Category Archives: Adventures

Hitting the library, well not quite – 31 May 2009

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There’s only so many times I can read Myles the two or three kids books we have here before I go crazy.  And I think that point has passed.  All our books are still in storage in Brisbane. And knowing we’ll just have to move again means we don’t want to buy too many more right now.

Besides, Myles and I used to love visiting the Brisbane City Council library on the weekend and regularly getting a new bagful of books.  It was also a pretty cool place to just sit and chill-out.  We have been wanting to try the same here, but other things have always taken priority. Tonight however, I thought we’d finally visit a Dubai library.  “Gertie” – the name we’ve given our female-voiced GPS – gave us some pretty terrible directions. We were pretty much led onto the Metro’s tracks, so we had to do some rapid reversing, then a  large detour to get to the library.  The original directions suggested we’d make it there from our house in five minutes, including the traffic it was almost 45.

When we got out of our car Myles asked if he’d be allowed in, which I thought was a pretty odd question. It turned out to be well-founded. As we entered the gate a security guard walked straight up to us and said Myles wouldn’t be allowed in. Then he asked how old Myles was. I said four, which made him shake his head. Only six year olds are allowed to enter the library.

Next to the main library building there was a “Children’s Library”. Surely we could get in there, nope – he said it was the same deal. Only six years and above. I said we were just having a look, can we at least do that.  He said we’d need to test it with the staff on duty.

We did. And failed. The lady immediately asked how old Myles was, and four was the incorrect answer. I suggested he was very smart and is very good with books, but she was not wanting to budge. When I asked why they had such a rule, she said kids at four cannot read, and they make a mess of books.  I didn’t agree, but that made no difference.

The only ground I did make, was I’m allowed to get a card for myself, then I can take a  family loan of kids books. As she was saying this though, she seemed to be reducing herself to the fact Myles would most certainly ruin her books anyway.

This situation was quite upsetting for poor Myles. He was looking forward to going to the library this evening, so much so he almost ate all his spinach. His hopes certainly ended though with the ridiculous circular rule that kids should only read books when they’re able to read books. So I decided to get the library card another time – Myles would have to wait in the separate kids library while I did that anyway.

When we got outside I consoled him by saying we’d buy him a book instead. I spotted a bookshop sign from across the busy road. We made our way to it, and when we got close enough I saw it was an Islamic religion book shop. Hmm.  We entered anyway, and they did happen to have a small kids non-denominational section. I picked up the classic educational resource pictured. Not only does the cover have a misspelt title, it also has some odd graphics which bear no resemblance to any of the content.  It does have a train though. And it was a great relief to the slap in the face the Dubai library provided.

Opposites and Defferences (sic)

Opposites and Defferences (sic)

Next time we visit, Myles is primed. He’s magically become six!

Wild Wadi Water Park – 15 May 2009

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Last weekend a friend’s niece wanted to go to Wild Wadi Water Park for her birthday, which sounded like more than a good enough reason to go.  In fact, the reason was overkill. I wanted to go anyway.  In the day or two leading up to it, I felt as excited as a 12 year old.

We arrived close to the opening time, which is definitely a good idea. It is far quieter before lunch than after. In fact, Saturdays I hear they open from 8am for families which would be even better, to avoid the hottest part of the day.

Myles, Lewis & I with the stunning Burj Al Arab backdrop

Myles, Lewis & I with the stunning Burj Al Arab backdrop

The place is very easy to find, just find the Burj Al Arab and more or less drive to the bottom of it.  Or, follow the signs.

Parking was simple as well.  Things were going too well.  We were brought back to Dubai reality at the ticket counter.  We received the tickets to get in only after more than 30 minutes of painful dialogue and tinkering with the register, and a receipt which was almost a metre in length.

If we were a bit cheesed off then, we would even more cheesed off a few seconds later as we hit a security check-point. They were going through all bags to remove any food or drinks. And to our surprise, this included water. We managed to accidentally smuggle in a large bottle of water under the pram, which always helps.

All was forgotten once we could smell the water and hear the screams of people enjoying themselves. I’d say the park’s arrangement is probably a little obscure if not eccentric. We managed to find a row of banana lounges right next to the kids park which we made our base. Then everyone went in their own direction.  I spent the majority of my time in the kids park with Myles. But I didn’t mind this at all.  It was loads of fun. I did get questioned a couple of times though to make sure I did have a kid with me. They either didn’t spot Myles going down the rides like a bullet in front.  Or perhaps I looked like I was having a little too much fun.

