The End of the Adventure

Now you’ve at least heard some of the nightmare of the month Bob had, I would like to conclude our Dubai journal from a more positive side. While Safi Airways was working on imploding, we kept having visitors, which was great for me. I’ve gotten to be a pretty good tour guide by now.

After RD left, we had a visit from Bob’s brother and his friend R, who was a delightful houseguest and a very good sport in our 1-star accommodations. Among the highlights of their visit was our trip to the souk in Sharjah to purchase rugs. When we got to my favorite rug vendor, the 18-year-old son was the only one there. He quickly realized this was a major shopping expedition and called in the manager from another store, who also brought more rugs with him. Eventually they called the father/owner, Abdullah, to come in and bring more rugs with him. After about three hours and several cups of tea, we all finally agreed on our rugs and haggled over their cost.

As we were about to leave, Abdullah, who speaks little English, invited us to lunch. Of course, we didn’t know if we were going to his home, to the quickie café at the souk, or where. We ended up at a very local Lebanese restaurant. What an experience! It’s men only downstairs, families upstairs. Well, when Abdullah walked in with three Americans, two being female, all eyes were on us and the jaws were dropping. When we went upstairs, people were sitting on the floor eating with their fingers, as is their custom. We did get to sit at the one solitary table. Abdullah had obviously called ahead that he was bringing guests, and our lunch started with soup, then a salad, and then a fish and rice course. Our only implement was the soup spoon, which I kept a firm hold on. When the main course came, we had the ENTIRE fish, which they eat with their fingers. It was hamour, which is a very good local fish. Our group consisted of the three of us, Abdullah, his son, and the Indian manager, who has at least some English skills. In the course of conversation/sign language, we learned Abdullah is from Yemen and has three wives and 15 children.

Abdullah had good reason to take us to lunch after our numerous rug purchases. We purchased a couple of Iranian kilim rugs and a number of the Kashmiri silk rugs. I can’t speak for the others, but I love my rugs, and our lunch adventure was an experience of a lifetime. It was such a fun day, and poor Bob was spending his time having to deal with a lot of Safi unpleasantness.

I took G and R on the desert 4-wheel excursion, and again we had another fun adventure. G was chosen to be the “partner” of the belly dancer. He was a very good sport and turns out to have some talent we never knew about! Poor Bob didn’t get to do that either because of all the Safi issues that week. He did at least get to go with us to the Burj al Arab for one more very nice dinner on the beach. It is a very cool place but soooo expensive.

After G and R left, PW’s friend EE, who is an exchange helicopter pilot with the French navy, had a port call in Abu Dhabi. As we had never seen Abu Dhabi, which is beautiful, we drove down and picked E up to come stay with us. She was in serious need of “girl” time after being on a ship with a squadron full of guys, so I was happy to oblige. We went to the Aviation Club and worked out, went to the pool, and paid the spa a visit for a couple days. We also did the usual touring and made our way to the Indian textile area, where we both had some rather unique outfits made. It was fun!

Bob was able to go on the desert tour this time, and E gave the entire group a good lesson in sandboarding. RD, she put you to shame! We also had the opportunity to go with E to the Souk Madinot Jumeirah, which is a huge complex of souks, theaters, restaurants, and hotels built around canals. It’s obviously built for tourists, but it’s a very neat place.

Of course, we made another trip back to the souk for carpets. E bought an exquisite silk Afghan rug. I had not seen those before, and this one is just beautiful.

After E left, I came back to Atlanta to bring home some rugs, etc., and get some emergency dental work taken care of. I was only supposed to be here three days, but Safi more or less imploded, and Bob told me not to return as there was so much turmoil in the company, as he has just discussed in his entry. It will take a good bottle of wine to go through the entire saga, but the situation became quite ugly, and I was glad when he arrived safely back in Atlanta.

All in all, we are very glad we had the experience this last year in Dubai. We did and saw things we never thought we would experience and learned a lot about some very different cultures. There were good times and bad times, but we met some great people along the way, and we agree we would do it again in a heartbeat. That said, it’s nice to be home with our family and friends in the greatest country on earth.