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.
We went to a local chicken “fast food” restaurant. I put fast food in quotes because they don’t have food ready sitting under a heat lamp. If you order the 15 piece family meal, they actually have to cook 15 pieces of chicken for you while you wait, even though your order is “to go” and not “eat in.” This is not American fast food.
Anyway, we waited. When our order was about ready, the guy filling our drinks dropped a cardboard drink carrier on the floor. He was behind a counter and unable to reach it. Paul automatically walked over and picked it up. The guy waved and said “No, sir, no” and gave Paul one of the most scornful looks ever. How dare he pick that up! We were greatly amused. I told Paul “It’s because you just don’t know your place.” We live in a topsy turvy world. It was like the opposite of “who do you think you are?!” So, I’ve coined another word – downity. It’s the opposite of uppity. It applies to folks like us who were taught to pick up after ourselves, be kind to others and pitch in to help who are now trying to adjust to a world where someone is paid to pick up after us and we are not supposed to pick up after them.
To find a place to eat dinner after our bull butting disappointment and short visit to the beach we consulted the guide book. We picked Al Meshwar mainly because the guide book said “a bizarre building that looks like a cross between a set from the Flintstones and a crusader castle.” Darned if they weren’t right! — Great food, we highly recommend.
Fujairah has several roundabouts with large public art. Above, the large coffee pot and cups, below a hand holding a perfume bottle (?). Along the beach were some rather Flintstone style trees and matching trash cans. This is Paul and our new friend Zeyah standing on the beach. Below you can see that the water was so still and the sky so hazy that it is nearly impossible to see where the horizon is. I fully intended to dip my toes in the Gulf of Oman, but the overwhelming bad fish smell put me off. The sand here was actual sand, not broken shells. It was very dark sand and it made the water dark, too, which made it even more uninviting.
This is part of our trip to Fujairah. We had to negotiate several roundabouts (they love roundabouts here). We took the wrong road at one point and had to double back which is why you will see the mosque twice.
Watch carefully at the end of the video you will see a typical example of the dangerous driving that goes on here. In fact, this was the second time this had happened that day. A SUV pulls up behind us, flashes his lights. When we don’t get immediately out of his way, he pulls around us and continues to weave through traffic.
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.
Living the Travel Channel 