A fantastic week-end of fairy chimneys and fabulous fun

June 1 2011

Ron and I had our last fling and went to Cappadocia in central Turkey over the Memorial Day weekend. We left at 4:45 on Saturday morning. We had gone to bed at 10:30 but got up at 1:00 to read as neither of us could sleep. We stayed up and got out of bed at 2:30 to be ready for Gia (our driver) at 3:00. We arrived in Goreme where we were staying around 11:00 Saturday morning. It was an easy trip except for the lack of sleep. We checked into a charming hotel owned by a father and son team. They love flowers and had done a great job of planting all kinds of flowers in pots on the various patios and terraces. It was just lovely. We were right in town making it quite convenient. After unpacking, Serder gave us the rundown on what to do while there and made arrangements for a tour of the region the next day. We went to a nearby café and had a light lunch and walked around the small town. We went back to the hotel and rested for a couple of hours then got up and walked to the open air museum. This region had been the heart of the Hittite Empire and later a vast Roman province mentioned in the Bible.

About ten million years ago three volcanoes erupted and left a thick layer of hot volcanic ash over the region which hardened into a soft, porous stone called tuff. Over eons wind, water, and sand erosion wore away portions of the tuff, carving out elaborate, unearthly shapes. Boulders of hard stones, caught in the tuff and then exposed by erosion protected it from further erosion from below. The result is a column or cone of tuff with a boulder perched on top called a ‘fairy chimney’. Entire valleys are filled with these formations, many of them amusingly phallic in appearance. The tuff was easily worked with primitive tools and the inhabitants quickly learned how simple it was to carve out sturdy dwellings: a cave could be excavated very quickly and if the family expanded, more carving could produce more space.

When Christianity arrived here its adherents found that cave churches could also be easily carved and decorated. Large communities thrived here and the quantity of rock hewn churches they left are unparalleled. When Arab armies swept across this region in the 7th century, the Christians retreated to vast underground settlements that the Hittites may have excavated.

Many of the caves and villages were inhabited by descendants of these early settlers right up until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire finally culminated in an exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. (from Lonely Planet)

In the open air museum we walked and crawled around many of these structures: churches, homes, storage rooms. It was fascinating. There were busloads of tourists with us as well, so sometimes we had to wait to get inside a room. Given how fatigued we were I was surprised we lasted for the 90 minutes we were there. We had walked a couple of miles to get there and on the way we thought we were at the museum and it turned out we weren’t so we spent about 25 minutes wandering around another interesting place filled with fascinating rock structures. Because we couldn’t find a ticket office and knew there was a charge for the museum we knew we had made a mistake even though there were busloads of tourist here as well.

That night we walked to a restaurant and on the way stopped in a shop that had tribal treasures. We spied a fabulous textile that had been decorated for the interior of a nomad’s tent. In addition to lots tassels there was a lot of hand needle work, and shells and buttons sewn into the banner. The young man who was minding the store said today was the first day the store opened. We asked him how much for this textile that was about 10 -12 feet long. He said $100 and we about fell over. So we bought it. We proceeded to the restaurant and had our dinner. At one point the owner stopped by our table and said ‘you bought the best thing’. It turned out he had owned a carpet shop for years and knew exactly what this piece was. He was able to give us much more information than the sales clerk in the store. The piece was from the SE of Turkey on the border with Iran and was about 40-50 years old. It would have been made by a woman as part of her dowry. We were thrilled to learn more about the piece and to be complimented by the man who knew the trade. The piece had been marked $250 so who knows why it was sold for $100.

The next day we were picked up at the hotel at 9:00, taken to the tour company office and then got on a small bus with 11 others and spent the entire day touring the region. We stopped at a viewpoint overlooking a valley that had many of the tuff houses, then headed for an underground city. This is one of the cities where Christians lived to avoid persecution. Apparently 6,000 people could live underground here for up to six months. It was incredible. The structure was very sophisticated with air vents and this particular ‘city’ had been excavated down to eight levels although there were 12 levels originally (the lowest four have not been opened up for fear of causing structural problems for the floors above). There were areas for making wine, cooking, storage, church services, schools, etc. At times we had to bend over almost double to squeeze through the passage ways. Some of the tunnels were quite long. Just when I thought I could not stay bent over any longer the tunnel would open up and I could stand up. Again there were lots of tourists but it was manageable. For sanitation the inhabitants used pottery ‘slop jars’ for toilets. Because of the small space, there were no private rooms for families as such. It was all shared space, shared meals, etc. They even had stone doors that could be closed off to prevent the raiders from entering.

