Animoto Video:

Flickr Slideshow:

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Dubai – New Dubai - Flickr Slideshow

Dubai – Old Dubai and The Creek - Flickr Slideshow

Dubai – People on Our Trip - Flickr Slideshow

Dubai – Hotels and Hotel Decor - Flickr Slideshow

Animoto Video:

So what was my impression in our short, two-day sojourn through this parched land of mega skyscrapers? Well let’s just say that my expectations weren’t that high so they were in fact, exceeded. Gaudi decided to build the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, which is truly a wonder not only because it’s beautiful but also because  of the sheer gall that anyone could ever even contemplate such a project. Maybe the same will be said about some of the “projects” in Dubai someday? Then again…maybe not. It’s not that I don’t believe Dubai is impressive in many ways. Some of the architecture is quite interesting simply because in a wealthy autocracy there are no limits as to what can be done and no committees and hoops for architects to jump through, and plenty of cheap labor that can work all the time – Oh, I mean only when the temperature is “below 50 degrees celcius”. It’s more like Sheik says “Jump” and they do.

Abandon Car in Dubai

Well as we all know, there was a little too much jumping in Dubai, which resulted in its current bankrupt state. What would have been the Burj Dubai is now the Burj Khalifa thanks to the head of Abu Dhabi who bailed the builders out so it could be finished. Was it worth it? I kind of think so. After all, even the Empire State building was in debt and not full when it was finally finished. And we couldn’t imagine life without it now.  The Burj Khalifa is a wildly impressive structure that can be seen from just about anywhere miles away. It gives the illusion that you’re quite close when in fact you could be very far away from it. Despite how much our friend Savio wanted us to visit the “top” (the observation deck is on the 124th floor of 160 habitable floors. There are another 46 floors that can only be used for maintenance because of the building’s telescopic shape), we decided not to because of rumored 2 1/2 hour lines and 2 straight hazy days.

What about The Palm? Well, let’s just say that with the Burj Khalifa, they got it right. The Palm? A monorail that is not connected to the rest of Dubai’s metro that only has one stop at the end (Atlantis)? I guess it’s smart that they built that because of all the poor people who visit (or live in) Dubai who can’t afford a taxi out to the very reasonably priced Atlantis resort would be able to take the monorail? And what about the fact that there’s no way back to the “mainland” from the crescents on the sides except for the main truck of The Palm. Well, I guess this makes sense because people would naturally want to drive back through the trunk to see all of the individually unique condos and homes built along the way (not a single one alike)… The Palm? Really?

My Dooby Dislikes:

• Just about everything is new
• Too much shopping
• Alcohol is only permitted in hotel restaurants (unless snuck in)
• Droves of ex-pats tending to congregate together  – I would to!
• The existence of The Palm
• The Fake Twin Chrysler Buildings
• Draconian measures to keep people from speeding

My Dooby Likes:

• The Burj Khalifa
• Many other fascinating buildings architecturally
• The Dubai Creek
• The fact that you can send an SMS to extend your parking
• The climate – in January!
• The fact that it’s situated in a great part of the world for traveling
• Cool arab design elements everywhere
• The male swarth factor is off the charts
• Very cool (surprisingly not all tacky) luxury hotels with fantastic decor
• The wind tunnel cooling system in the museum area
• The Lebanese food
• Wafi Gourmet’s dates
• Cool lunar desert landscape to play in (see us dune-buggy riding in the photos)
• Everything, and I mean everything, is clean
• Lamcy Plaza
• Beautiful Mosques
• Hilla, Ankur, and Eric (how cool they are in every way)

So, I think that all in all, there are more Dooby Likes than Dooby Dislikes. This will make Adi very happy

But what is my absolute favorite thing about Dubai?

This cool Costa Coffee Cup, bought at Dubai Airport.

I bought a cup of coffee when transiting in Dubai on the way to Karachi at Costa Coffee in the airport. Despite the beginning of my jet lag I noticed that the cup has one of the coolest designs I’d ever seen, a fact that I’m sure went unnoticed by Senor Khalifa. This cup has wavy ridges built into it so that the coffee drinker does not burn her hands AND doesn’t have to put on one of those “jackets” since it’s built into the cup. Efficient. Cool. Environmental. (I know some will disagree with that but what the heck) Cost Effective? I don’t know. But regardless, it’s cool. So the design of this cup is my absolute favorite thing about Dubai.

