For those wondering what it's like during the Christmas season in a Muslim country, you'll be happy to find that the holiday spirit is in the air. I've heard Christmas tunes being played in the stores already, trees and decorations have been easily found, lights are up in the hotels (and the remaining lights from National Day, which are white, green and red, one can at least think they are for Christmas), although I still haven't found Santa yet. I am sure he will make an appearance in the coming weeks.

We set up our tree, an upgrade from our tree in Japan which was half its size, but still leaves room for more growth in the future, to something bigger, one that's fuller and maybe even one that's real :)


We put some local flair using the red and white check men's head scarf (Keffiyeh) as a tree skirt, probably sacrilegious, oh well!

Despite an awful 3 hours wait at the border crossing and 2 flat tires, we had an extremely relaxing Eid holiday break camping and surfing in Ashkharah, Oman with another couple, Carl and Mari. They run a surf shop in Dubai and we loaded up the surfboards and SUPs on the the new trailer's first big trip. Thankfully, there was only one flat early on. It's about a 3 hour drive south of Muscat, so it's supposed to take only 8 hours, but almost 13 hours later we finally made it.


We soon forgot about the long travel day, found a spot on the beach (at night) to set up camp, went to sleep and waited for the morning sun to wake us.

Waves were at our front door every mornings, it was great. This is probably the first holiday that Nick and I have taken in a long time where we just stayed in one place, didn't do much and simply sat back and relaxed. Oh and surfed quite a bit too. Nick got his first try at driving in the sand with the Jeep, something to get used to, but he managed not to get stuck....that will come eventually. In the evenings we cooked up dinner, made our S'mores (every night) and were in bed early by 8:30 ready for another sunrise.


While Carl and Nick went into town one day to get food, I didn't leave this beach for 5 days. No honking, no city traffic, and except for a few locals...no people, so nice!

Wednesday was National Day here celebrating 38 years and the crazy crowds were out at night. It is customary for Emiratis to decorate their cars with flags, stickers, pictures of the late Sheikh Zayed and some go above and beyond spending lots of money to make theirs unique. This week, it seemed police turned a blind eye (they usually do anyways) and let most things go as far as obstruction of view fines and letting your kids sit on the roof, hang out the window, etc. fines.

While cars were only traveling a few mph, it still was concerning the way these kids were hanging out of the windows to celebrate the occasion. I think next year we'll stay in for the night, way too much honking, revving of car engines and way to many men (mostly laborers) out on the street where we both felt uncomfortable being out.

For our anniversary, Nick got me a new watch and I got him fish! He's been wanting a dog, but has settled for fish...he's wanted a few of these too!


So now let us introduce WaWa (a shoutout to Rachel in Philly and her favorite coffee spot), Anyong (Anyong, that's an Arrested Development reference) and Babu (he even comes with a head nod, just never sure if it means yes or no)...

We ventured across the border to Muscat for the weekend to see Australia play Oman in soccer. The border crossing in Al Ain is just a small trailer next to some buildings that has a piece of paper on the outside that says Visa Office. A bit strange, not sure if they are upgrading this area, but didn't look like it. You go inside and there are about 5 Emirati guys at desks, the TV is on, they are reclining in their comfy chairs, seems pretty unofficial for immigration. We handed over a few dirhams, got our exit stamp and were on our way. The Oman border is about 30km away through a border town, I guess it's no man's land, but seems to be a busy little party of town. We got visas at the Oman border, more stamps and were quickly on our way to Muscat.


It's a nice change of scenery from the UAE as all of a sudden you are no longer driving amongst sand dunes, but through mountains, proper mountains! Once we got closer to town it's about 2 hours driving on the main road with roundabouts every 10 minutes, obviously a bit annoying.

In Muscat we visited the Grand Mosque, I actually liked this one more than the one in AD, shopped at the Mutrah Souq, ate dinner along the water (great sea views) and drove along the coast which was beautiful.


Muscat has a much different feeling than Abu Dhabi, it's more relaxed, they don't have as much money so things aren't over the top. Buildings are mainly white and are only a few stories high. The Omani people are very friendly and are happy to talk to visitors unlike Emiratis, which was a nice change.


The main reason for our visit was to see Oman play Australia in the soccer. With about 150 other Aussie fans we cheered from the stands as they landed a victory for the night 2-1. We had 2 Omani guys who we met as we walked to the stadium join us, both were very nice and even wanted to sit with the Australians and cheer from our side instead. Thankfully after the game even despite the loss, the Omanis were very friendly and good sports congratulating us on the win.

We helped celebrate Christine and Sinead's birthday on a surprise (for them) Dhow Cruise in Abu Dhabi with a lavish and absolutely delicious spread of food! We took the giant Dhow (wooden boat) down the Corniche for a couple hours at night, saw the city ligths, stuffed ourselves silly, drank fruit juice (no alcohol on board) and definitely enjoyed the night!

And another post on SUPing...just because I didn't realize both of us had already started one on here!


Here's Stew Nield managing a hand stand. Gives new meaning to the term "Walking on Water" commonly used amongst SUP'ers.


Jen and two friends / students Laura and Mike. I bet Laura wishes her student were as attentive as she is.

Nick Having fun.

I had an opportunity to join a group of Emirati and Expat women for day trip to Al Ain where we visited the camel market and spent the afternoon on a date farm where we had lunch, got traditional henna done, learned more about dates, talked about our two cultures with the Emiratis and listened to a short presentation that the girls and Ali (he's like the cultural ambassador for the UAE and helped put this great day on for us)

Had my firt attempt at wakeboarding a few weekends ago...good fun, here are some pics down near the Exhibition Center owning a boat would be perfect here, but we'll stick to our 11 foot paddleboards for now...they're much cheaper!

We've been out on the beautiful waters of the UAE almost every weekend SUPing or Stand Up Paddleboarding. Dubai is gaining momentum as new people are coming down to the beach each week to give it a try and Abu Dhabi isn't too far behind. At the moment I'm trying to grow the sport in Abu Dhabi, sell some boards and get people out on the water...plenty of it here...and do something fun!