Dubai - Desert Safari

[Ed note: if you thought it was bad that it took me seven days to finish the draft of my first Dubai post, whatever will you think of the fact that I've now been home for three weeks and am just now finishing this final installment? Can I play the baby brain card again?]

Probably one of the most fun things we did in Dubai was a desert safari. Especially for Mark, who loves being outside... apparently even in the desert. (Seriously, we chuckle when Nathan constantly asks outside? outside? but I know where he gets it, and he got it honest.)

Anyway, on our last day in Dubai, we got to get out of the city and into the desert! We were both glad for the opportunity to see some of the natural beauty in the area, an idea of what the place was like just thirty short years ago, before oil changed everything. Mark and I have seen lots of natural beauty in our travels together, but we had never seen the desert, so it was a cool experience for us. It just goes on and on and on and on.... like the ocean, but with sand. Which I think I knew, going into it... but it's one of those things that's hard to picture until you see it with your own eyes. Amazing.

On the drive out to the desert, we saw so many camels! I couldn't stop taking pictures of them, actually. They're so cute in a lumpy beastly sort of way. And seeing them walking along with a shepherd (what do you call a shepherd for a camel anyway?) was just such a beautiful image for me of desert life.

The first thing we did was drive out to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, a rather large protected area in the desert. (Nice that in the face of nonstop construction and the highest per-capita water consumption on the planet, someone decided this corner of the desert was worth saving -- yay!) The company we were with (owned by the airline, owned by the royal family) is one of only two or three that are allowed to take people inside, so we felt pretty privileged.

They let some of the air out of the tires in our jeeps (tahoes, whatever) and we went four-wheeling over the dunes! Crazy! It was like a roller coaster! (I have to be honest and say that Beanie didn't like it very much.) Our driver was slinging the car around and shooting sand up every which way, and it really felt like an adventure.
The videos we shot didn't make it look nearly as scary I remember it, but this one short clip does show how we were skidding all over the sand. (I'm still sort of amazed we didn't flip over.) The drive was cool, though, even aside from the ride itself. There was a surprising amount of life in the desert (more than I was expecting anyway) -- shrubs, plants, and even a little mama and baby deer of some sort. (For that picture, click here.)

We stopped for a rest a little camp area with pretty Arabian carpets (none of them flew! dang it!) and enjoyed a cocktail of sparkly date juice. That's right, juice made from dates. Not even kidding. (It's exactly what Beanie needed to soothe my tummy... not.)


And I got to do something I had been waiting to do the whole time we were there -- we got to meet and ride camels! It was so cool! Mark got it on video but it was kind of dark so it's mostly just us talking on a black background, with some Arabian music in the background. Not really worth sharing. But here's photographic evidence that Beanie and I rode a camel!

Aside from the camels, we also got to eat some more kebabs (yes, really), see belly dancing, get outfitted in the hijab (long robe that many Muslim women wear in the gulf region.. see that picture by clicking here), and there was even a woman there who could do henna tattoos. The one on my arm is a flower, and the Arabic word for "mother" -- since it was Mother's Day in Arabia while we were there!
By the end of the evening, I am sort of embarrassed (but not really if I'm being honest) to admit that I fell asleep. In the desert. Hey, I'm pregnant and I was tired and I have never claimed not to be a party-pooper and I will not apologize for my evening desert doze. Some people woke me up taking a picture, though, so the nap was short-lived.

The one bad thing about the evening (and Mark will outright disagree with me on this being a bad thing) is that our camera didn't survive the desert. Turns out sand is like a camera's worst enemy (how did everyone know this except us?), so taking it out to take pictures of a sandstorm probably wasn't the brightest idea. But Mark has been wanting a new camera since about the time Nathan was born, so his mourning period was over in the same instant it started. If it started at all. There's a little part of me (ok, a big part) that suspects this was sabitage on his part. Taking a camera out in a sandstorm is a little too dumb for my genius hubby, unless he really did know what was going to happen, and was hoping for it. (As soon as I told him I couldn't get the camera back open, he had a hard time hiding his smile, and he started camera shopping in the airport on the way home, before we had even left Dubai.) Hmmmm.