Oh wait a minute…. Isn’t Costa Coffee a British chain?

Thanks for reading: Dubai – The Old, The New, and The Trip – in Rants. Now check out Dubai – The Old, The New, and The Trip – in Photos!

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Here are some additional Galleries. Each one links to its own flickr slideshow.

Karachi and the People on Our Trip.

Adi’s family was great and I met the entire extended family as well. This group of 83 photos show all the family gatherings and then some! And no matter how short the gathering, there was always food, drink, desert, or tea served. What a hospitable country! You’ll also see a few shots of people just living life – not posed. See the Flickr Slideshow Here.

Karachi – Places & Street Life.

A visit to Karachi wouldn’t be possible without being in a vehicle of some sort. Luckily the vehicles I rode in were air-conditioned cars. This album of 114 photos gives you a glimpse into life on Karachi’s streets. Most of the photos were taken from a moving car! I was fascinated by the rickshaws, buses, and trucks, all of which were made extremely colorful and individual to the place where they came from. See the Flickr Slideshow Here.

Karachi – Quaid-E-Azam Mausoleum

This is one of Karachi’s most interesting and visited sites and for good reason. The Quaid-E-Azam Mausoleum is a public landmark dedicated to honoring the final resting place of Pakistan‘s founder – Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It sits on 53 hectares of land and is 75×75 meters on the ground and 43 meters high. There are multiple fountains, gardens, and beautiful white stone. See the Flickr Slideshow Here.

Karachi – Architecture

Karachi is very spread out and needs a bit of patience to get to know and to find the sometimes hidden gems of architecture, but they do exist. There are some wonderful old structures in various conditions. Many of these are captured while driving so the shots aren’t always the very best. But I did manage to capture a few good ones. See the Flickr Slideshow here.

Karachi – Decor.

I love taking photos of furniture and art whenever I can. I toured some pretty impressive and old homes in Karachi and enjoyed what I saw. Structures are mostly built out of cement so often you’ll see wires on the outside of the wall rather than inside (for older buildings). I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see so many great rooms if it hadn’t been for Adi’s family. See the Flickr Slideshow here.

View from Hyatt

We spent 11 days there in total, about half in San Diego and the other half in Pasadena and Burbank. Luckily, Adi’s genetics conference paid for the San Diego half of the trip. The best thing about our hotel was the view and the worst thing about it was the fact that we found out that the owner of this particular Hyatt, Doug Manchester, donated $125,000 to passing proposition 8. We saw protesters outside the day after Maine Proposition 1 passed. The parking garage attendant informed us about the reasons for the protest and it was confirmed at the hotel the following day.

I guess that explained the decor, which I referred to as “Early Reagan Republican”.

El Camino Restaurant Sorth Park

It looked like it was right out of some “high class” country club in Anywhereville, USA. But we had already checked in and it was the conference hotel so we didn’t check out. Had we known earlier, we probably would have.

So we decided to enjoy it, especially the view.

The best thing about going to San Diego was seeing my niece Tara, her daughter Makena, son Joaquin (for the first time), and husband Carlos (for the second time). We got together almost everyday and it was really fun just to hang out. Joaquin was the perfect baby, at least while we were there.  Here’s a link to the first full set of photos on flickr that show our first couple of days and a lot of photos of a cool Mexican restaurant called El Camino that Adi and I ate at in South Park.

Flickr Slide Show: November So. Cal Trip #1

Balboa Park

The second day of our trip, Tara, Makena, Joaquin, and I got together at Balboa Park while Adi was busy at his conference. The weather was perfect, we had a great time, and of course, I took way too many photos. There are also photos in this group of Adi and I at the beach in the afternoon and then La Jolla at sunset.

Flickr Slide Show: November So Cal Trip #2

Adi had some time off mid morning one day so we took a quick trip and tour of Coronado Island and shot a lot of photos of the Hotel Del Coronado. In the afternoon, I met Tara and the kids again at the Fashion Valley Mall and bought some sunglasses. There are some great photos in this set of me and the kids.

