Another Journey
The
Middle East is a land that is known for desert, oil and the Islamic faith.
Those three things have shaped it like no other place on earth, and I wanted to
visit the region to better understand its unique character. Years ago I had spent two weeks in Egypt, and the plan was to now see the
Arabian Peninsula starting with the United Arab Emirates. Here is an account of
my journey.
Dubai
My plane
touched down at Dubai International Airport. From there I took the Metro to the city center.
It was early morning and the sun had just come up over the eastern horizon. The
spire shaped Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, dominated the sky. Its
blue tinted windows caught the sun's light and the resulting glare created a
brilliant band of white that steadily rose toward the tower’s apex. An
artificial pond shimmered at the base with aquamarine water that wound wide and
paralleled a concourse which marked one of the entrances to the Dubai Mall.
Like the tower beside it, the mall is the largest building of its kind. When I
walked up to the doors the place was still closed and I did not feel like
waiting. I soon made my way back to the Metro station passing beneath the shadows
of the tall buildings that had been erected in a once barren land of sand and
scattered bushes. Construction sites and cranes filled in the gaps and the
already impressive skyline, I realized, was destined to grow more imposing by
the day.
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Burj Khalifa |
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UAE flag |
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Mall display |
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Fancy replica |
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Fashion show |
I thought
better of taking the metro and decided to continue toward the coast on foot.
The heat set in while a thick wind whipped at my back. As hot as it was, the
moisture from my body evaporated before it could accumulate and I hardly broke
a sweat. But when I made it the edge of the city I was quite fatigued. The
buildings had given way to a crowded beach that fed into the Arabian Sea, gold against
blue. I went for a dip, wading slowly through the weak waves. The calm water was surprisingly cool and clear.
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Seagulls |
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City beach |
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Marina |
In the distance the
Burj Khalifa stood tall and in plain sight and next to it the other
skyscrapers were meager things by comparison. The way Dubai is built up it took me a while to get past the height and number of
buildings. Once I did, I became more impressed by how modern
looking everything was. The buildings were shiny steel constructs with
shapes that twisted, curved and slanted in one way or another, and gazing upward I thought about how the the city center had sprung up all within the
past fifteen years. Imported labor made it possible and the workers came mostly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But in
recent times waves of Filipinos and Malaysians have also arrived to help bolster the flourishing service industry. Foreigners now outnumber the local Emirati nine to one and
their presence has turned the former fishing port into a bustling metropolis of
2 million. Dubai's international vibe is felt everywhere, especially on the
Metro where I heard over a dozen languages. Looking around I could not even
begin to guess where the passengers had originally come from.
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Metro men |
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Typical Dubai street |
Dubai's
rapid growth is of course the result of oil money. The ruling family in Dubai used the cash flow to build up the local infrastructure, encourage
international trade and develop a tourist industry. In the southern part of
the city, for example, there is an enormous desalinization plant that purifies as much as 140 million gallons of sea water a day. Dubai also has the first Metro in
the Gulf region. It is fully automated meaning there are no conductors, and
construction is now underway to double its size. As for commerce, Dubai is home to a
free trade port that imposes few tariffs or quotas. But even more amazing is
the fact that taxes are not deducted from wages, and there is no sales tax though a kind of sin tax applies to
a few things such as alcohol and other certain forms of entertainment. Unsurprisingly, the city is
inundated with malls and street markets. Aside from the big brand names and
global franchise shops, Dubai is renowned for its spice markets and jewelry
shops which are a long-standing tradition in the area. And the Dubai Mall itself has
become one of the most visited places in the world drawing in 65 million people
a year which puts it ahead of Disneyland, the Eiffel Tower or even Times
Square.
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Gold jewelry |
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Spices |
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Subway station |
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River crossing |
Abu Dhabi
The
United Arab Emirates is divided into seven Emirates which are each ruled by a
different family. These Emirates were once separate sheikhdoms that joined into a federation in 1971 at the behest of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan,
the head of the royal family of Abu Dhabi. He extended the offer to Qatar and
Bahrain as well, but they choose to remain separate. Abu Dhabi then became the
political and commercial center of the newly formed country. However, Dubai
later eclipsed it economically. When Sheikh Zayed died his son followed the
example set by Dubai, and Abu Dhabi has since experienced its own economic
boom. This means new buildings, malls and land reclamation products. While the
city itself still can't compare to Dubai in terms of size and scope, nowhere
else in the Middle East is there a place as modern or developed as these two
Emirates.
