More Food Woes...

As I have previously posted, S and I are off to Dubai in a few days for a much needed vacation/holiday. Well, I have started the habit of getting a tour book for every country we visit. S thinks this is a waste of money...however, I did point out to him that since our entire trip is paid for by his company, spending $20 on a tour book isn't going to break us. Well, I just picked up the book on Dubai a few days ago...and now I am so glad I did.

Last night I was skimming the Dubai book when I started reading the section about Ramadan. Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates and the majority of the people are Muslims. Ramadan is the most holy month for Muslims. During this month, Muslims fast from dawn to sunset...besides not eating, they also don't drink, chew gum, and smoke. Well guess what...S and I are traveling to Dubai during Ramadan!

Not really having a whole lot of food for the past 3 months (or at least not a whole lot of variety of food), S and I were looking forward to eating quite a bit on this trip. Also, for those of you who don't know me well, I have to eat like every 10 minutes (at least that's what my husband claims). I definitely cannot go from dawn to dark without eating or drinking (and S chews gum all of the time). I function best if I eat 4 or 5 small meals a day. When I told S about this situation...he told me to stock up on granola bars to take along.

Well, I decided that I had better get on the internet to do some more detailed research on how exactly our lives will be affected by traveling to Dubai during Ramadan. The findings...even though we are not Muslims, we are still expected to refrain from eating, drinking, chewing gum, and smoking in public (including in cars) during Ramadan. In fact, from what I could find, it is illegal to do these things in public during this time even if one is not Muslim. So much for the granola bars that my husband suggested that I take along.

Restaurants are closed during the day during Ramadan. However, from what I can tell, some restaurants in hotels will be open...however, it sounds as if we will be ushered to a private room to eat and drink so that no one can view us doing these activities (and thus I guess will not be considered a public place). So my plan when we are out and about...to keep granola bars and water bottles in my purse and to eat and drink every time I am in the bathroom. I know...pretty gross, but I welcome any better suggestions.

Also, the other big thing that I am learning to research before traveling to countries (especially Asian countries) is what to wear. In China, pretty much anything went. I could wear whatever I would wear in the U.S. Here in India, not the case. It really is important that I wear shirts with sleeves and to wear capris, pants, or skirts below the knees...I only wear shorts in my house when I know that I'm not leaving my property. Well the research I have been doing on Dubai made it sound like that I should wear pretty much the same thing I wear here in India...until I started doing research on Ramadan...now it sounds like I should dress even more conservatively in Dubai since we will be there during the holy month. Long skirts to the ankles and long sleeves...yikes...it's even hotter in Dubai right now than it is here in Chennai. I think I'll probably take a few capris and skirts along and try to check out what other Western women are wearing.

Anyway, our nice easy trip to Dubai is starting to turn into a headache for me. I'm sure that I'm just worrying and stressing out about it more than probably what is necessary. However, my experience has been that I always prepare myself for the worse and then things always turn out way better than what I'm expecting. So, in the end, I know that our trip will go great and that we will enjoy ourselves.