Ramadan in UAE

Its only a few days before Ramadan starts.  I knew about Ramadan but now that I live in a country that is almost all Muslim, this will be the first time I truely experience it.   For the record, the next section has been copied from a presentaton sent to all expats to provide the background of Ramadan.  Not to worry, I'm not planning on converting, just thought you'd be interested in what its all about.

What is Ramadan?

• The 9th month in the Islamic (lunar) calendar, known in the Arabic language as the "hijri' calendar (i.e. the calendar of migration) as it begins from the day the Prophet Mohammed migrated from the city of Makah to the city of Medina (in Saudi Arabia)
• Islamic significance:   The month in which the Qur'an was descended upon and revealed to the Prophet Mohammed
• The month of fasting for Muslim
• Linguistically, the Arabic word "Ramad" means heat and drought, and hence Ramadan literally means the month of heat/drought, symbolising the abstinence from drinking during the hours of fasting

What is fasting?

• Fasting is the fourth amoung the five foundational pillars of Islam, these are: the declaration of faith, establishing the five daily prayers; offering the annual charity of the alms (2.5% of all savings to be given to poor; fasting the month of Ramadan; and performing the pilgrimage once in a life time for those who are phyically, financially and mentally capable.
• Fasting involves abstinence from all food and drink, from dawn to dusk, every day throughout the holy month.
• Fasting is prescribed upon every mature, adult Muslim.  The elderly, children and those whom risk health repercussions are exempt.

In addition to fasting from food and drink there are additional characteristics that are prescribed upon Muslims as part of the fast.

These include:
1.  Observe the five daily prayers.
2.  Exerting extra effort in performing good deeds and refraining from evil actions that are prohibited in Islam.
3.  Guarding the tongue against all forms of ill speech:  lying, backbiting, slander, foul speech, etc
4. Avoiding the consumption of any substances (including smoking, alcohol, etc)
5.  Anger management
6.  Forgiveness to people who have wronged you.
7. Avoidance of excessiveness in spending
8.  Maintaining and honouring ties of kinship
9.  Gentleness and politeness in all transactions and interactions
10.  Avoiding sexual contact during fasting

By now you must be asking....why? 

The wisdom behind Ramadan is the following:

Spiritual recharge - Ramadan provides an annual station for a spiritual recharge and boost for Muslim

Self restraint - Fasting demonstrates to Muslims the human capability to exercise self restraint, and to control their desires.  It serves to remind us to distinguish between 'needs' and 'wants' in order to live a balanced life, free from excessiveness and extravagance.

Compassion - Fasting is also intended to serve as a reminder about the life long suffering of the poor and the needy in order to increase the charitable deeds and offerings.  The hunger and thirst experienced through the daylight provides a sample of what poor experience on a daily basis and serves to encourage the observers of fasting to donate generously.

Charitable Support - In spirit of the former point, Ramadan directly precedes Eid-ul-Fitr (the first two of two annual Islamic festivals) which commences by the giving of an obligatory charity known as Zakat-ul-fitr, aimed to provide the poor and needy with means to feed and celebrate the festival.

Anyway, enough about the background...how is it going to affect me.

1.  Most employers reduce the work hours to 6 hours a day.  Starting next Sunday, we'll be working 8 until 2pm.  This may sound good, but there is no eating or drinking allowed in the office (or least not in front of any muslims).  Obviously this is seen as disrespectful.  I suspect the first few mornings without a cup of coffee will be difficult.  The positive is that I'll be on the golf course by 3pm.  They won't serve booze on the course but you can get water.  (I guess there isn't too many Muslim's on the course)
2.  As a result of the fasting the work pace is also impacted.  I can only imagine the productivity will decrease when people are not able to eat or drink. 
2.  Most cafes, restaurants, food courts, shopping centres close during the hours of Ramadan.  
3.  The Muslims feast in the evenings so after sunset (approximately 7:30pm) the town comes alive and all the restaurants offer the special meal called Iftar (break fast meal).  They also offer a pre fast meal called Suhoor, but it must be eaten before sunrise.  Heck no, I won't be getting up that early...
4.  Majority of bars are closed and there is no live music or entertainment allowed during Ramadan
5. People are generally expected to dress a bit more conservatively.

