Birthday Trip

Birthday Trip to Camotes Islands, Cebu Province, Philippines

Well for my Birthday I decided to take the family on a trip to Camotes Islands. We had never been to Camotes in the 15 year I have been coming to the Philippines. We had heard from several people – local and expat – that it is a nice scenic place to stay and they were correct about that. The ting is it was one of the most expensive trips I have taken in the Philippines!! I know I am chap and if you knew how much it cost you would say I was being cheap BUT I am comparing it to trips I took as a Peace Corps Volunteer when I was making only $200 a month and subsequent trips and let me say I think it was beautiful but way overvalued. Enough of my bitching… It was a beautiful trip and we had a great time, Ashley wanted to stay another day and I could have if we had more money. Again it was a wonderful trip and I am glad I had taken it.

Camotes Island is located off the coast of mainland Cebu Island and is known as the "Lost Horizon in the South" due to its unspoiled natural beauty. Camotes Island is very rich in natural beauty and is a popular tourist destination for locals and now more and more the Korean students who come to Cebu to study English. I have to say this might be why it is so expensive. Unfortunately it might become so expensive that only the rich locals will be able to visit, but my wife said many of the local tourists just bring their cars on the ferry boat over thus dramatically reducing the cost of vacationing there. This island is part of the Cebu Province, and as it is very close by boat it is a perfect getaway to people who wants to escape from the hassle and bustle of the city life.

On a side note: The Philippines and Cebu in particular has become a major destination for Korean students learning English. In the past 8 years I have seen the number of Korean students expand dramatically. This is great news for the country and the Koreans really seem at home here in the Philippines. It is great to see how they really seem to take to the Philippines.

There are two ways to get to and from Camotes, we took the “fast” boat over, this boat leaves from downtown Cebu City from Pier 1. My how the piers of Cebu have changed over the years, I remember so many wonderful experiences at the Piers of Cebu when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Mostly I remember that they were packed with activity and excitement (possibly danger) was around every corner. The Piers used to be lined with street vendors selling everything; snacks, BBQ, soda (you had to drink it there as the bottles had deposits or you could take it in a plastic bag if you wanted), beer, Tanduay (the local Rhum), single cigarettes, fresh roasted peanuts (fried in oil), you name it it was available at the pier for a reasonable price too. You also had to watch out for the porters loading the parcels onto the boat, any wrong step and you might be hit by one. But now they have sanitized the Piers and they are nice and clean but I miss the old dirty Wild West style pier, they kind of reminded me of Detroit. I hope that in our journeys this vacation we can find one of the old style piers so I can get some photos for my memories of the times I had.

This is how they sell gasoline on the island!! Yum tasty coke!!

The trip placed us on Camotes at about 8 pm, not having been to Camotes before we ahd no idea how far the resort was from our pier. One thing you have to understand about Camotes is that the two main islands are separated by a mangrove forest in a shallow plane between the two islands. This area has been seen the development of a bridge connecting the two main islands. The unfortunate fact is that the bridge greatly reduces the flow of ocean water in the mangrove forest thus leading to several areas of stagnant sea water, making the area very foul smelling. So we arrived during the 2 ½ hours of no power everyday and were not sure where we were or where we were going. It turned out we had landed on one island (Poro) and were staying on the other (San Francisco). Now in most of the Philippines this problem is easily solved by public transportation. All you need to do is to hop on a jeepney (elongated jeep that fits 10+ people in the back) , Trkie (125 cc motorcycle that has a side car that can fit 4 + people) or a tricad (human powered bike with a side car for 2+ people). It turns out there are no such forms of transportation on Camotes, which baffled not only me but my wife, who is from Cebu!!! We ended up getting a ride on the back of a motorcycle, well 2 motorcycles. It was a nice ride even through it was raining lightly and the motorcycle I was on did not have a head light. Needless to mention my drive stank of Tanduay Rhum, luckily for Tita his was not but he did not have rain gear and was frequently wiping his face to see. I am not complaining personally I think it adds to the fun and excitement of the trip. It was an hour journey over to the hotel from the pier; I only wish we could have taken the trip in the day light as for what I saw it was truly a naturally wondrous island unspoilt by overdevelopment.


Santiago Bay Garden and Resort

We decided to stay at the Santiago Bay Garden and Resort for our 2 nights and 2 days. “The peaceful village of Santiago, San Francisco is Camotes’ first tourist enclave, home to Santiago Bay Garden and Resort, a 2.5 hectare of lush greenery. This 19-bedroom resort is charmingly tucked in a profusion of landscaped exotic foliage overlooking a wide, white sandy beach and a dazzling blue ocean. The resort successfully and effortlessly blends nature with friendly hospitality. It is a few minutes from the town and the ports of San Francisco and Poro.” Well this is not exactly true as it took us about an hour
http://www.camotesresorts.com.ph/santiago.htm

On our first day there we took the sightseeing tour which involved hiring local transport. Again it was much more expensive than we had planned for, luckily we had brought what we thought was too much money so we did not have to worry.

Bukilat Cave

Bukilat Cave was named after the founder Bukilat. This cave was used as a shelter from the Japanese during World War II. Camotes Island has 8 natural caves.” http://www.mingsworld.com/cave1.html
The cave was a wonder to behold and the trip to it involved the trip back past the village we started in and offered us a view of all the wonderful scenery that we missed on our trip over the night before.

The cave itself is a nice place to hang out but we went while the water was low so we ended up not swimming. It seems to be a spring fed cave evidenced by the various stalagmite and stalactites from the dissolution of the calcium carbonate deposits of the corals and sea shells that make up the islands. The cave did have a number of bats in residence which were very vocal if we went into the darker areas of the cave.

Boho Rock Resort in Poro Camotes

Our next destination was a series of small islands that had been eroded from the main part of the island. They were reached by a series of bridges and LOTS of stairs that we would regret climbing back up being as out of shape as we are. The sea gently erodes and cuts into the coral island, so that if you walk to the edge of the island you are always standing on a (solid) overhang. Well at Boho Rock Resort this offers you an opportunity to do some cliff diving. As we arrived at low tide we were only able to jump off the 18 foot cliffs. I was surprised that the kids were more than willing to fling themselves of these clifs- after of course I did so myself checking for the safety for the dives. You had to climb a bamboo ladder to return to the top of the cliff which was a neat thing to do itself. The kids had a blast here and did not want to move on.

