Dubai World Cup is one of the biggest international sport events in the UAE.
This annual horse racing event of course comes with a world record: it is 'the world's richest horse race', with the winner taking home US$ 6 million. The latest took place last weekend, and more or less by accident, I ended up there - braving the occasional rain.
It certainly is a huge thing for people here - drawing a big crowd, generating extensive media coverage and maybe the biggest collection of B 8, C 1 or similar high-ranking number plates of any given event of the season. Of course, Dubai's leader was present as well (third from left in this picture), honoring the winner. In fact, he created the event in 1996 and owns Darley Stud & Godolphin Racing, which has a reputation as one of the world's leading breeding and racing operations. This team produced the largest number of World Cup winners (four) so far.
To me, it seemed there were a lot of British in the area called Apron View - one for general access, which was apparently made to please people from the island (no offense!), coming complete with a so-called "Irish Village" and ample fish & chips supply. And indeed several specimen (joined by any nationality imaginable) behaved just like in their natural habitats - some women wearing extravagant hats, and many appreciating a steady flow of beer and other drinks.
During the day, there were several other races, which kind of built momentum for the big event in the evening. One race was interesting for me in the sense that the winner was determined only by the breadth of a horse hair in a photo-finish - see the 11th photo here.
I have to admit that, in my ignorance, I totally fail to appreciate the beauty and excitement, as well as the achievements and the shared long tradition of this proud sport.
Not being involved emotionally, it's just horses running in a circle for me. And Lucky Luke's Jolly Jumper is about the only horse I ever felt something like sympathy for. Otherwise, these animals are more in the camel category for me: big, hoofed, large-teethed beings I can never quite classify and which I'm usually happy to observe from a distance. From start to finish, the races only take a couple of minutes, and one looks just like the other for my undifferentiating eye. One is on lawn, another one on dirt, and they vary in terms of distance, sponsors, and price money (and probably all sorts of factors which I totally fail to appreciate). And the shouting of the people is always the same, even though the excitement clearly built towards the more important races at the end of the day.
Maybe the biggest attraction about such events is the social aspect: seeing and being seen, and a lot of socializing and networking going on.
One of the things people come here for is the sun. And indeed, the typical Dubai climate is sunny throughout the year. In summer, it can even be extremely hot, and air humidity can make going outside almost unbearable. Apparently, many people try to spend a part of the summer months outside of the country.
That is the big picture. Now look at the small picture to the left. To win the virtual prize of 10,000 Dhs, answer the following question: "What, in this picture, is actually missing?". The right answer, of course, is "The sun". Now, if you look at the figure for rainfall in March here, you will see it says "10 mm". I had clearly more than that in my shoes after only walking to my car last Thursday evening. What I'm experiencing right now is the third day in a row with cloudy sky, and at least one period of rainfall every day, with a true little storm including some hail last week. And it's supposed not to change much till about April 2 (see also the weather forecast at the end of this page). I'm told this is becoming a regular weather phenomenon around March. But, I'm reassured, the hail is something special! Great. Lucky me.
Time to make alternative plans for spare time activities. Good there are things like Cirque de Soleil in town, which I'm going to see this Wednesday. Who wants beach all the time anyway! Sigh.
Number plates in Dubai tell you something about the car's owner. And may indeed help you decide how to behave in some traffic situations.
Usually, as you see on the left, the number plates in Dubai carry a letter as well as a number - anything from single-digit to at least five figures (maybe even more, I'm not sure). The number communicates two things. First, the lower the number, the higher up in the public hierarchy the person will be. Second, people with a special number such as, for instance, "A 1111" are most probably rich. Because it costs to have your special wishes catered for. The number plate pictured in this post was supposedly sold for $850,000.
So, if you have started to feel comfortable in Dubai's traffic, pushing and honking your way through the congested roads, you may take that info into consideration. Because it may even get you in trouble if you don't. What I was told is: It might well be that, if you flash your lights at someone driving way to slowly in front of you, it could happen that this person deliberately brakes hard, so that you crash into his car. And if it's someone high up you hit, you will be considered guilty and will have to take care of the damage.
I'm not going to test this. Anyway, I'm more on the slow-but-saf(er) driver side anyway.
Every now and then, one is reminded of the rulers of the emirates' key role.
And not just because you see their pictures on certain buildings or on posters, or on the front page of Gulf News - which is, by the way, owned by a ruling family; and it is only recently that a law was passed according to which you don't go to prison anymore if you publish a story against the governments' opinion in that paper. However, I've been told, you would be fined 1,000,000 Dhs. And if you can't pay that, you go to prison anyway. That's at least what I heard, I have no confirmation for this and I am not judging here, I have to emphasize. This, after all, IS a different culture even though one might easily forget this when we marvel at the latest record-breaking projects in Dubai or enjoy ourselves in the countless bars, malls, or beaches of this city.
One powerful reflection of the rulers' importance which I saw just recently: A company, celebrating its 50th anniversary, had booked a full page advertisement in a major daily paper. Half of that page showed all the emirates' rulers. And the text below praised their leadership and vision at length, making the anniversary itself an apparently secondary thing. This told me just how important it is to be liked by those people.
Another example: The other day, when I was zapping through the TV channels in the evening, I saw the screen you see in the picture on City7 - Dubai's local TV channel. Apparently, a member of the ruling family had died. So the program was interrupted, and, along with the freeze image, a prayer was broadcast in Arabic and English.
By the way, if you want to know: Dubai's government operates within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. It has been ruled by the Al Maktoum family since 1833. The current ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is also the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and member of the Supreme Council of the Union (SCU).
Today, I met Lew Kling, CEO, and Lars Rosene, head of global communications, from Flowserve again - more than two years after I had supported them at trade fair Achema in Frankfurt. It was great to say hello again, and to see them well and the company prosper! Indeed, they inaugurated today what they call a Quick Response Center in Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone Area (JAFZA), having just opened another one in Abu Dhabi last Sunday. We helped them with coordinating a few media interviews on-site.
Jafza, by the way, is a 49 square kilometers area in Dubai where it's easier for foreign companies to set up shop and where they enjoy more rights and more freedom. It's located close to Jebel Ali Port, which is the world’s 7th largest seaport. Since Jafza was founded in 1985 (making it one of the first free zones in Dubai), the number of mainly industrial companies there has skyrocketed from 19 to over 6000 in 2007, according to their website. Driving along the dusty roads, I saw many well-known brands from Siemens to GE, and many I had never heard of before.
