Santorini, Greece

Santorini, Greece has been a place that we have wanted to visit since moving out to Dubai. We finally had the chance in July so we decided to do a bit of a last minute get away in between business meetings I had in the US and Lebanon.

We stayed in a small hotel, La Meduse, on Perivolos Beach. We expected there to be hordes of tourists from all across Europe on their summer holiday, however, from what we saw almost everyone around us was a Greek national.

Perivolos Beach is unique in that the sand is actually black volcanic ash. It would be an understatement to say that the sand gets a little warm in the afternoon to be walking bare foot across. Surprisingly the water was very chilly so we spent most of the first day soaking in the sun and enjoying some of the great Greek cuisine at the beach side cafes.

The second day, we decided to be a bit more adventurous. After talking over our options with the young lady behind the front desk (who happend to be from Ohio!) we decided on braving the narrow, winding roads of the island on the back of a quad bike! Having never been on a quad bike myself and with Vivian only having had only minor experience it seemed a reasonable thing to try.

Our first stop was the famous village of Fira situated on the high ridge overlooking the caldera. The submerged caldera is what is left after what most experts believe was the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The eruption was so severe it literally ripped the island apart. Smaller eruptions have come along through out history, with most being only minor.

The views from the rim of the caldera are absolutely beautiful. The striking contrast between the brown landscape, the blue and white buildings and the deep blue of the Mediterranean are stunning! The village of Fira clings to the cliffs with numerous shops and cafes situated along its narrow walkways.

After a short break at a cafe looking out over the cruise ships and ferrys coming into dock in the harbor below, it was back on our quad bike to Red Beach.

Red Beach got its name from the red volcanic sand that makes up not only the beach itself but the large cliff that the beach backs up to. As you can see, its a popular place!

We couldn't resist taking a picture of this massive yacht that was anchored just off of Red Beach. What a great looking ship!

So after a day exploring the island, it was time for a great dinner to conclude our Santorini experience and what better food to have than......Mexican! Yes, believe it or not, Mexican. Who would have guessed you would find decent Mexican in the Greek Isles! The location on the southern cliffs of the caldera was great! We couldn't have imagined a better place to watch the sun slowly set below the horizon and the weekend come to a close. What a beautiful woman below!

Long Trip

I've had some long trips since moving overseas three years ago, however, this one seemed to justify posting a blog on. In twelve days I needed to cover 17,938 miles across nine time zones in six countries.

So it begins early on a bright Sunday morning weaving my way through Dubai traffic on Sheikh Zyed road passing the rapidly forming metro system and the nearly complete Burj Tower, the worlds tallest building.

The airport is packed as expected with all of the expats trying to make their way home for their summer holidays before the worst of the heat and humidity sets in. Dubai International Airport is beyond its carrying capacity and everyone is anxious for the new airport to be built which will be larger than Chicago O'Hare and London Heathrow combined.

I try to take advantage of the opportuntiy to stretch my legs before the 17 hour flight to Houston gets underway. With a last check of the flight monitors, its time to head to the gate and get settled in. Emirates flies the new Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft on this route as its the only commercial jet liner capable covering the 8,176 mile flight without stopping. These aircraft are able to connect virtually any two points on the globe on a single non-stop run.

As luck would have it, the flight is packed and I've been up-graded to first class. The Emirates first class is ridiculous. A total of eight suites comprise first class. Each suite includes a fully flat bed, a mini bar, a 21 inch television screen, and best of all can be sealed off giving the occupant complete privacy. The pictures only do it partial justice.

I know....I look like a gluttonous pig...but I knew all to well that I had Egypt Air awaiting me for one of the final legs of my journey so I knew I had better enjoy this while I could.

So with wheels up at 9 AM in Dubai we were off across two continents and one ocean landing in Houston at 4:30 PM local time (1:30 AM in Dubai).

