Oman

March 5 - 7: Sultanate of Oman

Once Nathan left for the US, Jules and I decided to spend a short holiday in the neighbouring country of Oman. The bus company said it would only take 6 hours and cost only $30 roundtrip. We booked a hotel in Muscat over the phone and we were set. We were going to Oman.

Just a short drive west out of Dubai, you are plunged into the wildnerness of the Arabian Desert and the Hajar Mountains. Our bus was your typical dilapidated and smelly type, but whatever...it was cheap. The border between the United Arab Emirates and Oman was some dinky little outpost standing in the shadow of the towering mountain ranges. We got across the border with no problems and sped our way across the empty desert towards Muscat. It's pure wild country out here. The Bedouins still cling to their old, simple way of life in the desert. Although, some of them have upgraded from camels to 4WD SUVs.


At the Oman-UAE Border


My illegal picture of the Oman-UAE Border


Welcome to Oman


Muscat, Oman

We got into Muscat at 330pm local time. For the first time on my study abroad, I actually felt that I was in the Middle East. At least, Muscat is the stereotype that most Americans have of cities the Middle East. There are no skyscrapers. The tallest building in town is 5 stories. The city is surrounded by open desert and mountains. There no tourists and there are Arabs everywhere dressed in shining white for the men and all-black for the women. The cars are old and are all imports from Asia and Europe. Arabic writing is everywhere. Everyone speaks Arabic. The men spend most of their time sitting on street corners drinking tea or coffee and having lively conversation.

The first thing we noticed though was that all the shops and businesses were closed. It was 330pm on a Wednesday and everything was closed. The weekend wasn't until Thursday and Friday, and we were sure that it wasn't a holiday.

We didn't have any Omani Rials so the first thing we did was look for an ATM. We found a bank and it wouldn't accept any of our cards. And then it took my Notre Dame debit card and wouldn't give it back. So I walked around to the door and go figure, the bank was closed and wouldn't open until the next day. Not cool.

We walked like a block to another ATM, and my brother's card worked. We then asked a taxi driver to take us to our hotel. He kept asking us, in his poor English, 'When? When? When?'...we gave him a confused look and said 'Now please...al'an min fudluck'. But he kept asking us 'When? When?'...then he asked, 'Corniche or Ruwi?'. He was practicing his apparently poor English on us and when he asked 'when' he actually meant 'where'. Well, his English is probably as good as my Arabic. Anyway, he ended up overcharging us $8 for a 5-minute ride to the our hotel by the water. It should've only cost $1. Not a good way to start off in Oman.

After checking into our lovely 1-star hotel, we set off to explore Muscat by foot. Except everything was still closed. We had lunch at a nice Arabic cafe (the only one open) by the water for $1. We walked into the nearby Mutrah Souq and the stalls were all closed. Sweet. This trip to Oman is really going well, just like our trip to Abu Dhabi.


View from our 1-star hotel

Fortunately, things got better before they could get any worse. At 4pm, all the shops and stalls in the souq were coming alive again and opening. It was weird. The sort of scene of stores opening up shop signifies morning in other countries. In Oman, this sort of scene was taking place late in the afternoon. Apparently, Omanis take a sort of siesta during afternoon prayers. All the shops and businesses close so the faithful Muslims can do their afternoon prayers and have afternoon tea or coffee. After managing our way through the labrynith of shops and howling alibabas ('my friend! my friend! you want cheap DVDs?'), we walked a few kilometers along the Gulf of Oman's coast to the walled city of Muscat.


Corniche and the Gulf of Oman




Old Portuguese fort. The modern Omani military still uses the old forts as current bases.


Gate to the Walled City


Walled City

For many years, the Portuguese had occupied the city of Muscat for its strategic trade position halfway between Europe and Asia. They built a wall around the entire city and the only way in or out was through two gates. They built a number of forts and watchtowers on top of the cliffs above the city, which are actually still in use today by the modern Omani military. The walled city is also home to the Sultan's palace, where Sultan Qaboos resides in the Omani version of the White House. There wasn't much security around. And the few security guards present were quite lax. We were walking on the top of the wall and this once security guard had his M16A2 rifle propped up against the wall, while he was on the other side with his back to us and his rifle while he stared off into the city. We walked between him and his rifle, and the guy didn't even flinch. Man, I could've just taken that thing and ran. And if we wanted to, we probably could've jumped the fence into the palace. There was no one at the gate and certainly no rooftop snipers.


Sultan's Palace


Some museum


Sultan's Palace


Entrance to the Palace


Sultan Qaboos


Notice how the Pope's picture is higher
















Our room's wall. Welcome to Muslim country.

We spent the rest of the night walking back to the corniche and having dinner on the top floor of the tallest building in town. Up on the 5th floor, we had a view of the entire waterfront. The beer was cheap too. We went back to the hotel to watch Al Jazeera and Baghdad TV, before falling asleep. I set my alarm to 8am.

5am, we woke up to the local muezzin singing the morning prayers away at the mosque next door to our hotel. We couldn't go back to sleep until he was done. No wonder this place is a 1-star.

