Dubai, UAE

Dubai is the most amazing place! It is like a huge Muslim Vegas which is kind of an oxymoron. The buildings are all brand new with absolutely beautiful architecture but they are mostly empty. The building goes on anyway, for who, I don't know.

The men and women wear traditional Arab clothing; the men long white robe called a thwab and women wear either a niqāb, a full black body, head a facial covering or a Hajib, full black body and head covering over clothing.

Alcohol is prohibited in Muslim culture so most restaurants don't sell it but you buy alcohol in all hotels and nightclubs.

While there between checking out the various malls and shopping Darcia and I went on a desert safari. It was probably the highlight of our whole trip! We started out tearing around the desert in a Toyota Land Cruiser rally car style to a desert camp. Once there we rode camels, smoked the shisha (hooka), wore headscarfs, ate BBQ and watched the belly dancing show. A perfect evening!

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thobe

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niq%C4%81b

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijab

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur or KL is the capital of Malaysia. It was briefly famous for having the tallest structure (Petronas Twin Towers) before being eclipsed twice since being completed.

KL is a pretty awesome city, clearly built on and all about petroleum. All the buildings downtown carry the signage of oil companies plus there is a strange mix of Saudis, British and Texans floating about. The towers are incredibly impressive and beautiful. As our leisure activity we got fish pedicures! Very strange but super cool experience. The videos which I couldn't upload because of size are hilarious! Lots of squealing.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronas_Twin_Towers

Phuket

Ahhhhh Phuket. You were not what I expected.

Phuket doesn't hold a candle to Koh Samui. It is actually pretty run down and gritty at least near Patong where I would not recommend anyone stay. Although Phuket was a disappointment we still rode on an elephant!

Other than that we mostly hung out at the pool.

Koh Samui, Thailand

Koh Samui is an island located in the Gulf of Thailand. It is absolutely beautiful!! Darcia and I arrive on a flight from Bangkok and hit the pool bar immediately where we friend a British couple honeymooning and pass the very fun first evening drinking gin fizzes.

The next night we set out for the full moon party, the reason we came to Koh Samui. The full moon party as the name suggests takes place every full moon on the nearby island of Koh Phan Gan. We are picked up at 9 at our hotel and shuttled over with partygoers of all ages to a waiting speedboat. After a couple beers and body painting on the beach we head off to the party! The party covers the entire beach and surrounding streets. We end up on a roof top bar with a great view and camp out to watch the show of neon clad drunken 20 something's. We call it a night around 2:30 and head back to the boat. Overall super cool experience!

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh_Samui

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_moon_party

Bangkok

Thailand! This stop is particularly sweet because waiting at the airport is one of my best friends, Darcia Sherwood! Darcia and I are teaming up for three weeks of traveling through SE Asia and Dubai.

Bangkok is a really cool city, in our experience not the gritty and shadier place I imagined.  We were in Bangkok for 2 days so we didn't get a ton of sightseeing in but we did go on a boat ride up the Chao Phraya river. This boat ride was possibly the longest 90 minutes of our lives due to an incredibly annoying Thai boat driver who kept yelling at us to take pictures, we think that is why he was yelling at us, his English was not so hot. Highlights were discovering Thai massage ($8) and amazing street food ($1-$3) both so cheap it was mind blowing!