Petra 5

I spent 3 hours in Petra. I only saw 1/4 of the site! There was so much more there to see I just couldn't do it all! This is most certainly a place that I will come back to in my lifetime. It was 3 hours of walking mind you- and kind of a funny thing. I was so excited to get in the city that I didn't realize I was going down, down, down, and down, and down more. Until I started to walk back. The whole thing was uphill! Uphill 100 meters- or 360 feet incline!!! UGH! I had to stop like 5 times on the way back :-) It reminded me of a time when I was on my bike as a kid and I was AMAZED how easy it was to get to the corner, and then I turned around to have a thirty mph wind blowing in my face and crying the entire way home as I was fighting the wind. What did we learn? If it's really easy now, it's going to be hell later.
The other thing I learned is that as much as I can sometime become reclusive, I need to push myself to get out there. I almost didn't do this! I am 3 1/2 hrs away and I almost gave up this once in a lifetime experience! How many times does this happen? (You- the person who like the Art Institute- it's only 3 1/2 hrs away! Just saying :-)

As I got back to the Siq, I had to turn around and get one more picture. It was the best picture I shot all day.

Petra 4

There are a few things in my life that I just can't believe- and this is one of them. So huge, so amazing, so creative.

Pictures are of me in front of the treasury, the pic with all the holes in the mountain is the colonnade main street. The other mountain carving is in the "urn tomb" and the holes in the room are the burial chambers that were opened in the urn tomb.

Petra 3

There aren't many words that can describe walking through this mile long trail. It was just...
I took 30 or so photos while I was walking through- it was just so beautiful!

And then I saw it- the Indian Jones building.

Petra 2

The trail begins out in the open and you walk about 1/2 mile to the "siq"- the long winding cavernous trail that leads into Petra. Above are the pics of the starting. There were a few sighting groups in front of me so I made sure to power walk past them so I wouldn't be stuck behind them and they would ruin "my moment" when I saw the building. (yes- It's all about my moment :-) I snapped a few pictures of the monuments on the trail but knew there was much more to come.

Petra!

Well, I did it! I went to Petra. When I heard 3 1/2 hours in a car- each way, I was like NO. But then my boss was like "really? Really? All you've talked about is going to Petra when you go to Jordan!" So I took his advice and booked it. The moment I made the reservation I was giddy with excitement. I couldn't even sleep last night because I was so excited and afraid I was going to oversleep.
Up at 6am, in the car at ten to 7am. I used the travel service through the hotel and while it was a bit more, I got my own driver and car for the whole day and pretty much my own tour guide as we drove there.

Driving across the desert again for 3 1/2 hrs. It was like the Bahrain to Riyadh trip de Jevu (spelling). I saw all these small villages that kept popping up, and so I asked the driver- are these real villages? He said yes- and then knew the name of each. The one we were passing by at the moment had the best schools- 4. 2 for girls, 2 for boys. He then said they have everything else too- electricity, plumbing, grocery stores. But then I asked what they did for a living and he said they "lived". They grew their own food- vegetables and goats, and made their own clothes from the sheeps wool. It kinda shocked me. These villages were what i would equate to small US towns, quaint towns with one or no stoplights, small school counts-- only this is how it is in a developing country, and it looks like nothing you could even imagine.

As we got to the 1/2 way point, we stopped off at the usual tourist trap. Cheaply made overpriced souvenirs (no I didn't buy anyone's gift there :-), breakfast options, and bathrooms. But they had diet coke, so I can't say anything bad.

As we got closer to Petra the mountains arose from the desert, and we entered the Moussa Valley or Moses Valley (pictures above). It was really cool winding down the mountains in the city. We got to this one point and I asked to stop the car so I could get out and get a picture. It was amazing- looking out over the city and the mountains that encompass Petra. (picture) It took my breath away.

As we had left so early we were ahead of the tour busses and locals. It was also Friday so that is the religious day here so no Muslims would be out till after noon. I got my ticket- 50Jd ($75) and went in while my driver went off to see some friends and do his prayers. We agreed to meet back at the meeting point in three hours.

Around in Amman

So I made it out of my hotel last night- went to Mecca street and Mecca Mall. The cabs really are dirt cheap- it only cost 1.75 jd- around $3! I thought mecca was the newer mall, I was wrong- City's is the newer one. It showed. THe mall was more of a second teir, not very many branded stores, lots of knock off stores. Also- because it is a local mall you can smoke EVERYWHERE in the mall and boy do they ever! I woke up this morning with the worst sinus headache.

