Archive for May, 2008
Royal Albert Hall: Mark Knopfler!
What a great way to end our trip! Two tickets in the 4th row of Royal Albert Hall to see the amazing Mark Knopfler. We were within 20 feet of the stage and 25 feet of Mark. The songs were great and the musicianship was excellent. The newest member of the band is a young Scotsman who plays the fiddle, recorder, and sitar masterfully. We could tell that Mark himself was a fan and watched in amazement as the Scotsman played.
The hall itself is a beautiful building and a great spot for a show. I would not have guessed that it is 140 years old.
We were amazed at the international diversity of the audience. Before the show even started, Stacy and I asked a couple to take our picture in front of the building and we returned the favor for them. It turns out they are from Spain and came to London for the concert. Stacy sat next to a couple of nice young Brits who were seeing Mark for the 3rd night in a row. There was a family of Phillipino’s behind us. A middle eastern couple sat next to me, and we were guessing the men in front of us were Italian!
The show was memorable and I hope to take Max and Avery to see Mark when he comes to our backyard, Red Rocks, in 3 weeks.
Travel is Grueling
I have not blogged in several days. Tuesday was a travel day, hot, crowded, uncomfortable flight at the back of the plane. The only positive out of the flight was watching “I am Legend” for a couple of hours. It turns out I was starting to get ill on this flight and have been fighting it ever since. I never should have eaten that piece of “jet” fruit (no idea what it was) the vendor offered me with his bare hand! My desire to be courteous won over my common sense. No more mister nice guy!
The London Underground was a great way to get from the airport to the hotel. The “tube” system is very easy to navigate and very convenient. We are near the Earl’s Court tube station in Kensington. The neighborhood is loaded with hotels remodeled from old row residences.
The blisters started to form today as the miles continue to mount. The feet, more than anything else, will enjoy the return to the USA. I don’t mean to complain too much, we are actually having a great time. We will soon be leaving to meet Silvia for a drink before we see Mark Knopfler at the Royal Albert Hall in concert. Silvia is an IABC colleague of Stacy’s from London who gave the “opening remarks” for Stacy’s workshop in Dubai.
Â
Day Three: Last Full Day :-(
Posted by admin in Photography, Travel on May 26, 2008
How many miles have I walked today? I do not know, but more than my feet would like by a long shot! After walking the city near the hotel I took a taxi to the Mall of the Emirates, the worlds largest mall. The taxi ride is 30 minutes and goes through some of the worst traffic I have seen outside southern California. The first thing I saw upon entering the mall is……SNOW! At least it was on the other side of a glass wall. The ski Dubai area is a year round ski resort. I use the term “resort” loosely. Check out the picture below. A nice view of people on the ski lift through the window of the T.G.I.F Friday’s restaraunt.
Â
The feet beckoned me to return to a stationery position so I hailed a cab for the return trip. On the way, as we were passing the worlds only 7 star hotel I asked Amman (from Pakistan) if he could get me close enough for some pictures. He obliged and we spent the next hour and a half driving around taking photos. The language barrier fell away as he bought me a bottle of water and informed me he does not like Phillipinos or Iranians. He speaks portions of 10 languages and will never return to Pakistan.Â
Â
He also took me to a beach so I could wet my toes in the Arabian Gulf, the locals do not like to call it the Persian Gulf. The water was clear and as warm as a babies bath water. I wished Stacy and the kids could be with me and we could play in the ocean. The beach was literally littered with shells. I picked the five up at my feet in one place and walked back to the taxi. Avery and I have walked a quarter mile and spent an hour to find fewer shells than I found as a second thought standing in one place! Pack your bags kids, we’re headed for Dubai!
The drive home took me by the world’s tallest building once again. The amount of construction here is astounding. We have heard that somewhere between one third and one half of the worlds construction cranes are in Dubai. I believe it! I counted 14 high rise construction cranes in one field of view.
Â
Stacy finished day two of her workshop and everything went well. We quickly made our way to the pool area to wind down. The evening was terrific, a warm breeze with the sun setting over the gulf. We had the priveledge of talking to (and buying beers for) two navy service men from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier on shore leave. This was the second group from the Abraham Lincoln we conversed and shared a drink with. Thank you John, Luke, and Chuck, it was a pleasure meeting you!
Day Two: Somethings Fishy
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on May 25, 2008
Well, day two was Stacy’s first working day. She had an early panic attack when her powerpoint presentation would not come up on her computer. The 26 class members were arriving in the room and Stacy and I are in front trying restrain our fear and act calm while trouble shooting. Luckily things came together just in time and the rest of the day went smoothly. Stacy was unsure of what to expect from the attendees but was very pleased with their level of knowledge in communications and the group was very participatory.
Meanwhile, I walked most of the day with camera in hand. I visited the market where there are a few hundred individual stalls selling fish, vegetables, fruit and meat. Each stall only sells one class of food item. Even the fruit stalls did not sell vegetables and vice-versa. There were about six stalls that only sold dates!
The fish stalls were quite lively with many of the Pakistani vendors clamouring to have me take their picture. I had limited conversations with several of them where the general flow went like this.
Vendor, “Where are you from”
Me, “America”
Vendor, “America good, Bush bad, too much fighting”Â
They all had a strong interest in visiting America and one fellow wanted me to take him home with me!
Â
The dried fish stalls had a very pungent odor, not necessarily offensive but very strong.
The fresh meat shops seemed to only have lamb. I did not see any other cut available.
Did I mention that the fish vendors were very friendly?
After my morning at the market, I spent a windy and hot afternoon at the pool. I talked with British family about what to do in London that is off the normal tourist beat. We came up with a couple of ideas and I will let you know if anything pans out when we get there.
