Desert Dunes and Four Wheeling Emirate Style

OK, so we went four wheeling (as we call it on the West Coast)... The trip was way too much fun.



Our driver was rocking and rolling over the san dunes; I missed my childhood and driving to the Lewiston sand dunes. BUT it was nothing like this. I think if I was a teen growing up here this is the trouble we'd get into out here. Not half bad I guess.

We were four wheeling it over tall dunes and down some steep hills.

A Far off Oasis in the desert



The rolling sand dunes are SO amazing and fun to drive on...


We finally stopped at a faux bedouin camp in the deep desert. It was pretty sweet. We had the option of camel rides, fourwheeling on cute little fourwheelers, and hiking the dunes.


By the time I was done with camel rides and dune climbs I skipped the fourwheelers for some tasty food and relaxing.


Here I am riding a camel... you gotta get the rhythm like riding a horse only taller and smellier.


FUN Camel riding :)

We had a lavish dinner and lounged on pillows in a lean to (which was huge)that was bedouin style.


We hiked up the dunes to watch the sunset.

Even though I collect sunset photos (send me one for a cheap gift.. because I loooove sunset photos) I think this is my favorite sunset I've seen Subhanallah Rabi Al Amin... wow. and Verily Allah is the best of planners for real.


Amazing how lovely and unique sunsets are.. just like my hijabi sisters in the photo (Mashallah) I know... I'm cheesy, so what? I went to the desert and rode a camel in a circle with a dude leading him JUST for the fun of it. Whatever.

As the night came on we watched the stars in lovely procession as they graced the sky with their artful presence. We sat around the campfire and told stories... and got smoky smelling clothes. It's hard to believe my friends are half a world away covered in snow.

It was a chilly 62F degrees here at night and a pleasant 73F degrees daytime.

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Speaking of friends half a world away (really we're 12 hours earlier than PDX)Today's Shout out is to Ms.Billings... haha not her real name but she knows who I mean.
I just want you to know I miss our Sunday-Fundays working together.. say "Happy New Year" to my buddy the soda guy Andy. I hope your Holiday was well and your New Years is a blast (which i mean in a pacifistic and cool way)

I was thinking about you for some reason... probably something like, "What other friend from work or school would be down to camel ride, climb hills, go desert four wheeling and have a blast?" sure maybe a few other friends but I thought of you.

Isn't that sweet.. riding a camel half a world away and you came to mind. Weird. Whatever... it's not like we just met right?

VIP Wedding

Ok, so I've been a bit busy with classes and I'm sending my deepest apologies to my 5's of readers. Here's the goods from the last 2 days. Some time soon I should really get down to sharing some of my classroom knowledge as well. My Arabic class is SO great and SO packed with information that we in the advanced class have opted to come in 45 minutes early to attend class and get 3 hours of Arabic 5 days a week. We also have a Tajweed (Quranic Recitation class) which helps with Fusha (Fuz-ha) and formal pronunciation. My other classes include Seera, Fiqh, Adab, and much more. However, unlike day trips and VIP weddings these are hard to sum-up and really should be studied by every Muslim (non-Muslims would be invited and all but you gotta know what you believe in and how the Prophets lived- peace upon all the Prophets).

We have plenty of lectures, mall trips, desert safari (today see next post) and the invite of a lifetime a VIP wedding invite to the fanciest wedding of AL-Ain this year. The Prince's mother was the guest of honor and her female body guards and soldiers were everywhere. The singer who headlined the wedding was famous singer Nancy Ajram check out her official website, if you don't know who she is... it's like having Celine Dion or Whitney Houston in the 90's headline your wedding. Ya. It's that big.

HOwever, since the wedding wa super high profile, and since the ladies tend to wear amazing dresses and unveil there's strict rules against cameras and camera phones. They even put us through a metal detector and XRayed our bags.

I wish I could put up photos... but my quick description would be as follows:
The ballroom was huge with hundreds of seats around tables. The table cloths were fancy and matching perfectly with the blue silk satin of the servers long abayas and serving hijab/caps.
The lights were lovely and looked like floating bowls of light. There were lights in designs projected onto the walls which were covered on the ceiling (at least 3 stories tall) and the walls with white satin sheets. There was a raised platform for performances where they had (tastefully covered) belly dancers, cultural dancers, and Nancy Ajram perfom. The bride sat on a golden throne for her pictures.

There were tons of chocolates, treats, coffee and teas served before the meal which was at least a 12 course meal and so much more.

The Prewedding photos include my roommates Intisar looks golden


Tahanie and I look like the tall and small... well, guess who plays mini-me in this pic. Yes, I chose the same abaya only mine's pink and green. I also learned the Khaleegi girl wrap style.

Dubai Court and Princess Haya Cultural Islamic Center

The Dubai trip continued...
Our visit to the Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein Cultural & Islamic Center


The insider's look at the Dubai courts...



I loved the trip to the Dubai Courts. The Courts were an interesting experience; UAE is quite proud of their moderate take on Islam. They had a judge or "Qadi" who specialized in marriage and family rulings.

