What an amazing week it has been! I've had the opportunity to get to know the area, experience Ramadan, eat a variety of foods, and safari in the desert.
Ramadan is a truely interesting religious holiday for the Muslim world. To start, everyone fasts from sun up to sun down. This includes food, water, smoking, and all other consumables. To be respectful, it is expected that all foreign nationals respect the holiday and don't partake in food or drink in public. Well, this is awfully difficult at times, especially not drinking water outside when it is 110 degrees out!! If caught, you can incur severe fines. Moreover, nearly everything is closed during the day time. The shopping malls are grand here. There is even an indoor ice rink at the mall down the street. However, you can't really go there during the day because nothing is open until 8:00 pm. When they do open their doors, it is a hustling and bustling place fillled with families and expats searching for food and other needs. In turn, your schedule gets thrown off a bit because you end up being out until a late hour, just in search of food or other minimal items. Being a part of Ramadan can be quite an inconvenience (for nonmuslims, of course) at times, but it has been a wonderful thing to experience!!!
Experiencing the food here has also been an adventure. It's not as different as some might think. You can get a burger or pizza if you want to, but who really wants to eat the same old food I've been eating my whole life when there are endless new opportunities? I have eaten plenty of sea food while here, including lots of shrimp, that hasn't been deshelled (i.e. Red Lobster style). Recently several companions and I went to the Lebanese Flower, a local restaurant specializing in, you guessed it, Lebanese food. We ate shrimp, steak, chicken, humus, dates, in a family style setting. It was exceptional, and dirt cheap too!! Last night I participated in an Iftar, a celebration ending the days fast. The food was delicious and included more meats, rice, humus, salad, and fruits. The food here is nearly all fresh and without preservatives. It's amazing to eat an apple that isn't covered in wax!!!
Yesterday we traveled about an hour outside of the city to the desert for a safari. We took a bus to the desert where we were greeted by camels ready to give us a ride. The rides didn't last long but it was still an enjoyable experience. Afterwards, we went to one of the dunes and did some sandboarding. Essentially it is snowboarding but on sand. Of course I've snowboarded exactly once in my life (I'm a skier!!) and wiped out my first time down. I managed to hang on and make it to the bottom the second time. Next, we climbed some dunes and I even did some dune jumping, reminiscent of the dune jumping I've done every summer for years in Michigan. Soon we were summoned to the SUVs to go offroading through the desert. At first we were riding comfortably along some pretty flat terrain. This soon changed though! We were the third car in a line of about 6 or 7 SUVs. The sand dunes are huge and you would watch the car in front of you go up the side of a dune and then just disappear over the top of it. We were hauling at times (over 100 KPH), getting sideways, and even feeling like we were going to tip at times. It felt like a rollercoaster, and I too was feeling the effects. Several people reported feeling nauseated (?) for up to an hour afterwards. But it was so worth it. Out entire ride lasted at least a half hour and was one of the most exciting things I've done in quite some time. It beats Six Flags any day! After the ride we sat down for our Iftar, the fast breaking meal at the end of the day and followed that up with a sheesha session. We made it back to the hotel by a reasonablle time but I think I'll be shaking sand out of my stuff for weeks. Somehow my camera survived!
