Kilometers travelled: 1385 Km

Filled both tanks on the way, and filled one tank on the way back.

I have to say that this is probably the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. More beautiful then snow, the ocean or the mountains. We left Kuwait around 8:30pm and we got to the border by 9:45pm. We were two Chevy Silverados and One Landcruiser. We packed the Landcruiser and One Silverado until it was full and the leading Silverado had the tanks of fresh water. I met one person for the first time. It seemed interesting and I was going to be completely relaxed and loose!

I was the last car to watch if anything flew out of the back of the Silverado, we were 5 people and two were going to come the next day. It was funny since we had walkie talkie between us so you can imagine all the comments being thrown back and forth. The lead truck had two gps units and a hell of a lot of other tools which certainly were essential for where we were going. I heard horror stories of the Saudi border crossing, but I have to say that we must have been lucky since the person who stamped our paperwork were very decent and nice, maybe we were very lucky. After getting across we made a quick stop at a gas station and took off, and we were averaging between 140 to 170 kph on the highway until we got to our destination Dhanah which showed that we travelled 480 Kms, and we were only 200 to 250 Kms from Saudi. It was around 1:30am and when we stopped before taking our off road route we stopped and for the first time I looked up into the sky and I was mesmirized. I have never seen something as beautiful as a clear night sky and I was happy I will be seeing that every night. There were thousands if not millions of star in the sky and I was completely overwhelmed by the sky. It was in awe of the beauty of Gods creation! And this was just the beginning of this trip.

(This is long and if you dont want to read then just look at the pictures!)

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From the whole trip and full ahead at work my brain didn’t have enough time to shutdown. And then my family was arriving from a trip so I had to go to the airport and then visit my grandparents house where everyone was getting together. It was one hell of a day! I was falling asleep on the couch at my grand parents house. It is the best sleep when you pass out after this kind of day. I’m really looking forward to bed. So much to do and so little time!

I got a call this morning around 4 am and it had a distinct ringtone so I thought it would be important. I picked up the phone to find out a friend of mine had been in an accident. So of course I call up my friend who is still under the influence of morphine and vicoden at home watching 24. I asked for details and what the hell happened.

He was walking out of work into the company parking lot, its an open parking lot shared between two buildings which is a Biotech company (his) and HSBC. He was walking just stepped off from the side walk and his coworkers and friends were waiting for him in the car to go to lunch. As he stepped off the side walk into the parking lot a car came flying down road and over his foot and he hit his face on the windshield while the sideview mirror threw him to the side. All he could rememer was his face getting hit and nothing else. His foot was fractured and not broken, his ribs are bruised, and he has a very fat lip from the windshield which bled a lot. He was taken to the hospital and the police were all over the place. The doctor said he was lucky his foot didn’t shatter because that bone is really strong, but it will take him a while to recover.
Now for the driver, she was driving over 25 mph in a 5 mph parking lot in a Audi A6 2004 model. She has had 4 prior written warnings from security for speeding in the parking lot and she was banned from parking in the parking lot, but some how she was parked in there that day. He was crossing in a cross walk area which gave him the right of way and he didn’t even see her when looking around for any cars.

At this point I was happy that he was at home watching 24 and all drugged up, and I even think he saw the episodes already but that can only help him. This all happened in San Diego so I know that the driver will have nice lawsuit on her hands. I’m just happy he is ok and it could have been much worse but I’m happy he is going to sue. I’m just really pissed at that women, but it made me happy that he sounded ok, and was more then happy to watch 24 for a couple of hours. This all took place in San Diego.

FYI: He was walking and she was in the car. 

There is a lot I have to say about this Desert trip, but for now I’m going to leave you with three statements:

• My Nickname is now Vertical (Reasons will be later)
• It was Cold and Hot
• I loved it (My license plate is in my trunk)

More posts coming soon with alot of pics!

Ready to head out! The Landcruiser is packed and I have my essentials with me!

I hope everyone is going to enjoy the long weekend!

I’m prepared for the cold! Taking it head on!

Check list:

• Two layers of socks
• Timbaland Boots
• Jeans (another)
• Nike Dry Fit undershirt
• My 24 sweat shirt!

Im ready for anything thats going to be thrown at me! This is going to be good one interesting trip! And I just stuffed myself silly before going out so I wont get too hungry under the stary night!