After a quick overnight stop in Houston / Galveston and a lunch with a customer its back to the airport to make my way up to Kansas City for meetings there. I had never been to Kansas City before, and wasn't quite sure what to expect but it turned out to be a great visit. I would say it has to be one of the cleanest major cities I've been to. Definately a good place to live and the great thing is you are a maximum of four hours from anywhere in the US. I even got to experience a classic heartland summer thunderstorm. After two days of meetings and a dinner at one of the oldest restaurants in the city where apparently you used to be able to pick the chicken you wanted to eat for dinner from those wandering around the backyard, it was time to make a move to the airport. Things went down hill from here....

It turns out that there isn't alot to do at the Kansas City International Airport. After seven hours there I felt I had a good handle on what the airport had to offer. One of the more unpleasant side effects of the classic heartland thunderstorm is the havoc it causes with airplanes. I had intended to fly to New York and make a relatively tight connection for the night flight to Oslo, Norway to meet with my project team there the following morning, however, arriving five hours late into New York there was no plane there and none leaving anytime soon.

So with that, I had to cancel my project team meeting for the following day, find a place to sleep and figure out how to get across the Atlantic in time to meet Vivian in Santorini for the weekend. After working the phones I had both a place to sleep for a few hours and a flight out the next day to Greece with British Airways via London.

Luck was on our side and Vivian and I landed in Athens within five mintues of one another to catch our connecting flight out to the island of Santorini for the weekend (seperate blog).

After parting ways with Vivian at the Athens airport, it was onto Beirut, Lebanon via Cairo, Egypt. I should have known that any contact with Egypt inevtiably meant problems. While the flights managed to adhere to schedule, my sole bag failed to make the connection leaving me alone staring blankly at an empty baggage carousel in Beirut. After struggling through my limited Arabic to convey that I had lost my bag it was off to the hotel to clean up as best I could for a dinner with the local agent.

Beirut is a city that looks like it has had its fair share of rough times. After being bombed heavily by the Israelis in the summer of 2006, the city is just now starting to come back together. Driving around the area the signs of war are clearly evident with numerous buildings half destroyed and vehicles on the road with bullet holes in them. While I was visiting, the country was full of excitement in anticipation of the release of hundreds of prisoners by the Israelis. We concluded our numerous meetings with customers and various authorties and ventured out across the city to our agent's residence listening to the sounds of automatic gunfire from Hamas as they celebrated the homecoming of the prisoners.

So, after twelve days on the road it was time to finally come home, luckily with my bag which apparently made it into Beirut the evening before my departure to Dubai.

Seychelles

Seychelles

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to dream up a place as idyllic as the Seychelles. Located off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles is comprised of numerous small granite and coral islands.

Most of the islands are uninhabited, and those that do support year round populations have only done so for the past 150 to 200 years. Arab traders were the first to visit the islands, followed by pirates who used the islands as a base of operations to prey on nearby merchant shipping, and then finally by small colonies of mainly French, Indian, and African nationalities who set up plantations and fishing operations. After gaining independence in 1976, Seychelles has slowly developed a very understated tourism industry.

















We were fortunate enough to spend four days in May mainly on Praslin island, the second largest of the nations islands. It didn't take us long to realize that this was not nearly enough time. After a quick four hour direct flight from Dubai we landed on the main island of Mahe where we quickly caught our connecting flight to Praslin on Air Seychelles.
















Our hotel, Chateau de Feuilles, was a small hotel of about a dozen bungalows perched on one of the points jutting out towards La Digue island, the third largest island of the nation.



















One of the best parts about the staying at such a small hotel, of which most are in the Seychelles, is the solitude. It was almost as if you had the entire place to yourself!











While we could have spent the entire visit happily loitering around the pool or jacuzzi taking in the fresh air and sounds of the waves crashing below, we managed to muster the strength to head out for a day on the hotels private island.


After a stroll down to Praslin's jetty, we were aboard the hotel's yacht and on our way out acorss the waters of the Indian ocean to Big Sister Island.



