After a little while, the grown-up guys suggested we act like grown-up guys and made a move toward the obligatory huge steep slide that water parks the world over have.  But finding the actual line for it turned out to be harder than you’d expect. In fact it was too hard for me, I gave up. When we were still looking for it we even found a ride which seemed to take us in the right direction until we were on it, and we found ourselves back to where we started. The ride was interesting to say the least.  We were given huge inflated donuts to sit on, and the slide was actually sloped upwards at a 30 degree angle. We travelled up the hill powered by huge squirts of water.  The power from the jets of water was so strong the sensation was (what I’d imagine to be) like that of a bidet jet.  I did the ride once on a shared donut with our friend’s 9 year old.  The second time on an individual donut where it wasn’t as embarassing to be the loudest screamer.

The place had racks of life jackets everywhere for people to freely use. I guess it’s a sign that a lot of the visitors can’t swim. Although I wasn’t used to seeing it, it was nice they were giving it a go. I never thought about it, but I guess if you can’t swim in Australia you simply wouldn’t go to these kinds of places.

The time at the park flew so quickly. We originally had planned to leave just after lunch which meant staying at the park for 3 hours or so. In the end it was a struggle to leave after 5.  If we didn’t have dinner plans that night, we certainly would have stayed much longer.  But we know where it is, and what tickets to now ask for, and what not to take in, and where all the rides start and end, so we can always go back.  Although, we’ve received advice that there are even greater water parks in other emirates of the UAE which we maybe should experience before returning to Wild Wadi.

I’d certainly recommend going to Wild Wadi at least once though. It may be more popular (busy) than the others, but the variety of rides and the views of the Burj Al Arab and the Jumeirah Beach Hotel are spectacular and I believe cannot be beaten.

Australia vs Pakistan in Twenty20 – 07 May 2009

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32 today, 32 today!

I experienced my first birthday in Dubai.  I received some handy gifts. Of note was the remote control toy car Range Rover that Myles picked out. He slyly asked if he could use it some times. He’s dreamin’.
It’s different from having a birthday at home in a number ways. For one, the birthday boy or girl needs to bring in the cake, or sweets to work. So I made a dash to the Lebanese sweets shop around the corner and bought a kilo of mixed baclava on a tray. It turned out to be only just enough.
I sent an email out at work that it was my birthday and people were welcome to the sweets. So many people made the effort to respond or tell me best wishes for the day, it was lovely to see how sweet and sincere everyone was.
During the day I also found that they weren’t joking about me shouting lunch either. Fortunately a mate didn’t realise it was my birthday and suggested we go to the burger joint, so I got out of it very cheaply!

dsc14

Tanzeem, Myles & I

I finished a little early to get prepared for the Twenty20 cricket match between Australia and Pakistan. It was a little bit worrying that the Australian embassy felt the need to provide a specific warning about this. It really only covered the behaviour you should follow in the UAE anyway.

Australian citizens planning to attend the Australia-Pakistan cricket matches to be played in Dubai and Abu Dhabi between 22 April and 7 May 2009 are reminded that local laws and penalties apply to you. It is important to remember that we are guests in the UAE, and that we must respect the UAE’s laws and customs.

Home – Australian Embassy (9 May 2009)

http://www.uae.embassy.gov.au

We left in plenty of time, as Thursday evenings are terrible for traffic even without the extra burden of a cricket crazy population getting to a local match. After a wrong turn which we couldn’t easily return from, we only just made it to Dubai Sports City in time. It was a little frustrating that we could then see the stadium, yet there was no way yet to get there directly, and there’s also no parking in sight. Not sure how this is possible in a desert with sand everywhere. Dubai Sport City is also a construction site so there is space everywhere.

We followed the already growing number of cars stuck in a line towards the designated parking areas. Eventually we found a park just over the road from the ICC headquarters.

Fortunately they had shuttle buses operating from the parking area from the car parks as we were probably 2 – 3 kms from the stadium.
The stadium looks like a giant marshmallow from the outside. It has giant sails at the top half, the rest of it is what you expect from a new world-class stadium.

There were so many people trying to sell us scalped tickets, or “black tickets” I had to check if it was illegal. It was.  Just maybe not policed very well.

As we got into the final lines to get in we were frisked by beefy security. It was from there we saw a large shiny helicopter, so we figured His Highness Sheikh Mohammed was present.