The whole court system is set up by (very moderate) Sharia law (for example)the UAE has nearly no death penalty.

The judge answered our questions and told us more information about the general system. Our favorite person was a famous translator (Al Mutargema Al Mustashfa). She is famous because she is the first female translator for the Dubai courts. According to the supervisor who gave us a power point presentation explained that she was soon to be joined by 10 more women who will work in similar positions. Recently the UAE accepted their first female judge (not in Dubai though).
We recived a court tour and were walked through the whole building and took pictures in the judge's chambers. As with the rest of Dubai the decorations were lovely and lavish.

Judge Chambers

We were given a private presentation as to the newest prevention and assessment divisions of the court system. According to the presentation, nearly 80% of court business can be done online. With familoy counseling and other advocacy they have reduced the amount of cases which go to trial. For example, through family counseling the rate of divorce dropped over 3 years from 42% to 17%, and over 60% of employement disputes were settled without going before a judge.


The stairway for the private entrance/exit


We went to the Princess Haya Bint Hussein Cultural Islamic Center in Dubai. That place was amazing. The director explained the history behind the facility. She said that 3 or 4 years ago Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein (current Princess of Dubai, and a sister to the Prince of Jordan)came to visit their small school for women. The school house was tiny and there was not enough room for the classes which covered Quran, crafts and lifeskills for local women. The Princess decided to build a huge facility and find it. Now locals can come for free to take classes in local crafts and religion as well as life style classes, computer classes and much more.

The director gave us gifts and served us lunch.

Sister Mariam Rashid poses at the sewing room (she's the last of the Rashid sisters from the BBQ post)


The hallways and classrooms were lovely; local women learned how to sew... and their facility is now state-of-the-art.



One woman showed us how she learned to weave metal with yarn and string to make a local handmade specialty.


We received gift bags and posed for pictures with the director.



Here is a photo of my room mate with a traditional Bedouin Burqa on; as you can see this style is actually a metal face plate.

Here she models the more current style niquab (face veil).




We cruised yet another mall... then returned to Al-Ain.

Dubai.. not the las Vegas of the Middle East.. It's the Dubai of the WORLD

Mashallah... can you believe the incredible feats of engineering and greatness people require, design, construct and pay for?


The extravagance found in the United Arab Emirates is exceeded only by 3 things found here: Arab hospitality, Charitable contributions and intricate attention to detail and fashion in what would be a bland black or white garment.

People occassionally refer to Dubai as the "Las Vegas of the Middle East". Hey, whatever, I've called it that before; however, now that I have been awed at the immensity of the town I realize this is not true. Dubai is the Dubai of the World. No really, it is.

Here you can see the culminating construction of the world's largest building the www.burgdubai.com. They have finally added the antanae on the top but the builders have not confirmed the final height. It is believed that it will be over 800 meters (What.. don't know meters? Please Google it or learn meters... the rest of the world does. It's SO bougoise of the USAians to do otherwise). In fact they are keeping the height a strict secret even though it's been speculated in the news (known here as "Al-Akhbar") the Malaysian National news recently reported on the Burg it's current speculated height and a Malaysian assistant.



Why else would Universal Studios be building a "Dubai Land". I didn't bother to take pictures of the work in construction. The whole huge town is under a lot of construction. Back home in Portland we always comment on the amount of cranes downtown; here there are more than 10 cranes in one shot of some buildings downtown.



This is the Dubai Train system which is set to be finished in 2009. Thank God (Alhamdulillah) the workers need a train system which is swift and air conditioned.

I did take photos of the famous Burg Al Arab. What an amazing sight; according to the official web site it's quite extravagant in the interior as well.. well we're not surprised.





We of course went to a mall in Dubai, not the extremely large and ridiculous Dubai Mall (indoor ski slope mall). But I did get a chance to get some tasty... come on guess which all American place is this?


It's astonishing to travel halfway across the world (really it's 12 hours time difference here and PDX)and see mostly USAian brands.

We also went to the Dubai Courts and Visited a lovely training school for women which is funded by the Princess of Dubai Princess Haya. I will write about those InshaAllah (God willing) tomorrow. I'm just really exhausted after such a long day..
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Today's shout out goes to my sweet Step Dad Don.
You thought I'd miss the Xmas decor.. because I'm half way across the world. We joked that everything was backwards and upside down here. It turns out you were more right than we thought!
Look an upside d0own XMas tree :)
I took this photo for you.


Love ya and miss you. Give Rob some tasty food and keep him busy. Thanks. I love ya.

Khaleeji Barbeque... BBQ UAE style

Everyone likes a BBQ.. and it turns out winter here is a great time for it. Yes, it was a bit chilly at 63 degrees F, that's 17 C for the non USAian world. So we donned our jackets (btw it's snowing back home in Portland, Oregon HAHAHAHA)and headed out to see it done.


