You may have heard that Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 90th birthday recently as it garnered quite a

bit of attention in the news and on Facebook. Do you know what else got a lot of attention on Facebook recently? The Queen of Mitchell Street's inaugural visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! Now, King Salman wasn't available (I can only presume) but there was a certain prince (disguised as a pauper) assigned to entertain her. And how was she entertained you might ask? Well, interestingly it all started with a ceremonial welcome at King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) where a grand total of "nobody" showed up! Not even me! Seriously! But I'll get to that in a bit.

Last December when we decided that I would return for the first half of this year we agreed to get together one way or another at least every 6 weeks. More than that would be too long apart and not what we want in our lives. So, because it's such a unique opportunity we thought the first trip should be for her to come see where I live and work in Riyadh. The Kindom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) doesn't issue tourist visas unless you're a Muslim making a

pilgrimage to Mecca so being able to enter as the spouse of someone on a business visa truly is a unique experience. Plus, you automatically get a super cool looking passport stamp!

I was so impressed with my business class treatment on the way over last year I wanted Paula to get the same experience. MHI booked the flight for us on Saudia Airlines and we were all set for her to come April 5th! Having made the trip myself previously and being a little "meticulous" with my travel plans I prepared a two page travel guide that explained every single step of the 20 hour journey! She found it quite useful so it was well worth the effort on my part. You start out by getting more than double the luggage allowance (which was quite handy for my little bargain hunter's trip home!) followed by access to free drinks, snacks, and comfy chairs in the airline lounges while you wait for your flight. Once on the plane it's "can I get you this Miss?" and "can I get you that Miss?" the whole way. And if you recall from my first post the fully reclining (yeah, as in FLAT!) leather seats on the

overseas portion are pretty sweet!

So, she's on her way and because I'm "that guy" I'd been tracking her flight via the internet ever since she left Winnipeg so I knew exactly where she was every minute of the journey. The Toronto-Riyadh flight has a brief stopover in Jeddah and we checked in via text when she got there with the Saudi cell phone MHI provided her during her visit. All good so far.

Now, before I get to the next part let me tell you about my day at that point. I'd been back in KSA about 50 days then with every one of them comfortably, and predictably, seated at my desk at Saudi Electricity Company head office. But this day? The one day my wife arrives for her first visit in a new a foreign land? Yeah, that day (the 1 in 50) I have an early morning presentation scheduled to the VP and his managers. I'm assured that I'm on first and I should be out of there in plenty of time to meet her 10:20 arrival at the airport. I'm sure your keen senses are already seeing how this turns out but I'll continue regardless. In typical Saudi fashion the meeting doesn't start at 08:00 as scheduled and I don't get on until about 9:20 which is fine because it turns out they only want about 1/3 of the material I prepared based on their meeting request. Fine by me. Before I start my presentation I double-check KKIA arrivals and verify her flight is on time, due to arrive at 10:20. Perfect, another 1/2 hour to clear customs and get her bags so I should be golden if I'm done my presentation by 10:00.

So getting back to Paula, she touches down in Riyadh, dons her abaya as per the "instructions" and heads for customs. Expecting a dour and brusk puritan official from the birthplace of Islam (as KSA is) she was pleasantly surprised to find friendly, welcoming and helpful faces. Well done Riyadh! My instructions said that after retrieving her luggage she'd go through security again and then "you'll come through the last gate, look for the blue eyed Canadian boy, that'll be me!"

So, I finish my presentation, answer a few questions and check the time, 10:00. Not bad Brian, right

Picture borrowed from http://www.zongonews.com/?p=6677

on schedule. Then I noticed a text on my phone from Paula, it reads "I looked right and I looked left but I don't see you!". Often times people miss the obvious answer and get hung up on the improbable, regardless of how improbable. And so it was I spent the first few seconds trying to figure out how she sent a text from the plane that hasn't even landed yet? I didn't think that was possible. But then, my acute deductive reasoning began to suspect there might be an alternative truth. Yup, next I thought it was a prank so I reply "Are you shitting me?" Well it was getting pretty obvious by this time that her flight had come in about 1/2 hr early and she'd breezed right through customs with nary a delay! CRAP!!! My wife is waiting at the airport and I'm not even there!!

