Adventures of the Jet -Set

Kerala, India - 25 August - 31 August 2011

2011-12-17T03:20:00.000-08:00

For our summer trip/Eid vacation, we headed to India. Our friend, Deep, was getting married in Pune and we decided to make a vacation out of it, as well as celebrate Chris's 30th birthday!

25 August 2011

Divine

Our first stop in India was Cochin, Kerala. We flew Gulf Air from Bahrain to Cochin. After landing at 530am, we were picked up by our driver, Vinot. We drove about 1.5 hours through New Cochin to Old Cochin to our resort, Malabar House. We had set up a package where we would spend a few days in each resort as part of the main boutique, each resort is situated in a different area of Cochin and had different things to offer. Honestly, it was one of the best ideas Chris ever had!

Once we got to Divine, our first hotel stop, we were greeted immediately and shown to our super cute room. It was very boutique like and had everything you needed.

Entrance to our hotel

Boutique style, large bathroom, sitting area, mini-bar

Courtyard of the hotel

We freshened up and had a delicious breakfast of cheese dosa and masala dosa. We decided we would take a nap until Vinot came to pick us up for our sight seeing trip. We ended up over-sleeping and drowsily drove around Cochin, where we saw men with fish nets, a church and browsed through village shopping.


Near the fishing

We were so delirious, like true tourists got talked into doing this and were charged about $1 for the picture to be taken...

Shopping alley

Church - there was actually a wedding going on when we tried to walk inside - oops!

After we were taken back to the hotel, we fell asleep for about 6 hours. We then managed to make it to dinner where we had some delicious fish and risotto. Then we took advantage of our free wine sampling and enjoyed some wine on the terrace.

Wine bar

It was a perfect ending for an exhausting day. We managed to sleep until morning where we would be whisked away to our next resort called Serenity.

26 August 2011
Serenity

We woke up early to have breakfast and Vinot picked us up to take us to Serenity. It is about a 3 hour car ride - so we were able to see a lot of Kerala. What I enjoyed most about the drive was the scenery and watching everyone going about their daily business, appearing so happy and carefree.

We finally arrived at Serenity and the first thing we saw was an elephant! Eeee! After checking in, we got ready for our first excursion which was an elephant ride on Lakshimi [the elephant]. First, we fed her some bananas and then were told to sit on top of her. There was no cute saddle or chair, it was just a blanket! I wouldn't say it was the best experience ever, but it was still fun. We took her to a river where she was bathed by the elephant handler who accompanied her.

After our walk back to the resort we had a delicious lunch of vegetable Thali which is just a lot of different dipping sauces and curries with chapati, pappadum and rice to dip in. It was delicious! I pretty much ate that for lunch every day! After that, we decided to relax by the pool instead of taking the 2nd half of the elephant walk.

Veg Thali

Our room are the windows on the right

After relaxing, we decided to go on the plantation walk around the resort which was interesting. There were a lot of trees bearing fruits like mango, blackberry, banana, papaya and coconut. Some plants had pepper (black) and chili as well. We also walked by a lot of rubber trees, these are the main export of this area. Then, it was dinner on our patio and calling it an early night.

27 August 2011
Serenity

We woke up early to enjoy breakfast on our patio and then got ready for our next excursion. We drove through several small villages and the first place we went was to a tea plantation called Connemara Tea Plantation in Vandi Periyar. We were taken through the plantation and showed a short presentation on how the tea is made. I didn't realize that all tea comes from the same plant! (Black, green and white). Then we were taken to the factory to see how the tea is processed.

We headed to the Tiger Wildlife Preserve to take a riverboat tour of the sanctuary - while we were waiting we saw a bunch of monkeys, who were very entertaining and definitely not afraid of people.

National Geographic style

On the boat, we saw barking deer, sambar deer, bison, and elephants. It was cool to see them in their natural habitats. The best (worst?) part was that it started down pouring with rain and we had a 3 hour drive back to the resort in the dark. It wasn't fun, but we made it safely. Luckily, dinner was waiting for us in our room which was awesome!

If you look closely, you can see elephants!

28 August 2011
Privacy/Discovery

Today we were off to the next stop in our resort tour. We were picked up after breakfast and driven to Privacy/Discovery. This was our night on the houseboat and was unlike any of the other houseboats you see in India. We had a bedroom, bathroom and living room, along with a/c. We also had a deck where we could eat or lay out on a sun bed. It was the most relaxing thing we had done yet.

The boat

Bedroom

Living/Dining area

Deck

For the next 6 hours we rode around Lake Vembaned - we saw other houseboats, people cleaning laundry, doing their daily activities, work etc. Animals were plentiful too - we saw different kinds of birds and an otter.

When our boat tour had come to an end, we docked back at the Privacy resort and had use of wifi and the pool. We went swimming for a bit before dinner and then had dinner inside the boat as we had an issue with a crow attacking Chris's food during lunch - hah! That night's sleep was amazing, the rocking of the boat always makes me sleep like a baby!

29 August 2011
Purity

We had breakfast on the boat while we made our way to our next and last stop of the resort tour called Purity. We were greeted by a friendly staff and shown around the property. It was a beautiful house which used to be owned by an Italian woman, and I was intrigued as I always am, how people can even find these kinds of places.

After settling in, we had lunch and then found out about other activities we could do, as well as spa treatments. They are very big on ayervedic medicine/massage in India, so I decided to try one out. I can't remember the name of the one I tried but if done over 7-10 days you can lose 5 lbs. I didnt have a week so I hoped for maybe just the loss of some water weight. Anyway it was definitely one of the oddest experiences of my life but I slept like a baby that night. We didn't do much during our first day as it was raining on and off.

30 August 2011
Purity

After sleeping through some pretty amazing rain, we had breakfast and tried to figure out what we would do for the day. We had been commenting that although the trip was nice and much needed for us as a couple, they should have more activities - maybe we were just a bit bored. Anyway I went for a special head wrap at the spa meant to help my hair be smoother and get rid of headaches. [ETA: My hair was not smooth for about the next month after that, seriously. Do not do this!]

Once that was done we decided to take some bikes and ride into the small village to see if there was any shopping to do or things to see. I haven't ridden a bike since I was about 14 and it's true what they say about never forgetting how, but good God, my balance was atrocious and I spent the next 30 minutes trying not to fall over, run over anyone or get run over by a bus. After I got real cranky, we turned around and went back and I gave up. French countryside? Sure, I'll do it. But busy Indian village? I think not.

Anyway we had lunch and then decided we would go on a canoe ride. Our waiter had first said it was too hot, but we thought it was kind of cool and overcast so we assured him it was fine to go early. The second we stepped into the canoe we saw the ominous grey clouds coming our way. But we decided to go anyway and went with our little guide who rowed for us and about 2 minutes later the sky opened up and the monsoon came. The guy was apparently just waiting for our signal to go back because he just kept going, so through our laughter, we asked him to turn around. Instead of going back to the hotel he stopped at his friend's house for shelter which was really interesting. They had an adorable baby and they showed us pictures from their wedding while we waited out the storm. They were so friendly and nice, offering us tea and talking to us (and probably laughing at us as well). Once the rain slowed down a bit, we got back into the canoe and went down the lake for awhile until we realized the rain was not stopping. So we asked the guy to turn the boat around and go back to the resort. This was not before we had to stop at his fishing net and then Chris fell into the lake - both very humorous events. Chris was fine, we saw the fish the man caught, all the while being drenched and then back to the resort we went. The staff had umbrellas and hand towels waiting for us. Which, really? I've never been so wet in m ly life, but I had also not see rain forever so it was kind of fun :)

After we dried off, I took a nap and then we went off to the cooking demonstration. They made a fish curry and spicy squid. Everything was delicious and it was fun to see how the food was made.