Next we walked through the Ihlara Valley. This was a 2 mile walk along a stream. There were churches carved into the rock with frescoes, as well as cliff dwellings. We ate lunch in a restaurant overlooking the river. As we drove through the region there was a lot of agriculture. Here they grow wheat, barley and potatoes. The land is quite fertile due to the mineral rich volcanic soil. We also saw grapes grown here although we didn’t try the wine. We often spied women working in the fields. They wear very modest dress here: long sleeved blouses, long skirts or pantaloons to the ankles and head scarves. Very warm dress for this climate at this time of year.

Next we visited the Selime monastery. This was a very steep walk, and scramble over another large structure that included a huge kitchen with a soaring chimney, a church with a gallery all around it and all sorts of evidence of the troglodyte lifestyle. It was quite sophisticated in the design and size. It also was quite scary to be so high up with no real protection from falling: no handrails etc. We finished the tour with the obligatory trip to the onyx factory/store, a large jewelry store mostly. We arrived back at our hotel at 6:00 physically exhausted.

Near our hotel was a minaret and five times a day in the Muslim world there is the call to prayer. In the good old days a man would climb to the top of the minaret and chant the call to prayers. Not so today. Today there are loud speakers. In our case the loud speakers were of poor quality and the volume was ear piercing. So every morning we were rudely awakened at 4:30 with this distorted screech. OY!

On our last day we decided to go at a slower pace. We had already seen quite a lot. We walked to the ‘otogar’ (bus station) and caught a local bus to a town nearby. We wanted to see the Valley of the Fairy Chimneys. We asked the driver to let us off at the road to the valley which was a 2 kilometer walk to get there. Unfortunately he let us off at a different place unbeknownst to us. We walked up this road and when we got to the end of a  town we asked someone where the valley was. The man offered to give us a tour and show us his town. Again we scampered over rocks and went to the large church of St John the Baptist carved from rock in the 12th century. It still had some of the frescoes barely visible. He then showed us the valley and we realized we were in the wrong place, the neighboring town of Cavusin. Our new friend Mehmet took us to the f airy chimney valley and Ron got a few photos. 

Then he took us to the next town of Avanos, famous for its pottery. We were toured around a ceramics factory by a handsome young Turkish man. We bought a plate, highly decorated with the tree of life motif and the family signature design. Ca ching! We caught a bus back to town and ate lunch and walked around town, poking around shops. Then we went to our favorite coffee shop and had a ‘pancake’ which is actually very thin bread, think crepe, that had mashed bananas and chocolate sauce and heated on a stove and drizzled with more chocolate sauce. YUM! We meandered back to the hotel and sat on the terrace and read until time to catch our shuttle to the airport. We arrived in TBS around 3:00 and were in bed by 4:00a.m. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to sleep so got up and took turns bathing. That did the trick and we slumbered until 8:45. Short night. On Tuesday Ron headed out to the embassy for his regular meeting there with the ambo and others. I met with Lala our seamstress to see if she could make repairs on our old textile we had just bought and she loved it. She will have it back to us before the packers arrive. YEAH Lala!

We now have two weeks before time to leave. We will be busy with a farewell to TBS party on Saturday and getting ready for packers who will be here on Wednesday. There still items to sale and give away but we are doing pretty well so far.

Daily life and getting ready to come home

May 20 2011
We leave ROG on June 15th. Ron will be closing down the program here and we will fly to Washington DC for Ron to wrap up with Treasury, to turn in his computer and some files. We will have a shipping company do our packing as we are not allowed to do our own packing, probably due to insurance regulations and maybe to ensure that we aren’t taking contraband into the US. We are not allowed to take any food items so I must give up my spices and what is left in the pantry. One of my tasks is to make sure we use up as much food that is in the freezer and panty as we can in this last month. Last night we had guests for dinner so I made a spinach ricotta pie and managed to finish off the kilo bag of spinach. I made my last month’s supply of granola and used up most of the nuts in the freezer. I am making progress.

