The last post in this series

I always forget that I have to put in the pictures last to first, so anyway, this is in the plane flying home and we flew over Iran. These are some pictures of Iran.

As we went through passport control I asked if I could take a picture of these passport control guys headgear. I love these scarf-wound-turbans, they looked very classy. This guy said 'sure, I could take his picture.'

The guy in the middle said 'no, I couldn't take his picture'. I decided to listen to the other guy and I got this.

The 'villa' in Oman where they meet for church. In this one the doorbell is a muslim call to prayer.

Here it is, we found it the 'liahona'!! :)

Another picture of the hat and robe wear in Oman. Most all the signs are in english and arabic. The common language is english because all the shop keepers and menial labor are from the Phillipines, or India, or Pakistan. In the UAE only about 20% of the people are Emiratees - the rest are immigrants who do the work.

More pictures from the car of the scenery.

Oman - the last stop on this tour

Oman, is on the tip of the Gulf and it is more mountainy and hilly, and a little more green, but not much. It is a nice place, the most 'normal', 'livable' place in this area. This is a 'Sultanate' - one of two in the whole world (the other is Brunei???).

In Oman the men wear a different head-dress than they do in the UAE - they have this little round hat for every day life. I kept getting only the back of people because I hate to take pictures of people - you know, I would look just like a tourist!!

The mosque in Oman.

Inside the mosque. Interestingly, they said that in this room is the largest rug in the world. (not the blue, they put that over the rug for the tourists to walk on) As you can see, we had to have our heads covered, long sleeves and long pants and no shoes. Beautiful, reverent place!

The chandelier in the mosque

Dubai

While we were there we celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary!! Paul is such a wonderful husband - For our 20th we went on a Kazakh wolf-hunting-by-eagle and horse-riding adventure, for the 25th we went to Mexico back to his mission, and then he took me to the Persian Gulf for this anniversary- including this marvelous dinner and an excursion to the gold souk!!

We are wondering how to top this for our 35th??? I can hardly wait!!! I love you, Paul!!

In Dubai, this is the most green I saw. In Abu Dhabi there is more green in parks and lawn and it just looks more 'livable'. This shot is from the 28th floor looking out over the city.

Another view from up high. Dubai is mostly just tall buildings and anything that looks 'showy'.

The tall pointy building to the left of the 'asterik' is the 'Birj Dubai' - the tallest building in the world.

Now on to Abu Dhabi

Flying in to Abu Dhabi this is what it looks like - desert!! There really is no green unless it was planted and a black hose runs next to the plant dripping water into it.

Star wars!!!

Or an airport thing.

Sorry this picture is blurry - but this is a 7-star hotel where everything that looks like gold - is!! (Notice the dome) We didn't stay here, but we did eat here and look around - pretty amazing!

Moving on to Qatar

Okay, I am going to try to finish this trip. This is Doha, Qatar and the Muslim Learning Center.

The skyline of Doha

The flowers - they were so sweet-smelling - they think they are a kind of magnolia

Bouganvilla - I think. As it looks the weather was wonderful!! It was Nov. and the temp. was around 95 degrees. The local ex-pats were saying it was 'cold'. What??? They were wearing sweaters, especially in church where the air conditioning was running.

The Saints in Baghdad

One group of members Paul could meet with - some are military and others are there in a supporting role. After being there a couple of days, on his return to the Persian gulf and a fireside he gave there, Paul mentioned, 'that it was good to be in a church meeting where there weren't any firearms!!' All the military had to have their weapons on them all the time.

Possibly this is the new District Presidency???? Probably not, but they are good guys, I am sure!!