Anyway, the desert safari was actually a super-fun way to end our trip. Our little babymoon. We had a great time in Dubai and it was a cool experience, even if it's not something we ever would have done on our own. (Most of the main sights there are too expensive for 98% of the population, anyway.) And if you haven't checked out all the pictures from our trip yet, you can get to them by clicking on Mark and me in front of the Burj Al-Arab, below.


by mgoetts

Christians in a Mosque

One of the most interesting and enlightening things that Mark and I did in Dubai was a mosque visit. Yep, that's right. The two of us, Christian and unashamed, had the opportunity to go into a mosque and learn about Islam, from Muslims. Around here, that would never be an option, and in most of the rest of the world as well, from what I understand. But this one mosque in Dubai (one of about thirteen hundred, apparently), as part of Sheikh Mohammed's Center for Cultural Understanding, opens its doors to non-Muslims a few times a week (between prayers) to teach about Islam and invite candid questions from visitors.

So although our group was scheduled to go to the Mall of the Emirates that morning (where they have the famous indoor ski resort), we thought that taking advantage of this pretty rare opportunity was going to be more culturally enriching than skiing inside. And it was. (For us. If you like to ski inside, I'm not judging, you should do what you want on vacation!)

The mosque itself was beautiful, both outside and in. Our program was led by a man and a woman, and they showed us how Muslims wash themselves before prayer (ablution), showed us the positions/prostrations used in the prayer service, and answered lots and lots of questions.

I have actually done a fair amount of reading about Islam (in particular, the plight of women in fundamentalist Islamic theocracies troubles me), and I have to admit that I went into this program assuming that whatever "open minds, open doors" paraphernalia they threw at me would just be to make the westerners feel warm and fuzzy about Islam. I was assuming I would be exposed to some "watered-down" version of Islam -- that, unfortunately, the "best" Muslims really were the ones who followed the violent version of jihad, and aimed to totally eradicate "the people of the book" (that's us). Those fundamentalists were the ones that were getting their religion most right.

But wait.

Why did I have this attitude? I don't want to be lumped in with the violence of Christian crusaders of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, or the sheltering, exclusiveness, and polygamy of the FLDS. Just because they chose one or more sections of scripture (lifted out of context, in my opinion) and followed them all the way through doesn't mean they're the "best" kind of Christian or that they're the ones who got the religion most right. And I definitely don't think that my brand of Christianity is "watered-down." So why was I imposing this weird standard on Islam?

Anyway, the whole visit was sort of eye-opening for me in this way. I don't know exactly how I feel about Islam now, but it's better than what I thought a week ago. I do think there would be so much benefit in Christians and Muslims learning to play nice, to get along better... but sometimes I wonder if that's inevitable -- they think they have the right final answer, and we think we have the right final answer. I can't speak for them, but I'm not willing to compromise on my understanding of that answer. But I'm willing to love and live peacefully.

Here are some of the things we learned about Islam that I didn't know before:

- The religion requires both men and women to dress modestly, and to dress according to their gender. There is not much further detailing about what that means. What we view as typical "Muslim wear" is actually just cultural fashion, which is why it's seen mostly the gulf region. (Most Muslims here in the states and in Europe favor normal (conservative) western clothes, with maybe a colorful head scarf as an accessory.)

- What women (and men) wear is entirely their choice. Islam makes a big deal out of free will, and states specifically that people can't be forced to do (or wear) things they don't want to. At least in free and tolerant societies (like the US and Dubai). This of course is not true in places where the Taliban is in control and imposes their own interpretations of the dress code, as law.

- Women are most definitely allowed in mosques, although they're not required to go as men are. Most mosques have separate prayer rooms for women, although some don't (in those, everyone prays together, but men and women don't get shoulder-to-shoulder with each other). The women's prayer rooms are smaller only because fewer women come than men. (In the malls and market areas, the women's prayer rooms are substantially larger than the men's.)