I dispensed with the good byes, scooted out and zipped off to the airport as fast as I (almost legally)

could. I was really disappointed not to have been there but fortunately she's a good sport that way and didn't "throat punch" me when I finally did arrive to pick her up about 30 minutes later! I gave her an eye-opening first exposure to Riyadh's "middle of the desert" scenery and Saudi driving acumen on the way to Al Waha compound where I live for the reunion tradition typical for married couples here. Of course I mean a brief nap and then off to the Steakhouse for the welcome dinner! What else?

It was great to have her here and I'll get to the rest of our Middle Eastern adventures in the next part!

You know, you can only watch so many reruns of Gold Rush, Pacific Warriors or Misfit Garage before you begin to lose respect for yourself. I mean, how do you make a whole series out of guys getting in kayaks and going fishing? And who sets their PVR so as not to miss a single episode of this stuff? But I digress. To prove that not all my off time is spent sitting around in my underwear drinking non-alcoholic beer watching cheesy American TV reruns (not that the Indian TV on the other channels is any better, in fact it's much worse) I thought I'd show some of the things I've been up to since coming back after Christmas. Lord knows I'm long overdue for a Brian of Arabia post anyway!

First up as exhibit A is the Diplomatic Quarter. In the mid 70's the Saudi government decided to build a progressive "city within a city" that housed all the diplomatic embassies from various countries. As you might expect security is very tight with concrete barriers, armed soldiers, armoured personnel carriers and enough police vehicles with lights flashing to cover a city like Brandon many, many times over I assure you! Once inside there's still a pretty heavy police presence but the DQ (as it's called) is a breath of fresh air from the every day restrictions of Riyadh. For starters the dress code is relaxed, women are not required to wear abayas and men can wear shorts. There's a couple of restaurants in the DQ and even a Subway where I can get my regular Steak and Cheese on parmesan oregano! Since all the embassies are here many families also live inside the complex in various neighbourhoods and there's recreational activities available too like tennis courts,

The police vehicles NOT on duty!

walking trails and parks for both kids and adults.

So looking to explore early one morning before it got too hot I headed off to the DQ, about 15 minutes from my "home away from home", Al Waha compound. I knew that the walking trail circumvented the entire complex but I wasn't entirely sure what, exactly, that entailed. So, in typical Canadian male "know-it-all" fashion I ate a granola bar, drank a bottle of water and headed out empty handed, alone and with no idea where I was going or even how far my travels would take me. As it turned out my plan worked (as it always has so far) but I certainly would have taken advantage of some supplies had I bothered to take them! Oh well, all's well that ends well as they say.

I discovered that if you stick to the outside trail and circle the complex you'll travel about 8 km on mostly level ground of gravel and hard packed sand. Along the way there are numerous parks, some for kids and some for adults. Some were rock and sand overlooking the wadi, others offered grassy shade under big trees, beautiful flower gardens or unique play structures for children. I thought the trails were fairly representative of what I've seen overall of Saudi; not "in your face" beautiful like Canada's Rockies but once you've opened your mind to alternative beauty the views were certainly enough to make you stop and take notice.

Saudi Arabia is not a young country and as I look around I often wonder

what it would have been like in various periods of its history. I can only imagine how dynamic the current century's change must have been compared to those of the past. Remember, Saudi Arabia's development accelerated only after the discovery of oil in the first quarter of the 1900's and Saudi Arabia's oil reserves are second only to Venzuela (Canada is 3rd by the way). Even so their wealth only really started to grow in the 70's with the rise in the price of oil. Today, as I drive around this city of over 7 million I am reminded of this growth as my GPS constantly recalculates a way

Good old Canadian ball hockey game!

around a myriad of construction barriers for the new metro system and I view a skyline dotted with huge construction cranes in every direction. I've been here several months and I still can't get over the constant growth and change here. It's like nothing I've ever seen before and I'd love to come back and see the "finished product", whenever that may be.

Early on in my journey around the DQ I noticed a large and very opulent looking structure just across the highway. I nervously took a couple of pictures because I was sure it was someone's palace and therefore picture taking could be seen as a security concern. I've never been in jail and a Saudi jail is not where I plan to break that record! However, once home and asking around I discovered that it was actually a hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh, and

conference centre. This hotel was opened in 2011 and was originally intended to serve Saudi government and business needs exclusively. However, they found that these needs could not support the hotel and it was subsequently managed by the Ritz-Carlton chain and opened to the public.

