Vacation or Deployment?

How many places in the world can you go to a resort on man made islands, see a 7 star hotel in a speedboat, learn how to wrestle with an alligator, and go skiing all in one day? Ok... maybe I didn't wrestle an Alligator, but Dubai is an amazing city stuffed with more things to do than any other place I could think of.

A two hour drive with Tony, Z and Byron to start the morning is not supposed to be breath taking, but going through Dubai and its incredible architecture on the way to the Palm Islands (they made islands into the shape of a palm tree just to show they have the money to do so) was amazing. Buildings, extremely unique buildings, sprout out of the desert and look as if they are made in a Hollywood studio, not real life. Dubai's architecture is extremely unique and pushes the envelope in what should be possible.

After the drive, we arrived at the Atlantis resort (similar to the one in the Bahamas without a casino) to go to the "Lost Chambers" aquarium. While the aquarium was fairly small, it still had a good variety of interesting wildlife to see.

Once we were done with the aquarium, we took a short buggy ride to the beach in order to get on the boats. The boats took us around the Palm Islands, where from what I have seen, the houses can only be compared to those on Star Island. Mansions on man made islands with a private beach is commonplace for hundreds of families who can afford to live on the Palm Islands.

Once out of the "Crescent" we headed to the Burj Al Arab, which is the only 7 star hotel in the world. Shaped like a sailboat, the building is incredible and for the economical price of $1,800 a night (for the lowest level room) it better be incredible inside. Seeing the building up close was amazing, but it was just as fun riding in the boat at top speed over the flat waters of the gulf.


Boating to the Burj Al Arab

After seeing the Burj Al Arab, we headed towards the Dubai marina. Not only were there some incredible boats harbored in the marina, but it was surrounded by even more incredible buildings. We passed by the site of the World Championships of Parachuting, which might cause me to investigate jumping out of an airplane pretty soon.

After the boat we went to Mall of the Emirates. While a mall in name, it was more like a small city and had no real reason to ever leave. There are hundreds of stores, plenty of restaurants, banks, movie theater, and almost anything else you can think of (including an indoor ski slope, toboggan track, zorb slope, and penguin interaction area). Yes, the guy who doesn't like cold weather, staying in the middle of the desert, took a few hours out of my busy day to go skiing. Z and I tried skiing while, Tony decided to show how great of a snowboarder he was. Not only was it really fun, but it was great to get a rush going down a mountain at high speeds. While I got better each run, I could not master one part of the mountain and fell every time. The beard came in very handy to not only keep me warm, cushion the face plant during falls, but also kept snow in so I could drink going down the mountain. Its like the swiss army knife of body hair.












 Before                                                                                                                After

Me and Z Skiing
Tony Snowboarding
After skiing for a few hours, we were sufficiently tired and called it quits so we had enough time to go to a very Emiratish restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory. After a wonderful meal (Z made me have some of his cheesecake) we walked around for a short while before heading back to base.


While waiting for the bus, in a matter of 5 minutes the cars below came through the valet area. Probably very similar to what you would see in the second best mall in American cities...

 

-SITS

Abu Dhabi and Videos

Check out some vidoes from the Sunset Safari...

Sunset Safari 1
Sunset Safari 2
Sunset Safari 3
Sunset Safari 4
Sunset Safari 5
Sunset Safari 6
Sunset Safari 7
Sunset Safari 8
Sunset Safari 9
Sunset Safari 10
Sunset Safari 11
Sunset Safari 12
Sunset Safari 13
Camel Farm
Byron Belly Dancing

Now that my adrenaline has returned to normal levels, I guess I can get back to real life and do some work... I had to make some payments to some vendors so I made the schlep into Abu Dhabi to meet them at their offices. Typically vendors bring a portable credit card machine to the base, but some vendors do not have that capability. The first stop was a rundown building in the outskirts of town and I got in and out as soon as possible. The next vendor was in downtown and when I walked in I was met by a doorman and escorted into a waiting room. Not only was this the most comfortable chair I have ever sat it, but they brought my mini water bottles (think 3rd grade orange juice containers where you peel back the top) with the best tasting water I have ever had. I felt like the waterboy getting some glacier water. The worst part of that payment was leaving the chair and not getting anymore water. 

Last weekend I went on a trip with some of the other contracting guys into Abu Dhabi. Much of the architecture is amazing.

      Mercedes Benz Building

                                                           Grand Mosque

                                                    Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi

Since there is not much to do here but shop, we decided to go to several malls. It is fun to haggle with these guys on anything and everything, but then again it is hard to tell if things are real or not. They have anything you could possibly think of at these malls. They range from flea market to super luxurious style stores. The Marina Mall is the nicest mall I have ever been in and everything (including a bottle of water) was out of my price range. We did get a chance to go up in a space needle-type building in the middle of the mall and you can see the entire city. It was fairly hazy, but seeing the palace was extremely humbling. Even more humbling, was that this palace was deemed "too small" and a new one is being built to the new specifications of the President.

"Too Small" Palace

The original President, who unified the Emirates into today's configuration, "Our Father Zayed", is everywhere. I would hate to be the new President and have to live in his shadow. Imagine George Washington's face on 50% of the buildings in the country and his name on streets/departments/stores/money/anything else you can name, and you would be at about half the recognition as OFZ gets.

After all of the malls, we went to the marina to eat dinner and smoke hookah. Even though I have not had hookah since being out here, all the other guys love it and just having dinner and being in this setting, on the water with the perfect temperature in the 70's, you cant complain.

                                                    Abu Dhabi Marina

At the marina I decided to use the bathroom, talk about a big mistake. The Arab culture doesnt exactly believe in toilet paper, but instead use this hose to clean themselves. After seeing the flood that was on the ground (from sprayers who should use this often) I decided to not trust it and wait till I was back on base.

Last week we had an exercise to put our gear on, run downstairs and meet in a central location. We then had to inspect our gas masks, but I had no idea how and with the rabbi beard I am growing, it probably wouldn't even fit anymore. On Friday that exercise was put to the test as they had a fake bombing, and we had to go to the bunkers and brace ourselves. Wearing full body armor and business casual clothes doesnt always match. Especially when I have to sit on the ground and get my (newly dry cleaned) pants all dirty again.

Many of the guys in the office have nerf guns and everyonce in a while we get into a gun battle to let off a little steam. As I did not have one, I secretly ordered one off line to be able to defend myself in battle. It doesn't matter that the one I bought can hold 40 discs and can shoot rapid fire and has the most power and is the most accurate, I fight fair I promise.

Once my gun came in I secretly filled the chamber and proceeded to walk in to the services office and unload all 40 discs before anyone of the 3 could reach for their guns- satisfied with my victory I walked back to my desk, knowing I had superior firepower. After this exchange, people don't mess with the Bearded One anymore.

As a way to build squadron morale I came up with the Nerflympics.Everyone got to shoot 10 targets from specific spots and the fastest won a prize. Unfortunately, I came in 2nd to last (had a disadvantage going first), but still was lots of fun. Lieutenant "Left Eye" Lopez narrowly edged out Scott "Firewall 4" Thomas for the victory and received the first ECONS Olympic award of the year.

Lt Lopez with the Burj Al Arab Trophy

Scott's Nerflympics
Tony's Nerflympics
Acceptance Speech


The next olympic event will be in 4 weeks and even if I have to rig it I will not come in 2nd to last again. I am not above stacking the deck in order to get the trophy for 4 weeks before it moves on to the next event.

Next week I am going on a day cruise to Dubai...

-SITS