Once inside the ground we were free to walk into any section we pleased, with the exception of the VIP areas. The VIP tickets were more than 12 times the price of our cheap seats in the atmosphere section. It made no difference however if you bought one of the many other ticket categories. They all just piled in together, and we weren’t allocated a seat.

I saw on the big screen a sign, “We’re eating kangaroo curry tonight”.  Another one that got a laugh when it was displayed was “My wife thinks I’m at work”.

The match

I had never been to see a T20 match before, but they certainly look more exciting on TV. The organisers tried hard, including cheerleaders, but in keeping with the local sensitivities, they all had bright white tights beneath their short skirts.

Australia batted first, which usually means they’ll win.  But not this time.  The game started quite well for them with a good strike rate. But it didn’t last too long, with wicket after wicket.

When Andrew Symonds came out to bad, it was disappointing to hear a section behind us doing the controversial Monkey chant. Fortunately it didn’t last long as Symonds was out first ball. It was a new look Symonds, sporting a shaved head, perhaps this was a mistake as he suffered a similar fate to  Samson without his locks.

The ease with which the Pakistanis were bowling us out made it look like they were throwing down a golf ball. Our final score was a mere 109.  When Brett Lee was bowled out I thought he would have been licking his lips at the change to bowl on the wicket, but he didn’t make an impact. To cut a long story short, in comparison it seemed like we were bowling a soft ball to the Pakistanis as they smashed the ball around every which way.

Australia won the one-day series, but were extremely outplayed in this Twenty20. This was a good result for the crowd. The Australian fans were severely out-numbered. There was one section entirely made-up of Australian shirts, but they were all Indians. On closer inspection, the shirts were branded with Multiplex, so it seemed like they were only there as part of a work junket.

Some of the Pakistani fans in front of us pose with us

Some of the more vocal Pakistani fans pose with us

The row in front of us, the rest of the row behind us, and the row behind us were all very vocal Pakistani fans. My mate translated their chants which were entertaining. The most used was “PAKISTAN JITEGA” – ‘Pakistan will win’.  Even before the end of the match, I was cheering it also. Another was asking where are the Australian fans, but they didn’t hear Myles and my screams.

Time to leave

The Sheikh’s helicopter had gone by the time we began piling out of the stadium. It was clear he knew something we didn’t, the means to leave the stadium was hopeless.

The shuttle bus service to get us back to the cars got terribly stuck in traffic, so we ended up walking the distance back to the car. Then once we got onto the road we didn’t move for around 20 minutes. We then noticed that our hold-up was just go get us to the u-turn point to join the other road that hadn’t moved for 20 minutes either. Eventually we ditched this, and followed the brake lights of some other cars that seemed to be moving. This was a winner.

It was a great evening. We eventually got home just before 2am.

Myles and I in plenty of Australia gear - in the minority

Myles and I - in the minority - wearing plenty of Australia gear

Our first visit to Al Ain

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Last weekend we had half a plan to visit Abu Dhabi.  After seeing my photos, Elle is very keen to see the Grand Mosque for herself.  However I only remembered in the morning when it was too late that there were specific opening times.  We would miss the tour by the time we would get there, so we needed another plan.

A colleague mentioned Al Ain is also worth a visit, so I started Googleing to see what was available.  Once again I come across the limitations of the UAE’s web presence.  Compared to what I’m used to in Australia and elsewhere, there is very little online information available here about pretty fundamental things people would want to find. And the information that does get returned is invariably unreliable.  I was reminded of the night I tried researching how to catch a bus from Dubai to Abu Dhabi.  This would ordinarily be a very straight-forward web search which would give me the official site for Road Transport Authority, where I could download the timetable and station maps.  But no, I got everything except this kind of info.  It didn’t matter what combination of terms, or even synonyms or different spellings I used, nothing much came up.  The best I got was one bus watcher’s personal site where he had detailed all of the bus models he has seen in the UAE, including where and when they were manufactured.  Riveting, but totally unhelpful for me.

To find out what was best to see in Al Ain I found the personal travel blogs to be almost the best source of information. The Al Ain Palace Museum was a winner, the other possibles at the time seemed to be the National Museum, and the Al Ain Zoo. I confirmed the GPS had these locations listed otherwise I’d have to allow an extra three or four days travel time before setting off.

While the GPS’s satellites were still kicking-in I made my way over the creek which turned out to be a mistake. There is so much road work going on, the directions we were supplied were terrible. We kept getting informed to enter roundabouts that no longer exist. Then we were swept away into one way streets in the wrong direction. All of these tacks left and right with plenty of U-turns were happening every 100 metres or so.  So it was quite surprising when the advice changed to “Drive straight for 100 kilometres”. The drive wasn’t too exciting with sand, sand, and more sand – only interrupted now and again by the odd camel or a dozen. It was nice nonetheless.

