My new favourite place in Abu Dhabi

Was told of this new cafe, Cafe Arabia in Abu Dhabi - absolutely lovely, pretty and inexpensive yummy food! Now I have somewhere to go to chill and read magazines over a cuppa!

Moroccan Hammam

I went to my first Moroccan Hammam today. I was planning to go to one when I get back from Malaysia next year, but an impromptu suggestion from my friend was too tempting. This was a 'basic' place - where a hammam cost AED40 as opposed to my upcoming hammam session that I paid AED150 for, which was a 50% discount over the original AED300 price.

I was a little apprehensive at first, having heard lots of funny stories about big huge women who scrub you at parts you didn't know you had. My friend was very comforting, saying that all I needed was not to be shy given that we would all have to be naked in a steam and scrub room together!

We got there, undressed and we were whisked into the steam room. There we had to put moroccan soap all over ourselves, and wait for 1/2 hour while the steam opens the pores. Then we were put into 2 separate rooms, and my therapist put on a scrub mitten and scrubbed like there was no tomorrow. I was shocked at how much dead skin there was, especially as I do my own scrub at home once a week. It was quite gross actually, but after 1/2 hour of a real good scrub, I felt like a newborn! I have never felt this clean in my life, and while I wouldn't call the experience 'pleasant', it was interesting and I would definitely do it again, especially for AED40 (that's like RM35!)

Egyptians can't spell..

Taken in a "5-star" hotel in Egypt

Happy UAE Day!

The UAE is 39 years old this weekend and boy, people are right into the celebrations. Cars are decorated, people are out celebrating, and flags are flying everywhere (even at the top of this mountain in the middle of nowhere on the way to oman!)

We also had a 4 day weekend to commemorate it. I only wish they would tell us in advance, so that i can plan stuff! Everyone was expecting a holiday on Thursday till Saturday and then another day off the following Tuesday for the Islamic New Year. Instead, we were told on Tuesday that we would get Thurs till Sun off, because the Government decided to bring the Tuesday holiday forward to Sunday so that we all get 4 days off. If I knew of this earlier, I would have flown out of the country and done something!

However, it's turned out to be a nice holiday, went diving in Oman and spent the night and next day in Dubai catching up with friends and doing some Christmas shopping. Also got treated to one of the yummiest Indian places in Dubai - the world famous Ravi's! Absolutely mouth watering Indian food! Some pics here...

Cradle of Civilisation

I just got back from an amazing 9 day Egypt trip, and boy was I blown away. Egypt was all that I imagined it to be and more. The sights are incredible, and there is so much history and culture packed in one place that after 5 or 6 days I became very blase about it being just another temple or just another 5,000 year old mummy. It's mind boggling how people must have lived 5,000 years ago, and how amazingly well preserved things are. I saw strands of hair and fingernails on a mummy that was thousands of years old, and even smoke markings on the ceiling of an ancient temple, rembrandts of cooking by the Christians that were persecuted during the time of the Roman empire.

We started our tour in Cairo to see the Pyramids, and made our way south via train and cruise to Aswan via Luxor. Plenty of temples, tombs and statues along the way, and amazing greenery throughout the journey along the Nile. We also went on a hot air balloon and the contrast between the greens of the Nile delta and the desert surrounding it is surreal. We had some very good guides along the way who really painted the picture of how people must have lived then. A highlight was also sailing along the Nile in Aswan on a felucca (sail boat) - so beautiful, tranquil and peaceful. The cruise was also very nice, and the staff made our trip. They loved us as we did them, and everyday it was a new adventure, a new comedy followed by barrels of laughter.

More than that, what really made my trip were the hospitality and the warmth of the people. I went to Egypt with an expectation that i would be hassled non-stop, that people were rude and greedy, and yes, there were instances especially in Cairo where people lived up to those expectations. However, more often than not, they were wonderfully warm, friendly and welcoming, so much so that I was so sad to say goodbye to all my new Egyptian friends. So many of them have nothing, but seem so much happier than any rich local living here in Abu Dhabi. We were greeted by smiles everywhere we went, and the contrast was startling as soon as we touched back down in Dubai. I miss the simplicity of people who are contented in life, who are not concerned with ego and money and who are just genuinely happy if you just take a picture with them, or give them a smile or just a friendly word.

Surprisingly, these are traits of people I have met in my travels in the Middle East - Oman, Jordan, Egypt, and while I have not been to Syria yet, I have heard they are the friendliest and most welcoming of the lot. It is sad that the Middle East has such a bad rep and is so misrepresented in the media. The people continue to surprise me with their warmth, selflessness and sincerity..in fact, I cannot think of anywhere besides Bali where people are as nice and welcoming as the Middle East. Sadly I stay in the Gulf Region, whose people (besides Oman) appears to be very different to those in the Middle East.

Overall a great trip and extremely difficult getting back into work...can't wait for my next big holiday, back to Malaysia in December!

Gorgeous Jordan..

Amidst my crazy few weeks at work and mum visiting, I managed to take a couple of days off to visit Jordan. Mum and I went for 4 days, rented a car and drove to Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. We landed in Amman, and drove the 3 hours to Petra. I realised that I have been too long in the UAE when in Jordan, I had to get used to narrow and bumpy roads, dodgy looking petrol stations and cars whose windows were missing and plastic was held up by tape instead. Jordan is quite a poor country, and it's so easy to think that the whole of the Middle East looks like the Gulf states, when the majority of this region still live in pretty paltry conditions.

