Misty and Matt's Adventures

As we finished up the specific London activities that had to get accomplished, we started checking off more “Matt-ish” destinations, as this started with the Ace Cafe. Admittedly, the night we went here it was pretty slow, just a few motorcycles outside, but on certain evenings there was evidence that there are hundreds of motorcyclists and car enthusiasts who frequent this place. This is a long time meeting spot for motorcyclists, dating back to when there was actually a rockers vs. mod culture here. Mind you, now, and for the last many years, it’s really just been a cafe. Now, not to bore you with a ton history on the establishment, as that information is readily available anywhere on the internet, I do want to say that this place has oddly good fish and chips. In fact, I guess I haven’t been to a place in London yet that has what I’d call “bad” fish and chips. No Long John Silver’s here!

Next stop was to Harrod’s. Now we arrived a bit early at this well-known shopping destination, the crowd was gathering outside like it was some type of show or concert, not just a fancy department store. As the doors (flood gates opened), people shuffled in, us as well, and we saw what all the spectacle was about. Everything you could possibly want, albeit at inflated prices, was here. We browsed several of the floors of the store before deciding we could live without most of the things here except for maybe some coffee/tea and a small snack before heading to our next destination. Here’s where things get a bit crappy for me. I purchased a donut as I tend to, one in every destination we go to, and promptly walked literally five steps to their coffee and tea bar to order a mocha and revel in my 4 pound (about 6 US dollars) sprinkle donut. We ordered tea and coffee and waited. As our server brought my coffee to me he informed me that unfortunately the pastries sold at the counter (literally less than five steps from his bar) were not for consumption inside the store and that I could not consume them while drinking his $8.00 mocha. Get bent. I was inexplicable angry at this poor guy who, although was probably just following some bureaucratic rules made by someone in a suit who flew into their helicopter pad (yes, there is one on top of Harrod’s) from time to time made up on a whim. This was insanity. I angrily finished my coffee and we went outside (this explains the donut photo from MIsty’s last post). I finally got to eat my donut in the shadow of Harrod’s. I’d love to complain about the donut, I’d love to say it was the worst donut I’d ever purchased and that the $6.00 price tag was inflated nonsense, unfortuately, I cannot. The donut was spectacular. I think it was more akin to a Bavarian cream filled sprinkle cronut. It was awesome, but still, screw Harrod’s rules. They don’t sell cars or motorcycles, so they won’t be missing much business from me anyways, but it’s still a stupid rule.

Our next destination was much more accommodating to my tastes, as we went to the Brooklands Museum. Brooklands in the oldest purpose-built racetrack in the world. They have many exhibits ranging from old open wheel cars to Formula 1 and an aviation section documenting the aircraft built here when the field turned to aircraft manufacturing during the war. They even have a Concorde exhibit. Next to Brooklands is Mercedes-Benz World. This place seems to be more of a branding exercise for Mercedes as they do have multiple dealerships in London, so I think it’s more about the racetrack and skid pad in front. They have several classics here including a pristine 300SL and a Grosser. The last stop this evening was Rules restaurant. I’m still not clear if it’s just a Bib Gourmand or actually has obtained a Michelin Star Rating, but I’d think between the level of service, the history, and the food, it probably deserves one if it doesn’t have one. The restaurant is the oldest in England, originally an oyster house, now serving “Authentic British Cuisine” including the venison I ordered. I must point out this was the best venison I’ve ever eaten, albeit the only venison I’ve ever eaten. If all of it tastes like this I do understand the frenzy that happens back in Oklahoma when bow season opens! Since we were in England we had to sample the sticky toffee pudding. It was also something to behold. I’m sure I’ve gained 10lbs on this trip and I’ll be back on eggs and chicken when I get back, but for the moment, I couldn’t pass up the pudding in the oldest establishment in England. It was worth it, but that’s not ice cream in the photo, it’s cream cheese. It took me a bit by surprise, but the velvety sourness of the cream cheese mellowed out the rich sweetness of the pudding quite nicely. Deliciously good, all of it, including that damn Harrod’s donut.

