Christmas Break: UAE and Oman

We really took advantage of vacation time this year. Here are a few highlights of places we went to and things that we did. :)

Here's a little map of the Arabian Peninsula to give you an idea of some of the places we went to. My parents live in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain isn't that far away from where they're at. In fact we took a few flights in and out of Bahrain and even spent some time sightseeing one day. We spent 12 hours or so in Qatar (post and pictures to come soon) and then after Christmas we flew to UAE to spend a few days in Dubai and we stopped in Oman for a little bit. The last post we were in Yemen before Christmas. So in technically, with the exception of Kuwait, we traveled to all of the countries in the Arabian Peninsula! Before I joined up with Matt he spent some time in Jordan too. Although that's not included in the Arabian peninsula, or this post, pictures are coming of that soon.

Dubai- UAE
I have been to Dubai but Matt has not and truth be told, Dubai isn't Matt's kind of place. Probably because it's a tourist magnet and Matt's more into the hidden beauties of the world than the places that people obviously want to visit... which may explain why we have never taken a trip to Disneyland. (I'm working on that.)

Funny story. We had arranged to rent a car in Dubai and drive to Oman because we had heard it was prettier and more of our kind of a place. The night before we left Calvin took out all of the contents of Matt's wallet. When we arrived in Dubai and went to pick up the rental we needed to provide a credit card. My dad doesn't usually carry one and because I knew Matt was carrying his I didn't take mine. We thought it better that we not take all of our cards in case something got stolen, etc. We thought to take as little as possible. In any case, when Matt opened his wallet he had nothing in there. Long story short, we couldn't rent a car at all, and as a result we were forced decided to spend the few days we had set aside for Oman in Dubai. I didn't think it was a big deal, Dubai wasn't that bad, however the caveat is it's really expensive.

Matt racked up a bunch of hotel points from doing a lot of work in Wyoming before our trip so lucky for us we didn't really pay for a place to stay. 

In one tourist/guide book I read about Dubai which said, "if you can dream it, you can have it." Which may be the reason why Dubai has a 7 star hotel that goes under water (they created the 7th star just for this particular hotel), they have "islands" that when seen above make the shape of the 7 continents, they have the largest building in the world, the "lost" city of Alantis (not really lost because, duh, it's in Dubai!), and they have the largest mall in the world, largest as in square feet. Dont forget the indoor skiing! Yup, they have one of those too.

Anyways, like I said, it's a pricy place. Probably another reason why we wanted to escape to Oman. Anyways, we decided to take advantage of what fate had thrown at us.

 The tallest building in the world.

 <------  Matt posing infront of the Burj Khalifa. It's the largest building in the world. Matt was pretty excited about this land mark that he got to take a trip to the very top.

Scroll down and you can see some of the shots he took at the very top of the "Burj".

**On a side note, we were told that for New Year's Eve they were going to have the world's LARGEST firework show here. Google it. I've seen a youtube video of it.

The Dubai Mall. 
I like the decorations and the shops. I love candy shops, not that I adore eating candy but I really just love the colors and all the thought that goes into designing sweets. :)

The Dubai Mall has an aquarium, that if you pay 15 dollars (USD) you can walk right through it. OR you can just stand outside of it and take pictures, like we did. The aquarium was really cool. We saw sting rays and SHARKS and all types of coral and multi colored fish, it was pretty cool. The mall also had an indoor ice skating rink and they had these plastic penguins (see photo down below) that little kids could use to move around the ice to help them with their balance.

 

 Camel Racing.

Our guide book suggested we check out the camel racing scene in Dubai, so we did. 

Apparently it's now illegal to actually ride on top of the camel when racing. So they have "robots" ride on top of them instead. There's a walkie talkie and next to the race track (for the camels) there's a road where the camel owners are shouting orders to the creatures and sending signals for the "robot" to give the camel a "friendly" little "smack". 

This photo gives you a better perspective of what the race track looks like. The camels are running on the dirt and the "racers" are driving in their cars, riding alongside their camels. Speaking in the walkie-talkies and triggering the "robot" to lay a friendly "tap" to make the camel go faster.

