Part 4 - Alexandria

After we had stayed in Dubai for a while, myself & Robin flew to Alexandria, Egypt. This is Saudi Arabia out of the window of the plane. It was absolutely beautiful and this is probably the closest I'll ever get to it, seeing as how they don't exactly let just anyone in.

Egypt was very different from the Sandbox, even though they're located so close to each other. At one point on the ride home from the airport Robin & I looked at each other and at the same time said 'I think that couple was holding hands' and then we started looking around and realized that every couple was holding hands!! In the Sandbox there is NO touching between men & women. We even kind of make fun of the couples who go to parks and sit as close to each other as they possibly can without touching at all. It was strange to be in an Arab country where women were covered but the people were still so touchie...we even saw a couple kissing! We were also terribly harrassed in Egypt. You would think that they have lots of tourists there and are used to seeing white girls. Well it was even worse than it is in the Sandbox, especially b/c of the touching. Here in the Sandbox they can yell at you all they want but no man would dare to touch you, even barely brush by you, in the street. Egyptian guys will just follow you around saying whatever they want and getting as close as they want. They were so obnoxiously persistent that we finally just started to not speak English or Arabic. We wouldn't say anything to anyone until they guessed a nationality and then we just agreed and maybe said a few words in another language. It was an interesting tactic that seemed to work pretty well. At one point we had a group of guys walk past us and we heard them discussing (in Arabic) what they were going to say to us. Finally the leader turns around and says 'welcome to Egypt'. Seriously? 5 minutes and that's the best they could come up with?!?

We stayed in Alex just 2 nights but had lots of fun. We actually ordered Chinese food, which is quite different for us. In the Sandbox we have 1 chinese restaurant that isn't even that good and they certainly don't deliver...they don't even take orders over the phone and then let you pick it up later. So when we ordered in Alex and someone showed up on our doorstep in about 15 minutes we were amazed. Plus we got a 12 % discount for having it delivered. Egypt is weird and every restaurant delivers, even McDonalds, and every restuarant gives you a discount for having it delivered. However, every meal that we ate out, we ate at a restaurant overlooking the Med.

Here's the Mediterranean but it was cold and there weren't really any beaches. We did go to this beautiful fort that was set out away from the city and kind of just in the middle of the water, but then it cost to go in, so we admired it from the outside.

Here we are at some Roman Ruins. We didn't use a tour guide or anything like that, just lonely planet and the advice of some friends but our taxi driver was this really cute old man with a handlebar moustache and he kept volunteering to wait for us and take us to the next place, so we kept having him wait. Once we'd been to one or two tourist sites he figured out what we were looking for and then was so proud to drive us around and point out the sites and give us some history but he was speaking in Egyptian Arabic which is a little different than the Arabic that we are learning and plus he was talking really fast so we didn't actually have a clue what he was saying.

We ended our day in this huge garden, it's actually the Presiden't summer home but they open it up for tourists during the winter while he's not around. It was just beautiful, right on the water. Of course, we stayed for the sunset which was just amazing, then walked back to the road, absolutely freezing. We had a taxi driver follow us around for over 2 hours constantly asking if we needed a ride and we kept telling him no, but he just wouldn't leave us alone. After 2 hours of waiting for us, we left the park and went to eat dinner at chili's across the street...we weren't lying when we told him we didn't need a taxi. He was actually really mad but that was his own fault.

There was a lot more that we could have done in Alex, but the point of our vacation was to rest and to do whatever we wanted and that's exactly what we did. There was no schedule and we had a blast!

Funny story. When we met up with some friends in Cairo, they told us that their favorite place in Alex was the aquarium. Apparently when they visited there were absolutely no live fish and no water. They just had all these fish tanks with the backs painted blue and then plastic fish hanging from the tops by fishing line and everyone was just walking around like that was what an aquarium was supposed to be. Too bad we didn't know about it or I would have gone to see it.

Part 3 - Desert Safari

We went on a desert safari while we were in the UAE. It was one of those things where you just call a tour company and they come and pick you up and drive you out into the desert. We actually didn't know what we were getting into, but figured it would be fun so we did it. That afternoon a Pakistani driver came to our hotel...we didn't know who he was, but he had a shirt with a logo and his car had the same logo as his shirt, so we figured it was safe. We picked up 3 Indian guys from another hotel and headed out. After about an hour of driving we came across this little store in the middle of nowhere and there were about 50 other landcruisers with the same logo. We seriously had no idea what was going on and, up to that point, had thought it was just going to be us and the Indian guys and we were second-guessing just how much fun we could have in the desert with these guys, but then we saw all these other people and realized that it was a big thing. So our driver let some air out of the tires and we headed out and just drove through the desert...in just a regular, standard issue Toyota landcruiser through serious dunes like you see on TV. It was great!

