The Sand Sea

Morning in the desert is special.  It feels that everything is new again probably a bit like in the snow, for the wind overnight had erased all signs of civilisation from the sand dunes at the same time slightly altering their shape.  Or maybe that was just my imagination but certainly all the footsteps had gone.

The big dune

We had an action packed day planned starting with archery followed by some camel trekking and ending up with an Arabian banquet outside in a tent.

The archery was fun.  We met another young couple for the archery who were very interesting and reminded us of the amazingly complex, cosmopolitan world that we live in.  From Dubai, the husband, Noor, was an Egyptian who lived in Montreal whilst his wife, Emma, was a half-English, half Lebanese ex-lawyer now converted Muslim parachute instructor who was dressed in the full costume (including the black Abaya) but with sneakers on.  Really.

By the end we were aiming at that wood frame in the distance and getting our arrows half way up the dune behind!  We still couldn't hit the targets.

Noor's father had decided to send him to Canada to get his papers there as the situation in Egypt was so dodgy and with 5 years under his belt, that is not far away.  His sisters are there now too for the same reason.  He provided some interesting/worrying insight into the difficulties facing young middle eastern men such as him in the west; the profiling, the distrust, etc.  Noor conceded that he understood where that came from but being on the receiving end it was quite upsetting and dispiriting.  It made me think particularly in the recent aftermath of those horrific Paris shootings that less stable young men could easily turn to the dark side.

He was also quite an instructor seeing as our guide was as useless as a lump of lead and showed us how to set up, arm and shoot arrows using the bows provided.  We ended up by shooting arrows at the longest distance possible (some 50 yards probably) which showed just how difficult this archery thing really was.

Perfect style!  Now lets just aim it in the right direction...

I know, in 10,000 hours we'd achieve mastery.  So only another 9,999 to go!

**

As we had some time before our camel experience we decided to walk to the top of that big dune we overlooked from our room.  This would mean putting into action our newly discovered talent for climbing on sand.

The first thing we discovered was the endless possibility for getting sand in your shoes.

Viv would stop every 10-15 minutes or so and empty her shoes. I couldn't understand this as once empty, sand would get in her now empty shoes all over again meaning she would stop and repeat the process.

Being dry (it only rains once every couple of years or so) the sand is very fine and gets absolutely everywhere!

The second thing we discovered was that it was a long way up.

Long way back too -- that's the resort in the background and a wadi down to the right

We had seen people climb up the dunes but had not connected the dots about the figures we had seen      at the start and the specks we could barely see at the summit.  In books and on TV I can remember reading and hearing people talk about "false summits" when climbing.  From our room's balcony we couldn't see the detail too much but in person there were very many summits, and last bits, and just a few more steps and we're there before we reached somewhere near where it looked as though it could be finally the summit.

Not quite there yet...

And then it was.  And quite a view it was too.  We could see.... even more sand dunes in every direction extending out to the horizon.

Top of the world, well dune...

Coming down was a breeze though, thankfully.  45 minutes up, 10 minutes down.  Leaving plenty of time to spend by the pool before our camel adventure.

**

The camel party was bigger than the others we experienced.  Lots of German speakers too.  But when we found the camels parked in the desert, we discovered that of course they'd counted and there were precisely enough camels to go around.

The camel park in the middle of nowhere.  They must have known we were coming.

My camel was called Amman and unlike the others he didn't want to get up until the others were ready to head off.  They are social creatures and like to follow other camels which makes them easy to train.  The guides tied all the camels together and we set off tramping away whilst they provided running commentary.

Great sunset in the desert

Dromedaries with one hump, very loyal and hard working but stubborn, very long memory that can hold a grudge for years, able to walk for 30-40 days without water or food, you name it our guides told us all about them.  Certainly not vicious and apparently very good to eat with very mild milk (that bit is true), their fur was quite soft and they were also quite cuddly.

We finished up wishing we'd opted for the longer tour but it did mean we had plenty of time to think about the Arabian banquet that the resort had set out in the desert with all the traditional Arab mezzes and food. It was still cold so we opted for inside the tent next to a large emirati family.

As for the food, the mezzes were the usual hummus, tabbouleh, etc and the mains were the usual barbeque, koftes, lamb chops and beef steak.  Very nice too it was and it turned out that Noor and Emma (from archery) had also thought this a good idea and seated themselves next to us for some more fun conversation.  And of course food.  It turns out that this was Noor's birth week so Emma had put together a week of UAE desert resorts for him as he missed the desert being in Montreal where it was currently minus 20!

Quite understandable.  I will suggest something similar to Viv next month when it is my birthday.

