Trekking to Thidkar

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As previously mentioned I have been experiencing the joys of having my underwear cleaned and pressed by those little men at Bombay Laundry. One day, I asked a friend from school to pick it up for me as she lives in town and we are now living in khalifa B. The next day, I was informed that my clothes were being held due to the fact that the school had not paid the complete bill yet…We are now in week three of the hostage taking…I have no idea what is going on over there but I want my clothes back!! I will keep you informed on when my underwear will be released to me. As mentioned, I have moved, we now live in Khalifa B which is a suburb of Abu Dhabi and is actually half way to Dubai. The Abu Dhabi airport is 10 minutes from where I live.
Out of boredom, as we have no cable, no internet and until very recently no car - for kicks we walk around our unpopulated neighbourhood (Khalifa B is a new subdivision), mostly in the dark. We happened to spy what appeared to Andrea and I to be some sort of store wayyyyyy in the distance. Being the intrepid explorer’s we are, we decided to somehow get to this place anyway we could. We began to cross the desert…yes I said desert…in the dark actually following two guys who seemed to have a destination in mind. Once across the desert and through a hole in a fence, we came across a 4 lane divided highway. We played chicken with the oncoming traffic to make it to the other side only to encounter another desert. Finally, we arrived…two white, sweating Canadian women emerging out of the darkness.
We had found a strip mall with several small grocery stores, some restaurants (one that smelled so bad I would not walk through the door much less eat there), hairdressing salons or saloons as they call them where each chair is surrounded by black curtains (not sure what’s going on in there) and a shisha bar where men can sit in or out and smoke fruit flavoured tobacco of sorts (Pascale knows what I am talking about!). Did I mention everywhere we looked it was absolutely filthy? There is bird poop everywhere and we had yet to see one bird! There is one particular restaurant - Thidkar- which makes these fabulous fruit drinks that are marvellous and the place is pretty clean by comparison.
One other night, as a group of us where making our way across the path we had discovered in the desert to our fruit drink place - Dale said “Oh look! A crab.” Then two seconds later utters the dreaded words I knew where bound to be uttered by someone - “Oh no sorry. It’s a spider.” Just picture it…I’m trying to take my camera out of my bag, scream my head off and jump up and down for dear life so this enormous crab-like spider doesn’t get me. By this time, I’ve lost site of it as we are completely in the dark and my camera was not set right in order to get a good shot. So basically, I’m left with the story of the one that got away.
I was told by my friend Ally, that this creature, was so frightened by my flashing my camera, jumping up and down or screaming (take your pick) that he was actually fleeing me as fast as his fat little legs could carry him. That will teach him not to mess with an arachnophobic Canadian!

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Photos

the night we saw the spider
Those little lights in background are our destination! Heather, Dale, Ally and Marcy.

Thidkar
One thing about the middle east is that they have absolutely the freshest and best fruit drinks I have ever tasted.

One of the stores in our discovered strip mall
Do you recognize the actor on the sign? This is a very old picture of him.

Photo 3
Marcy drinking her watermelon drink. Mine is strawberry.

Comments

[Elise]

OMG Sherry que tu me fais donc rire!!! Comme j'aurais aimé te voir sauter et crier en essayant de sortir ta caméra! J'aurais sûrement fait comme toi, sauf essayé de sortir ma caméra... Je me serais poussé en courant! Sorry to hear about your undies... Hey, how is it to go commando??? Take care, Elise xx et Philip xx

[paulaeco.ca morgan]

LOL
Hey Sherry. I was laughing so hard I fell off my seat! It sounds like the adventure of a lifetime.....all is boring here in comparison! Good gracious..spiders imitating crabs..who knew...wonder if they are good eating! Miss you tons. Paula xxx

[tanante]

Quelle aventure
Allo Sherry! Tu me fais rire à chaque fois que je lis tes messsages. Tes expériences sont loin d'être le quotidien de nos vies. Comment trouves-tu être en otage par la buanderie? j'espère qu'il n'y aura pas des ces espèces de crabe 9spider0 qui aura le temps de se faufiler dans tes sous-vêtements. Au Canada tout va bien. L'école est très bien avec notre nouvelle directrice. Je pense régulièrement à toi étant donné que Matthew Samah est dans ma classe et son pays de naissance est AbuDhabi. J'espère que la chaleur te t'affecte pas trop. Martine

[Stephanie Smith]

Great to hear from you. Hope your underwear is returned to you in the most peaceful manner possible. Just remember that no matter how fresh the fruit drinks are you must return next year. Meredith is counting on you!! Stephanie XOXO

[Jill]

hilarious
That is hilarious. I love reading your blog. Keep'm coming and stay safe out there. Luv Jill

[pascale]

hi ma belle
oh tu m'a fait rire, un spider pour madame Sherry! fume à ma place la narguillé, c'est bon la faveur de pommes. tu me manques et je suis contente que tu t'amuses, oui je sois les meilleures boissons de fruits, on les appelle cocktails. bisous