Happy (very belated) Dubai Halloween!

Our Dubai Jack-o-Lanterns. We had a lovely Halloween complete with pumpkin carving, chili, homemade cornbread, [hard] apple cider, and NFL... Now what could be more American than that??

Life as Usual and FINALLY Fall.

Delicious pumpkin whoopie pies (my new favorite fall recipe. amazing. to die for. total fat kid.) Also, notice my large AMERICAN jack-o-lantern pumpkin. We found those (along with gourds and Indian corn) at Waitrose a few weeks ago, and I could not help but get a little carried away... AED 250 (or about $68 USD) later, and our apartment is adequately fall festive. Even if the temperature here tells you otherwise...

Baking in my new cupcake apron, courtesy of my Mom's lovely friend Jan.

Wow, I can't believe it has actually been almost 2 months since I updated my blog. I don't think I have gone that long since I started writing it! Sorry (if you actually noticed or cared)... I think it is because we really haven't been doing anything all that interesting, and have both been really busy with work. Kindergarten is a lot more drama than I could have ever imagined (although not nearly as much as 3rd grade, where I substitute taught for three days a couple weeks ago). Jared's been busy with work too, so that means our social lives have become pretty dull, and we have been finding ourselves exhausted on the couch with take-out many a Thursday night in the last couple months.

When we have been able to muster the energy, we have done a few fun things. In the spirit of our love of fall and beer, we attended a huge German-style Oktoberfest celebration in mid-October. It was held in a giant tent at the Grand Hyatt Hotel and set up like a German Beer Garden with rows of picnic tables and even had German strength games for prizes (in how few hits can you pound a nail into a 2x4). We went with our German friend Dom and some of his work colleagues. It was a great night, complete with a German Polka band straight off playing at Oktoberfest in Munich and an all you can eat German buffet (nothing like pretzels, sausage and suckling pig all washed down with a Liter of beer). We have been talking about going to the real Oktoberfest in Munich for the last couple years, but if Jared's handling of his 2.5 liters of beer is any indication, we wouldn't last 5 minutes in Munich. Needless to say, a great time was had by all.

Then the following morning (or should I say afternoon), we were invited to our first Champagne Brunch at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel (JBH). Nothing like packing all the fun into one weekend you can possibly fit. All-you-can-eat Champagne Brunches are an institution in Dubai, and it seemed a travesty that we had not been to one yet (although we did contemplate canceling as a result of our Oktoberfest aftermath). Somehow we pulled it together though and had a lot of fun. The whole concept behind the Champagne Brunch is that you can eat (and drink!) all you can in the 4 hours you are there. It's kind of a full-day commitment to glutany and intoxication. They start at around noon and go until 4 or 4:30pm. There are varying levels (depending on how nice the hotel/restaurant is, and how much you want to pay). The one we went to at JBH was about 350 dirhams a person and included a buffet with sushi, meat carving stations, and various other international foods including Asian, Arabic, and Indian stations (although, curiously, no actual foods you would associate with a normal brunch, ie: no eggs, waffles, sausage, bacon, etc.). The food spread and variety was impressive in and of itself, but what really blows your mind is the alcohol. There was free-flowing all you can drink champagne, red and white wine, and specialty cocktails (think raspberry mojitos and lynchberg lemonade) served by the pitcher. There were 10 of us at brunch and at one point I think we had 8 pitchers on the table at the same time. I wasn't sure how we would fair, but it turns out hair of the dog was just what we needed. However, I don't think I will feel the urge for another Champagne Brunch anytime soon...

And the other 95% of the time in the last two months when we have not been gorging and binge drinking, we've been embracing the cooler weather that has finally arrived in Dubai. In the last month or so things have really cooled down (highs are now only around 85-90 degrees with no humidity and lows in the high 70's at night. That still sounds really warm, but coming off of 6 months with 90% humidity and 120 degrees highs, it feels wonderful). We are registered for two road races coming up and so have been enjoying getting to actually work out and train outside. We're running the Dubai Creek Half Marathon on December 10th, and the Dubai Marathon 10K on January 21st. I've been loving going back to my favorite running spot Al Safa Park and going on long runs on the track that surrounds the perimeter of the park after school. We have also been loving getting back out and working in our garden again. After the long, hot summer it was looking pretty rough, so we've been working on getting it cleaned up and weeded so we can start hosting bbq's again, and enjoy our little wine and cheese sunset happy hours. During the summer months I am always questioning why the hell we live in the desert, but now that wonderful winter is arriving in Dubai I am reminded once more... We even had our first rain shower since February last week, and I was absolutely delighted (and even more so by the beautiful rainbow over the Burj Khalifa after it stopped).

