Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, April 30

Well here we are back in Fujairah again.  Fujairah is a tiny Emirate, only 200,000 people.  Collectively, the seven Emirates have a population of 8 million.  And like all of the Emirates, the majority of the population is expats, mostly from India.  The UAE nationals (citizens) are the minority (40% in this Emirate, 18% in the UAE overall), but as in all Emirates they are the ones that get all the benefits from the wealth around here.

Speaking of wealth, we were surprised today to learn that Fujairah has neither oil nor gas.  And, of course, the land around here is useless.  It is all desert, some of it sand and the rest rocky mountains.  Other than in a few small oases, nothing grows around here, unless it is irrigated with expensive water.  Water here, as in all the Emirates, costs more than gasoline.  So, were does the wealth come from?  Look at the picture below.

This is the port at Fujairah.  See all the oil storage tanks, as far as the eye can see.  It turns out that most of the oil from Abu Dhabi comes from wells in the centre of the country, and it is cheaper to ship the oil from the port of Fujairah than from Abu Dhabi's port.  Fujairah's port is on the Gulf on Oman, while Abu Dhabi's is on the Persian Gulf which would require tankers to sail through the nasrrow Straits of Hormuz close to Iran.  This would cost the tankers much more in insurance, as well as take an extra couple of days.  So, large pipelines, 48 inches diameter, bring the oil from the fields to the storage tanks at Fujairah.  We can see the line of tankers waiting to be filled, and it seems to go on forever also.  The tankers are too far away for a good picture, so you will have to take our word for it.

Today we had a pretty lazy day.  We visited a fort that had been built in the 1500's, but I am sure it has been restored since then.  This is the way the rulers lived back in those days.

Then we moved to how people lived and dressed in the 1900's, as depicted in an interesting museum.

 

 

This is the outfit for a weathy woman; black robe and head cover with silver jewelry.  Peggy is rethinking her wardrobe for these parts of the world.

 

 

We saw a real oasis, complete with an old fort that guarded it once-upon-a-time, and a modern village that now takes advantage of it.

 

The terrain here is rocky, and I almost fell off a cliff.

We learned what a wadi is, and how to go "wadi bashing".  Wadis are dry riverbeds, at least they are dry most of the time.  They are the traditional means of travel, before there were roads.  People still travel on them, but now in ATVs and that is called "wadi bashing".Here is a wadi without a basher, but it looks tempting.

OK, time for a nap this afternoon.

Cheers, P&G

 

 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, April 28 - 29

Dubai is the name of the city and of the Emirate.  It is smaller in area than Abu Dhabi, but larger in population, having 8 million people, 18% of whom are citizents, and 82% expats from other countties, especially India.  The expats do all of the heavy work.  The Arabs work, but prefer office type jobs, government, banking, etc.  Dubai is a free trade zone, in the sense that anyone from any country can come and start a business, but must take on a local Dubai citizen as a partner.  As our guide, an Indian, explained it, the local person makes the following deal.  "I will let you use my name, and therefore allow your business to get started.  But don't ask me to do any work.  Just send me my cheque at the end of each month." 

Dubai citizens get free everything; education, health care, housing, electricity, telephone, the equivalent of $20,000 when they marry to get them started, and no taxes of any kind.  Expats also have no income tax, but pay user  fees to the government for most services like car licenses, health insurance, work permit, apartment leases, etc.  The average annual income in Dubai is about $30,000 which is much less than Abu Dhabi, but they have more people.  Their wealth, of course, comes from oil, but that is due to run out,.  They claim to have diversified the economy so all will be ok after the oil runs out.  We'll see.

There is obvious competition between the two leading Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.  Each appears to be trying to outdo the other for the best, most modern city, with the bigger and better buildings.  It reminds one of the old days when rival Kings tried to outdo each other with bigger and better palaces and cathedrals. I guess human nature and vanity never changes. 

Abu Dhabi (last blog) wins for having by far the best Mosque.  There is nothing here in Dubai that even comes near to the Grand Mosque that we saw on the 27th.  Here is the best that Dubai can do.

On the other hand, Dubai wins hands down for best buildings.  They have many more skyscrapers than Abu Dhabi, and more importantly, they have two that are world famous. 

The Burj Kalifa, was until just recently, the worlds tallest structure, beating out the CN Tower.  It is a gorgeous slender space needle of a building with an observation deck on the 124th floor.  We went up there today, and it was great.  The elevator is the world's fastest, and is so smooth you harldly know you are moving.  Also, your ears hardly feel it. Peggy could feel it!! I don't know how they do that, but it works.  The view is magnificent, although, as you can see from the pictures it was a bit smoggy, so you could not see clearly to the horizon.  And best of all, there is a major Canadian connection.  Canadian engineers were involved in the design of the building, and models of the building were wind tested in the wind tunnel at the National Research Council. 

 

 

I didn't fall.


