Why is it that regardless of where you may have grown up in the Middle East, most people (and I do mean most) remember it to be Dubai? Exceptions to this rule would be friends and family who grew up IN Kuwait and perhaps those who grew up in Dubai themselves (they remember you are not from there).
I have a couple of theories.
The first one is pretty simple - Dubai has just been in the news more than most cities or even countries in the Middle East. So if one doesn't think about the Middle East too often, Dubai may be the most accessible place (embedded in one's consciousness i.e.) and, therefore, the easiest to roll off the tongue.
Then there is the impression-you-make-on-people theory. In addition to just being in the news, Dubai has probably been there for more "good" reasons than other cities - the economy, the construction, the financing deals, and so on - the financial crisis nonwithstanding. Thus, if the person in question thinks of you in a positive light and knows you grew up in the Middle East, they make a mental connection to Dubai. This is inspite of you having mentioned Kuwait (more than once) and possibly even having discussed being there during the first Gulf War. If this is true, I wonder where they would think you were from if the light wasn't so flattering...Iraq?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Turkey Day
Stuffed...but not with turkey. My third Thanksgiving at Marblehead has been as much fun as the second...and the first, except that I'm not leaving for Australia tomorrow (sigh). A real Thanksgiving definitely makes up for not being able to use the holiday (and the week around it) to take off...almost. Okay yeah, it does. This is just the itch to be on the road again speaking.
Back to the turkey. It was kosher this year so everyone could eat it. Me? I tried a bite. Great for a turkey (even for a bird) but I'm psychologically turned off birds now thanks to Mr. Pollan. I was never really on the four-legged critters and I'm sorry, I can't give up sushi (yes, that does make me a bit of a hypocrite in my support of sustainable, natural, free range/organic - call it what you will - rearing). That being said, I partake of the piscine species about once a month so I hope I'm not doing too much harm.
Still debating on where to go over New Year's eve...I might, unbelievably, stay in town and work on my composting and baking ideas. Vive la New York!
Back to the turkey. It was kosher this year so everyone could eat it. Me? I tried a bite. Great for a turkey (even for a bird) but I'm psychologically turned off birds now thanks to Mr. Pollan. I was never really on the four-legged critters and I'm sorry, I can't give up sushi (yes, that does make me a bit of a hypocrite in my support of sustainable, natural, free range/organic - call it what you will - rearing). That being said, I partake of the piscine species about once a month so I hope I'm not doing too much harm.
Still debating on where to go over New Year's eve...I might, unbelievably, stay in town and work on my composting and baking ideas. Vive la New York!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Things I've noticed...
...one thing in common about every place I've visited so far in Indonesia - everyone is pretty convinced you are not where you want to be. Regardless of whether you're strolling along the beach, going on a run, stepping off a shuttle into a new town, walking out of your hotel, even standing still watching the scenery - the question is "where are you going?" It's like they know something I don't.
...there are no dogs on Gili Trawangan. I agree - it's an odd thing to mention. But their absence is strangely magnified by the fact that there are goats, roosters and about a million cats (if not that many yet, there will be soon). No dogs.
...everything that can be fried, is. The strangest fried item I've seen so far is a fried boiled egg. First boiled, then dipped in batter and fried. I'm really not sure why.
Be back!
...there are no dogs on Gili Trawangan. I agree - it's an odd thing to mention. But their absence is strangely magnified by the fact that there are goats, roosters and about a million cats (if not that many yet, there will be soon). No dogs.
...everything that can be fried, is. The strangest fried item I've seen so far is a fried boiled egg. First boiled, then dipped in batter and fried. I'm really not sure why.
Be back!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Bali - some things to write home about
So far, my week in Bali has ranged from encountering the strangest sights to the oddly familiar. Bali is a land of contrasts...for a tiny island that can be covered in one long day, it offers a multitude of experiences that can leave you reeling at the end of each day.
To begin with, there are the temples. 20,000 of them. On one tiny island. There are family temples placed within family courtyards, village temples where the entire village (and just that village) holds festivals (there are three subsets of temples here too), professional temples such as a fishermen temple, an artist temple and so on...and the major public temples that any Balinese person can visit. Outsiders, even Indonesians who are not from Bali, are often not allowed into many temples.
Then there are the volcanoes. Like NZ, Indonesia is built on and around them. Many of them are open to climb, sometimes uncomfortably close to when they last erupted - unlike NZ, where most if not all volcanoes that one can hike up blew up at least a 100 years ago. It is my intention to scale the highest volcano in Bali, Gunung Agung, when I get back from Java next week.
The one word I've heard most often in the last week is "Transport?" with just that ending. Every four people out of five are seemingly ready to push you into the closest available car and drive off into the horizon. Again, for a little island of its size, Bali has an incredible number of cars...and more people willing to arrange them for you.
And then...there is the food. Ah, this is a vegetarian's paradise. Tofu, tempeh, bean sprouts, spinach, cabbage, carrots...you name it, it's all here. Fresh and often covered in peanut sauce. The nut-allergic may suffer - as I found out in my cooking class yesterday, Base Gede, the basic spice mix used in almost every food, contains kemiri or candle nuts. Hard to avoid those even if you lay off the peanut sauce. But what a way to go...!
