I'm here in the usa and am having a good time with my family...
give me a ring if you wanna hang sometime the next couple of weeks: 515.508.1147
22 December 2007
14 December 2007
safa park
I went to Safa Park for the first time after dropping Liz off for a weekend work deal. I feel pretty pathetic for not going up until today, as the first thing I did in London after I landed, was to go to Hyde Park in city center.
Well, it was a beautiful day, and the park was super full, but it's large enough to only know that by the parking lots. I took a look around and managed to even take a quick nap underneath a big tree on a small hill next to the lake.
Here's some foto's I took:
Well, it was a beautiful day, and the park was super full, but it's large enough to only know that by the parking lots. I took a look around and managed to even take a quick nap underneath a big tree on a small hill next to the lake.
Here's some foto's I took:
09 December 2007
bangalore, india
I had a good excuse to visit India for the first time last weekend, so I took full advantage, and booked a long-weekend trip to Bangalore for my friend Kavitha's wedding! I asked a few people here in the Emirates if they wanted to join, but no one could swing it... so I went alone.
Here's what I can recollect:
I arrived at the airport in B'lore at 4:00 am, and didn't splurge for a room, so I had to wander the streets until the 9:00 am wedding. This was a pretty fun little journey in the dark. I dropped my bag off at the hotel that I would be using the next day, and started wandering the streets. I wandered for a few hours and finally found a coffee shop open and managed to explore until the wedding time came. I took a quick three-wheeler ride over to the Hindu Temple she was getting married in.
When I walked in I had no idea what to expect, let's see if I can explain how it works:
First, it appears to be a completely informal event, well from an outsider's eyes. There is only one formal part, right at a certain time ( Muhurtha ), when everyone throws rice and cheers, as that's when they are officially 'Wed' ( I'm assuming ).
When I got there ( about 90 minutes pre-Muhurtha ), the bride and her family hung out on a stage inside a 4-poster enclosure section. It was decorated with thousands of flowers, had a nicely decorated bench and many floor cushions...very beautiful. While sitting around there, they went through multiple customary proceedings ( that I was clueless about ).
After a while, she left the stage, and the bridegroom and his family took the stage for similar activities. At Muhurtha time, the bride walked through the crowd with someone holding a wicker square thing in front of her face ( this was so the groom could not see her prematurely - see below ), she then made her way up to the stage for the culminating moment... where we all yelled bad spirits away, and threw rice at the couple, and eventually cheered!
As you can see, Kavitha was all decked out in necklaces, bracelets, henna tattoos, formal sari, and the headdresses. From the moment I first saw her, she didn't move her head a lot... she moved only calculated maneuvers to keep her 'situation' in place... seemed like hard work! More hard work for her ( in my opinion ) was the whole format... Since it was informal, it seemed that she had every aunt / uncle / cousin / friend / neighbor bugging her the whole time, asking her millions of questions, and needing constant attention... It was like the wedding was everyone's day... that someone was just happening to get married as well...
Well, after another hour of celebration with snacks, and little coffee drinks in the crowd ( 300+ people ) we all went to lunch in shifts. I had the pleasure of hanging out with the groom's uncle. He was an engineer in the automobile industry, and had worked in all sorts of places in the west, and could really relate and explain the foreign customs to me. He explained what each dish was, hindu temple references, wedding procedure descriptions and so on...
After the meal was done the next group of 100 or so people shuffled to our dining area and started on shift two. As the ceremony had concluded, I went to talk to Kavitha and her new husband Radhakrishna to say congrats and hi!
The rest of the day I ended up wandering around the city and taking in what I could. I ate at a chill little bar, and had a veggie platter. For those of you not familiar with Indian cuisine, much of it is veggie... which I have been digging lately... so I managed to swing a full veg weekend. Later that night I ended up running into a pub called Pecos, which greeted me with a wicked Jerry montage at the front door... I was in heaven! The place was made out of a garage and only sold beer! Turns out that it's one of the oldest pubs in B'lore - at 15 years old. I'm told that it started out as a Mexican place and evolved into what it is today. This place only played the classics, and had the headiest bartenders in the city.