Of course my dad found a guy who would offer to let him ride one of this camels! :)

The Global Village.

This was like an amusement park but without so many rides. It was more a "cultural" center where they had a few countries represented. You could stop into each little area and buy goods from that particular country and there were places to eat from all over the world. 

We tried Turkish ice cream. It was gross.

Matt's a sucker for coconut water from a coconut. Unfortunately, he said this wasn't very good.

At night there were shows from different parts of the world. This one is from Egypt.

We got to see a fire show! Where the performers had hula hoops that they lit on fire. That was pretty awesome too. :)

Oman and the Fijords of Musandam

So even though we couldn't really drive to Oman we decided to pay for a quick tour. We went to the Musandam Peninsula which is the "northern" part of Oman. The UAE sits right between this peninsula and the rest of Oman. 

Here's a picture below to demonstrate what I mean. Oman is colored in white. You can see the United Arab Emirates to the left of it and then on the very top of the UAE there's a small part that is in white as well. We went to that part. :)

Look how close we are to Iran! Apparently there are smugglers that go to Oman to buy things like cigarettes and TVs and take them back to Iran. It's not a problem for Oman, but it is a problem for Iran. I'm not quite sure why. We did see a few "smugglers" with their boats.  The tour guide said that Iran was about 40 miles away from where we were at.

Matt, my dad, and me.

 

We sat on a boat like this.

Fijords

We did some snorkeling and socializing with the other travelers on the boat. We mostly just sat and looked around. I can't say it was the most exciting thing ever, but er... we can say we have seen the Fijords of Oman! We also got our passports stamped. So not too shabby.

Socotra: The Jewel of Biodiversity

I saw this little gem on Pintrest a few months ago.

I am not really one to pin about "places to go".  Mostly because my chances of actually seeing "Top 10 Places Before You Die" are slim and the pictures you see on the internet have probably been enhanced by Photoshop 10 fold so it won't really look like the pictures you see online. Besides, I've become kind of snobbish about traveling and I'd really just like to visit Disneyland instead of traveling half way across the world to go to a new country. I go where I can.

This time our travels just so happen to be Socotra. I promise you, it wasn't because of Pintrest.

We were already planning on going to Saudi to visit my parents in December and Matt wanted to take this chance to visit other countries in the Gulf. My sister Aline was in Yemen for a couple of weeks last year and Aline suggested we go to Socotra.

If you didn't know, Yemen, especially it's capital city of Sana'a, is not currently tourist friendly. There are warnings out about the dangers of traveling there. The US Embassy pretty much states that if you get into trouble it is unlikely that they will be able to help you because they dont even have a lot of US workers out there. Our Lonely Planet guide book told us not to go. The UK and Australia have warnings against traveling to Yemen. At the beginning of December there was a bombing in a government building that killed 15 people. Weekly, westerners are being kidnapped or shot. Mostly, targets are government officials and not so much tourists as much as people who actually live and work in Sana'a, but STILL I was slightly embarrassed to tell people we were going to Yemen because I didn't want people to tell me I was crazy and asking for a death wish, because really I did feel like it was slightly foolish we were going to Sana'a. We only spent the night in Sana'a because of the way our flights worked. I made sure we had someone to pick us up from the airport, someone legitimate and probably a little more expensive, and I covered from head to toe in traditional dress, making sure to cover my hair with a scarf. I was trying my best to fit in with my white, blue-eyed husband. I was pretty close to covering my face but I saw that some women didn't cover their faces so I decided against it. Now that we made it back alive I will proudly tell you I went to Yemen! I want a shirt that says: "I survived Sana'a!" ;)

Set aside from the fact that I felt like our lives were at risk I thought Sana'a was beautiful. The houses look like ginerbread houses with just the icing and no gum drops. The electricity goes out a few times a week so we were lucky enough to see a lot of darkness over the city. Which was fine because we did risk our lives to find a bite to eat in a city where very little people spoke english. The only person at the little restaurant we went to could say three things: "Meat, Fish, or Egg?" Matt got eggs and I said Meat, not knowing what we were going to get. Matt got an omelet and I got a chunk of lamb leg. :) We walked about 5 minutes to a restaurant outside of our hotel and I felt pretty good that the lights were out. We could hide in the darkness.