First thing that day, we had to go back to the bank and get my ND debit card back. We didn't want to take a taxi because we didn't want to get gringo'd again. And we thought it would be a nice morning walk. Wrong. It took us almost two hours to walk under the hot Middle Eastern sun. Sweaty and tired, we entered the bank and got in the long line. 40 minutes later, I get to the teller and ask to get my card back from the ATM. He tells me to go upstairs. Sweet, all that waiting for nothing. I get upstairs and get in line again. 10 minutes later, I ask the lady at the desk and then she goes off to ask some other guy. This other guy told me to go back downstairs and ask for Mr Ali. Just super. I skip the line back downstairs, despite the glares from the Arabs in line, and ask one of the tellers for Mr Ali. A large man appears and I tell him about my ATM card. No I don't want to open an account here, I just want my card back you jerk. Mr Ali tells me to go upstairs and talk to them. The Middle East and dealing with Arabs takes a lot of patience. After some talk, he finally disappeared into the back and came back with my ND debit card. Something that took him 15 seconds to do ended up taking us an hour to do.


Omanis who did't know we took their picture




Omani Special Forces

We thought the beach would be a nice place to relax the day away, so we decided to take a taxi to the Al-Bustan Palace Hotel, one of the biggest sights to see in Muscat. It's 5-star hotel and an architectural wonder, with its beautiful domes and columns. It also hosted the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) summit a few years back. 20 minutes and $10 later, we get to the hotel. The security guard at the gate waves us down and in perfect English (he was Filipino), tells us that the hotel was closed for renovations. Wow. Just our luck.


Drive through the mountains to the beach

Our trip was taking casualties, and we were losing patience with being in the Middle East. Our last hope was some beach (Bandar Jissah) that my travel book recommended and it was the last thing on our list that we wanted to see. I bought a travel book for $35 (a 2004 edition of 'Arabian Peninsula') that covered all the countries on the Arabian Peninsula: United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. Besides Yemen, I wanted to visit every country the book covered, so I figured it was a good investment even though I overpaid for the book. Our taxi driver drove us through the mountains (beautiful views of the Gulf by the way) and he dropped us off at some 5-star hotel that wasn't in my book. I asked if this was the right place and he insisted that it was, in his poor English. Turns out that it was the Shangri-La Hotel and that it was actually built in 2005. So, that explains why it wasn't in my book. We were expecting Bandar Jissah to be an underdeveloped wilderness. Instead, we found a 5-star hotel. It was a pleasant surprise. Not to my brother though. He wishes it was still a natural beach. Anyway, we hung out here for a couple of hours, enjoying the hot sun and the gorgeous beach. When I thought of the Gulf of Oman, I didn't exactly have this in mind:


Gulf of Oman





As usual, the hotel staff was mostly Filipino and so were the waiters at the restaurant. We struck up a nice converstation with our Filipino waiter (Filipinos stick together). Julian started telling him about his report on Catholicism in the Middle East and asked our waiter why Oman didn't have a Catholic church. Our new Filipino friend englightened us and said that Oman did actually have Catholic churches. There are actually two in the area of Muscat. Another pleasant surprise. We immediately decided to attend the next Mass. We left the hotel and took an expensive cab ride back to the city.


Omanis at the beach


Someone drowned =(

We ended up at another beach, this time in Qu'urm, on the outskirts of Muscat. Now this was what a Middle Eastern beach really looks like, without tourists or any sign of Western influence (besides the one Starbucks). Hundreds of Omanis were out at the beach since it was their weekend (Thursday). Men still wore their traditional white robes to the beach. Women still wore their traditional black burqas to the beach too. But their traditional dress is so highly regarded that they make every effort they can to keep them clean, especially on the beach. And despite the signs saying that soccer was forbidden on the beach, there were dozens of soccer matches going on anyway. We walked up the beach for an hour or so, until it was time for Mass. There was a gathering crowd on one part of the beach. Apparently, someone had drowned in the water and there was a seach and rescue operation currently underway. Police and crowd stood offshore, divers and boats patrolled the water, and a UH-1 Huey helicopter circled above in the skies.


UH-1 Huey aids the search party




Illegal soccer on the beach


Muslim women still wear their traditional dress to the beach

A taxi dropped us off at the Holy Spirit Church in Ghala, although we were about two hours early for the 715pm service. A few minutes after arriving, a middle-aged Filipino man, noticing we were also Filipino (Filipinos can always tell their own kind), approached us in front of the church and introduced himself as Carlos, from Manila. He asked us if we lived in Oman, and he was pleasantly surprised when we told him that we were visiting American college students. But to his disappointment, we did not speak Tagalog. We talked about our families, his job, what we were doing in Dubai and Oman, the Catholic Church in the Middle East (he used to live in Saudi Arabia where Catholicism is banned), the Filipino community in Oman, etc. This went on for over an hour. Before we knew it, he was introducing us to all the Filipinos showing up to Mass. The meetings developed a routine. He introduced us by name to someone who would then acknowledge us and shake our hands. Then we'd tell them we're visiting American college students and they would would gasp and then suddenly be so interested in us, asking us dozens of questions. This went on for about 30 minutes until the Mass started and we had already met about a dozen Filipino expatriate workers. As usual, the only ones in Mass were Indians and Filipinos, with a Filipino priest presiding.


What the heck language is Western...?