Spicy calamari

After dinner we just made our way back to the room and fell asleep.

31 August 2011
Purity

Today was our last day at our resort - we decided to take it easy, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then went swimming since the sky was actually a little blue. We laid by the pool for awhile and then noticed the clouds were rolling in, however it didn't rain for awhile so we thought about going fishing after lunch. Unfortunately, right after lunch it started raining and didn't let up all day, so it was a lazy day of reading and sleeping before our last tasty dinner and packing for our super early (345am) wake up call to catch our flight to Mumbai.

Kerala was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to and if we ever go back to India, I would definitely go back there. The people are friendly and nice, I would just advise not to go during monsoon season :)

KL/Tioman Islands/KL - 15 September 2010 - 19 September 2010

2011-03-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

We headed back to Kuala Lumpur on the 15th and checked into the Hotel Istana. It was nice but a bit older than Traders Hotel. If we went again, I would definitely choose Traders. We decided to go to a mall which was close by for lunch and another fish spa treatment. The place we went was running a special including a foot and neck massage, which, lets be honest, after you've climbed a mountain was the.best.thing.ever. After our pampering, we headed back to the hotel, debated on dinner and decided we'd head back to Chinatown for shopping and dinner. I'm pretty sure I found even MORE stuff to buy and we stopped for some dinner and to people watch.

The next morning, we woke up early to catch our flight to the relaxation part of our trip to Tioman Island. Around this time, I started feeling pretty ill, then I saw our plane.

Itty bitty

I can't figure out if my body was still in shock from the climb, I got food poisoning from the street food or I didn't want to be on a plane with 20 other people in close quarters. It didn't help when the seats we got were the kind facing TOWARDS everyone and I figured I would sleep the whole time, but the vibrating of being right next to the cockpit was unnerving. I'm pretty sure everyone in the rest of the plane was looking at me wondering when I was going to lose my breakfast. The plane ride ended and we filtered into the "airport", if you can call it that to find our ride to our resort called Japamala. We found our ride and climbed on a boat to get there, the only way you can get anywhere on this island is by boat, so there ya go. Once we got there, I knew climbing the mountain was so worth it! We got some fresh juice on the way there and then were taken to our room, which unfortunately was up about 3 flights of stairs - damn you seacliff chalet! (no, not really), not when this was the view from our room!

Our room

View from our balcony

Our chalet

The steps, oh the steps

I took a nap, drank some 7up and attempted to eat but it was just not happening. For dinner we headed out to the over-water restaurant where they very nicely made up a special meal for my ailing stomach. We stayed out for awhile and then headed to the room.

The next morning, it was raining!! While this sounds like quite the bummer on a beach vacation, all I wanted to do was relax and having a sea view, dvds at your fingertips and ability to order room service was great! We ate breakfast in the open air restaurant overlooking the ocean, then stayed in for most of the day until it cleared up. We found a covered cabana by the beach and had lunch and read.

view from the cabana

We saw monkeys outside our room!

View of the island

Candlelight dinner

Last night at Japamala

Most of the vacation went like that (luckily it didn't rain anymore). Eating lunch by the water, having drinks by the ocean, booking spa treatments, we had our last dinner by the ocean in a private cabana which was really nice. Our excitement of the trip was when Chris lost his wedding ring. IN THE OCEAN! We figured it was a goner, but there was a diver who worked at the resort and he went down to find it. AND HE DID!

This was one of the best places to end our vacation - everyone was so friendly and helpful!

We headed back to Kuala Lumpur for one more night, went to the mall and then ...wehre else?? Chinatown ;)

Malaysia was a great vacation - I would definitely go back, just for the food and shopping. And I would go back to Borneo and check out the orangutans!

Kota Kinabalu - 11 September 2010 - 14 September 2010

2010-11-17T01:34:00.000-08:00

Kota Kinabalu is a city on Borneo - also where Mt. Kinabalu was located. We spent an extra day there to get situated before the mountain climb.

11 Sept 2010
To get to Kota Kinabalu, we flew Air Asia, once we arrived in KK, we went to our hotel which was called Hotel Eden 54. (I'm going to be honest, those pictures on the site are not exactly what you get, but the hotel was clean and quaint and just what we needed). After getting settled, we walked around to find lunch at one of the only places which was open, seeing as it was Eid, a lot of places were closed (Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country). We found an open air noodle restaurant which had a lot of Malay food - which wasn't bad at all. After that we walked around a little to explore the little town of KK and then went back to the room to relax. We decided to check out the night market but walked around near the water which was apparently where all the locals hung out and was a bit uncomfortable honestly. Chris bought some street food and we soon realized we were not at the night market, oops. We wandered around a bit more and then had a not so satisfying dinner at a place called Old Town Coffee - basically Malaysia's version of Starbucks.

12 Sept 2010
We woke up early and were were picked up by our tour operator and driven to Mt. Kinabalu park where the next day we would begin our trek up the mountain. On the way to the park, we stopped to buy some souvenirs and try some Malaysian fruit - I wasn't that impressed - but okay. Our guide drove us around the area and we checked in at the park.

At the park

Mt. Kinabalu

Since check in for our hostel wasn't until 2 we went around to the park museum and had lunch. After that we went to a war memorial for the Sandaken soldiers. It was a part of World War 2 that I didn't know existed but it was incredibly moving.

Sandekan Memorial

After that, it was finally time to check in so we headed to our hostel - Rock Lodge. We had a private room and apparently that actually means you share a room with 2 people, not 6, I guess. There were also bunk beds - it was the part of the trip which resembled summer camp. Ah well, at least there was hot water.

Rock Lodge

Bunk Beds

The other nice thing was that all of our meals were included in our package so we basically had a buffet for every meal. Although the food was good, I would be happy to not eat noodles or rice with every meal.

I took a nap while Chris walked around the park for awhile, I woke up and had dinner and then slept...or tried to sleep. Knowing we were going to climb a mountain the next day was kind of unnerving, but I'd say we got a few good hours of sleep.

13 Sept 2010 - The trek up Mt. Kinabalu
The package we purchased to climb up the mountain was a 3 day/2 night stay. I highly recommend this because the first night in the park allows you to relax and get acclimated to the altitude which could be a serious problem when climbing a mountain, especially so quickly. We woke up early to have breakfast and to meet our guide who our tour operator told us was one of the oldest guides who climbs the mountain, and he also spoke little English. I figured, well, it can't be TOO hard, I've taught English, so I'll just use a lot of hand gestures.

After dropping off some unnecessary items at the front of the park which we did not need for hiking (ie - extra clothes and bags) we found our guide. His name was Porinus; he was missing about 3 teeth, must have been in his late 50s and would later turn out to be my savior. Chris and I just looked at each other and thought, 'Awesome.' We got our transportation (do not let anyone convince you to walk to the base of the mountain - you are about to climb up 8.7 km, you don't need to add another unnecessary 4.5 km) and headed to the base. The average time to walk up the mountain to the stopping point, Laban Rata, is about 6 hours, we ended up taking about 5. You spend the first day walking up to Laban Rata which is where you can eat, shower and sleep.

So we set off - the climb up was hard, but not unattainable. There were lots of steps and I would advise you to buy a walking stick, buy 2 if you want, that will help immensely when coming down and also helped going up. The sticks are 3 ringets (roughly .85 USD) at the front souvenir shop, so just do it! (Also, don't buy them at the souvenir shop INSIDE the park, they go up about $15). Make sure you take plenty of water - we each took 2 - 500 ml bottles and filled them up at the various rest stops. The water on the way up the mountain is unfiltered, but I have a weak stomach and I was fine drinking it.

