Wandering dogs and cows (Mt. Abu Rajasthan India)

Here we see the local wandering critters getting some' take out' at the neighbourhood garbage burning pit. Yup they all wander through and get what ever tickles their fancy.

I have seen sooo many cows eating cardboard or paper. I suppose it is ok .....it's cellulose which is the same thing as grass. I can't imagine what the milk would taste like, bleckh!

Mellow Pooch (Mt. Abu Rajasthan India)

Holy smokes it's like... 9:00 am.....well past nap time! He probably got tired of wandering.

Wandering Cows (Mt. Abu Rajasthan)

The cows here...."actually all the animals" states Lila, "seem so mellow". I'll agree with her, you have to be a mellow animal to survive on a street here.... at any given moment trucks, cars, motorbikes, etc.etc. will pass by within inches of your nice long floppy ears.

Wandering Goats ( MT. Abu Rajasthan)

Everything wanders free here.... cows (of course), dogs, cats, goats, horses, kids....everything and everyone. This is just a pic of some goats hanging out together meandering up the street, looking for a bite.

The life of a cab driver (Mt Abu. Rajasthan)

In Mt. Abu and probably other places as well they have these small garden carts which are taxis. Padded seats, little side doors, it's a nice open air way of getting around....pretty swanky.!

If anyone reading this is looking for a low stress career change this could be it. By the look of things here stress is fairly low......possibly they conceal it well? I can introduce you to some people in the trade.

View from the back (Mt. Abu Rajasthan India)

Here we are looking at one of the local hotels.... a view from the back of the meditation center that we were at. We would sit and have tea and enjoy the sights and sounds.

Mt. Abu Shoe Repair ( Rajasthan India)

This is one 'shop' out of many that line the streets of Mt. Abu. Not all shops look like this of course......they go from this style to quite sophisticated places just like we would see in the west (sort of).

Nice thing about this one is the low operating costs and the good (free) lighting.
Disadvantages?
You have to be careful that the monkeys don't take over the shop if you dodge out for a cup of tea. Additionally, there could be a cow in your spot when you come into work in the morning, in which case you would have a good excuse to not punch the clock.

Mt. Abu boys (Rajasthan India)

These little fellas are are even sweeter than their smiles. They were busy preparing their kites for flight and burst into big grins when I approached them.
The local boys are really into mini kites which are apparently quite difficult to operate. They seem to be able to make them fly with just a whisper of wind.

finally....I have surrendered to the wind.

and finally,......... I have surrendered to the wind,

because I have seen

there is life force much greater than me

least of all the wind.

Drifting sand, arid heat, clear sky

Hair cut

Question: How do you get someone to change the way they cut your hair if their English is worse than your itty bitty Arabic vocabulary?

Answer: You draw a picture of course!

This is the paper that I took with me to the barber shop. He got it right away, and I got the 'do that I wanted.

Liwa Camel Farm

Here we find the camel herder and one of his herd, very close to Liwa UAE.

Minaret at Dusk

A real stroke of luck here with the sun going down and the moon setting as well.

Gettin' Around

"My gosh it's soooooo hard to walk here !"












" Try this! It's so much easier to get around!"

Sunrise at the Tal Moreeb

Tal Moreeb means the Moreeb Dune, and that's the big one out here.......over 300 M high, now that's a big sand pile.

Take a look at this video, this is the exact same dune......not quite as serene as this pic here on the left, but everyone has their own take on what is beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ogvbAhUZs&feature=related

You will have to copy the address above and paste it into your browser address bar.....it's worth the trouble!

Calf and Cow

A calf and cow pictured here in the corral. The fence was surprisingly ratty, this would not of kept a cow or a horse in, however,....camels are a different story I suppose.

Here are a few cool camel facts.
1) These are Dromidary camels or Arabian. The two humpers are Bactrian.
2) The hump is fat, not water and it has it's own nifty hairdoo going on there,....."you are stylin' there girlie." Having all of the fatty tissue on top is thought to be better where as if it were spread throughout the body it would likely insulate too much.
3) Camels can live up to fifty years. You want to be sure you are ready to work on the long term relationship with one before you go down to the pet store!
4) Camels have two rows of thick eyelashes to protect their eyes from blowing dust and sand.
5) Camels can go for 17 days without water in scorching weather and can lose 1/3 of its body weight without being affected.They can drink 100- 150 liters of water in 6 minutes
6) They have several adaptations to cope with arid hot conditions; a) a nose that recaptures humidity from the breath. b) an adjustable core body temp to suit the exterior temp. c)urine production goes down significantly when not drinking. d) a camel with its natural coat transpires or sweats 50% less than without, the coat also serves to keep them warm when the temps fluctuate. e)when thirsty transpiration is reduced to near zero. f) they have dry feces, only 2.5 liters of water is lost daily, compare to a cow which looses 30 - 40 liters per day g)specialized blood corpuscles that are oval in shape, this facilitates good flow during a dehydrated state, (only reptiles, birds and fish have these types of corpuscles) h) ear hairs that prevent excessive water loss i) long legs to get some distance from the desert floor. j) big feet to stay on top of the sand. (they don't live in rocky deserts) k) a sturdy mouth that can eat thorny desert plants.
7) Camels generally have a gentle nature but can spit a stream of fetid gick from their upper stomach if spooked, frustrated or angry, apparently its a real chemical bomb.