Today I am going through the closets and taking out all the clothes that we will not need until next fall/winter and putting them in one of the guest rooms for shipping. I need to make two ‘piles’: one for air shipment and one for slow boat shipment. If we are ‘light’ we may get to ship everything air. It turns out to be cheaper if you don’t have a big shipment which we do not. We will have a lot less weight with consumables since we aren’t taking any food. We do still have lots on non food consumables like hand cream, soap, shampoo and the like. We also have added 11 carpets, five pieces of artwork, two small tables and two mafrahes to our load so we will be in suspense as to whether it all goes air or not. It would make life much simpler if it did as we plan to visit family and friends when we return and not knowing when a shipment will turn up makes planning more difficult.

For the past few weeks I have gone through bookshelves, drawers and closets to sort and toss out what we don’t want to ship. I am doing my best to avoid the overwhelming task of getting out of here and remaining stress-free. So far I feel good about the progress. We will also ship Ron’s ‘jeepi’ but that is done on our own and through a different shipping company.

At this point we do not know when the shipper will come. Treasury puts in a request to a logistics company in the US who then contacts the shipper who then contacts us to arrange a date.

May 21, 2011
Just when I thought I had seen it all in terms of bad driving in Georgia yesterday I was astounded to see someone going through an intersection against the light in reverse!!!!!!!! I also saw a man turning onto a major four lane city street with 5-6 year old child in his lap and the child was steering. OY! I have never gotten used to the way Georgians drive and doubt that I ever will.

I went to lunch with my friend Kirsten and her aunt who is visiting from the States. We sat outside at a café on a popular street and were interrupted four times by the same two boys who were begging. After the second time Kirsten said in a loud voice ‘ARA! ARA!’ which means no in Georgian. The older boy shot her a bird, walked off and was back in two minutes begging again. After four times approaching our table and every other table, Kirsten went and asked the manager to call the police. The boys scampered away.

May 25
Yesterday the shipping company reps came over to survey our shipment. This involves walking through the house showing them what is going and what stays. Our house is filled with embassy issued furniture and appliances which remain here. Our walls have many photos that will not be shipped, etc. We asked for a pack out date of June 8th or 9th. On June 10 the facilities maintenance folks from the embassy will come over to check out all the appliances and equipment to make sure they are working. On Monday the 13th we have our embassy inspection showing that all is in order, there is no damage to the house or contents and that we are leaving the place spic and span. Nino, our housekeeper is working hard to clean all the windows inside and out as well as the window iron grates and sills. In between we make trips to the embassy to get ‘checked out’. This is a 15 page document telling us what is required: fill out forwarding address, make a template for labels, turn in our radio (used for emergencies), pay any outstanding bills (we are exempt as Treasury pays all our bills), show that we have no books checked out that have not been returned. Well you get the picture. We decided to start early to avoid any problems getting home. Can you tell we are ready to come home?

Today I worked on the inventory of what we would be shipping, itemizing the items and assigning a value for insurance purposes. What a tedious task!

Our weather is grand: cool mornings and evenings and warm sunny days. This lifts my spirits. Tbilisi is blessed with lots of trees. Many streets are lined with large trees forming a canopy over the street or at least providing shade and greenery. It softens all the concrete that is here from the Soviet era.

Romantic Greece

Monday 11 2011

Ron and I just returned form nine days in Greece. Oh my goodness! What a wonderful time we had. Greece is every bit as romantic as we had hoped for. Many years ago Ron’s mom told us we should go there as it was a very romantic place. A few years ago I suggested we go there to celebrate our 25 wedding anniversary. Our anniversary is November 30th, not a good time to go. I read that many of the island families go to the mainland starting in late Oct or early Nov. We decided to wait and I am glad we did. We left here on Thursday afternoon April 28th and flew to Athens by way of Istanbul. We arrived at midnight and our only option to get into town was to take a taxi. It cost $74. We think we got a driver who had never had a fare before. He could not put the address into his GPS so he asked someone where to go and lo and behold we ended up in some industrial area on the far side of town with no houses or commercial sites. We told him he was way off course. Mind you we don’t speak Greek and he didn’t speak English but we asked him to call the hotel for directions. Back into town and he had to stop three more times for directions. It took well over an hour to get to our hotel. The desk clerk asked what took us so long! The meter read 99 Euros but fortunately we were on a fixed price from the airport. Our hotel was great, a big room and bath with a tub, my personal favorite. We were a five minute walk to the Metro and four stops from the Acropolis.

