Terrifying Experience

Wednesday. Wake-up call at 6:00. Taxi picked us up at 7:00 and took us to the airport. Unlike the flight going to Dubai, this one was not full so I had an empty seat beside me which was sweet. About three-quarters through the flight, we encountered some terrifying turbulence. Not just normal turbulence, but TURBULENCE to the nth degree. The plane was rocking back and forth very badly and dipping badly and Ralph said afterwards that the overhead compartments were shifting. Talk about pandamonion on the plane. Everyone was screaming and hollering and crying, including me and all I could say was "we're going to die, we're going to die" as I truly felt we were. A man somewhere in the plane behind us was hollering loudly "Jesus, take control; Jesus, take control", over and over again. I never prayed so hard in my life. I think most everyone thought we were going down and were going to die - everyone except Ralph of course who was as cool as a cucumber. I'll never forget it as long as I live. And the thought that went through my head was the instructions I had left with Todd, was it an omen. After things calmed down, a woman across the aisle from Ralph, threw up three times in the bags. Also, the attendants had to give oxygen to someone else. It was a horrible experience.

We are at the Days Hotel in Toronto tonight and I hate it. Looking forward to getting home in the morning. Although it's 10 to 7:00 in the evening here, it's 10 to 4:00 in the morning for us right now as we didn't/couldn't sleep on the plane. So we are dead tired and off to bed.

End of Holiday

I'm posting two blogs right now. Obviously, I forgot to post yesterday's after I wrote it - I do recall practically falling off my chair as I was so sleepy.

This is Tuesday night and the party is over. We will be leaving for the airport at 7:00 a.m. and I, for one, am not looking forward to the 14 1/2 hour direct non-stop flight to Toronto. I'm wishing now that we could go straight home when arriving in Toronto but suitable connections to Regina could not be made so we have to spend the night in TO. Kids, we'll be at the Days Inn (airport).

Anyway, this morning we hopped on the metro to the Al Rigga district (an outstanding item on our to do list) and had breakfast at one of the many cafes. As well, Ralph wanted to go to the clock tower there. We walked and walked and walked and window shopped and did this, that and the other thing. The rest of the day was spent souvenir shopping for the family and clothes shopping for our grandchildren - poor little things, they are so deprived, they have hardly no clothes! Anyway, I enjoyed every minute of it. We went for supper about 6:30, again to the Al Rigga district after which we partook in all of the festivities going on in the streets for the Dubai Shopping Festival - parades, acts, entertainment, fireworks, etc., etc.

You see and hear all the great and good things about Dubai and we saw them all, but there's a dark side. All the luxury and the beauty and the buildings were built on the backs of others (cheap off-shore labour), mainly Pakistanies, Filipinos, Sri Lankans, Africans, Indians. Labour legislation in Dubai is practically non existent. For all the hardships that these off-shore labourers have in this country, they're still better off here than they would be at home. All the service sector employees - restaurant staff, hotel staff etc., that we met, were all extremely friendly, approachable and hard-working, mostly Filipino ladies.

There will be one more blog entry after this one.

The Gold Souks

Monday morning following breakfast, we took the metro to Deira City Mall, just to look around. Came back to the hotel about 3:00 to charge batteries (no, not the cameras' batteries, our batteries, ha) and then the plan was that we would find our way to the Gold Souks, an outstanding item on our list of things to do. We had not used the busses up till now as it was a little hard to figure out the schedules/routes; however, with help from the hotel staff, we learned that we could take bus 31 which goes directly to the Gold Souks. This, we did, and we could use our NOI cards on the bus. Good heavens, the Gold Souks are jewellery stores upon jewellery stores upon jewellery stores, selling, you guessed it, gold jewellery. We had fun window shopping and shop owners were all over you, trying to get you to come into their store. We spent several hours there as that's how long it took to see everything. We then found out what bus we should take to get us back to our part of town. Using the busses was fun and we're sorry we hadn't introduced ourselves to them earlier; however, as it was, our days/nights were full and there really wasn't time. Once back in our area, we went out for a late supper (9:30) and sat outside and watched all the action. It's now 11:00, Dad is snoring already and I'm falling off my chair again so that's it for now.