Socotra is nothing like Sana'a.  I think it is the most rural place I have ever been to. There were no signs of western influence. No pepsi or cola advertisements. No advertisements of mobiles or hand bags. Not a single steel structure. Everything was made out of wood and mud. There were goats every where.  Children playing soccer in the streets and fisherman casting there nets into the ocean. A very simple way of life.

We saw these, Dragon Blood Trees.
This seems to be the gem of Socotra. In fact Yemen put this on one of their coins. 

 The Dragon Blood Tree, apparently isn't any where else in the world. There are some that appear like it in Kenya, but Socotra is it's home. The people of the island have a lot of respect and reverence for the tree and are interested in learning more about it's origins. Botanists seemed to have come and gone studying the trees. The major things that is threatening these trees, as of to date, are the goats and sheep on the island who eat the seeds and baby/smaller trees, preventing new trees to grow.

Here are some other funny looking trees. The first is a cucumber tree. They dont grow cucumbers, not sure why they call them cucumber trees and the second is my favorite, the Butter tree.

   

 

We did go to a botanical garden where someone wanted to study a little bit more

about the plant life of Socotra and to take notes on how the plants grow. 

They're more interested in the Dragon Blood Tree because it seems like

there's a lot of uncertainty on the life cycle of the tree. These plants, above, are

the 7 types of frankincense that grow on the island. 

Super cool seashell I wanted to remember but not steal. So we took a photo and threw it in the ocean.

 Dead puffer fish. I guess the poor guy had rolled up on the beach (rocks) and couldn't get back.

It was still kind of cool. :)

Lunch in some cave. Typical to sit on the ground and eat every meal.

On one beach (there's a lot of beaches in Socotra!) we slept here. 

We slept in a tent that was too short length wise for Matt. So we slept with our

feet outside the tent. In the middle the night I felt a little "hug" on my big toe and realized

it was a crab! I shot up and saw this skeletal looking thing running

away from the moonlight. It didn't hurt, like I said, it just embraced my toe.

It was kind of cool. Sort of wish I could see it closer.

 

Typical breakfast. Bread with jam, honey, and coffee. 

I told Matt every day that I really loved this one meal and I could always eat this. By 

our last morning I was tired of it and I just wanted a bowl of cereal. 

              

We stayed in these huts for two out of the three days we were there. We slept on foam pads that may have been just a bit better than sleeping on the floor, but not much than that. We tried not to study the foam mattresses too much. At least they provided cool mosquito nets that helped me feel like I was protected from mosquitoes or bugs, more specifically centipedes. :)

 

We saw these strange cones built on the sand one morning and wondered how they had gotten there. Upon closer look we realized that crabs had probably dug them to create holes to spend the night in. If you look at the second picture you can see the claw marks from the crabs. Call me landlocked, but I LOVED to see the crabs! I loved to see them hanging out on the beach and wanted so badly to take a closer look and a picture, however, as soon as I started walking closer to them they all retreated to the ocean. Seriously, they wouldn't let me get within 20 feet of them without all disappearing into the water!

Socotra was only one part of our trip. I'll be posting shortly about the other places in the Golf we visited. Between Matt and I we have been to all of the places on the Arabian Peninsula... well except Kuwait. I did have layover there? 

Lentils and quinoa are hip.

Bleh.

I dont really hate any particular food. Sure there are foods where I would say, "I'd rather not." But I would eat them anyways, but lentils and quinoa are one of those things I really struggle with. Lentils much more so than quinoa. Usually when I share this with people though I get a response like, "oh really?! I love lentils!" Or "I just love quinoa!" Proceeding there declarations of love they will continue to share with me all the ways they use it and where I can find it made really well. Dont get me wrong, I have had good quinoa, but nothing which has been produced by my own two hands.

