The adventures of DaddyBird and Kangayayaroo as they move from the United Arab Emirates to Shanghai, China, and venture to explore the Eastern hemisphere from there.
For those of you who read our blog to live vicariously, you should add www.fortylove.tv to your vicarious viewing habits. Our friend Adrianna and her friend May post videos of the strange and interesting things they are encountering in their travels. Adrianna is about to embark on a trip around the Middle East – Yemen, Iran, Syria, etc. (I’m not sure of all the destinations.) I am certain that she will have a lot to share.
I would also like to plug one of Paul’s Shufflegazine blog entries – More Connected Than Ever. This is SO true for us. We have met some of the most amazing people here in Dubai solely because Paul has connected with them online. We would not have found these friends by just wandering around a city of 1.5 million or relying on my work environment.
We drove all the way to Fujairah yesterday in hopes of watching the traditional bull butting. We did find the “arena” and there were other hopefuls there waiting to see a contest or two, but none materialized. Someone said that someone important had died that morning which would mean that the contests were canceled due to mourning. Nothing in the Gulf News this morning, so it wasn’t a government official. Notice how this guy drove up onto the berm so he could watch from the comfort of his vehicle. Below, more of the hopefuls waiting for some action.
Anyway, we had a blast on the drive, the dinner, and the drive home. We had the company of two new friends and lots of interesting sites and experiences. I will post each separately.
Oops, you are probably saying “What IS bull butting?” It is a contest between trained bulls who butt heads and the winner is the one who pushes the other out of the “ring.” It is a mostly bloodless sport. No bull is killed. No matadors. Think of it as bulls wrestling.
We intend to go back, so if and when we do, we’ll have video so you can experience it vicariously for yourself.
We’ve been attempting to video the driving experience for you. However, we’ve determined that we must have a magic camera, because traffic is uncharacteristically easy when I have the camera on. It is when I don’t have the camera on that the most amazing things happen. So, these are three fairly mild (and maybe downright boring) versions of our drive to work.
Pulling out of the garage and the first three-four blocks are the most challenging. Not only does Daddybird have very limited visibility of oncoming traffic (due to SUVs parked along the street, but if we don’t time it just right, there are wandering crowds of construction workers due to the shift change that happens right about 7:30 am. One morning Daddybird nearly ran over a woman who was on our left and she thought it would be a good idea to walk in front of a car that whose driver was looking to the right for oncoming traffic. So, now my job is to be on pedestrian watch. It is amazing how little responsibility for their own safety pedestrians take.
Things to watch for in these videos: Pedestrians walking in the street when there is a perfectly good sidewalk on the other side of those parked cars. Cars double parked or stopping to let someone out, blocking traffic. The waltz that is the intersection where three streams of traffic come together. In one video the oncoming car flashes his lights to let us know we can go. Uncharacteristically polite! There are also bicyclists to avoid.
This third video is fairly boring until about half way through when a truck pulls in front of us without much warning and directly after that a car blocks traffic trying to change lanes. The kicker is that he doesn’t just want to move over one lane, but he wants all the way over in order to make a left turn.
The rules of the road here include:
1. Don’t move over just one lane. Move from the far right to the far left or visa versa. Cross as many lanes as possible in as little distance as possible.
2. Don’t get into the back of the line when you can move up to the front and force others to let you in.
3. If you want to change lanes, do not slow down and pull in behind the car in that lane. Speed up and pull in front of them.
4. Brakes are a strange and unnecessary feature on your vehicle.
5. After clearing a speed bump you should accelerate at top speed until you hit the next one, especially in parking lots.
A brief explanation for those of you reading this blog who live in or around the U.A.E. — This blog isn’t meant for you. The purpose of this blog is for us to keep in touch with our family and friends back home who are unlikely to ever set foot in the U.A.E. That is why there are so many pictures and why we explain things in detail as if we are talking to people who don’t experience these things on a daily basis.
You will find that there is a definite positive tone to our blog because we really DO love it here. We came here by choice and have not regretted it for a minute. So, yes, six months was something important to us and we thought it might be important to the people we left behind who have been missing us for six months.
If you don’t like Dubai, you won’t like our blog either.
We’ve been listening to constant jack hammering for a few days now. This is not just your average jack hammering. So, today we looked over the balcony to see what we could see. There are two industrial sized jack hammers, one of which is directly below our apartment. No wonder they are SO loud.
We finally got out to Global Village to see what it was all about. It is part carnival and part international souk. There are pavilions for several countries. We went through about half of them – India, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Europe (Turkey), Egypt, Philippines, and Palestine. We hope to go back to see the other pavilions before it closes.
We bought a jar of honey in the Yemen pavilion. The man asked Paul if he is Muslim. We said “no, only bearded.” Paul may need to get a t-shirt with that on it.
Here is a short video of the hand operated merry-go-round in the India pavilion. I don’t know what the charge was (probably only a dirham or two), but these kids actually got two rides.
We bought these beautiful, handmade Tunisian serving dishes. The flower shaped one is a dip set with a center bowl and six bowls surrounding that all on a plate – eight pieces.
The seller spoke very good English (spoke English well — apparently I don’t) and we had a good chat with him. He asked where we were from. He had been to California once for an eight day fair and sold all his wares in the first four days. Now, of course, he can’t get a visa to go to the States to sell his merchandise.
CONTEST: Guess what we paid for this set of dishes. I’ll even make it multiple choice.
A. $105.00 B. $78.00 C. $254.00 D. $45.00 (Bonus question: What would they sell for in the States?)
Okay, it’s time for another installment in Amusing Toys. I had a very hard time choosing from the amazingly odd selection downstairs. Here is this month’s winner – Happy Mouse. It is slightly more expensive than the Desert Warrior Camel and did not come with batteries!!! Unfortunately, using my laptop video camera means not being able to show you this toy in full operation. It is best used on a floor where it has lots of room to move around. If it bumps into something, it changes direction. Now, if we could just modify it to become a Roomba vacuum, that would be great! Well, except for the obnoxious music blaring out of it.
Living the Travel Channel 