And that leads me to exhibit B of my defense. It turns out that every Thursday the Ritz has an extravagant seafood buffet that is not to be missed so we booked a night and I planned to check it out myself! It ended up being an impressive evening so I decided to include it in a blog post. Now, again, the main reason I'm going to essentially write about "what I had for dinner one night" is because of the remarkable extravagance of this place. It's quite a contrast to what I see on my daily Riyadh commute, a literal oasis in this dusty desert city I'd say. In a way I feel kind of bad about my participation because it's not something the average working person here could afford. In fact at $100/head plus tip it was about 30% of one month's salary for the maintenance workers in the compound where I live and that's just for one person.

Just like my driveway at home!

Arriving at the Ritz the first thing I noticed was the magnificent arched entrance way and palm tree lined patterned marble driveway (yeah, marble you drive on!) leading to the front doors, Once inside the hotel does not disappoint either. They have a grand display of lilies flown in fresh from Holland at a cost of about $6,000/week. They're beautiful and there's so many you can smell them throughout the spacious lobby! As I was waiting for my friends to arrive I noticed three chocolate fountains beckoning me closer. Well, feeling a bit peckish I was thinking I would help myself to a sample from this obviously complimentary display when I noticed the 80 SAR ($25) price tag. Ooops, close one! Well, maybe I'll mosey over and look out the window

into the courtyard then. I had no sooner pressed my blue collar nose up against the glass when a young hotel worker politely asked if I'd like to see what the "family section" of the courtyard looked like? Hmm, you mean a goofy single guy gawking through the glass at the women in the family section might seem creepy in this segregated society you say? Great, faux pas numéro deux! So much for looking like I belong there! Thankfully my friends showed up shortly after with wives in tow and I suddenly had all the "credentials" I needed to roam freely.

Now, back to the main attraction, the buffet! Once we were seated I bee-lined to the cold appetizer buffet which, in itself was larger than most buffets back home. Included was half lobster tails heaped high (take as many as you like!), shrimp, prawns as big as your palm, crab legs (and even whole crabs), seared tuna with a mango salsa, smoked duck, various flavours of hummus, salads, fish, sushi and... wait for it, guacamole. That's OK, I didn't see it coming either. Since we're pretty happy with our own home made guacamole I had to "assess" it and I give it a solid B+. Not bad considering I'd say! With that plate down the hatch I enthusiastically charged the hot buffet section. More lobster tails, lobster in white wine sauce, stuffed crab, fish, shrimp, chicken, prime rib, and a pasta station with a

chef much like the omelette stations at home. Ladies found that when their pasta dish was prepared someone was waiting to carry their plate back to the table for them. They didn't try that with the guys though, probably too many lost fingers in the past when reaching for a Canadian's plate. Then, assuming you were able to polish that off there was the full frontal assault on the dessert table to plan. There's no way you're gonna have just one so might as well loosen the belt a notch and get at it! With my plate already fairly loaded I noticed a square inch of my plate unoccupied and so, while I don't usually have it, I couldn't resist the row of crème brûlées and added one to my 5,000 calorie dessert plate. And of course, a couple of pitchers of Saudi champagne to wash it all down! Why not?

Well, after dinner we waddled to the front desk where Mujahed of Guest Relations (who just happens to love Canadians since he spent several years in Vancouver for university) offered a tour of the hotel. When was the last time you were given a 90 minute tour of a hotel? Never? Yeah, 'cause you've never been to THIS hotel. His tour covered the 600 yr old olive trees in the courtyard, the unbelievably gorgeous swimming pool, bowling alley, spa, the $5,000/night presidential suite like the one Obama stayed in here (which includes a dining room that seats 10 by the way) and the two bedroom bridal suite... wait, two bedroom? Yup, two bedroom bridal suite and it's right outside the reception hall. Apparently we do it different in Canada because not only am I not pessimistic enough to believe I'd need two bedrooms on my wedding night we typically don't tell

The pool area, more marble!!

people where the bride and groom are staying that night either (for obvious reasons!). Mujahed was a gracious and knowledgeable host and gave me his cell number to call any time he can be of assistance. Now that's service!

The foyer between floors

Now, there's also the matter of the 4th annual Riyadh Car Show but I think I'll save that for the next installment!

As I look at my last Brian of Arabia post I see it was December 12th and but mere days before a long anticipated reunion with someone special! Shortly after that I'd go home to Paula too (just kidding of course). That reunion did not disappoint and it was so good to see her again. Strangely, I found that what I really missed most here was the warmth of another's touch. I would never have guessed that was such a big deal but as we hugged at the airport I realized it was. I guess I just took for granted the comfort of having someone by your side, even if it's just in the same room or building.