Baywalk, San Francisco

We decided not to visit the old church at Poro because there are plenty in the Philippines that are in their more natural condition. There are quite a few churches in Cebu that are more than 600 years old and the churches on Camotes seem like they are just new buildings.

Baywalk, we just loved the name of the place. It was by the bridge connecting San Francisco to Poro. The Baywalk was nice and clean local market with many shops to choose from offering house wares to dining to snacks and of course what place would be complete without a Karaoke bar. Speaking of Karaoke, from watching Filipino TV you might have the impression that all Filipinos can sing well. OK maybe you do not watch Filipino TV but I am sure you know a few Filipinos who will break out into song in a heartbeat. No? Well surely you have been in a show with a Filipino attendant just singing away. But I digress the point is I have always thought that the Filipinos are some of the most musical people (granted most of the stuff they sing I hate (sappy love songs) BUT that is not the point) and that they can carry a tune quite well. So what happens at the Karaoke bar? They sound like a cat being murdered by a loud screeching dog with a bit of bat mixed in to make it truly horrid! I guess it is the alcohol because I have NEVER heard singing like this by the Filipinos anywhere else.

Well we loaded up with lunch and snacks and headed off for Timubo Cave.

Timubo Cave

Now the kids had had a blast at the Boho Rock Resort and to tell the truth the Bukilat Cave was not really a swimming spot, so they were a little less than enthusiastic about going to Timubo Cave. Luckily we were all pleasantly surprised by the beauty and complexity of the Timubo Cave.

This was truly a cave whereas the Bukilat Cave has many openings through the limestone to show the light of day Timubo Cave lies deep within the island offering no light save for that which is strung up by the operators of the cave. It also had no bats to speak of which I think is a bit strange, maybe they were hiding well enough for us not to see or hear them. You descend down several flight of stairs to get to the cave bottom I would say the cave bottom is about 40 feet deep into the island. Then you have to traverse some pools of water on the walkway to get to the main swimming spot. One of the pools that yu have to traverse is quite deep and as Tita was not wearing her swim suit she had to hike up her shorts quite far to get past it and remain dry.

The main swimming pool is a sight to see it is deep and quite long and still fresh for the most part. For the most part because they have put a bathroom near the entrance and it smells as if the septic tank that they are using is not efficient enough for the task as some of the stretches of the pool near the front of the pool are quite rank. Luckily those stretches are not lit up and are all nut impassable, but I think in10 year the whole pool might be fouled so it is good we went now.

The main pool is lit for two of the pools and goes back at least 100 yards. It is also quite deep about 8 feet at some points in the pool system. Well we had a good time swimming in the pool and as it was fresh water it cleaned off the salt that we had gotten from swimming in the ocean at Boho Rock Resort. We spent a good time swimming in the pools and explored a bit of the system which seemed to go on forever.


Lake Danao

“Lake Danao is known to be the largest fresh water lake in the Visayas and Mindanao. The total size of the lake is 680 hectares. The shape of the lake is a number 8. This place used to be full of crocodiles until they were all hunted down and their hides were sold in Mindanao to produce bags, shoes, and belts out of crocodile skin. Lake Danao contains fresh water and still is abundant with fishes. The Bureau of Fisheries holds their office here. You can buy a variety of fresh water fish which is also dried and sold as a dried fish specialty from the island.” http://www.mingsworld.com/lakeda.html

We ate lunch at the picnic table under a large tree. The picnic table with the tree shade offered us a nice place to relax and have our lunch with views of both the lake and sounding area. We were visited by one of the local dogs at lunch a beautiful animal with nice coloring and cool eyes.

After lunch we decided to walk around the lake as there are paths that go along both sides from the main sitting area of the lake. The walks were nice and refreshing and they offered us views of the lake, the tree plantation (they start trees for planting in little bags in the shade of the mangrove forest) and the land adjacent to the lake as well.

We decided not to take the boat out for a spin on the lake as we were getting tired, but Ashley and I did take a dip in the lake by the small pier that the boat was docked at. Unfortunately the area by the dock was filled with silt and Ashley and I got covered with the silt in our brief swim.

Mangodlong Rock Resort

“Nestled in the serene fishermen’s village of Mangodlong, Heminsulan, San Francisco, the resort stands on 2 hectares of extensive coconut-shaded garden close to the beachfront. Across the resort and separated by a blue sea is a coral islet with tropical huts spread out, connected by a sand bar from the beach. The resort offers an ideal combination of intimacy and laid-back island atmosphere. It is a few minutes from the town and ports of San Francisco and Poro.” http://www.camotesresorts.com.ph/mangodlong.htm

There were some cliff diving spots here that we jumped from and there was plenty of swimming in the ocean. Also we saw some cool crabs and fish that jumped about on the rocks out of the water like little mud skippers.

Santiago Bay Garden and Resort

After a long day we headed back to the resort for a dip in the pool. Even Tita joined us in the pool. For dinner we headed down the beach to a local restaurant for a wonderful dinner of BBQ pork. All in all it was a great birthday.

The last day we decided to hang out at the Santiago Bay Garden and Resort. The kids swam in the pool while Tita and I packed for our trip back to Cebu.

We decided to take the boat that goes to Danao City in Cebu. This trip takes about 3 to 4 hours and it puts you about an hour north of the city of Cebu. The trip itself was nice and relaxing we saw a lot of flying fish from the boat. It was a much more relaxing and enjoyable trip than the fast craft as we got to see a lot while in transit. Also I really like take the old slow boats and the kids enjoyed the trip more even though it was longer.

Can you believe that the trip was only 2 days long?

David, Tita, Andrew and Ashley
The Traveling Rumptzes

Death in the Family

We went off to a local resort with several pools and slides for a Birthday party of sorts for me as we had gone away for my actual birthday and the rest of the family was either at work or school on the day in question. Well when we had gotten home we found that the chicks that we had bought for Ashley had ended up being in the sun for an extend period of time and hence had expired.
I feel bad as Ashley was very heart struck by the loss and this is the third (maybe forth) time that we had lost pets we had bought for Ashley. The first pet we bought back in 2008 on our vacation her int eh Philippines. It was a turtle and it was doing well and was still alive just before we got here in the Philippines. The story is that someone had tossed a rock which broke the aquarium that the turtle had been living in. Then they let the turtle roam the yard but it was lost in action before we arrived. No one is sure if he is alive or dead but no one knows where he is. This was not a tumultuous event for Ashley but she was a bit sad.

