Christmas in Saudi & New Years in Dubai

After having a wonderful Christmas adventure last year we opted for a Christmas in Saudi Arabia this year. I got to use my creativity a bit to bring the holiday spirit out but it turned out amazing! We focused on enjoying our community this year and did an ornament exchange and gingerbread house making. We even got to have a Christmas eve visit with santa. The only thing that would have made it better would have been family but we did get to enjoy Christmas dinner with some wonderful friends.

Maddy's gingerbread airplane 

Decorating our 'Saudi tree' 

Magazine trees - I loved making these as a kid!

Thanks Pinterest for our fireplace and Ninja turtle ornaments

Our tree all decorated everything found in saudi, including my custom tree skirt 

Our snowman 

Couldn't forget the door, after I made it the neighbor's son said "look it's christmas at maddy's house"

Who says you can't have Christmas in saudi?

Maddy's trees by her bed 

Putting out her reindeer food on christmas eve

Maddy stayed up until after 1am to try and "peek on Santa" but luckily he still came! He even remembered to grab a gift from grandma and nana's house.

Whose gift was it??

Maddy loves her singing camel 

The wrapping paper was like plastic

On the 30th we headed to Dubai to start our long holiday exploring. Thanks to our warm weather destinations I was able to fit us in three carry-ons for nearly three weeks! This is our second trip to Dubai but there is so much to do that we could go back over and over. I had pre-booked most of our trip since we knew our stay would be short this time. Once we got off the plan Trey surprised me by saying that he had looked it up and we could get to the apartment by Metro. I love public transport but just assumed we would have to take a taxi (the thing I hate spending money on the most). Even though it was later in the evening the Dubai metro is great, it's easy to navigate, safe, relatively inexpensive and not very crowded. We rented an apartment behind the mall of the emirates for easy access to the metro line so after a bit of searching we were settled into our apartment. We opted for delivery that night and enjoyed some really good arabic food (it's amazing to me how different it is in different areas). 

On the 31th we headed to the Mall of the Emirates for the Penguin experience at ski dubai. Ski Dubai is this amazing indoor ski village within the Mall of the Emirates, there really is nothing like it in the world. Maddy and I suited up for an encounter with the penguins. We got to hear about their history, meet them and even give one a hug. Maddy really enjoyed it and asked a couple questions to the trainers about what penguins eat and if they wear jackets for the cold. We learned a lot of the penguins were born in the San Antonio zoo so they were native Texans like us!

After our Penguin adventure and some lunch and shopping we headed to our apartment to rest a bit and change for our new years night. Last year we booked a river cruise in London and it gave us a great view of the fireworks with a safe environment for Maddy and not tons of standing around and waiting. We decided to opt for that option in Dubai also, last year Dubai set records for having the longest and most expensive fireworks display over the marina so we decided to do a cruise of the marina hoping we could see both shows. I forgot how bad the 'sand fog' can get and it didn't work out like we hoped. 

First off we headed to Ruth's Chris for our New Years Eve dinner, it was a bit of a hike from the metro stop but it was worth it. The food was wonderful and we got fun silly party favors! Next we hailed a cab and headed to the marina to catch our boat for our cruise, Dubai is a bit tricky in that you can't get alcoholic beverages everywhere so although I would have opted for a pre-cruise drink we ended up with mocktails but a good view of the water. We ended up meeting a family from Oman who live in Dubai, we talked for a while and Maddy enjoyed playing with their kids. 

New Year's Eve candlelight dinner at Ruth's Chris

When we finally boarded our original boats they didn't have seats for us and moved us to another boat. It turned out to be for the best because we got to sit on the upper deck. They had a couple entertainers on the boat but no kids activities like promised, Maddy didn't really seem to mind though she was enjoying the hat and noise makers. Once our boat was packed we headed out on the marina. I expected a little commentary of the sights but the view was nice. They were late handing out "champagne" (non-alcoholic) and doing the new years countdown but we still got to bring in the new year together. Our view of the fireworks show was lackluster and the boat kept moving around so we couldn't really enjoy it. Overall Dubai failed to meet our high new years standards, better luck next time! We got back to port around 2am after the SLOWEST return journey (literally I think we could have swam faster) and started our journey home. We weren't able to hail a cab but Maddy was wide awake so we decided to walk the 30 min to the metro station. I was impressed with the police presence and lack of drunken fools around, big difference from London last year! After getting to the Mall of the Emirates stop and walking all the way around the mall we finally got back to our apartment around 3:30am. We got to check Dubai off our New Years list even though it didn't live up to expectations it was still a wonderful experience. 