Yesterday was also a first for me- I saw "traveler people". This is the politically correct term for gypsy's/Nomads. I think they were more of the later because they were on Donkey- in the city! I was in a cab going across town to the training and all of a sudden I looked out my window and there were donkey's eating out of garbage bags on the side of the street- and I don't mean 1 or 2- I mean 12 donkeys grazing on a street in downtown Amman! Then I saw the men and women behind them on the sidewalk sitting down. My cab driver shouted something sounding angry, and we kept on driving. We are then sitting at the stop light and- sure enough- here they come on Donkey back, with their satchels trying to steer their donkey's down the street! I was just in awe. Really? Donkeys and Gypsies and cabbies Oh My! Come to find out this was not an everyday occurance as a few other people in the training had seen it too and were talking about it when I got to the hotel.

Then today we were in the store opening all the props and fixtures and I commented that we'd have to have 1-2 people take out all the cardboard. The store manager explained that we won't have too, there will be people to come and take it. "great" I thought- we can keep working all day on this. I usually have the team keep the trash in the boxes to keep the store clean. After an hour a security gaurd stepped into the store and started dumping out the boxes. WTH- I dont' have time to deal with a crazy security guard at this point so I got a translator and asked him what he was doing. Long story short- the boxes have to only cardboard- no trash, no plastic. Why you ask?? Because these people who are taking out the cardboard are not just cleaners- they are "pickers"- garbage pickers who sort stuff and then sell it. ...

So those two events, happening with 24 hrs, really put some context into where I am. There is always a Sheraton, always a store to set-up, always a team to train in every country I visit, but those are the experiences that I can say change how I look at the world. This trip especially- I have seen so many things that I have never thought I would see, or experience. It's amazing. It makes me sad sometimes. But mostly it makes me love life just that much more.

Amman Pictures

Here are some pictures- 2 City views from my hotel balcony. 2 Pictures of the new mall. It is really odd being in such a huge building while under construction. You know it's a mall, but malls are already done- you never go into a mall while it's being built.

In Amman

So i made it into Amman Wednesday night and have been training the new team the past two days.
The weather is their normal fall, : in the 60's, rainy and overecast. They did the time change on Sunday as well and that means it gets dark really early, today it was dark at 4:30!

The staff members are amazing people. They are so excited to be working for our brand and a already very knowledgable about many things i am talking about from their own online research and studying the website. So i am vey impressed. They are also the nicest people i have ever trained. YesterdAy when we went to lunch the one sales associate paid for me and would not take no for an answer. When we left last night another offered to drive me back to the hotel so i wouldn't have to fight for a cab during rush hour. Then this morning when i came in there was a diet coke on the front table ( diet coke is impossible to find here as well) and one of the associates had overheard me joking with the store manager that i can never find diet coke in the middle east. How nice is that!

The hotel is great. Just renovated older sheraton. It is in a decent location, central to both the place we are training and the new mall. Which by the way i went to the mall this morning with the store manager. There are only 10 stores opening next saturday at the malls grand opening. This is a big big mall- three stories, huge. Only ten stores. .???... I cant tell if this is good or bad. The funny thing is that there is body shop, my store, and VS all in the same hallway, all selling the same thing. So 1/3 of the stores are personal care! The one thing that we have though is our amazing well trained staff. So we will by far be the best. :-)

I have found out some things since i've been here:
The dead sea is only 45 minutes away and is the lowest spot on earth. Pretty cool.
Petra is huge and is way further away then i thought. 3 1/2 hrs away. One way.
The huge and hostile issue of Palastinians versus Isreal is very much a part of society here. I made a mistake by asking how far it was from amman to the mediteranean sea. I said you have to drive through ( Jerusalem) and they immediately said "no, you drive through palestine" and gave me a look. Now I know.
The unemployment rate here us sooo high for people under 30 that they are working for 1 jd an hour in some cases. Just to have a job. That is $1.5 and hour. It is also so low because the currency is very undervalued here. I took a cab for 5 jd, $7.50 from the hotel to the training site and i thout the store manager was going to lose her mind. She told me to never pay any more than 2 jd (3.25) for a cab riede anywhere in the city. To even get in a cab in dubai the base charge is $3.