After a while there I decided to keep bar-hopping and ran into a few more places, included a bar called 'Nasa' with it's black light only 'cabin' with views of planets through the portholes, and all the staff in captain uniforms :) While there, I met up with a Ugandan named Tim who was on a business trip. Timmy and I ended up bar-hopping the rest of the night meeting all sorts of people. I broke one of the cardinal rules of walking home alone half-drunk in a new city with a half-a-clue of where I was going. Luckily for me, I managed to throw in the towel after a few wrong turns, and jump in a three-wheeler to take me to my hotel.
I woke up early the next day to have an 'excursion' out to a neighboring city to see the sites, and the land a bit. On the way out of Bangalore I was surprised over a couple of things: 1) the amount of education that most people seem to utilize, and 2) the amount of cattle in the city. I've heard of how India's economy has been evolving over the last 20 years, and I got to see a few angles of how they are progressing in just a few minutes.
After a couple of 'rough-back-seat-minivan-driving-with-hangover' hours, I managed to reach Srirangapatna. Home of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, a large Masjid ( mosque ), and a nice Hindu temple. Right outside of the city, we reached the main destination of Mysore.
Mysore is the home of the Mysore Palace, which is where the King of the state stays and celebrates certain nation holidays. It's quite the building! I did a full tour and took a few fotos:
On site next to the Palace was a few Hindu Temples, and a large garden. For some reason they were also providing joy rides:
After the palace and a quick bite, I was headed to what I understood to be the Mysore Jew. The driver told me all along that I would love the Jew, and that it was a highlight, but I didn't pry and try to ruin my surprise. I just went along with it. Well, when I arrived to the Jew, I still had no idea what I was spending my 50 cents on for admission... but by the time I walked through 250 children standing outside and peeked in, I realized I was heading into one of the oldest Zoo's in the world! The Mysore Zoo was built in 1892, and was quite nice!
While at the zoo, two notable things happened: 1) after a bit of antagonizing from the crowd, a gorilla decided to put on a little show. He did a dance, jumped up and down, threw a bunch of rocks high in the air, and ran around in a big circle clapping his hands and screaming! He did this a few times, and he was having quite a bit of fun with it. 2) I found out that kids, and some adults don't see a lotta 'white' folk down in Mysore, so I found myself as much of an attraction in the zoo, as the bengal tigers! I had no less that 5 groups of people come up to me ( mostly children ) wanting to shake my hand, and pose for a photograph with them. It was pretty funny, and after the third of forth group I couldn't quit laughing.
Day 3 was my final day, and I met up with an old colleague Sankar. We had no plans for the day, but he met me at my hotel at 10:00, and we found out that a big Cricket game was going on down the road. I am vaguely familiar with the game, but knew that 2 of the top two teams in the world playing so close was nothing to miss.
So India vs. Pakistan test match was going on, and the match was sold out. Sankar said that the price of tickets before they sold out, were about 200 Rupees each. Since he brought me 'round while scalping the tickets, we ended up spending 500 each! Only 13 usd, each!
During the official 'Tea-Break' in the afternoon, Sankar and I had a walk through a few of the parks next to the field. Here's a photo of me and Ghandi.
During our walk, Sankar informed me that our Cerner India office was quite literally next to the MG Park we were at. We strolled by, and I manged to snap a quick pic of our logo in the local Kannada alphabet:
We went back for the tail-end of that match, and found out that not a single Wicket or 'Out' had happened since we arrived at 10:30 that morning! This means that the batsmen got to bat for about 3 hrs each... and they each scored an extremely large amount of points, which really got the crowd going. After scooting out of the match in the last 15 minutes, Sankar and I split up and I ended up wasting the rest of my final day skipping around pubs and coffee shops.