- The mosque as a religious family, or "home" in society, doesn't function quite the same way as our churches. They are used for prayer, and that's pretty much it. The whole building is just a prayer room or two, an office for the imam, and some restrooms. Muslims go to whichever mosque is convenient to them at prayer time. They don't house AA meetings and classes and girl scouts, it's just for prayer.

Ok this post is way longer than I intended, just wanted to share a little about our experience.

Dubai - Beaches and Water Fun!

Ok, this is the 2nd installment of four blog posts about Dubai. I'm way too long-winded to put it all in one post. :)
One of the main reasons people go to Dubai is for a beach vacation. The emirate is right on the coast of the Persian Arabian let's just call it The Gulf, shall we? So the beaches are beautiful, and there is no shortage of beach resorts.

The most famous is the Burj Al Arab, which is becoming the landmark of the city. It's built on its own little island (reclaimed, of course... it's the theme of Dubai), and they keep riffraff like us from wandering in off the street by only allowing people in who have reservations. (If you want to know what it looks like on the inside, I can't help you there. Turn on the NatGeo and they will be running a show about it within the next two hours, I'm sure.)

We weren't willing to pay the insane prices for tea or drinks or food there, so Mark and Beanie and I spent part of one morning hanging out at a beach nearby. That way we could enjoy the beautiful landmark while wading in the gulf, lying in the sand, and avoid having to act classier than we really are. (We needed a break from that anyway.) It was nice to be alone, just the two (three!) of us, and enjoy some natural beauty. And by natural beauty, I of course mean Mark (not the man-made islands and buildings). I mean, he's always hot, but doesn't he seem to get hotter on vacation?

One other place we got to hang out at the beach was at the Westin. There were so many yachts anchored in front! And the Westin also gave us a good photo op to show the incredible amount of construction currently going on in Dubai. The whole city is still pretty much one big construction site (although it has slowed considerably over the last six months, due to the economic climate). The skyline is a mess of fancy buildings, and literally thousands of cranes.
The beach was lovely and we could see the bridge (and new monorail) leading out to the Palm Jumeirah, which is one of the most famous land reclamation projects in Dubai (or anywhere, I guess). And later that afternoon, we got to go out there! At the end of the palm, there is a fun waterpark where we got to swim and ride rides (and bare our shoulders and legs - gasp! - no, it's ok at the beaches and stuff). Mark and I really like waterparks (yes, we're that dorky) so of course we had fun at Aquaventure. Some of the tube rides actually went through a shark tank! And most of the slides were connected to the lazy river, so when it dumped you off at the end, you could just ride the river until you saw an "exit" for another ride you wanted to do, and it would just pull you up a belt to get there. Too fun! You never had to get out of your tube if you wanted to be lazy. Or if your butt got wedged in. (Can I play the pregnancy card?) And a couple of the tube rides went down and up -- the jets/belts were strong enough to push you back up another hill after you had gone down one (even me! even pregnant me! I didn't get stuck on any rides! woo hoo!) -- it was like a roller coaster! I think the US has bigger water parks, but ours are sorely lacking in tube ride technology compared to this one! Too bad Mark and I would never put up the admission price (close to $100, plus another $15 for a locker!) if someone else hadn't paid for us. I have no idea how much snacks and food cost at the park (we brought granola bars from home to carry around with us between meals!), but I did notice that Belgian Waffle stands were all the rage for snack food there. They eat waffles like we eat funnel cakes. I wonder if they think it's weird that we eat waffles for breakfast like we would find it weird to eat funnel cake for breakfast. Anyway I thought of my mom every time I saw a waffle stand. She has kind of an obsession with Belgian waffles. And lazy rivers, now that I think about it.

After we were done riding, the park also offered some great views of the villas on the Palm Jumeirah... there are so many! The palm is so much bigger than I thought it would be. The whole city is bigger than I was picturing, actually.
For more pictures of our trip to Dubai, click here.

