Dan and I head back to Dubai in hurry after not finding much in Oman. At the border I get a fresh stamp for another 30days, but I know I’ll be gone before that. I’ve already booked a flight that departs next week to Kochin, India. The rest of my Dubai experience is a series of partying and seeing old faces again.

My friend Mohammad who I use to intern with at Cerner is now visiting Dubai with his sister. It is so strange to see him here in Dubai, but then again I’ve met a lot of people traveling aboard. I say good bye to my Cerner friends, Ex Cerner friends, and Dubai Dawn Patrol dragon boating friends through a series of nights out and a cook out.

Dubai was a nice break for me, but I’m really getting a case of itchy feet so I have to head out. I make a trip to the India consulate in Dubai where I queue for more than an hour waiting for a truck load of Indian construction workers to sort out their issues. Once I reach the counter I am told that since I don’t have a Dubai working permit or residency permit I can only get a 90 day single entry visa. As an American I should be able to get a multiple year multiple entry visa, but since that’s their rules I am stuck paying full price for a 90day tourist visa.

For me Oman is a visa run much like it is for a lot of the expats residing and working in Dubai. Since the working visa is such an arduous task to get in UAE, requiring an inordinate amount of paperwork, time, and even more hoop jumping, most people just work on the free default tourist visa. It use to be that you were able to get a free 60day tourist visa upon entry into the UAE, recent policy changed it to where it is now only a 30day visa. With that said even though it is the New Year’s day I must get up and head out to do a visa run to get a renewed 30days.

Oman is much quieter and feels more like what the Middle East should be. There is more traditional architecture and no extravagant over the top skyscrapers that can be seen all over Dubai. Dan Karr and I make our first stop in Muscat where we crash for the day. Because Sheik Mohammad got bored and decided to cancel New Years, there are a lot of tourists from Dubai that decided to spend the New Year in Muscat. It was a hassle just to find a hotel.

There wasn’t a whole lot going on in Oman. The country seemed really tame and there is not much to see and do during the daytime. We are stay right off the beach and head to the fish market in the morning. The stench of seafood hits you like a brick wall as you walk towards the indoor market. There are tons of fresh catch lying out on the ground. After getting more than our share of the fresh smells of the market we decide to walk around the area. Overall Oman was really uneventful. Perhaps it was because we got there right after New Years and everyone was on their way back to Dubai or because we didn’t bother to book a boat tour, which is what a trip to Oman is really known for.

I ended up spending New Years in Dubai which was should have been spectacular. But thanks to a last minute order from Shiek Mohammad all New Years celebrations in Dubai had to be cancelled to show solidarity for Gaza. Thus all party events at all the various hotels had to be canceled. There was a Shakira concert that had to be moved from Dubai to the neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi. This didn’t stop us. Michael and I ended up making a liquor run for our house party which was now going to be a lot bigger.

It is really random, but there are a lot of familiar faces here in Dubai. Dan Karr who I use to work with in KC and then hang out with in Paris is here on business. Giang Tran who I use to work with in KC, was on a go-live with in Miami and lived with in Paris is now here in Dubai on vacation. Tom Isherwood who I went to highschool with and survived a car flip on a dirt road with is now working in Dubai. So we all end up celebrating together. Giang and I hit up the usual spots:

the tallest free standing structure Burj Dubai,

The self proclaimed seven star hotel Burj Al Arab,

and Atlantis.

Dubai is truly a unique place. It’s a melting pot of cultures, a concrete jungle of extravagant over the top architecture, a vastly distant lower and upper class and a culture that is truly confused between traditions and modernization. My initial impression of Dubai was positive as a whole. It was somewhere I could see myself and an inspiring place to live. My second impression is much the same, but I feel like I am seeing much of the uglier side of Dubai. This post will focus on mostly the negatives of Dubai.

Dubai’s main attraction from my point of view is its global population. There are literally people from all over the world here. Even with a diverse population there is still an unspoken racial food chain. At the top are the Emirates. Laws seem to magically bend in favor of locals. For example when driving on the highway, it never fails that a local Emirate will tailgate you doing double the speed limit, honking, swerving back and forth impatiently and flashing his brights.

Every business in UAE must be in partnership with a local, which automatically makes most of them rich by most standards. I cannot attest to how true it is, but it’s a common conception that the locals are very lazy. I guess it would make sense if there is not much they need to do, when laws are automatically in their favor.