Then all the sudden our driver stops and says 'you can take some pictures here'. So we got out and took some pictures. We pretty much just did what he said. We got back in and drove around some more. It was crazy. Picture this, you know how it's kind of hard to walk on the beach b/c the sand is constantly moving? Well this sand was so soft so that as we were driving, we were constantly moving, sliding sideways down the sides of dunes, fishtailing, almost flipping over (although I think that probably happens alot and we had roll bars, plus it was soft sand). The Indian guys were crazy, it was like they'd never been on a roller coaster before and they were yelling and laughing...just watching them definitely made it more fun for me!

We drove around (aka dune blasting) through the desert for about 2 hours until we came to camp. There we rode camels, did some sand-surfing, and ate dinner. But let me just say that when you live in the desert, camels sort of lose their novelty...and sandsurfing is pretty much impossible. We had a 'delicious BBQ dinner' that was actually Indian food and then there was a belly dancer who was actually Turkish. So overall it was a very authentic Arabian culture experience.

The most fun was the ride back home. After having spent the entire evening with the 3 Indian bank consultants and the Pakistani driver they finally came out of their shells. We were with them at dinner and so we can verify that they were not drinking, however you would never know that based on their behavior. The driver found a Hindi radio station and they sang at the top of their lungs, unashamedly. Then we all sang a little Aerosmith, then back to the Hindi. They would even have the driver turn it down so they could sing solos. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long long time. They were so funny and extremely sarcastic, which is kind of uncharacteristic of Indians...or bank consultants!!! And then, as we were driving, we got to see some fireworks. So, overall, the desert safari experience was a good one!

Brrrr!

So it's 75 degrees in my apartment and I'm here, drinking hot tea, wearing a fleece hoodie and making potato soup for lunch. At first, I thought it was a little strange that I'm freezing on what would normally be considered a beautiful day, but then I started thinking.

In TX, it might be 100 in the summer but if it gets down to 40 in the winter people are freezing, right? So that's about a 60 degree difference in temperature. Move that to the Sandbox. It may be 130 in the summer, but in the winter it's 70, that's the same 60 degree variance. Therefore, I'm not wierd.

It's a Small World

Here's a random story from Dubai. One day I was walking around just doing some shopping and decided I wanted some water. I stepped inside a little shopping place with a food court and walked up to this little cafe. The waiter (who was an Indian guy) came up and asked me where I wanted to sit but I told him I just wanted a bottle of water and so we went over to the little take-away order counter. He orders my water and then turns around and says 'I think I've met you before'. I say 'I've only been here a few days' and he says 'No, in India'. (for those of you who might not know, I spent some time in a remote and obscure part of India in 2004) What was wierd is that, instead of having one of those cool 'it's a small world' connect the people you know kind of moments, I was really creeped out. I didn't recognize him at all, he didn't look like he was from the same part of India that I was in, and when I was in India I didn't interact with many guys and the ones I did interact with I remember. So I figured I'd follow my instincts and not sit around and chat to figure out if he really did know me...instead I said 'so how much is the water?'.

Vacation Pt 2

After we spent about 5 days in Sharjah we headed over to Dubai. The UAE is one of the most diverse countries I've ever been to. I don't really think that I even saw many Emirate people but there were tons of Indians. One day I wandered into a random Indian market full of salwires and other traditional clothes...just a sweet reminder of how much I love Indian people. The UAE is also one of the richest countries in the world. Located on the Persian Gulf, they make all their money off of oil. The malls were full of designer clothing stores, $1,000 handbags, and fancy restaurants. We went to one of the malls and observed this...

Yep...that's an indoor ski slope. I guess living in the desert makes it difficult to get your snow skiing in. The picture isn't the best b/c it's through a window, but notice the Arab man on the right playing in the snow.

While we were in Dubai we also spent some time at the beach, this one was very different from the last deserted beach, but was still good. We laid under palm trees reading and listening to our Ipods pretty much all afternoon.

It was kind of interesting to observe the people. Most of the foreigners were in bikinis and skimpy swimsuits while the locals were totally covered. What is interesting is that, even though they were covered you could still see a difference in what they were wearing and know that they were in their 'beach clothes'.