Happy New Year 2015

The following morning after sleeping in and lounging around our apartment we headed to the Dubai Mall to check out the giant aquarium and underwater zoo. We had a great time exploring the aquarium and we headed back to our apartment ready to hit the road in the morning. We still have things to visit in Dubai and thanks to it being so close to home we can head back for another long weekend. Our driver to the airport gave us some interesting perspective on Dubai since he has lived and worked there for 13 years. It's amazing how young of a country it is and how caught in the new-old transition plays out. Thailand here we come!!

Egypt FINALLY!

Egypt has been on the top of my vacation list since I heard we were moving to Saudi, but with all the political unrest we didn't feel comfortable visiting with Maddy. So when Trey had a week of holiday time he needed to take and we didn't really have anywhere to go a last minute trip was born! I've learned so much about vacation planning this past year and got to put a lot of it to good use grabbing us a great vacation for under 2000 USD. I wish from the beginning I had done more research and opted to include Luxor and Aswan in this trip but we needed the relax time too. We decided on Cairo for 3 days and then Sharm El Sheikh for 4 days. 

Thanks to a quick budget airlines flight from Saudi we were in Cairo with no hassle. I arranged a company to pick us up at the airport and drive us to our hotel. This is one time that I was glad I had been previously exposed to Saudi driving otherwise Cairo drivers would have been a complete culture shock to me. Instead everything we saw seemed strangely normal. Our driver gave us an impomptu history of Cairo en route to our hotel. When we arrived and checked in we got to enjoy a relaxing evening of swimming (in freezing water) and watching movies with an amazing view of the pyramids from the bedroom window. Maddy was recovering from a nasty virus that nearly cancelled our trip so we were thankful for an additional recovery day. 

View from our hotel

Day one in Cairo we meet our guide in the lobby following a breakfast buffet of assorted Egyptian foods (very similar to Arabic foods). Our guide was a 24 year old unmarried Christian Egyptian young man, talking to him gave us a great perspective of the culture around religion, dating and living at home as an adult. We started off with the biggest attraction in Cairo of course the pyramids of GIZA. Entering the ticket area for the pyramids it was evident how the tourism has taken a severe hit related to the claims that Egypt is still not safe. We were at the pyramid sights for around 3 hours and we saw maybe 50 tourists total. It was amazing to think of all the pictures you've seen in the past with standing room only around the pyramids and very sad too. So it's time that I admit I have an obsession with being able to touch things, it sounds crazy but the places we visit I love being able to actually touch the artifacts. So I had tons of joy being able to go and touch the pyramids!!! It was so exciting, this is somewhere I read about in middle school and high school, it seemed like a world away and so out of reach, yet, here I am touching it! Be still my nerd heart. 

Okay back on track...we visited all three pyramids and nearly got tricked into riding a camel until I had to go mama bear on the camel owner. We heard the history of the pyramids and how each one was built smaller then the previous to honor the ancestors. Maddy really got a kick out of seeing the pyramids too because she knew mummies come from pyramids. After seeing (and touching!) the pyramids we went to see the syphnix which photos of it are very deceiving, it's quite small. Although much smaller then I imagined it was still impressive because it was craved from a single block of limestone. After my local celebrity got her picture taken by the majority of locals and we got asked about 20 times if we were from Germany (because we are so white) we headed to the van to keep adventuring. Driving you could see people burning their trash on the river bank, when I asked our guide why they were doing this he explained that since the political restructure most basic community resources, such as trash pickup, have not been resumed. It really goes to show you the things we take for granted. While on our way to our next site we saw a couple government jeeps with army men sitting in the open backs with machine guns, I will admit this is another situation where I was glad I had been exposed to similar things in Saudi otherwise it would have freaked me out. Overall though we felt very safe everywhere we went while in Cairo, we vacationed smart remembering the risks and felt reassured at all tourists spots that order was in place. 