That's it for now, but I'll drop a couple of posts after Ramadan starts to let you know how its going.

To wish all the Muslims well, they say "Ramadan Kareem". 

Yerevan, Armenia

Yerevan, Armenia

Where the heck is that?   This is exactly what I said when my friends Robert and Vinesh suggested that we fly there for a long weekend in June.  Carmen and kids were already back in Canada so I figured what the heck.  It didn’t take too much research to realize that this was going to be a nice little get away.   I also realized through facebook that my good friend Clinton had visited Armenia a couple of occasions so he was able to point us to a number of good spots.

First, for those of you that don’t know, Armenia is a small mountainous country in the south region of Eurasia.  This little country borders Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran.  Armenia was a former republic of the Soviet Union but became independent in 1990.  It’s known for its cultural and religious background.  The Kingdom of Armenia was supposedly the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its religion.  (information courtsey of Wikipedia)

We ended up spending all of our time in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. We flew to Yerevan on a discount airline called Fly Dubai which often offers deals to locations like Yerevan where other airlines wouldn’t normally fly.  The flights are cheap and they’re direct, both features of flying that are close to my heart.

  

Yerevan was interesting and as the research indicated, was full of culture.  It also was very nice as there didn’t seem to be much in way of tourists.  Sounds hypocritical since we are tourists, but this way we felt we could better blend in with the locals.
 

We spent most of the two days basically checking out the city centre of Yerevan.  Overall a small city centre which we could see tour around in 3-4 hours.   We also took a couple of tours that were just out of the city.  Both out of town tours were recommended by Clinton and both were a hit. 

A funny story – on the first day after touring the city centre we decided to see if we could venture out of the city.  When we asked someone on the street which was quicker to get to, the lady replied, Garni Temple and Geghard Monastery.  She figured by taxi it would take 20-25 minutes.  We jumped into the first taxi we found and described the place we wanted to go.  Now you would think that local taxi drivers would have heard of their top tourist attractions... but maybe not!  Anyway, it was clear this guy either didn’t understand us or didn’t know where it was.  We stopped the taxi and found someone to translate the location to him.   Once this was done, all seemed good….wrong!  The estimate of time to get to the location was based on going 100km/hr which was neither possible with the road conditions nor the 1978 Lada that didn’t seem to go over 50km/hr.  Luckily none of us were on a schedule so we sat back and enjoyed the ride.  Further proof that this taxi driver hadn’t ever been out to these tourist spots was confirmed after stopping for the third time to ask for directions.  Finally we arrived at the Garni Temple.

The Garni temple is an old Roman pagan temple that reminds you of the pantheon in rome.  Garni temple is lovely, however, most impressive is the beautiful scenery around.  We took tons of pictures.

After Garni we got back into the taxi and went to Geghard Monastery.  Geghard is a beautiful monastery partly carved in a mountain rock surrounded by the mountain tops and stays well hidden in the valley. It is a must see point in Armenia. After snapping more pics we made our venture back to the city.  An approximate hour round trip turned into three hours but in the end it was worth it. 

The first evening we went for supper at a local Armenia restaurant.  The restaurant was quite small (maybe only 8-10 tables) but the atmosphere and decor was very local.  They had a local lady playing the piano and a man singing in armenian.  Can't say what he was singing about but non the less it was nice background noise...  The the food, wine and service was superb, I can see why it was so higly touted.

The second day we went to the base of Mt Ararat, called Khor Virap.  Mt Aratat is actually in Turkey but Khor Virap provides a spectactualor view of the mountain.   As you can see from the pictures, there was a little cloud cover so we couldn’t see all the mountain. One of the interesting facts about this mountain is that it supposedly is where the Noah’s Ark voyage ended.  Interesting site for a quick tour trip.