Base of the mountain

Waterfall on the hike

At the 1km mark - pretty gung-ho

The package comes with a packed lunch and you eat it around 4km, it contained sandwiches, chicken, boiled eggs and an apple. After you eat, you start to feel like the rest of the 2km isn't going to be so bad. I mean you've climbed this far and it's just been several bits of a lot of rock-made steps, but it is definitely doable.

And that's where you would be wrong.

The next 2 km were tough. There is a LOT of height to make up, don't forget you are climbing UP the mountain. When I finally saw the Laban Rata Lodge, I was SO happy! It meant, no more walking for awhile, food and warmth...or so we thought.

Start of the climb

Lunch break

Standing above the clouds

Laban Rata Lodge

3272.7 meters up

More shots above the clouds

We chose the Laban Rata lodge because they talk about having hot showers, heaters and it's where the cafeteria is, plus you have to make reservations early as there are 2 other lodges to stay at which do not have hot showers or heaters and there's something about lots of people in rooms and sleeping bags that I'm not a huge fan of. As it turns out, Laban Rata not only didn't have heat, which means no hot showers, but they had no electricity that week either. Lodge fail. Besides that, I'm sure they have the heat all fixed now and I would advise you to stay at Laban Rata as all of your meals are in the Laban Rata Lodge as well as the horribly overpriced store (9,60 ringets for a small bottle of water as opposed to the 1,60 below). Not only that but the other lodges require you to walk farther as well as climb a million stairs to get there (back down to the lodge for your meals and then back up to sleep).

When Chris and I got to our room, we decided we should shower, I mean, how cold could the water be?

COLD.

It was the worst shower I have ever taken in.my.life. Not only was there no electricity, the water felt as if someone had melted 20 pounds of ice and poured it over you! Worst.decision.ever. I decided I really didn't need to wash my hair and we basically spent the next hour in a teeny tiny bunk bed trying to get warm again. This time, we also had a private room, and shared it with 2 guys from the US named Colin and Nick. During the rest of the day, we played some cards, ate some dinner and went to bed super early as we were to begin the trek to the summit at 2:30am.

Why, yes, you would be correct, it is pitch dark at that time. And yes, you need a head lamp. And yes, I had to put my contacts on, in the dark, wearing said headlamp. (See above - no electricity).

14 September 2010
Nothing can prepare you for what happens in the next 3 hours. Everyone starts out together climbing up the numerous rock stairs, the faster people move forward quickly and the slow straggle behind. You have to remember you're ascending to 13,000 feet and slowly your lungs begin to feel tight. Just remember to breathe through your nose, also you have about 4 hours to get to the top before sunrise, it's not a race. After the steps, comes the rope - the rope which you pull yourself up on. It is also so dark you cannot see what lies beneath you. I struggled a bit at this stage, seeing as this was probably the steepest side of a mountain ever and how in the heck was I going to get down? Porinus, our guide, came to the rescue and guided me the rest of the way, taking breaks with us when we needed to stop. (It was also at this point where I rubbed my eye and my contact folded and I proceeded to put my contact BACK in my eye on a dark mountain, with no mirror. Win!) After the 700m of the rope were done, it was a lot of steep walking. A lot of walking and a lot of stopping to catch your breath - we were definitely not the only ones to be doing this.

Trek up at 2:30am

The rope up

And then...THERE IT IS!

THE SUMMIT!

When we reached it, our guide pointed and told us to go up and we did. AND WE DID IT! We had climbed 13,435 feet of mountain. The view from the top was amazing, as was watching the sunrise from the top of a freaking mountain and above the clouds!

Sunrise over the mountain

At the top!

With our guide, Porinus

We took lots of pictures and then began our descent. While at first it wasn't too bad, we eventually got to the damn ropes again. And now that it was daylight, you were able to see the sharp sloping of where you had climbed. It would within your best judgment not to look down. Porinus came to the rescue again and we all made it safely down. We made it to the summit in about 3 hours, which was average and back down to Laban Rata in about the same time. We ate some breakfast, gathered our things, said bye to our new friends and headed back down.

Climbing down

Climbing DOWN the rope

Enjoying some breakfast after the long climb back at Laban Rata

Anyone who tells you going down is harder than up probably isn't lying. But it's not. Going up, you've got stairs and thinning air, going down you have sore knees and exhaustion. Honestly it's a toss up. It took us 5 hours to get down which is also average, but about 4 km from the bottom I wanted to die. My right knee hurt every time I stepped down, like every time, which is a major problem when steps are the only way to go. Plus it had rained earlier so a lot of the rocks were a bit slippery and that made us go even slower. Because I was walking to prevent my right knee from hurting so much, my left knee started to buckle when I walked. Around 2 km from the bottom we hoped it would only be another hour.

And then it started to rain. Which was really great. Superb.

Around 1.5 km from the bottom, I started to feel queasy. I was sweating and wet and my legs felt like they would give out at any moment and the stairs - omg the stairs. They were never ending - how did I not remember how many stairs we had climbed going up. Around 1 km, I thought only 1 km left and kept thinking about how much I wanted to be off that damn mountain and not walk anymore. Everywhere I turned there were stairs, about 500 m I wanted to give up and got emotional from the exhaustion and fatigue. Chris pushed me to keep going and I did. And finally the base was there. And I sat down. And it was awesome and I had climbed a freaking mountain.

Once we got to the bottom, our taxi came and took us to base where we received our color certificates for reaching the summit and where my body finally gave in (out?) and I got sick from being overexerted. But it was over. We said goodbye to Porinus and I thanked him profusely. I should add that this is a guy who climbs this mountain 2 times a week, and has been doing so for the past 10 years. Crazy.

Our driver came to take us back to the hotel and not wanting to move again, we picked up drinks from the grocery store next door to our hotel and ordered Pizza Hut, which was the only place which delivered and we so did not care. We could barely move and after a hot shower we just laid in bed til we fell asleep.

While I do not think I personally will climb another mountain, it was definitely a good experience, one you should be prepared for. But one that I will forever remember.

Kuala Lumpur 9 September 2010 - 10 September 2010

2010-10-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

For the week holiday we had off for Eid Al-Fitr, we decided to go to Malaysia - it was what you might call a tri-fecta - we spent time in the city, climbed a real-life mountain, Mt. Kinabalu, and lazed on the beach. This trip will be set differently than the rest of the entries since there were various parts to the trip, so I'll split up each part.
Enjoy!

9 Sept 2010
We flew in to Kuala Lumpur on Gulf Air. The experience was fine - it was one of the only airlines that flies direct from Bahrain - KL, so it works. Once through baggage and immigration, we were greeted by a man with a sign for our hotel - Traders Hotel.

View of our hotel from the KLCC

Our bags were taken from us and we were whisked outside only to be placed in a beautiful Mercedes and driven through the lush trees and countryside into the city. We were provided with cold towels and bottles of water for the drive - it was 5 star service!

When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted and our suitcases taken from us again. Once inside the hotel, a cute Malaysian woman chirped "Hello, Mr. Bellman" before we had even said anything, she greeted us and asked if she could take us up to check-in - of course! We were informed of breakfast and other perks which came with our room and then showed to our room where the entire check-in process took place. I've never been checked in while in my actual hotel room, but it was very comfortable. We had an AMAZING view of the Petronas Towers (KLCC) and for the price we were paying for a 5-star hotel you can barely get a room at La Quinta back in the US - it was ridiculous.

Our room at Traders

Petronas Towers (KLCC)

After freshening up we headed out to check out the hotel and then went to have lunch in the mall at the bottom of Petronas Towers. Besides having a million Asian restaurants in their food court they also had McDonalds, Subway, etc (which btw, had the longest lines), but when you're in a place where Asian food is amazing, you need to eat the authentic stuff.