Dubai - Exploring the City

We got home from Dubai this evening, and I am sort of overwhelmed at the thought of recapping it in a blog post. We'll see how much info I actually include here, or how long it takes me to actually get it posted. [Ed note: at the time of posting, it's now Sunday, the seventh day after I started writing!]

The trip was, well... it was kind of amazing. Mark and I would could never have made a trip like this on our own dime. (Thanks for the invite, Dubai!) Everything was luxurious and fancy and at least 32% classier than Mark and I are used to experiencing when we travel. Except for the $150 we had to pay for Mark to join me (well worth it!), it was all paid for. Flight, hotel, meals, tours, admission to sites, everything. Yes, I am still pinching myself.

We flew over on Emirates, one of the nicest airlines in the world. The plane was the Airbus A380 -- the biggest jetliner in the world. (Remember when it got all that press a few years ago when it was first built?) It can carry up to like 850 people, depending on how the airline chooses to configure the seats. I don't know how you people count, but by my books.... yeah that's almost a thousand. A thousand. (Just the fact that it was a double-decker would have impressed me, I'm not gonna lie.) Anyway neither the airline nor the plane disappointed. Excellent service, decent food (it was still airplane food, though, don't get me wrong), mood lighting, wide seats (even in coach!), ceiling with stars when the lights were out, in-flight entertainment on personal screens that were nicer than ours at home (that's becoming a theme, huh? maybe we should upgrade our tv), and backpacks full of toys for the kids -- in our case, even the kid who was left at home (but now can't get enough of his Emirates backpack).

View of Jumeirah neighborhood from our hotel room.

Our hotel - also amazing. We stayed at the Monarch, and our room was beautiful. Beautiful. We had floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides of our room (we were in the corner - yay!), although one of those sides just overlooked the hotel's adjoining tower. (Architects in Dubai are all about the connected tower.) The room was huge, the bathroom was gorgeous (pretty much every one we encountered was; in a culture where people wash themselves five times a day before prayer, the bathrooms are sparkling almost without exception), we had an amazing view of the city, and (brace yourself for this classiness) they had robes and slippers for us. Now I don't know where you usually sleep on vacation, but this was the first (and probably last) time that we stayed a place with robes and slippers. Stop rolling your eyes; for me, this was a big deal!

Our first morning there, we explored the older part of the city, the part we assumed they wouldn't want to show off to the westerners. I was so glad we were able to wander the old streets and explore the souks (and haggle! oh how I love to haggle! I know you're all shocked) and talk to people and do one of my favorite things when I am in a new place -- look around the grocery stores. (I am so my mother's daughter.) In case you're curious, the Arabian produce puts ours to shame. More kinds of fruit than you can imagine, and all ripe! More kinds of (fresh!) juices at breakfast than I even knew existed. (Seriously, who drinks watermelon juice? Anyone?) And they even had camel milk, though we didn't actually drink any of that.

Mark, in the Bastakia quarter.

Anyway while we were downtown, we rode back and forth across the Creek (the river/harbor/whatever-it's-not-actually-a-creek that the older part of the city straddles) in a little wooden boat called an abra. It's much cheaper (about 25¢ per ride) than taking a taxi over one of the few bridges, and it meant I got to put Mark in yet another travel situation where we're the only westerners in sight. I can't tell if he loves me or hates me for continuing to do this to him (I think it was less love when we got lost on the buses and rickshaws of Beijing), but I will continue to err on the side of saving a buck. And meeting locals. And riding in a boat. All of which are things I love. Plus, the next morning when we took a city tour, they ended up taking us to that area after all (along with a zillion other tour groups - ugh - so glad we had already done it on our own!) and then there were only westerners in sight! So it goes both ways I guess!

Riding on the abra across the creek.

The best meal we had was at a Lebanese restaurant in the courtyard of Emirates Towers. We got to see Lebanese dancing, eat lots of new food (they did the best kebabs in the city... and we should know, they fed us kebabs everywhere), and (for some reason) watch dry ice bubbling in a cauldron while we ate dessert. I can't explain it but it was cool.