We made one stop on the way at a service  station to eat, drink and stretch our legs.  As I got Myles out we heard a loud, high-pitched “Hello, how are you?” from some distance away. A guy in a mechanic’s uniform was sitting 30 metres away in the shade waving. It was clear he was talking to Myles, so I said he could go over if he liked. Myles went and offered the guy some of his chips, and the two of them seemed to be getting on well.  I went over to see if everything was fine and the guy asked how I was, and asked where we were from.  I asked where he was from and he said Iran, then I asked him if it was this hot in Iran and he started to look confused. I broke it down into smaller words, and started the non-verbal hand movements, but then he came clean. He said, “I only know ‘Hello’, ‘Goodbye’,  ‘how are you?’, ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘where are you from?’, ‘change tyre’, ‘air in tyre’.”  It all became clear, I was trying to go beyond his English abilities.  We continued to have a basic conversation with him by going through his reportoire a few more times before it was time to return to the car. Definitely an interesting pit-stop.

Although we didn’t have a big look-around, it was obvious Al Ain is a very different place to Dubai, and even the rest of Abu Dhabi.  I’d describe it as a  sleepy town compared to the rest of UAE I’ve seen. Sleepy such as Toowoomba compared to Brisbane, which sort of fits as Al Ain happens to also be known as the Garden City of the Emirates.  Having said that, it still had more than its fair share of cars on the road. It seemed there are many less Westerners around Al Ain. A lot more shops had signs in Arabic only.  Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are each around 120 kms from each other forming a triangle.  So you probably wouldn’t want to see them all in one day, although you could.

It was pretty close to lunch time, and Lewis had been upset for some time – he’s still getting over his flu – so we sought out the first familiar takeaway logo we could find and grabbed a bite to eat. It turned out to be KFC, which is quite nice when you haven’t eaten it in years.

First stop after this was the Al Ain Palace Museum. This is where one of Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s wives, Sheikha Fatuma lived. It was nice to see for its wondrous lack of extravagance. I was expecting gold bathroom fittings, massive chandeliers, and plenty of marble throughout. But the whole compound was beautifully simple. There were generous rooms for many guests, yet the Sheikh’s actual bedroom was quite modest to say the least.  The kitchen was probably three times larger.

From there we went off to the Al Ain Zoo. I must say I was a little concerned agreeing to go to this, given some of the feedback I’ve heard about Dubai Zoo.  The Al Ain Zoo has no issues in that respect. The temperature was just over 40 degrees so we were struggling. It was interesting when we were at the meercats. We were contemplating how they keep any of the animals cool, when suddenly a powerful mist of water began spraying from the ceilings above us. It was great for Myles and Lewis particularly. I looked to see if the meercats were enjoying the cool down, but they had all vanished amongst the mist – if only there were gorillas in there.

Actually the zoo could have had gorillas, we were forced to cut our tour short at around the half way mark. It was either that, or die from heat (and it’s not even Summer).

At the equivalent of $12 AUS for all four of us I figure there’s no issue going back. To visit the late Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo you’d have to add a zero to the price we paid in Al Ain, and then some. Interestingly some of the enclosures were quite similar to the setup in Australia.

The zoo also had a train operating, which we promised Myles we would ride next time.

We’ve also added the following things to the agenda for when we’re in the neighbourhood again:

  • Jebel Hafeet (the striking mountain range you spot as you approach the zoo)
  • the Oases
  • an Al Ain Football Club game (according to Wikipedia they’re UAE’s most successful team and one of the best in Asia – I wonder if someone like “Al_Ain_Fan_1984” came up with that)

Ski Dubai – take two

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We had the opportunity to go to Ski Dubai again last night. Following our last effort in the Snow Park, Myles and I made a pact to both learn to ski.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) we could not go in the same ski school.  My session was at 5pm, which gave me an hour’s headstart to get it before he made me look really slow.

The class I joined was very small which is always best. The instructor had maybe a German accent. It sort of matched her personality. She didn’t laugh at our gags, but her descriptions were entertaining.

We started out extremely slowly.  At first we learnt to duck walk, then turn when we walked. Soon enough we were struggling like crabs up the slight hill they use for babies who wish to learn to ski. I should mention that one of the guys had already fallen over by this stage, so a great deal of pressure was taken off me.

