Wild, Wild, West!

I'm in the West! That's the west of the UAE. Visiting my friend Anika in Madinat Zyad. Another friend, Heather, and I made the 2 hour trek for the weekend. Anika and Heather were my life saviors during that looooong 10 month wait to get over here. I would not have made it over here without them!

So Anika was placed in Madinat Zyad and, even though she has been to see me a bunch of times, I have never made it out to see her. Until this weekend! Of course, we would decide to go, during a sand storm!!! Heather's little rental car was darting all over the road! The wind was crazy! And sand was blowing over, under and through the car! Driving on these roads with the wind blowing and the air con on, I'm always freaked out that we are breathing in all that dust!Straight into my lungs! If anyone out there wants to start a side business, make filters for the vents in cars! I'm serious!

We finally made it safe and sound. Just with a bunch of sand in our cracks and crevices! We were greeted at the door by Riley! He came all the way here by himself!  

She lives in a nice complex full of teachers. She is surrounded by a bunch of huge villas, but most of them are empty! That creeps me out, living near empty buildings. I don't believe in ghosts... but everyone knows weird sounds come from empty buildings!! 

Anika's rooftop view

Anika wanted to take us out for drinks at Tilal Liwa Hotel. In the UAE, you can only drink at restaurants attached to hotels. So off we went! But first, we had to stop for gas!  Yes, that is the gas tanker instead of a pump!!

The Tilal Liwa hotel is really nice. It's a resort, in the middle of the desert. It was quite a scary ride out there. With the sand storm tapering off but still blowing. And there were mini sand dunes all over the road. Anika kept crashing through them and screaming. We almost didn't make it through one of them! We got stuck for a bit on one of them!

We finally pulled up to the entrance, and viola, elegance extraordinaire!

There was a big outside area with different places to sit. The pictures don't do it justice but, take my word for it, it was lovely!

The next day, it was still a sand storm! The wind was howling and you could hear the granuals being thrown against the window. Anika and I could have sat inside all snuck and warm, having an "Empire" marathon, but we need breakfast food! So we went off to the store, and I have to say, the store was just about the coolest thing in the entire west! At the entrance you picked up a scanner and then you scanned the prices of all the items you bought. Then at check out, you just handed over the scanner and you were wrung up! Futuristic! 

These are the scanners!

Scanning jelly for our crepes!

Anika, happy shopper!

We just hand over our scanner and, viola! Shopping halas!

Of course, there were camel patties!

After we left the store, Anika said she had to take us to the fish market. I don't really like fish, and, seeing as how it was breakfast, I was wondering why we had to go to the fish market. But, hey, it's her town!

So yes, we pull up to this beautiful building. I couldn't get a picture of it to do it justice. The tile work and the dome were just stunning in the morning light.

 This was the entrance to the fish market! I thought, jeez, is the market this big?!

So, I know you are wondering what is so extraordinary about this fish market that we had to  take a morning trip there, hmm. Well, this fish market is inside. . . the HOSPITAL! Yes, ladies and gents, a fish market inside the hospital! One stop shop! Get your flu shot and a mackerel dinner at the same time!

After a wonderful crepe breakfast (crepes a la Heather!), we went back to the Tilal Liwa hotel for a teacher high tea (which actually was a promotion that had passed, but we still got to see the hotel in daylight!). We had to drive back there thru the continuing sandstorm though! Ughhh. Anika was freaking out a little driving! Over the dunes that were in the middle of the road!

Can you see the sand thru the front windshield?!

It got worse as we continued!

We made it in one piece! Just for them to tell us there was no teacher high tea anymore!! But I did run in and get some day time shots of the beautiful Tilal Liwa.

On the way back, we say some camels going through their paces on the race track! You can barely see them in the right corner, but they are there!

Well, even though my visit was during a huge sandstorm, we still had fun! Thanks for hosting me, Anika! And next time I come out west I'm going to go camping in the desert!!

Ciao for now!

Meanwhile, in the sandbox...

Hello, hello! It's been awhile, I know! I have many posts in the works, but in the mean time, I want to tell you what me and the kid have been up to!


We went to a horse jumping show! It was awesome. I know many people may not be into horses, but I started riding at camp as a kid and I've loved it ever since. It was really great seeing all these beautiful horses and their riders were totally decked out to. The show was at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club, a very ritzy place.  Fortunately, the friend I went with has been a rider there and knew exactly where to park and where to go.  The minute we got out of the car, there was a horse and a groom walking by and I could smell horses on the breeze! It was great! It was an interesting experience being in the stands and listening to all of the different languages being spoken around us. People right behind us were speaking French, to the side they were speaking Russian, and the announcer was speaking Arabic and then translating into English. A global experience!

We also went to a professional tennis match. I've never actually seen a professional tennis match and I was so excited, even though it was only the men playing, no women. We saw two matches during the second day of  the tournament. The first was Almagro vs. Lopez early in the afternoon. Then the evening match was the heavy hitters, Raphael Nader vs. Andy Murray. So exciting, I've seen these guys on tv!!

Below is the perfect serving shot of Murray. And I can't lie, I enjoyed watching the ball boys and girls almost as much as the match. They were so cute and taking their roles so seriously!

