately so do most taxi drivers, restaurant workers, etc, so I will get caught up on my studying.  And actually I would feel bad if they have to work just so I can go to Ferrari World.  It's like working on Christmas. 

That's all for now, more in a week or so.  Thanks for reading.

ET

Dubai Round 1

Last weekend we went to Dubai for the first time.  Just a reminder, Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates.  Technically, it is also an emirate, which is kind of like a state. It's about an hour and a half from where I am staying. I will be spending many more weekends there, so this was just a day trip to check out the city and see what we want to do next time.  Dubai is well-known for doing things big to attract tourism, so I was stoked for my first visit. 

Our bus dropped us off at the Dubai airport and then we took a taxi to the Dubai mall.  My company offers the free bus to the airport, so we took advantage of it, but a downside was it dropped us off at 8 am.  There is NOTHING to do at 8 am in a country that observes Ramadan.

View of Burj Kalifa over morning coffee.

Burj Khalifa

We were starving and of course no restaurants were open.  You can be fined or jailed for eating, drinking, chewing gum, holding hands, etc during Ramadan, but you are allowed to do it privately. Some people eat in bathroom stalls but that's gross.  Because we are allowed to eat in hotels, we found one near the mall and had an amazing breakfast.  The best thing about it was our view of the Burj Kalifa.  The Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building.  We had planned to go up it but you have to get tickets and they are way too expensive unless you by them in advance.  We'll save that for another weekend.  Also, in a few years it won't be the tallest building in the world.  The Bin Laden Group is planning on building a taller one in Saudi Arabia.  But for now, this one, at 2,717 ft tall, is the tallest structure in the world.  Below is a chart that compares it to other buildings in the world. 



Yep, that's tall.  This image is from wikipedia. Sorry if you have to zoom in to read the text, but the Burj Khalifa is on the far right.



After breakfast we spent sometime in the Duabi Aquarium, home of the largest single-panel tank and the saddest looking penguins I have ever seen. We also spent some time shopping in the world's largest mall, the Dubai mall. I bought a pair of shoes. When in Rome... 

The mall was by far the fanciest I have ever been in.  I think it is something like 12 million square feet or something, but some were closed for Ramadan.  There were no crowds which was nice, but it also made the experience a little boring.  There were no people to watch, and people-watching is my favorite thing about public places in foreign countries.  I always wonder where people are from, what they are doing, where they are going... But they were all at the mosque I suppose.  The decor at the mall was amazing though, and it was like being in a museum.  Here are a few pictures of my favorite parts:

Is that nature I see? No, just a fake tree in the mall.

Dubai mall.  Notice the lack of people and the fancy decor.

Butterflies in one of the mall's many atriums.

"Waterfall" fountain in the Dubai mall.

Those were the highlights of my trip to Dubai.  I never thought I would be writing about going to the mall, but I guess it was a cultural experience.  I do really miss being outside and all of this air conditioning is making me a little stir-crazy.  I also  feel like I am not getting to know this city because I can't just wander the streets aimlessly.  But I'm here to learn about geophysics, so an Arabian walkabout is out of the question. Yesterday was the start of our weekend and we were supposed to go to Ferrari World (home of the fastest roller coaster on the planet) today, but it's closed for renovations, just like the ski hill in Dubai.  Tomorrow we are going to the Grand Mosque and I'm sure I will have some pictures of the beautiful architecture to share.

Later,

ET

PS- Sorry for any spelling mistakes.  The default on my google spell checker here is Arabic so it's useless.

Never go to sleep without knowing where your pants are...

View from my hotel room.  The sky is never blue here- the dust and haze make it grey.

For you to get an accurate picture of what I'm experiencing, the easiest thing to say is that it's like a low security middle eastern prison.  That's a little harsh, but I am staying in a secure compound almost an hour from the city.  I can't explore much beyond the gates because it's not safe, and it's too hot. It has been pretty low stress- just go to class for six hours a day, go to the gym, and socialize.  Weekends (Friday and Saturday here) will be the time to get out and explore all the air-conditioned amenities of this country.

A great example of branding.  I'm sure you all know what this is a picture of, even if you can't read the words.

The food in Abu Dhabi is a cross between Indian food and Greek food, if you can imagine that.  Now can you imagine a version of that served in a school cafeteria?  Without too much description, I will just say that my stomach does not like it.  Too many spices I think...  But last night we had the opportunity to go into Abu Dhabi for the best buffet I have seen.  I had a tiny bit of all of my favorite Mediterranean food, but I was scared to eat too much of the dinner.  Nevertheless, two plates of chocolate desert from the fondue fountain shocked my system back into American food mode and made me feel awesome.

The best thing about dinner was our view of the Grand Mosque.  I tried to take a picture a dozen times, but as soon as I opened the camera lens water condensed on it.  If you were paying attention in my previous post you remember that Abu Dhabi has 0.00 inches of rain in August- it was so humid that water immediately condensed on the camera! And my skin. So, I went back inside and found the bar.  Alcohol consumption is very taboo here, but you are allowed to drink in hotel bars after dark during Ramadan.  The bar was behind a curtain so you wouldn't have known it was there unless someone told you. We discretely enjoyed a nice cold beer, and although it seemed expensive, it wasn't.

The currency here is the UAE Dirham (abbreviated dhs).  One dollar equals about 3.7 dhs.  So when you look at a drink menu and it says 30-, that seems like a lot, but it's not too bad.  I bought a hairdryer the other day and it was 78-, and it almost made my heart stop until I did the conversion.  The conversion makes me feel rich when I am holding the money. I exchanged $600 dollars at the airport for 2000 dhs and it was like winning the lottery.  Also, dirhams look cool, but maybe that's because I have a special fondness for pink money.  The 20 franc note in Switzerland is also pink, and that was always my favorite.  I wonder why American money isn't colorful?