Climbing Keops Pyramid

Keops Pyramid, an amazing sight!

Us nearly getting tricked into a camel ride by a pushy salesmen

The Emmitte's with the Pyramids of GIZA

I just HAD to take this photo! 

My kid is awesome!

Inside Keops Pyramid 

Maddy and our guide, Omar

Egyptian mornings have the sand fog too, makes for hazy pics

Our next stop of the day was Sakkara which is home to the first pyramid the "Step Pyramid" of Djoser and Pyramid of King Titi, which is the only pyramid with hieroglyphics craved inside to be found in Egypt. We got to descend a long tunnel to enter the pyramid and view the hieroglyphics and cravings. Also inside was the empty sarcophagus which Maddy was happy to report to everyone we met was robbed of the mummy. After walking around the Step pyramid grounds we headed to Memphis, the capital of old Egypt during the old kingdom (3200 B.C.) and got to see the giant Ramses II statue. We then headed to a late lunch and back to our hotel. That evening we headed back to the pyramids for the light and sound show, it was a wonderful presentation of history of the pyramids along with some cool effects that kept Maddy entertained. Afterwards we convinced our guide to take us to a local take away place for dinner and ended up with Tamiya (Egyptian Falafel) and Shawarma minus the french fries. It was a really good meal. 

Right after our guide explained the mummy is buried behind that panel and the belief is she can come back to life and claim her body. Maddy wasn't turning her back on that mummy!

Heiroglyphs inside Pyramid of King Titi 

Large Ramses II statue in Memphis 

First pyramid the 'step pyramid' built as an extravagant grave sight built like a stairway to the sun god, Ra

The tunnel to enter the pyramid

Day two in Cairo we headed to the Citadel, a stone fortress from the 12th century. The only portion currently open to tourist is the Alabaster Mosque that was created by the same person who created the  Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Next we headed to the Egyptian Museum which is crammed packed with artifacts. The museum itself is over a hundred years old and the construction is underway on the new museum which is supposedly going to be the largest in the world. We got to see King Tut's artifacts, some of which we had seen on tour in Houston but other larger pieces that don't tour were amazing to see. We also got to go see the human and animal mummies in the museum, Maddy's favorite part. You could have easily gotten lost in the museum for days exploring and reading. After a quick detour to find some children's books about Egypt and get some coins for my collection we headed to Old Cairo (Coptic Cairo) which is the Christian area of Cairo. According to our guide, 20% of Egyptians are Christians, which is a number that surprises me because I assumed it was another muslim country.  We visited the Hanging Church (named such because it was built on the old city walls-in places you can still see the old walls through the floor) and we met our only fellow American of the whole trip. I also found out about a Pope that I didn't even know existed, the Coptic Orthodox Pope. Our guide was baffled that I didn't know about this although I don't think it's common knowledge. Next we headed to the Abu Serga Church which was believed to shelter the holy family at the end of their journey into Egypt. All this made me want to take a class on religion, it was so fascinating and very confusing, matching stories with actual current day locations would be interesting to learn about. After another late lunch and a papyrus making demonstration by a rude Egyptian dude we were headed back to our hotel. 

Alabaster Mosque, designed by the creator of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul 

Inner courtyard of Alabaster Mosque 

Inside Alabaster Mosque, I think I like my black abaya better.

Inner courtyard of the Hanging Church entrance 

Hanging Church 

Outside the Egyptian Museum. A lot of the artifacts just sit outside the building because they have no space left inside.

The following day we said goodbye to Cairo and headed for a relaxing couple days in Sharm el Sheikh. It's a resort town on the Red Sea and was just what we needed to relax before coming back to Saudi. Maddy enjoyed the kids club, we enjoyed the grown-up drinks at the beachside bar and we all enjoyed the heated pools and family time. Overall a great vacation!

Enjoying the Red Sea 

Taken from my lounge chair with a book in one hand and a cocktail in the other = perfection 

Nightly kids club dance party, Maddy was the only american but she did pick up some Russian!