A trip back home - in October!

Ok, I know this is ridiculous timing, to write now about a trip I took over two months ago. I actually wrote it back then, I just got too busy to remember that I had it done and post it. Makes perfect sense, right? So here is a chronicle of my all-too-short one-week trip home in October, while I sit in Bahrain about to head home for Christmas! (OK, it is now post-Christmas, and I've discovered that this post never posted, but got stuck in draft mode, so here it is! This is part 1, part 2 will come later today!)

After six months in Saudi Arabia I had an opportunity too good to pass up.  A week-long religious holiday in October would be a great time to go home! I wouldn't be working, and although it was a long trip each way, it would be worth it to see home and family. 

As luck would have it I also had the chance to shoot a wedding! I got home on Friday night after a 36 hour day from when I got up on Thursday morning until I arrived at XNA Friday night. 

The trip started with a taxi ride from Dhahran camp to Bahrain. The ride was fairly quick and uneventful which was nice. It only took an hour and a half to cross the causeway between the two countries.  I shared the taxi with a lady leaving about the same time, and we left at 3 pm.  She went to one hotel for a nap, and I went to another, the Movenpick, for a massage!

I've had a real problem while in KSA. I'm a bog, strong guy, and all my stress and tension ends up in my neck and shoulders. Couple that with some damage to my neck decades ago while flying, and I end up with pinches and pains in my neck that I just can't get rid of through exercise or stretching, and I refuse to habitually take pain meds for a sore neck.

I've had some wonderful chiropractors over the years who've greatly improved the condition of my neck, and one of them last year recommended regular massage would be more helpful to me than coming to see her.  I do love good honest medical professionals who care more about my well-being than anything else! (Dr. Alexis Rachotes, sports chiropractic, Fayetteville ar). 

Massage can be a wonderful thing for many different reasons. If you need to soothe away tension and relax, there is a technique for that. If you are an athlete and need to work out aches and pains, there are techniques for that, too.  If you have a chronic muscle knot deep in your neck and shoulder, that you usually get is some combination of those two techniques, but they really don't get the job done because they never really get to the root of the problem, which takes patience, sensitive hands, and great technique to work out the knots.

I went to the movenpick to get a massage and foot reflexology treatment, an hour of each. The nice phillipino lady who worked on my was nice, and had great strong hands, but really gave me a combo relaxation and sports massage, never really doing anything greatly helpful for my neck.  Or maybe sitting on an airplane for the next 20 hours had something to do with it, but by the time I got to northwest Arkansas my neck was in knots again.

I am lucky to have found a therapist who has the right stuff to fix me up! Sadly, she's in Fayetteville, and I can't get treatment over Skype! But one of my stops while I was home was a massage with her. She has an amazing skill to feel the knots in my back and work them out using Hans, elbows, forearms, fist, whatever it takes to put the right pressure on the right spot and keep it there long enough to ease the tension out. It's painful at times, but its also a wonderful feeling to feel the knot "give" and the pain disappear from that spot!

Regardless, it was nice to have any kind of massage after 6 months without.  In general, men don't get massage in KSA. I don't really understand that, as they love personal services, and men friends greet each other warmy with hugs, kisses on the cheek, and hand holding. Oh well, maybe I'll go to the movenpick for an hour next time I'm in Bahrain. 

I had about 10 hours to kill before my flight, so after 2 hours of massage I went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, a steak night buffet. How that worked was for me to choose the cuts of meat I wanted grilled (steak, chicken, turkey, or lamb or chicken kabobs), along with veggies to grill. I had a nice salad and appatizers, and then had a great mixed grill with red wine.  The dessert portion of the buffet was my downfall, and I had to sample several different options, all small and tasty!

The lobby gave me a lovely, private place to stretch out and nap until time to go to the airport, but for some reason I couldn't figure out they wanted me to wake up and move at midnight, so I went out and layed down on a chaise by the pool.  When I looked up I saw the first constellation I'd seen since leaving home - Orion. And it was huge! Much larger than at home, which I cannot explain. But it was nice to see - too much light pollution and dust in the air at Dhahran to see much of the night sky at all, which I hate.

When it came time to go I just waked to the airport, a trek of 5 minutes or so. I had a 35 minute flight to Doha, Qatar, which is a work in progress. The airport is leftover from another era, with a single narrow runway and narrow taxiways, which are a poor match to modern large jet aircraft. They are building a new airport nearby which should be an amazing facility. You can see it in the distance but its not ready for use yet.  

After a 4-hour layover spent trying to rest in airport chairs designed to prevent travelers from successfully resting, it was time for the long leg 14.5 hours to Chicago. Boarding took most of an hour as we queued up, checked in, waited for a bus to take us to the airplane, then waited longer for a second bus to take another batch of us to the plane, about a 20-minute ride. Once onboard and strapped in and ready to go we proceeded to wait in that spot for an hour before starting engines. I don't know why - it was a beautiful clear morning at 8 am, with little traffic coming or going, but oh we'll. we finally got on out way and were winging our way to the west.