Qasr Al Sarab

We or rather Viv had planned a desert adventure for us at a resort called Qasr Al Sarab bang in the middle of the Empty Quarter, the largest sand desert in the world.  Of ocurse we wouldn't be doing the full Lawrence of Arabia crossing the desert thing but we'd be playing at it.  And in the modern world purview the UAE was the playground where all such dreams are not only possible but actually come true.

The resort is 2 hours from Abu Dhabi on mainly multi-lane highway shrinking down to a 2-lane new road that spilled onto the resort.

Modern day oasis looking very much like a gas station

I tried to do some mental arithmetic on how long it would have taken had we been on camels which travel 2-3 mph and which can walk for 8-10 hours per day and came up with 10-12 days walking time in the pre-oil boom and infrastructure days.  The comfortable SUV with A/C, cold drinking water and a selection of Arabian sweetmeats to snack on was a much nicer alternative to the old days.  Progress is actually pretty good!

Dunes, dunes and more dunes

The resort is sited in Liwa Oasis, the province of the ruling tribe and was built there as a reminder of times past and a nice place to be (with all modern amenities of course) if you wanted to go back to your roots.

Qasr Al Sarab

Our room had a lovely terrace view out over the dunes and we could see people tramping out all the time to climb the very big dune just outside the immediate grounds, which was a vantage point for the setting sun.  Our room faced west so we'd have a great view of the sunset.

The Empty Quarter

We'd planned a bunch of excursions, the first being a night hike amongst the dunes.

First observation is that the desert can be really cold.

And windy.

And quiet.

And dark.

Except for the oil rigs burning off gas every 5-10 miles and for the telephone towers placed everywhere...  We could complain about the no escape from civilisation but the internet connections were lightning fast!

First stop was at a salt lake in the middle of nowhere.  Water in many places is less than 5 metres below the surface (that is in the valleys between the sometimes massive dunes) but with rain coming maybe twice a year and in fairly small drizzly doses apparently, it is pretty dry.  Certainly the sand was very fine and very, very dry.  So the old lakes that lay below the surface and which used to make up this part of the world millenia ago don't have much to work with.  However at various places (we visited half a dozen in the time we were there) the water is closer than usual to the surface and shows itself in salt flats with the very occasional and very small ponds which are insanely salty.  The guide the first night said the water was good for the skin but when I sloshed a bit on my face, all I could feel was grit, grit and more grit.

The salt pond

We also got to practice our walking up hill on sand dunes walk.

Viv said it was like a stairmaster machine whereby you tramped uphill on that ridiculous machine and got nowhere.  Climbing in some sandy parts was like that too.  You got precisely nowhere.  However when we saw our guide calmly strolling uphill like it was nothing we figured there was a right and wrong way of doing it and we were likely on the wrong side.  It helped that he was 50 kgs soaking wet of course but when you sort of imagine your foot as a big flat tray and think snow shoeing, it does get better.  A bit anyway.

I'm sure the views were great from the top of the dunes but as it was night we couldn't see.  And sadly with the wind whipping up the sand, other than for directly above we couldn't see too many stars either.  Had we been out and lost in the desert that night, we couldn't have navigated by the stars at all!  However we could have navigated by the dunes.

According to our guide the wind comes 80% of the time from north to south so the north side of any dune is quite sheer and difficult to climb but the south side has sand that sort of wobbles off into the distance on a gradual basis.  That side is much easier to walk on and climb so that is how the desert tribes would navigate when the star method failed.

Fun introduction made better by meeting our co-adventurers who were Germans from Berlin with whom we drank wine and told silly stories until the wee hours when we returned.

The Long View

In my opinion, planning and focus are crucial in achieving anything.  The saying 'Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail' is bang on the money.  After today's adventures it is clear that Abu Dhabi is a similar believer.

Where Dubai was building on steroids (without money as it turned out), Abu Dhabi is just building.  Plans are afoot for almost everything and with the kind of leverage they can muster, people from overseas are helping them make it happen (and being helped along the way).

Take health care for example.  Diabetes here is a huge problem.  Worst in the world in fact as the emiratis got turned on to fast food big time in the last 43 years.  Health care is paid for by the state for the patient and their families.  Anywhere in the world.  As it turns out, emiratis like going to the Cleveland General in the USA so to 'save money' (maybe) the Cleveland General has built a new hospital in Abu Dhabi.