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The Old Sheikh |
I have a
friend in the UAE. His name is Takuro. For the next two years he will be living
between his home in Osaka and a hotel apartment in Abu Dhabi. He is a water
treatment engineer and is currently involved in a desalinization construction
project. Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi is dependent on the conversion of seawater to
sustain its large population. There is one difference however. While the Dubai
desalinization plant uses an evaporation process to extract salt the one in Abu
Dhabi will employ reverse osmosis. Apparently, the later approach is more efficient.
Takuro
works six days a week. The people in the city usually have two days off but
Takruo's project is very demanding so he is free only on Fridays. He does not shoulder the burden alone. Other Japanese workers are assigned to the project and they have
established a small community in the city. The group lives in the same building and they
spend much of their free time together. Takuro told me they also drink a lot of
alcohol. In Dubai and Abu Dhabi alcohol can be bought in hotel bars and
high-end restaurants. Otherwise a person needs a special license to purchase it
at one of the few alcohol shops in the city. Residents must register their
religion with the government, and Muslims are of course unable to obtain a
license. Luckily that was not a problem for Takuro and his work buddies. I
didn't have a chance to visit the shop with him, but he said that the liquor
stores in the city are inconspicuous and dimly lit inside, as if to conceal the
nature of the business.
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City park |
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Another mall |
Desert
Fun
Takuro
recommended that we take part in a desert safari. Because he had only the one
day off he could only do an afternoon excursion. That was fine by me. Six of
his Japanese coworkers joined in, and two SUVs came and picked us up at
the apartment hotel. We drove about 40km outside the city to where the dry,
hard desert gave way to smooth sand dunes. Camel farms dotted the landscape and
we stopped at one while the drivers prepared the SUVs to take us off road.
The farm
had dozens of camels. Some were beige, others black and a few gold. We went
into the pins and I found them to be surprisingly friendly. As I snapped
away with my camera I marveled at their oddly shaped bodies. The camel’s necks were thick and
muscular, but their legs thinned out at the bottom and became sticks. The thing
that fascinated me most though was the feet. They had these huge black pads
beneath them, almost like the soles of a shoe. I watched them trot along and
the wide feet expanded against the sand hardly leaving a depression. The
animals were truly adapted to desert life, and our guide added that in the
cooler winter months they could go as long as two months without water, whereas
a human would be lucky to last two days on the open sand.
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Camel toes |
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Making friends |
It did
not take long for the guides to deflate the tires and ready the engines. We
got back into the SUVs and our driver said, "Time for dune bashing. Now
you see what this vehicle can do." The man wore a white robe, a white head
scarf, and a pair of gold rimed sunglasses. Earlier he had told us that the
Toyota we rode in was the only car brand that could hold up on the sand dunes.
In other words, Nissan, Ford, and Suzuki couldn’t perform the same way. We
would soon learn to what extremes our SUV could go. Into the dunes we
plunged. "No lady passengers here," the driver smiled, "so today
I no go easy." He put his foot to the gas and we swept across the sand
like a roller coaster on a steel track, up and down, and in narrow arcs that
spat dirt against the windows. The desert spread out endlessly before us and
for a half hour our caravan of Toyota SUVs carved tracks into the dunes. Then we
stopped for a break. I realized my palms were sweaty and my stomach in knots.
Thankfully the warm air from outside helped steady my nerves.
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Dune bashing |
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Fine chat |
The
drivers let the engines cool. Everyone else navigated the sand and snapped
photos of the surrounding landscape. It was a serene place. I walked barefoot
to the summit of a dune to get the best view. Then it was back inside the SUVs.
This second time around I made the mistake of sitting in the middle of the back
seat. Without anything to brace myself against, the vehicle's movement thrashed
me from side to side, and after about fifteen minutes I felt I might throw up.
The driver seemed to take notice and asked, "You okay?"
"Sure,"
I lied.