Scenic Oman

Sunday (regular weekday). We had a horrible sleep last night, probably because we were afraid the alarm wouldn't go off at 5:30 a.m. We were picked up by our driver at 6:30 a.m. as today we will be doing a full-day dhow cruise of a fjord in the Musandam area of Oman (northeast tip of the Arabian Peninsula). It was about a three-hour drive to get there and we had to "exit" at Emirates immigration and "enter" at Oman immigration. Our driver (Rauf) basically handled everything for us, but we had to be with him. On the way there, our trunk was searched, yikes. The car ride there was very interesting and relaxing. The landscape so different. Once we crossed the border, we were in for a very pleasant and unexpected surprise. Talk about scenic. On one side was the mountains and on the other side the Arabrian Gulf. We climbed up and climbed down on hairpin turns, the highways are excellent. Rauf stopped several times so that Ralph could take pictures. He got us to our dhow by 10:00 a.m. and would be back to get us at 4:00 p.m. I had never heard of the word "dhow" before and didn't know what it meant. It's an olf-fashioned wooden boat and you sit on cushions on the floor. We were put on boat 3. We were supposed to leave at 10:00 a.m. but didn't get away until 10:30 as a group of other tourists were late. There were ten guests on our boat. Besides ourselves, the other 8 people were from Germany. We would be out on the water for 6 hours. Tea and coffee was served to all, followed by bananas, apples and dates (always dates, grown here), followed by juices and/or soft drinks. The first stop was in a bay where the dolphins are active. The three dhows stayed together and we did indeed see the dolphins jumping and playing and they like to follow the boats. It was neat, I think Ralph got some good pictures. There were about 4 guys as crew, with Mina (guy from Egypt) doing the commentary, etc. As we went through the fjord, the scenery was beautiful. There are small villages and the way of life in those villages was told to us. I think the next place we anchored was at Telegraph Island. It is the famous location where the British laid underwater cable in 1864 from India to Iraq, to communicate the two countries with England. While anchored at Telegraph Island, everyone (from all three boats) went snorkeling. Everyone, except for me of course! (and another German couple who were on our boat). Ralph had taken his swimming suit with him, and the flippers, masks, breathing tubes, and towels were provided. They were given 45 minutes to snorkel. They were not allowed to remove any coral, but could gather other things. When everyone was back on the boat(s), lunch was served. Lunch consisted of salad, stew, rice, fish and nan bread. After lunch we continued on through the fjord (I forgot my sunglasses and also forgot the sunblock). The next stop was another place that is great for snorkling and they were given another 45 minutes to snorkel. Ralph and I were the oldest (from all 3 boats) but your dad kept up with best of them, ha. While the snorkling was going on, the crew had fishing lines out. Mina was successful in catching a big baracuda. The 5-star hotels in Dubai buy them to serve in their restaurants. When leaving the boat today, Ralph asked Mina what kind of fish we had for lunch and he said baracuda. Had I know that, I probably wouldn't have eaten it, but it was good. We arrived back at the dock at 4:00 p.m. and all the drivers were there waiting for everyone. We left there shortly after 4:00 p.m. and got back to our hotel at 7:30 and the traffic was very heavy. Again, on the way back, we thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Oman (mountains and sea), and then in the Emirates, the barren sand dunes. Two more border stops of course, "exit" at Oman immigration and "enter" at Emirates immigration. Even though we didn't do the talking, it's always so intimitating (like Russia - Olga, ha, ha). This time (when entering Emirates) we again stood at the counter with Rauf. Immigration officer looked at our passports and looked as us, and then Rauf told us we could sit down while he remained at the counter for the paperwork, stamping, etc. Soon, Ralph was called back up and I was nervous - it's just bloody scary when you're so far away from home. They wanted to have a better look at him, ha. Meanwhile, two wickets over, a ruckus was going on. We didn't know what was happening but apparently one of the German women (who was on one of the boats) - the page of her passport that contains her picture was torn out of the book (loose). And they're saying (loudly), how do we know this is your passport, sort of thing. I'm not sure how it all played out for her but she and the officer were having words, yikes.

We got back to the hotel at 7:30 p.m., traffic was horrendous in the city, and we were pooped from our adventure. We then had to go out for supper so went to Nando's tonight and ate at the tables outside and watched all the action - people, people, people.

OK, it's 15 to 11:00, Ralph is snoring and I'm falling off my chair.