Of course the Rashid sisters and I (well Aseelah and Khadija Rashid) were the one's willing to get our hands (and my pants) dirty. We first removed our shoes and stepped onto the preparation mat.

The Rashid sisters, Mashallah they crack me up.. and they're always having fun which makes them a lot of fun to be around. Missing music? Wish you had some tunes in the over-crowded tour van? Mashallah these sisters and their 3rd sister plus Shakira will accapella-seranade you... and then help with the BBQ!


Then we spread the sauce across the lamb... then someone flicked sauce on my slacks.. did we mention I'm a bit clumsy?


Ha! In the middle of the BBQ prep a friend called, I knew she'd get a kick out of the whole mess and so my friend Shakira answered and held the phone to my head so I could say sallams and relate the whole grand scene.

After the spices are spread the lamb is loaded with leaves and more spices into woven bags which will be buried for a day under hot coals (Total Hawaiian Luau style but more Halal and Arab)



The next day the bag is dug up, the goods are served and Subhanallah.. is that ever the tastiest smoked lamb.

Third Largest Mosque in the World- Jummah Sightseeing

Quick.. Islam 101 for my readers-

In Islam our day to attend congregation is Friday; the time varies but usually is around 12:30 or 1pm. This can be an inconvenient time in the Western World; however in Muslim countries this means the weekend is usually Friday and Saturday. That is pretty cool!

So, today was our weekend and we were sightseeing and traveling to Abu Dhabi to attend Jummah prayer at the 3rd largest Mosque in the WORLD. The only 2 mosques that are larger (or Masjid as they are often referred in Arabic)are the most famous Mosque in Medina where the Prophet Muhammad was buried(Peace and blessings upon all the Prophets), and of course Mecca the most famous Mosque which surrounds the Kabbah. We face toward mecca and the Kabbah when praying (which here in the UAE actually means praying West and in the USA means North East).
The Kabbah is the house that Abraham built with his son Ishmael.

Here are some really amazing pictures from our visit to Sheikh Zayed Mosque.


The Sun shone perfectly behind the Minaret...


Upon first walking into the outer rim of the courtyard surrounding the Mosque there are pillars which are topped with Gold Leaves and decorated with floral designs from real rare stones.
There are also quite a few lovely reflective pools out front, some pillars and The Shaykh Zayed's Mausoleum (No pics of that.. it can be seen in the backgroud in one photo).


I like the angle of the photo.. plus it shows lines up the women's entrance directly under the largest dome.




Three sisters on our trip... and one of the front pillars... not the famous gold-leaf ones...

Some interesting info about the Sheikh Zayed Mosque from the official website:
*Full name of the mosque is Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque, named after the first president and founder of the UAE, who was buried at the Mosque site after his death on 03 November 2004.
*The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is the third largest in the world according to the General Secretariat Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture in Turkey. The two mosques in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia are larger.
*The mosque is located between Mussafah bridge and Maqta bridge in the emirate of Abu Dhabi (route map).
*Area of the Shaikh Zayed Mosque is 22,412 square meters. The 4 minarets are 107 meters high.
*An Iranian carpet placed in the main prayer hall, woven by about 1200 Iranian women, is 5000 sq m and is the largest hand-woven carpet in the world, made out of 35 tons of wool and cotton.
*The main dome is the largest in the world and is 87 metres high with a diameter of 32.8 metres. There are a total of 82 domes in the mosque, of traditional Moroccan design.
*The courtyard will have a total of 1048 columns.
*The Qibla wall will be lit by about 250 EFO illuminators from Fiberstars EFO - a supplier of fiber optics.
*Construction materials and components are sourced from Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy.
*About 1500 workers involved in construction
*About 40,000 worshippers can be accommodated
*Main prayer hall can accommodate 5000 worshippers

The hutba was good, although my Arabic is still rudimentary. I enjoyed that during prayer I stood net to a Yemeni sister and a woman from Abu Dhabi.
As with the Shaykh whose home we visited, the speaking Imam stressed moderation, loving God and respect for others. These ideals are very important in Islam and the reason that UAE is looking to step forward as a moderate face of Islam.

In regards to the women's area it was lovely! Mashallah! Sometimes facilities give sisters a less than equal space, either smaller or less decorated... but we had amazing windows, decor, carpet, flat screen plasma TV's and huge speakers to hear the hutba (sermon). In fact, there were sliding window doors between sections... so technically we could see the other section just fine.


Afterwards we went to yet another UAE mall, ate at Fuddruckers.. yes folks the most all American TGIFridays or TAIFridays.. hahaha as the guys in the "Axis of Evil Comedy Tours" joked- Click on Aron Kader to see the clip about his TAIFriday's joke www.axisofevilcomedy.com. ****Warning, Aron swears a lot in this skit, if you disdain cursing don't watch the video. I however, find it hilarious**** Then our friends the Emirate sisters said they were going to go off and find other food because "We're Arabs.. we don't eat this" of course the sisters were joking. BUT it's still funny. I had a halal burger with beef bacon (I had never heard of it) and pepperjack cheese YUmmy.