After such a long flight (another 30 hrs in planes and airports) and arriving in Winnipeg near midnight we stayed the night and drove home the next day. It was so good to get home and see everyone again... except the dog. Either he didn't really recognize me or just didn't care that much that I was gone but I got about two wags then he was on to something else. Fair enough, but some day you'll need me Wilbur and this day may come back to haunt you!

Family Christmas Break

Those first 10 days at home were a whirlwind of work, visits and Christmas as I met up with friends and family missed those last 7 weeks. It's funny, it certainly seemed a long time to me but many people actually said it didn't seem that I'd been gone long! On top of that there was absolutely no indication in Saudi that the biggest gift giving season of the year was pending so I still had all my Christmas shopping to do! Fortunately, for me I can do all my shopping between 7-11 and the Canadian Tire Gas Bar so I wasn't worried. The benefit of being a guy I suppose!

The view from Dinghy Dock restaurant in St Martin

Anyway, 10 days after me getting home we packed our bags again and headed out for a 2 week Caribbean vacation in St Martin. We'd been there before two years ago and loved it so we were anxious to go back. There wasn't as much exploring this time as we both seemed more interested in chillaxin' on the beach (Paula's favourite past time) than hiking all over hell's half acre. Still, we did some things from

previous like gourmet French dining in Grand Case and lounging on Orient Beach but added a few new things too like sharing Happy Bay beach with a herd of cows, and climbing the last of the way to Pic Paradis, the highest point on the island and a great view! Knowing that if it was up to me we'd return to the island anytime I asked Paula at the start of the trip how often she'd come back, "At least every 5 yrs" she thought. By the time we were coming home she had shortened that to "every two years" and a month after getting home she's already thinking about our next visit! It's that kind of island.

You need a special visa to get into Saudi Arabia and the one used for my

My passport is getting pretty interesting!

previous visit had expired so I needed a new one. That involves sending your passport to Ottawa so there would be a two week wait at home while we waited for the new visa. MHI even met us at the airport to pick up our passports and courier them in to get that process started ASAP. My return flight was booked and it was just a case of waiting for the passports to come back. It was during this waiting period that we found out that my Dad was diagnosed with cancer. He had had a mini stroke on New Years day and in the follow up CAT scan they discovered some cancer. So I delayed my return until we could find out a little more about what we'd be dealing with. In the end we came to a cross roads where I either needed to cancel my contract with MHI and stay, or get on the plane and go. Because we didn't have anything concrete that required me to stay and the fact that I could return at any time if necessary we decided I should head back to work in Saudi and await further developments. At the moment we believe it's a slow growing cancer in his neck area that they'll treat with chemo or radiation but likely no surgery. So, we'll take it day by day and re-evaluate as we go. In the meantime I'm never really out of touch with MagicJack and Facetime and we chat every couple of days or so. That's a benefit we wouldn't have had 10 years ago!

Now, getting back to the here and now, you may recall me bragging about my first class treatment on

Chinese New Year in London!

the way over last year. Yeah, not so much this year. To give us greater flexibility with Paula's travel I asked to be put on travel allowance and cover the flights myself. So, to economize and have some money for Paula's flight I flew "peasant class" this time. I forgot that my baggage allowance wouldn't be the same as business class and ended up paying an extra $250 excess baggage charges and that's just one way! I'll take the same hit on the way home likely. It wasn't all bad though because to break up the flight I took a one day stop over in London and took in some sights. I had a lovely fish and chip take away dinner in Picadilly Circus and managed to squeeze in one last delicious beer before prohibition took effect again in KSA! As an added bonus it was Chinese New Year and there were plenty of celebrations to take in!

I finally touched down in Riyadh at about 11 o'clock at night and was welcomed by my driver complete with a sign with my name on it, just like in the movies! Getting back into the groove this time was much easier than the first time I came on November 3rd though! The project I'm working on is to coordinate system frequency response improvement for the Kingdom and it's coming along quite well I think. It's certainly a handful for me and it seems as soon as you solve one problem another pops up! Still, I'm confident that when I leave at the end of June the situation here will be much better than when I arrived so I'll have some satisfaction in that.

