Now in Bombay!

I made it to Bombay with no problems. Sidd was waiting for me at the airport and all is set for our tour to begin! Better post coming about my last days in Abu Dhabi and my plans for India - all is well!!

The Desert and the hot springs

I got to travel around Abu Dhabi a bit the other day to Al-Ain, a town about an hour and a half from Abu Dhabi. This town doesn't have much to do or see other than a hot springs area and a mountain which provides really great views of the desert (during the day - I was there at night). It was fun to get out of Abu Dhabi for a bit, here are some pics.The desert on our way out of Abu Dhabi, the sand is a really nice red color

Me at the hot springs. It was piped out of this man made rock down a stream so people can sit along and enjoy the water, but it's like 100F outside and the water is hot, so why would you want to soak in it, I really don't know - I just touched it, haha

The springs were surrounded by these rocky hills which were really fun to climb. I would have loved to just explore around them and hike a bit, moving my body felt really good after being inside for so long. (can you see me?)

View from the to of the hill that I climbed, I kept thinking mom would find this place really fun because of all the layers in the rocks and such - hehe

View from the top of the mountain/hill over the city of Al Ain. It really was beautiful at night, but I can only imagine what it looks like during the day or at sunset with the desert - very pretty I'm sure!

Sara had her last day of school today so in celebration she and a few friends rented a Hummer limo to take them around the city. Madonna and I got to tag along so I spent my afternoon cruisin' Abu Dhabi in a limo - pretty sweet huh?

We might head to Dubai tonight then a water park tomorrow, but we'll see.

A bit of my time here in the UAE

So what I've learned about the UAE since traveling around it a bit is that if you don't like to shop then you better like the heat. The malls are super impressive, just huge stories of all types of shops but just like the ones at home - one in particular reminds me of Cheery Creek Mall back in CO. If you don't like to shop, then you are going to spend a lot of time outside either at the beach or just looking at the awesome buildings. Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are just huge cities with very unique buildings and they are adding to them at an alarming rate. Here are some of the fun things I've seen.Me in a goofy chair in one of the shops at Marina Mall, a huge mall in Abu Dhabi

Me in front of the Emirates palace - note the cranes and construction going on behind

Abu Dhabi skyline - everything looks very hazy, and I'm not sure if it is humidity or pollution, but I can never find a horizon because of this haze.

Mosque in Dubai - the mosques here in general are very beautiful

The Emirates palace - this is the big hotel in Abu Dhabi, and it is HUGE

The Famous Burj Al-Arab. This is the 7 star hotel in Dubai, you aren't allowed inside without a booking, rooms start at about $2000 - I think...

UAE - Abu Dhabi

I made it to Abu Dhabi with no problems at all. Ajlan mom, Madonna, was waiting for me at the airport and we went back to her flat. Her daughter, Ajlan's sister, Sara was there as well and she is really fun. So far I've just taken a day to get myself together and relax which has been great.

It is beyond hot here though, around 105F (Gavin you would be in heaven *wink*). Madonna was saying that the ocean is even hot so you jump in and it doesn't cool you down, I'll have to see about that though. There is discussion about going jet skiing this afternoon which would be fun. No solid plans yet though.

I'll post pics when I have some! Thanks for the comments and emails - keep them coming!

Rabat

Katie and I are now in Rabat, the political capital of Morocco. It is a much more western city than either Fes or Meknes. The men wear more suits and western dress than I've seen in the other cities. The medina is much calmer and easier to navigate (proud to announce we did not get lost!) We are staying here for two days and then heading back to Casablanca so I can catch an early flight on Saturday to the UAE. Katie then gets to head home! Oh, and for some reason Katie attracts flies... she might need a really good scrubbing when she gets home - just a heads up to her family! We also had quite the adventure with the squat toilet in the hotel. Through much awkward conversation we figured out which way to stand to minimize splashing and other yucky things... My Indian experiences did not help much in that department I discovered but we figured it out! Yay us! (potty training - passed)

Having a really fun time - hope all is well at home.

The most beautiful pink room in Rabat, and it is all ours for only $15 a night!! Granted the room does come with a sunrise call to prayer, so we didn't really sleep in too much.

Umm... we are in Morocco right?? I was unaware that other countries found our presidents worthy of street names. haha

Wandering near the Challah wall, look at those hiking sandles! (thanks daddy...)

Katie exploring the Chellah

Katie and I at the Chellah, an area of ruins

The Sephamore platform in the Kasbah, it is used to send messages to incoming ships and near by Sale (a town just across the estuary)

Little people live here, I wouldn't have an easy time getting inside...

Walking (Rocking) the Kasbah.