It’s winter and it’s hot here…Dubai travels

In preparation for this ‘round the world journey, I spent a great deal of time researching and preparing for this leg of the trip. I say that because 1. I’ve never been to the Middle East and 2. There are a lot of social and religious rules that have to be followed when visiting the area. You see, being a caucasian, American woman most certainly has it’s advantages on any given day, but when traveling to a middle eastern country, the situation is just not the same. I did a lot of internet searching, watched a lot of You Tube videos on how to correctly tie a headscarf, and ensuring my clothing (which you know I had to be highly selective of on the trip due to the totally different climates we are going to) was socially and religiously appropriate. I told Matt we would just see what it was like when we got there and then I would adjust as needed.

Leaving Tokyo on one hand was a bit sad, as we were just getting to know Matt’s family and somewhat adjusting to the ways around town, but on the other hand, I was starting to get antsy and was ready to move on towards Dubai. Maybe it was the weather (it was cold, and mainly cloudy while we were there-that’s depressing for me), maybe it was all the strange food I’d been challenged to consume over the past 10 days, or maybe I was just seeking some bit of normalcy somewhere since I clearly was the outsider on this leg of the trip. Want a slice of humble pie? Go to a country like Japan with 127 million people where you are one of only a few who can’t read or speak the language. You’ll realize your place in the world real quick. I guess I don’t know why I thought I would get normalcy in Dubai, but my instincts (and research) implied Dubai was supposed to be like the “Las Vegas” of the Middle East (more on this in a bit), that seemed like something I knew and could understand.

We switched over to Emirates Airline for this trip, as I wanted to see how the service and quality were compared to other airlines we had taken. I know, I know, my instinctual quality assurance/continuous quality improvement personality is on all the time, even on vacation. The airline was nice, but Japan Airlines still seems to rank higher on my “best airline to fly.” What’s comical about that though is that when we were talking with the Emirates Flight Attendants, they report that the girls who work for JAL have a lot of “work drama between each other.” Workplace environments around the world seem to be the same everywhere, always some kind of drama going on. I was hopeful that was just an American thing, nope, totally universal. Our twelve hour flight seemed quite quick as we slept most of the time, so we were ready to go when we arrived in Dubai at 5:00 am local time.

We only planned four days in Dubai, as we had just a handful of things we wanted to see and do before moving on to our next destination. The weather was 75 degrees and sunny when we got there(hallelujah), so we were looking forward to a brief warmup before we head back into the cold again. Since we were only staying a few days, we decided to splurge a bit and stay at a fancier hotel. You all know that we never do that, in fact, it’s really against our vacation morals and values to do so, but knowingly and willingly(and maybe telling Matt I got a good deal on it), I booked us a few days at the Waldorf Astoria out on the Palm (palm tree shaped man-made island outside of Dubai proper). Between the nice hotel and the warm weather, my normalcy meter finally shot up. We then found a place for breakfast that served actual eggs and other breakfast foods, we had a another win!

Our first stop for the day was to the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding” for a tour of the remaining “old town Dubai,” and for our first visit to a real operating mosque. I loved this as our first experience here, as no question was off limits and the center prides themselves on being an open space for people to come learn and understand the culture and religion in a safe space. I got the chance to not only learn more about the Islamic religion, but also the social, family, and religious norms that go along with it. Our tour guide was fabulous and did a great job explaining everything to our eclectic group. I now understand the prayer schedule and commend all the Muslim men (and women) who are fully committed to their religion because they (the men) literally have to go into a mosque building 5 or 6 times a day to pray and be present with God. I mean, I can’t find the time to go to the bathroom that many times a day, therefore, I could never make it as a Muslim on that principle alone. I realize the societal norms here are arranged on this schedule, but that just seems extremely excessive (not to mention time consuming). I found fewer differences and more similarities in their religion and lifestyle of those practiced at home. In the end, everyone seems to be seeking the same things, its all just interpreted and practiced a bit differently. We had the chance to drink coffee (which has a process and is different than American coffee, as is the art of drinking it-anyone have a “silent server” at home?), as well as had the chance to eat dates and luqaimat(donuts), just as you would if you were a visitor in a Muslim home. So much about the home structure, the male and female role in the household, and the openness to welcome visitors was rather intriguing. We would highly recommend doing this experience if you have the chance to go to Dubai. It was a great way for us to start off our trip here.