It was a bad-ass long weekend, and I'd recommend South India to anyone.. but I would say that 3-5 days is quite enough for Bangalore alone... Also, if you are interested in more pics, click here.
Here's what I can recollect:
I arrived at the airport in B'lore at 4:00 am, and didn't splurge for a room, so I had to wander the streets until the 9:00 am wedding. This was a pretty fun little journey in the dark. I dropped my bag off at the hotel that I would be using the next day, and started wandering the streets. I wandered for a few hours and finally found a coffee shop open and managed to explore until the wedding time came. I took a quick three-wheeler ride over to the Hindu Temple she was getting married in.
When I walked in I had no idea what to expect, let's see if I can explain how it works:
First, it appears to be a completely informal event, well from an outsider's eyes. There is only one formal part, right at a certain time ( Muhurtha ), when everyone throws rice and cheers, as that's when they are officially 'Wed' ( I'm assuming ).
When I got there ( about 90 minutes pre-Muhurtha ), the bride and her family hung out on a stage inside a 4-poster enclosure section. It was decorated with thousands of flowers, had a nicely decorated bench and many floor cushions...very beautiful. While sitting around there, they went through multiple customary proceedings ( that I was clueless about ).
After a while, she left the stage, and the bridegroom and his family took the stage for similar activities. At Muhurtha time, the bride walked through the crowd with someone holding a wicker square thing in front of her face ( this was so the groom could not see her prematurely - see below ), she then made her way up to the stage for the culminating moment... where we all yelled bad spirits away, and threw rice at the couple, and eventually cheered!
As you can see, Kavitha was all decked out in necklaces, bracelets, henna tattoos, formal sari, and the headdresses. From the moment I first saw her, she didn't move her head a lot... she moved only calculated maneuvers to keep her 'situation' in place... seemed like hard work! More hard work for her ( in my opinion ) was the whole format... Since it was informal, it seemed that she had every aunt / uncle / cousin / friend / neighbor bugging her the whole time, asking her millions of questions, and needing constant attention... It was like the wedding was everyone's day... that someone was just happening to get married as well...
Well, after another hour of celebration with snacks, and little coffee drinks in the crowd ( 300+ people ) we all went to lunch in shifts. I had the pleasure of hanging out with the groom's uncle. He was an engineer in the automobile industry, and had worked in all sorts of places in the west, and could really relate and explain the foreign customs to me. He explained what each dish was, hindu temple references, wedding procedure descriptions and so on...
After the meal was done the next group of 100 or so people shuffled to our dining area and started on shift two. As the ceremony had concluded, I went to talk to Kavitha and her new husband Radhakrishna to say congrats and hi!
The rest of the day I ended up wandering around the city and taking in what I could. I ate at a chill little bar, and had a veggie platter. For those of you not familiar with Indian cuisine, much of it is veggie... which I have been digging lately... so I managed to swing a full veg weekend. Later that night I ended up running into a pub called Pecos, which greeted me with a wicked Jerry montage at the front door... I was in heaven! The place was made out of a garage and only sold beer! Turns out that it's one of the oldest pubs in B'lore - at 15 years old. I'm told that it started out as a Mexican place and evolved into what it is today. This place only played the classics, and had the headiest bartenders in the city.
After a while there I decided to keep bar-hopping and ran into a few more places, included a bar called 'Nasa' with it's black light only 'cabin' with views of planets through the portholes, and all the staff in captain uniforms :) While there, I met up with a Ugandan named Tim who was on a business trip. Timmy and I ended up bar-hopping the rest of the night meeting all sorts of people. I broke one of the cardinal rules of walking home alone half-drunk in a new city with a half-a-clue of where I was going. Luckily for me, I managed to throw in the towel after a few wrong turns, and jump in a three-wheeler to take me to my hotel.