Catholic church in Ghala


Every church in Arabia has a grotto


Yet again, the only ones in the crowd are Filipinos or Indians. The priests are also either Filipino or Indian

After Mass, Carlos and the other Filipinos invited us to their post-Mass dinner and gathering. We hadn't eaten yet and we were being offered free Filipino food so of course we joined them. Most of the Filipino expatriates are professors, businessmen, or managers. By contrast, most of the Filipino expatriates in Dubai are waiters, cashiers, or hotel clerks (still a level higher than the Indians and Pakistanis, who are all drivers and construction workers/manual laborers). One of the Filipinos grew up in San Diego and was retired US Navy, who was currently in Oman as a US Defense Department contractor working with the US Air Force in the region. Around 11pm or so, they invited us out to town to get shawarmas with them. Carlos drove us to the shawarma restaurant and the place was booming. It was around midnight on a Thursday night but Omanis were out and about everywhere (Oman's weekend is Thursday and Friday). The restaurant was packed. The streets were full of pedestrians and traffic. Oman's nightlife doesn't quite compare to Dubai's but we were impressed. After another free meal from the local Filipinos, we thanked them for their overflowing hospitality and genorisity and Carlos drove us back to our hotel, and we fell asleep after watching more Baghdad TV.


Filipino feast


Midnight shawarma run


After the shawarma run

After 4 hours of sleep, at 5am we wake up again to the muezzin in the next door mosque wailing away on the loudspeakers. It's pretty cool if you've never heard Muslim prayers before. It's not so cool if they wake you up at 5am.

Friday morning, me and Jules went shopping in the Mutrah souq, which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Besides the howling Arab men (my friend my friend! you want cheap watch? rubber shoes?), I love Arab markets. You can haggle everything down significantly if you know what you're doing and know how to work the system. Forget about those clean, fancy, expensive malls. I'd rather hang out here with these Arab guys. After some haggling I ended up buying an Omani Khanjar dagger and an Omani Shamshir sword (the two make up Oman's coat of arms).


Oman's coat of arms

Carlos picked us up to take us to the other Catholic Church in Ruwi that was having a Mass at noon. Again, it was packed with Filipinos and Indians, with a Filipino priest presiding. After Mass, the Filipinos invited us again to eat and hang out with them. The Filipino community is extremely close here in Oman, which accounts for their super hospitable attitude and kindness. Maybe I'm just biased, but I can't really think of any other nationality that would do this to two random strangers visiting a country. We exchanged contact info (email and facebook), hugged, and said our goodbyes. Carlos drove us to the Grand Mosque to take some pictures. It has the world's largest carpet. It took 600 women over 4 years to weave.


Souq




Sneaky pictures so they won't get mad




Mass at the other Catholic church


Grotto


The church...Filipinos and Indians. No bell tower or crosses because they're illegal.


Filipino feast




Filipinos are so hospitable




We're going to keep in touch through email and facebook


Grand Mosque, with the world's largest carpet

After leaving the mosque, he dropped us off at the bus station and waited for our bus to get there before leaving. We thanked him for his kindness and assured him that he and the other Filipinos made our trip to Oman really special and worth it. As soon as we met them, we didn't feel like tourists anymore. We didn't feel we were alone in a strange Muslim country anymore. They had made us feel at home and welcome. Viva la Philippines.

7 hours later we were back in Dubai. Julian and I went to the Dubai Desert Rock Festival on Saturday, March 8th. We saw Muse, Velvet Revolver, Marky Ramone (of the Ramones), and Julianna Down. The concert made me feel like I was back in the US for the first time I've been here. It was a lot like Lollapalooza 2007 in Chicago, except there was nobody smoking pot and since this was a concert in the Middle East they would take 5 minute silent breaks during the show so that the Muslims could do their prayer. How cool is that. And Muse just so happens to be my favorite band. I've seen Muse play live every year for the past 4 years: DC 2005, Philadelphia 2006, Chicago 2007, Dubai 2008...but this is my first time I've seen them play in the middle of the desert. The concert itself was one of the best I've ever been to. And we didn't bother buying beer because it was $10 for like half a can. I'll upload the other videos later.



Anyway, we got back from the concert past midnight and Julian left at 6am to catch his flight back to Notre Dame. No worries though, I am going to meet up with him and Eric (as well as a few other friends) in Rome on the 19th. Julian left Dubai on the 9th but we were going to see each other again in 10 days.

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Nathan Loyd's Last Day in the Middle East:

On Monday (March 3rd), we went to Mass at 645am and Julian interviewed one of the priests (Father D'Souza from India who wished to remain anonymous) for his research paper. Notre Dame paid for his trip to the UAE and Oman so he could do research on the Catholic Church in the Middle East. We then took an early morning bus to the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi.


630am


Bus to Abu Dhabi, only $5

2 hours and 5 dollars later, we arrived in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city of Abu Dhabi is on an island in the Persian Gulf and is connected to the UAE's coast by bridges. Once at the bus station, the first thing we wanted to do was to check out the 'Iranian Souq' which was highly recommended by Nathan's travel book 'Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the UAE'...we negotiated a price with a taxi driver (none of the taxis outside Dubai have meters). We told him to take us to the Iranian Souq and he gave us a confused look and asked if we were sure. So we took a taxi across the city to the port area where the book said the souq was located. The taxi dropped us off near a series of dilapidated shops and stalls, all selling either pots, pans, or plants...nothing else. We aimlessly walked around for an hour and judging by the picture in Nathan's book of a souq filled with Middle Eastern treasures, we decided that the taxi driver was probably mistaken and didn't really know where the Iranian Souq was. We hailed another taxi and told him to take us to the Iranian Souq. 20 seconds and 5 dirhams later, he dropped us off in the same exact spot that the first taxi dropped us off. Strike one for Nathan's travel book.