Coming back into town we decided to hit their local flee market.  Its probably the biggest market I've ever been to, but the disappointing part of it was that the vendors weren't willing to barter.  Pretty much was...here's the price, take it or leave it... 

In the end, I think all three of us had a great trip.  For a short 2-3 day excursion, I would definintely recommend Yerevan.  Enjoy the pics
    

View from Cascade - Yerevan

Robert, Vin and me in Republic Square



Republic Square - city centre Yerevan





Garni

Another republic square

View from Garni - spectaculor home on the cliff

Post supper dessert

Nightclub in Yerevan

Khor Virap

Different angle from Khor Virap

Another view from Garni

Mt Ararat in the clouds

Monestary at Khor Virap

Cascade from base - Yerevan

Wild waterslide weekend in Ras Al Khaimah

What a great, wet weekend we had! We felt it was time to enhance our culture understanding of the northern part of UAE and visit emirates Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain. The reality was that Carmen bought a special hotel package on a discount website which included water park tickets.  We'll worry about culture later.... 

We left after work on Thursday ...about a 2.5 hour drive and a bit to our surprise ended up in the middle of the desert surrounded by an industrial park…no wonder the hotel was cheap! Its not real pretty, but very interesting landscape …probably the biggest sand dunes we have seen yet.  I think when people think we're in the middle of the desert this is more like would one would imagine....blowing sand, camels crossing the road, local men in their disdash.  The hotel was actually fine, but just so weirdly situated. Friday we arrived at Dreamland Aqua Park pretty much right when the gates opened at 10:00 am. It was a huge facility with a good kids area, but in no time at all, we had convinced the kids to try some of the bigger slides.  Lets be honest, Carmen and I weren't going to be satisfied watching the kids in the play area... There was hardly anyone at the park and the lifeguards were very friendly and accommodating that they allowed the kids on many of the rides, even thought they really weren’t tall enough for them. At first we were worried that the kids would be scared, but they loved the attention and the rides. They hit almost every ride in the park minus the two kamikaze slides (i think the name describes them well). Trace wanted to try them (once he saw Dad on it) but it was quickly kiboshed by mom. There were a couple of raft rides the kids loved and some pretty fast tunnel slides that by the end of the day we were all racing down. During the day a family we have met from Australia/South Africa came to join us – Karen, Michael, Logan and Imara. Ironically, Logan shares the twins’ b-day, but is two years younger. We all had an absolutely awesome day and the kids were wiped by the end of it all. Thus, the adults were able to socialize a bit at the hotel in peace and quietJ

The fun didn’t stop there though. The next day, only 18 km further down the road was another water slide park. This one was called Iceland Water Park and is only two years old. It was huge and very uniquely done to look like the north pole….quite funny again considering it is in the middle of the desert. It had a great kids area, better than Dreamland probably and some very unique adult rides, but the security was much tighter so the kids were only allowed on two family raft rides beside the kiddie area. This meant the adults didn’t get to go on as many rides, so will have to go back again some dayJ Both parks were great, but would say we had more fun at Dreamland just because the kids could come along with us on everything. That said, Iceland would really get the heart pumping if one had the time. All adults but Carmen went on what I would say was the fastest (most painful) straight down slide – Mount Attack (its like the kamikaze on steroids). Wow, the force was unbelievable! Its never a good sign when you don't see anyone going on the slide.  It either means its boring, or you are putting you life at risk.  Lets just say it was a one time only!  All the adults also went on a really different raft slide almost like a skateboard ramp…again some bruises for memoriesJ All in all a wonderful weekend and really enjoyed sharing it with some new family friends.  We are already talking about a trip to Cape Town in the next year together…imagine how excited Carmen already is!

P.S. As I write this, Carmen is flying over the atlantic to Canada.  Her Master convocation is in Lethbridge this week so she is doing a quick trip to be able to walk across the stage to receive her degree.  Congrats Carmen...you deserve it!!!

Malaysia / SIngapore 2012

DAY 1

Our adventure begins....