Flowserve had planned for more than two years to come here. Responding to a Dow Jones question how he felt about the project's timing (due to the current crisis), Lew said: "We feel very comfortable. This facility shows our dedication to support our clients globally as well as locally, and not just in good times."
Some additional impressions from my past weekend. On Saturday, as I mentioned earlier, I took a bus (which waited until it was full before leaving) to Al Ain - a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, which is right at the border to Oman.
Behind this fortress (the picture shows part of the courtyard), they have a famous museum showcasing many fine exhibits from the country's past, ranging from 4000 BC until the early 1900s. Amazing to see the many trading links the UAE have had thousands of years ago, and also how similar some reminders of that era are to what we find in the Mediterranean or even wider Western European region (early weapons, pottery, coins...). Great to see there is a lot of history here, behind the glittering surface. I wonder if maybe even locals sometimes forget that.
Later that day I visited the incredibly green oasis of Al Ain - one of the things I was particularly keen on experiencing here in terms of natural phenomena, along with having a closer look at a desert. The oasis covers a huge area, and the climate is noticeably gentler in there, not as dry, not as hot as outside. They mainly cultivate dates here.
An Omani who showed me around a bit, walking here (picture) in one of the thousands of water channels that form a sophisticated system to supply the date palms with water.
Another highlight - visting the UAE's largest camel market. There must be hundreds and hundreds of these animals, in many shapes, sizes, even colours. Some are meant to be racing camels, some for milking, some for breeding, and some are sold for their meat. Meeting these animals eye to eye is both a great and slightly unsettling experience - as I could not in any way anticipate how they would act the next moment. And they do have big teeth. And one snorted saliva over my guide, with me just barely being able to duck away...
The past weekend was like the essence of Dubai: a lot of variation, a combination of the old and the new, many encounters, full of contradictions.
I spent lazy hours on the beach, had a (mostly) good time with people and live music both Western and from the Middle East, and went on a trip to Al Ain (at the border to Oman) where I saw a lush oasis, old fortresses and the famous Al Ain Museum as well as the biggest camel market in the UAE.
Let me try to take you through the weekend along the numerous encounters with people I had - maybe I start with the drivers. As you may know by now, taking a taxi in Dubai is never boring. Either you have a good personal story or taking you from A to B turns out not as simple as it may seem at first.
One driver said I should not go to the place I intended to Thursday evening (he may not have know the way, who knows?) instead suggesting a place with live music from Lebanon, Shisha at every table, single men all sitting in one area away from families and women, and no Western people at all. For the first time here, I understood nothing at all and felt quite exotic. Though no urge to go and buy Lebanese music, even though I found it culturally interesting.
The first taxi on Friday took me to the beach. The driver - like countless others in Dubai - was from Pakistan. Coming to the UAE because there are not enough jobs in his home country, he's been in Dubai for four years, earning in one month what he would get in ten at home. Like others, he is saving up to go home - hoping to get married.
The next driver was supposed to take me to Slob Fest at Le Meridian Village after a few lazy hours on the beach. Slob Fest is a series of gigs of local and minor international bands outside of a big hotel where you can just go dressed as you are. The driver had no clue where to take me. So I called Time Out Magazine who had failed to give exact information. But nobody there on Friday afternoon. So I called one of the Le Meridien Hotels - and they could help me. Sheezh. The ride back late at night was one of the few without anything memorable.
The next day, Saturday, I went to the Deirah bus station to take a mini bus to Al Ain. The bus has no set time table, instead the driver simply waited until it was full. Which was faster than an Asian woman apparently had hoped: When she arrived, all of the 30 something regular seats had already been taken. And, screeeming, she demanded that a seat be ceded to her from one of the men sitting on places labelled "ladies only" (there are always a few on the buses, at the front near the driver, for convenience). But the driver insisted, quite reasonably, that he couldn't well throw out one of the passengers; so screeming geisha had to make with a small emergency seat, which she only accepted after making it known to anybody within earshot how much she disapproved of that.
Arriving in Al Ain about 1.5 hours later, I first headed to the museum with an adjacent fortress. Maybe I tell you about this another time, as this is now about the drivers.
The next one took me, after a nice stroll through the lush green of the Al Ain oasis and some slightly bizarre encounters with Omani people, to the camel market. As in every other taxi I used in that area, he had no working taximeter, so I had to agree on a price beforehand. And he was also the first to introduce me to a strange local fashion - that of having carpet-like covers for the dashboard. Yiks.
After a tour of the camel market, I wanted to visit the Al Khandaq fortress across the Oman boarder in Buraimi. At first all seemed fine, the price was agreed, we went on our way - not without giving an old friend of the driver a lift. But then I was told that I would not be taken across the boarder, but instead only to Al Ain, where I was to take a taxi from a different company. Ok ...
Finding out the fortress was closed this Saturday, I bought tea and some fresh dates before travelling back. Which was easier said than done. The first taxi stopped - but when I opened the door, someone already sat there (so why did he stop?!); the second didn't want to cross the border (is that fashion here?); the third asked for 100 Dhs, which is four times the usual price for that distance. The fourth finally took me, and for a reasonable price. In the end, I even paid him more, because we got stuck in traffic and seemed so unhappy about his decision to take me across the boarder that I felt I wanted to compensate him a bit. Ah yes. No receipts anywhere here in Al Ain - sorry Carsten!
Late at night I drove back, realizing that my guide book had failed me several times today: the ride to Al Ain had been more expensive, the live stock market had moved to a different place, the fortress I wanted to see was closed - but luckily, there were buses taking passengers back to Dubai, contrary to what the book said I did not have to rely on a shared taxi.
It is true Dubai has taken a hit in the current downturn. With recent developments, the golden times of Anything Is Possible seem to have temporarily come to a halt with a thudding hangover. The FT reports:
"For thousands of expatriates lured to Dubai by the promise of year-round sunshine and a tax-free lifestyle, the party is over. Corporate restructurings have arrived hard on the heels of steep falls in property prices and plummeting consumer confidence; El Dorado is fading back into desert. As the cutbacks spread from finance and real estate to sectors such as tourism, media and retail, many are packing up and heading home." (For the full article, go here.)