We then moved on to see what the Dubai Mall was all about. This place is known for all the high end shopping, vending machines that sell gold, and a place to find just about every super car you could imagine, but also includes an ice skating rink, a huge aquarium, and these choreographed fountains (similar to the Bellagio Fountains in Vegas) that put on quite the show. This was a chance for us to get in some walking after being cooped up in the plane so long. We finished the day by having dinner poolside at our hotel, where I could soon slip away for some good sleep in a super comfortable bed (remember, we’ve been sleeping on a small mattress on a tatami floor for the past 10 days, so this was going to be like sleeping on the clouds).

The next day we got up and headed to the traditional spice, textile, and gold souks to see what kind of interesting finds we could muster up. I tell Matt, just keep walking, these people will haggle you, so you just have to keep going. Why are we not even three stores in and Matt starts “making friends.” Dammit Matt. So Matt’s new friend wants me to buy gold from him and proceeds to personally escort us around the souks. That was very nice of him (he had alternate plans), but unfortunately what he didn’t realize is that he hooked up with a real nice guy an and then me, whose middle name is “likes to mosey.” Hours later we’d visited all the souks (still with this personal escort) and I spent way too much money on tea, silks, gold, and saffron (even with haggling with them) then I want to admit. It’s fine, I hope people are up for a tea party when we get home, because I have several years supply now. Needless to say, Matt (who really doesn’t even want to be at the souks) ends up back behind one of the souks (we all know you aren’t supposed to go back there-hasn’t he seen any movies at all?), as they are trying to sell him fake watches. Again, Mr. Naivety isn’t clueing into my “we have to go because we have a tour we have to get to,” and proceeds to continue talking with these guys. I laid down the law, said we were leaving and escaped yet another crazy situation Matt got us into. Thanks Matt, thanks a lot.

We really did have a tour to get to, as the most exciting part of the trip for me was just about to happen. Since we decided to come to Dubai, I wanted to ride camels in the desert. I mean, when else am I going to get to ride a massive animal through the Arabian desert? So, I booked us this camel riding tour that also included a night of activities in a Bedouin camp. These are the traditional camps that desert travelers would set up when searching for water in the desert. Our tour guide from Viator tours picked us up at our hotel and drove us an hour and half into the middle of the Arabian desert. During the ride, he gave us all the inside details about Dubai (including things they probably don’t want others to know, but oh well). Once there we got loaded up onto our camels (my camels name was Simone, and Matt’s camel’s name was Goad. He was making groaning sounds, which I later found out that meant he was grumpy. Go figure, Matt is used to me, so working with a grumpy camel-he should be a pro! Our camel guide was from Pakistan and laughed at my off the cuff, socially and politically incorrect jokes, so I think he had a good time with us. Don’t mind these pictures of us on camels, my legs looks like the size of Texas (who would have thought on an animal so large I would look so big as well) and well Matt’s shorts now have a bit of a racy look to them-looking good Matt, nice legs there. After the camel ride (which is way harder than it looks, and definitely harder than riding a horse), we arrive at our Bedouin camp to watch some falconry and settle in for an evening of traditional Arabian music and cuisine (yes, this includes eating camel, but not the one’s we rode out on and al harees, which are foods traditionally served at weddings). Matt smoked shisha and I got henna done, all while we made new friends from France and South Africa. Again, we would highly recommend this tour above all others if you want a real authentic experience in the desert. Seven hours later, we returned to the hotel totally exhausted, but had a wonderful experience.

After sleeping in a bit, we spent the next morning and early afternoon exploring Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi was about an hour and half drive from Dubai, and is one of the more conservative emirates of the UAE. We went to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (which is absolutely beautiful by the way), as well as had a chance to see the Emirates Palace Hotel (also very beautiful) and Etihad Towers. We finished the day having afternoon tea and pastries at the Desert Palms Polo Club of Dubai. I know this is a bit out of the norm for desert life, but it was recommended so we went. I’m glad we did because the pastries were phenomenal, the polo fun to watch as well.

Dubai was a great place to stop for a few days, rest a bit and see some of the massive structures, unique modern architecture and historical character this place has created. Dubai has many characteristics that resemble that of Las Vegas (big structures and buildings, fancy fountains, big, flashy everything-it’s their goal to have the biggest of everything in the world), yet there is virtually no crime, everything is automated (the police don’t even pull you over, they just ticket you from cameras everywhere), and there is minimal debauchery anywhere. I think they said that Dubai is the third safest city in the world. Who knew? And definitely not what I expected. So, imagine a very conservative Vegas, without gambling and drinking, then you have Dubai.

