For Christmas we decided to give the girls a quick trip to Dubai...John is really busy at work right now so it was uncertain if he would be able to take a vacation. He got the 21st through the 24th off so we got 6 plane tickets, hotel reservations, and a safari excursion!
The night before we were to leave I was checking our bank account when I saw a very large debit out of our account. John was already asleep and I woke him to ask if he bought something for that amount and he said that he had not. I immediately called the bank to dispute it! Our bank at home is awesome...they got the forms ready to get our money back and our attorney went and signed the papers and we had our money back the next day. Sounds simple right??? Well....it took hours of calls and as you know, that can be crazy with the time difference and bad phones and internet. By the time I got it sorted out it was about 2:30-3:00a.m. and I had to be up by 5:00a.m. Also, the girls were still awake...soooo none of us got any sleep before we left.
We got to Bahrain at 10:30a.m., took a cab to the hotel (cabs are super cheap), checked in, and went shopping! Our hotel was by Mall of the Emirates so we started there. The malls are similar to the malls in Bahrain only a bit bigger. They have similar stores with the addition of some American stores like American Eagle, Hollister, Aeropostale, and Bloomingdales.
There are almost no women in abayas! No men really drool over my children in the malls like they do here in the malls. They have tons of Christmas decorations and Christmas music playing....loved it!
The second day we had a desert safari scheduled for that evening and we got kind of a late start so we split up and spent the few hours we had shopping and eating. Madeline was complaining about the prospect of the desert safari all afternoon as she did not want to go on it. The thought of spending six hours in the desert did not sound fun to her.
Our driver, Abraham, came to our hotel in a 4x4 Land Cruiser and took us out to the desert where we met up with a dozen or so other vehicles. After Abraham let the air out of the tires he started up a CD and we went one by one up the hills. It was SCARY and FUN and SCARY...did I mention SCARY?!?! It was a blast! It was scarier than a roller coaster ride. No kidding. It felt like the vehicle was going to tip over more than once. One time another Landcruiser got so close I thought they were going to hit us. The girls were holding on for dear life. Sarah had a very large bottle of water between her legs and she squeezed so hard the lid popped off and spilled all over her. She then had to hold it so it wouldn't spill which meant she couldn't hold on.....good times! We ended at the top and got out in the sand to cool off the engine and watch the sunset. We then went in to the Dubai Desert Reservation Reserve to a bedouin village and had BBQ, belly dancing, henna, some weird male dancer, camel rides, etc. It was so much fun! That was the BEST part of our trip.
The last day we spent at the souks and then at the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. While impressive to look at and think of, the actual "excursion" was a bit lackluster. You pay $25 a person to go to the observation deck on the 124th floor and take pictures. Pretty cool but not sure it's worth $25 a person!
All in all...even with the huge blisters from walking and shopping so much...we LOVED Dubai...especially after having lived in Bahrain for the last 4 months...it is so much nicer!
So we get back from Dubai and are in the passport control lines when we hear this Bahraini woman screaming very very loudly (they remind me of cajun women...lol). It was so loud and such a spectacle that it was borderline scary. She was screaming and wailing at three young arab men...she even started hitting them in the face. The police couldn't do anything. They just stood and watched it play out. It was so surreal. When I got to the passport guy I asked him what was going on and he said that they had said something to her daughter. WELCOME BACK TO BAHRAIN. It is such a strange society...very very immature. Back to women wearing abayas and men oogling my children and all women....MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE DESERT!
All in all, this has been such a blessed year! God has given us so much...we have just begun this new adventure but we never forget our friends and family...especially at Christmas. As we form new family traditions we still mourn for those traditions from the past...we miss our Christmas Eve service at FBC with grandaddy...coming home to open the presents with the grandparents...waking on Christmas morning while Jan, Jerl and Susan come and watch the girls open their gifts...going back to the in-laws for blueberry muffins and breakfast tacos...watching Elf and A Christmas Story...eating Grandaddy's Christmas dinner off of the Lenox holly plates...napping on the floor in front of the fire. We miss our old traditions but we know that life changes and we are embracing our new traditions.
Merry Christmas to you all...
Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas 2010 in Bahrain
It has been four months since I have seen my daughter! She is finally here. Sarah got here on the 16th of December and Alison got here on the 17th! I was so excited! Unfortunately for them they had great difficulties readjusting their internal clocks. They slept during the day and stayed up all night.
The hard part of them coming here to Bahrain as opposed to going home to Texas is that I feel like I should be doing something with them every day....there isn't THAT much to do in Bahrain. At home we would be laying around watching television, eating, and they would be visiting friends....but here we are looking for things to do that everyone will enjoy.
We visited the souks. That was all right, but Alison hates that kind of aggressive sales. She just can't do it...she doesn't like to haggle either...she gets that from me. Sarah got some really nice stuff from one of the vendors in Gold City. We didn't stay long because Alison was ready to go...they are kind of scary if you have never been. We drove to the beach at Zallaq and took pictures and Sarah and Maddie waded in the Gulf. It was a pretty day! We drove by the base and by the Bahrain School in Juffair. Of course we went to Seef and City Center. We drove by our old apartment hotel in Seef. We went to the camel farm and got to see two baby camels...one was 4 days old and one was 5 days old. Sarah got to sit on a camel. There are a lot of flies and it stinks...no one else wanted to sit on them. I think the camel farm is pretty cool....Sheikh Mohammed opened it because with the prevalence of automobiles as transportation the camel has become scarce here. When the Bahrainis were a bedouin society they counted on the camels. The sheikh seeks to preserve the camel. It is free to visit the farm.
We took Sarah and Alison to Adhari Park. It is an arab amusement park...I don't think I have ever seen any other Westerners there...ever. There is a ride there called the Japan Coast and it would NOT make it as a ride in the USA...as a matter of fact...almost NONE of those rides would be allowed in the US. There is obviously no OSHA here. The Japan Coast spins you around and bounces you up and down while you are sitting in a seat with no seatbelt. It is quite frightening for a parent to watch!
We also went to see a movie at Saar Cinema and went and painted at Cafe Ceramique. That was fun!
Our first few days were just spent adjusting their sleep patterns and touring the town. We left for Dubai on the 21st for our Christmas break....that is the big gift we gave the girls this year.
The hard part of them coming here to Bahrain as opposed to going home to Texas is that I feel like I should be doing something with them every day....there isn't THAT much to do in Bahrain. At home we would be laying around watching television, eating, and they would be visiting friends....but here we are looking for things to do that everyone will enjoy.
We visited the souks. That was all right, but Alison hates that kind of aggressive sales. She just can't do it...she doesn't like to haggle either...she gets that from me. Sarah got some really nice stuff from one of the vendors in Gold City. We didn't stay long because Alison was ready to go...they are kind of scary if you have never been. We drove to the beach at Zallaq and took pictures and Sarah and Maddie waded in the Gulf. It was a pretty day! We drove by the base and by the Bahrain School in Juffair. Of course we went to Seef and City Center. We drove by our old apartment hotel in Seef. We went to the camel farm and got to see two baby camels...one was 4 days old and one was 5 days old. Sarah got to sit on a camel. There are a lot of flies and it stinks...no one else wanted to sit on them. I think the camel farm is pretty cool....Sheikh Mohammed opened it because with the prevalence of automobiles as transportation the camel has become scarce here. When the Bahrainis were a bedouin society they counted on the camels. The sheikh seeks to preserve the camel. It is free to visit the farm.
We took Sarah and Alison to Adhari Park. It is an arab amusement park...I don't think I have ever seen any other Westerners there...ever. There is a ride there called the Japan Coast and it would NOT make it as a ride in the USA...as a matter of fact...almost NONE of those rides would be allowed in the US. There is obviously no OSHA here. The Japan Coast spins you around and bounces you up and down while you are sitting in a seat with no seatbelt. It is quite frightening for a parent to watch!
We also went to see a movie at Saar Cinema and went and painted at Cafe Ceramique. That was fun!
Our first few days were just spent adjusting their sleep patterns and touring the town. We left for Dubai on the 21st for our Christmas break....that is the big gift we gave the girls this year.
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