Flickr Slide Show: November So Cal Trip #3

On our last day in San Diego, a Saturday, Adi was at his conference all day. In the mid afternoon, I got together with Tara, Carlos, and their family for some fun at the playground at Mission Bay Park. At night, we went to a seafood restaurant near the hotel. There are only 22 photos in this one (short compared to the other sets).

Flickr Slide Show: November So Cal Trip #4

That night we said goodbye to Tara, Carlos and sweet Makena and Joaquin. And the

Hollywood Sign

next day, after a morning conference session, we headed up the coast and toward LA and eventually made our way to Pasadena, where our friends Vanessa and Joe live. They also have a newborn, the six-month-old Olivia, who was adorable and a very good baby, especially when she was in motion! We also spent time with our friend John Toal and saw his new dog Pierre, which Adi kept referring to as Pied-A-Terre for some reason. There are a ton of photos in this slide show, a lot of the Huntington Gardens in San Marino.

Flickr Slide Show: November So Cal Trip #5

LA Farmers Market at Sunset

All good trips come to an end (and luckily the bad ones too). We extended our LA trip by 2 days and it was well worth it. We felt less rushed and enjoyed the extra time with our friends and driving around what my friend Neil refers to as “God’s Country”. As always, LA bewitched, bedazzled, and bewildered me. Many people hate it but I’ll always have a special place in my heart for this crazy city. And yes, I did envision myself living there again one day. But not in the near future. Here’s the last slide show, which includes our time at Farmer’s Market in LA and a few photos from the Dearly Departed Tour, which was quite good.

Flickr Slide Show: November So Cal Trip #6

The Cloverfield

Adi and I had a fantastic trip with our son Romeo on our trip to Washington DC and Virginia Beach. We owe a big thanks to Marc and Narges for letting us travel in style in their BMW and for being able to use their Garmin GPS device to navigate through the highways in Virginia Beach and the roundabouts in DC.

Romeo was not happy at first being in his crate in the back seat of the car but he did get used to it. After 20 minutes of whimpering, he fell asleep thanks to the doggy-sedative we gave him. He seemed to enjoy walking around on the grass at the rest areas but didn’t seem to do his business until we arrived at our destinations.

We had a short and quick visit with Xerxes and Eric. Above you’ll see their apartment building. We were very comfortable on their sofa bed in their very nicely-sized one-bedroom apartment in the Columbia Heights area of DC. Luckily we found a parking space right next to the building. We had a nice dinner and yogurt afterwards (of course) and then a great breakfast at “The Diner” the next morning before we left for our traffic-filled day.

The second leg of the journey was by far the least pleasant because of the traffic. It seemed to be endless rows of cars but I guess that’s to be expected for the day before July 4th. We left DC at 12:30 and arrived in Chesapeake at 7:30, which was about 2 hours longer than we expected it would take. But we enjoyed Jim’s and Sandy’s great hospitality and our cute little apartment behind their house. Thank you Nicole for letting us stay in our place.

It was so great to finally meet Angell and Makala. It was all “happening so fast” as Patty would say so I didn’t take as many photos of Makala as I would have liked to. We really enjoyed their hospitality and had a great swim at their pool on July 4th. That evening we had dinner at a seafood restaurant on the beach and I was naughty and enjoyed a completely fried meal: seafood combo. Here is the highlight quote from Patty (before ordering her meal):

“Is this fish fresh or is it from Costco?”

On Sunday July 5th, we took a trip to Williamsburg but unfortunately, most of the experience looked like this:

Rain

However, we managed to have a great time visiting anyway, even if it was just chatting in the car or taking a shuttle bus to a place to have lunch in Williamsburg. So much for Scattered showers!

Here are some photos from our trip:

Now if you’ve got something to say, don’t reply to the e-mail, leave me a comment!

Romeo with his Grandmother

I just got back from a week in Florida visiting my mother and sister Patty. It would have been nice for all us siblings to be together but hopefully during the holidays that will be possible. It also would have been nice had I had more time to call local friends and spend some time with them. It was a great trip and although it was super hot (in the 90s everyday), the humidity was slightly less than it normally would be so it was a pleasant change from New York… oh I mean Seattle.

