Good morning everyone – it’s 4 in the morning in your world (well, most of your worlds, I do have some American readers on the West Coast where it’s 3 in the afternoon but then they’ve always liked to be a bit different haven’t they !). My work laptop has come down with some disgusting virus so is off at the laptop hospital being disinfected or whatever they do to these things, and the family is fast asleep after a heavy day at the beach and another kebab last night, so I thought all you bloggers out there deserved a decent update for your patience !
Today we’re off to Dubai Abu Dhabi
Whilst we were in the Western Region we did the usual things, eat, sleep, lay by the pool and looked at camels and sand dunes. You’ve all seen pictures of racing camels off to the track but when we went down to the “Empty Quarter ” we came across a whole group of them just wandering up the road with their herder…….
The herder stopped to chat (luckily his 3 words of English and my 3 words of Arabic all meshed seamlessly into an international conversation……) and his herd continues to wander off up the road. He takes his leave of us and as he’s about to ride off on his quad bike (herders are a little more sophisticated than they used to be) I pointed out that he was leaving one of his camels behind (about 100m down the road). As we were watching, it decided to sit down. So off down the road goes the little man on his quad bike where he proceeds to shout at this camel and starts waving at it and kicking it……..
Anyway, to cut a long story short, as we are watching all this unfold (the rest of the herd has wandered off up the road and round the corner by now), the camel promptly keels over and dies (or at least that’s what it looks like – we did ask whether it was sleeping, 8 year old girls need a better story than “it’s dead”, but the herder gave us the horizontal, flat hand waving gesture (you’ll have to use your imagination) which to us means “maybe” but to your average Arab means “finished” and as it was lying on it’s side with all 4 legs in the air I don’t think it was taking a yoga class !
Right, back to the plot – we had gone down to the empty quarter to look at big piles of sand (I know how to show a girl a good time !) and when we got there it was gloriously empty and quiet and Mrs G and the small Gs set off up the biggest dune (Mr G has already done it and didn’t feel the need to disturb nature any more than absolutely necessary…….)
Within 5 minutes of climbing (I’ve been joined by the smallest G at this point, who didn’t “think it was worth it”) 5 bus loads (I kid you not) of Indian workers arrive on a “works outing” and swarm up the side of this dune……
It did somewhat take the edge off the “being at one with nature” thing but it was fun watching them queuing up to take pictures of Lewis – I don’t think they had ever seen a white boy with blonde curly hair before…….
He was a star and this picture doesn’t really show the full extent of what he had to put up with for a good 20 minutes !
Moving on – after about 4 nights of me working and sand dunes and camels and stuff we packed up (I checked out of the Tilal Liwa for the first time in over 6 weeks – fingers crossed that I get a good room back…….) and made our way to Abu Dhabi for a few days.
For those of you that have never been to Abu Dhabi
What there is to do here though is stunning. On day two we visited (and I have had it on my list of things to do for some time) the Grand Mosque. You can look up the detail on the internet and I’d recommend a visit if you’re in the area (even in the middle of a dust storm !) and here are a few pictures of somewhere with the worlds heaviest chandelier, the worlds biggest carpet and where 40,000 people can all worship at the same time…….
(the worlds largest carpet……)
(the worlds heaviest chandelier……)
and finally (for this bit) a picture of 3 of us being blown about outside in the courtyard……I think I look rather fetching in native dress, although I’m not sure it’ll catch on at home !
That same day (when the dust storm had subsided) we went looking for the Abu Dhabi Heritage Centre – we found it but not until after we had given up looking for it and run out of time to visit it. We ended up on the breakwater which houses (?) what I was led to believe was the tallest flag pole and largest flag in the world…………
well, turns out (thank you Google) that it used to be - Turkmenistan Dubai
They were changing the flag when we were sitting there watching the world go by, and as the wind got up so did the flag they were trying to hang on to……..so yours truly gamely volunteers to help by hanging onto the flag whilst they are franticly doing up bolts before this thing blows away………
Just to give you some idea of scale (the bloody flag nearly took me with it and I’d given up trying to hold on at this point !). The flag changers had got themselves into a right two and eight at this point with bits of wire rope, rope, decorative thingies and weights all tangled up and a bit of a breeze blowing up………it was more fun to watch from a distance I can tell you !
So a good time was had by all (especially those that were rolling about on the grass with a camera watching me hang on to something that would probably have covered my house !). We asked, because we know how much you all like trivia, how often the flag was changed – “when it’s broken” was the answer, so you’re no better off really !
(we’re nearly there now, only one more day to go……)
Yesterday was reserved for going to the beach so once every one was out of bed and we had finished breakfast (we finally left the apartment at 12 ffs !) we went to the beach. The sea was shut (I kid you not !). Little men with whistles (we nicknamed them the “Fun Police”) ran up and down blowing their whistles and gesticulating every time somebody went anywhere near the water in a swimming costume. “Tell us why” I hear you shout….. well it’s obvious isn’t it ?
Formula 1 power boats.
Told you it was obvious !
Not the most subtle of things I grant you but strangely fascinating, and incredibly quick (they did somewhat disturb the peace for those of us not taking pictures for 4 hours……..Mrs G was not all that enamoured I can tell you………)
And on that bombshell I’m off to pack !
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