In many ways we came here seeking a variety of different cultural and lifestyle experiences that would push us completely out of our comfort zone and with some things it did. I mean, before I struggled to understand why women would want to wear the full abaya, but after doing it a few times during this trip, I can totally get behind wearing it with the headscarf on any given day. It’s really like a comfortable nightgown, and that headscarf did wonders to conceal my double chin-#Winning The women do it both out of respect, but also because they want to bring back tradition to their culture, similar to what women are now doing in Japan by wearing kimonos, and not just for wedding or special occasions. I mean, you never have to do your hair, figure out what you are going to wear, and you can go “full ninja” as they refer to it (full face covered except your eyes), say at the grocery store, when you don’t want to be recognized). Overall, all the people we interacted with were extremely friendly and very helpful. Although 80% of the people that live here are from other countries, we still found that we got an authentic experience none the less.

Overall, we found that Dubai is in more ways than just one, a lot like Oklahoma. A country, rather than just a state, dependent on the “black gold” of the earth to fund their sheer existence. If they haven’t seen how well that’s worked out for us, they should probably check that out. The one thing I can say is they at least they continue to build their infrastructure and economy on tourism as their “Plan B” because when the well becomes dry, as it inevitably will, they might actually be able to make it as a civilized place of existence. Come see the place if you haven’t been, it’s worth three or four days as a stopover city. We don’t recommend coming in the summertime, as apparently you can fry eggs and bake cookies on the concrete, as it gets so hot (we heard close to 120 degrees during the day). It’s wintertime and we saw 75-80 degree days.

As we continue our journey west, we are excited to explore the U.K. for the next several days. I’ve finally found a destination I might actually not stick out like a sore thumb. I’m also secretly hoping for a spotting of the Royal Family, let’s hope my years of stalking them on the internet will provide me some insight on the best location to do so!

Back in Tokyo!

We took a little break in the morning, not putting too much in the plan because we decided to take the trip to the other side of town with my mom today to meet her youngest brother and to see where she grew up. He still lives in the original home where my mom and her siblings were raised. He’s remodeled it and changed a few things around, but it is still the same basic structure in the same place as it was decades ago. Across Tokyo in a less busy area, but still not like a suburb area of town, we hopped off in Nippori and started the short walk to her childhood home. We had taken the same train and were walking the same route she took to high school and passed the school she attended as an elementary student. Education is a big deal in Japan. Most kids go to school on Saturday as well. When we arrived at the house, we were given the outside tour which was actually a bit larger structure in the past. That storefront shown in the picture had been part of the home in the past, but is now currently owned by another individual, but remains part of the structure. I’m not sure how they work out the “HOA” dues, but by the way everything looked and my little knowledge about how many of the homes in the area are split up, I’m sure it gets a bit complex.

Her brother greeted us at the door and after taking off our shoes we started the tour up the stairs to the second floor. The basic layout is still the same, but all of the finishes are modern. The kitchen is still in the same place, and although much smaller compared to what we’d be accustomed to in Oklahoma, was large by Tokyo standards. The dining area and connected living room were large enough to hold a family and one of the bedrooms, although now a room with a TV and small shrine, still had tatami floors installed. Overall, I’m sure growing up in a space this small with 5 siblings (6 in total) would have a bit of a squeeze. Most of what we would consider in traditional Western architecture, and really life in general would be considered excessive by Asian standards.

After the grand tour, my mom’s youngest brother gave us a ride to Akihabara, or better known as “Electric Town,” as I needed to pickup a memory card for the camera and this was supposedly the best place to find one. Akihabara did not disappoint, although I think this part of Tokyo is probably better known in the US for it’s anime, it also has a plethora of vendors, both large and small, selling all types of things electronic. I was able to find a memory card for about half the price I had seen at a larger vendor earlier that week. Mission accomplished.

We headed back to the train station towards Edogawa where we are staying. We needed to get ready to go to dinner at my aunts house. As I walked in the door, I could tell she went to great lengths to make us feel at home. She had ordered pizza. As large of a city as Tokyo is, I can’t recall ever seeing a pizza shop and appreciated the gesture greatly (well, Misty probably appreciated it more) as I was still enjoying all of the Japanese food I was getting the chance to sample. About halfway through dinner my cousin Mayumi joined us. I was happy we got to spend a little more time with her as we hadn’t seen much of her since the wedding and wouldn’t be seeing her again before we left. Although neither of us spoke the same language and I was a bit unsure of our translator (both my mom and the iPhone (ha!!!), we had a great time! She even managed to understand my affection for adult beverages and had gifted us a bottle of sake to sample during dinner.