I've begun to get the impression that it's "cool" or "hip" to like quinoa. As a result I almost feel embarrassed to tell people I dont like it. I've begin to wonder if admitting I dont like quinoa is like telling people you don't like fluffy cute bunnies.

Really I want to like it but... EEK GAG! It's disgusting.

The first time I found quinoa was at Costco, in a really large bag. Matt and I thought we'd take it home and try it. We did and after 3 years that bag is almost gone and I promise you I haven't eaten more than a couple spoon fulls from that bag of quinoa and most of what we made got chucked. (I am thinking about those poor kids in destitute third world countries. I'm sure they'd eat it.)

For the record, I have tried to like quinoa! I promise! So how have I tried to make quinoa??

One week I thought I'd make some quinoa breakfast with fruit. However, when Day 1 hit no amount of sugar was going to make the quinoa taste any better with my blackberries.

I've tried cooking it like Brazilian rice, which gets it's delectable flavor from garlic, salt, and sometimes onions. Not even my Brazilian rice recipe could make it taste better.

I tried to imitate the Whole Foods black bean and corn quinoa salad recipe. It's actually pretty good. It's flavored with a red wine vinegar. It tasted great at Whole Foods.... not in my kitchen. 

Matt & I are turning into those parents. The kind that read labels and count how many things we can't pronounce or how many things look strange and decide we are not going to give our child THAT. We haven't given our child any candy and we waited until he was one to give him fruit.

There's a specific brand of baby food I really like. It's called Ella's kitchen.

It is "organic" but they have fun mixes of veggies and when Calvin was only eating veggies and no fruit they had lots of fun selections. They had a LENTIL and Rutabaga one that I loved. I'm not sure if Calvin loved it.... but I did! :)

In order to be a good parent I once decided that I needed to love lentils and quinoa for Calvin's sake. So one week I sat down and planned what meals I would eat that would involve lentils or quinoa.
Day 1 lentils with sweet potatoes. Gross.
Day 2 quinoa black bean salad. Whole Foods makes it better.
Day 3 pizza. No, that's not quinoa crusted pizza or pizza covered in lentils. It's the regular kind with cheese, tomatoes and whatever else you'd like to throw on it. We really didn't make it to day 3. :)

I still make lentils now, but I just feed them to Calvin. 

Anyways, when people say their children are like garbage disposals.... I KNOW WHY. Because they will eat anything. I'm sure people mean to say that there child will eat paper, little plastic tidbits, zippers, dirt, little rocks, etc.  Calvin will eat our QUINOA and LENTILS!

When I made red lentils with sweet potatoes on Day 1 that Matt and I struggled to eat, I gave it to Calvin. I told some colleagues at school what I made and they said it sounded delicious. (bleh)
And to Calvin, it was absolutely delicious.

This kid eats better than I do! I blend up parsnips, eggplant, zucchini, and beets cooked in vegetable broth and puree it and he eats it all with brown rice. :)

Logan

I really ought to post more. :)

Two weekends ago it was UAE weekend. I know the U stands for Utah and the E probably stands for Education but I'm not sure what the A could be. All I know is that it means NO SCHOOL! It's a popular time for National Parks in the state to be filled up. I know we made that mistake once. Finding a camping spot was difficult.

Matt has been working out of town and racked up a lot of reward points so we got a "free" place to stay in Logan a the Holiday Inn Express. Wahoo!

On facebook I put up a post asking for a list of cool things to see in Logan. It was really helpful and we got to do quite a few of them. Here are a few pictures from our visit.

 Silly that I noticed the signal at the crosswalk. I wanted to look at Logan as a "brand new" and maybe even a "foreign" place. So when I saw something I hadn't seen in SLC for a while I thought, "hey! This is new!" *click*

We walked downtown and visited a few bookstores and candy stores. We bought some super yummy Bluebird Chocolates and looked at some pretty historic houses and sites. 