Great shot of the score board!

They had several tents set up outside the stadium full of games.  The kid was trying to play every game.  They gave out all kinds of stuffed animals as prizes. Unfortunately, we didn't win anything :(. You had to have a ton of tickets or win the games outright to win and we couldn't manage it.  I met this guy who said he would give me a stuffed animal he won for 20 tickets, but I only had 9. I was sitting next to his girlfriend, and she told me that about 4 of them were trying to win the prize of the Xbox for 3,000 tickets.They had been there all 3 days and just needed 20 more tickets to get it! I couldn't believe they played that many games, I mean, did they even watch the tennis matchs??

Happy New Year!! So, instead of going to some crazy parties for NYE, I decided to hang out with the kid and go to a mall, I mean, life here is in the mall. We went to The Galleria Mall on Al Maryah Island here in Abu Dhabi. I had never heard of this mall before and when we went there, our taxi driver said he had never been there either.  He said, this is not the kind of mall where you buy things, this is the mall where you look! And he was right! 

Among the usual high end stores, Dolce & Gabana, Coach, Marc Jacobs, Jimmy Choo. They have a Bentley restaurant!! A Bentley restaurant! You know, the luxury automobile company?! And I peeked at the menu and saw a split pee soup starter for only 95 dirham! That's $26 bucks for you USA folks.  For soup!  Ohh, and they have a Godiva Chocolate cafe!! You can sit down and drink chocolate! Not like a cup of cocoa, but pure Belgian chocolate! We tried to get in but the line was outrageous. 

Fireworks here are amazing, truly amazing.  You know how, in San Francisco at least, you go out at least 5 hours before dark, in a sea of traffic, trying to fight your way to a high vantage point to catch fireworks displays from not only San Francisco, but Berkeley and Oakland too? Then you realize the traffic is literally not moving and you better make alternative plans immediately if you want to see even a sparkler. So then you just decide that where you are is perfect, but then you still have to drive around and up and down one way streets to find a place to park so you can hope out and watch the show. Then you just end up double parking in the street and standing on the roof of your car. Finally, the fireworks starts, and mind you, you have been in the streets for literally hours by this point. The fireworks are a couple of white bursts, then red, maybe a lackluster yellow. The show last approximately 15 minutes and now... get back in the car and it's another hour and a half before you make it back home! Hardly worth it, right?!

Not so here! There are literally a ton of fireworks, all different styles and colors and it lasts sooo long! Like almost an hour! Yes, it does take about 2 hours to get back to your apartment from wherever you ended up but you feel like it's worth it cus the fireworks were so amazing!

I only took a few pics cus to many cameras were in front of me and cus who wants to see a picture of fireworks? The adventure is in being there!

This hour glass countdown was so cool!

In November, my co-worker said, "hey, I have a Groupon for the pool at the Fairmont hotel. Do you want to come?"  Little did she know what she started! The Fairmont is awesome! You go to the pool which is on the ocean of course, and someone walks you out to a seat, carrying your towels of course. When you pick a seat, he fluffs up the chair cushion, lays out your towel, then asks if you would like water or a menu. Then you just get to relax by the pool for hours and hours! I had a burger and fries, not very original but it was so good!

Well, I said she didn't know what she started because after that awesome experience, my little rooftop pool at my apartment looks even more pathetic! And I'm scouring Groupon daily for more pool passes!

the beautiful Fairmont Hotel pool!

This is the pool bathroom! It is huge and awesome! And the hot tub is amazing!

I think me and the kid are among the few people who love ice skating! We love skating and watching. So when I saw an advertisement for an amateur skating show, I got tickets.  Unfortunately, it was very amateur, but it was still fun.

I also went to an art show with a co-worker, at Manarat Al Saadiyat which is the art gallery on Saadiyat island. It was a show about light so most of the exhibits had different light displays. My favorite exhibit was the 100 names of Allah made into a sphere.

They also had an interactive exhibit for kids where you could create a word out of thick paper and then put it on the entrance wall to the exhibit. They were illuminated so you could see the shadows of the words. Of course, we made some too! I think I was worse than the kids cus I needed a lot of help cutting out my word! But once that was done it was lovely!

A new mall opened called Yas Mall. It was anxiously awaited because it is huge and next to Ferrari world. There are a lot of cool restaurants from around the world there. Cheesecake Factory (which I hate but everyone else is so excited to have!), PF Changs, Texas Roadhouse, Steers, Shake Shack, Chilis and more! I have to admit, I rarely go to chain restaurants in USA, I prefer one off restaurants. The food is better, the atmosphere, everything, but, when in Rome. I did just find out that the USA restaurants here import their food, from America! I don't know if I'm too excited about that, but I have to say, the apple streusel cheesecake I had at the Cheesecake Factory was excellent!

This is a transformer in one of the toy stores!

My new favorite store is the Virgin Megastore. They don't have run of the mill things there, the buyers buy unusual items and books. Plus they have a mega slide!

This is a super slide in the Virgin Megastore!

And yes, it gets foggy here in the desert! This was the view outside of my window a couple of weeks ago!

So, there will be more later so stay tuned!

Ciao for now!