I woke up early the next day to have an 'excursion' out to a neighboring city to see the sites, and the land a bit. On the way out of Bangalore I was surprised over a couple of things: 1) the amount of education that most people seem to utilize, and 2) the amount of cattle in the city. I've heard of how India's economy has been evolving over the last 20 years, and I got to see a few angles of how they are progressing in just a few minutes.
After a couple of 'rough-back-seat-minivan-driving-with-hangover' hours, I managed to reach Srirangapatna. Home of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, a large Masjid ( mosque ), and a nice Hindu temple. Right outside of the city, we reached the main destination of Mysore.
Mysore is the home of the Mysore Palace, which is where the King of the state stays and celebrates certain nation holidays. It's quite the building! I did a full tour and took a few fotos:
On site next to the Palace was a few Hindu Temples, and a large garden. For some reason they were also providing joy rides:
After the palace and a quick bite, I was headed to what I understood to be the Mysore Jew. The driver told me all along that I would love the Jew, and that it was a highlight, but I didn't pry and try to ruin my surprise. I just went along with it. Well, when I arrived to the Jew, I still had no idea what I was spending my 50 cents on for admission... but by the time I walked through 250 children standing outside and peeked in, I realized I was heading into one of the oldest Zoo's in the world! The Mysore Zoo was built in 1892, and was quite nice!
While at the zoo, two notable things happened: 1) after a bit of antagonizing from the crowd, a gorilla decided to put on a little show. He did a dance, jumped up and down, threw a bunch of rocks high in the air, and ran around in a big circle clapping his hands and screaming! He did this a few times, and he was having quite a bit of fun with it. 2) I found out that kids, and some adults don't see a lotta 'white' folk down in Mysore, so I found myself as much of an attraction in the zoo, as the bengal tigers! I had no less that 5 groups of people come up to me ( mostly children ) wanting to shake my hand, and pose for a photograph with them. It was pretty funny, and after the third of forth group I couldn't quit laughing.
Day 3 was my final day, and I met up with an old colleague Sankar. We had no plans for the day, but he met me at my hotel at 10:00, and we found out that a big Cricket game was going on down the road. I am vaguely familiar with the game, but knew that 2 of the top two teams in the world playing so close was nothing to miss.
So India vs. Pakistan test match was going on, and the match was sold out. Sankar said that the price of tickets before they sold out, were about 200 Rupees each. Since he brought me 'round while scalping the tickets, we ended up spending 500 each! Only 13 usd, each!
During the official 'Tea-Break' in the afternoon, Sankar and I had a walk through a few of the parks next to the field. Here's a photo of me and Ghandi.
During our walk, Sankar informed me that our Cerner India office was quite literally next to the MG Park we were at. We strolled by, and I manged to snap a quick pic of our logo in the local Kannada alphabet:
We went back for the tail-end of that match, and found out that not a single Wicket or 'Out' had happened since we arrived at 10:30 that morning! This means that the batsmen got to bat for about 3 hrs each... and they each scored an extremely large amount of points, which really got the crowd going. After scooting out of the match in the last 15 minutes, Sankar and I split up and I ended up wasting the rest of my final day skipping around pubs and coffee shops.
It was a bad-ass long weekend, and I'd recommend South India to anyone.. but I would say that 3-5 days is quite enough for Bangalore alone... Also, if you are interested in more pics, click here.
03 December 2007
7s
Had our annual National Day here in the Emirates this weekend and we all enjoyed a nice 3-day weekend... I usually would have made a trip out of it, but I'm going to a wedding in Bangalore this next week instead. But I did manage to make a trip out to the Dubai Rugby 7's to see roommate Nick play for on the local amateur team. His team managed to 'win-it-all' in the non-pro league, and was practically the mvp... he scored 2 outta 3 tri's that match, and had plenty of jumbo-tron time!
24 November 2007
weekends in the 'bai
went out to the desert with an Egyptian group this weekend and had fun bbq-ing/guitar playing/dune-bashing/and nice-weather-enjoying. i work with only two of the dudes, and they invited me to join them ( and 30 other Egyptians ) to hang in the desert with them. we had a good time!
