Staycation!!

After returning from Thailand, I took my second week of break to chill out around Abu Dhabi. My neighbor had his cousin in town from Arizona, so I tagged along with them to do some touristy stuff.

I finally went to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. This is one of the main tourist attractions in Abu Dhabi, I just had never gone to visit, even though I pass it on my way to and from work everyday.

The Grand Mosque certainly is GRAND. It has 82 domes of 7 different sizes, is large enough to accommodate 40,000 worshipers, and has seven imported chandeliers from Germany that have millions of Swarovski crystals. It cost 2 billion Dirhams to build, which is equivalent to $545 Million USD.

After the mosque, we made our way to Ferrari World. I had been to Ferrari World one other time, but it was a holiday weekend and the crowds were awful. My friend and I stood in line for 3 hours to ride the world's fastest roller coaster. By the time we did that, the place was closing. We went to customer service and complained and were given two tickets to come back again another time, so this was it.

This time there were NO crowds, NO lines, and a much, much better experience. We rode all the rides, and even rode the Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller coaster, twice in a row with no waiting.

The coaster goes from zero to 150mph in 3.9 seconds and a 4.8 G-force (although I never really knew what that meant). Anyway, it is fast.. In fact, it was so fast it almost blew my shirt off. I spent the whole ride trying to keep my clothes on and not arrive back at the station topless, which here in Abu Dhabi, most likely would have resulted in arrest and/or deportation..lol...

We also went to Saadiyat Island, which is right next door to the island I live on, even though it ends up being a 20 minute drive by car! Saadiyat is still a really bare island, but it will be the up-and-coming seven star resort area. There is already a golf course there and they recently added a St. Regis hotel resort. We went to the Monte Carlo resort one night for dinner and drinks with a group of friends.. This place is like heaven. The food was awesome, and the weather was perfect. As you can see, the setting was great.. I don't know why I only took pictures of the pool, but it was wonderful.  What you can't see is, right beyond the pool is the gulf waters.

The following few days were fun filled evenings and outings. One of the best days was when I went to the gym at my apartment in the morning. The gym here overlooks the city to one side and the gulf waters to the other. As I was working out, I saw a huge cruise ship pull into the port. I see this fairly often, so I thought nothing of it. But just then Facebook notified me my friend was nearby at Abu Dhabi Port.. Turns out a whole crew of my Georgia teacher folks were on the cruise ship coming in. Granted, they all live here now, but they were placed in Al Ain, which is about an hour and a half away, so I rarely see them. I had a few prior commitments that day, but was able to spend about 3 hours with them, which was wonderful and refreshing. We went out for coffee and dessert and they came to see my apartment. It was a great afternoon. Here is a picture of us from the coffee shop.

Spring break was wonderful but now I am back to work. Only 39 days with students left, 54 work days for me left, and only 81 days till I fly back to the States for a visit! Counting it down!!

THAILAND!!!!

I spent the first week of Spring Break in Phuket, Thailand. After a week-long trip, there is way too much to write about. This is yet another post that I think will be best told in mostly pictures.


PART 1: ON OUR WAY AND ARRIVING AT THE HOTEL.

The currency in Thailand was genious. All bills sizes correlated to their value, they were different colors, and rarely use coins. Mentally, I am horrible at math, but conversions for me here were fairly easy, for whatever reason. A 100 Baht bill was worth about $4 US Dollars. Here in the UAE, I still can't wrap my mind around the conversion.

For anyone traveling to Phuket, I recommend our hotel, Amata Resort. It was right in the middle of everything so we walked everywhere. It was older, but very clean and friendly. It cost about $60 USD a night, which is about "middle of the road" in cost and quality for Thailand. If you do stay at Amata, ask for a room in building 2. It is newer and nicer.

Mini Shower!!!

Our hotel room:

Interesting view from the balcony of our room:

Sign on the back of our door:

PART 2: OUT AND ABOUT EXPLORING

Let me just start by saying Phuket has the largest amount of power lines I have ever seen in my life!
I will also say Bangla Road actually reminded me a little of Bourbon Street. Outdoor, open-air bars, the smell of raw sewage, and random people and animals.

Just holding a lemur on the street. I was a little disappointed that I held this one because the next day there was another one wearing little tiny pants and a hoodie sweatshirt!!

I may or may not have taken some engagement photos of an Asian couple one night.

PART 3: HANGING OUT DAY
The first full day we really just hung out, walked around, and went to the beach.

 We got pedicures: Cost about $7 US dollars. Awesome.

View from the rooftop of our hotel:

That night, I ventured out alone to see what goes on.

Yes, these are the famous "lady-boys" you hear about:

Drunk Aussies making a work of art on their friend:

This bartender, Bird, didn't know much English so he challenged me to a game of Connect Four:

All in all a really fun day and night!




PART 4: ACTIVITY DAY PART 1: ELEPHANT TREKKING
Hotter than hell, but it was fun!

 This baby elephant was playing the harmonica in it's trunk. It was kind of disturbing:

My favorite pic of the trip:

ACTIVITY DAY PART 2: ZIPLINING THROUGH THE JUNGLE
My favorite part of the entire trip. It was so fun, I am hooked on ziplining and can't wait to go again sometime!

Our group guide, Ping Pong. He was hilarious. When he wasn't singing "I believe I can die"..

Being adventurous, jumping off backward:

 Away I go backward:

PART 5: ISLAND HOPPING DAY!

PART 6: OTHER RANDOM PICTURES

Thai Lipton:

Walking on the beach, we came to an area where all these little tiny silver fish were dead and washed up. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

I can't remember the name of this soup, but it was so good I had it twice.. Both times in 90 degree weather.

Scenery

Me on my one and only ride in a tuk tuk.

This is the entrance to the Novotel. Looked really nice.

Little car for little people.

Thai Lay chips:

A few nights a later I took some friends back to the same bar. We played giant Jenga. In this picture is Kirstin and me, with two Aussies we met on our boat to the islands.

The guy on the left was also on our boat to the islands. He was from Turkey. I could never remember his name so we just ended up calling him Turk. The guy on the right is Sheldon from Australia.

Fun times together!

One of the super nice waitresses at the bar we enjoyed going to. With a photobomb in the back by Bird, the bartender.

This is Tiger, one of my absolute favorite people I met there. He is a Thai guy that worked on the beach doing parasailing. I met him the very first night there, and this picture was taken one day randomly running into each other on the streets.

Saying goodbye to Tiger before I left Thailand.

I loved seeing all the scooters, especially the scooters that had been turned into food carts.

Every afternoon, all the restaurants would display their fresh fish on ice near the sidewalks.

I had an 8 hour layover in Bangkok on the way back. With a dead phone, I searched for an hour looking for an outlet in the airport. This is the best I could do:

And one of my favorite pictures from the trip: Swimming off the boat at Phi Phi Island.