Everywhere we went there were prayer rooms, in airports, in malls, on the side of the street. Here in the Sandbox people just lay their prayer rugs out in the middle of the sidewalk but I guess in 'fancy' places they don't do that. The bathroom signs were also interesting. I guess I never thought about how religiously discriminating our bathroom signs are showing a woman in a skirt (or a man in pants). Ya'll probably think I'm crazy, but I was just excited to have public bathrooms...I didn't care what the signs looked like! Everything there was really kind of fancy...well, it was probably just normal but it felt really nice coming from the Sandbox. The streets were paved and had sidewalks, there was air conditioning, they had real malls and not the open/outdoor markets, starbucks, restaurants, taxis with meters. I hate to say it but coming from the Sandbox it sure doesn't take much to make for a nice vacation!

Vacation Pt 1

I've spent the last 3 weeks out of the country, ended up in a few different places for different reasons. I guess I pretty much took several separate trips, so I think I'll do a couple of vacation installments.

I started in Sharjah at a women's retreat. It was wonderful and relaxing. There was a group of volunteers from the states and they were so encouraging and loving. They gave us haircuts and pedicures and counseling. We were definitely pampered and it was wonderful. The conference was in a beautiful hotel that was really Western and felt just like any other hotel. There were actual bathrooms with hot, clean water and we could even adjust the temperature in our room. I know that all of these sound like wierd things to be grateful for, but I think that through the vacation blogs you might just get a little more insight into my life in the Sandbox, or at least the lack of conveniences. Anyways, even though our hotel was pretty fancy we spotted this sign in the corner...just a little reminder that we were still in the Arab world.


One afternoon we went to a beach hoping to swim a little and just relax. When we got there we found it deserted and, turns out, there was no swimming allowed at this beach so we just sat in peace and seclusion.

We also enjoyed lots of shopping and regular food. I had heard (and seen on mall websites) that they had Gap and Old Navys around this city, but when I got there I was deeply disappointed becuase apparently they've decided to pull out of the Arab world. Most people when they go on vacation try to eat local food and experience culture. Well, I live in a constant culture experience and so on vacation all we wanted to eat was 'American' food...and Chinese. So I think we had Chili's 4 or 5 times, McDonalds, Fridays, Johnny Carinos, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, we even found a Tex-Mex restaurant. But my favorite things were Marble Slab and Dr Pepper. I had at least one DP every day and it was good.

But I think that my favorite part of this part of the trip was just the time away. Even though I was in the middle of one of the largest and most modern cities in the world I never had any trouble finding a quiet place to read or journal or to just sit and do nothing. I think the big difference was that I wasn't a novelty anymore. There were lots of white people, lots of Americans and the locals were politely mannered and used to seeing foreigners and so no one stared or yelled or gestured. I could just fit in with the crowd...be alone in a crowd...I haven't done that in a long time.

Back in the Sandbox!

After 36 hours of traveling and only airplane sleep the vacation is officially over and I'm now back in the Sandbox. I had a wonderful trip and, honestly, wasn't all that excited about heading back but I have to say that I definitely feel like I'm at home.

I think I've posted about the word that we have in Arabic 'insha'allah' which basically means either 'if God wills' or it can be a polite way to say no. Last night on the flight home our pilot came on the intercom for the standard pre-flight introduction and actually said 'we'll be flying over Ryd and then Jdah and then we'll arrive in K-town insha'allah.' Can a pilot actually say that we'll only arrive at our destination if God wills it???? We were the only white people on the plane and actually some of the only women, but we held our own and arrived at home successfully. Guess we should be thankful that God willed us to get there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Last Day!

Today is my last day in the Sandbox...at least for a while. I fly out at 2 am and will be traveling for the next 3 weeks. Normally I wouldn't be too excited about a 2 am flight, but when it means I'm getting the heck out of dodge I don't care what time the plane leaves, I'll be there! Real malls, air conditioning, Chili's, snow skiing (in the desert)...can a girl ask for anything more!

Pyramid Attempt #1

The Sandbox has its own set of pyramids, not the ones you would normally think of when you think of 'the pyramids', but they're supposedly pretty cool. Yesterday, we made an attempt to go and see them. They're about 3 hours north of K-town so it was a long day of driving through the desert.