After walking around the ridiculous mall (seriously, what mall has 6 stories - and we would find this in every mall we went to), we went to the Manara KL (KL Tower), we went up to the very top to see the entire city which was amazing!

Views from the top of Manara KL

Manara KL

Then we went to check out the street Jalan Alor which is where we planned to eat dinner. It is a street full of street vendors with food! After that, we went to get our feet eaten by fish - yes, that's right. There are fish spas in KL and it is a huge thing there - it was awesome! My feet felt smoother instantly - no it doesn't hurt, it just feels like tickling on your feet, which Chris had to take a few minutes to get over. We also got foot scrubs and a massage.

The Fish Spa

We went back to the hotel, had some cocktails at the hotel's happy hour and then headed out to dinner.

World's smallet vodka/diet coke

We ate some tasty street food - dim sum and chili crab.

After that, we wanted to check out Chinatown - which I loved! We would end up going there almost every night we were there. I bought a really cute purse and Chris got a watch. By then, most things were closing and we were properly exhausted so back to the hotel we went for a good night's sleep.

10 Sept 2010
We woke up early to eat at the fabulous breakfast buffet and then got on a city tour. It was actually in a small van type thing and took us to various places around KL - us and our closest 6 friends. Some parts were more interesting than others but we were able to see a lot of highlights such as the King's Palace, Independence Square, War Memorial and the National Museum. They also took us to some factories (for us to spend our money no doubt) like the pewter factory, batik factory and leather store.

King's Palace

National Museum (closed)

War Memorial

After the tour we headed to a massive mall, the Mid-Valley Mega Mall to find gloves for me since apparently only had one and a hat for Chris for our trek up the mountain. We were successful in the ridiculous 6-story mall which was super crowded so we just went in and out.

The massive crowds at Mega Mall

We headed back to the hotel to grab some cocktails

Then headed out to Chinatown (again) and I got another purse as well as some gifts. We went back to Jalan Alor for dinner where Chris had more chili crab and I tried my favorite Thai soup which wasn't very good. :(

Petronas Towers at night

We had to catch our plane to Kota Kinabalu the next day so we went back to the hotel and sat at the bar for awhile before packing and heading to bed.

A few things about Malaysia - sure the airfare might cost some extra cash but everything else there is super cheap. Taxis were "metered" but you are meant to haggle, no matter what the side of the taxi said, and "haggling" to go somewhere for $2 or $3 doesn't seem so bad. Food in itself was also super cheap and of course there was Chinatown :). The weather in September was nice, it was warm, don't get me wrong, and sometimes it drizzled in the afternoon, but the weather was pleasant in the 80s and such.

Kuala Lumpur is not a very touristy city, basically what we did on the first 2 days are what's it. But I know there are several places to see outside of KL, hence why we did the mountain trek and the beaches. More to come on that later.

Boston 10 June 2010 - 14 June 2010

2010-06-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

For an impromptu weekend, we jetted off to Boston for Chris’s 10 year high school reunion. He went to a boarding school about 20 minutes outside of Boston, so we didn’t have much time actually IN the city, but we tried our best.

We flew Gulf Air to London and then American Airlines to Boston. I have nothing decent to say about American Airlines – although I wish I could. My brother has been a pilot for them for almost 20 years so I feel a sort of tie to them. Unfortunately after this trip, I do not. They flew us in a 757 over the Atlantic. For those of you not familiar with plane types – it’s a 3-3 (3 seats on each side) with one aisle. They flew a plane used for domestic flights (or to the Caribbean) OVER THE ATLANTIC. Next time you get on a domestic flight, imagine how much you’d enjoy being in that small space for 7 hours. Luckily, the window seat was empty so we had the row to ourselves.Not to mention, no personal televisions which made for no decent inflight entertainment.

{my view for 6.5 hours}

We arrived in Boston on Thursday night and checked into our hotel, Courtyard Marriott, near the airport. It was perfectly acceptable for what it was, a comfy bed, plenty of space and a flat screen TV. The next morning, we checked out and took the T into the city. Luckily we had a teeny bit of jet lag so we were up early at around 530 and were able to make the most of our day. We started the day off at Dunkin Donuts and had breakfast (why is Dunkin’ Donuts so popular in Boston? That was really funny to me). We were the first people in line for our Boston Duck Tour which was a quick way to see Boston since we didn’t have much time. We had a great guide and I took a bunch of pictures. I was able to see lots of areas of Boston I wouldn’t necessarily have had the chance to see.

After that, we went to Faneuil Hall. It was a cute little part of Boston and I see now where Pat Neff (you Baylor people) was taken from. Don’t tell me that isn’t the spitting image of the building on campus.

We walked around for awhile and got a few souvenirs and I admired that Boston is such a sports town. The weekend we were there was not only Game 4 and 5 of the NBA finals, home games for the Red Sox, but also the World Cup. We had a drink at a place called the Salty Dog and then headed back to the airport to pick up our rental car and Alex.

After picking up Alex, we did some shopping and then headed to the campus. The campus was so out of Dead Poet’s Society – it was really pretty. We registered, put away our stuff and took a tour of the campus, it was really cool to see where Chris spent 3 years. The reunion was a blast, I met some really cool people and laughed a lot.

On Saturday night we couldn't get away without going to Legal's Seafood - it was delicious. Chris feasted on 2.5lb lobster while I had lobster bisque and oysters. It was delish!

But back to traveling…on Sunday we went back into the city and met their friend, Adi, for lunch and we had dim sum – SOOO DELISH! I can’t even tell you what the name of it was, sorry, then we walked down Newbury Street and around Boston Commons.

I really wish we’d had a least another day to see more of Boston because there is so much history there and it is just a really cool city! We sent Alex on a bus to New York and we went on to the airport.

We flew back to London on American Airlines, on a 767 (2-3-2), but once again, they did not fail to disappoint. Not only did we take off almost an hour late (why, oh why is it so hard for a US flight to take off on time) It was almost as if they were just practicing, their video screens didn’t work, not to mention they didn’t have personal TVs [again] in the seats, what are we 1995?, the service was amateur and when we landed, I literally said “JESUS CHRIST!”, worst.landing.ever. I was also stuck in the middle seat of a middle row which was painful. After 3 hours in London, we hopped on a British Airways plane where no one apparently wanted to go to the desert. Gee, I wonder why?

So Chris and I each had our own row and were able to get some proper sleep. The staff was friendly, despite all this talk about striking and the personal TVs were great! ;)

I wish we had done more sightseeing on this trip, but hopefully we’ll get back to Boston sooner than later, and possibly do a combination trip with New York.

xoxo

Dubai, UAE 18 Feb - 20 Feb 2010

2010-04-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

This has been a long time coming but I have been waiting for pictures, apparently we go to Dubai quite a bit that I forget my camera now :( So excuse my Blackberry photos

We arrived on Thursday night, and were picked up by Mutaz and our friend, Shaft. Shaft used to live in Austin, but moved to Lebanon to go to med school about 2 or so years ago, so we haven't seen him since then. We went to a place called Shakespeare's which is near the Burj Khalifa [Dubai].

{Burj Khalifa at night}

Before that, we watched the water show in front of the Burj Khalifa - yes, think Vegas Bellagio, but to Arabic music. Haha.

A bunch of people joined us at Shakespeare's and we had dinner, tea and shisha.

On Friday, we got ready, had lunch at Fuddruckers at Jumeriah Beach

{JBR - where there are restaurants galore}

and then went to The Dubai Mall - all I wanted to do was a little birthday shopping at Express. I did that, but I also found the best.candy.store.ever. It even had Garrett's Popcorn from Chicago - imagine. I went all the way to Chicago for that popcorn when it was just an hour flight away!