The cooler weather has also stirred up our love for festive fall food, and we've been trying new fall recipes and cooking up a storm in honor of the season. The day I went wild on the pumpkins and gourds at Waitrose, I, of course, had a buy a giant pumpkin to dedicate purely to roasting for all my favorite fall recipes. This year it seems I become even more obsessed with pumpkin than in previous years (perhaps my yearning my cooler weather is projecting itself through my stomach). Either way, I've gotten a bit carried away in the last month making Velvetly Pumpkin Bisque aka Pumpkin Soup (twice!), pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, a pumpkin roll, pumpkin whoopie pies, and pumpkin pie martinis (just for good measure). I had to cut myself off last week, just so that I won't be totally pumpkined-out by the time Thanksgiving arrives.

So, I guess to sum up our last two months, I can say we've been busy busy busy with work, friends, food, and fall. Now I remember why I like living here.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Self-take in Durbur Square, Kathmandu.

All I can say is, I Love Nepal! Our weekend in Nepal was absolutely amazing, and probably one of the best vacations we have been on in a long time. I think I enjoyed it so much because it was so unlike anywhere else I have ever been, and I learned so much about a culture that I knew very little about. I have never been anywhere so 3rd World before, so that was truly a new experience for me. I thought the UAE was a 3rd World country, but now, for the first time in my life, I can say with certainty that I can distinctly picture the vast differences between a 2nd World country (the UAE) and a definitively 3rd World country (Nepal). The roads are all basically very pot-holed dirt, with people walking barefoot and monkeys and cows randomly wandering around everywhere. There are also rolling blackouts throughout the city, as the power grid can't handle the volume of electricity necessitated to keep the city of Kathmandu (the capital of Nepal) running. So in sections of the city, the electricity can be off for up to 16 hours a day. Definitely weird and slightly scary. So, as a result of the 3rd world nature of the country (and cheap cost!) we decided to stay at the 5-Star Hyatt Regency Hotel. If we were going to be 'roughing it' so to speak while touring around, we at least wanted to make sure we had a decent place to go back to at night.

Our room at the Hyatt Regency. Actually really nice, and better than just decent. There was a flashlight on the night stand though, which we actually did need when the power went off twice (fortunately, our hotel had a generator, the perk of staying at a 5-Star).

The view from our hotel room, within the gated Hyatt complex, complete with machine-gun toting gate guards.

One of the most appealing parts of planning our Nepal getaway was the cost. It was so darn cheap! Literally cheaper to fly 4-hours away than it was to drive an hour to Abu Dhabi for a couple nights. When we were researching how to get around Kathmandu we were reading about the various taxi options. If you wanted to catch a taxi at the taxi stand, you would end up paying about $1 USD for your ride into the city center. But, if you wanted to spring for the swankier "pre-pay" taxi, it would cost a whopping $6 USD to get to the city center. Well, being the big-spenders, we decided to spring for the pre-pay, which as it turned out was a 1985 Toyota Corolla low-rider with a rusty screw for a lock handle on my side, and the driver asked if we wanted "air conditioning" when we got in and then pointed to the window cranks. Quite the fancy ride.

Once we got to the hotel, after checking in (and getting convinced to upgrade to Club Level... hey, it was only an extra $40 a night for free breakfast and Happy Hours with booze), we dropped off our stuff and then got a little snack in the club lounge to make our action plan. We decided we would explore Kathmandu for the first day and then talk to the Hotel Concierge and book a car and guide for our second day to get a tour of the Kathmandu Valley (once again, much too cheap to pass up: 8 hours in a private car with guide for $120, we couldn't believe the bargain). So another $5 taxi ride from the hotel (through the tiny streets in a ramshackle car, narrowly avoiding pedestrians and cows on every turn) and we were dropped off in Durbur Square in Kathmandu. "Durbur" means Palace, so apparently there is a Durbur Square in every village, where the ruling family of the village lived.