Overall I am having a good time. I havent had any time to site see yet, or go anywhere in the city but will when i have a day off next week.
And I'm in Amman! How crazy is this! The dead sea, petra, jerusalem is an hour away! Seriously amazing. :-)

Another week

So another week has gone by and what a week it has been. On Friday, after all the chaos that ensued Wed, and then Thursday was equally as draining, I opted for a 1/2 day and went to the beach the afternoon into evening. The traffic has been really bad since it was second Eid holiday and so I walked to the beach from my apartment. It wasn't too bad- only 30 minutes, and it was a great day- only 85 out and no humidity. I hadn't realized how lazy I had gotten since I moved here, but we drive everywhere! I started to see how bad I had gotten when I was in Istanbul and we walked almost everywhere that we could. So a thirty minutes walk wasn't too bad, and it was great not dealing with the traffic or problems with parking.
The beach was packed but I didn't mind- made me feel like I was on spring break or something like that. Having no humidity makes the day at the beach seem so refreshing. I got a little sun, and as I won't have any more time to be beaching it for the next few weeks that will have to last :-)

I have had team members from the US in town as of Saturday night, so Sunday was visits all day and then late dinner, so long day. Then Monday was a brand conference in Dubai that I lead for the partner, showing them all the new holiday products, selling tools, and all the fun stuff like floorsets and the videos of the stores in the US. Then we all had dinner at the Marina, and then drinks at the Yacht club which was fun. But lordy was I tired this morning. Then today- as I'm a bit hung-over and at the office- they are having an Airshow at the airport- which we are 1/2 mile away from. So there have been the blue angles and f-15's and many many other loud things flying directly overhead. Ugh.
I'm here today pulling together all my training tools and floorplans for the new market launch in Jordan. Yes- JORDAN! YAY! I thought this would never happen as the launch was supposed to be in Septmeber but the mall wasn't done yet- it didn't even have windows or doors on the mall the week were to have opened. So I am heading out tomorrow morning for 2 weeks of training, store building, and hopefully some sight seeing. :-) I'll update the pics once I'm on the ground!

Midddddd week

Oh my goodness, how is it only Wednesday night? And the only reason I know it's Wednesday night is that it's Lady's night downstairs in the Martini bar- and that meant no discount on the liquor- so I realized I'd have to go upstairs to the pool bar and get my discounted beer tonight. :-)

Today was the craziest day, really put our jobs into perspective. I was walking into work at 10am and my boss was calling me as I was literally walking through the office door. He wondered where I was.... funny because NO ONE else was there. (?) But he wanted to make sure I was coming to the office- he wanted to visit stores this afternoon which I was fine with. Then around 4pm the other territory manager for the other business comes in, wants to have me come out and have a cigarette with her (I don't smoke so I knew something was up). She went off on how they've been forcing her to oversee her KSA business and she was signed to work in Dubai, and how dare they make her travel so much. And she told me she was quitting!! AH! I couldn't breath for a minute! She was quitting? Who the F quits anymore? I couldn't believe this- 2/3 of the team was down and out and I was the 1/3 left???? What?
It was only 2 months ago we were all having dinner at Buddha Bar and talking about how we were the leaders going to oversee a huge business in the next three years, and now- now, it's just me. Such a shock. Such a moment of realization for me- that I was the only one who was ok still. I have been dealing with some horrible- HORRIBLE people, and bad stores, and mean business partners, but I would never quit.
Even on my worse day I still see the silver lining of the fabulous things I have been given to be here, and the great trips, all the people I get to meet, and somehow it makes the terrible emails and backhandedness of the business to even out. I'm ....sad to see her go, but she had changed. I hadn't seen her for months, and she had big black bags under her eyes, and she was dressed in black, and she was pissed off- with a capital P. When I first met her she was all happy- wearing a pink stappy sundress and great skin and talking about what club she had passed out in the night before and how she woke up on the beach- but that the sand really exfoliated her skin so even though it may have sounded horrific to some she really benefited from having a night under the stars :-) She was so carefree and fun and light and in love with the job- and now she was like christina ricci on the adams family- or maybe more Janeane Garofalo in Reality Bites... yeah- that's more like it. So sad, but so time for her to be happy again.