In Al Ain we had bought Ashley a hamster for her birthday. It was a very cute and very small hamster so it was no surprise to me that it passed away. Ashley was crushed by this and even wrote a very sad poem to the lost pet. I decided to buy her another hamster, this time we went to the market instead of the shady pet store in the mall. I made sure Ashley chose a pet that was large and lively at the store taking her time to choose. Unfortunately this hamster also passed away and Ashley was again crushed. I decided that we would not get a good pet hamster in Al Ain and told her no more pets because of the pain it was causing her.


When we got to the Philippines we agreed to buy her two pet chicks. They were cute and as her cousin Ghen had risen one to a nice almost adult age (she is still alive) we decided it would work. Granted we were quite certain that they would not be alive by the time we got back. Anyway when we got home today from the resort they chicks had passed. Ashley was crushed and cried for a while about it. Andrew was even a bit upset by the loss.

We have decided to forgo any more pets until we either get a place big enough for a dog or we find a more indestructible pet.

Luckily Andrew was able to get Ashley in good spirits again by goofing off with her.

Singapore Zoo and Night Safari part 2

Well after doing the Fishing Cat walking tour we went off to the Leopard walking tour. This was a really cool site that had some nice exhibits! The first thing that was nice was that they had given the leopards a ice treat. Now inside the ice block was a chink of meat so the leopards were very content to lick this until they got to the meaty center. Kind of nasty for me but they seemed very into it. Now tow exhibits of note were the walk in ones the first was the Fruit bat walk in enclosure. In this enclosure they had two types of fruit bats a smaller one I am not sure the name of but it was the size of the insectivore bats that you normally see. The real stars of the show were the flying foxes that were about 2 feet in height. They hung the fruit very close to the walkway so it was very easy to get an up close look at all the bats. It was a real up close and personal view of the bats.

The next enclosure was of the flying squirrel. Now you were not as close to the animal but it was a very impressive animal when you did catch a glimpse of it. We saw it when we first came into the enclosure and I swear it was at least 4 feet long. It was much larger than I had expected. Finally we ended the Leopard Trail with a view of the Clouded Leopard, a truly distinctively market creature with beautiful markings on its fur.

After the Leopard Trail we did a quick walk up to see the Giraffes, Zebras and Scimitar Horned Oryx, then we hoped onto the tram for a ride around the park. The ride around the park was nice as some of the animals were free roaming and were quite close to the road. Well it was getting late and we had been out since about 11 am ( it was about 9:30 pm), so after the tram ride we headed home. We ended up getting home at about 11:30 pm. It was a long fun day in Singapore.

Singapore Zoo and Night Safari part 1

Yesterday started out with a faithful trip down to the Santosa Island interchange, It had been raining here every day since we had arrived and the forecast for yesterday was for some sun so we had wanted to go to Universal Studios. Also we figured since it was a Monday we had figured there would be more room to play at the park as well. Unfortunately as we arrived to buy our tickets for the mono-rail to the island; we saw the sign telling us that tickets to Universal studios had been sold out already. I found this frustrating as the park had been opened for only an hour by the time we had gotten to the interchange.

That is not really where our story began; our story began on the MRT (subway system). You see the subway system is very exact here and you need to pay attention to where you hit as your destinations each one has an exact fare. I had figured since I was off by only one stop it would be no big deal but I was wrong. As we alighted the train- side note they actually do use the correct verb (alight – not get off) here – at the wrong station our cards would not let us get out. We had to go to the counter and pay for an additional 20 cents a person. Another annoyance about the subway system is that you cannot buy week passes you have to buy either day passes our multi-year passes. It is not a difference in price for the ticket it is just that each trip requires that you pay S$1 for a card and then you have to return that card to the machine. Of course when you get a new card you are paying that S$1 deposit. Since we get the S$1 back with each card I am pretty sure this is one of the cheapest subway systems I have ridden. It is hard to compare it to New York City as we have not lived there for 10 years.

Well there we were at the Sentosa Island interchange not able to go to Universal Studios and with subway tickets already purchased for our trip back to our departing station. Well thinking on our feet we saw it was going to be a clear day so we decided to do the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. The first challenge was actually figuring out where to go on the subway system. It turns out to get to the Singapore Zoo you need to take the subway part of the way and then you take a buss the rest of the way. It is always interesting taking public transportation in new countries as you can compare them to those of yours at home. Also I have to say that the comparison between the subway (very clean and modern) and the bus system (pretty old and worn out- not dirty but not clean by any stretch) is worth noting as well.  The bus ride was nice winding through neighborhoods and through a national reserve / reservoir. The landscape was very lush and somewhat mountainous. Of note on the trip were two things first were the signs warning of illegal access to the national reserve / reservoir- it was a picture of a guy in green (looked like a plant monster with a M16) holding up a white guy. Also of note was that we did see some wild monkeys on the sidewalk, this was nice as we got to see some wildlife before we actually got into the park.

Speaking of the park the first animal exhibit was just past the gate a group of small monkeys with white faces. It was a good exhibit as there were no walls on it; it was just a couple of trees strung together with a walkway between the two tree groves. The monkeys would just flit back and forth between the trees. They had a couple of babies that were very small and very cute.

On to the otters!!! These are simply the cuties but slinkiest critters I ever did see. They seemed to play to your presence and act up for the camera getting into groups and even looking straight into the camera. We continued to walk past the primate exhibits but they were mostly asleep.

The coolest thing about the Singapore zoo was the token and paid feeding of the animals. For the animals that are a bit dangerous they have token feedings during the day. I assume they are token feedings because they do not really give the animals enough for a day’s meal but mostly they are a kind of a way to keep the animals active and entertain them as well.  Heck it was pretty entraining for me as well.  They even have suggested walks so that you can see the feedings as they occur but we focused on only a few of them of interest to us.  Well the first animal feeding we stumbled on quite by accident. We were walking past the Splash Safari and noticed a lie up at the Manatee area. It turned out that for $5 you could hand feed the Manatees. I went in with Andrew and Ashley and took some shots of them feeding the Manatees. After taking some pictures I fed them myself. It was interesting as the Manatees would put their snouts out of the water on the ledge waiting for you to feed them. Another interesting thing was that the Manatees’ whiskers were quite short and think around the month, kind of scary if you did not know that they were vegetarians. It was a lot of fun feeding them and they were very fun to pet and play with.