 The next morning we walked to a nearby sidewalk café and had wonderful Illy coffee and croissants. The sun was out the entire trip, a welcomed gift. Off to the Acropolis for our first day. I am glad we went early as the tour buses landed as we were coming out and the place was swarmed. This was Good Friday and the entry was free, saving us about $36. Afterwards we walked to the nearby Acropolis Museum that had many of the statues and other items from the Acropolis. There was a wonderful documentary that showed how the various structures looked originally (3,000 years ago) and how they changed from various abuses. Christians destroyed some of the pagan god statues and motifs, the Persian invasion, the Venetians blowing up the Turkish arsenal that was housed inside the Parthenon, acid rain, etc. We pondered just how did they get those huge stones on top of those very high columns in the Parthenon? They have to weigh many tons and they didn’t have cranes or so we assume.



Next was a delicious lunch outside again. We wandered the neighborhood that was loaded with nice shops, restaurants and galleries. That night we took the Metro to the port city of Piraeus for a seafood dinner. We ate by the waterfront. The meal wasn’t anything special but we enjoyed the adventure.

On our second day we returned to our breakfast spot and ate inside as it was earlier and still cool. Afterwards we walked to the nearby National Archeological Museum. It was Easter Saturday and we got in here free as well. Because it was a holiday there were fewer guards so some of the rooms were closed. We still enjoyed what we saw including finds from two of the islands we would be visiting. We saw items that were 4,000 years old including clay pots, figurines, tools and wall paintings. Humbling to say the least. Next we walked to Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the largest temple in Greece. It is gianormous. Hard to even imagine how this was put together and that it still stands, well some of the columns still stand. It was started in 600 BC but not finished until 131 AD (when it was completed by the Romans) as they ran out of money while working on it. After this we wandered the neighborhood looking at shops old and new. We found a shop mentioned in our tour book that had unique items. It was a great shop with very unusual items including antique textiles that were not affordable (500 Euros), wood carvings, and copper pots. We found a delightful metal work piece that we will hang in our kitchen at home. It is quite playful. From here we found a lovely outdoor café where we had lunch. Rocket salad, yum. Then we went to the Belgium chocolate shop we had spied earlier and treated ourselves to some absolutely decadent caramel filled dark chocolate. We went back to our hotel and rested. Then out to dinner outside (is there a theme here?) and ate a wonderful meal at an 18th century mansion that had taken five years to restore. From here we walked toward the Acropolis to take some night photos

On our third day we got up early and took the Metro to the airport and flew to the island of Mykonos in the Cyclades, population 9,600. We stayed in the town of Mykonos whose population is about 6,000.

I mention this because in high season which is July and August the town swells to 120,000. OY! Spare me. There were huge cruise ships in the harbor and waves of tourist would be on the streets once they landed. We were quite surprised at the number of Asian tourists everywhere we went, particularly young Chinese in their 20’s and 30’s. Mykonos is very picturesque. Every building is white and most have colorful trim: classic Greek blue, green and red. Most streets were quite narrow and only motor scooters or motorbikes could travel on them. All this added to the quaintness. They had specialized tiny trucks to pick up the trash.

Our budget hotel was great. We had to climb up a lot of stairs to get to it as the streets were too narrow for our taxi. Then we had to climb about ten steps to get to the reception desk. Our hostess showed us our room, up two flights of stairs. I was about to have a heart attack when Ron said we had reserved a room with a double bed not twins beds. She suggested we leave our luggage and she showed us another choice with a double bed up more stairs. About that time the owner showed up and invited us to coffee in the reception area. He served us delicious espresso and Easter rolls. He also gave us each an Easter egg dyed dark red, a tradition in Orthodox churches. Apparently Mary had eggs at the tomb and when Jesus came out of the tomb the eggs turned red. Kostas showed us a ‘game’ where you hit your egg end against another’s person’s egg end and whose ever doesn’t crack is the lucky one. Ron won with Kostas and with me. He is one lucky guy! After a short conversation Kostas decided to upgrade us to an apartment that slept five. Kostas insisted on carrying our luggage to the room. No argument from me. The best part was we had a private terrace overlooking the town and the Aegean. We ate breakfast there and read there each afternoon.