Here’s where things go south, both literally and figuratively. Depending on how well you know me….. Let’s be honest, if you’ve been around me for more than 5 minutes, you probably know I seem to have an addiction to things with wheel or wings… you’d probably expect that I’d try to work some type of extracurricular activity having to do with one of these sometime in Tokyo, right. This was it…. There’s a parking area on the highway south of Tokyo that’s a pretty famous car hangout. Unfortunately, it is only accessible by car as it’s three stories up on a highway. My uncle, who is in the car business in Tokyo had spoken to several people at work and he was pretty sure that there wouldn’t be much activity at the parking area, but I was determined to at least see this place as I was sure I’d be kicking myself in the morning if I didn’t at least attempt to go there. Since I won’t take no for an answer, and just have to see for sure for myself, we headed out, yen in hand, in an attempt to hail a taxi to get us there. Without much trouble we were able to flag down a cab and get headed in the right direction. Here’s where things get expensive. The taxi ride to the parking area from where we were should have been somewhere between $35-45 US dollars, however, we managed to find a taxi driver who did not speak English very well, and he also couldn’t read the handwritten note that my uncle had made to attempt to communicate where we wanted to go. After passing the place three times, being called Gaijin (foreigner) at least twice, two conversations with a translation service the taxi company has, and $90 US dollars later, we arrived. I was a bit dejected to have spent now double what I had budgeted for this endeavor, but none the less, we had arrived.

Now, when we asked if our taxi driver could pick us back up in awhile, we were informed that he would be unable as they would not dispatch a taxi to the parking area. Great, now what… We got out of the cab, that is what. I was pleasantly surprised and not so worried about how we would be getting out of this area, as we had been passed by at least two super cars as we were (mis)communicating with the taxi driver. Although I wouldn’t call it busy, there was plenty to see and observe at this parking lot, several super cars, at least a few different styles of modified cars from local manufacturers, and even some vintage fare. By the time we decided to leave I had seen at least one “exit” sign that seemed to have a pedestrian running on it. This would be our way back out to the surface streets to find a cab. This “exit” turned out to be more of an “escape” route. There were several one way locked doors on this path and stairs that more closely resembled a fire escape going between the lanes of the highway. The route then dropped you into a fenced off area that looked like somewhere they would store construction equipment, but luckily this barbed wire fenced in area also had a one way door and we were dumped back on the surface on the far side of Tokyo. We walked about one half mile (mind you, it’s 1:00 am and below freezing outside)from here and luckily picked up another cab back to the place we were staying, $30 this time. We ended the evening a bit disgruntled that we ended up spending so much because of the first taxi driver, but I was happy we took the opportunity to see the famous Tatsumi Parking Area No. 1.

Our last day in Tokyo we made our way to the Tsukiji Fish Market for what Misty didn’t quite understand, would be a culinary challenge for her. Two trains later we popped out on the far side of Ginza and walked the rest of the way to arrive at Tsukiji Fish Market. This market is actually just like many farmers markets, in that they have more than just produce. This market is primarily the working port wholesaler for fish and has the six figure tuna that everyone hears about, but it also has many vendors selling produce, ready to eat foods, knives, and trinkets as well. Our plan was to start around the perimeter and work our way into the market. The main area of the market doesn’t actually open to the public until 10AM because the wholesalers are getting ready and selling to commercial buyers early in the morning, so we would walk around more of the retail area and hopefully get into the interior right around 10AM to see what the wholesalers were doing. We sampled something we’re still not sure what the name of that dish was, but it consisted of a bed of rice with a stewed thinly sliced beef and oinion mixture on top that was very tasty as we walked around the outside. We also saw many of the more retail oriented shops selling fresh seafood, beef, and lots of knife stores. As we arrived at the interior of the market we walked into what looked like a large open sided warehouse with shipping docks running down one side and vendors on the other. We were able to see lots of seafood including the large tuna being butchered, octopus that had been arranged like blossoming flowers, and many fish I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen before but would most likely eat. Ha!