The next night I went with some roommates to go check out Arrested Development out at one of the golf courses... It was a funky good time. They have a 75-year old dood in the band!
also a few fotos we took after a long night of Wii Boxing
The next night I went with some roommates to go check out Arrested Development out at one of the golf courses... It was a funky good time. They have a 75-year old dood in the band!
also a few fotos we took after a long night of Wii Boxing
22 November 2007
saw iv
saw saw iv last night... wasn't as good as the others, but it had one of my favorites death-machines yet! click here for a graphic foto of the knife-mask!
disclaimer: don't click if you don't like knife-masks.
for those of you that don't know the 'saw' series... it's about a guy that puts bad people into bad situations ( re: deadly ), and tries to teach them a lesson. usually this involves some really crazy home-made-bodily-harm machines that leave lasting visuals in the viewers mind. he then sends the cops on a wild goose chase to find him, where at the end they all meet in one room where a big bloody climax happens.
it's not your normal type of horror cheesy movie - so check 'em out if you dare!
disclaimer: don't click if you don't like knife-masks.
for those of you that don't know the 'saw' series... it's about a guy that puts bad people into bad situations ( re: deadly ), and tries to teach them a lesson. usually this involves some really crazy home-made-bodily-harm machines that leave lasting visuals in the viewers mind. he then sends the cops on a wild goose chase to find him, where at the end they all meet in one room where a big bloody climax happens.
it's not your normal type of horror cheesy movie - so check 'em out if you dare!
16 November 2007
al manara villa
I snapped a few fotos today of the new crib, here's some highlights:
We have decent little yard with lots of greenery... well for now it's green. If we don't pay a gardener, it might not stay this way. He wants something like 300dhs a month... it's much cheaper to lay a hose down and flip on/off the water once in a while.
Here's our grilling setup.. the table is 100% recycled - strait from the 'rubbish-skip'(UK English) or 'dumpster'(US English). The handy-man Tonie managed to drill some holes in the top for some 'tiki-torches'(UK ) or 'tiki-torches(US ).
Mewsuf the kitten is mighty-cute, and it takes all I got to not lean down and play with the little thing. I did find a way to manage somehow, turns out she really likes a good kick!
To step inside a bit, you can see our porch from the sliding-door of our living room, and quite the mis-match of furniture lining the entire place.
And lastly, here's our room. You can see Liz packing, as she leaves tomorrow night for the states. She gets to hang in KC for about 12 days... lucky her!
We have decent little yard with lots of greenery... well for now it's green. If we don't pay a gardener, it might not stay this way. He wants something like 300dhs a month... it's much cheaper to lay a hose down and flip on/off the water once in a while.
Here's our grilling setup.. the table is 100% recycled - strait from the 'rubbish-skip'(UK English) or 'dumpster'(US English). The handy-man Tonie managed to drill some holes in the top for some 'tiki-torches'(UK ) or 'tiki-torches(US ).
Mewsuf the kitten is mighty-cute, and it takes all I got to not lean down and play with the little thing. I did find a way to manage somehow, turns out she really likes a good kick!
To step inside a bit, you can see our porch from the sliding-door of our living room, and quite the mis-match of furniture lining the entire place.
And lastly, here's our room. You can see Liz packing, as she leaves tomorrow night for the states. She gets to hang in KC for about 12 days... lucky her!
10 November 2007
roomate: nick
Since I've apparently been too busy to post anything recently, I'll send you a link to my roommate Nick's blog. He has a few pictures on there of all of us at the new place... including fotos of Liz and Nick's cat 'Mewsuf'. Here's the link: ramblingdreves.blogspot.com
01 November 2007
dubaiween
Carlos and I managed to make it to the Irish Village on All Hallows Eve this year, but it wasn't easy. We first plummeted through construction sites, crossed multiple lane highways, scared multiple taxi drivers, and wandered clue-lessly through Sharjah before we even made it to the bar.
