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.
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
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?
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. 
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 :)
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 :)
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.
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.
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. 
We were bumped up to business class for our first leg of our flight, which.was.awesome. 
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.
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 
On Friday, we started out at Red Rock Xing and then saw Cathedral Rock and also went to Buddha Beach. 
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) 
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! 
