Tommy Visits Dubai

So, obviously we are a tad behind on our blogging. Things have been a bit hectic lately with moving to a new villa and going on our honeymoon. Pictures from both of those great events to follow shortly (or whenever I get around to it as it seems lately!).

My brother came out to Dubai in August for a business trip with his architecture firm and stayed for a few extra days with Alex and me. It was a wonderful visit and was so nice to see some family!

Unfortunately, Tommy was here during the height of the Dubai summer and the heat was in full effect. If I remember correctly, the temperature was around 107 F with about 300% humidity the entire time he was here.

We went to the old town of Dubai and walked around to see some of the oldest buildings in the city (all while trying to hop from one air conditioned place to another in order to avoid heat exhaustion). We toured the Dubai museum downtown as well so Tommy could get an appreciation for Dubai's history and culture (or lack thereof!).

We had a sweltering dinner outdoors at Bab Al Sham resort and sat on camels

and smoked shisha from the traditional hubbly bubbly pipe. I swear this is legal, folks! It is an arabic tradition and when in Rome, right? This is a very popular past time for locals. Shisha is flavored tobacco. You can order almost any flavor you can think of from Strawberry to Chocolate, Mint, or even Cappuccino! The flavored tobacoo is smoked from water pipes called either shisha pipes or hubbly bubblies.

I bet our parents are really proud right about now!

Tommy also had the pleasure of experiencing some good ol' local Islamic country entertainment...see, not everyone wears a burka! :)

Speaking of Muslims, we took Tommy to see what I think is one of the prettiest mosques near our home, the Jumeirah Mosque.

As you can see from the photos, we had a wonderful time and some long overdue sibling time! Even as limited as we were in our activities, due to the oppressive heat, I think we managed to get out and see quite a bit of the fun side of Dubai.

Tommy also bought me a really nice coffee maker because Alex and I were retarded enough to bring ours from the States and forget that it doesn't work with the outlets here. As we are in the middle of Ramadan here, this coffee maker has saved my life over the past few weeks. In case you don't know much about Ramadan (it really deserves its own blog, so check back tomorrow or the day after), you cannot eat, drink, chew gum, basically NOTHING can pass your lips from sun up to sun down anywhere in public. You know me, I immediately asked Alex "or else what?" Well, apparently or else a nice big ticket or a fun little stint in the not so posh Dubai jail. Therefore, for the past 3 weeks we have not been able to eat or drink anything in public all day and all of the restaurants, coffee shops, all food outlets are closed for the entire month. If Tommy had not purchased this coffee maker for me, surely I would be writing this from a jail cell after highjacking some Starbucks. Thank you Tommy!!!

And thanks again to Tommy for being our first visitor way out here in the desert. We had such a great time and were thrilled to spend the weekend with you! Hugs and kisses!

Vivian and Alex