 We visited the First Dam and my son LOVED the ducks. He would look and pause at the ducks in such reverence. After hearing the ducks quack and make their own little sounds Calvin at one point perked up and chimed in, imitating them in his own way. 

The Zombie Walk

We weren't sure what it was going to be like. We just saw something posted on the City of Logan's Event Page and figured we'd check it out.  I think it was some type of food drive, I'm not quite sure. We just wanted to see some zombies walking.  More people were zombies with fake blood and torn up clothes but a few them decided they would be the ones who would save us from the Zombie Apocalypse!

I thought it would be really cool if I could get a photo of all the zombies crossing Main Street.... but that is obviously not the case in the photo above. I mean look how politely you see them crossing between the white lines at a designated spot and at an appropriate time but there's my husband in a bright blue jacket smiling like nothing is the matter. "Honey! Watch out for the zombies!!"

We ended the evening with getting "good" food. We got pizza at a place near USU, got appetizers at a Brazilian restaurant, and got Aggie Ice Cream at the creamery on campus. For the record I think it's pretty much equal to the creamery in Provo. So good! :)

The next day we hit up the farmer's market, visited the Logan's little zoo, and went to Bear Lake.
We had Bear Lake Raspberry shakes which were delicious! We also went up to Paris, Idaho to see the Paris Ice Cave. It was pretty anticlimactic, but at least we know that from experience, right?!

Love the explanation of this species! "Rock".

Yup that's the ice we have found Paris Ice Caves.

 Of crouse Matt wanted to see if Calvin could climb up all the rocks by himself. What we failed to realize is that Calvin took great pleasure in sticking his hand in small dark holes whenever he saw one and popping rocks in his mouth like skittles. I can't even believe how thoughtless he is about just throwing rocks in his mouth. It's like we're watching a movie and the natural thing is just to, you know, pop a rock in your mouth and continue like it's no body's business.  I'm sure if he wasn't distracted by all the little dark holes and small rocks he could have done fine climbing up.

 

This was pretty much the end of our trip, really. 

On the Map we saw that there were some roads that could take us from this location to Preston, Idaho which would be a straight shot to Logan, Utah. That way we wouldn't have to go back to Bear Lake, down Logan Canyon and back into the city. It would save us a lot of time. Besides we had a "Haunted Logan" tour to go to. I love Utah history and I love the ghost stories associated with this state! 

So we tried one of the small roads that were suppose to go to Preston. Well, there was a split in the road and we choose one way because the other way had a big sign that said: "Road Not Maintened for Passenger Vehicles". Personally, it seems to me to be pretty clear that we shouldn't go down that road, so for the time being we don't. However the road we do choose thins out and we decide to turn around and head back up to Bear Lake and down Logan Canyon. 

We see a bunch of ATVs and Matt stops one of them and asks if he thinks our car could make it on that forbidden road. Uh....? 

The man assures that although some spots are tight we should be fine. I shake my head and tell the man no, but Matt just pats my lap and assures we're going to be alright. Except that we're not alright because after almost making it to a better road our car hits a knarly pointy rock and our tire goes flat. After flattening the spare tire we decide that we'll probably have to find a new tire and put it on our car in order to get out of that tight, steep, and rocky road. Oh geez. 

Look at those rocks! A super jagged one got our front tire.

So in short, the ATVers give us a ride down, we get a ride to Preston (45 minutes away) and then we call Matt's parents in Pocatello to come get us. Matt gets the tire store owner to open shop at 8pm to sell us a tire, and Matt drives off with the Tow man that our insurance provided for us. 

Calvin and I go to Pocatello with Matt's parents and Matt joins us Sunday morning around 2am. :)

The best part of this whole escapade was the fact that Calvin got to take his very first ATV ride. We latched on the carseat and rode away. Calvin at one point seemed pretty excited. He would talk make sounds as we went over bumps and smile big. However as a result of his distaste of keeping his hands covered from the cold wind he started to get fussy. Even after his hands were icy cold he refused to let me hold them or keep them warm from him. I dont get it.