The Square is beautiful and loaded with pagoda-style Hindu temples. It was fun to just wander around, but you can't stand still for too long without getting accosted by Nepali-men of all shapes and sizes offering to be your tour guide. Some were so aggressive we had to keep moving to ward them off.

Another view of Durbur Square.

Durbur Square

The first of many free-roaming cows, randomly hanging out in Kathmandu and the Valley. It is a crime punishable by 2 years in jail in Nepal to kill a cow (the holy animal in Hinduism). Good thing the traffic is so bad that you can never get going fast enough to possibly hit a rogue street cow hard enough to kill one...) Forget getting a good steak, or any steak, in Nepal.


Kal Bhairav. This stone image of Bhairav represents the deity Shiva in his destructive form. It is the most famous Bhairav and it is used by the government as a place for people to swear the truth.

Street Vendor in Durbur Square. I couldn't identify a single thing he was selling, although the things in the middle looked like mini-candles.

Shiva-Parbati Temple. The wooden figures in the window are Mahadev and Parvati.

The Old Palace, the namesake of Durbur Square.

Around Kathmandu

Kathmandu Street View.

After adequately wandering around Durbur Square (and doing our fair share of shopping with the street vendors -- how could I resist? Amazing and economical Christmas shopping opportunities!) we decided to explore some more of the city and possibly head to a Buddhist Temple affectionately known as the "Monkey Temple."

Jared on the Street. Please notice it is a dirt road. A fairly main road heading away from one of the biggest tourist areas in the city.

Kathmandu Traffic... Cars mixed with bikes mixed with pedestrians mixed with cows mixed with rickshaws. The most unique gridlock I've ever seen.

Self-take on the rickshaw ride.

So, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. We decided that since we didn't really know where we were going and weren't getting anywhere fast, we'd take a rickshaw ride. So fun!

Our hard-working rickshaw driver.

First Day

So we made our way to the Monkey Temple on the rickshaw, and along the way caught some beautiful views of the city and Vishnumati River.

View down to the City from the eastern base of Monkey Temple.

Street View heading up. Once we started heading up to the Monkey Temple, we realized it was going to be about a 20 minute walk up, and that the sun was starting to set and the last place we wanted to be was a temple swarming with monkeys after dark. So decided to put the Monkey Temple on hold for another day.

Instead we decided to head to the Thamel area of Kathmandu to get some dinner (we were starving since our flight left at 7am, so we had been up since about 3am). Another $5 taxi ride and getting majorly lost in the extremely large Thamel area for 45 minutes, before meeting a delightful Canadian couple who helped us later and we finally found the Thamel House Restaurant for a dinner of traditional Nepali/Newari food.

The restaurant (while maybe a bit kitschy) was great. It was housed in a traditional Newari building with candlelight and Nepali music and dancers... And local Everest Beer. A refreshing end to our first night.

We tried the prix fixe menu, which was a smorgasbord of Nepali food, including Mutton and Wild Boar. Everything was good and it was a fusion between Indian and Asian food... A combo of dumplings (Momos) and curries. Mmmm.

Pashupati Area

View of the City from Pashupati.

For our second day, we left bright and early with our guide. Our first stop was the Pashupatinath Temple, the most important Hindu Temple located on the Banks of the Bagmati River. And we were really lucky because one of the most important Hindu Festivals of the year, Teej, was occurring on that day. Teej is the Festival of Women where all the women fast for 24 hours and go to the temple to pray. They all wear their red saris and if they are single they pray for a good husband, and if they are already married, they pray for the long life and good health of their husbands.

But before we could get up to Temple, we got to have our first encounter with the MONKEYS, which were literally everywhere roaming free in Nepal.

A smaller temple on the way up with the famed golden trident.

A 7th century statue.

More temples on the way up.