Round 3

Kappa Sigma Brothers: Jared and Goble

Well, although this is getting posted much after the fact, we had a lovely time with our third round of visitors! Our good friend Goble (aka Dan, but I don't think I will ever be able to call him that, Sorry Renee!) and his wife Renee visited us for a week from May 18th until the 26th. Goble is our friend from Hobart, who was also coincidentally Jared's Junior Year fraternity roommate. Jared and I actually started dating while he was living with Goble, so we know Goble quite well and have definitely shared many awkward moments with him. Anyone who has ever dated someone living in a fraternity house will know what I mean... Goble got together with Renee soon after college graduation and we attended their wedding three years ago in Buffalo. They are great friends, who unfortunately geographical separation keeps us for seeing as often as we'd like, so we were thrilled when they booked their trip to Dubai!

They arrived on a Tuesday night, and unfortunately, due to having just started working at ASD (the American School of Dubai), I didn't have as much time off to spend with them as I would have liked, however, we more than made up on nights and weekends, and Jared was able to be their tour guide for most weekdays. Since we had already done a lot of the typical 'tourist' things in Dubai with our previous visitors, we decided to try and take them to a lot of alternative destinations, and try things that were new for us as well.

Me & Renee at Reem Al Bawadi.

On their first real night here (they arrived very late on Tuesday night, not getting out of the airport until after 10pm), we decided that they needed their first taste of Arabic/Lebanese cuisine, and thought we would try a restaurant we had never been to before either. We had heard good things about Reem Al Bawadi and definitely were not disappointed! The atmosphere was quite fun, with a real Bedouin tent feel to it, and the food was almost as good, if not better than our favorite Arabic Restaurant Al Hallab. We, of course, ordered about 5 mezze and a couple mixed grills to share. Mmmm.

Goble's first foray into the wonderful world of sheesha at Maxine's. He already looks like a pro!

And after dinner, Jared insisted on taking them to an 'authentic' sheesha cafe, and not a typical touristy place, but a place where the locals actually go to watch soccer, play backgammon, and smoke endless amounts of sheesha (as alcohol is strictly forbidden if you are a devout Muslim, sheesha is their vice of choice). I went for my typical fav Moroccan Mint tea and Renee ordered a delicious looking dessert. A lovely and relaxing first night.

Abra ride across the Creek.

On Goble and Renee's second day here, we decided to continue with the 'locals' theme and planned an evening going down to the old quarter of Bur Dubai (complete with a stop for street shawarma. yum. something we definitely don't do enough), and then down to Bastakiya to see the old wind tower architecture and hit up the Textile Souq (where I couldn't resist buying yet another pashmina), before taking an Abra Water Taxi across the Creek to the see the Spice and Gold Souqs. Having become quite the experienced Souq visitors, Jared and I now have a favorite spice shop, where the guy knows who I am and sells me cashews and saffron pistachio's for ridiculously cheap. Becoming 'townies' has it's benefits...

After our spice jaunt and some 13,000 steps (Renee had a pedometer and was keeping track!), we were ravenous so took them to our favorite Indian restaurant Gazebo and ordered a plethora of our fav. dishes. A delicious and satisfying way to end the night.