After a good amount of planning with some friends and coworkers, we are going this Wednesday to go camping in Saudi Arabia, when I mean camping its going to be the real thing. Not much electricity only cold water, and some good old sleeping bags to keep you warm.

People we are going camping in Saudi Arabia! This is going to be one hell of an adventure! I’m going in my trusty Landcruiser! The last time I went camping was in Lake Tahoe, California but I think is a slightly different environment. From what I could tell the weather report says it could go -5 to -7 in the desert without any snow! This is just going to be great, and a little raw and exciting! It supposed to take 4 day in total coming back Saturday.

I picked up two sleeping bags, a tent, some thermal blankets, LED Lantern, and a Mag flashlight. My other friend who hasn’t gone camping in Saudi either is bring the other recommended essentials and of course we are going a bit overboard but what can we say, I would rather be over prepared then under prepared!

I’m also bringing with me my camera, mp3 player, and some magazines. Other people are bringing the essentials that will keep us alive and full so I’m not sure what else to bring. I’m also picking up some meat, coke, sprite, and water. We are just laughing about this, and there are going to be some shenanigans! I think someone is bringing Risk! This is going to be interesting!

These are just the books that I thought I had to have and wouldn’t be to heavy to carry with me! I really wanted a few interior design books, but those are just heavy as hell! There is no way in hell I could carry the heavy books with me! And there were the odd books that I would have wanted to pick up just to take a quick read through them, but I didn’t get a chance since I didn’t think they were essential.

• The Bad Place (Dean Koontz)
• The Black Sun (James Twining)
• Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow – Troy Trilogy (David A. Gemmell)
• Priestess of the White (Trudi Canavan)
• Last of the Wilds (Trudi Canavan)

This is one of London’s must see book shops! It has this old classic feel to the bookshop! I have been to it a few times before, and its always fun being in here! If ever you wanted to know how Harry Potter felt in a bookstore then this would be it. When ever I’m reading a few excerpts from a book, I can hear the creak and crack of people walking up and down the flight of stairs. This is the best spot to find signed versions of books, and a different flavor of books! What I like is that they really do have a different recommended books section so I can take a look at what other good books are available. There is a smell of old paper as if they have magic books hidden in between all these books or at least that what I like to think. You are literally surrounded by books that it takes some good maneuvering skills to get from one end to the other and around the books. What I especially like is the personal service and personal feel you get from this bookstore, you can tell those who are working their really love to work there and I can’t blame them.

This is probably my favorite bookstore in the world! There might be ones which are a little bit bigger or with more books, but I have a personel attachment to this bookstores and I have spent hours upon hours in this bookstore over the years. It is 5 floors of books, books, and more books! You can always find something to read or something new and interesting! I never thought that I would like one speicific Genre or another, but I was surprised as to what I liked from the selection of recommended books! I have even bought kid books because I liked the story so much and not finding out it was kids books until later! I didn’t even care, I was really happy that I was entertained by the book and I bought the rest of the trilogy. I have a few authors that I keep buying their books like Dean Koontz, Trudi Canavan, Dan Simmons, Max Barry, and Joshua Mowll. There other authors that I check up on every once in a while, but I always am open to a good story. When I’m walking around looking at the shelves I always feel like I could find a gem of a book in between all these shelves and once I find it, it is the best feeling in the world! You just keep reading that book, not wanting to go to sleep or the story to finish! I find it frustrating when I finish a good book because its hard to replace! Maybe Im jumping into this too much, but its something to experience! They also have my favorite notepads here which is the Moleskine notepads, they are the best ot right in and I always have one with me in a meeting or carrying it under the seat of my bike. There is something for everyone in this bookstore, I could spend days in there because there are couchs available on the other floors! Just as long as nobody has taken them!

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Usually when I come back from a trip I can adjust my sleep right away but since I went straight to work the day I arrived I didn’t get the sleep I needed right away. From saturday onwards my sleeping pattern has been a bit messed up. The funny part is that I have passed out on the couch in the afternoon thinking about cartman and all his antics! I was laughing when I woke up a couple of times, but I dont know why that was popping into my head.

I think I’m slowly getting adjusted! A lot of work and a lot of family things to do the past couple of days, so things have been bouncing around a lot in my head. And I just wanted to relax and watch some of the DVDs over the next few days! Well at least my head is spinning towards noon like the past couple of days.