Due to location of UAE and the time zone issues with arriving flights, most flights leave Abu Dhabi in the early morning....we are no different with a departure time of 2:40am.  We put two very excited kiddies to bed early, in hope of them getting some sleep before heading to the airport.  The flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia is approximately 7 hours so crossing our fingers that we all can sleep most of the flight.  A taxi has been called and we'll be heading to the airport shortly..

We've arrived to the airport and the kids are wide awake and jumping out of their skin with excitement.  We arrived early to take advantage of the nice airport lounge.  Turns out the lounge is not really that great, albeit it does come with free booze if you want to get hammered.

Sitting in the lounge, curiously watching the provincial election back home.  I suspect it will be determined by the time we arrive in KL.  Always been a supporter of PC but this may be the time they get defeated.

I'll be back after we arrive in KL....stay tuned

After an uneventful flight we arrived in KL, Malaysia approximately 2pm.    Kuala Lumpur is the federal capital and most populous city in Malaysia. Its said to cover an area of 243 km² and has an estimated population of 1.6 million. According to the taxi driver, the country is 63% Malays, 23% Chinese, with the remainder being Indian.   After checking into the hotel we headed off for an early traditional Malaysian supper to fuel up before the evening began.  We stayed at a hotel opposite of the Petronas Twin towers where each room had a full view of the towers.  These towers are considered the highest twin towers in the world.  The picture below is from our room.  As you can see they are nicely lite up at night.  If you’ve ever seen the movie “Entrapment” you would have seen the towers. We spent the evening touring the central markets and China town of KL.  It unfortunately was raining most of the evening however since its very warm and with the help of a couple of small umbrellas it didn't really bother us.  In one of the markets we all tried putting out feet into a pool of fish doctors (little fish that nibble at your toes) for a foot massage.  Don’t worry, we asked if it was safe and the lady that didn’t speak any English re-assured us.  It was difficult to put your feet in the water knowing that hundreds of fish were going to be kissing your feet.  Carmen, Rafi and I tried it first and then Trace maybe stuck a toe into the water before he said he was too scared. :)

Carmen bought herself a nice Burberry hand bag (I’m sure its real….) at the Chinese market so she was happy.  Lets call it a little graduation gift.  By the time we got back to the room it was 10pm. 

Day 2

After an exhausting flight and day/evening in KL, the kids and Carmen nearly slept in until 9am.  For any of you that know Trace, this is about 2 hours past his normal wake-up call.  Fortunately we woke up to a beautiful clear sunny sky.  Just to give you some perspective, it seems like the temperatures range in the high 20s to low 30s but there is lots of humidity… its quite sticky.  In the morning we ventured out to the Batu caves.   The Batu Caves are approximately thirteen kilometers north of KL. They are the sacred place for the Hindu's in Malaysia. They consist of three main caves and a number of smaller ones. The caves are made of limestone and 400 meters long and 100 meter high. They were discovered in 1892. Standing at the entrance of the caves is a huge statue (approx. 140 ft) of Murugan, a Hindu deity (140 ft high).  One of the highlights of morning was when a monkey showed his teeth and jumped at Trace and I while we were taking a picture.  It almost made us fall down the stairs as we were startled.  There are hundreds of monkeys climbing around and all seem to be quite tame so it surprised us and all the people around us.  In the end we figured the monkey was simply having a bad hair day and didn’t want his picture taken…  After returning back into KL we went to a Hindu temple called Sri Mahamariamman.  This is known to be the oldest and richest Hindu temple in KL.  It was a quick stop but interesting none the less.  Finally before going to the airport we took a quick trip to the bird park.  I was a little suspect about this tourist trap but as it turns out it was a great stop, in fact we didn’t get to see all of it due to lack of time.  The Malaysian taxi driver that took us to the bird park thought I could speak englysian (I’m sure it was a mixture of English and Malaysian – mostly Malaysian).  He literally spoke to me the entire 15 minute ride without me understanding a word.  After a couple of “excuse me’s”, I simply nodded my head every 5 seconds and threw in the odd “ok”.   Seemed to do the trick.  The Bird Park is the largest free range aviary park in the world which basically means that many of the areas allowed the birds to fly free (i.e. not in a cage).  The picture give you a sense of how interactive they are.  Rafi allowed some parrots feed out of her hand but Trace wasn’t as keen (humm – seems to be a pattern here!)  We are heading back to the airport to fly to Kuantan, the east coast of Malaysia.  We’ll be staying the next 7 days in a beach resort next to Cherating beach, 40 miles out of Kuantan.  Until then! 