Somehow I
managed to keep in the contents of my stomach until we returned to the road. An
hour of dune bashing had been more than enough for everyone and we were relieved
to be back on a smooth surface. From there we headed to an outdoor stage and
tent area. Behind the facility stood a giant dune and Takuro tried his hand at
sand boarding. I was content to take pictures. As part of the package our
entertainment also included a camel ride, henna tattoos, hookahs, and
traditional garb to dress up in. Then when the sun set, a buffet was set out
and everyone ate while a pudgy woman performed a traditional type of belly
dance. The whole atmosphere was quite touristy considering we were out in the
middle of the desert, but I was not one to complain. It was after all a new
experience for me.
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Sand boarding |
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Camel ride |
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Henna tattoo |
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Belly dance |
On to Muscat
After Abu
Dhabi I made up my mind to go to the neighboring country of Oman. From the look
of the map, it appeared the easiest way to get there was by going south by bus.
So I took the earliest one at 4:30AM and arrived at the border right as the sun
was coming up. Then I rode a taxi to the border crossing. It didn't take me
long to pass through immigration because I was the only person to go into the
office. Everyone else crossed over in their car and used the booth outside.
When I made it back out into the early morning heat, I realized there was
nothing on the opposite side. No city, no bus stop, no nothing. All I saw were
a few scattered houses, a small restaurant and a market along the highway. At the
market I bought a drink and the man behind the counter spoke English. He told
me I might be able to catch a taxi to the next city which was over 100km away,
and from there I could get a bus to Muscat. It would be a bit costly but I
didn't see how I had any other choice. So I sat in the shade and waited.
Unfortunately,
no taxi came.
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Nothing around |
After
about two hours the guy at the market took pity on me and asked a passing
trucker if he could give me a ride. Since he was headed that way already, the
trucker agreed. I was ecstatic with joy and thanked them both a dozen times
over. The trucker could not speak English. He simply smiled and kicked the
truck into first gear. Then not one minute later he pulled out his cellphone and
began a conversation which lasted the entire drive. I didn't mind. But I was
curious about what he was saying because half the time it seemed he was arguing
with the person on the other end of the line. To distract myself I gazed out the window at
the arid landscape. The earth was not smooth sand but dry and rocky, and
mountains rose up in every direction. To my surprise it did not look too
different from the desert east of my hometown in San Diego County.
Once in
the city of Ibri I bid the trucker thank you one last time. A bank caught my
eye and I remembered that I needed to change money. One of the cashiers spoke
English and told me I should take a taxi to Muscat because the buses were
infrequent and not that much cheaper. So I had to trek to the taxi stand. It
was on the south side of town, and a driver offered to take me to Muscat for 20
rials. I opted instead to take a shared taxi so it would cost only 5 each.
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Kindly truck driver |
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Dry earth |
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Taxi drivers in Ibri |
When we
were ready to go I saw that all other passengers were Indian. One had tried
to sit up front but the driver shouted at him in Arabic and made him sit in the
back so I could take the front seat. I thought that a bit rude but was not
about to argue. From Ibri to Muscat it was a three hour drive. We stopped twice
on the way. The first time was to let one of the Indian guys piss on the
side of the road. The second time was more unexpected. After a speeding truck had
cut off the taxi on the highway our driver became incensed, and while cursing
out loud, he followed the truck until it exited into a gas station. We pulled
up alongside and stopped. Following a brief, cordial exchange the
two drivers burst into a shouting match in Arabic. It sounded like our
driver was asking the other to apologize, but the man refused, so they went on
for ten minutes, red faced and saliva shooting up from their throats. I watched
wondering how two men could get so mad at each other without coming to blows.
Once the shouting episode concluded it was a smooth ride to Muscat. The driver dropped us off at a major bus hub on the southwest side of the city. I had a place to stay but to my dismay no one recognized the address or street name I had
written down. In the end, one driver said he knew, but along the way
he still had to ask random people on the street for directions before reaching
our destination. The driver then had the nerve to charge me a great deal more
than I should have paid, but I suppose I was happy to have finally arrived.
After all I had gone through I could at last relax.
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At a nearby park |
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Flower watching |
Couch
Surfing
People
travel in a variety of ways. Some are determined to stay in luxurious hotels
and dine at the finest of restaurants. Others look to make due with less. And
for those who want to spend as little as possible, couch surfing is the way to
go. All a person needs to do is sign up at couchsurfing.com. This will give them access
to a global network of hosts who are willing to take in travelers for free. The
first time I tried it I found a host in Shanghai and stayed with him for a few
nights. Then, for whatever the reason, I forgot about the site.