On the first downhill I thought I was almost professional-like, but maybe with a bit of a wobble. My instructor on the other hand saw a hell of a lot more going on with my body than I could have ever imagined. My upper half was dancing all over, my knees were like chickens, and I was looking all over the roof instead of straight forward.

After a few more snow-ploughs I thought I was almost perfecting it, yet the instructor kept raising her standards and always supplying direct feedback.

Just when I thought it was time to hit the black slope, our time was up and we went back in.  The timing was perfect, as I reached the meeting point, Myles was there all suited up for his lesson.  He looked so cute! We exchanged hugs and I wished him well – despite my worries that he’d very quickly surpass my efforts.

I met up with a friend in a coffee shop where we had the perfect view of the slopes where I could see the four year olds learning on the same slopes I bravely conquered. I could also see Elle and the others zooming down confidently.

It was hilarious seeing Myles doing the same tasks that I did. There was equal measures of terror and pride when I saw him zoom down the slope without a hint of snow plough (required to maintain speed). I was assured that there would have been an instructor at the bottom of the run to catch him.

All in all it was a great introduction to skiing for both of us.  Myles’s boots were in fact too big, so the instructor suggested he do the Discovery session once more.  But not me, my Skiing Achievement Passport has six ticks, including

  • “I can put my skis on and take them off”
  • “I can walk and slide with my skis on the flat”
  • “I can walk up hill”

Can’t wait til we go back again.

For the record, ours is on the left with the spare wheel on the back.

For the record, ours is on the left with the spare wheel on the back.

It was funny when we returned to our car. We’ve joked several times about the difficulty of finding our car in carparks, cause Silver Toyota Prado VXs are just so popular.  Well, on this occasion, our Prado happened to be one of three, side by side.

What a weekend

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My family and I have had another hectic weekend.

Tecom

On Thursday – the equivalent of Australia’s Friday – we managed to get a viewing of our permanent accommodation at Al Barsha. Getting into there is not the finest introduction at the moment as due to the rain the ground’s mostly muddy, and there are still plenty of ad hoc signs to get you through the many construction sites in the area.  But the actual building wasn’t too bad.

As there is still a little bit of construction there was definitely no kids allowed, so Elle and I viewed the apartments in turns. I went first.  I firstly had to work out the major things such as which blocks were the ones available and what not.  There were no authorised staff around to start the lifts for me, so I was only able to climb the stairs, which meant I stopped as soon as I could work out how many flights til you got a half-decent view – which incidentally was floor 10.  After my turn, Elle just happened to bump into the facilities manager who took her to the roof so she could view the pool & BBQ area.  Despite some of my colleague’s concerns, the area was apparently not too bad.  There’s been a bit of talk at the office that the area is extremely unsafe as there’s only a 1 metre glass wall stopping you from falling the 26 floors to the ground.  But apparently C block which Elle viewed was a fair bit higher than this, and can be managed.

There’s also quite a bit of talk around the traps whether now is the right time to use company accommodation or not.  The financial crisis has dropped the values and rents of a lot of the real estate.  Allegedly villas are now at prices less than most of our accommodation allowances, so we could conceivably ditch the apartment, lease our own villa, and still get extra money in our pocket.  But you’d be at the mercy of local landlords, and have to manage all the utility costs yourself.  And who knows where prices are going next. Most papers have quite a few competing predictions.

Ski Dubai

I dropped Elle and the boys back at home, then went back to work for a few hours before picking them up again and heading off to Ski Dubai – within the Mall of Emirates.  There’s something not right with the order of things, when my son sees snow for the first time in a desert. All in all though, it was a fantastic first introduction.  We took my boss’s son who is a very competent skier. Elle had to provide some level of adult supervision as she was the only one left who could ski. I say “some level” of supervision, as Alex was zooming down the slopes like a rocket, while my wife had to initially spend some time back on the learner’s slope.

One this occasion Myles and I just visited the Snow Park, which was no problem at all.  The place was great. All the kids there were so adorable with their snow suits, boots, and helmets.  I thought some of the activities would be a bit advanced for him, but Myles enjoyed the tobaggan and donut rides immensely.  I thought they were pretty cool also, but for our next visit the two of us made a pact to learn to ski.  I should add that our baby went shopping with my boss during this time.  Apparently whenever people were watching she was boasting that Lewis was her kid. 🙂

Mall of Emirates shopping

The following day my wife was a little worse for wear from skiing for the first time in many years. We disregarded this though and hit the Mall of Emirates again, but this time only the shopping mall. My goodness!  I viewed it very quickly last November after I finished my job interviews, but I really had no idea of its actual size. The place has a bit of absolutely everything. We bought plenty of things off the shopping list, but as we’re still “setting up” it’s still outside of full scrutiny.