I had agreed to come back until the end of June so I won't be back to Canada again until probably middle of July. This first leg is the hardest, a 7 week gap without seeing Paula but after that the biggest gap should only be about 4 weeks. At this point I'm about 3 weeks in and while the time seems to be passing very slowly there's lot's of excitement on the horizon! It's only 28 days until Paula comes to visit for a couple of weeks and what an experience that'll be for her! I'll show her some of the highlights in Riyadh and then spirit her away for an exciting weekend in Dubai and all that it offers. Then, if all goes according to plan, 4 weeks after she goes home we'll meet in Greece for a couple of weeks, then 4 weeks after she goes home from that we'll meet somewhere in Europe for a week or more although we haven't decided where yet. It could be London, Paris, Germany, Ireland, Amsterdam, Switzerland, well, you get the idea. Anything is possible!

So, now it's time to get back to exploring and sharing on Brian of Arabia what I see here . I've already been out a couple of times so should have another entry in less time than it took to get this one out! And by the way, I probably could handle the cold but why bother when you have options?

To help keep my mind off of being away from home, family and friends I've been trying to keep myself busy. A couple of things that help are our Tuesday night supper club and weekend excursions. Because the weekend is Friday/Saturday here Tuesday is "hump day" so we started a little supper club where we go for dinner every Tuesday night. Each week it's someone else's turn to pick a restaurant and drive. This week is mine and I'm thinking about Chinese food! On the weekends we try to do something that takes at least half the day, last weekend it was the souk in "chop chop square". If I haven't already mentioned it a souk is like a local market where merchants sell a variety of wares and chop chop square is where they do public beheadings on Fridays. I'm not sure if it's every Friday but I'm not going down there to find out either!

This weekend the excursion was to visit a local troop of wild baboons in the hills about an hour south of Riyadh. I'd heard other guys had gone and enjoyed it so it was definitely something I wanted to do before I came home for Christmas. I'm glad we went because it was a great experience and gave me a chance to dust the camera off and get some shots. 

A fellow MHI coworker, John Leech, had been before and was willing to lead the expedition so we rounded up a couple of SUV's and a tow rope because the location is in a remote and fairly rough environment. You wouldn't want to be out there on your own and run into any trouble, which we did but I'll get into that later. With MHI's move to another compound we're somewhat split up so we agreed to meet up at the Granada Mall Tim Horton's before heading out. Interestingly, as we pulled into the parking lot I noticed there seemed to be a Corvette club meeting. There were only 3 'Vettes but one was a '60 so that was pretty cool! If I owned that car you sure wouldn't see me driving it in this traffic but Friday mornings are like Sunday at home and pretty quiet so I guess that explains it.

What a baboon's back yard looks like!

Anyway, before heading out we stopped in at the Carrefour supermarket to get some fruit to feed the baboons. I got a big watermelon and some bananas. The other guys got apples, oranges, etc. The other thing I needed before heading out was some gas! The guy that loaned me his SUV didn't mention it was low on gas and with Friday being the big religious day it was tough finding a gas station that wasn't closed until after the noon prayer time! We finally found one though and $12.02 cents later I had a full tank of gas (I love mentioning that). We set the GPS for "Baboons" and headed out!

We went to where John thought he had been before and whistled, called and honked the horn to draw out the baboons but there was nothing but crickets. Sometimes the baboons just aren't there and in fact they migrate to cooler climes in the summer so perhaps they just hadn't come back yet. We were disappointed of course. (Who's gonna eat all the fruit? I'm on a strict pizza and KFC diet!) When I started my truck to head back I noticed that we weren't exactly at the destination flag on the GPS. We weren't far from it, just not right at it. The problem is there are no roads there so I just had to point the vehicle in the direction of the destination flag and try not to run off a cliff or get stuck in a gully. I was following what almost looked like a narrow goat track or something up this very steep hill. So steep in fact I was beginning to wonder if I was exceeding my driving capabilities! How do you explain you rolled the corporate SUV down a mountain side? We crested the hill and fortunately found more road instead of a precipitous decline! Once on a gentler decline I looked around and happened to notice some moving dots in the distance. Baboons!! We had found them! Or, more accurately the GPS did!