After wandering around there for awhile, we went home to get ready for our night out.

We had dinner at ShoCho - Japanese food, which was absolutely delicious and spent the rest of our night, where else? At Boudoir - always a good time, and this time there was an insanely large group of us so it was really fun. I wish I had better pictures.

Saturday was an unfortunate hangover brunch at Coco's, then ice cream or frozen yogurt at Mall of the Emirates.

I really do love Dubai - it's nice for a weekend getaway, plus it's great for meeting new people! We got to meet a lot of new people this last time and having so many people to talk to and get to know was really fun!

{A somewhat better picture of Burj Khalifa during the day}

Kuwait 29 Jan - 30 Jan 2010

2010-02-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

So this past weekend, we took off across the borders with our good friends D and JRay from Bahrain to Kuwait. I don't recommend this to everyone, as you can't just drive to Saudi any old time you want unless you have a Saudi visa, which we all do. If you are in the Middle East and can't drive, just fly! :)

After about 5 hours, 1 spent on the Saudi/Kuwait border waiting for our visa, we were finally in Kuwait. Not before stopping to take pictures of camels of course!

Watch out for camels!

Kuwait was really interesting. I'm not sure what I expected, but definitely not high rise buildings, a legit highway system and green trees everywhere (that weren't palm trees!), not to mention Kuwaiti flags on every street, and not just one, more like 10. We checked into our hotel, Le Meridien Kuwait Towers, complete with a nice lit up green screen behind our bed - wow.

Then headed out to grab lunch. We were directed towards Avenues Mall (everything is in malls there, it's crazy!), after a few wrong turns, we found it, next to the IKEA and full of every Western store and restaurant you could imagine: PF Changs, Pinkberry, Dean & Deluca, and in case you missed the Starbucks over here, there's about 5 other ones throughout the mall - ridiculous and I won't even get into the shopping! We decided to eat at Uno's, famous for their Chicago deep-dish pizza (I had chicken, thanks gluten-free diet) and then headed out to their famous Friday Market. I can't even begin to explain everything they had here! It was full of traditional trinkets and souvenirs, and curtains, fabrics, carpets, clothing, purses, shoes, tools, furniture, I could go on, but it was amazing to see. You could literally spend the whole day there and then have to go back because you probably missed something. We didn't find too many hidden gems but we got a door knocker, it will probably never go on a door but is a nice addition to our cultural treasures. By this time, it was actually cold, the temperature said 68, but it was definitely colder than that with the wind. So we went back to the hotel so J and I could change and grab warmer clothing and then headed out to eat dinner at Burj al Hamam (Pigeon Tower), it was a Lebanese restaurant and delicious! After dinner, we headed to another mall and sat at an outdoor cafe, drinking tea and smoking sheesha.

The next morning, we had a good breakfast in the hotel and then headed out. We set out to find this museum called Al-Qurain Martyr Museum. It turned out to be a house where a large shootout had occurred almost 20 years ago (24 February 1991) during the Gulf War. It was basically a bombed out building, which they have preserved, yet not restored, so what you see is most likely waht was there 20 years ago. Out front you can see a tanker and the cars which were there during the occurrence. Once we walked in the house, I was overcome with so many emotions. It was one of the only historical places I've been where I could actually imagine, picture and hear what must have gone on that tragic day. The gunshots, the bombs, the yelling, the screams - they were all there for me. I was close to tears walking through each room, seeing each gunshot in the wall, the bricks which were shattered.

What made it even worse was knowing just a few hundred miles east, this stuff is going on, on a daily basis. After walking through the house with a guide who was very passionate about it and must have had strong ties to it, we were taking to the "museum" part, which showed each man who died that day and some information about him. There were letters which were written from Iraq, detailing the horrible things they expected to do to Kuwait and their people, and several pictures showing the damage the war had caused. In any case, it was incredibly moving and sombering. The Kuwaiti people went through so much pain and loss and seem to be very thankful to the US for coming in when they did (no matter what our motives were) and they have managed to rebuild their country to the beauty it is today.

After that, we needed something a little less depressing, we headed down to the Corniche (road by the ocean) to take some pictures and then to the Kuwait Towers.

We took the elevator up to the top and checked out the view of the city which was pretty cool.

After that, we decided to head back to Bahrain, since it was getting pretty late and we had a long drive ahead of us and some of them had to work (*cough* not me *cough*). The drive back for some reason took much longer, due to the fact it was dark and we missed a turn and luckily we have a GPS but not one that knows about construction turns, but we were fine. We stopped in Saudi to eat shawarmas and then headed home.

All in all, it was a very interesting and eye-opening trip and we're already trying to figure out when we can get back there!

Salzburg/Vienna, Austria 28 Dec 2009 - 2 Jan 2010

2010-01-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, we decided we wanted to spend New Years somewhere else than Texas, seeing as we fly through Europe on the way back to the Middle East, somewhere in Europe was the best fit. We finally narrowed it down between Prague and Austria. I've never been to either so I would have been happy with either one, but we decided we wanted a low-key new year so we went to Austria. I was ecstatic because I love The Sound of Music and Austria is on my "must-see countries" list. We also invited Chris's sister, Amy, to join us. We spent 2.5 days in Salzburg and 1 day in Vienna, before flying to London for 1 day before jetting back off to Bahrain.

28 Dec '09
We left Houston on our way to London complete with 4 bags and 4 carry-ons. We got lucky and got upgraded to Business Class which was a treat! Delta did this for us last year on the flight from hell and it was nice, but more like glorified economy class.

British Airways Business Class was the real deal! Free flowing champagne, seared tuna and flat reclining seatbeds. After actually getting sleep on an airplane, we landed in London safe and soundly.

29 Dec '09
Our layover wasn't very long for our flight to Vienna, which was nice. Once we landed in VIE, we put all our excess baggage in left luggage, grabbed a bus to the train station and got our tickets to Salzburg. (Our vacation was purely planes, trains and automobiles.) The train ride was about 3 hours but allowed us to get a small nap in which helped us not fall asleep before dinner.

Salzburg was beautiful, it's such a quaint little town. We stayed at a little bed and breakfast called Hotel Weisse Taube - Chris and his family had stayed there when they went almost 15 years ago. Our room was a decent size for European standards, we had 2 separate rooms and a decent sized bathroom. After freshening up, we headed out to grab some dinner and ended up eating at a restaurant called Saran Essbar where we all had Wiener Schnitzel. It.was.delicious. We walked around for a bit before calling it an early night.

30 Dec '09

After breakfast we headed to the HohenSalzburg Fortress. The view from the top was breahtaking! You can see the entire city from the top.

We took a short tour and then walked to the Museum of Modern Art to take pictures OF the fortress, instead of on TOP of it.

There are 2 parts of Salzburg, Old Town and New Town. We ended up in the Old Town and walked down the famous street Getriedegasse,

past Mozart's childhood home

and then stopped to have lunch consisting of goulash and bratwurst (not together).

We went to the Dom St. Rupert Cathedral and then walked around to a lot of booths that were selling trinkets, food and spiced wine. There was also an ice skating rink and right next to that was a statue of Mozart. Luckily, this was also about a minute walk from our B&B.

We got tickets to see a marionette show of Hansel and Gretel at the Salzburger MarionettenTheater, apparently it's a big thing in Austria and the company is really famous, they came to Bahrain last year and do a bunch of shows all over the world! I'm sure it was really good, but we were so jetlagged we all fell asleep in the middle - oops. How the hell do you drag out the story for 2 hours?