When we returned to our car, there was another example of Dubai’s shoddy driving.  On either side of us there were massive 4WDs over their line wedging us in.  With great difficulty I put the boys into the back, but then had to get into the passenger’s side to get out.

The Gold Souq (Market)

And today to complete the weekend a Prado load of us visited the Gold Souq. We were warned to get a ride there as there are limited parks, and they weren’t kidding. The traffic was horrendous, and there were absolutely no street parks. In the end we were lucky to get a space in the paid car park. From the street it looked like it was already oversupplied, but they managed to squeeze us in on the proviso we left our keys so they could reconfigure the place each time someone needed to leave.

The markets were nice. The constant line of people asking us to go off and look at their copied watches and handbags was no so nice after the 30-40th  suggestion.  The amount of gold on display was almost on the obscene level.  Some of the gold chains would floor Mr T. I should mention only I thought they were obscene.  My wife and boss both thought they were perfectly appropriate.  Go figure.

According to a map I saw, the gold souq was very close to the perfume, spice, and fish souqs also. But that was incorrect.  They had spice and perfumes only.  My wife may have been relieved by this, as I promised to buy equal value of fish to gold.  Actually I think the threat worked a treat, we didn’t buy any jewelry at all.  Although a bit of negotiating with shops occured, and a few business cards were collected.

We did pretty much a full round, and bought only specials which I was happy with.  We now have an authentic beautiful table runner, and a few other useful items. And contrary to a lot of the advice I received before going, we’ll certainly be back. Next time though, we’ll get a driver to drop us there.  Well, actually the next trip is (thankfully) purely for the girls,  so I mean the time after that.

Generosity and rain

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Last night I went to the electrical shop just down the road to see if I could get a certain connection.  I failed, but the trip was certainly worth it.  The centre I went to was the more expensive one which has  a lot of fancy clothes shops especially, but I had heard previously there was a Spinney’s there also – a supermarket which is popular, although overpriced compared its competitors.  I had never seen the supermarket in my travels, but on this particular trip I saw one of their shopping trolley so I figure I’d walk a bit further to see if I could find it.  As soon as I got to the end of the street, and looked around the corner there it was in huge green fluoro lights.  I can’t believe I was so close, yet not ever seeing it before.  I had very nearly walked there quite a few times previously.

The good thing about Spinney’s and a few other supermarkets is that they have a noticeboard, which is handy as I’m currently looking to buy a car.

There were also plenty of other shops that would have been useful a while ago if I had known it was all there.  There was a kids entertainment place which we may utilise one of these days.

When I returned home I was a bit chuffed at my discovery, but that was nothing.  Our night time doorman had a bit of a grin on his face, and as I approached I noticed he was fidgeting through a stack of envelopes. With a big beaming smile he said this is for you Ryan.  It was an invitation to his wedding in India.  I think it was a bit tongue in cheek, but he proceeded to tell me about all the details, and how good India is to go to for quite a period of time I think he would like us to attend.  Unfortunately it’s too short notice, and probably not the ideal time to visit.  He also told me that he doesn’t give them to anyone, just his friends which was a nice touch. The pile of envelopes was quite high, so I figure he’s friends with just about everyone in our apartment.

This hasn’t been our first invitation to India, or Sri Lanka. Quite a few of the guys I work with have been very welcoming, and have offered to show me around their respective countries, and that they would love to show me around.  I’ll definitely take them up on the offer one day. One guy also made a deal with me to show me around if I take him to a cricket test match in Australia one day – which I obviously agreed to.

Thought I’d also mention, tonight it has been raining quite a lot. It’s rained so much that the road has flooded (probably 10 cm of “flooding”).  It’s been interesting to see the drivers reacting to water on the road, like it’s a deadly creek crossing. Actually the flooded road doesn’t necessarily indicate lots of rain as generally there hasn’t been much thinking or design for the effects of rain, as it’s not traditionally an issue.  With the effects of climate change, perhaps they should begin thinking. I mean, a couple of days before I arrived here it actually snowed in Ras Al Khaimer – a neighbouring Emirate.

Hatta Pools

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We’ve had quite a hectic weekend.