Our fresh-to-Dubai cabbie had no clue how to get to the pubs, and I ended up giving a wrong direction that threw us into who-knows-where. After a few failed attempts, we found a cab-driver who knew where the pub was, but that was after getting dropped of in the middle of nowhere.
Well we made it, and had a couple good hours of fun at the nicest-weather-Halloween ever! There were loads of people dressed up... every nationality was up for the fun... Carlos entered the best costume competition, and placed high up only because he's so flamboyant... I wish I could have video'd that performance! Here's a couple of foto's:
I've spent most of today moving all sorts of crap to the new villa... pics to come later inshallah...
Our fresh-to-Dubai cabbie had no clue how to get to the pubs, and I ended up giving a wrong direction that threw us into who-knows-where. After a few failed attempts, we found a cab-driver who knew where the pub was, but that was after getting dropped of in the middle of nowhere.
Well we made it, and had a couple good hours of fun at the nicest-weather-Halloween ever! There were loads of people dressed up... every nationality was up for the fun... Carlos entered the best costume competition, and placed high up only because he's so flamboyant... I wish I could have video'd that performance! Here's a couple of foto's:
I've spent most of today moving all sorts of crap to the new villa... pics to come later inshallah...
30 October 2007
movin' on....
Back into the groove since my folks left, I've managed to score bits of fun here and there... let's see what I can remember:
A couple weekends ago, Liz and I joined a few of our roommates for a night out at the Irish Village. We all had a pretty good time, except maybe my friends wife - whom I'd met that night, who had to endure many repeated barely understandable drunken ramblings with me about Pakistan.
Roommate Tonie(^S.African bloke in this photo^) had to send the following pictures my way. The willa was in Mirdiff, I have no idea where that is, but it's one of the most classic villa's yet:
We also found a new place to live, and moving will commence by the end of this weekend inshallah! It's still in Umm Sequim II, across the street from Wasl Rd, and is a hell of a lot cheaper! I'll save roughly 500 usd monthly, we won't have to live with 11 others, I hopefully will have no allergies, and it won't be in the yard of a mosque!!! Yay for us!
Tomorrow night we are going to go to a Halloween party, and I managed to get away with a 17 dhs costume! Pics to follow after the move...
Also just found a sweet album, check out Ernest Ranglin for some jazzy-reggae grooves.
A couple weekends ago, Liz and I joined a few of our roommates for a night out at the Irish Village. We all had a pretty good time, except maybe my friends wife - whom I'd met that night, who had to endure many repeated barely understandable drunken ramblings with me about Pakistan.
Roommate Tonie(^S.African bloke in this photo^) had to send the following pictures my way. The willa was in Mirdiff, I have no idea where that is, but it's one of the most classic villa's yet:
We also found a new place to live, and moving will commence by the end of this weekend inshallah! It's still in Umm Sequim II, across the street from Wasl Rd, and is a hell of a lot cheaper! I'll save roughly 500 usd monthly, we won't have to live with 11 others, I hopefully will have no allergies, and it won't be in the yard of a mosque!!! Yay for us!
Tomorrow night we are going to go to a Halloween party, and I managed to get away with a 17 dhs costume! Pics to follow after the move...
Also just found a sweet album, check out Ernest Ranglin for some jazzy-reggae grooves.
16 October 2007
parental visit part 3 : Petra-Jordan
day 5: we left the dead sea well refreshed and ready for some sights. we started by going to the top of a nearby mountain, where the 12th century Karak castle was located. The castle was one of dad's favorite places as he said he felt like he was in a Zelda video game. Here we are on top of the mountain:
After leaving there, we had a longish drive on the King's Highway down to Petra. Unfortunately, we also had to listen to the taxi's beep the whole 3 1/2 hrs as well. That was the last time we used that driver.