Second from the top would probably be the Expats. Further down are the Filipinos, which seem to be hired on mostly as hospitality staff. Even further down are the taxi drivers which mostly consist of Pakistanis and Indians. Finally at the very bottom are the construction workers. They are paid next to nothing, work 12hr shifts, 6days a week and 24hrs a day. The live in worker camps on the outskirts of the city and fuel the Dubai’s colossal building growth.

With the rate UAE has developed, there have been many key elements in infrastructure that seems to be missing. The planning stage for this city seems to have been skipped. For a place so modern, it is amazing to discover that there is no sewage system. The entire city is run on septic tanks. Large trucks are used to dispose these tanks on a weekly basis and dump, pun intended, waste at a waste management plant in Sharjah, a neighboring emirate. These trucks wait in mile long queues and are paid by the truckload. Sometimes these truck drivers to get more payments will just illegal dump the waste in the sea.

Dubai roads and highways are oddly networked. The main highway that runs along the Emirate has only a few overpasses. Thus if you miss an exit or need to go the other direction, you sometimes find yourself driving miles down the opposite direction before finding an overpass or a U turn area. In fact U turns are commonly used in getting from point A to point B as 99% of roads here have medians, making left turns impossible.

The major roads and highways usually have names, but most roads do not. This makes getting around almost impossible. Directions are usually given by landmarks such as major hotels or malls. Because of this, Dubai does not have an official postal system. There are no addresses and buildings do not have numbers. “Are you serious?” was my response when I first discovered this. Instead packages have a box where you can draw a picture. For example when Mike gets a package the box shows that his building is across 2 streets from Lamcy Plaza, next to the Sunfresh supermarket, on the 5th floor.

The government is random in their policies. Things can change on a whim. I was able to experience several instances of this. First a bank holiday was declared the day before. Second, policies on UAE ID cards changed back and forth three times since I arrived. Thirdly, the day before New Years Sheik Mo, ruler of Dubai, declared that all Dubai NYE celebrations were to be cancelled to show solidarity for the people of Gaza. Thus all the hotels and nightclubs had to cancel their even at the last minute.

Lastly laws change depending how good of a day the police officer is having, how high up you are on the racial food chain and how soon his shift is up. To me it seems like kids are running this country. Speaking of Sheik Mo this guy looks the same on all of the pictures I’ve seen of him. He always has a grumpy look on his face and is blankly staring up into space. Kind of reminds me Zoolander. To quote the Will Ferrell “Blue Steel, La Tigra, Ferrari, they’re all the same. It’s the same look. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”

Dubai is probably most known for the man made islands. Currently most of them are still under construction with the World Island as one of the newest developments. However after meeting some marine biologists that work out here, I’ve been told that these developments are completely destroying the marine life in this area.

I don’t mean to touch only on the negative aspects of Dubai and I don’t feel like Dubai is bad place overall. I just feel it makes a more interesting post than if I was to say “What up guys, I was in Dubai it’s awesome, like New York and Vegas times 100”

Christmas in Dubai. How polar opposite can one get to celebrating a Christian Holiday in a Muslim country. Nonetheless with the western expat majority here in Dubai, local businesses have no choice but to sway to the majority. There are Christmas decorations everywhere, but sadly no one has the holiday off from work. I celebrate Christmas with a White Elephant Christmas party, a extravagant brunch at the Fairmont Hotel and skiing at Ski Dubai. This is the first hot Christmas I’ve had and I’m beginning to miss the snow.

After yelling back and forth for a good 30min and me whipping out the “What would Mohammad do” line, he drops us off at the port.

This will be the third Ferry I’ve taken on this trip; Once in Croatia, twice from Morocco to Gib and now from Acaba, Jordan to Nuweba, Egypt. I’ve already heard a handful of stories of how late the ferry was and how a simple 3hr journey turns into an entire day.