100 dhs, 50 dhs, and 10 dhs, bills from top to bottom.  The other side is in English so I won't embarass myself.

Last interesting thing- the weather. I cannot explain how hot it is here.  The heat index that last time I checked was 129, and now I refuse to check.  It is not a dry heat, as I said before.  Fortunately we spend very little time outside- mostly it is just to walk from building to building or taxi to building. Yesterday we did have a 90 minute geophysics exercise outside while wearing our standard company uniform, which is a full flame-retardant suit.  That was hot, but no part of my body was exposed so I didn't get sunburned!  The humidity has set off the fire alarms the past two mornings, and if that keeps happening no one is going to take a real fire seriously.  The series of fire alarms have made me appreciate one of my mother's random but useful life advice: never go to sleep without knowing where your pants are.

Later,

ET

A Geography Lesson




The United Arab Emirates, the country whose capital is Abu Dhabi, is in red above.  (pic from wikipedia commons)



I arrived in Abu Dhabi last night after 20 hours of travel. Last night here was yesterday afternoon for you- I am currently 9 hours ahead of Houston and 8 hours ahead of the East Coast.  The trip wasn't too bad considering that I still hate flying, so I slept very little on the plane.  I got to my accomodations, took a 15 hour nap, and in a few hours I'm going to do some people watching at the Abu Dhabi mall.  Before I do, the teacher in me wants to give a quick geography lesson to everyone who thinks that I am living in Saudi Arabia.

When they first told me that training was in Abu Dhabi, I immediately envisioned the trip to Abu Dhabi that the ladies of New York took in the second Sex and the City movie. After reminding myself that life isn't a movie, I realized I didn't know anything about the place, even whether it is a city or country.  So, I went to a map to figure out where Abu Dhabi is. Turns out that it is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is a nearby city, and you may have heard of it, but don't get them confused. They like to do big things in Dubai- build an island shaped like a palm tree, construct the world's tallest building, etc, so you probably have heard more about Dubai than Abu Dhabi. Both cities are westernized, and supposedly there are a lot of American and European ex-pats living here. Also, they have a lot of money here because they have a lot of oil. Abu Dhabi has less than a million people, and has the highest per capita income in the world. Basically, it is the richest city in the world.

The weather is hot and sandy.  The average high temperature in August is 102, a little bit hotter than Houston's.  The record high is 118, although the heat index most days is at least that high.  The climate is  humid because it is located next to water.  The average precipitation is 0.000 inches. Good thing, because 10 months after my thru-hike that fancy rain jacket still smells bad so I left it at home.  The UAE's neighbors are Oman and Saudi Arabia. To the north is the Persian Gulf and across the gulf is Iran. The time zone is 8 hours ahead of Virginia and 9 hours ahead of Houston.

Culturally, aside from the ex-pats, the country is predominantly muslim and conservative. I will be here during Ramadan, the holy month. There are some strict laws during Ramadan, like no eating or drinking in public, but because I am not muslim I am allowed to eat lunch and drink water during the day, but only in private. Not drinking coffee during class might affect my performance though, especially while overcoming jet lag.  And I'm sure that 15 hour nap I just took won't help either.

Later,

ET

As if Houston isn't hot enough...



This is my dog Blaze, not to be mistaken for a sand leopard.



Last year at this time I was slogging through New England on the Appalachian Trail.  Life has taken me pretty far since then- geographically and mentally.  Major events included finishing my thru-hike, moving to Georgia, and adopting Blaze, the best dog ever.  Truthfully, the past year has been difficult. The difficulty stemmed from the fact that I had a really hard time finding a job in Georgia, but it was rooted in the fact that I had no post-trail plans. I had only planned my life up to that thru-hike.  Basically, I had accomplished my biggest life goal at age 25.  It seemed like there was nowhere to go but downhill from Katahdin.



But I have started over in Houston. I never planned on ending up here, in fact I tried to plan my career path so I wouldn't have to live here, but I have a good attitude and am appreciating what I have, including friends, family, and a paycheck. I'm working as a geophysicist.  I have never taken a single class in geophysics, but fortunately my company is providing me with exceptional training.  The first major step of my training is a seven week class, and because it's an international company, the class happens to be in Abu Dhabi, UAE.



When I was interviewed for this job, the recruiter asked if I was comfortable living in a foreign country. I said yes, of course, but it depends on the country. I said that I was not comfortable going to the Middle East. Four months later, here I am, packing my bags and saying goodbye to my awesome friends in Houston, headed off to Abu Dhabi.  I will be taking classes during the week, but I will have two days off each week and I plan to make the most of my surroundings.  I already have a to-do list of activities around Abu Dhabi and Dubai, including but not limited to:



-Visit the world's tallest building.

-Ride the world's fastest roller coaster.

-Go on the indoor ski hill.

-Visit the man-made island.

-Visit the Grand Mosque.

-Ride a camel.



In addition to stories of adventure and touristy stuff, I'm sure I'll have interesting (yet politically correct) cultural observations to tell you about.  I will also be posting a lot more pictures here than I did on my AT blog.  Even though this trip's primary purpose is for work, it's a good way for me to see a little bit of the world and share it with you.  It might include a little bit of geophysics, but nothing about my job or company because oil companies are pretty strict about sharing info. For those concerned with my safety, there are 4 other people from my office in Houston who will be with me, so I will never be alone. Also, the UAE is rich, westernized, and relatively secure. Save your worries and prayers for Americans who are in the active war zones in the Middle East.

Thanks for reading,

 ET (formerly known as Thunder)

PS- Don't let the above picture fool you. Blaze is actually with my family in Virginia until October, when we will begin a blog that contains reviews of Houston dog parks.