We pulled up and the baboons were immediately both curious and cautious. Curious because people often feed them but cautious too because humans are a predator to the baboon. They obviously had overestimated me, I wasn't kicking anybody's ass there! We started throwing out the food (you don't want to hand it to them) and they hungrily went after it. Apparently they're a little more aggressive in the fall when food is scarce and they certainly demonstrated it. They weren't threatening to us but you could certainly see the social dominances being exhibited. The big males took several pieces of fruit at once and fiercely chased anyone who challenged their right to do so. It seems mean to be like that but those big males are also the protectors of the troop so if they're not strong and healthy the whole troop could be in danger.

Judging by the number and size of the babies I'd guess birthing season is usually late summer but that's just my guess. I tried to throw my fruit to the mothers with babies but it didn't always work out. Sometimes the mothers were chased off by other baboons but sometimes they just didn't seem confident going for the food. I did what I could though. After the initial frenzy died down I did notice a few babies getting something to eat so maybe there's a plan and it all works out in the end.

I noticed that the babies often cling so close to their mothers that you don't notice there's two of them. Sometimes they ride on their mother's backs and sometimes they cling to the underbelly. They must have a heck of a grip because despite the flurry of activity I never saw a baby fall off! I also noticed injuries on some of the baboons, likely as a result of internal disputes within the troop that are not unusual as males try to recruit females for their harems or simply just battle for social status.

One thing that's hard to miss is their big red butts! It's a pretty rocky terrain that would seem uncomfortable to sit on. That's where the big red butts come in though because they're actually large, nerveless, and hairless calluses designed to provide sitting comfort for the baboon. Another thing you notice is the big white manes of the larger males. They're pretty impressive and look like they get regular grooming. In fact they look so good they rival my wife's 80's hair for style points! I'm sure she'll agree... well I hope she does! 

The final thing I noticed, and the reason I think they overestimated me as a threat, was their large, sharp canine teeth! I just have a bunch of dull, mostly broken ones thanks to a little tussle my face had with a sledge hammer a few years back. To intimidate foes baboons will quickly flash their eyelids (hmmm, seems that just might make the opponent horny but what do I know) and yawn, showing their teeth. They're pretty quick and agile so I'd imagine those teeth could do a lot of damage in a pretty short period of time!

It didn't take long to rid ourselves of the fruit and we were happy to have helped the troop with some food. With no more food forthcoming and most of them having had at least something to eat they started to wander off, either somewhere else or just to eat their food in peace on the cliffs. By this time it was getting later in the day so we decided to leave them be and get some grub ourselves! However, our adventure wasn't done yet as on the way back to the road one of our SUV's got a flat tire! John must've hit a sharp rock or something because it went very flat, very fast! Fortunately there was a spare so we set about changing it after setting the parking brake and blocking the wheels, safety first! As we were starting to change the tire another vehicle came along. It was a little Toyota pickup truck with what appeared to be about a 12 yr old boy driving! He was on his own and might have been older than 12 but at about 80 lbs I doubt he was much older. Either that or somebody forgot to feed him these last few years! Anyway, we were obviously able to change the tire without too much trouble and get on our way again. We fought the typical Riyadh traffic, avoided collisions and met up at a TGI Friday's for a late lunch. We got in just before afternoon prayer started which was a bonus, I was starving!

It was a good end to a great day and I'm thankful to John for organizing the outing. I got some great pictures, some of which you see here. I've put the rest up on a separate website because there's just too many to put in this post. 

It's officially now just 7 days until I'm home again! I'd like to say I'm excited to see family and friends (and it would be true) but I'm really looking forward to seeing my wife! It's been a very busy 7 weeks and I will very much enjoy having my partner by my side again, as we've happily been for the last 24 years. :-)

Oh, BTW, I guess that title was a little unfair, I have great in-laws and they're not at all like a troop of baboons now that I've seen one! ;-)

Photo Source TripAdvisor

If you work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) you have to have a visa, not too unusual. There's a couple of different types of visas but the one I have right now is a 90 day visa requiring a reset every 30 days. That means that every 30 days I have to get out of the country, even if only for a few minutes or hours and then I can come back. Every 90 days I have to return to Canada and have a new visa issued. Don't bother to ask why this is a requirement, I haven't been able to discover the purpose myself.

Since I came here November 3rd but don't go home until December 19th I needed to reset some time between November 19th and December 3rd. Bad things would happen if I didn't reset in that time frame! What bad things I don't know, but don't intend to find out either! So where to go? It's not like at home where I could spend the afternoon to drive down to Dunseith ND and be back for supper. The closest border is Bahrain, 5 hours away but I'd need a special permit and insurance which I don't have, so a flight it is!

