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| in the big town... |
today is some type of holiday here, and none of the smaller souks or markets will be open until late aternoon… we headed to a different larger shopping center that would be open, and it was pretty much like the mall of dubai yesterday, high end shops and designer duds, mostly… i found one indian designer clothing shop who also have a boutique in mumbai, and the clothes were absolutely gorgeous… i wrote down the names of the designers hoping my seamstress friend in seattle can look at some pictures on line and knock me off a couple of cool gig shirts… these were a bit out of my budget range ($500-$1000 for a blouse)! there was a big hat show, and though i can’t wear hats well with my big, fat, irish head, i do enjoy looking at them. nino wears hats well, so i don’t get how i missed that ability… we did find a beautiful date shop, however, where we got a few regional goodies, packaged dates with nuts, candied ginger, orange peel, and some other treats; some to bring home and some to enjoy right here! we had a lovely breakfast that was more parisienne than middle eastern, but it was great!
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| millinery madness |
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| night sky on mall ceiling in the middle of the day... very harry potter... |
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| they're everywhere! |
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| lovely dates! |
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| really delicious... |
i am just going to come right out and say that as big and expensive and grand as everything is here, something about the whole place just felt really off to me… it’s a weird energy, not sure how else to describe it… i didn’t dig it as much as i had hoped i might, but i have a sense that oman will be more interesting and historical and atmospheric… more… well, middle eastern! this place was like some kind of dysfunctional, materialistic disneyland for sheikhs and high rollers. las vegas has more soul, and that’s saying something! if i had had the chance to do one of the tours to abu dhabi, i think that would have been more my cup of tea, sadly, i can’t do the really long day trips that return at 8 because i work at 7, so there you go… anyway, our next ports will be muscat and then salalah, both in oman. i am optimistic that it will be more what i want to see about this region of the world.
my theme tonight was a session of “name that tune.” i stopped doing company swag prizes a while ago (keychains, coasters) and began picking up souvenirs from our ports… todays prize was dark chocolate from a chocolatier out of lebanon. there was one lady who hardly ever comes in, and sat down til she discovered we were doing name that tune… she was upset about that, and implied that that is all i ever do there… i think out of the last 12 weeks, this was my 3rd round of name that tune, so i was confused… i hope she’ll try to come more often! we said goodbye to a few folks who disembarked here and hello to some new people. i like getting a few fresh faces in the lounge, because it gives me a little shot in the arm to know that there is someone there who hasn’t heard my stuff yet…
on a sad note, the dave and diane trip might not pan out this time after all due to complex travel arrangements, but i am psyched that bob and i will be in northern europe in 2012 and will be closer if dave (or dave and fam!) want to hop on or even just come for a day visit when we are in helsinki… i will really look forward to that! hope everyone near and far are doing well, and know that we are ok and staying out of the weirdness going on in our neighborhood of the world right now! cheers, everyone! xo, me
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