It's interesting to fly west for a long time at jet speeds - the day seems to stand still as you counter the earth's rotational speed with about 600 mph of you own.  So the "day" lasted about 20 hours from sunrise to sunset.  Pretty cool, even for an old pilot.  Right now I'm headed west, so the opposite will happen as we race toward sunrise.   I'm seated near the rear of the wing and can see Montreal off to our left - hi Shannon and David!

Oh my, it gets tough to sit upright in a small seat more than half a day when you can't do more than doze for a few minutes at a time. Even leaning the seat back, I just can't get settled I. Enough to really sleep. So I dozed for while, then watched a movie. Then had the snack they provided. Then dozed for a bit, then watched another movie.  This pattern went on until I'd seen After Earth, The Heat, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Artist.  Along the way I had a very nice breakfast and lunch, and saw two episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

Finally - Chicago and a chance to walk and stretch my legs! And my phone worked! I could make a call without Skype for the first time in 6 months! And I had 3 hours to kill, so I went through immigration and customs and security (again!!), found my next gate, and as I was so tired I could hardly see or keep my head up, I did the logical thing and walked up and down the terminal a few times!  I found a great chocolate shop with terribly unique wares (caramel, chocolate, and bacon bits! Surprisingly tasty!), and a delightful caramel apple with nuts that was so big I couldn't eat it, so I shared it with a young airman on his way home after basic training! 

Thanksgiving away

I spent a career in the Air Force, and somehow managed to never be away for a birthday, anniversary, or major holiday, except for Darby’s birthday when she was, I think, 3, and I was gone for several months. This is my first Thanksgiving away from my home and family.

It’s a hard place to be for me – my family has always been very important. I was never one of those pilots who couldn’t wait to get on the road to get away. I love my family and cherish the time with them! But this year we are spread out. Shannon and David are in California visiting his family. Darby is in Fayetteville with Dana, and I’m here.  I am fortunate, though, to have met some wonderful people here who open their doors to people like me, so I’ve enjoyed two Thanksgiving dinners, one last night and one tonight. If I must be here it is nice to spend some time with my new friends. 

So Happy Thanksgiving to all - I hope you were able to spend it with those you love, and that you were able to be thankful for something. I am thankful for the opportunity to be here, to do challenging work with a good team, to learn a whole new world of information, and to earn a nice paycheck doing it! I am thankful for my beautiful wife and lovely daughters for supporting me and each other while I'm away. I am thankful for my parents and brothers and friends and all the people who help make up my life, and for good health - I am thankful for every breath I take!

After dinner I was returning on my scooter to the hotel – 65 degrees, 88% humidity, everything dripping wet, almost foggy but just not quite. I went by the soccer field and there was a low fog deck right over the turf, and three fellows out practicing. This just looked too cool so I stopped and grabbed a few shots just to see what I could get – here are a few!

In August Dana and I went to Europe, and things have been so busy I’ve done an awful job of sharing some of the amazing images we captured. Here are a few from Edinburgh, Scotland. More in the coming weeks! Cheers, Mark

Home and back again

Last night it rained. First time in 7 months since, the first week I was here, and I happened to be out in it. It had been cloudy all day, another first since I arrived. It wasn’t a giant rain, but I was out for a short walk around 8:30 p.m. when I felt the unexpected taps on my head and shoulders as the first drops fell. At the time it was about 75˚ F, and by the time I got back to my building I was fairly wet. It was a delightful walk!

Today it rained off and on most of the day, and is still doing so now. The forecast shows serious chances for rain over the next several days, and amazingly cool temperatures.  I really didn’t expect highs in the mid-70s in mid-November in Saudi Arabia, but I’ll take it!

Of course, none of that explains why I haven’t posted anything here for close to two months – sorry about that. Let’s say I've been busy! I’ve had a project at work that has consumed much of my energy for about 2 months, and at one point I worked 16 days straight, with only one week off the week before that stretch and one day after. Then I worked 8 days straight, left work, took a taxi to Bahrain, and got on a plane to go home for a week!

Had a nice set of flights (more on that in a few days) and got home Friday night to see Dana and Darby and it was wonderful to be home. Sadly, it was only for a week and then jetted my way back to the desert. It was a busy week, full of appointments, a few meetings, some good meals at favorite restaurants, and I even got to shoot a wedding!

It was an exhausting week but I’m so glad to have done it – got to spend some lovely time with my wonderful girls, and got a whole bunch of stuff done that now I don’t have to do at Christmas when I come for two weeks, and I’ll be able to relax and enjoy the time, and Shannon and David will be in from Montreal and I can’t wait to see them!

So I left to come back on Friday afternoon, and got back to my room at midnight Saturday night, just in time to get some rest and start back to work on Sunday. It was a whirlwind week, the kind that leaves you a little breathless but happy nonetheless! I've also taken a few pictures, so there's lots to catch up on here on the blog, and I promise to do so over the next few weeks in case anybody is still looking!