That dinner was also one of the few places where they served us alcohol. In many other places, the Arabian version of "cocktail" meant fruit juice or smoothie! Which I guess should have been expected in a Muslim country!

Our tour package also included stops at two big fancy (expensive!) malls, but we opted out of both of those. The first one for a smaller (cheaper) shopping center nearby, and the second one for the chance to go inside a Mosque (which might need to be a later post, I am getting tired).

The new and modern parts of the city were cool too, in a very different way. All the "novelty" skyscrapers (tallest, fastest rotating, on its own island, etc) are part of what has made Dubai very famous of late. Especially this one on its own reclaimed island; Mark and I didn't go in (again with the cheap) but we did spend part of a morning lounging on the beach, admiring it from a peasant's perspective. And one of the most famous reclaimed islands in Dubai, the Palm Jumeirah, houses a neat waterpark where we also got to play for an afternoon. (More on both of those also in a later post, as well as pictures from our super-fun desert safari.)

Interesting info about Dubai:

- Only 10% of the people who live there are actually Emiratis. (Formerly wandering Bedouins who lived in the desert.) We didn't even meet one Emirati (that we knew of).

- Emiratis love their Sheikh. He has made the emirate into a high-end tourist destination, and the results for citizens are very good: free healthcare, free education, and amazing wedding gifts (if you marry another Emirati) -- $20k to pay for the celebration, and a new house. All courtesy of the Sheik's money. Why wouldn't they love him? His picture is on buildings and billboards and in hotel lobbyies across the city.

- Most of Emiratis are considered part of the Sheikh's (royal) family and live in palaces, either in the city or out in the desert.

- The royal family runs the government, the tourist bureau, Emirates Airlines, several tour companies (including the one who hosted us, Arabian Adventures), and is in charge of all the mosques and religion in the emirate. So believe me, they have sources of revenue besides oil!

- If Emiratis work, it's usually for the government, or by selling their names (for a commission) to foreigners who want to open businesses in Dubai - foreigners must have a citizen backer, though often it's in name only.

- The country of UAE uses more water, per capita, than anywhere else on earth. It's probably due to a combination of the hot weather, the fact that to keep the city green, everything is artifically irrigated, and that citizens don't have to pay their own water bills.

- Although the country's official religion is Islam, they are very tolerant of other religions and cultures (unless you're Jewish, of course, it's against the law to use the term Israel). In the older part of the city you can still hear the call to prayer, five times a day, coming from one of the 1300+ mosques in the city. Want to know what that sounds like? Click here.

- The UAE is also very sensitive about its beautiful location on the gulf. In most of the world, we call it the Persian Gulf, but since it's technically not all Iran's, in UAE that term is also against the law -- you're supposed to call it the Arabian Gulf. (You can see exactly what the Persians think of that name change by clicking here.)

I will have to do another post (or two!) with the rest of stuff from our trip. In the meantime, you can see all the pictures from our trip by clicking here.

Dubai or Bust!

So, the Dubai trip that I mentioned last month has been somewhat (ok, massively) chaotic to plan. Because I am at the mercy of someone else's organizational skills, it has taken forever to get the trip nailed down. (Don't want to complain too much though; those disorganized people are paying for my trip.)

We leave TODAY, and I didn't have the final dates (dates!!) or flight info until Sunday, didn't get the hotel information until Monday, and Mark didn't get his ticket issued until yesterday.

But yep -- you read that right. Mark gets to go now too! Nick and Barbara are staying with Nathan (with some daytime help from sitters and friends from church), so we know he is in good hands. And this means that Mark and I can treat the trip as a "babymoon" of sorts -- we need some grownup time before our lives get infinitely more complicated.