After the cultural experience we headed to eat dinner at a place called Zum Fidelen Effen - (The Faithful Ape). We had to share a table with 3 other people (the European way) and they tried to start a conversation, somehow it came out we lived in the Middle East and one of the guys gave me a hard time about not drinking beer and asked if I was Muslim? No, I'm not, I just don't like beer. "Well, then why aren't you drinking?!" Boo.

31 Dec '09
We headed to the New Town and took a long walk, over the Mozart Bridge, climbed up a hundred stairs, and passed a chapel, among other things. The walk was really nice.

We went to the cemetery where The Sound of Music's ending scene was based on. We also went to the Mirabelle Gardens, where some other scenes were filmed. Did I have the entire Sound of Music soundtrack stuck in my head all day? Yes.

Then we ate some delicious pizza - very Austrian. Did some souvenir shopping and then started to get ready for our dinner reservations at Hotel Elefant. We walked around the square with some gluewein (hot wine) and champagne.

New Years' Eve in Salzburg was fantastic. Our hotel was 2 minutes from the center, alcohol was every 5 feet, there was music and people wandering around. Right before midnight we got our champagne and walked to the bridge with 100 of our closest friends to watch the fireworks (Which had been going off since the day before btw), at midnight there was an amazing display of fireworks! We didn't stay out much later because we had to get back and pack to leave the next morning.

1 Jan '10
We took a train back into Vienna. Once there, we hired a taxi to drive us into town. We saw a lot of sights and ate a lot of food (That's all we seemed to do!) I enjoyed Salzburg better just because it was smaller and more quaint. Vienna is still beautiful but has the bigger city feel.

2 Jan '10
Arriving into London in the morning, struggling with our massive amount of bags (Back to left luggage) and then into town to our hotel. Chris's high school bestie, Alex, met us there and took us on a very long walk through London and to eat at Wagamama. After that, Amy and I went shopping, while Chris and Alex went to have a few pints. Eventually they had managed to walk to Hyde Park Corner, so Amy and I strolled through Kensington Park and then Hyde Park to meet them. After that, we did a bit more shopping and then went to eat sushi near Picadilly Circus. I didn't take any pictures because I've been to London several times and it wasn't a "sight-seeing" trip, but more of a layover and wandering trip.

All in all, I would love to go back to Salzburg again someday, it was incredibly relaxing and everyone was so nice and helpful!

xoxo

Muscat, Oman 21 Sept - 25 Sept 2009

2009-09-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

We recently had a long weekend over here for Eid Al Fitr, these weekends are the perfect excuse for a mini vacay that's close enough to here, but far enough away to be a getaway. We decided a few months ago we wanted to go to Oman, neither of us had ever been there and we have heard great things about it. So tickets were bought, hotel booked, Ramadan came and went and our weekend was here!

We flew on Oman Air and stayed at the Crowne Plaza.

Day 1:

We arrived in Muscat late afternoon and some of the first things we noticed were how different Oman is from the rest of the Gulf. The people are super friendly, everything was very clean, driving was normal (our driver actually SLOWED down for Chris to take a picture of the Grand Mosque...these things just wouldn't happen anywhere) and...there are mountains! Not just a regular, flat desert. Also, there are no high rise buildings, it's all very old school Middle East and it was a breath of fresh air. Once at the hotel, we were upgraded from a city view room to a sea view room, so that was great, and our view was amazing!

That afternoon we relaxed by the pool and enjoyed the seafood buffet - hi grilled lobster and bottomless wine, yes please.

Day 2:

After starting our day with the best breakfast buffet ever, we decided to rent a car. In the end, it was much cheaper to do this than take taxis everywhere, so we got our cute Nissan Sunny and headed out with our maps.

We started off by going to the Muttrah Souk, it was a neat place to shop for cultural souvenirs and gifts, not to mention nice to get out of the hot sun.

After wandering around there for awhile, we kept walking down the Corniche (road by the sea) and climbed up the steps to the Muttrah Fort - except you can't go inside, so that was awesome.

After walking even farther, we decided to turn around, because it was so hot!

After getting back to the car, we drove to our next stop, a watchtower that looks like an incense burner, but couldn't find the entrance to walk up to it,

so we kept driving, stopped to take some pictures of the Old Muscat Gate, it's signifies where Old Muscat used to be (still is, but it's what remains).

We found a (very steep) mountain slope to drive up for a scenic view, it scared the crap out of me, but it was so worth it.

The best idea we had for the whole trip was to rent a car, we were able to drive everywhere and explore. We found a small village with a bunch of goats wandering around (dinner?), a small beach and walked around the Al Bustan Palace Intercontinental Hotel - amazing.

Day 3:
We went to the Grand Qaboos Mosque to start our day. I had to cover not only my hair (which I knew I would have to), but my wrists and button my shirt to the top.

I was so freaking hot. Chris got to wear shorts, even though the "rules" said he wouldn't be able to. Figures - that's what you get for being in the Middle East. The mosque was absolutely breath-taking, the details were so intricate. The pictures just don't do it justice. It apparently has one of the world's largest carpets in the main room.

We went to Bait Al-Zubair, which is a museum with a lot of Omani culture, it showed things like khanjars (daggers), clothing, etc. It was interesting and nice to be in the AC. We also went by the palace, you can't go inside, just take pictures from the outside. The colors are a bit cheesy, apparently the Sultan doesn't actually live there (doesn't like the colors either?).

After deciding we were over the heat, we made an executive decision to go on a driving tour, we turned down seeing 2 forts since we had already seen one and wouldn't be able to go inside anyway. We drove through mountains and by the beach by a town called Yiti. We drove through Wadi Mayr, it was a bit of a rocky drive but beautiful to go through all of the mountains. It was really hard to believe we were in the Middle East at times.

Day 4:
Wwoke up late and headed out for our scenic drive. The mountains were beautiful and we ended up driving to a small town called Quariyat. We were able to go inside a fort, which was cool. Drove around the town (which took about 5 minutes), saw a lot of goats, walked near the beach and then headed back. It was a good last full day here.

Oman is really amazing, the beauty there is out of this world. The mountains make it unlike any other Gulf country and the water is fantastically blue and the views! Fabulous! It was an incredibly relaxing vacation.

We're already talking about heading back sometime soon!
xoxo

Dubai, UAE 6 Aug - 8 Aug 2009

2009-08-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

After arriving in Dubai, Mutaz picked us up and we headed to Reem for some mezze and shisha. We met Deep, Panos and Candace there. Delish!

The next day, Chris, Mutaz and I headed to the Aquaventure Waterpark on the Palm Island. It was really fun, complete with waterslides and a lazy pool, it was a great way to spend the day!

[sandierpastures.com]

This slide made me scream, but I'm very glad I did it!

[destination360.com]

After the waterpark, we went home, changed and headed to dinner at another all you can eat and drink place. The food = so-so, the drinks however were fantastic and after all of that, we went to Boudoir for an amazing evening with our friends.

I promise our next adventure won't be Dubai :)

Dubai, UAE 25 June - 27 June 2009

2009-08-28T06:28:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Dubai to visit with our friends, and on the way we found out our friend Panos was in the hospital. All I have to say is, wash your hands, and if something seems weird. GET IT CHECKED OUT!

Mutaz picked us up and we went to this place called Lotus 1, where he heard Paris Hilton was at (she was filming her My New BFF show in Dubai in June. Why? I don't know). Obviously she wasn't there, so we had some appetizers and drinks, then headed home. Unfortunately this was the same night we found out Michael Jackson passed away. :( RIP MJ.

The next day, we went to visit Panos in the hospital, ate lunch, went to the Dubai Mall. We went back home, where we changed and got ready for dinner, which was at a place called Spice Island - all you can eat AND drink. It sounds awesome - because it was. Then we went to out to Boudoir and danced/drank the night away.