Well,
before my trip to Dubai I was thinking of ways to cut expenses and I remembered the site. I put in a few requests and was quickly accepted by a Sri
Lankan man living in the city. When the time came I knocked on his door and he
walked me in and showed me the couch on which I would be sleeping. It was big
and white and in a large living room. The rest of the apartment was spacious as
well, and my host Himasha rented out several rooms to foreigners who had come
to work in the country. One such man was Toshi from Japan. He worked at a
Japanese confectionary shop at the Dubai Mall. Another man was from Pakistan.
Apparently, there was a South African couple too, but I never met them.
Himasha
was friendly and talkative, and we sat and chatted while watching a cricket
match on TV. I understood the rules of the sport but not the scoring system, so
I was surprised when Team Sri Lanka won. To me they appeared to be losing the
entire time. Anyhow, Himasha told me about his business. He sold imported cars,
many of which came from Japan. He had been at it for two years and seemed to
make good money.
Once I
left Dubai I stayed with Takuro in Abu Dhabi. After that, when I went to
Muscat, another host took me in, a Filipino named Riel. At his place I had my
own room with a large air mattress to sleep on. He also shared some of his home
cooking with me which was more than I had expected. While we talked at the
dinner table he explained his work situation. Riel was a registered nurse at a
hospital. The job paid well and the salary was untaxed. Moreover, Riel received
subsidies for transportation, housing and food which covered nearly all his
living expenses. For his line of work that was the standard. And with his big apartment he could have guests, a circumstance which I of course took advantage of to see the area in and around Muscat.
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Nizwa Fort |
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Omani boys |
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Al Alam Palace |
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Street market |
In
September Riel would like to visit Japan during his vacation time. He is
welcome to stay with me in Osaka. And I'd sign up as a couchsurfing.com host too were my place not so
small. I have only one room and a blow up mattress for a single person. It's
not much to offer so I have never tried. Maybe one day when I have a bigger
place I'll host travelers and return the kindness shown to me by Riel and
Himasha.
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Dinner at Riel's place |
Islamic
Law
According
to the Islamic faith, the angel Gabriel visited the prophet Muhammed and told
onto him the word of God. Muhammad then transcribed these words on scrolls and effectively wrote the Koran. Included in this book was the Sharia, also
known as Islamic law. It gave instructions on how to lead a virtuous life but it was not always clear as to what is
right and what is wrong, especially when applying Sharia to modern society
where the day to day practices of people have greatly changed since Muhammad's
time. For example, Sharia states that men may own slaves. But slavery was made
illegal in the last Muslim countries in the 70s and 80s due to pressure from
the West. Yet unfortunately, in some communities in Africa slavery is openly practiced and
sanctioned under Islam (though this is at odds with the laws of state). That said, the limitations put on
Sharia vary from group to group.
Before
Riel worked in Muscat he had lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. I asked him about
Saudi Arabia and he said he did not like it much. One problem was that there
was little to do for fun. Local laws forbade drinking and most forms of partying. And the
country had few sites to visit because the land between cities was
sparsely populated desert. However, what bothered Riel most were the random
visits by the Mutaween. The Mutaween are religious police that would often come
to Riel's apartment late at night to search for alcohol, drugs, weapons,
pornography and other illegal items. Since Riel was unmarried he was also not
permitted to have unaccompanied women in his home. Any person caught in
violation of Islamic law during a routine search of this kind would be arrested
and subject to punishment. For foreigners that meant jail time, flogging,
and/or deportation. First time
offenders arrested for minor crimes could avoid their sentence by converting to
Islam, or if they were lucky, their employer would pay a fine to have them
released.
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Traditional dress |
Oman was
much more lax with its laws. Like in the UAE, alcohol was permitted and sold in
certain bars and shops. Moreover, drugs were commonplace. Riel often worked the
night shift and told me the patients who came into the ICU after hours were
either involved in car accidents or had overdosed on drugs. Heroin and morphine
were often a problem. Interestingly, morphine and other painkillers were
readily available on the black market. The reason was that Oman has had a long
history of tribal life. For centuries members of these tightly knit communities were related
by blood and preferred to marry within the family as opposed to bringing in an
outsider. As a result of this interbreeding several genetic deficiencies arose
over time including sickle cell anemia. The latter is a terrible affliction
because it causes severe joint pain, and since it is incurable, painkillers are
used to control it. With a large amount of prescription drugs circulating in
the country it was inevitable that people would begin to abuse them.