Even though it wasn't the cheapest place to go I decided on Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It seemed a pretty exciting place to go and who knows when I'd get another chance? Hydro gives me $300 to cover visa reset expenses but that doesn't even come close to paying for this trip! An MHI coworker, Jide, needed a visa reset too so we decided to go together. It was a great trip even if it was only for a grand total of 30 hours!

Dubai is a short 2 hr flight from Riyadh so it's a reasonable weekend trip. Dubai started out a few hundred years back as a trading centre in the area, renowned for it's pearls among other things. In the early 1960's oil was discovered and Dubai became a player in the oil market, increasing the countries wealth. There wasn't much oil however and their reserves have declined to the point where only 5% of UAE revenues now come from oil. So they reinvented themselves into a modern trading and tourism centre by lowering tax rates to attract business. It seems to be working because Dubai is a beautiful city and the growth is stunning!

So, what to do in Dubai for only 30 hours? Well, basically it was just a scouting trip for a return later with out families but we still did pretty good. I booked us into the 5-star Al Murooj Rotana which was close to a couple of things we wanted to see like the Dubai Mall and the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. But first we decided to visit Atlantis, a swanky hotel on Palm Jameira one of a couple of man made islands in Dubai. The islands are made of reclaimed sand and formed in the shape of palm fronds. Totally cool to see from the air... which we didn't do :-(. Something for next time I suppose. It's incredible what man can build!

After a quick look around Atlantis it was back to our hotel to get my camera stuff for a killer shot of the Dubai Fountain light show at the base of Burj Khalifa. It's similar to the fountain light show of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Well, we got to the place I wanted to shoot from but it was an absolute, jam packed, zoo and a good picture was out of the question. So after the show we decided just to check out the Dubai Mall for a bit. Now, I would not normally call a mall an attraction but this place was pretty impressive. It's the worlds largest mall and houses an ice skating rink and an "underwater zoo" (which we call aquarium?) But alas, I'm no "mall rat" and neither was Jide so back to the hotel we went for supper and.... a beer!! Yes, finally outside of Saudi Arabia I was able to get a drink! Pork and alcohol are actually illegal in Saudi Arabia. UAE is still a muslim country but a little more relaxed than KSA, you can get alcohol in but apparently only if it's a restaurant attached to a hotel. A couple of cold Sol's were welcome guests of my belly!

The next morning we had booked a tour of the Burj Khalifa which included a trip to the 148th floor observation deck. This building recently opened in 2010 and stands at 828m high. That's almost 1 km high! There's great views from that high up but so have to see it from several angles, including inside, to really grasp how huge it is. Dubai has a pretty impressive skyline and this building dwarfs it all. If you want to see something interesting check out the Nat Geo video of it's construction.

By noon we finished the Burj Khalifa tour but still had a few hours to kill before our return flight to KSA. As in many cities there's a Big Bus tour for Dubai. Since we didn't really know what else to do that seemed like a good idea and we took the city tour which takes you into old Dubai. I didn't think we'd have time to get off and see much but we found time to tour Dubai Museum located in Al Fahidi Fort, built in 1787, a brief look around the textile souk in Deira and a look at the Dhow's of Dubai Creek.

A souk is a market and the textile souk sells all manner of cloth and fabric. Walking into the souk was like walking into a cloud of insects! We were besieged by every vendor within reach all looking for our money. They're quite inventive too, here's how a conversation went with one merchant;
Merchant: "What are you looking for?"
Me: "Nothing"
Merchant: "Perfect! I have nothing! What colour would you like?"
You have to admire the effort! Textile souk is not the only one either. There's also a gold souk and spice souk where I'm sure you can find just about anything.

As I mentioned previously Dubai is an age old trading centre and for centuries Dubai Creek is where all that trading has taken place. The boats that operate on the creek are called dhows and will travel as far as India or east Africa taking and returning goods for trade. We toured past a row of dhows being loaded and I was surprised how primitive they looked for ocean going vessels. I wouldn't be too keen on heading out as part of a crew of one of those boats!

We made it back to the hotel just in time to pick up our bags and catch a quick trip to the airport. We definitely weren't the required two hours prior to an international flight but we made the flight so I call that a successful weekend!

Note: There are many more pictures than I can add here so have a look at my Instagram feed to see the rest!