Keeper of the Camels

Here is our wandering camel tender, back home with the entire herd intact. I was evidently more stressed about it than he was.

What are you Dune over there?

Lila is off to find a tree to cut down so that we can build a fire and cook our breakfast. I hope this doesn't take too long, I'm hungry!

Wall of Sand

Here we are in the Rub' al Khali or The Empty Quarter, this is story book fantasy stuff. We are in one of the largest sand deserts in the world, maybe even the largest, it certainly looks like it from where we are.

Pictured here is the first medium-small sized dune that we encountered. The biggest one in the immediate area is the Moreeb Dune which is more than 300 metres high and has an angle of 50 degrees on the front face,.... it looks like a really really huge wall of sand, I'm guessing it looks that way because it IS a really, really huge wall of sand.
If using Google Earth, type in Moreeb Dunes UAE,....that's were we were!

Nice shot Lila!

A little later on we were treated to this scene, a herd of camels taking their caregiver out for a walk.

Seriously though, he was out cruising with a dozen or so camels very widely spaced apart(there are another dozen behind the dune),...... how he gets them back home I have no idea. I'm guessing Twinkies,... you just make some noise with the plastic wrapper and they come running.

Please, desert me !

Here we are on our way to enjoy a weekend in the Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter is what they call the desert that starts in the Liwa Oasis area and stretches all the way into Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, and Yemen.

We didn't even have to get where we were going and we saw these crazy looking moose with backpacks on and no antlers. The locals call them camels, I can't argue with them after all it is their country.

Anyway, you can see by the distance they are keeping that they were not interested in the twinkies that I had pulled out of my pocket for them. Funny,... the moose back home always like twinkies. (Click the pic for a larger view.)

Abu Dhabi to launch third session of Camel Festival

This is an internet blurb about the Camel Festival. These critters are pretty cool.

The Festival is held under the patronage of HH Gen. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

The Festival also seeks to highlight Bedouin culture, activate heritage tourism, and promote the name of Al Dhafra in Al Gharbia tourism map, in addition to activating the economic movement in the region.

More than 24,000 camels belonging to 2000 camel owners in the Gulf region participated in the last session for prizes worth Dh 40 million(approximately 11 million US dollars).

Article copied from ExoticDubai.com

Strained what ? !

Yup it says Strained Foul,....nice.
Well, despite the name this stuff is actually pretty good, it's kind of like re-fried beans but with a really bad marketing scheme behind it. I don't know what ever initially possessed us to actually purchase a can of this, crazy I guess.
Truth be told it was actually someone at the grocery store who saw us buying beans and recommended it. She was right! I'll send some home if someone wants a can.

I'll buy ya an Abaya

Here is Lilas' first day in an Abaya. I don't see the local gals showing any ankle, what's up with that Lila?

Kandura and Abaya

This pic is borrowed from the person and site listed down below until I get my own to post here.
Anyway this is exactly what all of the UAE Nationals wear, and I see dozens of them every day. The Abaya for women and the Kandura for men, sometimes called the Dish Dash. It looks pretty smart I think.

One absolutely remarkable thing about the Dish Dash is that I have never seen one that is dirty OR wrinkled. Not a word of a lie.! They are always impeccable. Apparently some people own 50 of these or more with 20 or so at the cleaners at any given time.
I have heard that if you are a National it is law that you must wear the official dress.

Tap water

All tap water here comes from the ocean.....after it has been desalinated. Apparently after the power generating plants have used the steam to turn the turbines the leftover heat goes into distilling the water gathered from the Arabian Sea.

Two birds one stone,... nice.

Did you know that you should not drink distilled water? The pure water will pull certain salts and elements from your body. So to make it drinkable and safe they add some salts and trace elements back into it.

Water storage

The item of interest here are the water tanks on the roof (white). It seems that most places maybe even all places have them.

This is for the 'cold' water supply, however after sitting in the 38 C heat in the sun and it dropping to a whopping 36 at night, cold is only a distant memory.

Hot showers here are not an issue, the issue is can you cool the hot down enough to not burn yourself?

