Dubai Vacation

So far we're having a wonderful time on vacation in Dubai. We are very fortunate to have the use of a Stantec apartment while here and a rental car. It is a beautiful development called the Green Community. There is a large park and walkways that link all the homes together. A short walk from our apartment and there is a small

Mall, grocery store and lots of restaurants.

We started our first day with a trip to the Mall of the Emirates so Doug could see Ski Dubai, the indoor ski hill. It's quite amusing to see this winter wonderland not only indoors but in a mall! I'll insert some video here later.

We then took a drive out on The Palm to check out the scenery and views. We attempted to visit the sail looking hotel, the Burj Al Arab but got turned around at the gate by security.

We did however discover that this is also the location for Wild Wadi Waterpark, so decided to hatch a waterpark plan for the next day.

We ended our day being invited over to Doug's boss' home for a Eid holiday celebration party. Enjoyed a lovely spread of homemade Indian food. So delicious.

Started day two today with our trip to the Waterpark.

Maëlle was so excited on the car ride there and announced that she was going to go down the slides 'all by herself' and she did! She absolutely loved it. Each time trying the next larger slide till she had tried them all. Her favourite was the orange slide that was actually a pitch black tunnel for half of it!

It was so fun for us to see her enjoy it so much that we didn't care so much about getting to try all the big slides. Or as they are called here 'rides', what is what they really are. You go on them riding a tube and they shoot you up the slide before going down.

It was such a great day. We ended it with a walk after dinner for ice cream, balloon animals, and a run through the sprinklers. Best day ever in Maelle's mind I'm sure!

Oops!

That last post was actually from a couple weeks ago. I had thought it posted but didn't go through.

We are actually in Dubai, we flew this afternoon for some family holiday time...and to renew our Qatar visas and let Doug work at the Dubai Stantec office. Luckily they have an apartment that we're able to use. We have a rental car so excited to see some new sights and return to Atlantis maybe! 

Morning walk on the Corniche

We didn't last very long since it's still reaching close to 40 degrees during the day, but we took a short stroll along the Corniche this morning. Cool views of the West Bay high rises and the boats crossing the bay. Too bad the kids still get instantly bright red in the heat. Hoping soon we'll get to actually spend extended time outside and at the park!

Pumpkins Procured

After finding out the cost of pumpkins at the grocery store I went with the girls this morning in search of pumpkins direct from the Fruit and Vegetable Market. It's an open air market, under shade, kind of like a farmer's market. It was easy to find and full of variety for items. 

I was a little disappointed to find that the only pumpkins here are more like squash. Guess I had the perfect bright orange pumpkins of home in my mind. These ones are a little more 'rustic' but Halloween is all about being ghoulish so this is probably better anyway. And the price a lot better too!

Maëlle was very excited to spot some little tiny ones and was so proud of the one she picked out.

Pumpkin procurement success! We ended up with 3 medium sized pumpkins and 2 small ones for 70 riyal plus 10 tip for the guy who followed us around with a wheel barrow, loaded our pumpkins, and took them to the car with us. That's about $20 Canadian. Now how to decide to carve them!

 

Happy Thankgiving!

Not planning to do a big turkey to celebrate but Maëlle and I did bake a pumpkin pie with Grandma's recipe. This one actually made with pumpkin and not our home grown squash though :(

Happy Thanksgiving Canadian friends and family!

Paparazzi

We very often get requests from people to take Maëlle and Neko's photos (at least one per outing to big public places). Many don't ask and I catch them trying to sneak a quick pic on their cell. There are lots of expats here and fair children but i guess few are quite as blonde and fair as Maëlle and especially Neko. Some want to be in the photo with the them too so my new thought is if someone asks for a photo with them, then I get to take one too. Keep our collection of random strange people wanting a photo of the kids! 

There are actually lots of older children that are quite intrigue by the kids. Today we had a request from a Mom and young girl for a photo, so I took one too :)

Celebrating the Holidays

Not only are we celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend but it's also the kick-off to Eid Al Adha holidays here. We went in search of ingredients to bake a pumpkin pie and happened upon a special set-up of women outside the supermarket offering Henna / Mehndi designs as part of Eid celebrations. Maëlle was immediately keen to get her hand painted.

She sat very still and even let it dry for about 15 minutes while I got mine done too to match! Originally planned to get Neko done but quickly realized it would get everywhere and turn into a big blob. There's no way she wouldn't want to touch it.

Neko made her own friends though while Maëlle and I were busy. She sat and snacked with these lovely ladies.

And the finished product...

So fun and a neat way to celebrate our Thanksgiving and our upcoming holidays. Looking forward to Doug having extra time off and an impromptu family trip to Dubai for a week.

Pricey Pumpkins!

I was really excited to hear that you can actually buy pumpkins here for carving but then quickly learned that they come at a cost. At the grocery store yesterday I saw a bunch of big ones but couldn't believe the price and bet you won't either!

So those prices translate to $55 - $65 per pumpkin in Canadian. Yikes. 

I heard you can get much cheaper shopping direct from the vegetable wholesale market so I'm going to go on a mission to find that. Fingers crossed! Can't have Halloween without carving pumpkins ;)

From the photo collection of 'products I can't even believe exsist'!

I've seen this a few times now - soaps and creams claiming to whiten your skin. Creepy.

This took me a minute to figure out. Stops your car sensor from beeping when purposefully choosing to not wear your seatbelt. Oh and the added benefit, it's a bottle opener too. Seems a ridiculous product where drivers are crazy unsafe and in a country that bans alcohol!

This country has a unhealthy obsession with kid's cologne. Every store has a huge section for it, of course using all the fav characters to market it - Spider-Man, Disney Princesses etc. I can maybe accept it, but when I saw this I could believe my eyes!