In the Middle

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.

Burj Khalifa

UAE flag

Mall display

Fancy replica

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.

Seagulls

City beach

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.

Metro men

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.

Gold jewelry

Spices

Subway station

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.

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.

City park

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.

Camel toes

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.

Dune bashing

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.

Sand boarding

Camel ride 

Henna tattoo

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.

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.

Kindly truck driver

Dry earth

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.

At a nearby park

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.

Nizwa Fort

Omani boys

Al Alam Palace

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.

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.

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.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Main prayer hall

Explaining Islam

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.

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.

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.