Me, Chris and Jo

Mutaz, Chris and Adnan

Saturday was pretty much a waste of a day, we woke up at 3pm, packed, went to see Panos, went to dinner with his parents who had flown in from Saudi, and then we (Chris, myself, and parents) went to the airport to catch our flight.

Cali, Texas and Mississippi 27 May - 10 June 2009

2009-06-14T06:09:00.001-07:00

So we set out on our first repat together a few weeks ago, and it was quite the whirlwind trip. We weren't in any one place longer that 3 or 4 days, except our last leg of the Austin trip, but we still had fun and are looking forward to our next one!

We arrived in Houston and were picked up by our moms, Papa B, Amy and Latte, Cocoa and Pocket, then we drove to Austin and had dinner at my parents' house. I was really excited because I found out we were leaving the next day (Thursday) in the evening, and not in the morning to San Francisco like I had originally thought - so I went to Target and did some other small errands before our flight left.

San Francisco was absolutely beautiful, with perfect weather. We actually stayed in Walnut Creek, which is outside of SF, and the wedding we went to was in Moraga, where Chris went to undergrad, at the church on his campus. It was a very quick weekend, but it was a blast! Jen and Jason, Chris's 2 best friends from undergrad, who have been dating for 9 years (yes - since freshman year of college) got married and Chris was a groomsmen. It was small, but fun!

We headed back to Austin on that Sunday for a few days, where we went shopping, ate a lot and hung out with our families. On Wednesday, we headed to Mississippi to visit Chris's grandma. She lives on the coast in Ocean Springs and we spent most of our time there driving around and I learned a lot about Chris's family who has quite the history there - there's even a street named after one of his great-great someones! We played Bingo - and I won $5 - woot!

Back to Austin on Thursday and were there until the following Wednesday, where we, once again drove to Houston to catch our flight. In Austin, we ran some errands and took care of some things, and because of our short time, my mom organized a BBQ so that everyone (friends, family, etc) could come and hang out. We did this all the time when we came home for our visits - this ain't my first rodeo! (Luckily our next visit is longer than 2 weeks!) In any case, a lot of my San Antonio family came and friends came from Houston and SA (and Belton - Bundy) and that was really fun. We checked out a new club on 5th called The Madison which was awesome. (Any place that plays all 3 of Lady Gaga's hits is fine by me!)Anyway, back in the land of 2 beaches (that's what Bahrain means actually) and looks like Dubai is in the works! Obvs, we can't stay away for long.

xoxo

Dubai 30 Apr - 2 May 2009

2009-05-03T00:59:00.000-07:00

Another weekend in Dubai and it was so fun - as always.

We flew on Jazeera Airways - it is cheaper and ontime, which is always good. We arrived around 10pm, Mutaz, Tariq and Saman (a friend of ours from Saudi) picked us up and we went straight to a restaurant/bar called Barasti's. It's outside, on the beach, like literally, you can just hang out and drink on the beach, but we got a table on one of the decks and ate and drank. Besides us 4, it was Tariq's friend Pam, Adnan, Karim and his friend Weady ("weedy" - yes it's a nickname).

Saman and I

After a few hours there, we ended the night at Buddha Bar.

Chris and Karim

Tariq, Chris, Adnan and Mutaz

On Friday, we woke up, went to eat lunch at this placed called More. It was so good - the best eggs benedict I've ever had. Yum! After that, we went home and took naps. We got ready and Mutaz, Chris, Saman, Mutaz's friend Joanne and I went out to have dinner at Okku again (see previous entry). We had no idea what Deep had ordered for us last time, so we picked a few items and then had the waiter bring us his suggestions. Once again - an amazing meal! After that, we went to a club called 400. After some techno music, they played much better music and dancing and drinking ensued.

Me, Jo and Saman

Saturday, our flight was a few hours earlier than normal, so after sleeping in, we only had time to eat a late lunch and then head to the airport, so we went to Reem and then Mutaz dropped us off. Our flight back was full of Bahraini teenage boys who didn't want to stop singing and clapping. Thank goodness it's a short flight.

In any case, Dubai will have to wait for a few months til after we get back from the States, but as always, it was an incredibly fun time!

xoxo

Dubai 2 Apr - 4 Apr 2009

2009-05-03T00:44:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was one of the most fun weekends I've had EVER.

We left on Thursday early evening, our flight was at 645pm, when we got to the airport, they said we were on the 840pm flight and when I looked at the gate board, it said the flight we were originally on was at 545pm? Long story short, they bumped us and several other people to the later flight and after much yelling and arguing we got on our original flight, barely, but still. Who bumps you off your flight without any sort of confirmation/email, etc? Stupid Gulf Air - luckily these were Chris's last mileage tickets so we don't plan on flying them anytime soon.
We took a cab to Mutaz's, changed and then went to the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Island to sit and relax at this restaurant called Nasimi.
One of the guys, Adnan, who we went to school with in Saudi met us there for a little bit and then Chris and I met up with Mutaz and some other people at Buddha Bar. Somehow we didn't get home til almost 5am - why?

Then we had to head home to change for this surprise dinner, at 430 in the afternoon, really? When we got in the cab, he told me the surprise and pulled out 2 tickets to Cirque de Soleil's Alegria, which I had mentioned was showing in Dubai and I really wanted to see it since I had never been to a Cirque de Soleil show but not much had been said since then, so you can imagine my surprise when "dinner" turned out to be the show!! If you haven't seen a Cirque performance, I highly recommend it, it was amazing! I love my husband! After the performance, we went to Mutaz's and rested and then his friend Deep came to pick us up and take us to dinner at a place called Okku, which served mainly Japanese fusion food. It was like Deep's new favorite restaurant so we let him order everything: 3 hours later and stomachs sufficiently full from what I can honestly say was one of the best meals I have EVER eaten in my life, we headed off to this new club called Bang. I cannot tell you who we met there or who was celebrating what, because I swear everytime we go to Dubai, it's someone's birthday, wedding or just a random celebration of some sort, but it was so much fun!
Woke up late on Saturday, went to lunch at Fuddruckers, came back and I took a nap, then got ready and packed up, then headed to meet up with Deep at this place called Reem for tea and shisha. Mutaz took us to the airport, we weren't bumped off our flight, we arrived back in Bahrain and went straight to bed.

Kuramathi, Maldives 4 Mar - 11 Mar 2009

2009-03-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon trip!

These tags are courtesy of my mom for Christmas ;)

We traveled to the Maldives for our honeymoon – we stayed on the island of Kuramathi, which has 3 resorts, and the one we stayed at was called the Blue Lagoon resort. We first arrived in Male, found our resort booth and had to wait for a bit before we were ushered to the speedboat which took us to our island. The Maldives is made up of so many islands that you have to either get to your island by boat or seaplane. After an hour and a half boat ride (or nap) we arrived at what can only be described as paradise. It was absolutely breathtaking, it looked like something out of a movie, some desert island that has been tucked away that no one knows about. Once we arrived, we were given fresh juice, had to fill out an information card and then taken to our part of the island. The island was barely 1 mile long and yet you felt at times as though you were the only people on it. We were taken to our cute beach bungalow, 335, set down our things and then headed to lunch. We were on the all-inclusive plan which means our meals (at our main restaurant), all drinks (non and alcoholic) and 2 excursions were included. So we headed out to our restaurant and were given “our” table, 46 – similar to being on a cruise but you don’t have to talk to people. Then we just went exploring on the island, finding the bar area, walking down the sandbank, etc. Later that night, we met a guy named Simon from London, who was there with his family, and his dad Graham who had his Ipod speakers and we jammed out and unfortunately Graham lasted longer than we did, as he did most every night.Don’t worry – I won’t recap our entire trip day by day because basically they all included sun, food, drinks and relaxing :)

Two of the excursions which were included on our trip were the shopping trip to the neighboring island of Rashdoo. It was about a 15 minute boat ride, with an island basically full of souvenir shops, so obviously our island takes care of this island, but oh well. We bought a few things and then got back onto the boat to Kuramathi. The next day we had our sunset cruise which was just us and 20 of our best friends riding a boat around the islands watching the sunset, drinking sparkling wine. Perfection.