Day 3

Today was our first full day at Club Med. It started with a tour of the facility. It is quite impressive with tennis, squash, trapeze, basketball, archery, two beaches, an awesome pool, etc… The setting is also beautiful! Rafi and Carmen hit the pool first and Trace demanded we play soccer before the pool. When he saw the court on the tour, he refused to let go of the ideaJ  We all spent the rest of the morning in the pool. We had lunch together and then went our separate ways. The twins went to try the kids club, Carmen went for a “four hand” massage and I went to workout. Pretty nice afternoon had by all although Carmen said she had the giggles initially as the last time she experienced two “massage therapists” in one room was with Chandra in Vancouver where she was more wondering if she could take the lady on if need be rather than relaxing! I ended up running on the beach, which was beautiful and then took a little nap. The kids enjoyed the kids club, but when we picked them up were ready to hit the pool again. I don’t know how the day could be so busy relaxingJ After the pool was supper and bed. Let’s just say there wasn’t much of a fight put up by the kids when it was time to turn in!

Day 4-6

We're a little behind on our posts but at least I found time to post some pictures.  We are having a great time!

Day 4 - 9

What a great week we had at Cherating Beach Resort. We were busy everyday with activities for the whole family. Each morning the kids had the opportunity to be part of a circus act…there was an inverted bungee and trapeze set up. By the end of the week they were doing back flips on the bungee. Ryan and I got a couple of chances on the trapeze as well…can’t believe how sore my abs were afterward! The kids also could join a mini kids club each day. They enjoyed many fun events like a kids Olympics, cookie making, tie-dye shirt making, bingo, limbo, etc… It was a great club for all because while they had fun playing with other children, we could do some adult activities on our own. We played tennis, went for a couple of beach runs, did a tree top obstacle course, archery, badminton, and had time to just r&r by the pool! Between all the organized events and the two different beaches we didn’t even leave the resort the whole week.

We were all (yes, even me) in the pool at least twice a day. The temperature of the pool was perfect so it was easy to spend an hour or more playing around. The kids practiced swimming, diving, and shooting mommy with water gunsJ We also participated in a pool chipping contest. Our family kicked butt. Trace chipped one ball into an umbrella as did Ryan and I got two balls in the umbrella…I was named the world champion, but don’t want to brag too much! Oh, did I also mention I came in second in a tennis tournament…don’t want to rub it in, but will mention that Ryan did participate in both events, but didn’t metalJ

The food was impressive. We all had lots to eat daily and each night enjoyed a different supper theme. Lots of fresh fruit, baked goods, and choices between Indian, Chinese, Korean or Western cuisine. The kids were introduced to crepes with cream and chocolate….definitely against their diets, but were allowed one little one a day…what a treat! It will be detox time when we get home.

The weather was also perfect. It was sunny and warm everyday and then often rained in the evening. The humidity was high, but nothing the pool wouldn’t cure for us, but that is more than we can say for our digital camera. It made it only 2 days before the humidity must have fried the electronics. We had to use my iphone very carefully for the rest of the trip to take pictures. We went through a lot of sun block, but still all have browned up. And Ryan…well, he always goes for the lobster look given his more limited holiday time!

It was hard to say good-bye to the resort. Never thought I would say that about an all inclusive, but truly was the perfect holiday with the kids. Now, on to Singapore for three days before returning back to reality.