Our frustration developed a hungry appetite, and so we checked Nathan's travel book for a recommended and affordable Arab restaurant. We found one called 'Al-Boom' which sounded very Arabic and it said it was only $10-15 for a meal. Taking another taxi across the city, he dropped us off at the Le Meridien Hotel. It turns out that the restaurant was a revolving one on top of the hotel and the hotel receptionist downstairs had to call it to make a resevervation for us. Taking the elevator to the top floor, the sign said the restaurant actually served European food, despite the Arabic name. Oh well, the view over Abu Dhabi was nice so we stayed. The host actually pulled our chairs out for us and placed our napkins on our laps. I don't know why rich people can't do this for themselves, but okay. The host later said that the slippers I were wearing weren't allowed in the restaurant (even though rich Arabs wear them...?), but they'd make an exception for us because we were the only ones in the restaurant. We looked at the menu, and the cheapest meal was about $17. Expensive, yes...but we thought our money would at least get us a lot of food. Wrong. The waiter brought our food out and our plates looked more like modern art than actual meals. Nathan paid about $20 for 2 pieces of sushi and some cheese. Strike two for Nathan's travel book. Oh well, at least we ate as much free bread as we could so we could get our money's worth. Oh, and the view was nice.


That meal cost about $20


At least the rotating view was nice


Corniche

Frustrated again, we decided to walk it off on the corniche by the water. Nathan's travel book had a map showing a clock tower by the water a few hundred meters up the corniche. Every emirate in the UAE has a clock tower, so they're a pretty big deal. An hour later of walking in the blistering Arabian sun, we came to the spot where the map said there was a clock tower. There was none. Strike three for Nathan's travel book. He ended up throwing the book off a bridge. At this point we really started to hate Abu Dhabi.


This is where the clock tower was supposed to be


At least the water is nice


We hated this city


Don't let the smile fool you

It was only 3pm (we arrived at 11am), but we had had enough and decided to cut our trip short. We took the next bus out of the city back to Dubai. Though we did get to see the Grand Mosque from the highway, so that was pretty cool I guess. And I fell asleep on the entire bus ride back to Dubai so that was nice too.


Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. I fell asleep after I took this. I woke up back in Dubai.


Muslim


Hordes of Indian workers


Back in Dubai

Back in Dubai, we got off the bus downtown and tried to hail a taxi to go watch the sunset on the beach. We tried to hail a taxi for almost an hour. Eventually we gave up and walked around. We finally found a taxi and went home, though we missed the beach sunset. Nathan decided we should cook dinner for my relatives here so we went to the supermarket first and spent $70 on food. We got home and it turns out they already had dinner planned. Shoot. What a day.

Not that I'm complaining about anything that day. Kids complain. I don't.

Esto Vir.

Eric Sales' Three Days in Dubai

Eric Sales, paying an extra $300 for his flight so he would not miss Fiestang, arrived on the night of the 25th. Julian, Nathan, and I twiddled our thumbs for two days waiting for him to land so we could finally go all out on Dubai. We didn't do much those two days. We went to Mass both days (645am) in the only Catholic church in Dubai, which is banned from displaying crosses, having a bell tower, or even using the bells it has. Since it is the only church in Dubai and there are large numbers of faithful Catholics living in the region (mostly Filipinos and Indians), St. Mary's Catholic Church is the largest parish in the world. Yes, the largest Catholic parish in the world is in a Muslim country. Despite the tens of thousands of followers, the parish only has 6 priests. That's one priest for every 10,000 people or so. The priests are also either Filipino and Indian (the same is true for most parishes in Gulf countries).

Here's another random fact: the UAE has the world's worst male to female ratio in the world (5:1), officially making the UAE the largest sausage-fest country in the world. I suppose that's what happens when you import hundreds of thousands of male laborers from Asia. Dubai also has the world's worst male to female ratio for a city (5:1), officially making Dubai the the largest sausage-fest city in the world. The nightclubs here are great, except they suffer from the same problem as Notre Dame parties.


St. Mary's Catholic Church, the only Catholic Church in Dubai


Notice how everyone is either Filipino or Indian, including the priests

Anyway, we also walked around the old part of Dubai near the Creek, and walked down Sheikh Zayed Road, the new part of Dubai. Sheikh Zayed Road is actually the most dangerous stretch of highway in the world, in terms of the number of accidents and pedestrian deaths (Route Irish in Baghdad is the most dangerous road in the world in terms of overall deaths). There was even an accident this morning on it involving 60 cars and some deaths. The photos of the burnt and wrecked cars from this morning eerily looked like something out of Baghdad.


Sheikh Zayed Road: most dangerous highway in the world.

We then took a taxi to Dubai Marina, a 'new city' being built across an area of 5 square kilometers. The same 5 square kilometers in 2003 was desert and wilderness. In 2008, it's all skyscrapers. It is the largest waterfront development and marina in the world. The streets are mostly deserted and the few people walking around the city's streets now are only construction workers, who are all either Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, Bangledeshi, etc. Walking around the place isn't like a ghost town; it's more of a ghost city. The vast majority of the city is still under construction (block after block after block of skyscrapers). Although enough has been completed to make it look nearly finished, a lot of the businesses and residents haven't moved in yet. So what you have is an entire city of empty skyscrapers. Dubai Marina is also the most densely constructed, least populated area in the world. It's pretty sweet to walk around at night when you're alone and the whole place is deserted, and you're surrounded by dark, empty skyscrapers as far as you can see.


