Hey boys and girls,
What have the Fabulous Flying Fords been up to?
Camel market
Visited the camel/livestock market and plant souq over the far side of town behind the Bawadi Mall. There are pens with thousands of goats, sheep, cattle and camels. They're all under cover and tended by a real mix of guys, mostly in robes. When we pulled up to have a look all the guys called out and waved for us to come over for a photo with their camels. It was only later that they asked for money for the privilege of doing so. One of the blokes took my hand (as Arab men do) and walked me back to the car (before asking for some cash for the privilege). Worth it for the photo!
Dragon boating
We both joined the Cognition team and had a couple of weekends dragon boating in Abu Dhabi - first for training, secondly for competition. It's all about teamwork, it was a bit of fun and Matija had a couple of days on the beach. The weather was not ideal though, the temperature was in the high 30's and very humid, making the racing pretty hot and sweaty. We did okay in the racing without setting the world on fire. On competition weekend we stayed at the hotel where the competition was, got a baby sitter and had a great night at the Dragon Boat Beach Party which included a chef-prepared BBQ, music and dancing down by the beach. It was great fun and we got to know some more of the Cognition staff. One of the ladies there subscribed to the National newspaper last week and won an Audi in a draw. Fantastic.
XTonka
Spent a few days in Abu Dhabi after the dragon boating and bought a 4WD. It's a 2008 Nissan Xterra with 110 000 on the clock. We got it off a shady dealer on Airport road and had to work out most of the registration, insurance and stuff ourselves. I made the dealers worker an offer and he said "Okay, you get it for $1000 dirhams less and give me $500." The deal was also complicated as the insurance and ownership had to be in a friends name as we haven't got residency. Everything here is more complicated than it sounds and it was complicated enough already. Needless to stay I spent about 4 days trying to sort it all out before driving the new Tonka Toy home. It's got a stonking 4 litre engine, it's completely sound (had it thoroughly checked out) and very 4WD capable. We're looking forward to some great trips into the desert and Oman.
Deb's Visit
Deb flew out from the UK and stayed with us for a week. She told us she was flying into Al Ain but only found out when she asked that she was flying to Abu Dhabi and bussing to Al Ain (at about 2 in the morning). She's great, looking good and in fine form. We had a fantastic time, visiting the local attractions, cooking up a storm, checking out some wadi's and the beach in Oman (more about those later). It was fabulous to spend some time with her again and Matija loved her time with Aunty Deb.
Abu Dhabi
Ande had a days work in Abu Dhabi so Deb, Matija and I visited the Grand Mosque. Deb had to don an abeya to cover up (not so good in 30 degree heat) and we did the free tour with a gorgeous guide. This is one amazing building, only a couple of years old but done lavishly with no expense spared. There are 9 tonne chandeliers, gold spires, tiles from all parts of the world, mother of pearl from New Zealand, the worlds biggest carpet etc. It is an absolutely breathtaking piece of architecture and well worth the visit. It's also an amazing tribute to Islam. Sorry I haven't included many photos as you really do need to see it in real life to appreciate it.
Oman and the Wadi's
Now we have some decent wheels and our insurance covers Oman we're able to venture over the border. It's a bit of a process getting through the border posts and can be a bit tricky - you need entry and exit visas etc, but at least New Zealanders don't have to pay an entry fee to get into Oman whereas most other countries do. You can cross the border in Al Ain, but there's a 30km no-mans-land before you officially cross into Oman. Anyway Deb and I drove up a skinny little track to a waterfall in a wadi. There were some small clear pools with fish and frogs swimming around and it was lovely and cool in the shade. There was a bit of litter around but that's par for the course around here. We discovered that if you dangle your feet into the pools the fish come and nibble your toes. Deb loved it, although Matija was too scared to try. After the pools we drove up to a plateau with a great outlook. That was a real test for the 4wd, crawling over rocks and bumps in low range. No problem for the mighty Tonka then it was back into 2WD for the trip home. We were actually in the n0-mans-land but we'd got an exit visa from UAE so when we tried to cross back into the UAE they made us drive 30km back to the Oman border to get entry and exit stamps from there. What a pain.
Sohar
On the weekend we all drove through the border again and headed to Sohar, a beach town in Oman. We took a picnic and arrived at a beautiful municipal park right by the beach. There were plenty of local families picnicking and everyone was friendly, they smiled and waved and someone came over to offer Matija some yummy salty sweet biscuits. There were plenty of people on the beach, some fishing, others swimming or riding horses. We went for a swim then found a hotel pool right by the beach with a bar and a phillipino girl-band playing. We settled there for the evening and ended up sharing a room at the hotel. We did have the camping gear in the Tonka but I was outvoted on that one! It was a lovely evening and later on hundreds of kids came out to play beach soccer. Sohar is definitely somewhere that we'll go back to.
Daqeeq
On the way back we'd planned to meet the Emirates Natural History group who were touring a small Omani village in the hills. The group wasn't at the turnoff but we found the village ourselves and met them there a little later. These villages are on old family land where the families come back on weekends but labourers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc. stay the rest of the time, tend the dates and goats and look after things. There are quite intricate falaj (canal irrigation) systems for watering the dates from small pools in the wadis (river valleys in the mountains). There were old stone buildings that were mostly abandoned and newer concrete ones for the Omani families. The power was only connected 1 year ago (no air conditioning before then) and there was one phone for the entire village. After a good look around we headed back to another wadi a few kilometres away. One of the pools ran back up through a narrow canyon, after swimming through that and clambering over rocks we came to a beautiful deep, clear pool in a cavern complete with the beginnings of stalactites. Absolutely gorgeous. After a swim and some lunch we ventured back through the borders to Al Ain.
Temperatures are cooler now - mid thirties in the middle of the day, but it's relatively pleasant being out at night time. We've got a picnic at the park planned this evening and it won't be long before we can do a little bit more outside.
Bye for now
Vince, Ande and Matija.