Days 10-12 - Singapore

Wow, what a beautiful city.  Singapore is well known for being a very safe and clean country.  They have some interesting/strange laws that supposedly reinforce this, although some of them seem to be overboard.  For example:

1.       No where can you purchase chewing gum – caught with gum comes with a fine

2.       No spitting in public, we were a little worried about this one (story to follow)

3.       Another interesting one was a $500 fine for forgetting to flush the toilet in public - Carmen almost got busted for this one J

Singapore seems small in terms of land mass but over 5 million people reside there.  It’s very similar to places like UAE and Cayman where there is a large expat community both in terms of laborers and professional workers.   Singapore has a large banking and financial district.  If you like warm and humid, Singapore is the place for you.  Talking to some of the locals it sounds like weather is pretty constant throughout the year ranging from 25-33 degrees Celsius and minimum 70% humidity.   Rain is a part of life, everyone walks around with umbrellas.  We were fortunate during our stay as there was very little rain yet it was overcast for most of the time. 

We arrived in Singapore early Wednesday afternoon and after checking into our hotel we ventured to a nice Italian restaurant that offered gluten free pasta.  Poor Rafi had been without pasta or any wheat product for the past 9 days so we wanted to find something that wasn’t rice.  Don’t get me wrong, the kids ate very well during the time in Malaysia, but having something more familiar was exactly what they needed.  It was probably the quietest meal we had all trip J

That evening we decided to take in the famous night Safari.  Singapore has a world famous zoo where part of it is only open during the evenings starting 7 pm until 12 midnight.  As many of the animals are nocturnal, this concept seems to really make sense.  Most of the zoo is viewed by tram, however there are also walking paths to see some of the smaller animals.  Unbelievably most of the animals are not contained by wire or fences but by natural terrain.  The kids were quite excited and lasted quite long considering the time at night, but by the end of the tram ride (approx 11pm) we had two kids sleeping in our laps! They missed some of the best big animals like some rhinos, elephant, and an animal that was like a cross between a pig and cow…it was quite big and had a white face and body and from mid back to bottom was black…very strange.

Due to the late night we took the opportunity to sleep in the next morning.  This day was going to be a true tourist day and see all the cool things of Singapore.  These were some of the highlights:

Singapore Science Centre - http://www.science.edu.sg/Pages/SCBHome.aspx - this is a very comprehensive and interactive science exhibition.  We only spent 2 hours there but the kids could have easily explored it all day.   We were doubtful they understood the interactive exhibits but nevertheless they enjoyed trying them and playing them.  We also took in a IMAX show about caving and it was the first time for the kids to go to an IMAX.  As you know, the way IMAX works it actually gives the perception that you are moving as the screen shows images of flying through the sky.  Trace was gripping onto his chair tightly thinking that we were actually flying, quite funny.

Bugis Street – This was not on the top 10 list, but the cabbie convinced us to try it out…big mistake!  It was originally (1950s to 1980s) known for being an area when trans women would hang out in the evenings but since has been converted into a large local market.  Like other markets there were tons of people and vendors however the difference was that all prices were fixed (i.e. no bartering) and they seemed quite expensive.  Also, most of the shops were of clothes and lots and lots of the same stuff.  Since we had taxi’d all the way there we felt we should spend some time checking it out.  I for one am not a fan of the markets but at the same time I do like to engage in the bartering.  Since this was not an option I wanted out of there.  This combined with Trace spending the entire time looking for “Ben 10” things and then whining and crying with each new item that it was his favorite, almost put me over the edge.  In the end we broke down, more to stop the whining, and bought him a cheap “Ben 10” watch.  Of course we then had to also buy a similar Barbie watch for Rafi.  I will always refer to this experience as the “shopping from hell”.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel - http://www.marinabaysands.com/ - After escaping the SFH we went to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and shops.  This is a luxury hotel and mall that apparently has a beautiful skybar and casino.  We had intended to check out the sky bar but after getting there and realizing that just to get to the top was going to cost over $200 for the 4 of us we decided against it.  We took a quick look at the shops and then went to the marina to relax and enjoy the sunlight.  Carmen used this opportunity to check out the Louis Vuitton shop that was built next to the shops on its own little island.   I was holding my breath the whole time she was there but was relieved to see her leave the shop empty handed J