Qatif Part 2

After the big souk we took the buses about 10 minutes to a fresh produce and fish market. I know what you’re thinking. Fish market in the heat of Saudi Arabia?? More on that in a bit.

The produce market was huge, and the items available were lovely, even if some of them I had no idea what they were! A surprisingly high number of items were large people were very high water content – melons of all kind, cantaloupe, eggplant, squash, and more.   

Lots of wonderfully friendly people who wanted to say hello, some of them asking me to take their picture. One older Arab gentleman said hello and started telling me about the market, that it had operated in this spot for more than 100 years. Two young men were insistent I take their picture together – all they wanted was to see it and they laughed and shook my hand and thanked me. 

Just down the alleyway was the fish market. There was a roof overhead but it was certainly open air, and with a temperature of 102 degrees I really expected an odor or two.  I was pleasantly surprised, though. It certainly smelled of fish – everything on display was fresh caught that morning in the Persian Gulf just a few hundred meters away, and such a market is how fish had been sold for centuries so I have to give them some credit for knowing what they’re doing.

The wares were displayed on large platters or aluminum counters. From shrimp and tiny fish to table sized, you could get a wide assortment. I must say, though, that one fellow had the biggest shrimp I’ve even seen.  Some of the people on the tour told me how cheap it used to be and they would come over with coolers and go home and stock their freezers. The prices they quoted surprised me though, because at the prices they quoted I think I could get enough shrimp to feed myself and about ten other people until we couldn’t walk!

One young man had the job of scaling fish (you could also get your shrimp peeled and deveined for almost nothing), and I heard him calling out when I walked by. I looked over and he pointed to my camera, at the fish he was working on, and then held it up for me to take a picture!

After the market we went to a castle ruins near the coast. We were only there for a few minutes, and the whole thing was fenced off as an archaeological site and to keep out with severe penalties for trespassing! So I only ducked under the fence for a few minutes to get the only possible unobstructed view – don’t tell, ok?

The last stop before heading back to Dhahran was at a spot on the coast. It was interesting because there was a small fleet of fishing boats anchored nearby. The boats are dhows – big tall flat bottom boats that must be good in the shallow water near the coast – I don’t think I’d want to get very far out to see in one them!

All in all an interesting day, and the cost for the tour was SR15 – about $3.50 – and a good test for the new camera, which performed perfectly!

Field Trip to Qatif (ka-TEEF)

A group here, the Saudi Aramco Employees Associate, puts on tours and events, and last month I signed up for a tour of the nearby town of Qatif – an ancient fishing village on the east coast of KSA, right on the Persian Gulf.

The big attraction for the trip was a souk (sook) – what we’d call a flea market combined with a farmer’s market – and down the street another produce market and fish market.  It was a lovely clear day with low humidity and temperature of 85 when we left at 0700 (by mid-afternoon it topped out at 98). I had my great big hat on and my new camera and two busloads of us headed off from camp.

The souk covers about 3 acres, some of it on concrete, some of it on dirt. The dirt here is mostly sand, and it kicks up very quickly if walking through it, so there were always clouds of dust. Luckily there was a pretty good breeze blowing so it stayed mostly clear.

The fruit for sale was lovely, and if I’d had any way to keep it and use it I’d have come back with bags of it – mango, oranges, eggplant, peppers, pomegranate, melons, and more. Oddly, there were lots of water-bearing foods. Strange for the desert!!

If you like birds, this is a good place because there were dozens of bird sellers – everything from tiny ducklings to huge turkeys. Apparently the Saudis like exotic birds and there were some unique species on display, either in stacked up cages or in large wire cages on the ground. There were also cats, dogs, and at least one goat tethered and being haggled over.

Of course, if you wanted personal items you could take your pick from a massive assortment of, hmmm, odds and ends. One vendor had a large try of wallets, and a rack of sunglasses. (“45 Riyals,” he said as I tried on a pair. Then he winked and said with a grin, “they aren’t really Ray-Bans”)

Others had a collection of stuff that would’ve made a flea marketer at home proud – electronics gadgets next to hand tools next to power tools next to welding rods next to a very strange looking electrical gadget that I couldn’t guess what it was next to an assortment of flashlights. 

There were spice merchants whose display consisted of 10-gallon fabric bags filled with spices – any of which would have made a fortune for a caravan 100 years ago! 

The smells were exotic and rich and varied, and then you walked ten paces away and smelled garbage on the other side of the fence. And then a vendor with a table full of fragrance – they are big on perfume here. It’s an interesting place.

And I have a new camera! After months of borrowing and making due, I've shopped the classifieds carefully and come up with the same body and lens I use at home - this trip was a good test and I'm very pleased. More images on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/mark.gieringer.  More on this trip day after tomorrow – ciao!