Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Karma. Karma? O karma, where art thou!? I’m banking on tonight’s full moon to reset the crazy. We all know I’m a bit OCD, a weird ‘numbers’ person, and have a massive belief that doing good will bring good. I delivered generous good deeds to several last week. Things have been fabulous ever since I pulled my head out of dreamland. I’ve been busier than ever the last few + weeks (months) yet somehow Wednesday evening, things started to go awry. My IT went down the night I was meant to pack and then trying to get to Dubai the next day was hugely intense and expensive. Stupid United. Rock star that I am though, I heroically got myself to the UAE. Truly heroic.
Mrs Jetsetter picked me up from the airport Friday. Leading up to our long-anticipated trip, she was very sweet and had a full on list of activities for us to indulge in! Nails, restaurants, spa, and Louboutin shopping, oh my! Was so nice to relax a bit and just be. So grateful to feel so pampered! We had ourselves a bit of a well-deserved girlfriends’ weekend, Ramadan or not! Two blondies jetsetting about in her convertible ‘hottie car’. 😉 We did hammam yesterday, far later than originally scheduled due to a bit of Vueve poisoning from the night before. Which actually worked out well, as I had a little space to have a drastically needed heart-to-heart call with the VP. Clearly I felt achingly hurt, but it turns out he’s def not a prick! In fact, quite the opposite… we were just severely misconstrued. x
Ramadan is a holy month in which Muslims believe brings many blessings. I am thinking often of my sisters-in-law, even though I’m not religious. 🙂 The country fasts from sunset to sundown daily and it is 100% disrespectful to drink, eat, chew gum or smoke in public during this time. Quite interesting really. Dress is meant to be more conservative, plus public affection of any kind is banned. At dinner last night, I learned that playfully giving my friend ‘the bird’ in public was also a jail-able offense! Not just during Ramadan. Oops. Fortunately nobody else saw me. And knowing me, I likely followed it up with an f-bomb or two. 
As fascinating and mystic as Dubai may sound, I’ve come to realize there is no way I would ever live here. I’m fortunate to have made several close friends and do cherish those relationships. But this 109 Fahrenheit weather must do something bizarre to the brains of all the expats that live here. Let’s just say there’s a lot of ‘drama’ in Dubai. It’s very incestuous and I think the expats live sort of in a fantasy world (no personal offense mates!), people here seem to be very involved in everyone else’s business! Gossip, politics, secrets, live-in maids and cheating. I know… it sounds like B&B (haha), but I didn’t fully grasp it before. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t operate well in that type of environment. Someone call Ryan Seacrest to get on it with ‘The Real Expats of Dubai’.
Now I am in Abu Dhabi. Just for the night at the amazing new Ritz. It’s just gorgeous and I wish I could go swimming in the fabulous pool but I’ll have to leave that for tomorrow. They’ve put me in a fantastic club room but now America is waking up, so to work I will go for the night. Abu Dhabi is the wealthiest Emirate of seven, and maybe the most conservative, but I’m not sure on that fact. I hope to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque tomorrow with the big camera. It’s truly beautiful but I’ve not gotten close yet! I need to brush up on their Ramadan rules first. There aren’t any impressive mosques, that I’ve seen, in Dubai.
This really is a bizarre country. You’ll go to jail for embracing someone on the street, yet can have multiple wives. We had to sneak sips of water laying down in the car, inside a car park, before going into the mall. I shouldn’t say it’s bizarre, I wholeheartedly respect their values and culture. I imagine they look at me flipping the bird in a tank dress and red soles at an influential non-royal ‘figure’ in the emirate, and think perhaps I’m a bit bizarre. 🙂
No worries….. I’ve been to duty free!
lizgeorjon 