Singapore Flyer – http://www.singaporeflyer.com/ - of all the things in Singapore, the kids were most excited about this.  From a distance it looks like a large Ferris wheel.  For those of you that know London, the Flyer is similar to the London Eye.  Once we got up to the flyer, the reality sunk in for the kids, especially Rafi, that this was not an exciting Ferris wheel.  The combination of a long day, and already tired kids from the previous night made this 30 minute tour seem much longer.  Unfortunately for an older couple that was stuck with us, they had to endure a lot of complaining and whining… Definitely wasn’t our best.  We decided that was the end of our Singapore tour day and headed back to the hotel.

That night after the kids ate, a colleague from Abu Dhabi, Jesslyn,  who moved back to her home of Singapore met us at our hotel. The adults ate while the kids played on the ipad and iphone…yikes, at 4 yrs this is already considered their entertainment. It turns out at our hotel is a very popular Chinese restaurant so we had a late supper and just visited. It was a nice evening and the kids were so well behaved, it was almost shockingJ

The next day was our all-out final full holiday day. We were gone by 9:30 pm from the holiday and didn’t return for 12+ hours. We met Jesslyn one last time at a café for breakfast and she drove us to the tram to go to Santosa island. Santosa island is a big playland. We first went to Universal Studios. I had to convince Carmen it would be a good idea. She thought the kids would be too young, but turns out they were great. We pretty much hit all the kid rides , went on the log ride as a family (only after purchasing rain ponchos) and made it to a couple of shows. I even got a chance to go on two adult roller coasters. We ended up spending most of the day there and the kids loved the 3D rides and mini roller coasters best. The lines were relatively short, so it was great fun for all. From Universal Studios we got the tram again and went to Sentosa Park. We had a pass that allowed us to get into three different attractions. We started with a luge ride. We went on a ski lift to the top of the island and then luged down with the kids. The girls made it down to the bottom first…they bought the picture to prove it. It was really a lot of fun. We could have gone multiple times, but also wanted to see a night light show over the water. It too was great. We ended the night with a final 3D pirate show. The kids were quite scared as it felt like bees were buzzing around your face, crabs at your feet, spiders jumping on you, etc…. The show wasn’t actually scary, but the effects even had us a bit jumpy! By the time the day was over and we found our way home it was past 11pm.  We were all exhausted when we returned back from the theme park and went straight to sleep!

Our final morning was spent packing and doing a last minute trip to China town and Little India. It was ok, but nothing too exciting. The best part was Carmen and Rafi went for a 15 minute reflexology treatment together. Carmen was a bit worried initially with thoughts of Vancouver last summer (another story for another day) in her mind, but it was all legit! The only sickness issue we had occurred during the last day of our trip.  For the last morning we decided to eat at the hotel which was a nice western breakfast brunch.  Almost immediately after leaving the hotel to go to China town, Rafi complained of a sore tummy.  By the time we got there, she was crying and kept saying she wanted to “spit”.  Carmen fortunately had a little baggie in her purse and we were not 2 seconds out of the cabbie and rafi filled the baggie with “spit”.  It was quite the site and we definitely drew a number of looks.   The funniest look was the relief on the taxi driver’s face.  Whatever the issue was, the spitting helped as Rafi was almost immediately in good spirits. 

To solidify the trip as being one of the best, we were extremely surprised and pleased to find that we had been upgraded to business class for our trip back to Abu Dhabi.  Since we would be arriving late at night this was perfect for the kids to get some good sleep.  Ironically, Rafi and I sat together and we ended up watching movies (instead of sleeping) most of the trip.  Like Father like daughter. In contrast, Trace fell asleep almost immediately.

It truly was a 5 star holiday for all of us and will be hard to beat. May be horrible to say, but both Carmen and I were already talking on the way back about how much travelling gets in your system and were already planning where our next trip would take us. The more places you go, the more you realize there is to see.