After arriving, the group of maybe eight total spread out across the island giving us the feeling that we had been marooned on this picture perfect island with our only company being the wild tortoises!



















The island was just amazing in every sense, with the huge granite rocks creating a striking contrast against the turquoise waters, white sands, and lush palm tree groves.























After a morning of relaxing on the beach, we had a lunch of freshly caught fish followed by even more relaxing! Eventually, this perfect day had to come to an end and we made our way back aboard the yacht for the ride home as the sun set across the island.

On the higher elevations of Praslin Island, unique rain forests exist that are home to the Coco de Mer. The Coco do Mer is the largest nut in the world and is only found on Praslin. Whats unique about this nut is its shape (see picture). When Arab traders brought back the nuts, they were prized posessions by the Sheiks and Sultans of Arabia as they were believed to hold special fertility powers.

We spent one day on La Digue Island, where we spent the majority of the day biking around and seeing some of the sights. La Digue is where Robinson Cursoe was marooned, carving the number of days he was stranded onto a tree on the island. One of the most interesting sights was the islands taxi system....ox carts!

Our last night was spent on Mahe Island, the largest island and home to the world's smallest capitol city, Victoria. Pictures below of the port in Victoria as we approached from Praslin....there are not many ports in the world this picturesque!

This last night in the Seychelles we stayed at the Hilton resort, which even though it was a bit more crowded was definately a place we would return to.

So with that it was back to the heat and chaos of our home town.....Dubai. We are already planning our next trip back to the Seychelles!

The Republic of Djibouti

The Republic of Djibouti

Djibouti is a small country on the Horn of Africa nestled in a very rough neighborhood with Yemen just across the Gulf of Aden and Somalia just to the south. It is an incredibly poor country with only the revenues from the Port of Djibouti to subsist off of. The country has a very heavy French influence, as it was a French colony before gaining its independence.

I was in Djibouti on business for three days to explore what the country and its hinterlands might hold in the way of new market potential for our ships. It was a trip I had been putting off for some time given its less than appealing location. What would have been a 3.5 hour direct flight from Dubai, had there actually been an airline willing to service the route, was actually a 12 hour journey via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia aboard the well worn aircraft of Ethiopian Airlines. So after taking off from Dubai at 4:45 AM, I arrived at the Djibouti International Airport in high spirits with malaria medication in hand and countless vaccinations coursing through my body.

There was only one other plane at the airport when we landed, however, it wasn't an airline I was very familiar with.

After negotiating my way through immigration, it was off to the hotel to get cleaned up before the first meetings. After checking in at the hotel, (which happend to be the tallest building in the country at four stories) I noticed the hotel was bustling with activity. I mentioned this to the front desk clerk, who said that I was the only one staying in the hotel who was not a part of the UN sponsored peace conference underway between the dozens of warring Somali clan representatives.

So with that it was off to the Port of Djibouti for a site visit and meetings with the port officials.

The port itself was an interesting experience, the potent mix of heat, humidity, flies, and smell was unlike any port I've ever been to. The liberal bathing policy at the port was a first as well (see photo above).

The working hours in Djibouti are unusual and apparently a holdover from the French colonial days. The day starts at 8 AM and breaks at noon for the afternoon off. Work begins again at 4:30 PM and continues until 7 PM. The working week is a half day off on Thursday, all day off on Friday, and then a half day on Saturday.

One of the other interesting aspects of the culture is the use of Khat. Khat is a weed that is chewed to produce mild euphoria. Its easy to pick out the men using the narcotic as they tend to have a glassy eyed look to them and their teeth are stained a lovely brown. The port has placed signs around the premises banning the substance, however, its still very prevelent.

Djibouti is a very poor place and the following pictures reflect the average housing.

So with the meetings complete and more than enough of Djibouti to last a life time, it was off to the airport being careful to follow the sign board and stay straight versus hanging a right and ending up in a place probably even worse than Djibouti!