The next feeding was the White Tigers. The Tigers knew what time feedings were as they stared to pace around the enclosure in anticipation of the food to come. The keepers did a good job of trying to make it more active for the animals by not just throwing  in the food but trying to get them to do a bit of chasing of the food and making them do a bit of exercise for the food. It was good to see the animals getting into the game of it all and you could see them lunging for the chicken that was thrown in. I think it would have been better if they would have used live chickens for the tigers to chase down but I know it is a family zoo. Still I think it would be cool to have a “18 and above” event where once in a while the animals got to actually act like they did in the wild and hunt down some food – even if it were a token kill like a chicken or in the case of the San Francisco Zoo an annoying tourist or two.

The next feeding we saw was the Jaguar feeding. I have to say that as beautiful as the animals were they seemed less into the feeding than the tigers. They seemed a bit too cooped up too. I was surprised to hear that the Leopards, Jaguars, Cougars and Pumas have all to be in enclosed exhibits as they are such good climbers and jumpers that they could get out otherwise. BUT that being said it seemed a bit sad that their exhibit was so small in comparison to the tigers given that they are not that much smaller than the tiger. The feeding itself was not too much to talk about except for the amount of time the Jaguars spent in the water looking for the food thrown by the keeper. It was nice to see them diving and looking for the food underwater.

Finally we went toe the see the Polar Bear Feeding. This feeding was much like the rest except that they did feed the Polar Bears watermelon. The two bears were mother and son bears, which I thought was strange, as in the wild I doubt that a male cub would spend 20 years with its mother. And what if the mother went into heat??? I guess they give her the pill?? The mother bear was not as interested in the token meal as the son bear. He was having a blast playing in the water and playing it up for the food that was thrown in diving and splashing to get the food as it hit the water.

Well after a long day we decided to go back home as all of us were very tired. We loaded ourselves on the public bus and headed back into town. When we got into town we decided to stop at the local mall to get some dinner. Well after dinner we all felt refreshed and decided to go back to do the Night Safari. Also we were worried about the timing of everything and the end of our vacation here coming up so we did not want to miss the Night Safari, so off we went back onto the buss to take us back to the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. As you can see the Night Safari is located right next to the Singapore Zoo.

We were waiting in line for the Tram and as it was a long wait and it was still a bit light out we decided to do the walking trails before we took the tram.  Off to the Fishing Cat walking tour! The walking tour turned out to be a great start to the night we got to see the mouse deer ( very small and cute) Fishing Cats ( I want to take one home it is not much bigger than a house cat)  and Asian Otter ( I have said it before these animals really take to getting their photos taken they ham it up for the camera getting in cute poses with their family so you can get a photo.

Well I will have to finish this off later as we just got tickets to Singapore’s Universal Studio- It turns out you have to make reservations as there are only a limited number of tickets available on any given day!! So we are off yet again on a voyage.

Another Rainy Day in Singapore

Rainy Day did not go to the Zoo, went to the Science Museum instead. Kids still had a blast. 

I am worried that it is going to be rainy all week long which would be a drag but not make the worst vacation. I really want to take the kids to the zoo and the night safari but the problem is that it tends to rain at night here and I do not want to be walking around the night safari in the middle of a rain storm. I am hoping for a break in the rain for a day so we can do the two parks. I am also worried that the animal will be less active in the rain. I know I am less active in the rain as well.

Well the first thing that we did at the science museum was to go to the IMAX Theater to watch Forces of Nature. It was cool production and the first time for the kids and Tita to do an IMAX film. After the film we headed off for the rest of the museum. There were some really good exhibits and we played around all day long there. Well we got there at 2 pm and did not leave the museum until 6 pm. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to see all of the exhibits and play with all the items. Again I was surprised how many exhibits there were and how interactive they were. Granted some of the exhibits were not working and some did not have the intended outcome, but all in all we had a good time.

Trying to think of something to do tomorrow if the rain persists. I was thinking of taking the kids to Wild Wild Wet if it is raining as they will be wet anyway.  Also they love water parks. Only problem is that I do not have a swim suit. No worries I can buy one tomorrow.

I will keep you posted of our new adventures.

David

Underwater World and Butterfly Park

Landing in Singapore was a very cool experience.  First off the airport is very modern and the immigration staff was very nice. Also we did not ah veto pay for a visa into the country so that is a bonus! The airport is very spacious with glass walls and ceilings making it feel even more spacious. One thing I like was that there was a 4 storey wall covered with hanging vines by the luggage carousels that was a nice touch.

After exiting the airport I almost got into the driver’s seat of the taxi as they drive on the left hand side in Singapore. That was a bit strange at first as I kept expecting the steering wheel on my side of the car. The thing that surprised me the most about the trip to our hotel was the greenery. After living in the UAE for more than 2 years you forget that there is a green world out there. Sure the streets are lined with some trees and bushes but you know it is just for show and if you look past the initial row of green you see the desert. But here in Singapore is is just full on green as far as the eye can see. I was expecting a modern city with all the traces of greenery stamped out kind of like Dubai or New York but what I saw was flame tree lined streets with green poking out of every possible space. It is nice to see the green and I was surprised how much I liked seeing it. Even in the cities of the Philippines they tend to cement over most spaces with only a little bit of green showing. But in Singapore they seem to really embrace there green spaces with parks all over the place. It is nice to see.

As far as our hotel you know we are budget travelers, so the place we have is not a high fashion place. It is just a place for us to rest and then take off from for our days travels. We are staying at the Hotel 81 and I can say it is a budget hotel. It is a bit older but it has a nice pool that the kids were hanging out in this morning. The room is actually pretty large but there is not much furniture is it. Still it has space for our beds and it does provide free internet service.

We have decided to stay at our hotel for the week but they are fully booked for Wednesday night so we will need to find a new place to stay. There are several places int eh area we are staying in so it should be no problem.

Today we started out slow as there was a bit of a storm last night that was continuing in the morning when Tita and I work up. I say Tita and I as the kids had gotten up at 2:30 and stayed up until about 5 am – they said. Well the kids took a swim in the pool while the last bit of the rain was falling once it had finished then we took off. We took the subway into town- it turns out we are quite a bit out of the center of town close to the airport. No worries the subway was fast and cheap.

Another thing that surprised me, and Tita for that matter. is the dress of women over here. Again after living in the UAE for a year it is kind of eye popping to see women walking around in clothing that is very reveling. It reminds me in some ways of Taiwan where it was rather fashionable as well. I do not remember women in the states wearing clothes so reveling. 


We had to do one train change in a mall in town so we ate lunch at the mall. All I can say is I am surprised how expensive it is here in Singapore. We had a sandwich at a coffee place (Coffee Been & Tea Leaf - chain) and it was something like $35. I thought that was a bit much. I know I am too cheap, what can I say.