Thursday night after work I went out with colleagues to Irish Village.  In the morning Elle, Myles and I had already decided to have dinner somewhere so I organised a driver to bring them along also.  The Village is very child-friendly (until 8:30pm – at which time they must leave).  They do great steaks! The beer is nice also, but at the equivalent of $15 AUD a pint they’re not as appealing as they could be.
A family from our apartment came along with their son who Myles got on famously with.  The two were playing the entire night.

They were within eyesight, but some distance from us.  The parents took it in turns to walk by and make sure everything was going ok. Elle mentioned when she had finished her round, that a group of bikies had arrived next to the rocks where the two boys had made their fort.  She had a bit of a giggle, as the boys mistakenly thought the bikies were police.  I got up to have my turn when I saw the boys weren’t on their rock. They had actually moved into the circle of the bikies, and were getting photos taken with them.  It turns out Dubai’s currently hosting their 4th annual Bike Week, and the gang that had become quite fond of the boys were the Ukrainian chapter of Hells Angels.  All the bikie stereotypes were thrown out the window when you saw the bikies getting photos taken proudly posing with the kids.  Must Google for their site to see if our kids got published.  They boys also got some stickers which were happily accepted.

The next day we went for a drive to Hatta to have a picnic.  With a few late cancellations, there were only seven of us so we all traveled in the one car. This turned out to be great because the place proved difficult to find with plenty of driving around in circles.  And also, at the end of the day we were all extremely tired so it was good to divide the driving.

The trip was mostly on one of the major roads leaving Dubai. It’s always interesting, and scary at the same time, to see the appalling driving on display on any straight road with more than two lanes. Without fail you’re bound to see a Porsche Cayenne travelling over 150km/hr within a metre or two of the car in front of it. Also scary were the group of guys riding their four wheel motorbikes on the highway near a popular dune-bashing site. They were standing up on their bikes, with no helmets or any protective gear.

Getting there was an interesting experience of its own.  We’re not entirely sure, but we think we passed over a national border with Oman.  There were a couple of road blocks with an army presence equipped with automatic weapons.

Another interesting site to see were one town’s warning of the effects of driving while talking on your mobile phone.  Around their round-about were four former cars that were absolutely smashed to smithereens in car crashes. Each had a sombre warning below of the dangers of talking on phones while driving. It was a coincidence that earlier in the day we saw a policeman driving his 4WD while talking on his mobile.  I guess no one was going to arrest him.

We picked up a biryani in a small village in Hatta to take with us to the Hatta Pools. However the pools were almost impossible to find – particularly after we took directions from the locals. But the wait was definitely worth it.  The place was quite a contradiction. We drove through a couple hundred kilometres of dry Dubai (and maybe Omanian) desert. Yet Hatta happened to have a series of beautiful rock pools tucked away amongst the sand. It was almost mirage-like to spot the many rock chasms all filled with extremely cool water. We found one in the shade which we sat at with our feet dangling in. It was amazing. We were all in agreement that it could only be improved with a nice chardonnay.  While we were kicking back enjoying the moment, groups of locals kept arriving in their swimming gear. It seemed a popular place for them was near where we were slothing. The noise from them jumping in was hysterical. In fact, at times it sounded like they were having a little too much fun – if you catch my drift.

The temperature in Dubai is starting to climb so we didn’t stay at the pools for too long – much to the boy’s disappointment. The road blocks were still there, but this time rather than spotting that we were foreigners and letting us go, the soldier stopped us and asked for all our paperwork. Christine and I both had driver’s license and UAE gate card, but Elle’s passport is still with Immigration. The guy didn’t care too much about any of these though, but took an interest in Christine’s houseboy, Mani.  Luckily Mani takes a photocopy of his passport, visa, and work permit wherever he goes. The soldier seemed OK with this, so we kept going. We had a big laugh as we left and Christine mentioned that Mani must have had the face of a terrorist. Mani giggled, but said it was because he was black.

Happy Holi

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For most of today I walked around work with red paint on my face. This was to mark the 12th day of Spring – a Hindi tradition called Holi (or Festival of Colours). As Spring brings out the most beautiful colours, Holi is about launching these colours in the form of natural paints, and some times coloured dyes. I felt a little odd, but my little dab of red was nothing compared to others. I saw a couple of guys in the office with white business shirts covered in so much red they looked like they’ve escaped some form of massacre. A nearby colleague arrived after the vandalism had occurred, but the ladies were able to get enough paint from my cheek to do him also. I was disappointed they didn’t go with my suggestion to apply it to his shirt’s collar in the shape of a women’s lips. Shortly after I was done I asked if I could wash it off, but I was warned not to as it would just mean I’d get done even more a second time.