Now the stories

So many things happened in those 48 hrs. Good, Funny, Sad, Ugly, Angering... so many emotions! :-)
Travel wise- the causeway from Bahrain to Dammam, Saudi Arabia is the longest bridge in the world- or bridges, like the Florida Keys. When you get to the 1/2 way point- so you're on a small island between the two countries- you have to do the passport control and customs. I've been to Saudi alot now, so they looked at my passport, welcomed me back (which I was shocked how nice the guy was), and I went back to the car- no problems. Then my boss- British, with a new passport cause his had just expired- they took one look at the fresh passport, and passed him around from one station to the next until finally they took him into a room. All this was happening while I was in the car- after 30 minutes I started to get nervous. I'm in the car- in the middle of a body of water- between two countries- alone. I gave it another 30 minutes till I started looking through my bag for the International SOS phone number in the event I was going to have to get a helicopter to get me out of here. After an hour and 20 minutes, he finally was "released" and he was PISSED! It was a quiet car ride to Dammam after that :-)
Had it of not been for his customs issue, we would have made it in an hour which is really good.

All stores looked good, until we got to one in Riyadh. That was like I was dreaming. When I reflect on it- my adrenaline was pumping- none of the associates who spoke english were working which made it even worse, and it was busier than I had ever seen a store in the Middle East because it was the holiday. It was unreal. I haven't sent that feedback to the business unit yet because it was so bad.

Then after the long two days- as we were sitting in the Riyadh airport we had ordered coffee. My boss takes his latte plain, I get Vanilla. He drank his, and said- "I think I have yours." Takes off the lids, switches the lids, takes a drink of his, and says "they're both vanilla- damn."
LOL Then he sat there for 30 seconds and said "Did I switch the lids or switch the coffees?" HAhaha! We needed a good laugh like that- and we definitely needed the coffees :-)

It's like the Amazing Race!

So Wednesday morning met my Boss for coffee and a meeting and as I was explaining my shock that no one from the business had been in Saudi since July he said "Lets go...... Tomorrow". Thinking he was kidding I continued and he pulled out his phone cancelled his appointments for the next two days- he was serious! On a side note- it's Second Eid here, like Christmas- only it's Muslim and it's when all of them go to Mecca which is in Saudi and we're talking 100,000 of people. Those not going to KSA, go to Dubai or Bahrain so they can drink and shop and be crazy so flights in and out of KSA were going to be tough.
My boss called me later in the afternoon to see if I had found flights and hotels for us and I felt like that scene in "The devil wears Prada" when Andrea is sitting in the office trying to get Miranda out when there is a hurricane- only my boss was like "it's not even that big of a holiday- there is no way all the flights are booked! Find us flights and email me my itinerary". (In my mind it cuts away to an image of Mecca at Hajj with the millions of people around the black stone). "Not a big holiday?" It's the be all End all of holidays for Muslims and KSA really is "the holy land". (attached a picture of Hajj so you get the idea- it happens like this everday for the entire Eid period!)
Not only that, but he wanted to go into Riyadh to see stores, and Dammam to see stores, and while we were at it- lets hope over to the Bahrain as see stores there too- "just figure it out" :-)
So of course- I'm a rock star and did it! So We left Thursday at 8am for Bahrain, saw the stores there, then took the causeway (bridge) that connects Bahrain to the main land which is the city of Dammam. We saw the stores there, stayed the night Thursday night in Dammam. Friday morning we got into a car and drove- DROVE- from Dammam to Riyadh- seriously get out a map and see the distance. But it was an adventure and who gets to drive across the desert? Huh? It was pretty cool and I saw real camels in their natural habitat, and sand dunes like those on Aladin. Also was good because we could do work in the car on the way over.
Got to Riyadh round 1:30pm, did lunch with the director of stores for Saudi at the Four Seasons, then visited stores till 6pm, then to the airport- then back to Dubai at 1am Saturday morning.
Whew, that was alot. 2- 16hr days, over 20 stores, we were in three different countries in 48 hrs, and we survived! I feel like I earned my paycheck this week :-)

Pictures of the desert, the sand is white when you're closer to the sea, then closer to Riyadh it gets to be that darker color. Me at the midpoint rest stop. I thought the bathrooms were bad in general- then I went there- I should have titled this blog post "In the land of the garden hose"! (inside joke- but I'll tell you all about it when I see you cause it's hilarious!)