After unpacking we walked around town which is quite small and charming at every turn. We ate outside and had another rocket salad, spinach pie and mousaka. This was followed by more walking and back to our room to sit on the terrace and veg. After our rest we walked to the five windmills that had been used to grind corn. There were in various states of repair from fully restored to in need of a lot of work. See photos. We waited until sunset for Ron to get some great shots. Kostas had recommended a restaurant and we ate there at 8:30 which is late for us but we were the second customer and he was an English speaker as well. Since it was late we ate light: sautéed mushrooms and a meat salad finishing with espresso. It was divine. Later that night Kostas and his wife Marianne went to hear the Greek music at 11:30 and enjoy drinks but we were in bed then.

On Monday we dined on our terrace eating our airplane Easter bread and Kostas’ Easter egg and I made coffee. It was simple but adequate. The scenery was worth it. We took some clothes to the laundry and explored more of the town. We were particularly interested in seeing the art galleries as we always buy a piece of art for our anniversary and we were celebrating our 25th. We have been looking for months but hadn’t seen anything that interested us. We stopped to ask directions for a particular gallery and the owner of the shop knew the two artists and took us outside to show us how to get there. She added that they may not be there but to call them as they lived nearby. One of the artists was from Mexico we learned. We found the place around the corner and were peering onto the window when a man walked up and asked if we wanted to go inside. He had a key. It turned out he was one of the artists. Probably our friend had called him. We liked three of the paintings but asked if we could return at 4:00 (when it was time to pick up the laundry) as we wanted to check out a couple of other galleries. We went to two or three more galleries but didn’t like anything we saw. We ate another great meal, a gyros plate, in a garden restaurant. We returned at 4:00 and bought one of the paintings that his partner, Dorlies Schapitz, had done. It is an interior shot looking out onto a balcony. It reminded me of a Matisse painting done in North Africa. Ron asked Luis what had brought him to Mykonos and Luis said ‘a boat’. HA! They wrapped the painting in card- board and off we went. Later we discovered Luis had come from Mexico over 50 years ago and was well love d in this town. They honored him on his 50 anniversary of living there by printing a book of his works. We purchased his book as another memory of our experience.

On Tuesday we took a boat to the nearby island of Delos, an uninhabited archeological site. Delos is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece. According to legend Leto gave birth to Artemis and Apollo here in 3000 BC. Ionians arrived on Delos around 1000 BC. By 700 BC it was a major religious center. Delos was a city complete with theater, cisterns, sewerage system, temples and sanctuaries. The homes of wealthier residents had mosaic tile floors and wall paintings. It was awe inspiring to walk around ruins that were part of a thriving community 3700 years ago. Wild flowers were in profusion here: yellows, reds and purples predominated.

We came back to Mykonos and ate lunch then walked over to the port to catch a ferry to our next stop, the island of Santorini. It was a 2.5 hour trip and I was relieved that is was as smooth as riding a train. I have a tendency to get motion sickness. Santorini was colonized by the Minoans in 3000BC. It was a volcano that erupted in 1450BC that formed its crescent shape. It is now a stunning island with its white villages clinging to volcanic cliffs. We were picked up by a prearranged van to take us to our hotel about 30 minutes away from the port. We passed through Fira, the biggest city on the island and proceeded to the northern tip of the island to Oia, pronounced Ia.