Getting out of Jordan via the ferry is quite a process. The ferry ticket office is on the ground floor, but first you have to go upstairs. There you will be given an exit stamp, it actually looks like a postage stamp with a picture of the Petra Treasury on it. After queuing for the stamp, you must leave your passport there and you are handed a sheet of paper which has the exit tax amount on it. Next you take that sheet of paper across the hall with in talking if not yelling distance of the first counter. There another guy will take the sheet of paper, as if he didn’t know what it could possibly me. There you can pay him, but you must pay in USD. So then you have to across the hallway yet again to an exchange stand where you exchange the Jordanian Dinar into US dollars. Then you backtrack to the last counter, pay in dollars. After paying he stamps that sheet of paper which I take back to the counter that has my passport. There he looks at the stamp and puts a proper exit stamp on my passport. Finally I am allowed to buy a ferry ticket.

I meet several other backpackers in the waiting area. Manuel and Eric, from my Wadi Rum tour, as well as Ron, an Arabic speaking Lebanese Australian join our group. The bottom of the ferry is for cars and all foreigner bags/luggage has a designated area. Only one small backpack is allowed for carry on. The cabin area smells of BO and dirty, must dirtier than the Tangier -> Gib ferry. The boat arrives in Nuweba 3 hours late as expected.

Ron negotiates with the taxi drivers to take everyone to Dahab. I decide to stay in Nuweba to check it out. I head over to soft beach with a couple of Chinese Canadians from Vancouver while everyone else piles in a minivan heading south to Dahab.

I booked a tour of Wadi Rum through the Valentine Hotel. I wasn’t sure if this was a rip off or not, but after arriving in Petra it seems that people were paying twice as much as I paid for the same tour. We have six people crammed in our Land Rover Discovery SUV. There is no AC just windows-down driving.

There are many other SUVs along our same tour and we end up seeing a lot of the same people over and over again. I meet up another American, Eric, who was on the same route toward Egypt. We ended up seeing each other at most of the various stone formations. At the rock bridge we both end up meeting a third American, Thu, a Seattleite who was visiting Jordan while she was working in Alexandria, Egypt.

When I was talking to Thu she talked about how she had just met another American from Kansas City. I described Brian and it turns out that they had met each other previously. I ended up having to leave hatefully from the last attraction because our group was late for another appointment. But Brian and Thu ended up see each other again and Brian was able to give me her contacts.

Our next stop is a Bedouin camp. Here we will spend the night in the tents and see both the sunset and sunrise. The Wadi Rum sunset and sunrise was amazing. The visibility was far and the landscape was bare and peaceful. The red rock color slowly changed various shades of red and orange. I took a barefoot walk around our Bedouin camp exploring all the wildlife that lived around us. There were countless lizards, 4×4 wheel tracks, snake tracks and lizard tracks throughout the area.

The night at Bedouin Camp is cold. When the sun sets the dry hot environment changed to darkness and cold. The atmosphere became completely quiet and there were no lights to be seen. The landscape felt calm and peaceful. This is the reason this place is called the Bedouin meditation camp. The moon lit the surroundings and we all decided to take a talk by moonlight. It was surprising how well lit the moon light was and desert was clearly visible.

That night we all sleep under double blankets. They were so heavy that it felt like you were trapped under the covers. I had the best sleep ever that night and nearly missed the sunrise. Dawn approaches by laying a layer of fogginess across the desert. The colors are grayed and slowly increase in saturation as the sun appears. One of the most beautiful sights so far. I would probably rate this higher than Petra.

That morning I was talking to Yoko in the lobby when a familiar voice says my name. It turns out that Brian, a friend of a friend, that I had met in Dubai is also at Petra. We decide to check out Petra together and all jump in the truck for the morning ride down to the entrance. During the ride down, Yoko realizes that she has forgotten her ticket.

It is best to view the Treasury, which is usually the picture most people associate with Petra, in the morning. The light doesn’t reach the canyon crevice until 8-9am. Luckily it is best to view the Monastery in the afternoon.

Petra was absolutely amazing. The sheer size of both the Treasury and Monastery are incredible. You really have to see people next to both the carvings to see their true size. I ended walking up to the Monastery with Brian. Then around early afternoon we had explored most places in Petra. Brian headed back and I stayed to wait for the sunset at the “World’s End” which is near the Monastery.

Around sunset I meet up with a group of students that were on a trip to visit Petra. After taking some pictures for them at the “World’s End” we all trek down towards the entrance. It is about a 45 minute walk from the end to the entrance and they end up being late and running towards the entrance. It was kind of interesting to see. I say good bye to that group of acquaintances, I head towards my hotel.