Highlights this week - a few days of blissful living at the Le Meridien Nirwana Resort in southwest Bali - MUCH appreciated after the last few months of dorm/bunkbed life (it even had a water slide from its top pool level to its bottom pool level!); watching the sunset at Pura Tanah Lot, one of the 9 or so large public temples in Bali; my 80 US cent Indonesian meal of Gado Gado (absolutely the best I've had so far and the price had nothing to do with it); biking through Balinese countryside exchanging high fives with little kiddies on the way, making a pretty neat bracelet in my silversmithing class, wandering through Ubud - Bali's arty town at all hours of the day, lunching at Sari Organik (address to be posted later) in the middle of rice paddy fields and finding some mind blowing chocolate at Casa Luna.
Next week in Java...to be continued.
To begin with, there are the temples. 20,000 of them. On one tiny island. There are family temples placed within family courtyards, village temples where the entire village (and just that village) holds festivals (there are three subsets of temples here too), professional temples such as a fishermen temple, an artist temple and so on...and the major public temples that any Balinese person can visit. Outsiders, even Indonesians who are not from Bali, are often not allowed into many temples.
Then there are the volcanoes. Like NZ, Indonesia is built on and around them. Many of them are open to climb, sometimes uncomfortably close to when they last erupted - unlike NZ, where most if not all volcanoes that one can hike up blew up at least a 100 years ago. It is my intention to scale the highest volcano in Bali, Gunung Agung, when I get back from Java next week.
The one word I've heard most often in the last week is "Transport?" with just that ending. Every four people out of five are seemingly ready to push you into the closest available car and drive off into the horizon. Again, for a little island of its size, Bali has an incredible number of cars...and more people willing to arrange them for you.
And then...there is the food. Ah, this is a vegetarian's paradise. Tofu, tempeh, bean sprouts, spinach, cabbage, carrots...you name it, it's all here. Fresh and often covered in peanut sauce. The nut-allergic may suffer - as I found out in my cooking class yesterday, Base Gede, the basic spice mix used in almost every food, contains kemiri or candle nuts. Hard to avoid those even if you lay off the peanut sauce. But what a way to go...!
Highlights this week - a few days of blissful living at the Le Meridien Nirwana Resort in southwest Bali - MUCH appreciated after the last few months of dorm/bunkbed life (it even had a water slide from its top pool level to its bottom pool level!); watching the sunset at Pura Tanah Lot, one of the 9 or so large public temples in Bali; my 80 US cent Indonesian meal of Gado Gado (absolutely the best I've had so far and the price had nothing to do with it); biking through Balinese countryside exchanging high fives with little kiddies on the way, making a pretty neat bracelet in my silversmithing class, wandering through Ubud - Bali's arty town at all hours of the day, lunching at Sari Organik (address to be posted later) in the middle of rice paddy fields and finding some mind blowing chocolate at Casa Luna.
Next week in Java...to be continued.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Overheard in Bali...
...while heading out to Pura Tanah Lot, a seaside temple on the southwest coast of Bali. Little girl to dad after seeing a crowd taking pictures with a large snake - Daddy, what's the biggest snake in the world? Dad - My lawyer. Little girl - Miloya? How big is it?
Diving the Great Barrier Reef
Someone recently asked me my favorite part of this journey so far...and I realized I hadn't blogged about it. If I was to take any single experience on this trip and call it a favorite, it would have to be my 3 night/4 day live-aboard boat trip around the Great Barrier Reef.
This trip had it all...new friends among strangers half-crazy like I am, fabulous food by a dive trip director turned chef for this trip (he's also an ex-chef who once worked in NY), a very comfortable boat that wasn't the last word in luxury but somehow managed to stay clean and cosy despite us all running about it everyday...and what we were all there for - some pretty incredible diving.
One of the most important things about diving is learning to manage your air - as one may imagine, it's pretty important. You need to keep breathing in water - not too slow else you may pass out to become fish food and not too hard - or you'll be up before everyone else is halfway done with their dive. My problem was the latter...for some reason I hyperventilate underwater. It may be the sharks in the vicinity, then again, maybe I've always been a heavy breather and just not realized it on land. Of the various suggestions offered to me including adjusting my weight belt and kicking my legs harder, the one that really stands out is humming underwater. It seemed like a fun thing to do so there I was humming "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid as I swam through the fish...I also hoped to generate some kinship with them while doing so. My 20 minute dive time on 200 bar (when most people were doing 60 min) shot up to 45 minutes...no kidding. I remain forever grateful for that suggestion and I'm not changing my song.
Spotted underwater - turtles, sting ray, bandit fish (they really looked like they had black face masks), a lion fish (super poisonous and it knows it - hence, it just stays there while I hovered around it), reef sharks...one of our group tried to pull its tail but it wasn't having any of that, beautiful, fiery coral, enormous clams that changed through a blue to violet spectrum as I went closer and clammed up (pun intended) when I reached out to tickle it, a very curious snapper that kept butting in while we were doing our deep dive and snapped at John's finger...he suddenly went crazy trying to punch it while the rest of us wondered if he'd lost it..., enormous potato cod, barracudas, sea horse like creatures - and more.
What a trip.
Monday, June 22, 2009
I saw a shooting star!
That's it...nothing more to add, except for the fact that I've always missed seeing them until a few nights ago when I actually saw one. It took me a second to realize it wasn't a plane that evaporated. Very cool.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)