So have many other international organisations: the Sorbonne, London University, Cranleigh School, Eastbourne College and soon the Louvre and the Guggenheim along with NYU.  Big money attracts big names. One new man made island near downtown is being built to accomodate 280,000 new residents!  Another called Saadiyat Island is going to be the new home of the Louvre and Guggenheim and the St. Regis Beach Resort and...  Google it to check out the plans.  The bus announcer in the big build up talked about all this in the present and past tenses which was curious as currently it is all just mounds of sand and construction equipment... and of course plans.

A planned condo community on another man made island for 280,000 people who aren't here yet

Saadiyat Island today

But the Guggenheim had set up already with a small exhibit called 'Seeing Through Light", much of it too highbrow for me but there were 2 wondrous exhibits that caught my attention, the first called "Pulse Corniche".  Using the world's strongest robotic searchlights and a computer linked to anyone participating, when a sensor is placed on someone's chest, those heart and other vital sign readings are transposed into a series of light patterns projected into the sky!  On the Corniche in downtown Abu Dhabi.  Opposite Anton's aprtment which overlooks it and the long lines of people having a go at it! I have been watching it for 3 days and had no idea!

The other exhibit was "Infinity Mirrored Room -- Filled with the Brilliance of Life" by Yayoi Kusama.  This was a room with mirrored ceiling and walls with a floor that was part water and part stage where you walked out to be surrounded by hundreds of LED lights that flickered and changed colour all around you.  I was lucky enough to be the only person interested so spent ages inside.  Wow!

Cool, eh?

You should see the plans for the building designs too.  You just wonder at what people think of!  It'll all be ready by 2017, the same year of the America's Cup coming to Bermuda... and I couldn't help thinking of how the two places stacked up in their near futures.  It would be nice if Bermuda struck oil I think.  That would help.

In Dubai, they don't like the Flintstones...

I'm not that patient a person and rely on instant judgement and my gut to tell me what to do in many cases.  This doesn't always work sadly so I have become adept at changing horses in mid-stream.  Or using my friend Arri's saying:

"I have my principles but if you don't like them I have others."

I wanted to write my first blog about Abu Dhabi relatively cold and then see how that opinion changed or not over the near 3 weeks Viv and I shall be here.

I blew it.

Today we went on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour to get a helicopter lens overview of Abu Dhabi and in the process learned quite a lot more about the place too.  Mostly good too.  So my view is now muddied by this new information and therefore cannot be a snap judgement.

Probably a good thing too.

Our first lunch with Anton's family was great.  This time of year the temperature is in the 70's and comfortable versus being in the mid-120's and nuclear at other times.  So we'd walked along the relatively new Corniche adjoining the immense white sand beach (7- mile beach!  Is that all you can do?) to cross the bridge separating the island of Abu Dhabi with another man made island (Abu Dhabi is all islands just off the mainland so water is everywhere and so are bridges) to a grill restaurant specialising in local style food.

That was great but I was also reintroduced to that great conundrum that I'd first come across in Dubai 5 years ago concerning the loo.

First of all the line to get in was down the stairs and around the corner.  I'd of course forgotten that there are no urinals outside of the western oriented hotels and restaurants because of the local attire.  Many men wear long robes called the 'dish-dash' so cannot easily, well, go about things.  So there are only stalls.  Just like the ladies in fact.  Inside the stalls in addition to the usual lay out is a spray gun that one can only assume cleans those parts otherwise unreachable.  And now here is the conundrum. Or in fact two which therefore makes it or should I say them, conundra.

1) why are all the stalls bone dry when there is a hose about that clearly has its uses?
2) how on earth is it possible to go about your business, use the hose and have no subsequent sign of clothes being either creased or wet?

For local culture has it that men have to wash pretty much everything before they pray which in itself is 5 times a day therefore that means a lot of washing.  And in the act of washing, you only have 2 hands which by my assessment given the needs, the clothes, the hose, etc is at least one hand too few.

Difficult questions to ask.

So the food was good, the sweets in particularly fabulous, the mint tea lovely and the local coffee mind altering in both its strength and sweetness.  Great start.

Next day came Ferrari World and the largest indoor theme park in the world (what great PR for Ferrari to have a theme park in the country of one of their best customers!).

Ferrari World... Really

"Right Uncle Mark, don't get scared".  "OK Tudor, now how fast does this gooooooooooooooooo...?"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhh..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH...."

"NO, AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH....."

"Is it over yet?"

We did everything on offer including the fastest roller-coaster in the world (I was glad I hadn't eaten a big breakfast, twice actually as I went again with Tudor, Anton's oldest son) and a competitive Ferrari race car simulator where I came a comprehensive last followed by dinner at Rojo's Roller Coaster Restaurant in the newly opened Yas Mall (the biggest mall in the world) -- yes, a restaurant where you ordered by iPad and had the food and drink delivered by roller coaster through a well designed albeit Heath Robinson style series of lines and pulleys that brought your order to your table side.  Still hot and only a little shaken up.