However, it's not all gloom and doom till the end of days as some report.
FT comments: "Dubai must feel a little like Mark Twain, these days. Upon reading his own obituary in the newspaper, Twain wrote: 'The report of my death was an exaggeration.'” (Full article)
Turning my attention from water to rocks, I went on a 4WD trip up the mountains on the second day of my Musandam trip last weekend.
The incredibly dry, dusty rough mountains rise to 1800 metres above sea level here. It seems as hostile an environment to live in as you can imagine - despite its majestic air which seems to speak of pride and silent might, and the spectacular views rivalling the Grand Canyon. Going up there other than by car would be unbearable for most Europeans with the dust and heat reflected and intensified by the barren rocks.
Nonetheless, old dwellings and graves speak of a culture going back at least four thousand years. In earlier days, people would use donkeys to carry loads up the mountain - even today, you will meet a number of those animals trotting alongside or in the middle of the road. And the Jebel Ali bedouins, who love the mountains, used to build small houses out of big blocks of rough stone, four feet above and four below the ground, as a shelter in winter (in the picture below, you can see me sitting in front of one of those so-called "lock houses" - they come with a simple but effective mechanism for locking the door, dating back about 2000 years).
I also saw a number of simple one-storey stone houses, with tiny windows to keep the heat out, some built leaning into the sides of the mountain; many of them are deserted now, as are a number of terraces where vegetables used to be grown. For many people, life and farming here has become to burdensome, while others still live here because this is their life. And it certainly helps that no matter where, the Omani government provides fresh water and electricity.
And if you go back even more in time, you would have found this area teeming with life. But also in a much different shape. This stretch of land has once been ocean floor, of which millions of fossils are ample proof today. Through the movement of the tectonic plates on which the continents sit, the land was pushed up and is even still moving today: the whole area moves at 1 cm per year towards Iran.
I was lucky that I had a tour guide all to myself - so he took me to places that are beyond the usual route of the trip, which normally ends in about 1500 meters altitude - where the air is noticeably clearer and cooler. And he pointed out some of the 150 million years old fossils for me - mussels, starfish, crabs. If you happen to have a copy of the July / August 1997 issue of the National Geographic, you will find a story about the area and the fossils for which "my" guide had shown the researchers around. So you can imagine he knew a lot. And I even found a few smaller fossils to take home as one of my best souvenirs so far.
Now, if only the air had been a bit clearer, the view would have been even more stunning! I had chosen to do the mountain trip only as a sort of afterthought, because I wanted to see a bit more of the area when I'm there. It turned out to be a great experience!
If you want to learn more, here's an article about the Mountains of Musandam. And you can find official information on Musandam here.
Today is the Corporate Finance's team leader's birthday - the third from right in the picture. Happy Birthday, Nicholas! To celebrate that, we went for lunch in an Asian restaurant. While everyone enjoyed a nice meal (great to share different food on this revolving plate in the center of the table), one was left behind. Somehow everybody had thought he didn't want to come along. Sorry, mate. And now if you will excuse me - I have some cake here to take care of.
What a city! There are simply adventures everywhere, even in the seemingly small things, where you don't expect them - such as when you finally convince yourself you have to refuel your car.
After some time in Dubai now, I'm now pretty comfortable with the daily ride between my hotel and the office - even though changing lanes can still be challenging in the traffic here. But I've hesitated to venture from that beaten track by car so far. So I was glad to know there's a gas station near my office, when I could no longer ignore the decreasing gas level. But upon getting to the gas station, I learned they only accept cash. So I drove to the next one. The same there. So I decided to go to a place where I knew I'd find ATMs. The only thing I thought when I missed the right highway exit was "No good" - as the gas level was well outside my comfort zone already and I felt this was not a good time to be lost in Dubai's streets. You can imagine my relief when I found the ATM and had finally managed to zigzag back to the station.
Actually, I then carried more than the amount of cash I needed. Because gas is, as you will have expected, much cheaper here than in Europe - which is why people often just keep their car running when they wait or leave it for a moment. I've even seen stopped taxis outside of a mosque with running engine while their drivers had gone inside for prayer. It took me only 45 Dirhams (about 10 Euros) to fill up the tank. I really can't say into how many litres of fuel that translates - but there's a guy who did some calculating on that topic.
The fueling is all full service - which means there's a bunch of darker-skinned men on standby between the filling pumps, rushing towards your car the moment you stop. This is quite in line with what I noticed in other areas of public life: In any service-related area, there are so many people employed that would be eliminated instantly by even the most junior management consultant - but who somehow also make you feel welcome and special, up to the point where I even feel a bit uneasy because it can sometimes have a master-and-servant-like quality which I struggle to consolidate with my worldview.
In a tiny shop, I recently saw seven people ready to help customers; in supermarkets, you will not only find a person who's responsible for weighing your vegetables, but also one behind each checkout packing your stuff into bags for you. At a club recently, there was even a man handing you paper towels for drying your hands in the restroom. I have no knowledge about this, but I think this may have a very sober social aspect: I would expect that labor here is really cheap, especially that from the foreigners working in the lower service areas. Maybe some are glad to have just any job - and with that, the permission to stay in Dubai?
It would sound good if I wrote that I was pondering these things while waiting for my car to be washed, but actually my mind was too occupied at that point by the sighting of fresh doughnuts - in Germany, I have never found good ones so far, so my memories of Krispy Kremes in the US have already started to get a legendary quality. Looking forward to devouring the nice pair of plain sugared doughnuts, and with a sense of a small achievement, I drove my refueled and clean car back to the hotel.
I don't know many places where just fueling your car can give you something to write about. See - adventures everywhere! Point proven.
Dubai wants to be several things at once, and everything about three numbers bigger as anywhere else. So it's no surprise that, apparently, dreams exist to turn Dubai into the Middle East's version of Hollywood.
This may explain why the news that the city's first feature film, City of Life, finishes shooting this week, appears on the front page of today's Gulf News. It's been "made from start to finish" in Dubai, and is about the lives of several people in the city.
I'm definitely going to watch the movie - if I'm still here when it opens. And you can be sure I'll tell you if the picture of Dubai presented there is in line with what I hear and see myself.
Last weekend, I went on a two day trip to Musandam - which is a part of Oman, but separated from the rest of that country by land of the UAE.