Diligently writing home from a view over the Atlantic ocean.

The souqs in the medina, selling everything from carpets to soap

Higidies!! Actually they are turtles, but in Roatan, Honduras, they are Higidies

These were for sale in the medina, these were the smallest ones.

Meknes - the greatest of adventures to date!

Katie and I packed up and left Fes. We had discovered that it is a nice city, easier to navigate than Casablanca, but those darn medinas still get us all turned around! The pressure of guides to follow them, and then men making comments gets a bit tiring and when you are trying to ignore them in the medinas (which are the old, walled in parts of the city with very narrow winding streets full of shops, stalls, and homes) you tend to get lost quickly. So we were a bit happy to leave Fes and head to the seemingly quiter Meknes. Rachel had headed back to Casablanca at this point to meet up with her sister. So it is back to the two of us!

Before we left Fes, I had to make a little purchase... custom made purchase *wink*

We are relying on a lot of bread for our breakfast meals as it is easy, cheap, and available everywhere. We eat a lot of sweet roll type things which usually do the trick until we get hungry and ready to eat some lunch. Although, sometimes, Katie and I are just a bit strange and decide to play tug-of-war with the baguette...

We arrived in Meknes, after a very brief 45 min train ride from Fes. We met a delightful couple from Buffalo, NY on the train and chatted with them. Very nice start to the trip. We searched around for a hotel as the first one we looked at (LP recommended) ended up being more expensive than the guide said it would be. No problem though, we found a place for Dh 100 which is like $14 - pretty sweet I think!

We then decided to explore the city, the Lonely Planet has a nice walking tour of the medina which looked like a good idea and it started close to some nice looking lunch stalls.

These were the nice lunch stalls out in the middle of a central square. There were tons of stalls to choose from, all with these little seating areas separated by colored table cloth. We selected the stall with a few patrons and women so we felt comfortable.

This was my DELICIOUS meal! Mint tea with vegetable tangine and bread. The tangine is a very traditional Moroccian dish.

After a very nice lunch, Katie and I set off to do the walking tour of the medina - lets hope that we don't get lost this time!!

On the walking tour, I had to take my artistic photo - so here is the landscape, through the archway of the medina. Oh, and we are hopelessly lost at this point...

There was this incredible stand of olives and lemons all stacked very carefully in these pyramids, it was quite impressive.

These are snails... The Moroccians eat es-car-go (sp?) out of stalls on the street. It is a fairly common sight to see them cooked in big pots, but not live in giant bins such as this.

After we had found ourselves again after being hopelessly lost Katie and I were in need of some down time, not to mention a shower. So when in Rome... we went to the Hammams. The hammam is a communal bath house with very hot water available. Most homes do not have hot water for showers and the hammam is a time for socializing and chatting, especially among women. So Katie and I took our shampoo and soap and headed to the hammam for a thorough scrubbing. We bought traditional olive soap which helps soften the skin (apparently) and a scrubbing mit which we learned is used to rub off/exfoliate the outer skin. It was a fun experience and it felt really good to get clean, that is for sure!! Though standing in a hot open room, like an under-steamed steam rooom, with a bunch of naked women staring at your white skin is a bit odd. Everyone was super nice though, and underwear is left on, so nothing was too embarassing.

After returning from the hammam, we decided to wander the medina again, only this time to just watch and wander, not to try to stick to a path. We had a nice place for dinner all picked out at well so we were excited about our evening. Little did we know that that was not at all what we would do!

Once at the same center in the medina where we had lunch we found large groups of people gathered around street performers. Katie and I curiously went to see what it was about. Unfortunatly, it was all in Arabic (naturally) so we didn't understand what was going on at all. So we wandered to the next group to see if something less language dependent was going on. It was here a man approached Katie and mimed some type of greeting and what we thought to be "I think you are pretty." Katie said thank you, blushed, and we walked away and began our wandering.

We stopped to buy dates and look at small things in the shops and just wander, the people watching was great. The medina was much fuller with local people than earlier so we were left alone by most shops and felt fine just wandering. After a few turns around in the medina, we were approached again by the same man, or rather Katie was approached. This time he held a note of sorts which someone had attempted to write in English. The gist was, he thinks Katie is pretty and wants us to meet his family. I'll leave out the details, but the rest is best explained in pictures - what a fun night!

Nabil and his mother Fatima in their small room home.

Katie and I, along with Nabil's sisters and friends. They let us try on traditional Moroccan dresses, and Katie actually got to keep hers!

The family was so welcoming and offered to do henna with us! It was so fun because Nabil's grandmother was there too and she was quite the baller. She was passing out high-fives like crazy! Katie got quite the henna tattoo - both feet and part of the shins!

