Weekend in Cairo

Hi everyone, sorry for the sporadic posts! I will try to be better.


In this entry I'm posting a few pictures from my trip to Cairo in July. I visited my friend Anna, who after doing a short stint in Abu Dhabi moved back to Cairo to complete a 1-year intensive Arabic language program. Her Arabic is awesome and really comes in handy in a place like Cairo where it is the spoken language.

Anna and I took a long walk through the Khan el-Khalili bazaar where the vendors sell everything from clothes and shoes to rabbits and fish (smelly!).


We visited the mosque that President Obama visited when he came to Cairo for his big speech to the Muslim world. We had to wear these funny green capes inside the mosque. It's normal to have to cover up, but I am used to the black abbayas (dresses) and headscarves in the UAE.

On my last day Anna graciously took me to the Pyramids. We went in the morning so it was actually pretty quiet, and the vendors left us alone for the most part. We went inside one of the pyramids which was cramped, hot, and humid. If you are the slightest bit claustrophobic, then I would not recommend it!


I had such a great time in Cairo. The city is so vibrant and the people are very friendly. I highly recommend the delicious street food called kushari.

Cordoba House

I feel compelled to weigh in on the debate about construction of the mosque & community center near Ground Zero. I will never know the pain of the families of the victims of 9/11. But after living and traveling in Muslim-majority countries for the past 3 years, I have come to know some of the 1.5 billion Muslims who live in our world today. These wonderful people, many of them dear friends, have helped me to understand and, through their generous and noble actions and words, revere the religion of Islam. Let’s put aside fear and ignorance and give the moderate Muslim voice a chance to shine through. President Obama said it best in his speech in Cairo: “The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism -- it is an important part of promoting peace.”

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I should have posted this entry back around, oh March 17th, but time seems to have gotten away from me! Being the charming American-Irishman that he is, Patrick has naturally befriended a lot of Irish folks here in the UAE. There is quite a large population of Irish living in the UAE, so much so that Ireland recently opened an embassy in Abu Dhabi. Up until this point the nearest embassy was in Riyadh. Patrick is buddies with the second in command at the embassy, who got us an invite to the St. Patrick's Day reception which celebrated not only the holiday but also the opening of the embassy. The Attorney General was on hand to say a few inspiring words in English, and some words we didn't understand in Gaelic. Sheikha Lubna, the UAE Minister of Foreign Trade, attended the event and out of respect for her, only juice was served when she was there. After she left, the Guinness started flowing and we certainly got our fill! I was feeling particularly Irish on St Patty's Day this year because my Irish citizenship paperwork had come through just a few days before (thanks, dad). Now I just need to apply for an Irish passport and I will feel like a really cool international traveller. Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day! Here are some pictures from the reception.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign

I was going through our pictures the other day and realized we have a ton of pictures of signs. What a great collection! Enjoy.










This last one is my favorite. In case you can't read it, it says "Take good care of your children." The one above to the left is also funny - my friend Katrina broke just about every dress code rule for visiting a Buddhist temple in Bangkok. My dad even makes a cameo from our trip to Dublin.

Boys' Day Out & Ladies Night

Some of you might be wondering what we do for fun over here. Lately we've been taking advantage of the beautiful weather. While those of you in DC are snowed under, here we are enjoying the 75, maybe 80, degree weather. In addition to lounging around on the beach, we have started playing tennis at our beach club. It'll be a while before we are any good, but for now it's great fun and much needed exercise :). Patrick recently took some colleagues from the comment and business desks out for a "deep sea" fishing trip. Here is Rupert's son, Leo, commandeering the boat. They tell me they caught fish, but presented no evidence.

We had a great time at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship the other weekend. It still amazes me that we can get so close to the golfers (golf isn't exactly the most popular sport here, so the crowds tend to be small). Other things that we hope to do soon include kayaking and a trip out to the wildlife refuge on the Sir Baniyas Island. And maybe another round of camping in the desert/mountains of Oman. We did this last year and had a lot of fun. Although this time I think I will spend more than 28 dirhams ($7) on our tent.

And now we come to the nightlife. These days it is hard to resist the temptation of sitting outside and enjoying a beer and shisha. Another activity I've grown quite fond of is ladies night. A few of the bars around town devote one night each week where ladies can have free drinks. Absolutely free and usually unlimited. My friends and I have tested them all out, and our favorite is the unlimited red and white wine at the Tavern Pub. Sometimes even Patrick and his buddies will join us. Since there are so many more men in the city than women, ladies night is probably a good tactic to get men out to the bars. Well, they would probably just go there anyway. :)

'Round the girdled earth they roam

Last weekend the words of the Dartmouth alma mater, "'round the girdled earth they roam," came particularly true when my roomie and good friend from Dartmouth, Laura Grip, came to visit me in Abu Dhabi. Grip and I hit the usual spots - the Zayed mosque, Emirates Palace, and the corniche, and had a nice lunch outside at the Captain's Arms. During our last stop of the day to the Heritage Village, we happened to run into another Dartmouth grad, class of '73, who played hockey at Dartmouth and is here on a temporary assignment to the education council. Patrick and I have met only one other Dartmouth grad here since we moved here, so it was quite a funny coincidence to randomly meet Jake while sightseeing. We made sure to capture the mini-reunion with a photo.