The Burj Al Arab Hotel, is considered by many to be the world's most luxurious hotel. Remember the shots of Tiger Woods driving golf balls of a building into the water for Nike? This is the place. It is a five star hotel, going on 7 stars.  There are no rooms, only suites, and every suite comes with a private butler.  The hotel is designed to look like a sail on the traditional native boats.  This striking outline of the building has become the unofficial logo for Dubai; you see it everywhere.  Today, Peggy treated me to lunch at the hotel in the fine dining restaurant on the 26th floor.  It was the most expensive lunch I have ever eaten, but the experience was worth it.  Besides, I did not have to pay.  It was so good, we took pictures of the plating, and will bore our foodie friends with them.

Dubai is a shopper's paradise.  There are many malls here, and all the big North American and European names have stores in them.  Here is a lonely shopper in the high end mall surrounded by all the best shops in the world.  And, as you can see, she has them all to herself. That's because we were the first ones there.  She is in absolute heaven.

Forget about the West Edmonton Mall.  You ain't seen nothing.  The malls here have a skating rink, a ski hill, an aquarium and a waterfall.  Pretty impressive.

 

We felt right at home here!!!

OK, enough for now.  Back to Fujairah tomorrow. 

P&G.

 

 

 

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, April 27

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a single country made up of 7 regions which they call Emirates.  Each Emirate is ruled by a king who, over here, is called an Emir.  Until about 20 years ago the 7 Emirates were independent countries, but now they have joined together as one country,  All have oil, and all are rich because of it.  We are visiting three of the seven; Fujairah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.  In all cases the name of the main city and the name of the Emirate are the same. 

Abu Dhabi is the largest geographically and wealthiest of the 7 Emirates, and is the captial city of UAE.  The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has a population of almost 3 million, while the city is almost 1 million.  Only about 20% of these are citizens, however, the rest are expats from all over the world, mostly India, who do all the heavy work. 

The city of Abu Dhabi is located on a group of large islands along the shore of the Arabian Peninsula in the Persian Gulf.  The islands are connected to the mainland, and some to each other by bridges and tunnels.  The infrastructure here is amazing.  The roads, bridges, tunnels, subways, buildings, parks, etc. are all new, shiny, clean, and in mint condition.  There are no slums, and no poor people.  The signs are all in English and Arabic, and everyone seems to speak English, and quite well. 

All of this is an amazing change in just 50 years.  Before 1958 when the oil was discovered, nobody lived here except poor fisherman living in huts along the shore of the Persian Gulf, and nomadic Bedouin tribes who moved about the Arabian desert with their flocks of animals and their camels.  Now Abu Dhabi is one of the fanciest and most modern city in the world, and the country has the third highest per capita income in the world; the equivalent of $90,000 per person per year.  And their are no taxes.  Moreover, if you are a citizen, pretty much everything except food is free.  Education, health care, housing, electricity, telephone services, etc. are all free to citizens.  So, the citizens seem to wander about all day long in their white robes for men, and black ones for women, doing not much.  They live in luxury.  We are told that fifty years ago, the Arabic language had no word for "luxury".  It wasn't needed.  The downside, however, is that the lifestyle is catching up to them.  The prevalence rate of diabetes is 25%; i.e., one in every four citizens has diabetes.  They even have a special hospital just for the disease. 

Here is the Abu Dhabi skyline seen by Peggy having breakfast on the stern of the ship.

 

 

And here is the same skyline as seen by George from the veranda of the stateroom where he was sleeping in (just kidding!).  Notice all the construction cranes.

 



Abu Dhabi is an architect's delight.  These twin towers have an interesting feature whereby the strange looking window covering rotates around the towers throughout the day to block the direct rays of the sun. 

The Great Mosque of Abu Dhabi is considered one of the top 10 mosques in the world.  It is new, very large (can hold 40,000 people), and magnificent.  They insisted on using only marble of the purest whiteness, and had to search the entire world to find it.  Money was no object.  They refuse to say how much it cost, but obviously a great deal.

Some people don't read instructions.  We were repeatedly told what to wear to visit a mosque.  See Peggy for the proper attire.  See the other two tourists on our bus who had to borrow outfits from the guide so they could go in. 

The size of the mosque and the intricate detail were amazing.

 

The other buildings in Abu Dhabi were pretty fancy also.

Many were curvy, by design, like the new Marilyn building in Mississauga.  One leans 18 degrees off vertical, which is more than the leaning tower of Pisa.

The arabs have come a long way in 50 years.  Here is how they used to live; a tent in the desert.

And here is how they used to travel.

I considered taking a ride until I saw one local lad clinging on for dear life and looking like he was going to fall off at any minute.  It did not inspire confidence.  However, I was up to holding the Harris Hawk, who was actually quite tame, it seemed, and surprisingly light.

Tomorrow we are off to Dubai, our third and final Emirate.