And now that everything is set up, we're ridiculously excited. We're staying at what looks to be a fabulous Arabian hotel, The Monarch. We have a full itinerary, including beaches, a sand dune safari, city exploration, nice meals, shopping, and a few hours at a water park on one of Dubai's famous land-reclamation islands. Sound like a typical middle eastern vacation, huh? I know Dubai Tourism is trying to sell us on all the hot spots, and since they're paying for me to come over there and be entertained, I will oblige. But I'm really hoping for enough free time to see the real city, and talk to people, and experience some of the culture.

I'll have pictures and stories by next week, I hope! HERE WE GO!!

Pregnancy: Beanie FAQ

I have to start off this post by saying thank you to everyone who commented on our Beanie announcement (here and on Facebook), thank you for all those praying for a healthy full-term pregnancy, and thank you especially to those of you emailed and texted us to let us know you're thinking about us as we adjust to the idea of this new little miracle. You're amazing friends.

I have been getting asked a lot of the same questions, and I realized I didn't provide much info in my original post. So here goes:

1.) When is Beanie due? Oct 7, as determined by ultrasound - so I think this will be a more accurate due date than we had for Nathan!

2.) Why do you call the baby Beanie? I don't know, I guess because it looks like a bean? I think Mark started it. Maybe he will de-lurk and give an answer in the comments.

3.) Are you going to find out the gender, or be surprised? Yes, and yes. It's always a surprise to find out the gender, no matter when or how you find out. We'll be having our surprise in an ultrasound room on April 29, assuming Beanie will cooperate and spread 'em.

4.) Are you hoping for a boy or a girl? I guess the politically correct thing would be to say that I don't care as long as it's healthy. And the reality is I will love a boy or girl, of course. But if I'm being honest (and I've been too open about this in the past not to be honest now!), I am hoping for a girl again. And Mark is too, this time.

5.) Was it really a surprise? Um, yes. The word surprised doesn't actually quite do it for me, though. Astounded comes closer. There are plenty of women out there who are surprised, but there is a big difference in not trying and trying not to. This is a 1% baby. But God has overcome crazier things than birth control to create life (hello, remember this headline? Baby in Virgin Turns Out to be GOD), so it's clear to me that I am being called to parent this child. Expected or not, I want to step up to that task. Thankfully I have nine months to get over the shock, get on board, and get ready. It really might take that long this time!

6.) Have you told your parents? No, they found out on the internet. Yes, of course we have told our parents! It was hard for me to say out loud at first (the reality is even now still settling in, if I'm being honest), so in two cases we let Nathan tell them, with his new t-shirt. In both cases, Nathan vomited on the shirt before they got to notice it. [sigh] the best laid plans...

7.) How do you feel? Tired. Much more so than with Nathan's pregnancy. But with a nasty spell (of difficulty keeping food down) now behind me, things are looking better.

8.) When you say "ready or not," what do you mean? I mean... this wasn't our first choice of timing. Because of the return of my hives (oh yes indeed), this year's tight budget, my recent move to a high-deductible health insurance plan, my own insecurities about being able to give enough attention to two children, my reluctance to get out of the workforce in this economic climate, the fact that I haven't yet completely weaned the first one (but we're oh-so-close), that I am more than fifty pounds heavier than when I got pregnant with Nathan and thus am feeling very unhealthy... it's just a little overwhelming. But Beanie is in there, and there's only one way out. So... let's roll.

9.) Is this really the result of a New Years Goal to be a better wife? Almost certainly. And I know two other people following Jill's challenge who are unexpectedly in the same situation I am. We decided she needs a pregnancy disclaimer on her site.

10.) Are you really going to try to ride a camel in Dubai, even though you're knocked up? Yes. Don't judge me. And don't tell the guides either.

Guess Who's Going to Dubai???

That would be....

ME!!!! (How'd you guess?)

Emirates Airlines invited my company to send someone on a familiarization trip in and around Dubai. I currently have no idea what the trip will entail, just that *I* get to go.

I would like to play this off like, oh just another work trip for this career mommy. But the reality is I am so unbelievably ridiculously stupid EXCITED!!!

Feel free to leave your jealousy in the comments section.