One of the best parts was suprising my mother who didn’t know we were coming. My mother would tend to worry about what to cook and preparing many things in advance. Because we didn’t want her to do this, my sister and I didn’t tell her about the fact that I was coming. She arrived a day earlier than I did and my mom was surprised when I arrived at the door with our son…. Romeo. We then surprised her a second time by telling her that Adi wasn’t able to come but he then arrived on the Tuesday. I think mom was amply distracted from her daily routine, which has become even more limited because of her eyesight deteriorating in her left eye. We did get that eye treated but we’ll have to wait a month to determine if the laser treatment performed will help. Until then… no driving. But she’ll have help from some women who she found out about via recommendations.

The trip was bittersweet as I arrived on my father’s birthday. We especially wanted to be there for my mom and not have her be alone on this day. She seems to be handling things fairly well 8 months after his death but I have been trying to encourage her to travel more and would like to organize a trip for her to see her hometown of Honesdale, PA and spend some time in NJ with my aunt Helen and Uncle Tom. She wasn’t averse to the idea but wants to wait.

One of the great highlights of the trip was bringing Romeo. I had been all worried

Jetset Romeo

about the experience, especially Jetblue checking all of his papers, etc. The truth is that they never even knew I had a pet with me. He whimpered a bit and I did take him out toward the end but none of the flight attendants saw this. We used a homeopathic travel anxiety remedy on the way down and a prescribed sedative (chicken flavored) from the vet on the way back. The latter worked much better but he still was annoyed at the end because what should have been a 2.5 hour flight turned into a 4.5 hour flight.

Aside from the flight, he seemed to love Florida. He loved the grass and finally started peeing outside (as he prefers soft surfaces to hard for number 1 and this is not easy to find in NY). He was very animated in both my mother’s house and the place next door that she takes care of (for snowbirds) and we stayed in. There were a few accidents but overall, he was fine. He was enamored with the discovery of his reflection in the mirror since my mother has floor-to-ceiling mirrored closets. This was fun to watch.

Also great was his swimming. We took him to dog’s beach and he started paddling even before he hit the water. Here are a couple of videos:

And here’s a second one:

All in all it was a great trip and good to see my mother for an extended period of time. Here’s a slideshow of the trip. Enjoy!

Let me know what you think of Romeo’s swimming ability. Comment below!

Naasha and Michael at their Rehearsal Dinner

Weddings can be quite stressful events for the bride, groom, their respective families, and even friends sometimes. There’s always the concern about the weather, especially if there is an outdoors component. Will all the key people turn up on time? Will make up smear? Will the food be alright? Will people have a good time? Sometimes events like this can turn out quite disastrous but other times, the cosmos align and everything just seems to work out perfectly. Such was the case for the lovely wedding I attended with Adi on May 9th, 2009.

I had met Naasha a few times before this event and have always known her as an intelligent girl with great tenacity, especially with respect to her medical degree. And I always thought Naasha was beautiful, which is the way I feel about all the Talatis However, at this great event, I saw Naasha in a different light. She was truly a star – confident, beautiful, and very much in love with her leading man, Michael Sallas. There was no doubting that. It really took the celebration to a different level as that sort of happiness is infectious.

The setting, Callanwolde, an arts center and historic home in the Druid Hills area of Atlanta, was stunning and definitely helped create a relaxed and sophisticated atmosphere for Naasha, Michael, and their families and friends. And the photographer (photojournalist) Drew did a great job of capturing the bride and groom at their best.

Of course, no weddings are complete without the amateur photojournalist (me) taking a shot at documenting events. So I hope you enjoy my slideshow’s of Naasha’s and Michael’s Rehearsal and Dinner and Naasha’s and Michael’s Wedding on flickr.

And finally, if you’d like to see the video I took of the ceremony (including Adi’s reading from the profit Zarathustra), you can watch it right here courtesy of Vimeo. Note that there is a 3 to 4 second lead ahead of the actual video starting.

Naasha’s and Michael’s Wedding Ceremony from John Vasko on Vimeo.