Part of the reason was to get a new 30 days visa when I re-enter the UAE, but of course this area is also a beautiful spot well worth a visit, as several people had told me. So I hopped on a bus from Khasab Tours - a slightly chaotic, but nonetheless reliable tour company.
After a three hours ride (starting at 6am Friday morning, way too early for my liking!) through five of the seven UAE emirates, we arrived at Khasab, the main city in the province of Musandam. Also on the bus: a young married couple on their round-the-world honey moon. Incredible how many stories they have to tell. One thing I will never do: go near the Ganges river. Apparently, this majestic stream is used for the disposal of anything you can think of. Yiks.
In Khasab, we boarded a dhow for a full day cruise through the many fjord-like arms of the Arabian Gulf here, with mountains rising right out of the sea on each side of the ship. Visibility was not too good on that day; still it was great just to be on the ship, see the fjord-like landscape, feel the breeze, smell the sea, have tea, fall asleep, be woken up by dozens of Indian children making a big fuss (with the parents noisily joining in) about far-away sightings of dolphin's backs and fins - I almost expected at least one to fall over board sooner or later, but was disappointed in that. I instantly became the Indians' best friend after taking pictures of the whole group for them.
At several stops along the route, we could jump into the water for a round of snorkeling - for example close to Telegraph Island, from which the British at some point in history set up a telegraph line across the gulf. And you really could see some beautiful coloured fish, some tiny, some up to 40 cm long, in dozens of shapes and colors. But of course nothing like what you may have in mind from the sea life at coral reefs. After lunch (including freshly grilled fish from the local waters) and several more relaxing and laid back hours on the water, we returned to the port - the only bit of the trip that became a bit uncomfortable, as we had to run against wind and waves along the coast, sending sprays of water over the startled passengers who tried to seek shelter under their towels.
Khasab itself was a tiny, quite barren place, even though they do their best to have plants along the streets. But with temperatures rising above 50 degrees Celsius in summer (due to the mountains reflecting the sun into the valley and getting heated up), it must be quite difficult to keep them alive. The central area was actually quite nice when the night fell, with many people outside, chatting, sipping tea, playing cards or domino.
The difference in people compared to Dubai was very obvious, with much more men wearing traditional clothes, hardly any English to be heard, and even fewer women in the streets than in the old areas of Dubai. Funny thing: the locals are also honking a lot, but less to defend their spaces on the streets, but rather to greet people they knew. And, as it is a small village, you can imagine that locals spot many people they know, accordingly there was some degree of honking everywhere, all the time. After spending some hours in the streets and trying different food places for nibbles, I retired to my hotel. Brilliant day.
A colleague from Frankfurt is just visiting me on a stop-over on his way home from a Paris Hilton-like wedding celebration in Australia. The photo on the left was taken just outside one of the three office areas Asda'a Burson-Marsteller occupies here (see here for a picture showing the building).
I'm sure Jo loves taxi drivers and the traffic here in Dubai!
Today, there is a comment in The National by Sheikh Khalifa, President of the UAE, saying the financial crisis is under control. And, struggling to wake up this morning, I heard on BBC World News that a high-ranking official in the US argues the crisis there could be over by the end of the year if banks started lending again. Of course it takes some searching to discover such voices of cautious optimism - not many see "green shoots". In fact, there's been a UK minister who was only recently being criticized for using that expression.
But indeed there are sectors that defy the current downturn - and I'm not merely speaking of the likes of Air Arabia, apparently the first company to introduce low-cost carrier services in the Middle East modelled after European examples (did I mention I'm doing PR for them?). No, I'm speaking of a sector that may not be high up on the list of unprompted answers about 'industries you know' in a survey of public opinion: religious travel.
The head of a religious-travel trade group yesterday said that the UAE could build tourism despite the current global challenges by catering to pilgrims during the haj - the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which every Muslim who is financially able to do so is required to undertake at least once in his life (the haj is, as you may know, one of the five pillars of islam). Apparently, the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia brings in US 1.8billion per year, with experts arguing that "religious tourism is recognised as one of the most resilient markets in the industry".
Good to know there are stable things around. Now, how can we transfer this insight to Europe?
What shocked you in Germany, is being followed with sadness and shock here as well, at least if you ckeck the media agenda. No matter which news channel I tuned into yesterday evening Dubai time - CNN, BBC World News, Al Jazeera - the story of the shooting at the school in South-West Germany was everywhere, with interpreters struggling with the local dialect of the spokespeople at last evening's press conference and CNN simply filming German news station n-tv's live coverage as they had nobody on the ground themselves. Today, the National carries a piece on the frontpage, see here.
The paper observes: "Such shootings are rare in Germany, where gun laws are tight by comparison with many western countries, and the outbreak of such violence in this prosperous, sedate part of the country stunned the nation."
In everyday conversation, this was only shortly a topic yesterday when the news broke. And I have to say I'm also not too surprised by this new incident; somehow, even though it's every time a tragedy in its own right, you "get used to it" in a way. This is the second similar event I remember in Germany after Erfurt in 2002. Not to speak of others around the globe. A paper now even published a list of school-related shootings worldwide. Violence is simply there, any time you use any form of mass media there are reports, and it's not a question of if you like or accept it. Let's see what they identify as reasons this time - I'm sure somebody will find computer games in the teenager's home and blame them, as it was done almost seven years ago in Erfurt. Which sounded like too simple an answer for me even then.
The only thing that is evident here is that we can't simply look at the US and shake our heads at the tragedies happening over there, raising our eyebrows in disbelief at the groups promoting free access to guns and the weapons people keep at home. While these are things worthwhile to discuss, the true reasons for such horrible events seem to lie deeper, as they happen in one form or the other in any society. The horror movies, it seems, can come to anybody's town.
Sadly, it looks like there will always be people who violently interfere with other people's lives. No matter where you go, no matter how much we think of our civilization.
No, of course not the prophet. The prophet Mohammed's birthday was celebrated last Saturday. Today's the birthday of one of the guys in the room I work in. You get a small impression from the pictures. And yes, the cake WAS good! Apart from the icing on top. Too sweet for my liking. But hey, I'm not complaining! I bought it with the guy behind the birthday kid and the Lady in red in the other picture, both also working in the same room. Now, where did everyone go? I thought we go for a drink now! Hm. We'll come back to that.
