We live in Dubai.
Dubai is one of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Think like the United States of America. Each emirate (or state like in the USA) has its own vibe, its own rules, its own leadership that distinguishes it from the other emirates, but all are part of one country that is led by a president. Very similar in a lot of ways to the USA ... aaaaaand very different.
The UAE is part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). These 6 countries are all located on the Arabian Peninsula: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar. Essentially, these countries have agreed to work together closely in all aspects. Yemen is the only other country located on the Arabian Peninsula but is not a member of the GCC. Lot's of reasons on Google as to why - I'll leave the research to you.
The UAE is known as one of the safest countries in the world, and that high level of safety translates to the other GCC countries. Like safe enough to leave my bag and cell phone on the table. Safe enough to never lock my car when I'm parking. Safe enough to not have any idea where the keys to my house are. Like safe. Real safe. There’s a ton of political stuff about the GCC that I don’t pretend to be informed enough about to explain, but my point is that … we live in Dubai, which is part of the UAE, which is part of the GCC.
When we started on this journey 9 months ago, I agreed to it based on one tiny (lol) rule: We. Would. Travel. I couldn’t imagine uprooting our lives, surrendering my career, and taking this leap if we weren’t going to do our absolute best to travel this region of the world as MUCH as we possibly could. How often in our lives would we be living only 4 hours from the pyramids? Or Petra?! Thankfully, Travis travels monthly, if not weekly throughout the region and we tag along whenever possible.
Tagging along on work trips is not only cost effective for us (hotel and Travis’s flights are always reimbursable), but it allows us to spend time together as a family. Travis might be busy most of the day or at work dinners, but there is still time for a sand castle or a hike.
Due to COVID, we started our travel checklist with the GCC countries. All are within an hour flight time or drivable and very easy to check off the list. So far we have traveled to Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. We have Kuwait and Saudi left. I have to say … I’m absolutely itching to explore Saudi – like can we go tomorrow? But Kuwait … that’s not sparking a ton of curiosity for me … but what do I know?
Dubai has an exceptional international airport, and we are able to fly easily, directly and relatively inexpensively to an incredible number of countries. Our goal for the first 2 years is to travel to as many countries within 4.5 hours as possible and branch farther in future years. Flying with a toddler isn't great so ... we are keeping it close right now. There's a few countries near to the UAE that I would love to see, but we have to be realistic, and travel there is not safe in the current climate.
Here’s our list for the first year.
- Qatar
- Bahrain
- Oman
- Jordan
- Egypt
- Saudi Arabia
- Maldives
We’ve started planning for next year and here’s the tentative plan
- Georgia
- Azerbaijan
- Armenia
- India
- Nepal
- Sri Lanka
- Bangladesh
Let’s see how we do 😉
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