P&G

 

 

Desert Rats, April 26

If it's Friday, April 26, it must be Fujairah, United Arab Emirates.  The days and places are just kind of blurring together.  Besides no one on the ship can pronounce Fujairah.  Unlike the ports in South-East Asia, the port here has very few cranes for container handling, but oh my, look at all those oil storage tanks.  Doesn't that tell you something.

Fujairah, is right next to Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula.  It is the only Emirate on the Gulf of Oman, rather than the Persian Gulf.  This Emirate is quite small, pretty much all desert; partly rocky mountains about 3,000 feet high and without any vegatation, and partly sandy dunes, also without vegetation.  There are a few natural oasis, but most of the greenery, such as there is, comes from irrigation.  As with the other countries in this part of the world, the money comes from oil.  It does not seem as prosperous as Oman, but still pretty good.  The roads and buildings are all in good shape, a fair bit of construction is underway, all is clean, and there are no slums.

Our fun today was roaring around over the sand dunes of the Arabian Desert in these Toyota Land Cruisers with four-wheel drive and tires deflated to 10 psi.  Our driver was excellent, and gave us some serious thrills.  Some of the vehicles had to stop because the passengers had bad motion sickness.  Peggy and I shared a vehicle with a nice couple who, like us, seemed to have strong stomachs.  So, it was great fun.  I took a lot of video, but we were bouncing around so much in the car that it is not very good.  Regardless, we plan to bore you all with it, when we return.  In the meantime, here are some stills.

At our "pit stop" (ask Peggy about the squatters), they had ATVs that you could rent and roar around the dunes.  We did not have time for this, tempting as it was.

The half of Fujairah that is not desert looks like this.

Till tomorrow and Abu Dhabi

P&G





 

Where is Waldo (Peggy)? April 25

Wow what a contrast!!! South East Asia to the Middle East.

Today we arrived in Muscat, Oman.  Oman is situated at the end of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yeman, and just across a narrow strait from Iran.  Although Oman is a fairly large country, it is mostly mountains and desert, and has only a population of 2.8 million.  Muscat is the capital with a population of 800,000. 

Oman is not a democracy, but a kingdom.  It is ruled by a Sultan, who has been in power since 1970.  He must be a benevolent dictator, however, as the country is thriving.  As far as we can tell the citizens (the Omanis) get pretty much everything free; free health care, free education, free housing, and I think a free living allowance.  Moreover, they pay no taxes.   How is this possible, you ask.  One word, OIL.  It seems they have lots of oil and gas.  They use the gas domestically, export the crude oil, refine a small percentage of the oil for petrol for their cars, and live off the revenues.  Gas for cars costs the equivalent of 40 cents per litre.  Not surprisingly the city is full of car dealerships for everything from Toyotas to Ferraris, and the streets are full of shiny new cars.  In juxtaposition to the price of gas at 40 cents per litre, however, drinking water costs 10 times as much, $4.00 per litre. 

In 1970, this place was a desert, and nobody lived here.  Since then, with all the oil money, they have built a modern, clean, beautiful city.  All the buildings are white, or very pastel yellow. ( An HGTV delight). The roads, bridges, etc.  are all new and in great shape.  There are construction cranes everywhere. Government buildings for all the different ministries are all works of art.  The Omani men all walk around in their white long caftans (women wear black ones) looking like they have nothing to do.  For most of them that seems to be true.  The work is all done by foreigners, many from India, who do have to pay taxes and do not enjoy all the free benefits of citizenship.  Interesting culture. Everyone is happy living here.

 

The citizens are mostly Muslim Arabs.  Today we visited their Grand Mosque, considered one of the most beautiful Mosques in the world.  It is.  The ladies had to be fully covered, including a head scarf.  Here are some pictures of the Mosque.  Can you find Waldo, I mean Peggy?

Right.  There's Waldo.  And in the Men's Prayer Room too.  What's she doing there?  It is a good thing she is in disquise. 

The carpet in the Men's Prayer Room is a single carpet 4,000 square feet in size, containing 1,600 million knots.  It was woven by hand by a group of young women and took them four years to complete.  The pattern is beautiful.  See below for a small bit of the pattern. No 2 flowers are the same.

Oops, here's Waldo again.  In the Grand Bazaar, which they call a Souq, doing what she does best. 

The weather here is hot, but not so humid, so easier to take.

Omani men are allowed to have up to four wives.  Many don't do this as they consider one wife quite enough thank you.  Those that do, have to ask the permission of wife number 1, before marrying wife number 2.  Then, he has to provide everything equally, even housing.  So, he must build a house for wife number 2 that is exactly the same as the house for wife number 1.  Here is a fellow who has two wifes.  See the two identical houses.

And here is some unforunate fellow who has three wives.  See how the three identical houses are smaller.  I guess.  What is this guy thinking?

OK, enough for now.  I think I will go and check on my one wife, who keeps me plenty busy enough.

Cheers, George & Waldo