I opted for something smaller and not on my feet, yet it is nevertheless detailed. The henna was very fresh and our skin was recently pummeled by the exfoliating mit at the hammams, so the henna stung pretty bad after sitting on the skin for a while. Although today it looks quite nice, a pretty brownish-red color.

After such and adventure, and many attempts at communicating (they spoke Arabic and French, Katie and I speak... English) we made it back to the hotel in the evening and laughed about the failed attempts at chatting and the endless offers of food. My goodness, every few minutes Fatima, the mother, was offering us drinks, cakes, couscous etc. Very kind but so hard to say no all the time too.

We are now in Rabat, the capital of the country for at least a day, maybe two. We might meet up with a couchsurfer and tour the city, but we will have to see.

Thanks to everyone who leaves me comments, it's great to know people read the blog! I love hearing about home and knowing how you all are doing!

*Katie says hi to her family and friends too - thanks for those comments as well

Fés and all its greatness...

Katie and I are now exploring Fés with Rachel who we met at the youth hostel in Casablanca. Here are some pics from our outing, enjoy!

A beautiful promanade in Ville Nouville

The tanneries in the old city, it smelled terrible, the white stuff has pigion shit, really, not joking. It apparently softens the leather and "cleans" it.

Lost in the medina, again... but pretty fountain

Apprentice pottery painter, one of Moroccos handicrafts

Hand laying the mosaic tiles for a fountain similar to the one above, such detailed work!

Casablanca!! We are in Morocco

So Katie and I made it to Morocco! We met up at the airport and made our way to Casablanca by train (35 min). We stayed at the youth hostel there and wandered the medina (old part of the city) We got ourselves lost and found again, basically just exploring away the hours until we just couldn't walk anymore. It was at this point we walked some more to find food where we ate for only 5 Dh which is approx. 85cents!!.

Fruits and vegetable in the medina

This morning, Katie along with a fellow traveler we picked up named Rachel made our way to the Hassan II Mosque. It is the third largest mosque in the world holding up to 25,000 worshipers at one time. It was stunning, and of course huge! The coolest part is the roof opens to allow the heat to escape, because as you can imagine, 25,000 people get quite hot in there. All the building materials used were from Morocco - all except some white marble and glass which came from Italy, but really that was a super tiny part of the mosque. Another impressive point is that it was constructed in just 6 years. Of course it faces toward Mecca, so we at least knew which way east was!

The huge doors to the mosque - see how small I am!!

Katie and I standing outside the mosque, it has the highest religious minaret in the world standing 200 meters high! It was beautiful!

My artistic shot through a multitude of arches, very Islamic in nature, and so pretty.

All set to head out of Casablanca! Katie, along with Rachel, and myself are off to Fes by train! There is a lot to explore and see there as well. We are pumped!

Time in Karlsruhe, Germany!

So I'm in Karlsruhe Germany right now with Jessica, a good friend of mine from Purdue. She is here studying abroad with the GEARE program! I met up with her yesterday and hung out with a few of her friends, both German and other Purdue students also on study abroad. It was a fun night, though I speak zero German (danka doesn't really count) so sometimes I got to just sit and listen to crazy German chatter. They drink a lot of beer it turns out, and they walk around the city carrying open bottles! I was surprised to see that for sure. Jessica took me around the campus so I could see where they study and spend their time. Here are some pictures of the campus!This is the castle that they live in front of... yup she walks outside to this everyday! I'm so envious!

Me in the park behind the castle with a fun little pond

There was a big party at one of the dorms which we went to check out. There were a lot of people despite it being a holiday the next day (Assention of Jesus Christ? perhaps). Boy do these Germans know how to drink!! I did not partake in the festivities as I had just finished flying for about 10 hours and didn't think that drinking would help with the jet lag.

Today Jessica and I roamed around a near by town of Heidelberg which has a pretty impressive castle and fun downtown area. It was a holiday so it seemed a bit crowded, but then I think about India, and realize that it isn't crowded at all! Haha!

Jessica and I along the Neckar River which cuts through Heidelberg

The crowd in the downtown area of Heidelberg

Me by this very weird looking tree... so goofy looking! This was in a main plaza/square (platz in German)





The castle! It was so pretty sitting up on the hill overlooking over the town below.

This was the sign that guided our way to the castle. Note the wonderful artistic rendition of the castle and the small child and mother who will take twelve minutes to reach there, or you can be lazy and take the tram. We chose to walk it - but oh my was the walk steep!

My attempts at artistic photography - a church's spire through the window of the castle

The destroyed portion of the castle. Jessica noted how thick the walls were. I think their rook was taken out though...