Anyway after lunch we took the monorail over to Sentosa Island where all of the amusement parks are. We ended up getting there after 2 pm so decided to go to The underwater World and the Butterfly & Insect Park. The first part of underwater world is a petting pool where the sting rays swim. Then you go to a walkthrough aquarium. It is a glass tunnel with the fish swimming all about you. Then it is off to the Dolphin show.  The kids loved both places and we even got a picture of Ashley petting a dolphin at the underwater world and a picture of here feeding birds at Butterfly world. I know it does seem kind of silly to have a bird park included in a Butterfly park but whatever. The Butterfly Park starts off in a atrium with butterflies then the next one is birds, then you go into a building with insects and then you get a museum kind of thing with mounted butterflies and insects. 

After a day of walking around and seeing the sights we were off to McDonald’s for dinner. Ashley has already fallen asleep at 7 pm and Andrew is up reading his book. 

Sadly I cannot send any pictures as I forgot to bring the connection to download photos from my camera. There were some great pictures of the kid at the Underwater world and Butterfly park.

Tita, Andrew, Ashley and David

Summer Vacation

Well we are off to Singapore tonight and then the Philippines

We will be in Singapore for a week. It is our first time to visit so we are excited.

After that we are going to the Philippines for about 2 months DEPENDING. Tita has finally been offered a job. She will be working in a local school as a Kindergarten teacher. But this might mean that we have to come back to the UAE as early as August 15th. It will be  drag for the kids and I to be stuck here during Ramadan and Eid al Ftir BUT Tita does ahve a job and there are things the kids and I can do for fun here.

We will keep you posted about the details of the trip.

Kids off to Michigan 2010

The kids got off fine last night. Funny side story everyone through Tita was one of my kids. At the check in counter they asked if all 3 kids were going unaccompanied. When we went to the special assistance waiting room they asked if Tita or Ashley was the child flying. It was all a big hoot and Ttia really got a kick out of it.
since one one in my family bothered to tell me what was going on I called and found out that they have been playing in my brother's neighborhood / back yard all day long. When I asked my sister-in-law she had said she asked Andrew if he would get in touch with me to tell me he was safe and he said " I write them on Sunday." That is almost 4 days after they landed. Good thing I called. Also to tell the truth they did it last year and there were no problems so I kind of figured the same would be the case this year as well.

On to the trip to the Airport.... We took the Metro to the airport it was nice. Dubai built an above ground light rail system "The Metro". We took the "Gold class" which meant that the seats were padded.  It was a fun but not to dissimilar to a subway ride in NYC.

We stayed in a new place in Dubai all skyscrapers of housing units it was very impressive. We even took a wrong turn and ended on one of the man made islands in the ocean off of Dubai -The Palm Jumeirah. It was very impressive hard to believe that it was all just ocean and the housing skyscrapers are huge and you cannot see the ocean for all the buildings.

It was like we were in a different country. After we dropped the kids off we walked around a bit to see the sites lots of shops on ground floor and there is a walkway between the skyscrapers on the 3rd level. It was all connected so you walked from one building to the next with out having to go down to the next level. Again very impressive. This morning we are at one of the Starbucks and then walked around some more before heading off to home. We had a good time but it was too hot to really explore we are planning on going again during the winter when it is cooler and we can explore more.

As this is supposed to be our last year at the University we are going to take more time to explore as we don't know if or when we will be back in this country.

On that note we are not sure what our next move will be. We saw a news report on Al Jazeera about all of the school closings in Detroit MI. Also I have the problem of being an ESL teacher who is not bilingual in either Spanish or Arabic. In Michigan they don't have true ESL teaching jobs they are really bilingual jobs. We have a year to sort this all out and will try to find a job. It does not matter where at this point.

On to some good news we are looking to expand our property holdings and this will help us generate some needed income next year and into the future.

Desert Driving

I had prided myself on my 4X4 and desert driving skills, that was until I went out in the desert today. I went out with 3 other guys from work . The larder of the group was a guy whom until till today I thought of mild mannered and almost geekish. But what that man did in the desert took serious bravery and skill. I was amazed what he even got me to do out there. I swear I have been out in the desert driving more than 20 or 30 times., heck I even took a two day course on it but what we did today far surpassed anything I have done. Enough with my preamble I will get to the story.

Today, as you know, we went out into the desert in Al Ain to drive. We started out in a place I have not driven in before. After we met up we drove to the starting point and deflated our tires. Then we drove about a ¼ mile to up a gentle slope to a 300 foot ascent up a dune!!! I saw the first car – the mild manner guy- do it with no problem and figured it would be fine for me. FAIL! The worst part about failing is that you have to back down a large sand dune – I am talking 200 feet in reverse downhill, and that is nerve racking. And of course we did not make it the second third or fourth time. Good story was we got stuck I was sure that I could get out but I was not positive so I decided to look to see if I need a pull out of the sand or not. Well I found a muffler on the ground under my car. I was so bummed out I not only could not get up the hill but I had ripped off my muffler. On further inspection it turned out to be another car’s so my friend removed it and I started making more and more attempts up the hill. The whole family was getting anxious and worried we would never make it up. I was also worried I would be stuck at the bottom on the hill. And of course the guys we were not letting me give up. The guys did tell me the problem was not that I was going fast enough. So I decided to speed up and I got up the hill. It was one of the hariest things I had ever done in the car and was totally out of my mind. That is until we descended the hill on the steep face (almost a 90 degree angle straight down hill) of the hill. Yes after climbing a 300 foot hill we deemed the steep end of that same hill. The kids were freaking. The trick about this part was that  we drove down below the next hill so we were in a bowl so we had to gun it back up another 45 degree angle hill of about 100 feet. But it all turned out fine.

Then we went on to a ridge drive. A ridge drive is when you drive on the edge of the sand dune with a good 100 to 300 foot drop on either side of your car. The kids were pretty amazed and freaked out about this. This part of the trip was a blast but not as intense as the first, though there was a section where we did a ridge drive that was about ¼ mile long. The ridge was a pretty gentle on the driving side but on the opposite side was a drop off of about 200 feet at a 90 angle.  This part of the trip had us doing some driving that for the most part I was used to and the kids were fine with most of it. Granted Our leader did like to take these dramatic drop offs. I swear we must have done 5 90 degree drop offs of more than 150 feet. The kids got a bit anxious about those but I was pretty fine with them. Driving down a sand dune cliff face is a bit like sledding in your car. You have all the weight of your car pushing you down the hill but also bogging you down in the sand so your car just kind of slowly drifts downhill. Granted you do have to make sure you use the brakes as you do not want to pick up too much speed. Another neat thing is that if you give the car some gas then the wheels will spin and you will be lifted out of the sand and kind of ride the top of sand you are pushing down. You need to accelerate some just before the bottom so you are not buried in the sand you brought down with you.