And today was the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus trip which was as usual terrific (I am a big supporter of this innovation).

The first sighting of the Grand Mosque from the bus

So if Abu Dhabi was a child and it came and kicked me on the shin, at this moment I'd probably smile and give it sixpence.  Make it a shilling.  What the heck.

... but Abu Dhabi Do

We're back on our travels again and this time we're visiting Viv's brother Anton and his family, Catherine, Tudor, Antonia, August and Sterling in order who live in Abu Dhabi.  They've lived in quite a few places since Anton married Catherine and have been in Abu Dhabi all of a year now.  They visited Bermuda in 2013 so Viv was keen to see how much the children had grown... and of course to see their parents too.

We'd visited Dubai in 2010 just after that Emirate had defaulted and been bailed out by oil rich Abu Dhabi so we were keen to visit particularly as the price of oil has fallen below $50 a week or so back threatening the viability of many OPEC nations.

I know you know where the UAE is, but just in case you need to be reminded

Getting here wasn't too bad -- an overnight flight to Gatwick, taxi along rain sodden motorways in England to Heathrow, a civilised R&R period in Etihad Airways' very comfortable lounge (including massage and complimentary everything) followed by a 8 hour flight to Abu Dhabi arriving at the god awful time of 1.30 am.  (Writing this 2 days later, I still haven't regularised my internal sleep clock yet).

OK I know I'm repeating myself but just in case you want to see what the Empty Quarter looks like from outer space.  It's that white/grey looking bit.  All of it.

Anton greeted us and the following day -- being a Friday and therefore the Islamic weekend's most holy day -- we caught up with everyone else too.  The two sets of twins had certainly grown since we last saw them and very well too, if I may say.

First action for us was lunch ... and at this point I will pause the narrative and go into a little local background.

Abu Dhabi is by far the largest of the United Arab Emirates, more than 87% of the combined land mass, and has virtually all the oil and therefore virtually all the money and therefore is the most important part of the UAE which in December turned 43 years old.  The nation came about because of the British pull out in 1968 as part of the de-colonising strategy that robbed myself and many others of my generation the chance of meaningful employment in the colonies.

The British had first arrived to boot out the dastardly Dutch and perfidious Portuguese who were trying to gain a footing in the region to protect the sea lanes to the east.  That was in 1766 but 60 years later they/we decided to make the region a 'protectorate' as opposed to a colony by assuming all non-local powers (i.e foreign policy) and setting up a garrison in the region.  This coincided with the arrival into power of the Al-Maktoum dynasty, clearly a symbiotic relationship born out of serendipity, who still rule Abu Dhabi and hence the UAE today.  Most emiratis lived in the interior at the time and there wasn't very many of them so opposition to this notion wasn't really on.  But it must have worked as the region prospered until the 1930's on agriculture, fishing and pearl diving until the Japanese discovered Makimoto pearls -- the synthetic ones.  That hurt and it wasn't until the then ruler granted oil rights to a British/French oil consortium that things turned around.

In 1958 oil was discovered and the good times started to roll, first picking up with the departure of the British, the establishment of the UAE and the 1973 oil crisis when the price of oil started to move up quite favourably for Abu Dhabi who have the 6th largest amount of proven oil reserves, a top 10 national oil company and as of today plus or minus $2 trillion in their sovereign wealth fund.

I wonder if the current ruler ever thinks to say thanks to the British for leaving them in such a sorry state.

On the way in from the airport, I'd questioned Anton in my usual way on things here and he'd said the Abu Dhabi folks were far lower key than their Dubai neighbours and with solid financial backing and what seems like a long term plan in place were executing pretty nicely.  There's still very few real emiratis and 90%+ guest workers, so the old saying of winning first prize in life's lottery could well have moved on from the 19th century Brits to the emiratis.

Rats!

Regarding religion, the emiratis whilst tolerant are themselves serious about their religion.  Maybe not as strict as Saudi Arabia next door but still stict.  No booze other than in hotels and certain very few restaurants.  No outward signs of affection.  Very conservative in fact.  According to Lonely Planet, the UAE is the most likely place for British people to be arrested in the world!  That serious.

Emiratis are Sunni muslims so are very tight with Saudi and in particular the Egyptians.  Clearly with such a stack of cash in reserve, the temporary dipping in  the oil price whilst annoying won't stop the cranes building the new Abu Dhabi that much.  But with the turmoil in the region apparently the big concern is Egypt.  If Egypt goes fundamentalist, so goes the middle east is the big worry.  So Saudi and the UAE will spend all they need to make that not happen.

