Leaving on a [Many] Jet Plane[s]

H and I are saying hooroo to Australia and moving on to our next home overseas.  This means that I'll have to catch-up on my severe backlog of Australia postings from someplace other than Australia.  It also means that I get to play excited bathroom game in the Dubai Airport.  Excited bathroom game involves guessing what's behind each stall door: toilet or squat hole.

Full points are given for a correct blind guess and 75% of points are awarded for a correct guess based on observing who is exiting the stalls.  Half points are awarded based on observing who is entering the stalls as a lot of times Westerners will reveal the squat locations by gasping and shaking their heads when they push open the stall door, resuming their place in the queue to wait for the next available stall, or simply saying, "this is gross."

Another fun area of play for excited bathroom game is seeing just how many women will emerge from a single squat stall at one time.  I'm not quite sure what they all do in their together.  Maybe assist with holding up one another's voluminous burkas?

Thank goodness we have an eleven hour layover.  I couldn't bear to have a limited timeframe to play in.

So toodaloo kangaroos, I'll check-in once I arrive on the other side of the globe...literally.

Excited [Insert Word(s) Here] Game

On vacation, H and I were introduced to the Excited Roller Coaster Game.  We had read about it for months prior to departing for our trip and spent an insane amount of time trying to guess what it could be.  All we knew was the name and that it was at a waterfall.  My best guess was that perhaps it was some kind of marginally safe barrel ride down the waterfall à la Pippi Longstocking.  Finally the big day arrived and we saw that it was this:

It was a kind of alpine slide ride down to the base of a waterfall and incredibly fun partially for the surprise factor, partially for the awesome name and partially because I haven’t been on any kind of roller coaster type ride in years.  And the fun didn’t stop on the way down; after we finished touring the waterfall, we climbed back into our cars to get towed up the mountain.  My lazy legs rejoiced!

H and I couldn’t let the Excited Roller Coaster Game end there so we decided to carry the theme through the rest of our vacation.  We had:

• Excited Street Crossing Game
• In some cities, street crossing is quite a risky business.  We were advised by our local guide to walk, never run, at a slow, even pace across the street and motorists would steer around us.  H and I quickly learned that while that is true for motorbikes, engaging in Exciting Street Crossing Game against cars and buses is quite a different story.  While we gradually progressed from level one tuk-tuks and cyclos to level fifteen buses, it wasn’t without some nervous moments.  One of our favorite Excited Street Crossing moments was following another pair of tourists (who raised their hands and took baby steps) across a very busy intersection.  Score: 150 points and a bonus life.

• Excited Dinner Table Conversation Game
•  H and I sat down to lunch one day at a table a few inches away from another English speaking, American couple.  Overhearing their conversation we deduced that they were on an outing from their cruise ship and locked eyes, determined to enjoy lunch and conversation between the two of us.  Unsurprisingly, as soon as English left our lips, they pounced and asked us where we were from.  Australia we replied, and that they believed it despite our very non-Australian accents made us even more pleased that we were able to end the conversation almost as quickly as it had begun.  Seeing that they were continuing to eavesdrop on our conversation, H and I quickly began talking about unusual topics in abbreviated language.  We were rewarded in our endeavours when our $3Bn train conversation got a barely muffled, “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?!” exclamation exchanged between the couple at the neighboring table.  LNG, obviously!
• Excited Dinner Table Conversation Game can be played two ways: you can either initiate bizarre conversation to confuse unwitting eavesdroppers or eavesdrop on bizarre conversations from your neighbors.  A few nights later, H and I were witnesses to excited domestic conflict game when a seemingly benign dinner table conversation between our neighbors resulted in one asking the other why she even married him and storming off for twenty minutes.  Pretty awkward considering we were confined to a 55m long boat together for the next 24 hours.

• Excited Missing Dragon Fruit Game
• The next morning, before departing from the aforementioned boat, we were asked to leave our cabin doors open starting from about 45 minutes prior to docking so that our luggage could be removed and our rooms could be checked over.  H and I came back to our room after spending some time on the balcony to find a strange woman sitting in our chair.  After trying in multiple languages to tell her it was our room and requesting politely that she leave, H engaged her in a staring contest that finally resulted in her departure.  A few minutes later we realized that along with her, the dragon fruit on our table had disappeared.  Would anybody else like to play Excited Missing Dragon Fruit Game?

• Excited Avoid the Squat Toilet Game
• Admittedly, I played this more than H did, but let’s just say that managing your liquid intake is essential in some parts of the world…

On that note, it’s time to play Excited What’s For Dinner Game.  If H gets home soon, we could move to a bonus level as his kitchen skills are vastly better than mine.