We had splurged and booked a ‘cave’ cottage. These are a tradition in Santorini where houses are craved into the side of the volcano. Our host/owner was out of town when we arrived so we were met by her assistant who doesn’t speak English. We managed. The owner called us upon arrival and she upgraded us to the honeymoon cottage because I had mentioned that we were celebrating our 25th anniversary. What a treat. She had a small basket of treats and two Easter eggs dyed red and a bottle of wine. Our cottage had a kitchenette, a large room for sitting/eating and a bedroom that was a nook further recessed into the wall of the volcano. See photos. The best part was our terrace overlooking the caldera of the volcano and the Aegean. It was spectacular! We ate breakfast here every morning. I had brought granola and coffee just for this occasion, having seen the photos of the cottages on line. They all have terraces. If you want to see them, go to www.lavaoias.gr . The owner is an architect and she bought then remodeled the cave cottages. She did a great job with plantings outside on the terraces and simple antique furnishings inside. We were comfortable and enjoyed the ambiance of the place. We unpacked then walked through town.

Oia has a ‘sunset walkway’ made of marble tiles for much of the way and cobblestones for part of the way. At the end of the walk is a stunning viewpoint for watching the sunsets. Unfortunately we had heavy clouds or a fog bank each night but Ron still managed to get some good shots. Oia is different from Mykonos. It is much smaller with a population of 400. There were more shops with higher quality merchandise and better art galleries. It seems to have a more narrow audience than Mykonos. Mykonos is also considered a party town with lots of bars. We liked how much quieter it was on Oia. We could see cruise ships across the way and we would have short waves of tourists in Oia but discovered that they are bussed in for only an hour and then back to another town or the ship. So at times the walkways were almost empty. We also discovered some really great restaurants in Oia. I don’t think I mentioned that eating in Greece was quite expensive. We had a lot of meals that cost $70-$100. Our drinks were bottled water. I took Ron out to celebrate his birthday on the 26th to a really good restaurant and we also went out the next night to a fabulous restaurant owned by the same people. That meal was $150.

We spent our days exploring the town and visiting shops. On Wednesday I bought a scarf and we walked down to the port of Amoudi to have a lovely calamari meal sitting on the deck of the restaurant. The trip down was a very steep trip with 300 steps with a steep sloping sidewalk between steps. I opted for taking the road back up. It was longer but not as steep. We also walked to the neighboring village of Finikia where all the houses are the traditional Greek house. It is not a tourist town but a regular village on the outside wall of the volcano. This side is a gentle slope down to the sea and there is a lot of agriculture here. There are many vineyards and they are most unusual. Because of the strong winds on the island, they do not stake the vines. Rather they leave them on the ground and create a spiral circle as the vines grow. If they staked the vines they would break from the winds.

On our last day we took a bus to Fira, population 2100 and walked around town. We visited the Prehistoric Museum of Thera, which houses some extraordinary finds from Akrotiri. We saw a gold ibex from the 17th century BC! We also saw pottery pieces with what is known as Linear A. In Minoan times, before the Mycenaean Greek dominion, Linear A was the official script for the palaces and cults and hieroglyphs were mainly used on seals. We ate a quick lunch at a gyros stand before catching the bus back to Oia. Around 5:00 we were picked up and taken to the airport for a 40 minute flight back to Athens. Given that we were leaving first thing in the morning we chose to stay at a nearby hotel. The hotel is 7km (about 3 miles) from the airport. The owner picked us up at the airport and provided breakfast and took us back to the airport. This was a great deal for us. Gas in Greece is running $10 a gallon. Yes that is right. We did the calculations and realize we have nothing to complain about in the US regarding gas prices. Our host told us he spends 2000 Euros a month on petrol alone. But his hotel is booked every night so he is grateful. A man and his adult son rode with us from the airport and we asked them to join us at the local taverna for dinner since it was the only place to get a bite to eat. The place was full and we ate at 10:00 in the evening. Our dinner companions were from Spain and spoke Galician, not Spanish. The father was an attorney who travels extensively and his son was a jazz musician who did most of the translation for his father. We had a delightful time together. In the morning a simple breakfast was delivered to our room and off we went to the airport for our flight home via Istanbul. All in all it was a wonderful trip. We saw fabulous sights, ate great food and came home totally relaxed. Re-entry to Tbilisi was difficult. It was gray and cool when we arrived at 4:30 in the afternoon. Ron asked Gia if the weather had been like this while we were gone. Gia said ‘no, it rained.’ Oy. We ran by Gia’s on the way home to pick up a drill Ron had loaned Gia. Seeing all the concrete apartment houses in his neighborhood was a real downer for me. They are all so sad looking with exteriors that need repair and the architecture is so incredibly utilitarian and ugly. After Greece, it was too much. Fortunately the sun came out on Monday and my spirits lifted. We are ready to come home and are eager to find out when that will be. Stay tuned.