When we got to Ma'an, we checked in our place then moved to the 'Little Petra'. We didn't have much day time left, and this Petra was free. It was pretty sick... here's the 'rents checking it out:
We then slid outta town to catch a Petra sunset:
day 6: we woke up and went to catch a full Petra day. We rented a personal guide, and got a buggie ride for mom and dad... do to some confusing negotiations, we ended up with a minimized tour, but we still managed to see 80% of the goods, and all of the major sections of an official 'Wonder of the World'. Here's a little of what we caught on camera:
At the far side of the venue they were offering donkey rides, and since a personal goal is to ride as many new animals as possible, we picked one up each! I couldn't get over how natural pops rode the donkey. It's like he does it everyday.
Petra was pretty amazing, and most photos don't do it justice. When you hear that it is a whole city made in the mountain sides, you can't really imagine how many carvings there really are, or how big they are! It's definitely something you must see in person.
day 7: we were going to do a couple nights in Jerusalem, but I backed out, and played it safe. I knew that we'd be ok, but then again, thought that seeing automatic weapons by the Israeli army was a pretty unnecessary thing for my less-traveled folks. Needless to say, we had a couple extra days to knock about in Amman.
We decided to go down to the big souk (english: market) to get some gifts for people back home. It was a madhouse! Eid was around the corner (ie: next day), so everyone was out to buy gifts for their loved ones. My parents had no idea how foreign markets would be... and the one in City Centre didn't disappoint.
We moved from there exhausted, but not ready to miss the roman theatre next to the market. Here's a foto of Amman taken from the top of the theatre:
day 8: During our last day on holiday, we thought it'd be cool to get a Turkish Bath:
We had NO idea what to expect, and what we got was something that wasn't even close to entering our minds. Mom thought it would be about a big luxurious bath, with lots of oils and soaps, and cleaner than a swiss whistle... followed by a masseuse who gave you a proper face massage and sent you on your way... NOPE!
We first got neked, threw on skimpy towels, and re-congregated as a family in a little steam room. Not a bad start. Then we sat there for no less than 45 minutes. Dad and mom were in an out about 10 times (completely hot and sweaty and feeling confused) before a lady took mom to the next ( and last ) phase. While dad and I pondered on what was going on we waited patiently for our collector person. Dad let me go next and it went like this:
Lady (nasty lady) has you lay on a cement table neked on your chest. She takes a glove with little bumps on it, I think the glove probably played a role in the 'Hostel' torture movie at some point, a glove that has probably been used on no less than 2000 people. It was black-rubbery, and gave the impression of the dirtiest thing in the room. And starts scrubbing your body... hard! Hard enough to leave my-skin-has-been-removed red marks. She does have the decency to splash a bucket of water on you after this scrubbing. She then gets you to lay on your back. She then does the same to all of your front, including a nice bucket splash. Following this you go sit next to a sink on a cold cement bench. She then pours a bucket over your head, scrubs minimal shampoo in a small portion of your head and drops another bucket on you.
That's it... you're done! I highly recommend it! HA!
Following that awkward experience, we headed to Jerash, a city of the Decapolis and considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East... at least it was something to do...
They have an event where they re-enact roman chariot races and coliseum games, and they do it in this arena:
They also have all sorts of Roman pillars like these:
We walked around in the sun for a while, and stopped to see a weird bunch of locals playing music... well, I reckon the only weird part was the bagpipe?!
Our final stop of the day before heading to the airport was stopping again in the city center in Amman at the Citadel. The heritage site is the home of more ancient ruins, and also a great view of all angles of the city. Including the largest free standing flag in the world. You can see my parents getting one last look in here:
As a conclusion: I'd highly recommend this country, but would probably limit it to 5 days in Jordan, and trying to go to Syria or Lebanon or Jerusalem inside the same trip.
I miss my folks already, and am already looking forward to my return to the states for Christmas. If you wanted to see all the photos go here.
After leaving there, we had a longish drive on the King's Highway down to Petra. Unfortunately, we also had to listen to the taxi's beep the whole 3 1/2 hrs as well. That was the last time we used that driver.