At the
hospital Riel had seen many cases of painkiller addiction. But it was simply a
medical issue whereas in Saudi Arabia the police would have become involved.
As the birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia applies Sharia in a very strict
manner. The Mutaween are the physical manifestation of the law in practice and
they have come under criticism for their sometimes barbaric enforcement. An
example is from 2002 when a group of Mutaween did not allow girls to run out of a burning school building. They kept them trapped inside because they were
not wearing their headscarves. 15 died as a result.
Mosques
I've been
around the world and have seen many amazing structures. The two that
impressed me most were the St. Peter Cathedral in Rome and the Amber Fort in India.
Both were of a grandiose scale. And if I were to choose another structure to
see, I would go with the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. It is the world's
largest mosque and can accommodate 820,000 worshipers. At its heart is the
Kaaba, a black cube considered the holiest place in Islam. All Muslims who have
the means and money to travel are required to make a pilgrimage to the Masjid
al-Haram at least once in their lifetime. The thing is that non-Muslims are not
allowed to visit. In fact they can't even enter the city of Mecca which itself
is a bustling metropolis of 2 million. That means I'll never be able to go.
It's
okay. There are plenty of other mosques in the world. I have been to ones in
India, Egypt and Malaysia. And on this last trip I saw the Sheikh Zayed Mosque
in Abu Dhabi. It was recently finished in 2007. The large place of worship was
a gift from the former Abu Dhabi Emir who sadly did not live to see its
completion. His tomb is beside it and is closed off to visitors. The other
parts, however, are open to all during certain times of the day. I went inside
the main prayer hall and gazed up at the arches and domes overhead. The Islamic
faith forbids idols, or images in the likeness of men, so the walls were
decorated with Arabic script and floral geometric patterns. A wide green carpet
spread from corner to corner, and a nearby guide explained that it was the
world's largest composed of over two million knots. Meanwhile, another man gave a presentation to a group of school
children who were seated in the center of the hall directly beneath the largest of the
domes. The kids were not locals, and the man informed them of the basics of
Islam. One kid asked what the writing on the far wall meant and the guide said
they were the ninety-nine titles of the Prophet Muhammed such as "the
wise," "the merciful," "the mighty," and so on.
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Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque |
|
Main prayer hall |
|
Explaining Islam |
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Arches |
In Muscat
I visited a second grand mosque. Like the one in Abu Dhabi, it was a recent
construction built by the country's ruler Sultan Qaboos and named after him.
However, it did not measure up in size. There were not as many domes and the
outside did not have much of a courtyard. But what the building lacked in scale
and extravagance, it made up for with a traditional design. In the prayer hall a chandelier shone
brightly beneath the dome and I spent several minutes playing with my camera until
I got just the right picture. Then I went outside into the hot midday sun, put
back on my shoes and left to explore other parts of the city.
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Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque |
|
Main Minaret |
|
Fancy chandelier |
Later as
I walked the streets, I saw several other mosques. There seemed to be one every
200m, and while most were small and plain looking, each shared two common
features. The first one was a dome, often a color that was different than the rest
of the building. The most popular colors were gold and blue. As for the second
feature, the mosques had one or more minaret towers. In the past these towers allowed men to climb high and announce prayer time. Muslims must roll out a mat, drop to their knees, and pray
towards Mecca five times a day. Thanks to the invention of clocks knowing when to do so is no longer an issue. But in case anyone forgets to check, loudspeakers
built on the minarets now make the announcements and from what I've heard they sound more like a song than anything else.
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Golden tower |
In Conclusion
Having seen some more of the world, I'd like to think I am a little bit wiser. Travel, after all, is one of the best ways to learn and grow as a person. And now that I am back to the everyday ennui of a regular routine I wonder where I might go next. A certain urgency pulls at my thoughts because there will come a day when I find I'm bogged down and can no longer travel often. So what choice have I but to make the most of my vacations and explore new horizons? Perhaps I'll visit Bangladesh next and succeed after my failed plans to go this past December. We shall see.