Bye Bye Dubai

We just returned from five days in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The only other place we have ever visited in the Middle East was Israel. Dubai is like Disneyland on steroids. Everything is over the top. The malls are huge and gorgeous with 300-500 stores and there are lots of malls there. The largest one has 1,200 stores. They are elaborately decorated.

The Mall of Dubai had a waterfall about 25-30 feet high with about 40 chrome divers cascading down the falls. One section was all children’s clothes, toys and furniture. Another section was the ‘gold souk’ with many jewelry stores. The area looked like an old Arabian souk or market. No expensive is spared in Dubai. The hotels were equally over the top with enough chrome and glass to give you cataracts.

Ninety percent of the people who live in the Emirates are ex-pats who work as hotel clerks, stores clerks, taxi drivers, construction workers and just about everything else. Ninety percent of Emiratis live in cities. You typically do not see Emiratis on the street. I did finally see Emiratis in the malls when we visited two of them. Men and women in traditional dress were in abundance in the malls. Men wore a long, white robe/shirt that went to their ankles, head scarves with the rope like head band to keep the scarf in place and the women wore the traditional black abayas. Now you will see the men’s head scarf worn in a variety of styles and it is fun to note the differences. Some show a definite ‘attitude’, a saucy look for sure.

Oil was discovered in 1966 in Dubai. In 1973 the population of Dubai was 183,000. It has exploded since then with 1.8 million. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Looking around at all the new construction I believe it. Much of the modern day success of Dubai can be attributed to the vision of Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum who studied at Cambridge in the early 1960’s. Spreading the wealth through education, housing, and greater job opportunities and diversifying Dubai’s economic portfolio his work set a solid platform for the phenomenal growth of Dubai today. Many think that Dubai is an oil rich country when in fact oil related revenue makes up only 6 % of Dubai’s income. Because of the diversification of the economy Dubai is the financial center for the Middle East. People travel from all over the region and the world to shop here because it is a free port. The availability of goods is overwhelming. Since the federation of the UAE, Dubai has been one of the most politically stable city states in the Arab world.

Dubai is an incredibly clean city. No dog poop on the street and almost no liter. The sidewalks are level with no broken concrete or ‘pot holes’. You don’t need to watch every step as you do in Tbilisi. Drivers yield to pedestrians, something I never got used to in the five days we were there. Here in Tbilisi you take your life into your hands when crossing a street. Not so there. The landscaping everywhere was gorgeous with one variety of palm and lots of flowers, and green grass, all watered by an drip irrigation system. Dubai gets 97% of its water from the sea and desalinates it; which is not a good environmental practice as the salt is dumped back into the Gulf adding to the salinity of the water. It is hard to find old buildings here although they do exist. Modern, attractive skyscrapers abound instead.

We arrived at 1:40 a.m. and discovered that with Diplomatic passports you are required to buy a visa. Fortunately we had thrown in our tourist passports at the last moment. However Jock and Laurie had only brought their dip passports and it took them 90 minutes and several hundred dollars (they first asked for over a thousand dollars) to get through the process. We got to bed around 4:30 or so and slept in til late morning. Our hotel only served a buffet and charged $20 per person so we decided to find an alternate.

We found a breakfast place nearby. After breakfast we took a bus tour that allowed us to get off and on at any of the stops. We went out to the beach and saw Burj Al Arab, the famous 7 star hotel that is shaped like the sail on the dhows, visited a modern souk that had fabulous expensive shops with beautiful shawls, jackets, bed linens from Kashmir and other exotic places. We ate lunch at a wonderful Indian restaurant overlooking the artificial canal that had small boats to transport shoppers around the mall/souk. There were many nice restaurants and we were delighted with our meal.