Awesomo


The horders of workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangledesh, etc.


Dubai Marina: largest waterfront development and marina in the world


Beaches in Dubai: white sand, aquamarine water, clear skies, 80+ degrees every day...

Eric arrived later that night. The next day (February 26th) we went to Mass again (645am) and overpaid $60 to go on a double decker bus tour. The tour covered everything worth seeing and going to in Dubai. The highlight of the tour was actually getting away from it. We took a detour from the tour in Deira (old part of Dubai) and visited the local fruit souq and the fish souq (souqs are markets). It was the best decision we made all day. We were a group of 4 Notre Dame students in a busy Middle Eastern marketplace among a sea of Arabs and Persians. There was not another tourist in sight and we could finally feel a sense of daily life in the Arab world. The fruit souq was definitely the most interesting. It's like being a kid again. What's so exciting is that you're surrounded by strange and exotic fruit that you have never seen or heard of before. We even found grenadillas on sale, but Nathan wouldn't even look at them (he ate 5 of them last January in Ecuador in one sitting) The fish souq smelled very pleasant and had daily catches from the Persian Gulf on sale.

In a fun local mix of Islam and the West, I find it interesting that Dubai is probably the only place in the Middle East (maybe the world) where you will find so many Muslim men dressed in their traditional sacred white robes, but wearing an American style baseball hat. For fear of reprisal from the government or extremist groups, most Muslims elsewhere in the Middle East wouldn't be caught dead wearing American style clothes (especially with their traditional dress), but Emaratis in Dubai walk around with baseball caps like it's nothing. Just a few hundred miles south across the Arabian Desert in the ultra-conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they'd probably arrest a Muslim for such a thing. I even saw a guy here wearing a Yankees hat here (gross I know). I got excited when I thought I had finally met another American here. I asked him if he was from New York. Instead, I got a blank stare and some phrases in Farsi in return. The guy didn't even speak English.

We then explored the gold souq. Dubai is famous for its gold because it is so cheap here compared to other cities throughout the world. There are no taxes so buyers and sellers alike save a lot of money. We tried to find the spice souq, but, as souqs are narrow, cramped mazes of stalls and shops, we got lost and eventually gave up. Getting lost in the Middle East is not a good feeling. We then traveled across town to the newest souq, called the Madinat Souq. Nathan got swindled by a seller and accidentally bought two incense burners. Eric was also falling asleep on the bus. Later that night, we drove around one of the Palm Islands. It's pretty neat, and so massive that you don't even sense it being a giant palm tree island while you're on it.


Typical Arab

The next day (February 27th) we did something that's probably only possible in Dubai. We went indoor skiing in the morning (10 degrees F). In the afternoon, we went on an desert safari in the Arabian Desert (90 degrees F). Both are just a 30 minute drive from the other. I had never skied before either so now I can say that I learned how to ski in Dubai, UAE. When we first walked into the indoor ski slope, the first thing I thought of was Notre Dame. I realized that the last time I was this cold was at Notre Dame just 3 weeks before. And then I remembered all my friends still in South Bend, freezing and unable to escape the cold until Spring Break. For me to escape the cold here, the door was just 100 meters away. They even had a window so that while you're in 10 degree weather in the snow inside, you can look out and see the 90 degree desert climate outside. Nathan bought a pass to the 'Snow Park' but when he got there he saw that it was actually a kids area for those too young to ski. So there was Nathan, a 21 year old college student, hanging out in the kids area. Too awkward a situation for him, he eventually bought a ski pass, except he kept falling down on the slopes. We even met a couple from Kosovo who were taking a holiday in Dubai. Another one of the fellow skiers was from Macedonia. I can't get enough of how big a melting pot Dubai really is. I mean, how often do you meet people from countries like Kosovo, Macedonia, or Syria, who speak great English and can engage in lively conversation with. The biggest stereotyope that the world has of Americans is that Americans only speak American (English).


Ski Dubai in the morning(10 degrees inside, 90 degrees outside)

It's also quite reassuring even seeing typical Arabs/Persians here being able to speak both Arab/Farsi and English. And if they don't speak English, they're at least bilingual in something else (Urdu or something). Even more thought-provoking is how some of these Arabs and Persians speak better English than some Americans, who resort to just street slang and who lack proper grammar, let alone the motivation and intellectual curiousity to learn a second language. What's even more interesting is that the expat families here could be from France, China, Germany, the Philippines, or India, but they'd all come to be speaking English here in Dubai. The same thing happened in America among the immigrants when they all arrived speaking their native language but eventually all came to be speaking English. 8000 miles away, sometimes history does repeat itself. And sometimes, it doesn't have to be a bad thing.

