Have We Been in the Middle East Too Long?

Some of you may know that the Coast has had more than it's share of issues the past few months. They have been off the air more than they have been on. It's too bad because we really liked our place in Silicon Oasis and we're ready to be in Dubai for a couple more years.
But, once again it's time for us to leave Dubizzle and on to our next adventure...

When considering where we may hang our hats next I came across these snaps and wondered if we had been in the Middle East too long already...

I'm still confused about what you smoke in here...

But Kenny is starting to look good in this!

We love the warm weather, the food and the different cultures so,

No, we still have some time left in us for the Middle East.

It's on to Amman Jordan then!

My next post will be about our first impressions of the city and some of
the things we've seen so far. Stay tuned!

Visa Run Chick Style & Big Red

It was that time of the month again... visa run time!
But this time I went with the ladies!
Donna and I needed to renew our visas so Tammy and her massive 4 wheel drive took us to Hatta and out of the UAE and into Oman if only for a few minutes.

After our very quick stop in Oman for a stamp in our passports and a bathroom break we were back into the UAE for lunch and a bit of a sightseeing tour.

Hatta has a lot of history and is famous for it's forts.

Tammy being Vanna here...

Little bit gusty that day. Not the best hair day for the group of us.
You'll see more evidence of that later!

The view from the fort onto the heritage village.

On the road to Hatta you always see camels but Donna's husband never lets her stop to take any pictures of them. Being a girls day we stopped a couple times to take some snaps.

I got this shot as this camel came charging towards me!
I realized as I was taking it that my back was up against a barbed wire fence and I had no where to go if it got right in my face. Take it from me seeing a camel's teeth up close
is nothing to smile about!

A safe shot from the other side of the fence.

Then the "adventurers" thought it would be a great idea to climb Big Red.
This is a giant sand dune just outside of Dubai.
On the weekend it is covered in 4 wheel drives and ATVs.
You can rent them and bomb your way around up there but much to the surprise of the guys renting the equipment at the bottom, we chose to walk up.

You can see the road behind Tammy and Donna in this picture.
It was a long way up.

This is where the "bad hair day" came to a pinnacle!

We look like a all girls band from the 80's.

The climb down was much easier than the climb up.

Some of Big Red tried to hitch a ride home with me.

It wasn't nearly as much fun the next month doing my visa run.

Thanks ladies for the chick day out!

The Worst New Year's Eve Party Ever Thrown!

Whether it's a party or not I can usually have a good time and that came in very handy at the party we attended this New Year's Eve.
The company was fantastic but the event started off really bad.
First, the ruler of Dubai canceled all parties in all hotels and restaurants the morning of the 31st. Then they changed their minds and allowed the parties but no live music, no dancing and the events all had to end early.
At least the hotels weren't stuck with thousands in food going to waste.

So off we went to the party at the Wafi Rooftop Restaurants. One of our favorite places to go out in the city.
It was so foggy we got lost coming out of the maze of streets leading away from our apartment and had to drive at a snail's pace to get to the hotel.
Because of the changes by the government the hotel had changed the venue of the party to another part of the hotel. It was now going to be held around the pool. Fantastic we thought! But when we got to the pool we realized the fog had followed us in. The seats were wet the table clothes were damp, even the noise makers and decorations looked soggy.
The Coast was responsible for playing the music for the evening but because of the change in rules and venue the dj was in another part of the building and couldn't hear what he was playing!
He had 2 songs playing over top of each other or didn't have any music on at all. For part of the night we couldn't hear each other talk and then there was nothing at all! It was a mess~
the food would have been really tasty if the fog hadn't made everything soggy and it didn't feel like a party when most of the seats were empty. People didn't realize they could still attend or with the "party" being taken out of the celebration decided to stay home or go to a house party.
At just after 11 the music went off for the last time, the dj stopped announcing anything and so a few minutes before midnight each table started to do their own countdown according to whomever was wearing a watch! It was embarrassing to be part of (thanks Coast 103.2)!

But as I mentioned earlier, the company was fantastic. Our German friends Angela and Christoph suffered with us through the night and managed to make the worst party in the history of New Year's Eve fun!

I'm sure the last thing Christoph wanted to give this party was a "thumbs up"!

Angela demonstrating what you can do with damp party favors~

The best part about this party was leaving it!
We had much more fun at Angela and Christoph's!
Thanks for sticking it out with us and let's never do that again!!!!

Peanut Butter Jam

Every weekend at the Wafi Rooftop Gardens they host something called Peanut Butter Jam. It is a chance for a collection of local musicians to play.
Kenny was giving away VIP couch tickets on his show and our good friends won... so they took us!
We got special seating and a gift voucher to eat and drink for free. Got to love being a VIP!

Peanut Butter Jam is sponsored by M&Ms just in case you missed the advertising message in these pictures.

Angela and I kickin' back on the couch.

Christoph (aka Don Johnson) chillin' on a bean bag chair
choosing something to eat from the bbq.

And Kenny Jones listenin' to the tunes.

Giant bean bag chairs on a rooftop in the middle of the city.
It was a really fun night.
You can even see the rope that kept the riff raff out of the VIP section at the bottom of this pic!

cheers!

Wild Water Tour Without Getting Wet!

Today we are going to take you on a tour of a couple of Dubai's latest attractions.

Please remember to keep all hands and feet inside the ride at all times.

The first is the largest (of course it is... in Dubai is there anything but?) shopping mall in the Middle East. It's called The Dubai Mall. Very creative with the name huh?

The Dubai Mall has all the usually stores and lots of them but what is unusual about this place is has nothing to do with shopping.

It has an aquarium and ice rink!

The aquarium is huge! They have a full tour as well that takes you inside a tunnel inside this tank so you can pretend to feed your 3 year old to a shark if you wish.
As well as to other parts of the aquarium but we skipped that when we got in line behind 2 classes of 5th graders!
Here are some shots of the public viewing area...

We were up on the 3rd level taking this pic.

Up close and personal with jaws

Not sure how well you can see this but the bubbles behind the shark are divers.
They were in the tank to do a fish feeding.

A big fish in a big pond

No explanation needed here.

You get a better idea of how big this big tank is with Kenny standing in front of it.

Here is the olympic size ice rink.
The top row of glass is some of the food court seating.
It's not just hotdogs, potato chips and slushies at this canteen!

You can watch the skaters from all sides of the ice.
We were up on the third level watching the kids (all in matching blue skates) skate around.

On to our favorite part of the Dubai Mall tour...
The Bell!

Dubai's first and only Taco Bell!

Outside the Dubai Mall you can get a close up view of the tallest building in the world.
The Burj Dubai!













At the base of the tower there is an entire new community built in. Apartments, shopping and most likely anything else you might need or want!








Now for the next stop in tourist attractions in Dubai...

The Atlantis Hotel on Palm Jumeira

This hotel sits at the very end of the palm.
It is a huge resort with it's own beach, water park and you guessed it...
an aquarium!

It is supposed to be a version of what the lost city of Atlantis would look like.

It's a round tank in the middle of the hotel so you can walk all the way around it.

All the better to see the whale shark they have inside!



This is the view from the lobby and check in


the whale shark cruising around the lost city





This is the very end of the palm. The road that leads out to the hotel is right on the Gulf.
In disney sort of fashion, you need to take a bus from where you park your car to the hotel itself but on the way out we decided to walk.





And that ends our tour of 2 of the newest attractions in Dubai.
Enjoy your day ... wherever you are!