Stunning. That's probably the best word to describe the desert. The slightly reddish, incredibly fine and soft sand, harmonious ripples drawn in a perfect pattern by the scalding winds of the desert, scattered patches of scarce plant life, the gentle dunes, the hazy horizon and the perfect blue sky above it all really are amazing.
IF you can get back into an air-conditioned 4wd vehicle anytime you want, that is. Because even now, in early spring, the sun burns down relentlessly (the skin on my arm is still peeling), the sand gets too hot to bear without closed shoes around midday, and after a few moments outside, you have sand anywhere - in your clothes, hair, ears, mouth. Good the camera did not conk out.
So it's little surprise that local people mostly only drive into the desert for some dune-bashing - which means you drive your car at high speeds up and down and around the sand dunes, avoiding the soft spots you might easily get stuck in and jumping over dune tips, including stomach-churning dips down into surprisingly deep valleys of sand. Dune-bashing is quite a popular pastime around here, I'm told - and something I also did last weekend as part of a desert trip.
A group of about twenty people in four cars left Dubai in the early morning to head to the Southwest (I think), passing the huge Chinese Dragon market, the far-out International Village, some gas stations and branches of banks in the middle of nowhere, as well as the only Dubai inland oil field (which you can't visit, I learned with some regret). And after letting out some air from the tires for better traction, we hit the desert at top speeds. While I took the dune-bashing mostly fine, two women quickly engaged in a screaming match which the one from Canada only won because the French girl had to jump out of the car and look very closely at the sand's intricate patterns. Several times. I felt sorry for her, because she clearly felt bad that the whole car had to stop just because of her - which didn't bother me at all, I used the stops for walking around and just sit or lie in the sand, or jumping down the sides of dunes, all the while avoiding the occasional "camel chocolate" (yes, it is what you think) on the ground.
During one stop at a camel farm (see picture) I got really close to these strange animals - and was surprised to feel how horrent and scrubby their fur is. But I didn't stay too long touching them, as I eyed their huge yellow teeth with some suspicion and felt better watching the camels from a few meters away. We later had lunch in the shadow of a huge rock, during which I managed not to spill any food over myself even though there was an abundance of red salad sauce and other highly spillable stuff. After a short drive into a mountainous area, I didn't regret to get back on normal streets again, as the dune-bashing is fun for maybe an hour but then gets somewhat repetitive, especially as the driver slowed down remarkably out of consideration for the Canadian-French Scream Team.
Nonetheless, the day was great - to see and to be in the desert is a unique experience nobody should miss out.
No, I'm not speaking merely about road accidents here. Even though that would be good for at least a two-hundred pages annual report, if you ask me.
Traffic here tends to be crazy, with cars changing lanes without any indication occasionally, cyclists going smaller streets the wrong way, people just popping up out of nowhere and crossing the street in the firm believe God will protect them (and if not, then it had been written anyway), taxis pushing and honking out of habit, drivers taking advantage of any tiny space you give them to squeeze in in front of you. And of course there's always construction work going on, sometimes changing a seemingly familiar route over night.
In fact, traffic, and road accidents, are considered to be one of the major problems here, maybe along with waste in some desert or beach areas and use of natural resources. According to a recent newspaper report, Dubai has one of the highest energy consumptions in the world - consuming on average 20,000 kilowatt hours of power per year per person and 130 gallons (1 gallon = about 4.56 liters) of water every day - with 70 percent of the fresh water supply provided through costly and energy-consuming desalination of sea water.
But apparently, the traffic situation has become much better with police cracking down on traffic offenders (by the way, try to avoid being handed a red copy of a form from policemen in case you are involved in an accident - because this means you are identified as the guilty party which means trouble, especially, as one expat claims, foreigners can't expect to be treated with leniency). There are many speed controls and people fail driving tests for only going slightly faster than allowed on a given road (which might also be an excuse to make money on the part of some driving schools - I hear some people failed the test 10 times and more, with government now having introduced a law according to which you may appeal if you fail your driving test two or three times). A major problem only a few years ago seem to have been nationals in fast cars zooming in and out of the traffic on Dubai's six-lane-motorways, apparently mistaking the street for kind of a hyperrealistic version of a computer racing game. Unsurprising, nationals until recently were involved in pro-rata more accidents than their absolute numbers in Dubai would suggest, but it's improving. And then there's the metro system under development at present, which is intended to be finished by September this year, which will eventually transport tens of thousands of people daily, even though nobody really knows if the deadline can be met.
Anyway, what I really wanted to write about is that many people come to Dubai by accident. Many do not make the intentional decision at some point to come here. At a party last weekend in a formidable white expat villa with a view on the Burj Dubai, large walled garden including swimming pool, I spoke to a manager from London who simply came because the package his company offered was too good to resist - and he finds he likes it here, as there is much less tax and much less crime than in his home city of almost 30 years. Then there was the language teacher from New York, who left her beloved Big Apple to be at least a bit closer to her boyfriend, who works for the US government in Iraq. Or there's the German girl who had lived with her soon-to-be Scottish husband in Berlin for some time, but who found they had to live in a place where both can find the jobs they want. Another German, working for a UK university in Dubai, just ended up in Dubai after several years in Cairo and still feels ambigious about her new home. And there's the French consultant working in Dubai's World Trade Center - in the early 80s the only high-rise building in Dubai - who just felt like a change for a couple of years. Similarly, many of the services staff such as taxi drivers or hotel employees come from countries such as India or Pakistan, in order to work, earn money, and hopefully go back some time and build their homes in the countries of origin.
The individual stories as well as the standards of living and future prospects differ, but one way or the other, they all came for the chances and promises of Dubai, and many live in something like a more or less permanent temporary arrangement. From what I know so far, you might find it to be a challenging task to find expats planning to stay forever. This, it seems, is not only true because some I spoke to miss aspects that make a place worthwhile for living over a long period for them, or because many are still young, being in their 20s or 30s - but apparently because whoever comes to Dubai, is always more than welcome as a guest. And stays a guest no matter for how long you settle down here. You will never be considered a local. There was, for instance, the desert safari tour guide whose parents are from Bangladesh - but he was born and raised in Dubai. Nonetheless, he weill never receive citizenship and the accompanying privileges such as the right to vote. In earlier posts, I have also already spoken about how other rules apply to expats than to Emiratees.