Dust to Dust

The life span of a high rise building here is around 25 years! After that the foundation has started to become unreliable due to the salinity of the water in the soil, so down it comes. Here is a tear down in progress, the crane in the middle has a big wrecking ram on it and it continues to chip away. Approximately half way up you can see some red tile that was once someones bathroom. No wonder they were anxious to knock it down.

Safety Message

The message here is more like 'Incorrect Passing Kills', referring to the generally accepted method of overtaking other cars on the highway. The method? (only to be done at speeds in excess of 120 km/hr)
Drive up as fast as you can, and slam on the brakes at the last nano second, hold on as close as you can, flash your lights, honk incessantly, don't give the car you are passing any room to get out of your way, or if there is room and the split second of patience you have is already gone,...suddenly swerve and pass on the right.
Very entertaining at least!

Parking ??

This is a shot from the balcony of our apartment showing the street below. That mishmash of cars you see is actually one of the more orderly arrangements that I have observed.

Parking space is a premium in the downtown and the rule is ' no rules'. Park it wherever you can, and as long as a car can squeeze through it is legit!

Own a SUV? ,...then you have just doubled the parking choices available because now you can get over the curb and park on the sidewalk!

On A Bicycle Built for.......

.......your guess is as good as mine!
Lila

Hunain Secondary School

Hi ho, Hi ho
It's off to school I go!
Beyond these gates....this is the school I'll be teaching in. Now I have only a 30-50 minute commute to school. Wait for my first day of school photo where I'll be wearing my new abaya (dress code for female teachers). Unfortunately, I can't take any photos of the girls as it is illegal. First day of classes....Sept. 27 (work week runs from Sunday-Thursday). Lila

Al Samha Girls School

This was the first school to which I was assigned.
As you can tell from the photo the school is in a very barren, remote location...just miles of desert sand surrounding it. No township, no village. I'm glad I pushed for a transfer as I was promised at my interview that I would be placed in Abu Dhabi city and this is NOT Abu Dhabi city, it's virtually a 90 minute drive north of Abu Dhabi at a cross-road in the desert!
Lila

The Emirates Palace Hotel

This sweet little place is a rockin 7 star hotel. I didn't even know there was such a rating.

One can tour the palace, no charge, in fact they have exhibitions here that are free as well.

I found this photo on the net at the address below, the photo itself looks like a drawing but the actual palace is no less impressive.

Fathima Supermarket

When you step out the front door of our apt. you see Fathima's sign.
This is where we do some of our shopping, it's really small and kind of like a general store. You can get everything that you need here as far as essentials are concerned, like soup to nuts.

Upstairs you can buy suitcases if you are leaving town, can openers to get into that soup tin you just purchased downstairs or prayer mats if the one you have just won't hold out for one more session.

Yours Truly

Yaris

OK I was pretty much lost before, now I am still lost except that I am now 35 km from home. At least I have a map to keep the sun off my head so I'm not too over cooked when the vultures swoop in.

This is showing off our new set of rented wheels that I call squishies ( it looks like they were squished between two trucks). You can get them by the day, week month, year whatever. Unlimited mileage too!
Singapore here we come!

Back home in Canada I would always have an emergency survival kit in the car, you know,.. 7 pairs of long johns, candles, blankets, food, etc etc. Here you keep drinking water in the trunk. ( and a camel ideally)

The Doors ( not the rock band)

Pictured here is one of the entrances (wooden doors) and the sculpted openings that lead to the outdoor "porch thingy" that surrounds the theatre before you can get to the wooden doors.

For further clairification and loads of quote marks surrounding nebulous terms like "thingy" please leave a comment with your email.

The Theatre

A couple of shots of the theatre previously seen from across the water in the photo titled "The Arabian Gulf".

Tile Work

This highly detailed tile work is at the entrance way to the theatre pictured in the photos titled "In The Arabian Gulf". It would be my assumption that every piece of this was laid individually, because that just seems to be how they do things of this nature here.

Iftar Tent

Iftar is breakfast in Arabic, literally breaking -fast, which is done after sunset during Ramadan. Iftar can be enjoyed at home with the family and sometimes as a community at an Iftar tent.

Traditionally fast is broken with dates and water.

This particular tent is in front of the Mosque just down the street from us.( pictured in the following photos.)

Throughout Ramadan the city is spotted with such tents.

The Gate

Minarets have been described as " the gate between heaven and earth"

More Mosque

Here you can see the prayer hall or Mushalla windows lit up on the main floor level with the minarets behind.

Minarets were also used as a type of air conditioning before mechanical AC became popular. The sun would heat up the tower and then pull air up and out (stack effect) and thereby pull in air from outside to cool off the people inside.

Minarets in the dark

Shown here is the dome and two of the four minarets that this particular mosque has. Minaret comes from the Arabic word manara which means light house. Before the days of speakers and microphones the Muezzin (person who sings out the call to prayer) would climb up the minaret and call out from the gallery up near the top.