Well we drove around a bit more till we came to a small crest. The trick about driving over crest is not to go to slow as what happens is you get bogged down at the top of the crest. Of course on this particular crest (about 50 to 100 feet high) I let off the gas a bit to early so I did not make it over. Then there is the whole reversing downhill issue. So we made our second attempt on this one I got up to just the top of the ridge and got thoroughly stuck. I had to have one of the other drivers pull me down hill. On my third attempt I made it up and over with little difficulty.

Because I had difficulty getting over the guy behind me decided to give it a little extra push up the hill. His little extra gas did the opposite of my too little gas and it launched him over ht hill landing his car on the bumper. Not figuratively but literally his car hopped over the hill and landed on the bumper of the vehicle. His car was balanced perfectly on the bummer of the car. It was as if he picked up his toy car and balanced it that way. I have to say we were all worried that it was going to tip over on to the roof of the car. But luckily he got the car to fall back on its wheels. He had to climb into the back of the seats of the car and the weight shift made the car drop back on to its wheels. Truly an amazing site the people I went with had been desert driving for 7 and 15 years and they had never seen it. Granted the guy who had been out for 15 years did manage to roll his car over once.

Well unfortunately shortly after that one of the cars started to overheat – this was a recurring problem- and we were forced to cut the trip short as we had to pull his 4x4 out of the dunes and back to the roads. All in all we had fantastic if albeit scary time in the deserts of Al Ain.

As far as my work is concerned they have not said yet when they are closing the department down. As it stands they are supposed to stop accepting new students in Fall semester 2011. If this is so then I will have about another 2 years before the department closes.  On a positive note since my department cannot hire new full time faculty they interview Tita for a job and it sounds pretty positive that she might get a job – they even mentioned salary for the position in the interview. Also Tita had an interview to be a kindergarten teacher in a government school and they recommended hiring her as well. The problem is that the Abu Dhabi Education Council might not accept her as she went to k – 12 in the Philippines so they might not consider her a native English speaker.

Diet and Exercise

Starting a new diet!! Well actually starting my old diet again. It happens every 2 to 3 years that I balloon up to 210 and I need to crank back the diet so that I get closer to 180 – where I should be. It is painful to diet no questions about it but it is necessary.

Started walking again I hope that stick to that as well. I need to keep moving as my blood pressure is a bit high and it helps with the diet as well. I hope to keep motivate enough to actually start jogging again. I used to love running when I lived in Saipan. I thought I would not like it here as it is a desert but the few times I went out – in the wadis I actually did enjoy it.

Wish me luck

Desert Campin

Well we went out to our spot int he desert that has a Gaff Grove. BUT to our utter dismay they have walled off the area!! Can you believe it !! Well we did find a place to go camping that had a few gaff trees and we made due now with the pictures

Picture of me petting a camel out in the open desert. You can see the wall in the background!!!

Our camp site.

Mom relaxing at the camp site. 

My lovely wife!!

 

 Now THAT"S a fire!!

 

 Andrew being cheeky!!!

 

 Dung beetle!!

 

 Camel Race day. I don't know if you cna see the robot jockey on his back.

Grandma at Madbah Wadi

Grandma at Madbah Wadi
GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56° 7'12.99"E

Well when we stared out today Ashley said she did not want to go out today. I was feeling a tired as we had had a few drinks last night at the Rugby Club. Mom was kind of tipsy as well so we all had a good time. Well at about noon Ashley started asking when we were going to get going, so we were off.



The trip out to Wadi Mhadbah is pretty much a straight shot from the border in Burami. It is well sign posted so it was pretty hard to miss the turn off. All in all it is one of the easiest trips you can take. There are a few spots where the rocky terrain is a bit rough on the car but nothing too major.


We drove up the dirt track and took the turn off to the Oasis. There was an actual parking lot of sorts at the end of the trail; we had a nice herd of goats for a welcoming committee in the parking area. We disembarked from the cars and took a short hike up to some pools that behind a small dam. We had done our picnic here last time but we decided to set up by the big pool for lunch.

Swimming Hole
The pool is rather large with lots of space on either side. The pool  is split into 2 pools, the lower pool which is about 3-4 meters wide by 1 meter deep and the upper pool which is about 2 – 3 meters wide but and at least 2 meters deep. Also the second pool has a small waterfall that feeds it.





The 4 Meter Water Fall
On to the big waterfall, once up to plateau it is a short walk around the corner to the big water fall. The big water fall is at least 4 meters high and very impressive especially considering that we are in a desert! It is amazing that so much water is flowing constantly in these few spots as the rest of the area is barren rock field.

Foot Fries
After a few hours of playing in the water Andrew made an improvised fishing pool so he would catch some of the Dr Fish. He decided to use the French fires from lunch as his bait. He said he got plenty of bites but his hook was just too big to hook any of the fish. Tita hadn’t had much luck with the Dr. Fish and she say how they liked the French fries so she decided to try to entice the fish by putting French fries in between her toes!!

After playing in the pool for an hour or two mom and I went up the ridge to check on the second – much bigger- waterfall.  Mom did not have much luck with the Dr. Fish at the swimming hole so she gave it a try at the stream that makes the smaller waterfall. She had some luck with the Dr. Fish there.

Jazirah Oasis

Jazirah Oasis
Well we took mom to the Jazirah Oasis for a picnic.

We went to check out the site on Sunday as well just because I had not been there in a while. Yesterday we were joined by some friends from work and another friend from work came there to show his sister, who is visiting from the states.

We have been to the Jazirah Oasis several times and it is a great place to have a picnic, granted the pool is not very deep so it is not the best place for adults to swim.

We arrived at the pool next to the oasis at about 12 and had a picnic lunch. The kids then swam for a while in the pool created by the dam. While the kids were swimming I took mom on a tour of the oasis. We had a good walk through the oasis and even took the palm trunk bridge over the 30 foot deep gorge to the opposite side of the ridge. We got to do a bit more exploring of the ridge and went back to the picnic.

Mike (a colleague) and I went swimming in the wadi down the stream from the dam which was fun to explore but I decided I did not want to go much further down. As we were coming back up John (another colleague) and his sister drove up and mike and they decided to start at the bottom of the wadi and climb up the length of it.