All this surprises me mainly for one thing: Dubai depends on people coming.
If you only count the dozens, probably hundreds of real estate development projects, spanning living spaces as well as office floors and hotels, you can only wonder who will ever fill them with life. Apparently, on The Palm, only the front appartments are sold so far, the rest ist partly still in construction, partly simply empty. In some areas, the most activity was speculation with properties, buying and selling flats for a profit. Dubai Mall, one of the biggest shopping centers around here - the biggest one is still in the US, but supposedly there are plans to build the biggest mall in Dubai soon. Now, honestly, were you surprised by that piece of information? -, still feels quite empty even with many people there, just because it is so huge and many shops are not yet sold.
So what if people stop coming - there are already rumors in some newspapers that places like Taipeh might be the next Dubai in the making - while the people who are here don't want to stay because they will never really feel at home for various reasons? Is this sustainable?
So up to now, there has been this huge growth, and if you want my personal opinion, we haven't seen the end of it yet, despite the global situation. But what will be next?
If you leave the city for a trip in the desert, like I did last weekend, you cannot help but be struck by the sheer unlikeliness of Dubai existing in the way it does. There's simply nothing but a few scattered buildings, brand-new streets complete with lighting, and seemingly endless desert once you leave the city and areas such as International City on the outskirts of Dubai behind you. Heat, sand, space. Three or four oil fields, most of them in the sea. And the people's determination to reach for the stars. That's about it.
Believe it or not, but I did find a nice backyard open air cafe in Dubai, where you can even relax in the shadow of a real tree. It's close to Bastakia, the old, re-built area close to Dubai Museum near the mouth of the Creek (on the map at least). And of course I had to try Arabic coffee.
From what I heard, there are two main ways of preparing Arabic coffee. One way is to use cardamom or other spices such as saffron - which you can buy at a good price in Dubai's Spice Souk, by the way, and which gives the hot beverage a golden colour. The other version is called gahwa saada (plain coffee), it is without anything added and more bitter. It's that latter version I had so far - a bit unfamiliar for Western Europeans: the coffee powder remains in the pot after brewing, so you have to wait first till it settles at the bottom before you drink. Usually, you serve coffee in small cups, only just about covering the bottom of the cup.
By the way, invitations to have a coffee or tea seems to be quite common as a social event with Emiratee people - much more than invitations to their homes, with an invitation usually meaning that your contact person is at least entertaining the idea there might be a friendship in the making with you. Anyway, it would be quite rude to say 'no' without an important reason - of course only after politely declining the offer first, as only if the invitation is repeated, you can be sure it is sincere and not merely made out of politeness.
This, of course, is not necessarily the case with other people from other nationalities - which, as I mentioned earlier, make up about 80 percent of Dubai's population. So generally I'm finding it not an easy task to decide when to act upon which rule with people - are they Arabic, should I use what I read about good manners in Arabia? Or are they more internationally-minded, so I can simply adhere to our European codex of good manners? I definitely gave up on greeting people in shops in Arabic, as with very few exceptions so far, they all came from other nations so English was more appropriate. A good approach is to hold back a little, and see how the others behave and adapt your ways to that - at least in the beginning.
The pot in the picture above, by the way, is a small dallah, a special traditional coffee pot. Supposedly not the original UAE/Dubai design - which can be found on the back of the 1 Dirham coin (see right).
And such a dallah is what I bought last weekend at the Arabic Souk style shopping mall of Madinat Jumeirah (see - I get back to what I promised to write about earlier!). And without meaning to, I was quite successful at haggling - which is what you should try almost anywhere apart from in restaurants or supermarkets maybe.
The reason is: The price in many Arabic countries is, from the point of view of the seller, more the starting point for a discussion than what you actually pay in the end; the price will invariably be too high in the beginning. And don't worry, nothing will ever be sold without any profit. So haggling really is about making the markup as small as possible. There are translations of hillarious conversations around, also in some guide books, in which people not only ask about each other's well-being during a sales talk about dresses, but about family as well and supposedly even invent connections with people the other indicates to know just for the sake of establishing a link with each other. I have the distinct feeling that I should even have tried to haggle when I got a hair cut the other day - because the amount I paid seemed to be not in relation to other normal costs around here. However, I understand the tradition of haggling is much stronger in other Arabic countries. So it may be better not to exaggerate. There's certainly less drama in buying a carpet here than maybe in a traditional Egyptian market.
Back to my only half-intentional haggling. The thing is: I found the dallah in question quite expensive indeed; and was really reluctant to spend what I considered to be a lot of money on something I merely wanted to buy as a souvenir. So while I was standing there, with wrinkled forehead, trying to make up my mind if I really wanted to buy a souvenir like that at all, probably making incomprehensible noises of doubt in the process, the salesman just kept lowering the price more and more. After some time, he asked me what I'd consider a good price. Sure he'd object, I said a price still well below what he was asking for. To my utter surprise he said ok. So this is how it came that I got a souvenir - which probably is the cultural equivalent to a German cuckoo clock - at almost half the marked price.
Still I felt bad for spending the money. Which is why I decided to take a public bus instead of a taxi back. Which turned out to be a bad mistake.
Because, while buses are really new (and very cheap), run quite often on the main routes and even bus stops are air-conditioned, there is only a selection of the stops en route on display at the stop; and never a sign inside the bus where you could see where you actually are. Trying to follow the streets which the bus was slowly making his way through on a map, with street signs more than hard to read if there are at least two lanes of heavy traffic between you and them while darkness is falling, is as futile as resistance to Borgs in the Star Trek universe. So after a while, and as the person I asked for help apparently knew his way around (which is not necessarily the case if you approach people in the street, even though most will point in a certain direction; but they will do so even if they have little clue what you are talking about, simply for the sake of being polite and really wanting to help - I experienced that when I was looking for an ATM, and was sent in a new direction every time I asked only to find out there was one in the building I had started from), I got off.
And walked. Which took a long, long time. So coming by a shopping mall, I decided to make another buy - a Blue Bedouin CD (chillout music inspired by traditional themes and instruments, by a local Dubai band - go here and scroll down to "Hussain Al Bagali' to read about the man) to offset the frustration with some more retail therapy.