It’s been good to experience a week with my family. It’s been really interesting to hear the things that they find amusing which I have become a bit blase about. An example is the constant use of car horns in traffic. My wife has found this a constant source of humour. In fact she has mentioned I don’t use ours nearly enough. It was kind of exciting when I drove and experienced getting horned for the first time. I believe it was because I was more than 30 centimetres from the car in front.

While I’ve become accustomed to the constant horning, yesterday afternoon I couldn’t help but chuckle. At a a cross-roads from work, there was an impasse of mass proportions with no one going anywhere. There must have been at least seven or eight cars involved. Around half were trying to get out and half were trying to get in, and each of these were going in different directions. The situation was totally hopeless. From my position away from the mellee I couldn’t work out how it got so bad, and how they could alleviate themselves from it. It seemed to me that they’d need a team of a dozen Mensas doing calculations on butcher’s paper to sort out this mess. But it seemed each of the cars thought the best solution was to sit there and use their horns, along with a few hand gestures. It may have taken me three of four minutes to walk past the scene, and the entire time there was a full chorus of car horns.

After work today I visited the post office for the first time. It’s quite a bit different from Australian post offices which go out of their way to sell everything and anything. I’m not sure if it was just this post office, but inside there was virtually nothing except a desk and the guy that worked there. They didn’t have envelopes for sale. A bit surprised by this I just had to ask if they had stamps. But the process was OK.

Tonight we went out for dinner. I carelessly chose a restaurant within a four year old’s eyesight from a kids mini-fair with loads of rides. The dinner was a pizza place, but Elle and I couldn’t go past their pastas. The service there was exceptional! They were all in love with Lewis, and looked after us very well. Our waiter guessed we were from Australia from our accent, and said he likes Australia and is a big fan of Tania Zaetta. I’ve never heard of that association to Australia before.

At the fair they had all the rides we’re used to. Our budget for Myles allowed him to go on five. Well four – I joined him on the roller coaster. While they were all the same as you’d expect at home, there were a few distinctive Dubai touches. For example, there were babies on the roller coaster with no protection. And I’m not used to being getting thrown around on a roller coaster while one of Muslim workers was on the ground below praying on his blanket. I hope he was praying for religious purposes, and it wasn’t due to his concerns about the ride.

A big hit with Myles was the four wheeler motobike. I wasn’t sure how long it’d take him to get used to it. He’s good at driving cars, but this thing had a thumb throttle. I shouldn’t have worried, he was a natural. Within a couple of laps he was tearing it up with sand flying everywhere. There were a couple of close shaves – particularly when he got so confident he started waving to us – but he managed to turn just in time to avoid the tyre walls.

After some initial naughty behaviour when he was obviously feeling the effects of the flight, Myles has been amazingly good. As a reward, tomorrow we’re going to Children’s City. We’ll report back later.

Safa Park markets

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We’re in the market for a few things for Lewis rather than wait to get our stuff couriered over. So we spent yesterday at Safa Park with friends who told us about the markets they have there once a month.

I’ve been pricing most items at Mother Care – a UK based chain. The prices though for basic things like a bouncer, high chair and stroller weren’t that great. So instead we bought all these items and a few things for Myles at a fraction of the cost. But scoop sale of the day went to Paul who was with us. He picked up a full set of great condition Titleist golf clubs, bag, and brand new buggy never used for less than $150 AUD. It was such a good deal I don’t feel bad at all for stirring him at the car by asking if he knew they were left-handed. He paused with a worried look on his face before laughing out with a “You bastard!”. His family are clearly pros at this market business. His 9 year old son asked about a TV aerial or something. The shopkeeper said it was 5 AED (about $2 AUD), to which he responded, “Yeah, good luck with that” before walking off.

While the specials are great for shoppers, it was suggested it could be a sign of the financial crisis. The size of the market has grown considerably in a month, the same time that the number of expats leaving the country has gone up. Having said that, I think we’ll be back next month. I’m sure there’s something else we need ..

The afternoon finished with us video conferencing into my Nanna’s 90th Birthday party in Shorncliffe, Queensland. Although the internet connection between us was terrible, it was still great to see the whole family there to celebrate Little Chugger’s milestone. The crowd included my two cousins from the Northern Territory and their kids. We wanted to buy some party hats and blowers, but we just ran out of time. I’m still waiting for the piece of birthday cake they said they’d fax.