And there are foreigners everywhere here. And a lot of them are Filipino. I don't stand out at all. There are even a few neighborhoods here in Dubai that are all Filipino. Walk into any supermarket, department store, hotel, or restaurant, and you'd think you were in Manila because all the workers are Filipino. In fact, people think I'm from the Philippines before they would think I'm American. Usually when a stranger approaches me, they speak to me in Tagalog. The Arabs will even say 'Parre, Parre!' (friend in Tagalog) to me when they first talk to me. But since I don't speak Tagalog (I know more Arabic than Tagalog), I usually just give them a blank stare and ask them to speak in English. I still refrain from telling them that I am American (instead I just say I'm Filipino) since most people here have very mixed opinions of America. Most people here like Americans but hate the American government. Speaking of Americans, I've only met one here so far. Everytime I see someone who looks like they might be American, I hear them talk and it's always with a British or Australian accent, which isn't a bad thing because I love accents. Instead, everyone here is either Arab, Persian, European, or Asian.

Most of the Western influence is British (Dubai is a former British colony, go figure). You can sense it in the English that they speak here. They have words like rubbish and cheers in their everyday vocabulary here. It's spelled 'favourite' and 'theatre.' And besides the Europeans, even some of the Asians/Arabs here speak with accents. America has very little influence here in the United Arab Emirates, besides Hollywood, music, and Al-Jazeera, which are the only perceptions of America that the people have here. Then again, most Americans' perceptions of the Middle East all come from CNN. Cultural ignorance goes both ways, I guess. I also plan on travelling to the other countries here on the Arabian Peninsula (*maybe* Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, etc.), and it probably won't be quite the same but I'd probably be safer being brown and looking like a Filipino than being white and looking like an American. Once again, being a Filipino-American gives me the best of both worlds.

After we finished skiing and being treated to free drinks by Eric's cousin's fiance, we were picked up by our desert safari guide, a Pakistani named Akhbar (Arabic for 'news', not sure what it means in Urdu), in a Toyota Land Cruiser (the ideal desert offroading vehicle). We were in a convoy of 37 Toyota Land Cruisers driving out to the Arabian Desert. Due to the layout of Dubai (the city and development are all on the coast), a short 10 minute drive inland from the booming city will take you into the middle of the open desert and Dubai's humble beginnings. Life out here is a lot slower and less cosmopolitan than the city. Camels roam freely (there are camel crossing warnings) and you'll see an occasional traditional Bedouin hut, although most of them will have an SUV parked next to it. It's mildly humorous to see strict Muslim men, in their traditional glowing white robes and red/white checkered keffiyehs, driving around Dubai in giant Hummers, Chevy Suburbans, and Ford Explorers. I'm used to seeing soccer moms drive these things around in the States, picking up their kids from school. Now that I think about it, I've seen maybe 5 minivans here so far this whole time. And I wouldn't be surprised if some of these guys driving giant American SUVs, Italian sports cars, or Bentleys were Arab princes (which actually isn't that big of a deal since there are thousands and thousands of them). What seems even more out of place is whenever I see one of these guys drive a Hummer H1 and I think about the same all-terrain vehicle being used a couple hundred miles away in Iraq by US troops in a war that all the Arabs here are against. But hey, at least it's inexpensive to fill it up here since gas here is only 35 cents a gallon.


4 Notre Dame students in the Arabian Desert. At the same time this picture was taken (February 27th) our friends back at Notre Dame were sitting in Wednesday morning classes.

It's not until you arrive in the legendary Arabian desert that you realize how much the desert and culture here remained unchanged for hundreds of years; until oil was discovered. The city itself is absolutely amazing and unlike anything I've ever seen before. There are more skyscrapers under construction than are already completed. Sometimes it seems that a new building goes up every week. In some parts of the city, entire blocks or regions are under construction. It's truly remarkable that for hundreds of years, daily life, the culture, and the desert here remained unchanged by time, but after the discovery of oil, everything changed and development skyocketed at an unimaginable rate. Everything here is just sand and desert. Things have never wanted to grow out of the sand and it provides little valuable resources, but now today (thanks to oil), there are these modern skyscrapers rising from the once barren desert. Unlike Las Vegas, which is only superficially impressive (besides being morally questionable), I find Dubai inspirational and truly awe-inspiring, like humanity is really accomplishing something here. There's a pervading sense of human triumph when I think about how much has been accomplished here in just a few years. It took a few hundred years for London and New York City to become the cities they are today. In Dubai (paid for entirely by oil wealth), an entire metropolis that aims to surpass London and New York City is being built here in just 10 years. You won't find any monuments in Dubai...but then again the city itself stands as a monument to humanity's ambitious ingenuity in mastering the environment.


Afternoon offroading in the Arabian Desert on the same day we went skiing.


Arabian Desert: nothing for miles

After deflating the tires and Akhbar taking point (we were the lead vehicle in the convoy since Akhbar was the best driver), we drove off into the desert. The offroading in the desert is probably best described as a long-lasting roller coaster. I think we spent about 2-3 hours just driving around the desert wilderness. The other people in our car were a German couple (speaking perfect English), who we got to know very well and joined us for dinner that night in the Bedouin camp. The sand itself was incredibly soft and smooth. It was the most comfortable surface my barefoot feet have ever felt and walked on. We saw a lot of camels in the desert and also went sandboarding. The convoy then stopped at a Bedouin-style camp for the evening dinner and entertainment. They even had a bar and alcohol for sale, like a reminder of the West's recent influence on the Arabian Desert. It was too expensive so I decided not to have a beer in the middle of the Arabian Desert.


One of the natives


Sunset in the Arabian Desert

Of course we hit up the shishas (hookah) for a bit and had a traditional Arabian barbecue dinner. After dinner the belly dancer came on stage (the Japanese tourists seemed to really like this part of the night). After the show ended, everyone left the camp, except us. We decided to sleep overnight in the Arabian Desert, but too bad we were the only 4 people who decided to. Awkward.