They have an ally in this in the USA who themselves are concerned about fundamentalism in the region so hopefully things will not take that path.

And it was only a 30 minute ride to Anton's aprtment overlooking the Corniche in downtown Abu Dhabi.  Phew, I'm glad it wasn't longer.  Who knows what I would have learned?

Our first view in the morning.

It's minus 6, so its Ramen Noodle time

There are times when you need to eat a bowl full of soup noodles, preferably spicy noodles with lots of nice yummy things in it.  That was yesterday when the day dawned clear and bright in Toronto which meant that at this time of year it was 28 degrees F or minus 6 C.

The view from our window

Having just arrived from Cayman when it was a pleasant PLUS 32 C, this came as quite a shock so the call went out for the nearest Ramen Noodle shop.

Ramen Raijin is just east of Yonge on Gerrard Street, nice and downtown and fortunately less than 5 minutes from our apartment.

The soup is pork based but spicy with pork belly, pork cheeks, seaweed and the fungus mushrooms that have a Japanese name I can never remember but which are delicious.

Combine and eat.  Now that warms the cockles alright!

Conch City

There are some things that are touristy which are well worth skipping, and then there are things that are touristy that are just brilliant.  Stingray City in the Cayman Islands is one of the latter.

I've been traveling to Cayman since 2003, before Hurricane Ivan which devastated the island, but have never made it to Stingray City before a few days ago.  Some times it was the weather, others were due to something else.  I'd just never made it however Nick said he had a spare ticket and asked if I'd like to join him and Elaine (and a bunch of others too) for a morning's outing.

The weather wasn't great, very wavy with the wind coming in from the North East, just the wrong position for the visit… but that wouldn't stop the trip from going ahead.  It just wouldn't be as calm as the photos.  In fact it would be downright rough.

The trip with Captain Marvin's would visit a site near North East Breaker to dive for conch, the second site would be the Sea Gardens… a bunch of reefs nearby… and the final trip would be on the sandbar that is Stingray City itself.

Now I like conch.  Its a shellfish, probably a large mollusk like a whelk as opposed to a crustacean like a shrimp or lobster, and is just lovely in a variety of ways.  My favorite being conch salad, a raw presentation including chillies and lime juice that I was introduced to back in the 1980's back in the Bahamas.  In Cayman they call it either ceviche or marinated conch but tastes just as good.

The dive site was no more than 15 feet deep and a pure sandy bottom.  I snorkeled for a bit but couldn't see a single conch -- they are as big as a rugby ball and pink, so really should stand out.  However when I hopped back on the boat I saw that it was just I that was incompetent as there was simply loads of conch shells onboard.  The boat crew said we needed only 4 or 5 but there was more than double that amount.

The conch harvest

Fortunately for the conch, or at least some of them, only the 5-year olds and older are fair game.  Others get thrown back.  The way you tell is that the edge of the shell (the 'fan') has to be big and extending out beyond the something or other which looks like a big nobble on the shell (I can't describe it any other way).  The crew could tell and only worked away on the big 'uns with a claw hammer and sharp knife.

The claw hammer technique.  The crew scrub the empty shells and sell them to tourist stores.  They really are a beautiful pink color when scrubbed and cleaned off with bleach.

You bash the shell gently with the back bit of the claw hammer, enough to make a gouge that enables you to stick a sharp knife inside to cut the muscle holding the conch to the shell, and then you pull the poor creature out.

Big, eh?  Lots of guts, goo and slime before you get to the good stuff. There's a long clear string like membrane that looks like fishing twine which the boat crew said was great for male 'strength'.  He offered it around but it was declined by we wimp tourists.

They are bigger than you think and after all the trimming of the guts, goo and slime, there is a white piece of conch about the size of a chicken breast.  It is this that goes to make the conch salad.  Yummy!

Stingray City itself is no bigger than a small sandbar and on the day we went it was chocker block with 4 or 5 boats crammed full of tourists all of whom were feeding the rays with squid, cuddling them and in some cases kissing them.

A calmer and quieter day by the look of it.

The rays were big, probably 6 to 8 feet wingspan so pretty sizable.  If you had a denizens of the deep phobia, you'd have the screaming abdabs.  Fortunately I didn't.  Their skin at the top is rather leathery but underneath they are soft and yielding.  Really weird feel actually particularly when the boat crew picked one up and draped it over your back and head!

I'd love to go back when its less crowded and calm.  This was brilliant!