Oh Man, Oman...Time To Catch Up

Rich here...ghost writing for Jennifer again. Since Jennifer has been busy taxi driving the girls all over the city, I figured I would get you all caught up on some recent travels/activities of the Berner family. Now that we are through most of the craziness of the UAE trying to get things like working gas, electric, cable, internet, driver's licenses, residence visas, cars, etc., it's been nice to finally get out and explore a bit of the region. Below is a multi-media extravaganza :) from some of our trips...you can click on any of the pictures to see big versions. Sorry for the length of the post in advance, but there is much to catch up on.

Oman

Earlier Jennifer wrote about Eid, which is the celebration at the end of Ramadan where Muslims celebrate the time when they break their fast...similar to Christmas in that there are parties/meals with family and exchange of presents. Well we later learned that that was actually Eid ul-Fitr and there is another Eid called Eid ul-Adha, which is approximately 70 days later and is the time Muslims commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God also the time of the "Haj" or pilgrimage to Mecca. The good news for us is that we got 3 days off and decided to take the girls to Oman.

Well even though we are through most of the expatriate process, the UAE is never short of surprises, which was the case as we tried to cross the border to Oman and found we had to go back to the UAE border because we never got exit visas, which began about a 2 hour process of driving to different stations, talking to different people and getting different stories about the 6 things we had to do to actually cross the border. But after a crazy start it turned out to be a great trip. Below is some video from the hotel we stayed at.

The hotel is actually 3 hotels that are interconnected that make a small town in the side of a mountain (One for adults only, one focused on families with teens and one focused on families with young children). It was a great trip with tons of kids. The girls actually had 2 or 3 friends each their age they met and played with the whole time at the pool or the kids club. Some fun pictures below. Bottom left was a pre-dinner foot massage on the beach (Highly recommended).

Atlantis

After we got home from Oman we took the girls to the Atlantis water park, which is the largest water park in the Middle East and only a short drive up to the tip of the palm.

Emma's is finally at an age that she is willing to try most of the rides with dad...Lily has quickly taken over her spot as the petrified one.

Lily's B-day

Jennifer wrote about how much she liked Things Remembered before, not surprisingly she (I mean we) decided to have Lily's 4th birthday party there. It was a big hit with Lily and all the kids. A great business idea to take back to the states for you entrepreneurial minded folks out there.

Thanksgiving

We were really missing home on Thanksgiving but tried to make the most of it by continuing the 28th Annual Berner Turkey Bowl with another Family at a bowling alley in Dubai. While it was more advanced than any bowling alley I'd ever been to, i.e., bumper lanes automatically come up when it's the kids turn, I'd have to say I was very bummed as we were driving there when I realized it was not connected to a hotel and therefore would not have any alcohol...bowling without dinking???? Unheard of...but I did finally break 100. Some fun video from the kids play area below.

We had a Turkey dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, Dubai. Far from mom's stuffing, but actually pretty darn good meal.

Grand Opening of The Palm Jumeirah and Atlantis

Click on the picture below to see a video from CNN of the fireworks to celebrate the grand opening of Atlantis and the Palm Jumeirah. Jennifer and the girls got see this, but I unfortunately missed as I was in South Africa...so bummed as I heard this show was grander/more money spent than on the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Dubai Mall

The Dubai Mall, which is at the base of the Burj Dubai (World's tallest building) officially opened this month and took over the title of the World's Largest mall from Mall of the Emirates (Also local and home of Ski Dubai). Picture the Bellagio on steroids and add a professional size ice rink with a jumbo tron the size of one you'd see in soldiers field and the world's largest aquarium. The pictures below were taken from my cell phone from a tunnel through the aquarium that had tons of sharks swimming along the tunnel...very cool...the girls loved it.

Sheikh Mo Visits Cerner

I was lucky enough to meet His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the ruler of Dubai when he stopped by the Ministry of Health Booth to learn about the Ministry's plans to automate healthcare with Cerner.

RB...tucked away in the back getting bowled over by the entourage. There is so much media around this guy, you would think he was an A+ list movie start.

So Come on Out

Well this August gave us new meaning to the saying "It was so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk," but right now just about everyday is 80 degrees, no humidity and not a clound in the sky. So if you don't have vacation plans for 2009 come out and see the Berner's. We'd love to have you. Picutre from our balconing this week.

And some closing words from the girls:

Maasalaamah,

H.H. Sheikh Richard bin Richard Al Berner

South Africa & India - The Haves and The Have Nots

Assalaam Alaikum – Rich here ghost writing for Jennifer. Just had an interesting couple of trips to South Africa and India last month I thought you all might be interested in reading about/seeing as they are both very interesting places. The difference between the haves and the have nots in both cities is pretty unbelievable. Both have some very historic and luxurious parts of the city juxtaposed against some truly 3rd world/developing country poverty like I have never seen.

Let me start with South Africa…The picture to the left is taken from Table Mountain above Cape Town and over my right shoulder in the distance is Cape Point, which is essentially the place where the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean collide. The views were breathtaking and it was pretty amazing to stare out at the convergence of these two bodies of water and think about all the explorers trying to sail around this point.

Here is some video from the top of Table Mountain. I had to take a very steep/scary gondola up the side of this cliff to get to the top. Considering I got stalled with a group of about 20 going up and coming down, my level of confidence in the quality controls in South Africa weren’t exactly high.

Below are pictures of the beautiful scenery from downtown and some of the interesting animals I saw on my way out to a meeting at a hospital in the wine country. It was set against communities of shacks…literally whole towns of people living in shacks…representing the dichotomy that exists for people in Cape Town.

Now what is interesting is in the bottom right picture you can see the new houses the goverment is putting up to replace the shacks, but they face the problem that many people that qualify for the new houses sell their house or rent it and go back to living in a shack.

Another good example…the guy in the picture to the right was my driver for the day in Cape Town. Since he had been working all day for me and I was enjoying his company and figured he had to be hungry if I was, I invited him to the top of Table Mountain to have a late lunch with me before I had to head out of town. He lives in a shack behind his brother’s house and has lived in Cape Town his whole life. He has probably driven thousands of tourists up to this mountain, only to wait at the bottom for their return. When we got to the top I realized he had never been up to this point because after lunch he said, he had never seen anything like this and he would remember this experience for his whole life…just another good example of how we should all count our blessings.

India

India was similar in that it was amazing how quickly you could go from some of the most luxurious places I have been to utter poverty. Most people probably know that India has over a billion people, but I couldn’t believe when I learned they actually have 4 cities bigger than New York…some say Mumbai alone has 20 million people. Below is a great video from outside the hotel I stayed at that demonstrates the craziness against the serene with only a wall diving the two. And I thought the roads in Cairo were crazy. I actually saw in real time 2 accidents including a hit and run on my way from the airport and two that had happened just before I got there.

And below are a few good pictures taken from the cell phone. The one on the left is from the top of the Cerner building. The one on the bottom is a typical amount of traffic you see at a stop light…you see hundreds of those 3 wheeled taxis all over the city…it is almost like they are playing bumper cars.

Thankfully my flight took off 2 hours before the attacks started so I was home safe and sound when the proverbial fit hit the shan. And no mom…India is not currently part of the region I manage so I won’t be going back soon.

Miss you all...Maasalaamah,

H.H. Sheikh Richard bin Richard Al Berner