A great thing about Jazirah Oasis is that the buildings are still made of mud brick and except for one rest house most of them are built using the traditional style of mud brick. Granted on one lives in the village any more but it is nice to see the old style.

I forgot to mention that mom did go on a hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

If you want to see more on the Jazirah Oasis go to my Blog http://travelingrumptzs.blogspot.com/2009/03/jazira-oasis.html

Wadi Aboul

Our original plans have been changed as I got invited to be the Dudgeon Master for a Game of D&D on Monday so that changed the at trip. Our fried who usually goes with us want to go to Jazira today and camping on Wednesday, so much for following our originally schedule.

We had spent the weekend in the house for the most part. Granted on Saturday Andrew had a birthday party at the Al Ain speedway!! Well it is really like supped up go carts. It turns out Andrew is a good driver at the young age of 13, he came in first for the group of boys who were racing.

While Andrew was racing , the rest of us went off to the new (ish) bawadi mall. We had had lunch already so we milled about the mall before we went to watch Alice in Wonderland. We all enjoyed the movie and had a good time. After the movie we went to buy a birthday present for the birthday party. Mom got sucked in for buying more Zhu Zhu Pet equipment for Ashley.

Wadi Aboul

Well as Grandma has not been up to the Wadi Aboul I decided to take her out to see the fort. The family had been here before and if you want to reed that adventure follow this link

Wadi Aboul

This time we drove most of the way into the wadi so we only had a short walk up to the fort. We did stop and show grandma some of the coll features of the wadi like the pools and the springs that bring p the mineral rich water. It is neat as you can see two pools right next to each other the ones that have the “fresh water”: and the pool that has the mineral rich water.

On to the fort, on the walk up we stopped to grad some fruit from the “Thorns of Christ” tree. The “Thorns of Christ” tree is said to be the tree they made Christ’s Crown of Thorns out of and it is believable as the branches are covered in long thorns and the tree is suited for the desert terrain of the Holy Land. The Fruit is very small and taste in a way like an apple with a bit of a bitter after taste.

On to the Aboul Fort, this place looks great and it is hard to believe that is has not been used or maintained for more than 50 years. The fort is in a great location on a small hill overlooking the formerly large oasis. It is a great place to explore as most of the fort is still in tack and you can get up to the top of one of the towers in the fort. A nice thing about the fort is that it has new occupants. There were several bats and geckos. This was a main selling point to the kids. And we were able to see several bats up close and personal. We got some shots of the bats but he picture I am posting I lifted off a newspaper article about bats in the UAE. One of the nice shots I have is of the interior of the mud brick wall where you can see that they stacked rocks in the wall to make it fortified. It makes sense as the people in the village would come here in times of raiding parties.

After the trip I decided to do some recon as I had not been to many of the site we are planning on going to this week and next. We ended scouting out all of the sites for this week just driving up to them and making sure we can find them.

Well today we are going to go off to the Jazirah Oasis GPS: N24 19 13.3 E56 09 06.7
This is an easy to get to site that has a great weir (dam) and pool that is caused by the dam. It is a great place to have a picnic and swim. The best part is that the oasis is a wonderful place to explore where you can see truly ancient homes and structures. You do nto need 4x4 to get to the site it is an esay drive with several stunning vistas.

Wadi Aboul

Well the first issue was getting the family out of the house for the trip they were pretty reluctant to go after spending all Friday in the house playing on the computers and watching movies on TV. But I prevailed even dragging Ttia out of the house.

Once we arrived I tried to take a shot and the battery on the camera was spent. Luckily I was able to take a shot at a time so I ended getting some high resolution pictures to supplement the camera phone shots I had taken.

The walk starts at a gentle slope going up the wadi, at several points you see small pools of water that are “iced” over. In fact they are covered with a film of calcium carbonate (like Tums ant-acids and bones) the water percolates through the lime stone dissolving the calcium and when then it deposits this over the course of the wadi. This is very interesting and in some of the larger pools the bottom of the pool is covered in white – including the plant material that has fallen in.

On the tip we did see some pools that looked good enough for a small group to splash about in. I am not saying it is swimming but it would be a nice spot to have a picnic and I am going to try to convince some of the guys to go out with me there.

On to the Aboul Fort, this place looks great and it is hard to believe that is has not been used or maintained for more than 50 years. The fort is in a great location on a small hill overlooking the formerly large oasis. It is a great place to explore as most of the fort is still in tack and you can get up to the top of one of the towers in the fort. A nice thing about the fort is that it has new occupants. There were several bats and geckos. This was a main selling point to the kids. And we were able to see several bats up close and personal. We got some shots of the bats but he picture I am posting I lifted off a newspaper article about bats in the UAE. One of the nice shots I have is of the interior of the mud brick wall where you can see that they stacked rocks in the wall to make it fortified. It makes sense as the people in the village would come here in times of raiding parties.

Not far from the fort is a village that still has some buildings being used for storage. The village is for me at least your standard mud brick and rock village. Granted some of the building did show signs of cement which according to Brien indicates that they were built or renovated after World War II. Brien indicated that swan lumber and Portland cement did not arrive in the region until after WWII. It was nice village with many houses in a fairly spread out area. The village still has a mosque that Brien says is still in use by the workers in the oasis across the wadi.

Grandma is HERE!!!

Well my mom finally landed.


You can put the GPS into either http://maps.google.com  or Google Earth to find the exact directions to the place.


Wadi  Aboul- Sudan car- Fort and Bats!!!
I was thinking of going to Wadi Aboul as you can drive a sedan there it is a paved road all the way to the parking lot. A bit of a walk but not far to get to the mud brick fort that has BATS in it.


Wadi Subaitah GPS: 24°15'53.86"N 56°9'40.21"E
You need 4x4 at the end of the trip but can make it most of the way in sedan we could ferry those without 4x4 up


Madbah Wadi GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56° 7'12.99"E
A great place to go as it is a gentle hike up to the 2 waterfalls. It is not a difficult drive but you might need 4x4 for the last bit of it.


Gaff Grove Al Ain GPS: 24°23'39.60"N 55°39'8.24"E
A great place to have a BBQ or a Camp out, an easy place to get to (only 20 minutes from Al Ain city center) but you do need 4x4 and there are some parts of the drive that require a bit of skill. Most people have little difficulty except in a few spots- this is subject to change as they have been building a paved road out there. The last time I was out (New Years Eve camp out) construction on the road was in full swing.


