A Day in the Desert

So, my fellow teacher asked me if I wanted to join her for a trip to the desert to go 4-wheeling and to have a picnic.  Her son was coming with a friend of his and she did not want to be the only girl.  Because it is Saudi, her driver was driving, setting things up, and acting as a sherpa.  I was excited about the opportunity to do something my students had been raving about, as spending time in the desert during the winter is the greatest past time.  So, with no expectations, a bottle of water, and a large package of wet-wipes, I was off.

After over an hour of waiting at the meet-up point, we were finally on our way.  Our fearless leader had sent everyone a map point to show them where we were supposed to go.  He then took off like a bat out of hell and left us mostly in the dust....literally.  There was a small caravan of cars heading to the desert until one of the cars got a flat tire.  When we pulled over to help. we got stuck in the sand.  We got out of the car and this is what greeted us.

Yup, pretty much what it looks like.  There are dunes further on, and the green stuff is some hardy desert plants.  There are these round things that look like tiny watermelons, that turned out to be actually related to watermelons, but most sites on the web said they were inedible...I did NOT bother trying a bite.

Apparently it was grasshopper mating season, so we all got to enjoy the show.

We had paid 180 SAR (about $47) to use the 4-wheelers, and for a barbeque supper, but my friend Maria said she did not trust what they might be cooking so she came prepared with a cooler full of burgers, hot dogs, steaks, and the works.  When we FINALLY made it to the site, we found ourselves between some dunes, and having gotten stuck in the sand once, agreed to load everything into someone's vehicle who had serious 4-wheel drive.  So, unpack, repack, head over the dunes.  So, if you look at the pictures above, this was pretty much it.  After realizing that the wet-wipes were very welcome, we headed over a dune for privacy to hit the head.  Yup, why I hate hardcore camping.  After that, we headed back to the site to assemble the grill and prepare to cook.

The wind had started to kick up and soon enough, grill was blazing, the hot dogs and hamburgers were cooking, and we were getting hit with a serious sand storm.  Maria and I stopped for a pic.

By the time we got around to cooking the steaks, things were very crunchy to eat.  We all agreed that as soon as we were done cooking we were heading home.  We were fortunate to be in a vehicle that was capable of getting over the dunes.  The driver hit a running start and we literally flew/bounced over the dunes hard enough to hit the ceiling and bounce back a few times.  Our driver could NOT load the stuff into the car fast enough to head out.  Ok, "camping in the desert"....I can check that off my bucket list....not going back!

Some Saudi Stuff

My last trip to Bahrain, possibly for a very long time, was disappointing in that I had a beautiful suite and a large tub, but no hot water the whole weekend.  If I had not arrived at midnight, and if I had not returned from shopping at 10:00 pm, I would have made them fix the problem.  I was just too exhausted and disappointed to complain.  Oh well, I won't like be back for a while.

I have not spent much time actively exploring the sights of Saudi.  I have to admit, I was not really that interested in the culture, and I was more interested in the pay, but I have seen some amazing things here.  First and foremost is the architecture.  I am NOT a fan of modern anything, but some of their buildings are pretty amazing!

The pictures may seem hazy, but that is the dust from the sand in the air.  In addition to the architecture, there is also the cultural stuff that I was able to experience this week at school and last week at a food truck rally.  The food truck rally was in a park behind the above building, which I always thought was neat looking, but turned out to be the library!  I had "mexican", small letter on purpose as the food was not really Mexican, and it was passable at best.

This week we had cultural presentations in our classes.  The classrooms are named after various regions in Saudi, so each class was supposed to talk about their region.  It was loud, it was colorful, I ate WAYYYYY too much food, but when your students tells you they made it, or that their mother made it, how could I say no?

This is a typical seating area for a Saudi living room or for use in a tent when camping.  They LOVE camping in the desert.

I good time was had by all, and needless to say, very little "teaching" was achieved that day.

Bahrain again and then Oman!

As you can see, the laptop is back on the desk.  I am leaving for Oman, in about 30 minutes, for a 3 day paid vacation (aka a real visa run).  They are paying for my flight and hotel so I am springing for a rental car.  I hate driving, but cabs are HORRIBLE for tourists.  It is just easier to drive as long as I can walk to a bar..LOL  My last hotel in Bahrain had no bar...I chose poorly.  Apparently, I am not the only teacher going to Oman this weekend (Muscat), but I am the only one in my hotel :-)  No intention of looking anyone up while there, as the whole idea is to GET AWAY!

My last hotel in Bahrain was another experience.  When I finally arrived at my hotel at about midnight, I was exhausted.  I chose a hotel that was not close to anything so I went ahead and rented a car.  I waited in line behind a family who was trying to get adjoining rooms or something so that took about 20 minutes to get them checked in.  The man who went next was checking OUT at midnight.  When I finally got to check in, I was cranky.  After not having a tub in my last hotel, I made sure to ask if my room had a large single bed and a tub. I was told, "yes."  I had told him of my hunt for a hot soaking bath and how the last place had lied to me about having tubs.   When I finally got to my room, I discovered I had NEITHER of those items in my room.  I literally ran back to the front desk and pretty much screamed, "Are you freaking kidding me?!?"  I was pissed off and let him know it.  He then apologized and sent the housekeeper to check the room before he sent me to another room.  I was upgraded to a beautiful suite with a HUGE soaking tub.....NO HOT WATER!