Back on the bus to see more sights most of which were new developments including “The Palm”, an artificial palm shaped island that can be seen from space. It is much larger than I had imagined and it is only one of three. I am unclear as to whether the others are in progress or if they have been completed. Every development appears to have its own shopping mall. We briefly walked through this one trying to find the large hotel which turned out to be farther away than we had anticipated. We walked along the ‘beach’. I put beach in quotes because it is an artificial beach and consisted of huge boulders that prevent the island from eroding. So we were on the sidewalk with a wall that separated us from the boulders and crashing waves. In addition to large apartment complexes there were townhouses and individual homes. I have no doubt that you would pay a premium to live here. Everything is done with no expense spared. The development has its own monorail (just like Disneyland).

The following day we took another bus tour that included more of the older parts of Dubai. We visited the Dubai Museum. Here there were dioramas depicting the life of nomads. There was a great house made of woven reeds with a wind tower, a device that catches the wind and brings it into the home. These are still in evidence around Dubai on the stucco houses as well. Nowadays people have AC so the wind towers are often closed off. See photos for an example of one. Most of the museum was underground. There was a great slide show showing Dubai in the early 1900’s and going through to today. There were slides of future projects. OY! One is called The World, a series of artificial islands set in the Gulf and they cost from $10-$100 million USD. We decided against buying one. We ate at another Indian restaurant. This one definitely catered to locals and not to tourists. The food was great and cost a fraction of what our meal cost the day before.

One evening we visited the Deira area of Dubai, across Dubai Creek from where we were staying. We went by way of subway to see what their system was like. Like everything else it is beautiful. It is expensive but many residents make low wages. It is expensive to live here so many do not have cars, I am sure. The buses, water taxis and subway are their alternatives. Deira is the old area and feels more authentic. We walked along the dhow wharfage and marveled at the goods that came from all over the world that would be shipped out of Dubai on dhows to nearby countries: Iran, Pakistan, India, Yemen, Oman, India and Sudan. Dhows are long, flat wooden sailing vessels. Everything imaginable was being loaded onto these wooden boats: fertilizer, air conditioners, and water dispensers; even cars and trucks. Next we walked to the spice souq and I got some saffron after the vendor showed me every spice he had. From here we walked over to the gold souk where there were lots of people walking about. There were more jewelry stores than you can imagine and displayed were all kinds of ornate necklaces like I have never seen. It seems that each culture has its own style of jewelry and I regret that we didn't get any photos of these elaborate styles. Some looked like your entire bank account would be hanging around your neck.

From here we walked to an intersection that appeared to be the crossroads of the world. People from all walks of life and from many countries from around the world were here. We found a funky little shawarma stand and ate one of our least expensive meals and had the best people watching imaginable. It was delightful. We took a water taxi home. These are small boats with a tarp cover. Customers sit on a flat platform in the center of the boat and the driver takes your money by shaking his coin box. Customers who sit too far from the driver passed their money to other passengers to get the money to the driver.

On one of our walking excursions we walked around the textile market. I got called into a store and was shown beautiful silk and wool scarves from Kashmir. When I asked how much the vendor took a long time to answer and said if I bought both scarves that I was considering it would be $200. I told him that was too much. After much bartering his coworker ran after me as I was leaving and sold me one scarf for $30. It seemed like a fair price to me.

We ended up at the Sheikh Saeed Al-Maktoum House. This is now a museum filled with photos of the royal family, stamps and coins as well as a cotton diving suit worn by pearl divers to protect them from jelly fish strings. Pearl diving was a big industry until Japan started making cultured pearls. The house was built in 1896. Given the size I would assume several generations lived in the house at the same time.

Jumeirah Mosque is the only mosque here that is opened to non Muslims. They offer a lecture on the Islamic religion and the four of us went and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Their slogan is 'open door, open mind'. Our presenter was a British woman who had married an Emirati. She showed us the ablutions rituals using volunteers from the audience. She explained the five pillars of Islam, the dress, and the prayer rituals. She was delightful in her presentation. She was open to questions and we spent over an hour there.

Our last night in Dubai, we were treated to a lovely dinner by Jock to celebrate Laurie’s 60th birthday. Our neighbor Leslie Wilson joined us. It was a surprise for Laurie as Leslie arrived in Dubai that afternoon from Bangladesh. It just happened that she was going to be in Dubai at the same time as the party so it was great fun to have her join us. The five of us often travel together. We dined at Gordon Ramsey’s Verre. The meal was exquisite. The taste and presentation was out of this world. Big yum!