After a long walk back up towards the hilltop hotel of Valentine, I see two familiar figures walking towards me. It was Nick and Paulina, the two Aussies I had traveled with in Morocco. I knew they were going to try to meet up with me either here or in Egypt. We hit a hookah stand after dinner and get some tea. That night we said our goodbyes as I am leaving tomorrow and they are staying to check out Petra.

The funny thing is that the entire time I’m meeting people at Valentine they always bring up how much of a bitch the female owner is. She’s even notoriously mentioned in the Lonely Planet as being less than polite or friendly. One of the first things that Paulina and Nick mention is that very fact. In my experience, the owner was really nice, but then again I was checked in by the husband and not the wife.

The next morning I travel back to the border and move through much quicker this time. I take another minibus ride to the capital city of Amman and then finally a minibus ride down to Petra. After getting into Amman a taxi driver tries to rip me off by taking me the wrong station which is closer but doesn’t offer services to Petra. Luckily I shared the taxi with a Jordanian that lived in San Francisco and she caught on to it. Half way during the ride another Muslim woman and the former San Franciscan started yelling back and forth in Arabic. Finally they she turned to me and disclosed the fact that this guy was going to drop me off at the wrong station and they were arguing in my favor to get to the correct bus station.

I arrived in Petra in the evening. It was already dark, I was hungry, and I had heard that Valentine Hotel was at the top of a decently steep hill. At the drop off point a man in a truck was sitting there waiting for me. He said that he works for the Valentine Hotel and drops people off between the bus station and hotel. I suspiciously ask who much he charges and it turns out to be free. At the top of the hill I find Valentine Hotel and take a moment to breathe in enjoy the view. Tonight the hotel offers an all you can eat dinner and I can’t wait.

That night I realize that a two day Petra entrance pass is a better deal than the single day. Then you can always sell the second day. This is exactly what another group of Americans are doing. So I buy the second day off of them for a huge discount. That night I also discovered Petra beer, which looks amazingly similar to Coors Light.

This morning, Wakako, a Japanese journalist, and I take a minibus to Tel Aviv to meet up with Yoko who is already there. After getting off the minibus we had to enter a mall to cut to the other side of the street where the bus station is.

Most public buildings in Israel have some sort of security. At the mall entrance sits a single security next to a metal detector. She goes through both of my backpacks only briefly enough to see the top items and lets us through the beeping metal detector. At the other side we find a bus that is heading towards old Tel Aviv.

The public bus in Tel Aviv looks like any other normal bus, however the clientel is quite different. There are Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Soldiers carrying firearms and large duffels bags. We arrived at the old part of Tel Aviv called Jaffa. Here we get off the local bus at an amazing looking clock tower and trek towards our hostel.

The beaches of Tel Aviv start next to Jaffa and stretch all the way to the high-rise buildings of new Tel Aviv. It is winter here and the waters are still warm to swim, however I am told that the beaches are the most empty. The overall feel of this city is completely different from that of Jerusalem. It feels soul-less compared to the ancient city of Jerusalem and the modern feel of the city makes it seem like I can be anywhere in the world right now.

I meet up with Anna, a Spaniard, who I met on the Jerusalem walking tour. She is out here doing geological research for school and we decide to check out the beach and walk around the city. There are still a lot of people on the beach, especially for winter and it makes me think how great it would be to live in a place where I can hit up the beaching during Christmas. I’d imagine that it would be must like Christmas in Australia where families each sea food and go to the beach for the holidays.

That night at the hostel I meet my first Chinese traveler. She is staying in the same room has Yoko and is only here for the night and I finally get another chance to practice my Mandarin. The nights are quite cool and without a kitchen I am forced to eat at the local street food stands near our hostel. For being in the middle of the Arabic quarter of Tel Aviv the food here doesn’t hold a flame compared to Jerusalem.

I’ve met and talked to several Israeli people while I was in the city. Four out of the five have told me how Israel is the greatest country in the world within five minutes of meeting them. Yet they don’t really ever justify their statement and the discussion of their country usually ends with that statement.

The walk back from the main city to old city of Tel Aviv takes about forty five minutes. Check out this license plate I found while walking home. It is actually from Sedgwick County which is where I’m fromI usually return after sunset everyday and walk along the beach. The sunsets here have been some of the most colorful I’ve yet to see. The temperature drops immediately after the sunsets and the entire city shuts down.