It actually turned out to be a priceless, unqiue experience. The sand was actually really cold at night. The ambient darkness of the desert provided a sense of deep solitude and relaxing peace of mind. It was a relief to be away from the busy, noisy life of the city and to be the vast wilderness of the desert, mostly unchanged after thousands of years. Here we were, 4 Notre Dame students alone in the ancient Arabian Desert of legend. Julian, Nathan, and Eric skipped a week of school to come here. Due to the 9 hour advance time difference, our friends back at Notre Dame were actually sitting in Wednesday classes at the same time we were on our own in the ancient Arabian Desert. And the stars in the sky were probably the brightest I had ever seen them, as glowing in the overhead sky as the skyscrapers are at night in the city. The moon even had a halo of light around it. The last time I had seen a moon halo was last Thanksgiving at Notre Dame. I also looked up and saw Orion's Belt, an unmistakable constellation of three bright stars in a simple line. I have seen that same constellation in 4 different countries in the last 3 months: on a Pacifc Ocean beach in Ecuador in January, again on my last night at Notre Dame last February, in the Arabian Desert that late February night, and then again in Oman in March. And with all my future world travels ahead of me, it's pretty cool to think how I will be able to look upon that same constellation in many more different, remote places throughout the world. It's a very reassuring thought.

When Eric, Nathan, and Julian passed out in the Bedouin camp from their jetlag, I wandered off into the desert away from the camp. I fell in love with the desert that night. It's ancient and beautiful. It's quiet and simple. It helps me think.

The morning after (February 28th), dawn arrived and the rising red sun came up over the sand dunes of the Arabian desert. Dawn is the same in every city I've ever been to, transitioning with a calm period between the frenzy of the night ending and before the frenzy of the day begins. It's the same thing in the Arabian desert, although a bit different since frenzy is not a term to describe life in the desert. It's slower and more laid back. It's a very simple way of life. I really wish I could've spent more time in the desert. We departed the camp after a traditional Arabic breakfast (bread) and sped across the desert towards the city. The city is situated between the Arabian desert on one side and the Persian Gulf on the other. Coming from the open desert, the skyline of Dubai came into view across the landscape, a kind of modern-day oasis for those coming in from the barren desert.

After enjoying the modern comforts of warm showers (the sand gets everywhere), we left the house to go on a tour of the Burj Al Arab. Built about 10 years ago and paid for by the ruling family in Abu Dhabi, it is the world's tallest hotel and the only 7 star hotel in the world. Tiger Woods, George Clooney, Celine Dion, Kanye West, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Santana, etc. have all been guests, in addition to the many rich Arab princes who regularly stay there while they are in Dubai. Each room in the hotel is on two levels and the cheapest is $2,000 a night. The most expensive is $12,000 a night. There is an underwater restaurant beneath the hotel and a restuarant/bar on the top floor, suspended a few hundred meters over the Persian Gulf. A few years ago, the hotel was receiving so many complaints about tourists in the hotel that the hotel staff closed off the hotel to non-guests. So the only way for us to get in was to make an appointment for afternoon tea (about $100 because the tea has sprinkles of gold in it). Thanks to the connections of my relatives here in Dubai (my aunt knows the hotel's second-in-command, and my cousin knows the daughter of the hotel's manager), one quick phone call made by my aunt allowed us to get into the hotel for free. The only way to get to the hotel, which is on its own man-made island in the sea, is by bridge. The hotel is made to resemble a sail from a traditional Arabic dhow boat. The valet service took my aunt's Porsche and we were free to roam the hotel on our own. It was interesting to see how the other half lives. The view from the top of the hotel was amazing. The skyscrapers loomed in the background and contrasted with the white sandy beaches and the bright, blue waters of the Gulf. It's astounding to think that all the development as far as we could see was once all desert in the 1990s.



Top floor restaurant/bar of the Burj Al Arab


Underwater restaurant


With my aunt


Lobby


Madinat souq canals


Shisha. The Arab national pasttime

After wandering around the hotel and gawking at the over-the-top luxories within, we went to the Madinat souq (where we were 2 days ago) and got a free abra boat ride through the canals. Madinat souq is what Venice what look like if it were in the Middle East. Later, we returned to Dubai Marina and smoked shisha over afternoon conversation and an Arabic lunch by the water. Then, we showed Eric around where we were a few days ago: the tall skyscrapers and the gorgeous beach of the marina. For dinner, my cousin invited the four of us out with his friends to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink restaurant in Al Satwa (a neighborhood full of Filipinos). In typical American buffet fashion, the 4 Americans got up over and over to go back and get more food. The Europeans were dumbfounded at how we could all eat so much food. Nathan and I ended up with about 10 finished plates over a course of 2 hours. We didn't even bother keeping count of our drinks. It was 150 dirhams ($40) to get in, so we just wanted to get our money's worth of food and alcohol.

Eric left to visit his relatives after dinner since he was flying back to Notre Dame the next morning (February 29th). We went downstairs to some bar called Boston Bar and hung out in there for a bit. One Heineken cost us $7. We later took a taxi across town to some nightclub. My cousin's white friends had no trouble getting in and just walked inside. The bouncers stopped the rest of us. Apparently, we were being charged 100 dirhams because we weren't white. The bouncers weren't even white either (Arabs) but we were being charged the minority fee. My brother says the same thing happened in Mexico for him when he studied abroad there. Anyway, we tried for a while to get in. We tried the side door. We tried rushing the door and getting lost in the crowd inside. Neither worked. So, we went home.