After Stacy’s workshop was finished for the day we had a cold, refreshing, adult beverage by the pool as the sun was going down. We headed off to the Jumeirah mall for some shopping and dinner. The taxi ride was quite long and took right past the worlds tallest building, the Burj Dubai that will eventually be 30% taller than the next closest competitor. It is an impressive site to say the least.
The Jumeirah mall also offers a good view of Burj Al Arab Hotel, the world’s only seven star hotel. It is certainly a beautiful structure. I have heard that they let people who cannot afford to stay there tour the hotel for 50 Dirham, or about $13. Not too bad considering a single nights stay in the smallest room is $1,500.
Stacy and I had a good Lebanese meal where she had a hearts of palm salad that was terrific. I had the kafta which the waiter repeatedly reminded us was raw lamb. It took a while to convince him I knew what I was ordering. The kafta was very good simply scooped up with a piece of pita bread. The seasoning of garlic, onion, and cumin was very good.
In general, the shops in the Jumeirah mall were not very interesting except for two. The exotic home furnishings shop was terrific. We fell in love with a Persian rug but are not the kind of people to drop $4,000 on the small version of the one we wanted. The other shop we liked offered hand made clothing from Kashmir. Stacy did buy a stunning jacket kind of thing with incredible hand embroidery of a flower motif. Maybe a picture will be forthcoming as Stacy can not wait to wear it.
Day One: Gold, Spice, Fabric and Food
Posted by admin in Food, Photography, Travel on May 24, 2008
Thanks to Ambien we had a great night sleep. Woke up early no problem and started day 1 in Dubai. The Hyatt Regency is very nice here and we had a wonderful breakfast buffet. I had lychee fruit for the first time and absolutely loved it. It tasted like lemonade and grapefruit to me. The cheeses and baba gnoush, foul medemas were terrific. Thanks to my uncle Aref I started early, eating and loving middle eastern cuisine.
We walked to the gold souk which is interesting. Several hundred stores filled with gold based jewelry and plenty of salespeople from every possible nation on earth to show the goods. I rather liked an $8,000 necklace for Stacy but decided to save my money for a car or a year of college for the kids. Of course this necklace was no where near as expensive as much of the wares.
After some serious gold over exposure we found our way, with many stops to ask directions, to the spice souk. Again, many shops, many people enticing you to enter their shop. The area is full of wonderful aromas, interesting sites, and friendly people. I finally found a ready supply of zatar. In Denver I always have difficulty finding it. Here it is available in every shop with a 10 pound bag of the stuff.
Finally got to see what frankincense is after hearing about it all these years in christmas songs and stories. The saffron is of the Iranian variety and much cheaper than what we can get in the US. We have learned their are a lot of Iranians here and they use saffron in almost everything. The Iranian cuisine is significantly different than the Arabic food I am used to.
We continued our exploration of Dubai with a quick, nondescript lunch at a middle eastern chain. We hired a “guy off the street” to drive us to the fabric souk on the other side of the creek. Until now we had stayed on the south side of the creek in the Deira section of the city. The fabric is in the Bur Dubai area, north of the creek.
At first Stacy was dissappointed because we learned that the stores don’t sell by the yard they sell by the roll! A roll is usually 25 yards, so unless Stacy is going to make the whole family matching head-to-toe outfits she won’t need anywhere near that much fabric. Luckily, after some diligent shopping, we found some hand made Indian fabrics that are too elaborate to sell in such bulk and are packaged in 2 meter lengths; just right for a Stacy project! We went on to find other options for Stacy to feed her fabric habit. This nice gentleman in the photo was patient with us as we scoured his store and even gave us a cold can of peach juice. A very nice gesture indeed considering the heat outside.Â
I can’t wait to see what day two will bring!
Â
Â
The Trip Begins
We are two legs down of three on our way to Dubai. Having breakfast, cup of Starbuck’s, and a quick email fix while waiting in London. It is grey and misty here this morning at about 8am local time 2am personal clock time. So far, international travel is highly over rated. Next time I insist on business class or better! I am going to talk to my boss about it. Not only the flying conditions are rough, I miss my kids greatly. You don’t realize how hard the separation will be until you board that plane; at least I didn’t.
Heathrow is certainly interesting. It has clearly been cobbled together in haphazard fashion over a century or more. Hard to describe other than a labyrinthian series of concourses to walk and still more shuttle time winding around seemingly aimlessly until you happen onto terminal 4. We hope we have some fresh clothes when we get to the Arabian Gulf!
Next post from Dubai!
Travel Blog Inspiration
As I prepare for the trip to Dubai and London I am inspired by the travels, writings, and travel writing of Susanne Salvo. Her Salvo at Large blog is a great read; humorous, informative, with great pictures and skillfully written. I heartily recommend you take a look! She, along with her photographer husband, have been to something like 130 countries. My list of countries will blossom to 6 when I get UAE and Great Britain.
Countdown to Dubai
We will be heading for Dubai, UAE in 17 days. Stacy and I are very excited and if it were not for the hundreds of things left to do we would wish we could leave tomorrow.
Stacy is finishing up her revisions to the training materials she will use for the Marcus Evans internal communications training session she is teaching. We will be at the Hyatt Regency Dubai for 4 nights; one day to recover from jet lag, two for the actual training, and one day for Stacy to decompress and enjoy some of what the city has to offer.
Oh, but the fun doesn’t stop there. We go on to London for 4 days and nights of 20th wedding anniversary celebrating! We don’t have firm plans for what we want to do and see in London other than a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. I bought 2 tickets on the UK eBay site to Mark Knopfler!
We have loved Mark since the Dire Straits days and saw him two years ago at Red Rocks. It was a fantastic show and we look forward to seeing him on his home turf.