The next day, Saturday, I just went to the beach after I had visited the mosque (see my earlier entry) - to Jumeirah beach park to be exact, not far away from the Jumeirah Mosque, where you pay a few dirhams but get a nice beach next to a green park for. After having a healthy burger with fries, I had a healthy nap in the sand. And that was it for that day. Good I was protected from the sun by the sand in the air higher above the ground, which apparently came from a sand storm the day before. I really need du bai sunscreen.
While I'm usually not exorbitantly intrigued by financial stuff, I found it interesting that the UAE's financial markets seem to reflect the overall status of the two biggest emirates, too.
At first glance, there appear to be many similarities: Both markets were formed in 2000, both want to serve the national economy and support "economic prosperity" - so their perspective goes beyond the respective local home base. Indeed, they appear to be direct competitors, as both want to become the "market of choice" in the region. The indices of both include a lot of financial companies, insurances, and construction, and both stress integrity, fairness, and transparency. And of course, currently both are not exactly soaring.
Talking to a colleague, I learnt that local companies tend to be financial patriots: if you're in Abu Dhabi, you may be more inclined to go public through ADX; if you're from Dubai, you rather choose the Dubai Financial Market. And, apparently, Dubai has a better reputation in terms of corporate governance. But that's only hearsay, of course.
The main objective difference I saw: DFM appears to be clearly the larger market, for example in terms of market capitalization or daily trade value (the latter about Dh 239.5 mio. vs. Dh 63 mio at 12 am). And Dubai experienced stronger growth over the past few years - which of course is absolutely in line with the Emirate's efforts to attract business as part of Dubai's success story of the past 10 years.
So here we are again - Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the big guys, with Dubai being the recent years' rising star. Well. Considering I just spoke about financial markets, that's pretty interesting, huh?
It's not all gold that glitters. This old saying is of course true for Dubai, too - especially in the current economic climate (see one of my old postings). We all hear about people loosing their jobs, everywhere. And I just had a sad and touching experience.
I met someone who has recently lost his job - and while his face was smiling, you could see and hear how distraught he really is - "I have nothing". As a foreigner, loosing a job is in several ways a blow - financially, psychologically as anywhere, but also in terms of the permission to live in the UAE. Because the visa you have is tied to your job, as far as I understood. If it is cancelled, you have about one month - until you have to leave the country.
And it seems officials seek to identify people living in the UAE without a permit. The National today carries a news item on a police initiative aiming to catch those living illegally in the country through more random ID checks. Click here if you want to see how readers of that paper feel about being required to carry IDs at all times.
The person I met now tries hard to find new employment: "I have been at job fairs, but there are so many job seekers. And companies mainly look for certain professionals such as architects or engineers." I keep my fingers crossed for you, man. Don't give up.
Well, I'm not sure if it's really true what I'm claiming in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way in the headline. But it was definitely true for my own weekend.
Friday is the most important religious day of the week - with the big obligatory Friday prayer around midday. As a result, public life slows down considerably between about 11.30 am and 1pm - don't try to find internet access or want to buy a telephone card during this time, you might walk your shoe sole through before you find anything open. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about.
The Friday prayer is really important for Muslims, there's hardly any excuse not to go to a nearby mosque (wth more than 1,000 in Dubai alone, you never have to go far anyway; the normal weekly prayers, by the way, can be done anywhere; would be really hard to go to a mosque five times a day anyway...). And not making it to a mosque three Fridays in a row is considered a really grave sin.
I used Saturday morning to get a look inside Jumeirah Mosque, one of the few times during the week when non-believers may enter the place accompanied by a knowledgeable guide (the guy you see in the picture - "If you are in distress, you do what? You pray!"). It was a remarkable experience, as volunteers could also go through the careful washing routine required before you enter the mosque for prayer ("If you go see your boss, you do what? You make sure you look good!"). So you wash your ears, your nose, your face, your arms and hands as well as your feet - which really helps to focus on the moment and get calm inside for the religious encounter.
Islam, as I hear, means "submission" - "So if you go inside a mosque, you do what? You submit yourself to God!" (which is also a reason why one should never pass in front of a praying person - because Muslims consider their connection with God interrupted if someone steps between them and Mecca, which they face during prayer - "So they have to do what? Start the whole prayer all over again!" And a prayer session can be anything between two minutes and twenty minutes long). And yes of course you take your shoes off at the doorstep, because shoes are considered dirty; women are to cover their hair, short sleeves and shorts are a taboo out of respect.
The Mosque inside was of a holy simplicity and elegance, yet also colourful and light in atmosphere, with the voice of the Imam (leader of the religious service) being carried into every corner by the fantastic accoustics of the building; which by the way, is full of light, space, but also comfortable with the whole floor covered with soft carpeting on which believers sit or kneel during the service. There are no pictures, no statues inside the mosque - just a big open space, with a few pillars, and the mihrab (Prayer niche), which indicates the direction of prayer. This direction is called "qibla", and is the way to face Mecca, which has been a holy place for more than 1400 years and played an important role even before the prophet Mohammed left the city for Medina in 622 - the year which marks the start of the Muslim calendar just as the birth of Jesus Christ is supposed to set the Christian year Zero. The mosque, clearly, is not meant to dwarf or impress people; but simply a place for gathering and silent worshipping.
And this is virtually all it takes for a place to be a potential mosque: purity (it has to be clean), there has to be a mihrab, and it has to offer enough space for people to gather and pray. The spires are mainly there to make the Muezzin's voice heard (in earlier times, the Muezzin used to climb the towers outside, nowadays speakers installed at the top do a very good job in making sure you don't even miss the early morning call...) So you could rightly consider a prayer room at an airport to be a mosque, if it meets these requirements.
The guide spoke a lot about the religion and its meaning for everyday life ("It is what? The center of the life!") and answered questions the group of visitors had (among them a former construction manager from South Africa, now using his new spare time after being made redundant to show his son, usually living in Switzerland and very sunburnt, around town): how do you become a Muslim? (Basically, you just say a certain formula in a certain way and with serious intention, and there you are! A Muslim for life.) What are the five pillars of Islam? (the testimonial that there is only one God, the ritual prayer five times a day, giving to the poor, fasting during Ramadan, and the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca). Down to What do the different colours of the traditional clothing mean? (White is simply the most convenient against sun, and fashion let's you choose more colourful robes in winter). Here are some pictures of traditional Muslim clothing; and an article in the German Islamische Zeitung on the topic.