From Abu Dhabi we decided to "roam" over to Muscat, Oman for the weekend. The drive down was really long, mainly because I had mistakenly decided to wing it with regard to directions in and around the Oman border. We got a tad lost trying to find the expat border post (yep, it's different than the one for Gulf residents) and the little office where you buy your exit visa, but eventually we made it over the border and down the long coastal road to the beautiful city of Muscat.

Thanks to a great deal that I heard about from a friend, we were able to stay at the luxurious Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah resort. The resort is comprised of three different hotels literally carved into the mountainside, as you can see from the picture. Our room overlooked the ocean, mountains, and lazy river (my favorite part) that flowed around our hotel. Like any true resort, there were a plethora of restaurants and bars on the property, so we decided to stick around there on our first night. We took advantage of the happy hour special at the Long Bar and had some delicious local fish for dinner at Bait Al Bahr (house of the sea).

We spent most of the next day sunbathing on the glorious beach, but somehow managed to drag ourselves off in time to catch a shuttle into town to tour the Mutrah Souk (market). I've been to a lot of souks since we moved here, but this one was particularly neat. Perhaps it was the location right along the waterfront and in front of the rugged mountains. Or maybe it was the friendly Omani shopkeeper who spoke great English and gave us discounts on his jewelry. Did we barter enough? Probably not.

That evening we were tempted again by the alfresco dining options at the Shangri-La and had tapas and sangria topped off with some strawberry shisha in a tent. We definitely indulged ourselves.

The next day the trip back to Abu Dhabi was a bit quicker, I guess about 6 hours in total counting the border crossing paperwork. Grip headed back to the states the following day.

Now I wait in eager anticipation of our next visitor!

Journeys in Jordan

Over Eid Al Adha back in late November, Patrick and I booked an Etihad Holiday to Jordan. What an amazing trip! The people were super friendly, the sights and countryside were beautiful, and I even got to use a little Arabic with the taxi drivers and waiters (emphasis on little).

We arrived to Amman, the capital of Jordan, on a Friday morning and spent probably an hour in the visa line at the airport. With visa in hand, we proceeded to Le Meridien Hotel in downtown Amman, which would serve as our home base for the 3-day trip. We had a really funny driver from the airport, who told us he had spent time with US soldiers in Iraq and really enjoyed those experiences. We chatted with him about Eid Al Adha, which is the holiday where Muslims slaughter goats in recognition of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. He gave us a good laugh when he said, "It is judgement day for goats."


After getting settled in the hotel we ventured out to explore the city, but most of the sights were closed due to the holiday and the fact that it was a Friday, the Muslim holy day (like Sunday in America). At the amphitheater downtown we were followed around by large groups of boys. I'm not exactly sure what they wanted, but they seemed to be happy when we posed for a picture with them. Then we taxied over to Abdoun circle for shisha and an early dinner.

Le Meridien Amman is probably the nicest hotel we have ever paid for with our own money (my dad has put us up in a few nice places). Each night of our stay there was an elaborate wedding procession from the lobby doors to the elevators, which we later found out from our Jordanian friend here in Abu Dhabi is a ceremony where the guests are celebrating the newly married couple as they head to the "marriage bed." The procession involves a lot of singing, drumming, and dancing.

On Saturday we journeyed to the mystical town of Petra, which most everyone knows as the place from the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and more recently from Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. We did this trip in 1 day, which is doable but not recommendable. The bus left Amman at 6:30am and took about 3.5 hours to get down to Petra. Then we departed around 4:30 in the afternoon, leaving us plain exhausted when we got back to Amman around 8pm.


The really neat part about Petra is that it is a totally car-free town. The modes of transportation are: walking, horseback, horse carriage, or camel. It's about a 1km walk along the entrance, called The Siq, to the first big sight, The Treasury, pictured at left. The Treasury was immensely tall and the columns and details on the facade were beautiful. From there we visited the amphitheater and took a hike up the steps to the "High Place of Sacrifice," which had a great view. And no trip would be complete without some snacks, shisha, and conversation with a quirky Englishman. There are many more sights to see in Petra, but we didn't have much time left so we headed to the Cave Bar for a quick drink before the bus departed.


On our final day in Jordan we hired a slightly pushy driver, Abu Firas, to take us to Jerash and the Dead Sea. He wanted to take us to many more places for much more money, but we were really looking forward to a more relaxing day so we had to put our foot down. Several times. Finally he got the point and we were off to Jerash, which are beautiful Roman ruins north of Amman. I liked the hippodrome and the sprawling ruins across the green landscape. Here's Patrick doing his signature pose.

Our last stop, and my favorite part of the trip, was a dip in the Dead Sea. This is something that I think everyone should experience in their lives. It was so amazing to float so effortlessly in the water. Although you have to be careful about getting the water in your eyes and mouth because it is super salty! Patrick opted for the Dead Sea mud bath; I opted not. The mud smelled a little funny.

That night we smoked shisha and watched a football (soccer) match in a cafe, joined by hundreds of young Jordanians, so it must have been a hip place. Our cool driver from the airport gave us the tip.