Friday the 29th of February, my aunt and uncle drove us around the Hajar Mountains and to the Omani border an hour west of Dubai. On Saturday (March 1st), we went on a tour of the Jumeirah Mosque. Mosques are usually closed off to non-Muslims but this one is an exception. Islam shares a lot of things with Roman Catholicism. I'll save that story for another blog. On Sunday (March 2nd), we went to the Wild Wadi waterpark which was the best waterpark I have ever been to. The slides are all connected so theoretically you can ride all the slides without ever getting out of the water and getting back in line; pure genius.

On Monday (March 3rd), we went to Mass at 645am and Julian interviewed one of the priests (Father D'Souza from India who wished to remain anonymous) for his research paper. Notre Dame paid for his trip to the UAE and Oman so he could do research on the Catholic Church in the Middle East. We then took an early morning bus to the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi.

We really hated that city. That story's for my next update. Cheers.

4 Notre Dame Students in the Middle East: Spring Break 08

If you were wondering why in my first few weeks in Dubai I still hadn't played tennis on top of the Burj Al Arab, gone indoor skiing, or gone on a desert safari yet, it's because I decided not to do anything until my brother, Eric Sales, and Nathan Loyd get here. For my first two weeks here, I've been busy researching stuff to do during the day and clubs to go to at night, kind of like an advanced recon of the place.

Us four pretty much took over Dubai for the last 2 weeks. We dropped so much money all over the place. Julian and Nathan got here on February 24th (Eric on the 25th because he didn't want to miss Fiestang) and they were actually the first Americans I had seen since I left the US on February 6th. Although, for true study abroad immersion purposes, it's a probably a pretty good thing for me not to be around Americans, I suppose. I actually met my first (and only) American here in Dubai last week but I'll save that story for later. And I finally saw my first Middle Eastern sunset here that week too. It only took me about two weeks. The Persian Gulf borders Dubai on the west so everyday the red sun descends into the shining blue sea. Absolutely beautiful.

It's actually quite a funny story about how we all ended up in Dubai. It all started in Ecuador on our little ranch on the Pacific Ocean, sometime in the first week of January 2008:

It was time to eat again and as always, Nathan, being the odd guy that he is, makes a move to sit at the small 4-seat table again. We asked him why he never sat at the big table and he had no apparent reason. It was dinnertime and after a long day of building a house we were all exhausted and, since some of us didn't take showers for 10 days, were also pretty disgustingly smelly. There were 4 chairs at the table and there were 4 Filipinos on the trip. And the 13 other guys on the trip were all finding it strange that Nathan would always sit at the small table, every single meal for the past week. Put the two circumstances together and we decided to kick Nathan out and make a Filipino table. You know, just letting the other 10 guys know that there were more Filipinos on the trip than any other nationality. Before any meal would start, Nathan would always put his cup of water down to mark his seat then get in line to get food. So when he got in line this time, me, Julian, and Eric rushed to the table (subtlely as not to attract Nathan's attention), sat down, and moved his cup to the other table where the other 10 guys sat. It was all set and Francis was just about to move over when Nathan notices us ("HEY, what the heck guys!?") and quickly reclaims his spot.

Over a delicious dinner of beans and rice, with fried bananas for dessert, we started talking about the usual stuff: ND football sucking, Ecuador kids harassing us, etc. I don't know how or why but somehow, the four of us started talking about Dubai. I think it was something about me and Nathan being Arabic majors, or the first flights to the moon being scheduled to launch from Dubai. But yeah, we started talking about the giant Palm Tree Islands, the tallest building in the world, the highest rated hotel in the world, my relatives who live there, Dubai being like some kind of city that you could only imagine (like a city out of Final Fantasy or something), etc. The four of us talked about Dubai, but only in passing and the conversation quickly turned into challenging Nathan to eat 5 grenadillas for dessert, which he did and currently holds the record for (but won't ever eat another grenadilla ever again, even though we saw a lot of them here in Dubai). In all likelihood, we probably wouldn't even think about Dubai again for weeks, months, or even years. When the four of us sat around our dinner table talking about Dubai that early January night in Ecuador, the tone was the same as if we were talking about ND Football winning the National Championship before I graduate or us driving a car back to the US from Ecuador. Just something you talk about for fun and then move on, completely forgetting about it because you don't really expect it to realistically come true or even come close to happening.

3 weeks later, the four of us had roundtrip tickets to Dubai. Foreshadowing really is a funny thing.

Yes, we all would've forgotten about Dubai, but I had decided to study abroad there for the Spring 08 semester. Less than 24 hours after I told my brother I was going to Dubai for study abroad this semester, they bought tickets to visit me for Spring Break 2008. I told my brother on a Thursday night, and by Friday night they already had bought tickets. The 3 of them even decided to skip a week of school to come to Dubai (the last week before Spring Break). They're all back at Notre Dame now (and freezing in the snow again) so today was actually the first free day I've had since they got here over two weeks ago.

If you want to read about our crazy adventures in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the Arabian Desert, the Persian Gulf, and Oman, then it's all going to be in my blog when I get around to writing it later.