And the guide told much more about the religion - for a popular introduction to Islam, see this wikipedia article. Otherwise I could go on and on , with the insights of someone trying to get at least a fleeting impression of what is not just a religion, but also sets down rules for everyday life not just in law, but also a guidance through what the Prophet said, did, agreed to or condemned ("Sunna").
A word of advice, if you don't mind: if you come to Arabia one day - even more if you plan to see more conservative places on the peninsula than Dubai: better not discuss religion or politics with Muslims unless you know them really well, you are bound to provoke misunderstandings as perspectives are very different. It is, however, a very enlightening thing to ask about the perspectives of people here. And if you're forced to comment, I found it's a good idea to stress similarities between the religions or focus on positive aspects you see.
Coming here, to the beautiful Jumeirah Mosque, I was acutely aware that while we feel very strongly about certain things to be "right" or "true", what we actually have with certainty is simply our perspectives, acquired through heritage and experiences as one of billions of individuals on earth. And some things we just consider normal because they surround us every day.
I know, that's only been one of the pillars I announced. But: Gosh, I need to work now. Talk to you soon.
If you want to know when you have a day off in the UAE, you may have to look up at the sky. This is because Muslim festivals are timed according to local sightings of various phases of the moon. So the expression "to look up" the dates of holidays really makes sense here, as they are, well, sort of written in the stars...
I learned this when I wanted to know whether or not I would have a long weekend soon with the Prophet Mohammed's birthday coming up. This year, I found, the public holidays will be around these days (approximative dates):
1 Jan New Year's Day. 7 Jan Ashoura. 9 Mar Mouloud (Birth of the Prophet). 20 Jul Leilat al-Meiraj (Ascension of the Prophet). 21 Sep Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan). 28 Nov Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice). 2 Dec National Day. 18 Dec Al-Hijra (Islamic New Year). 27 Dec Ashoura.
BUT reading the Gulf News today (another of the big quality English nationals), I learned that this year's holiday celebrating the Birth of the Prophet has just been moved to this week, Saturday. Which already is a free day at my company anyway. What a pity.
Interestingly, it seems that public holidays also depend on whether or not you work for authorities and government - as, according to the ministry of labour, the reason for the change, being announced yesterday, is to "make the private sector holiday ... more coherent with the public sector holiday, which falls on March 8". Two sectors, two holidays. Makes sense. But it's still the same prophet, right? ;-)
The current global crisis, a long-time BBC man argued, is a result of pursuing extreme ideas - namely, of too much capitalism. Speaking yesterday at the Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature (a new event welcomed by those who think there could be a richer cultural life in Dubai), Sir Mark Tully, who was a journalist in India for more than 20 years, said: "The most crucial thing in life is to follow the middle road and seek perpetually for a balance".
Remember this guy? After the British expat manager, working and living the fast life in Dubai, was made redundant earlier this year, he took a pen and advertised himself on his white Porsche: "Made redundant today, Andy Blair, Construction Project Manager, 055343 4XXXX". (For one of the many news articles, go here). Now, it seems, Mr B. has found a new job - and a "decidedly modest" lifestyle, as one of the UAE's English quality papers, The National, reports.
Having tried to get an overview of the city last weekend, I decided to check out a few things in more detail now. High up on the list: nightlife ;-) After all, Dubai has a reputation for its numerous clubs in every style imaginable, popular especially among foreigners as they, often belonging to international hotels, are licensed to sell anything you might want to drink on a night out.
So I joined a colleague and a group of Indians on Thursday night (having worked till late on a presentation I felt I deserved a drink) to go for a Cuba bar in Jumeirah, which proved to be a great start into the weekend. Even though it somehow slowed down my start the next morning... Good thing you don't need your head for duties such as washing and doing some grocery shopping.
Later the day, I just followed random streets in Bur Dubai for a while just to see how it is here and to get a feel for everyday life on the street - which is very busy on the weekend, with people swarming all about the area, shopping, getting other things done. And constant chatter in foreign languages everywhere. I really like the small food stands which sell the best fast food you can imagine from India, Lebanon or other countries at miniscule prices: spicy Samosas, Shawarma, pastry, deep-fried banana or any possible vegetable covered in a dough coating and then fried in oil, and much more. I ended up on the banks of the Creek once more, which have become one of my favourite areas of the city so far, where a steady breeze cooled down the afternoon heat. I visited Heritage Village, a reconstructed area of traditional buildings, small museums, artists' stands and food places.
I spent Friday evening with a friend from Germany and, later, with some random guys from Australia, close to the Burj Al Arab - in a bar with a spectacular 360 degrees view over the nightly sea, with the city's jagged skyline including Burj Dubai at the horizon and the fantastically lit Burj Al Arab behind me. Great evening there - especially, as some Ron from Australia and his friends insisted on inviting me for a drink, and I enjoyed the mild evening temperature and groovy lounge music. There seems to be some sort of feeling of comradship between some expats, very informal and sort of a best friends-attitude from moment one till the end of the evening. After a while, I settled in a comfy divan bed facing the sea, glass in one hand, looked out at the skyline and contemplated life, universe and the rest for some time. Happy and with a distinct feeling of having thought really big thoughts, I finally left for home. The picture above is the 360 bar.
Come back tomorrow, if you wish, for (probably, if time permits) a few lines on my Jumeirah Mosque visit Saturday morning, first small-scale shopping spree and some relaxed beach life in Jumeirah beach park.
This is a blog about my three months' stay in Dubai.
I'm here on a work exchange program from my company - working during the week, trying to explore Dubai and the UAE at the weekend.
The intention of this blog is simply to share what captures my attention with those who want to read about it - and thus discover a bit of Dubai themselves. As this is public space, I will write little about my job, though.
I hope you'll enjoy what you read. If you do, come back for more every day!
Dubai World Cup is one of the biggest international sport events in the UAE.
Later that day I visited the incredibly green oasis of Al Ain - one of the things I was particularly keen on experiencing here in terms of natural phenomena, along with having a closer look at a desert. The oasis covers a huge area, and the climate is noticeably gentler in there, not as dry, not as hot as outside. They mainly cultivate dates here.