There were quite a few reasons why we didn't really expect that we would actually make it all the way up there, but we figured that we would give it a try and the worst security could do (hopefully) was turn us around, maybe escort us back to the capitol. We made it through quite a few security checkpoints. Most of them only consisted of an orange cone in the middle of the highway and a train car on the side of the road with a few guys inside asleep....really effective. But the big ones were the problems. At the first one, they flagged us down but there was no where to stop and lots of traffic, so they waved us through. About 30 minutes down the road we paid the toll no problem. But then at the next one, we sat on the side of the road while Yosef took down all of our names and our father's names. When he went to call someone and ask about us, the wind blew the paper away and so, instead of going through all of that again, he just let us through! We waited around for a good 30 minutes and made friends with all the little kids who were selling stuff.

Down in TX, we know to watch out for deer. Out here we have to watch out for camels. Can you imagine if we hit one of these. The rule around here is, if you hit someone's animal you have to buy it. We'd be eating camel for a while! In front of us, you can see the guy's car.

It was the next checkpoint that was a little more stressful. We pulled up and immediately the security guys hopped in their truck and just said 'follow us'. We didn't know where we were going but we knew it wasn't to the pyramids! We ended up in this little town at the security office only about 20 minutes from our destination where we waited for another 30 minutes while they called people, trying to figure out what to do with 9 wandering Americans. Finally, they decided that they were going to turn us back. The thought of facing another 3 hours driving through the desert was too much, so we took turns using their bathroom...all 9 of us! I'm sure they thought we were crazy and they will always remember those weird Americans who used their bathroom!! Then we talked them into letting us stay and eat lunch, so they escorted us to the one hotel in town that happened to be right on the river and negotiated for us to just use their courtyard but eat the food we brought with us. The security guys were actually really nice, joking with us and all. They even left us there and didn't escort us out of town, although they did take our phone number and called to ask us when we were leaving a couple of times.

This is a picture of the rocks that we climbed, actually taken on the drive up, we didn't climb them until we were headed back. Notice the houses and the 'shoulder'' .

So we returned to K-town...well, almost. We stopped at some big rocks (and by stopped, I mean we pulled off the paved road and drove through the desert a while) and climbed them...then we headed home. Before we left, we really did think of several reasons why we thought security would not let us all the way up there, however, we never even considered the reason that was actually used to turn us back. But, we made it about 3 hours farther than we really expected and maybe they'll lift the travel restrictions soon and we will actually get to see some pyramids next time. Some would say it was an unsuccessful day, however, we climbed some cool rocks and saw a lot of camels and desert, had a fun road trip with good friends...and can now say that we've used the bathroom in the security office in Sdi!

More Desert Observations...

...from the road trip.

At one point we saw a sign that said 'Rebel Group' with an arrow under it. Of course the sign said the name of the rebel group, but here's a picture of what the arrow was pointing to. I'm sure that if we'd just headed off roading in that direction we would have eventually come to something, but still...just the fact that there was a sign with an arrow pointing to the desert says a lot.

The road was like a farm road except not. For one, you absolutely have to have a 4x4, even if you're only on the 'highway'. It's just a blacktop road in the middle of nowhere except that it was the desert and there were no lines or shoulders, no one-light towns, no crossroads at all, just a whole lot of nothing with goats and camels. And people here are crazy, driving about 90 and passing at the last minute, even going off of the road and onto the sand and then just whipping back onto the road.

There is no public transportation out in the middle of nowhere (at least not that I could tell) so there were people all over just standing on the side of the road waiting for anyone who would give them a ride. Several observations: 1) Where did they come from?? Seriously, it was the middle of nowhere, nothing to be seen for miles except these random guys with their stark white jalabiyyas flowing in the wind. 2) We were in the second car, so we got to see the looks on their faces when they realized that a car with 5 white guys just flew by, it was great! 3) Lots of them would gesture angrily when they realized that we weren't going to stop, we got lots of those 'throw your arm into the air, what the heck are you thinking' kind of angry looks. As if it was our obligation to stop and pick up any and every one on the side of the road. Well, I saw plenty of locals with empty seats in their cars too so I don't think it's a cultural obligation.

We joked about going around the checkpoints, just take off into the desert and see what happened. Theoretically, as long as we kept the river on the left, we wouldn't have to worry about getting lost, but we figured that, seeing as how we'd already done a little conversing with security, if we got caught we could really be in big trouble. Also a little joking about West Nile Virus but don't worry, we stayed on the East side of the river the entire time!