Our last night was the best night, we booked a couple's massage on the open air pavillion which was amazing and the entire spa was great. The package came with henna tattoos which Chris declined immediately and so I got 2. Haha. Then we ate at the Laguna Grill and enjoyed a bottle of wine, jumbo prawns and the crabs running along the beach.

We had to spend one night in Male because our flight was so early and that wasn't nearly as nice as our island resort, but the things you gotta do :)

In any case, the Maldives was the perfect honeymoon spot - incredibly relaxing, romantic and beautiful.

Dubai 15 Jan – 17 Jan 2009

2009-01-18T10:07:00.000-08:00

We had originally planned to go to Dubai this weekend but we had some visa troubles so had to postpone, until we GOT the visa and changed our tickets back. We went to visit some friends, Mutaz and Tariq who live there and Panos who was in town from the States. We started off early on Thursday morning to get across the bridge to Bahrain, our flight wasn’t until noon so we had some coffee before our flight.

We arrived in Dubai and headed to Mutaz’s apartment to drop off our stuff and then went walking to the new Marina Mall and then to the JBR, (basically a walk next to Jumeriah Beach) to find some food. After we walked around a bit, we went back to Mutaz’s and took a nap and get ready to go out. We ordered pizza and then went out for Mutaz’s friend, Deep’s, birthday to a club called Boudoir – it was so much fun! The music was great and everyone is so friendly and welcoming.

On Friday, we woke up and Panos, Chris and I went to eat at Fuddrucker’s (just couldn’t get enough back in the States haha) and then back to Mutaz’s and hung out. Later that night, another friend Saman came to hang out with us. Mutaz, Saman, Chris and I went to the Palm Islands, to eat at a sushi place called Nobu at the Atlantis Hotel (there’s apparently a similar hotel in the Bahamas?), it was absolutely amazing.

A really awful picture of the Atlantis

The aquarium next to Nobu

Then we went to Boudoir for someone else’s (Yaser’s) birthdays. Can I just say these people know how to throw a party? Another night of fun times! On Saturday, we didn’t have to leave until 10pm, so when we finally woke up, all of us went to the Mall of Dubai, it’s right next to the Burj Dubai (the tallest building in the world that is currently being built). The Mall is not such a mall but more of an experience, yes there are stores that you only see in movies and didn’t really think existed, but there is also a food court with more choices of food you could only imagine from Subway to Indian to Lebanese to Sushi, you want it, it’s there. We decided after lunch to go to the aquarium which was so neat! Then we walked around until the guys wanted to go to see the 2010 FIFA world trophy or something for soccer, so Saman and I slowly followed as we went through the gold souk which was more like the diamond souk, I’ve never seen so many sparkling things in my life! We finally reached the trophy (yay.) Chris and I did some shopping and then we met up with everyone again and went and had some coffee and then Mutaz took us to the airport and now we’re back in Saudi.

All in all, it was an awesome experience and there is SO much to see in Dubai, I can see why Chris came all the time last year. I already have a list of things I want to do next time we go.

Heading home...

2009-01-18T09:35:00.000-08:00

Austin to Saudi Arabia 3 Jan – 6 Jan 2008

We were originally set to leave Austin on January 3rd and arrive in Saudi the evening of the 4th. We left with 6 boxes, 4 suitcases, and 2 carry-ons.

Some minor which turned into major delays caused us to miss our connecting flight in Atlanta to Dubai, and led us to spend 2 hours in line in Atlanta to figure out what our next plan of action was and then 2 hours at the counter with a very helpful (no honestly) agent. At first they wanted us to go on separate flights – me from Atlanta -> Milan -> Istanbul -> Bahrain and Chris from Atlanta -> Milan -> Dubai… um, no. Or we could wait until January 6th to take the same flight we had originally been scheduled on.

Finally we both ended up on the Atlanta -> Milan -> Dubai -> Bahrain flight, but had to spend the night in Atlanta. We ate at Waffle House the next morning and then headed back to the airport.

We were bumped up to business class for our first leg of our flight, which.was.awesome.

Flying over the Alps into Milan

Spent 6 hours in the Milan airport (worst.airport.ever.) and then slept the next 6 hours from Milan to Dubai. Once in Dubai, we had another 6 hours there, so Mutaz and Panos came to pick us up and we hung out at Mutaz’s apartment for awhile and then went back to the airport. And then Dubai to Bahrain only to find out that our 10 pieces of luggage did not arrive with us (did you really expect them to?) and then drove across to Saudi Arabia from Bahrain.

The bags arrived about 2 days later much to my excitement (I didn’t have to wear the same sweatshirt everyday or Chris’ oversized tshirts) and now we are all cozy in our apartment.

Home sweet home. :)

Sedona, Arizona

2008-12-19T22:33:00.001-08:00

So our first adventure as newlyweds took us to Sedona, AZ. We decided to take our "mini-moon" there to get away for a few days after the wedding. Sedona is listed in the 1000 places book as "Red Rock Country". We were there from December 11 - 14, 2008.

We flew into Phoenix, met Chris' friend Jason (who was unable to attend the wedding) and had lunch with him, and then set off to Sedona. The drive up was about 2 hours and getting to Sedona was so beautiful.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast called Boots and Saddles - it was super cute and the people who owned it was nothing but nice and helpful with places to see and things to do.

We arrived close to dinner time and asked that they make us reservations at a place one of my friends from work had recommended called Dahl & Diluca's. It was very good Italian food. Then we went back to our room and relaxed in our hot tub. On Friday, we started out at Red Rock Xing and then saw Cathedral Rock and also went to Buddha Beach.

Then we had lunch at this place called Picasos (sp?) and then went to see the Church of the Holy Cross and walk around Tlequepaque (it's a little shopping area that is built to replicate a city in Guatemala) there we bought some gifts for our moms and Amy. Then we went back to the room and got ready for our dinner at Savannah's, highly recommended by the owners at Boots & Saddles. Yum! (again, I think we gained 5lbs on our mini moon)

Saturday, we hoped to make it to the Grand Canyon but the weather was taking a turn for the worst towards the afternoon. So we ended up at the Sunset Crater National Monument, which is on the way to the Grand Canyon, beautiful drive actually. When we got there we found the wind to be incredibly awful, i.e. I almost got blown over, so luckily the park was a driving tour, we got out again to see some Indian ruins and then basically stayed in the car and took pictures. Brrrr! We drove past Flagstaff, also we had grabbed some sandwiches and instead of having a picnic lunch as hoped, we parked at a vista point and ate in the car! We decided we would stay in on our last night in Sedona and ordered pizza, watched a movie, and hung out in the hot tub sipping on wine. It was a great end to our relaxing and beautiful trip!

We returned to Austin on Sunday night after stopping at some sinkhole? (Don't ask -I don't know the name and the only mystery of this thing is where is the water coming from in the random desert).

All in all, I would recommend Sedona for any quiet getaway. it's a sleepy town - it shuts down around 9pm but for relaxation, good food and some of the most beautiful scenery you'ever ever seen - Sedona is your place and Boots & Saddles is the place to stay!