When we got to Ma'an, we checked in our place then moved to the 'Little Petra'. We didn't have much day time left, and this Petra was free. It was pretty sick... here's the 'rents checking it out:
We then slid outta town to catch a Petra sunset:
day 6: we woke up and went to catch a full Petra day. We rented a personal guide, and got a buggie ride for mom and dad... do to some confusing negotiations, we ended up with a minimized tour, but we still managed to see 80% of the goods, and all of the major sections of an official 'Wonder of the World'. Here's a little of what we caught on camera:
At the far side of the venue they were offering donkey rides, and since a personal goal is to ride as many new animals as possible, we picked one up each! I couldn't get over how natural pops rode the donkey. It's like he does it everyday.
Petra was pretty amazing, and most photos don't do it justice. When you hear that it is a whole city made in the mountain sides, you can't really imagine how many carvings there really are, or how big they are! It's definitely something you must see in person.
day 7: we were going to do a couple nights in Jerusalem, but I backed out, and played it safe. I knew that we'd be ok, but then again, thought that seeing automatic weapons by the Israeli army was a pretty unnecessary thing for my less-traveled folks. Needless to say, we had a couple extra days to knock about in Amman.
We decided to go down to the big souk (english: market) to get some gifts for people back home. It was a madhouse! Eid was around the corner (ie: next day), so everyone was out to buy gifts for their loved ones. My parents had no idea how foreign markets would be... and the one in City Centre didn't disappoint.
We moved from there exhausted, but not ready to miss the roman theatre next to the market. Here's a foto of Amman taken from the top of the theatre:
day 8: During our last day on holiday, we thought it'd be cool to get a Turkish Bath:
We had NO idea what to expect, and what we got was something that wasn't even close to entering our minds. Mom thought it would be about a big luxurious bath, with lots of oils and soaps, and cleaner than a swiss whistle... followed by a masseuse who gave you a proper face massage and sent you on your way... NOPE!
We first got neked, threw on skimpy towels, and re-congregated as a family in a little steam room. Not a bad start. Then we sat there for no less than 45 minutes. Dad and mom were in an out about 10 times (completely hot and sweaty and feeling confused) before a lady took mom to the next ( and last ) phase. While dad and I pondered on what was going on we waited patiently for our collector person. Dad let me go next and it went like this:
Lady (nasty lady) has you lay on a cement table neked on your chest. She takes a glove with little bumps on it, I think the glove probably played a role in the 'Hostel' torture movie at some point, a glove that has probably been used on no less than 2000 people. It was black-rubbery, and gave the impression of the dirtiest thing in the room. And starts scrubbing your body... hard! Hard enough to leave my-skin-has-been-removed red marks. She does have the decency to splash a bucket of water on you after this scrubbing. She then gets you to lay on your back. She then does the same to all of your front, including a nice bucket splash. Following this you go sit next to a sink on a cold cement bench. She then pours a bucket over your head, scrubs minimal shampoo in a small portion of your head and drops another bucket on you.
That's it... you're done! I highly recommend it! HA!
Following that awkward experience, we headed to Jerash, a city of the Decapolis and considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East... at least it was something to do...
They have an event where they re-enact roman chariot races and coliseum games, and they do it in this arena:
They also have all sorts of Roman pillars like these:
We walked around in the sun for a while, and stopped to see a weird bunch of locals playing music... well, I reckon the only weird part was the bagpipe?!
Our final stop of the day before heading to the airport was stopping again in the city center in Amman at the Citadel. The heritage site is the home of more ancient ruins, and also a great view of all angles of the city. Including the largest free standing flag in the world. You can see my parents getting one last look in here:
As a conclusion: I'd highly recommend this country, but would probably limit it to 5 days in Jordan, and trying to go to Syria or Lebanon or Jerusalem inside the same trip.
I miss my folks already, and am already looking forward to my return to the states for Christmas. If you wanted to see all the photos go here.
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