Jazirah Oasis GPS: N24 19 13.3 E56 09 06.7
This is an easy to get to site that has a great weir (dam) and pool that is caused by the dam. It is a great place to have a picnic and swim. The best part is that the oasis is a wonderful place to explore where you can see truly ancient homes and structures. You do nto need 4x4 to get to the site it is an esay drive with several stunning vistas.


Wadi Subaitah GPS: 24°15'53.86"N 56°9'40.21"E
One of my favorite places to go as it is a bit more remote and smaller than most other oasis. It is a very interesting site that offers two ways to get to the swimming pools one way is on the falaja systems and this can be kind of  unnerving  for those who fear heights- though it is totally safe – my 9 year old daughter made it twice with no incident. The other way in is to walk the wadi to the swimming area.


Al Ain Desert
There is an easy to get to spot in a dune not far from the Golf Club. I have not been there but my wife has. It would be a great place to take the family out to have an afternoon picnic. I am currently getting direction and gps to the place…

Keep on Walking

I cannot believe that I have gotten my family to start exercising!!! I have gotten them to start walking and jogging about 5 KM every night. It started out of my own laziness and fatness. I was getting sick of being so lazy and being overweight. I told everyone in my family that I would start working out on Sundays. You see Ashley has gymnastics on Sundays from 6 to 7 pm and there is a wadi that ahs a walk way built on it. I figured I would go walking jogging while she was in gymnastics. Well it turns out Andrew wants to get rid of some of his extra fat.

Well when Sunday came around I got Andrew to come along and believe it or not I actually convinced Tita to come along. Then Ashley stated to complain that she could not go. So today I got the whole family to come out to on the jog / walk.  It was good to get out and get working I am hoping that I can keep the family going out 4 nights a week.

Keep your eyes posted to hear how it is going. I am hoping that by telling you we will keep it up.

The things going on

First the big news

Yesterday, I had a cyst the size of my pinky removed from my lower leg. I have had it for years but recently it has been hurting me so I decided to have it removed. It was a major-minor surgery and what do you think they gave for Pain Medication??? Tylenol no NOT Tylenol 3 just plain old Tylenol. What kind of sadistic country does that!!! I have to say that is all I got when I had the skin cancer (Basil Cell Carcinoma) removed from my face.

Kitty has been very sympatric to my pain.  It is strange but I think he can sense it. Usually we go through this routine where he meows and I have to chase him to pet him. I know he is very coy that way, running when you try to give him what he wants. But now with my leg he is very close to my side and does no run away from me. This morning while I was using the internet he came up and checked in on me to make sure I was ok. I guess we won’t sell him after all.

Back to my ramblings…

Well it has been a while since I have written any news. Mostly that was due to my work load last semester – I was working 12 hours most days and on two campuses so going a bit crazy. You have to consider that full time here is considered 6 hours a day and trust me it is just 6y hours of contact as a teacher there is plenty more work to be done outside of the classroom – grading making lesson plans etc. But I needed the money to pay for the kids school fees.

 And Tita still does not have a job she got an offer for about 15% of what I make working at a school where the administration warned her about the kids behavior!!! Needles to say she turned it down. On to the good news I have found a university that will train and hire us both to be IELTS examiners- it is an English test out of Britain- and that would pay for only 2 days a month more than the job offer she had! Also it will help her get a real job as it is a good qualification to have so who knows we might stay in Al Ain for a long time.  Funny note is Andrew is kid of itching to move again, keeps asking where we will live next.


Back to Life in Al Ain

Life has been good here and it is really a great town to live in if we want to do anything really cool we just drive 1 ½ hours down to Dubai and see the sights then drive home. I have to say that I did not get out into the desert much and that for me is a real pity because I do love the desert and the desert driving is a lot of fun for the whole family. Even when someone gets stuck it really puts you to task on your driving skills.

Unlike most of the people I work with I am stuck in Al Ain during breaks. I say stuck because I used to feel that way but more and more I feel Al Ain becoming a type of home for me and my family. I mean most of the people at the University take off on the first flight out of town during break and go to amazing places like Britain, Paris, Italy, Malaysia, etc. and I have to admit I am envious of their travels, but at the same time by having to stay in Al Ain I have found that it is a wonderful city that has a lot to offer. For example on Wednesday night we found an (Indian- I think) B-B-Q restaurant that had no menu!! You think no menu no way- but they only served one think BBQ Chicken! So I go to order Nan bread and they say it all comes with the meal. Also they say we have to sit upstairs in the family section, which was very nice and cleaner than below. And within 10 minutes we had or 4 course meal sitting in front of us right off the grill. First off the chicken was hot off the grill so hot you needed to use the Nan bread to tear it off. We had 3 types of sauces to dip into (non-BBQ sauce like in the USA) all them a variation on a curry theme; all very tasty. We had salad, and neat type of brown rice, Nan bread, and water. We ate till we thought we would explode. And the total bill came to 47 AED which is less than $15!!! I though the guy had made a mistake, but he checked with our waiter again and said he was correct. A family of 4 for a great night out to dinner under $15! Can you not love this place, and the craziest thing was that they all spoke English so well. I am used to a lot of broken English, at the other restraint that is in the Indian part of town they serve up that broken English well, but at his place it was like listening to American TV all the guys spoke perfectly accented English!

The other Indian restaurant, Super, is great as well and you get awesome food. Also they do have a menu and you can order lots of cool dishes. We like to go to this place and hang out. Granted both of these restaurants are in a more industrial part of town. Not dirty but not clean by any measure it is kind of like I think India would be. Anyway at Super you can get a great selection of food and it all taste great and you will eat until you are stuffed, feeding a family of 4 for 150AEDor $40.

As I have said there are some really cool things about this town. I like living here very much but if Tita cannot find a job next year might be our last year here. I have heard that Sulton Qaboos University in Muscat Oman is more liberal in hiring and they would hire Tita give her Master’s degree and teaching experience. Also Oman is a much more outsider friendly place and Muscat is much more cosmopolitan than Al Ain. Also Muscat has a great beach and the mountains make a nice back drop. I have talked to many people and they have said they would move there if it weren’t for the money. But if Tita and I were both working at the University then we would make more money than I do working here alone, and they would pay for all the kids schooling. Also the inflation is not as bad in Oman as it is here so things would be a lot more affordable.

We will wait and see if we do move. I would like to settle down a bit I feel my kids should be used to being on one place for a while and also my resume could stand to be at a job for more than 3 years. But who knows…