We got to Petra in the evening and were told that we could catch Petra at night, where the 1.2km path to the Treasury would be lit up by 1,000 candles. It was an amazing experience, to walk in the dark in this ancient city where people walked more than 2,000 years ago. We settled in front of the Treasury, which was lit by hundreds of candle. They then had a traditional oud player who played music so haunting, and then a flutist and singer too. Truly surreal..

We rose bright and early the next day to go to Petra before all the tourist buses and it was the best decision we made! Petra is a very different place with 100 people at 7am compared to the 20,000 when we left at 2pm. We walked the length of Petra and made our way up by donkey to the Monastery. It was truly magnificent - the history, the scenery, the technology they used 2,000 years ago, and mostly the people. People still live in Petra, not in the tourist site, but in surrounding areas. All the people who work with the donkeys, horses or selling trinkets are people whose families have lived in Petra for centuries. They still live in Petra, in tiny villages around the tourist site.

After we finished Petra we drove south to Wadi Rum, a magnificent desert (where Laurence of Arabia was filmed). We got a guide to bring us around, and again the hospitality we received in the little Bedouin camps was absolutely amazing. People there have nothing but were so welcoming and were so insistent that we have tea with them. It's an amazing contrast to the UAE, where people had been living in similar circumstances 50 years ago, but who because of oil, have gotten so rich that they don't have to live in the desert anymore.

After such a tiring day, we left Petra the next day and headed to the Dead Sea. I treated mum to an afternoon at the Movenpick beach and spa and it was gorgeous. They gave us Dead Sea mud which I slapped on very willingly and just floated on the oily water. It's quite a surreal experience floating. Some guys tried to dive in but no success! The water also tastes bitter, not salty like I expected. Definitely fun, and a must do, once in a lifetime experience!

We then made our way to Amman in crazy traffic and left the next day. The trip was definitely too short and I did not manage to see everything i wanted to, so maybe another trip some other time. It was so refreshing to be in a country with such a long history, where one could go to the mountain where Moses one stood, or the alleged Baptism site of Jesus. The people were definitely the highlight of my trip, so warm and absolutely welcoming ... it made me reflect on how cynical we can be about people's intentions.

I am heading to Egypt next week for 9 days, so looking forward to that!

Pictures are posted here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelle_d/

Oman trip

I haven't had time to blog for ages, as my sis was here, and when she was not, I was diving every weekend. It's been great to have so many visitors this year and thankfully there are tons to do outside of the UAE!

My sis and I and a friend made our way down to Muscat for 3 days. I had very high expectations as everyone told me that it was beautiful and they were right. We had a fabulous time, filled of course with tons of dramas which made the trip even more memorable!

Oman is such a lovely country, and the people are amazing -warm, friendly and so inviting. I never knew how big the country is (300,000km2) and there are only 2.8m inhabitants. It also has such a long and varied history, including conquering the East African coast (countries like Zanzibar and Mozambique!). We stayed for 2nights at a huge B&B where we had a triple room with our own outdoor patio, for the price of 1 night in a hotel in Abu Dhabi. They also organised a wonderful guide for us, who was very knowledgable and helpful and showed us so many amazing sites around Muscat. He also has 12 kids from 1 wife, and says that Westerners only know how to sleep at night. Yups, a very funny character who talked to us for 12 hours non-stop!

Muscat is such a nice city, it is so lived in, and established, which is very refreshing compared to life in the UAE. Locals are everywhere, driving taxis, selling things in the souks, and the souk was a real souk, not a fake air conditioned one that can be found in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. There is a nice vibe to the city too, and a beautiful promenade with lots of good food.

On our day tour, we went outside Muscat around the Wadis (valleys) and mountains. We also visited an archeological site (I saw a piece of pottery on the floor and asked the guy what it was, he replied in a blase manner that it's part of the ruins and said just take it home..). We drove through dried river beds, and swam in a beautiful turquoise freshwater lake called Wadi Tiwi. We also managed to visit a local's house for Eid in a small village, they were so wonderfully welcoming to us (the guy was our guide's friend). Unfortunately the host had a little boy who had never seen a lady with her hair down before and started screaming like he's seen the devil when he saw my sister! It was a perfect day trip however, ended with a wonderful turkish seafood meal!

We also had tons of dramas like getting stopped on our way back to the UAE at the border crossing. I suspect they thought we were on drugs because we were laughing so heavily at a chain of very funny events before turning up at the border. They stopped our car, took my sis and I into a separate room with all our belongings while my friend waited outside with the car and his stuff were checked by the male guards. The lady guard proceeded to spend the next hour checking every single piece of item we had in our bags. She also did not know what a tampon was when she saw it, and she also did not speak English so you can imagine the conversation! All the time we were inside, my friend was outside slightly panicky wondering if we were ever going to be let out. Finally after she scrolled through our photos and told my sister to stop smoking and find love, we were let go and proceeded to head back to Abu Dhabi.

All in all a great trip, really can't wait to explore other bits of Oman soon!

Photos are up on my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelle_d/