East of Dubai, Gulf of Oman -- continued

The signs along the roads are worth a mention too. This "camel crossing" sign caught our eye, and not just because it was bracketed by the frequent "humps ahead" sign, seen here in the distance.

All roads are decorated with speed bumps, or humps in local parlance, that are intended to slow the traffic before round-abouts or U-turn opportunities.

There are very few legal left turns on UAE roads. Instead, you drive past your intended street and find the first opportunity to make a 180 and go back for a right turn. In heavy traffic, this leads to incredible jams of cars turning around at any break in the median, often two abreast.

This picture shows the view of the mountains as we drove on highway 88 toward Dibba. It was Friday morning, the Sabbath so to speak, so there was not much traffic at all.

For all the traffic in the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi -- which can jam up like K Street in Washington at the drop of a hat -- there are also wide open spaces. Dubai already has a beltway road, six lanes in each direction, and it's "heavy traffic" if you see another car on it. As we drove out on Friday morning, there were only the large power line pylons marching alongside the road.


Motorways in the Emirates are well marked with speed limits, merging traffic signs, information about forthcoming intersections, and direction to major towns. Important tourist sites identified on brown signs with white letters, just like in the U.S.

Smaller two lane roads wind through towns and villages, with many small shops and services lining the highway with their colorful, brightly lit signs. There are lots of grocers, telephone salesmen, air conditioning sellers, rug merchants, and fabric sellers. Given the number of fabric shops, I conclude that people buy fabrics and take them to tailors who make the clothes. There are few shops that specialize in women's or men's ready-made clothing. And, while you don't see many hair salons for women, but almost every block has a barbershop, and inside is a man getting a shave. This seems to be true at almost any hour of the day or evening.

To the East of Dubai -- Gulf of Oman

Leaving Dubai in the early morning, the sun was shining nicely on the Burj Kalifa, so we stopped and took a couple of photographs. It really is a graceful building and deceptive about its height.

We drove east to the Gulf of Oman, through the town called Friday's Market, and up by Dibba, doing some bird watching and countryside looking along the way. Peter wanted to find certain birds, and we did spot one. He has an incredible eye for this, spotting and identifying birds that I barely notice.

We saw wild camels wandering around in the desert (well, they probably belonged to someone), and triangular "camel crossing" signs along the road.

The country become very mountainous as you proceed out there to the east, and then you drop down to the sea. We stopped at a little beach resort, called Sunny Beach, which is just even with a big rock formation called "Snoopy" that is about two hundred yards off shore. We bought a day entry, rented flippers and a mask (Peter hired scuba gear), and we went snorkeling and scuba diving.

Actually the 10 o'clock scuba trip was taken over by a class, so we went snorkeling around the island called Snoopy. It looks like Snoopy in profile laying down on his back.

We could not go out on the boat until 1 p.m. So we had lunch on the patio overlooking the water, and it was quite pleasant sitting in the sunshine with a gentle breeze off the water. Eventually large bus loads of corpulent Russians and Germans began arriving.

But, before they began to block our view of the sea, we set off in a dive boat with four Norwegians and a young American couple. It takes a long time to put on all the equipment for scuba diving, and the mask and fins for snorkeling were comparatively quick. We did dives on two different spots. Saw lots of coral reef fish with bright colors of blue and yellow, but I cannot identify them even when I have a reference book later.

It was about five o'clock by the time we got back to shore and cleaned the salt water off, took a few pictures, and got back in the car. We drove down through Badiya where there is a really old mosque right beside the road. It was built in about 1493 or so, out of mud, and said to be the oldest mosque in UAE. Its amazing anything lasts that long!

Then we continued down to Khor Fakkan, Fujairah and turned back toward Dubai. The coast is very pretty and green, and it is relatively unspoiled by development until now, at least as compared to Dubai. It is obvious why UAE residents like to drive out here for the day to swim, picnic, and enjoy the cooler atmosphere.

On the way back to Dubai, we noticed lots of cars and SUV's pulled off on the side of the road or even out in the desert. (Going off road into the desert is not something you do with the average SUV; most standard street SUV's would quickly get stuck in the sand.) Often, a few hundred yards away from the highway, there was a campfire, and in many cases a tent had been erected. Many times we noticed the boys driving ATV's through the dunes. In other cases you saw groups of men circling the campfire. No women were anywhere to be seen.

The Emiratis, remembering their heritage as nomadic tribesmen, still like to go out to the desert and go camping. In America, fathers take their sons camping; in Arabia, fathers take their sons camping. It is just the difference between being the woods and being out in the desert, under the stars.

Auto mad United Arab Emirates

Tomorrow I've got to return from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, the other emirate.

Well, there are seven emirates but the only two anyone has heard of are Abu Dhabi (the one with oil) and Dubai (the one with finance, hotels, business, and tourism, not to mention the artificial islands and the world's tallest building).

The trip is about 90 miles by car on the highway, so it takes about an hour and a half to drive between the two cities. It's not a pretty road.

Most of the way there is about as much to see as when you drive down I-95 -- it's just 10-lane interstate highway about five kilometers inland from the water. The speed limit is about 65 mph and there is enough enforcement to make you pay attention if you are a foreigner. Emirate citizens do not seem to heed the speed limit or be subject to police action. Oh, yes, gasoline is about a dollar a gallon.

Interesting fact: this country has more Maseratis, Lamborghinis and Ferraris per capita than any other country in the world -- driven by teenagers.

The cars here seem to have only two speeds -- full out acceleration or full hard braking. Every driver we have been with has seemingly had the accelerator nailed to the floor or was standing hard on the brakes. Curves are taken at a breathtaking pace. I assume tires get replaced frequently. Road rage is a major issue.

It is a car mad country. The S-class AMG Mercedes serve as taxis, and the 750Li BMW's are pretty popular with the younger set. You see a share of Audi RS-models in the flood of well equipped Land Cruisers, Range Rovers, Lexus SUVs and Escalades from Cadillac. I've seen plenty of Hummers as well as Corvettes!

Among the wealthy Emirati men, a white Land Cruiser seems to be a badge of honor. The other day the weekly camel races were shown on television. As the camels raced around a track, the enthusiastic owners also raced around the track in their white Land Cruisers, leaning out the windows and urging their favorite steeds on to victory.

Modern and traditional transport vehicles, side by side.

Valentine's Day in the Middle East

So here is a little entertainment stand on the Burj Dubai side with lots of hearts for Valentine's Day. This is one of those carnival games where you throw a ball in the hole and win a stuffed animal for your sweetheart. In this case, you will win a stuffed Valentine.

For reasons I don't quite understand, the idea of Valentine's Day is abhorrent to Muslims. I understand that it is quite scandalous that here in UAE, it is permitted to advertise and sell Valentine's Day items. There is not a lot of advertising and Valentines paraphernalia around, but there is some.

In some countries, Islamic religious leaders believe the celebration of Valentine’s Day encourages “promiscuous activity.” In Brunei, the censorship board ordered cinemas to remove from distribution the film that co-stars Julia Roberts, according to the Brunei Times report. In other places, shops have been burned for selling Valentines Day items.

Anyway, it looks like Valentines Day will be celebrated tomorrow here in UAE, but with moderation and very little fanfare.

Downtown Dubai

A two and a half hour flight from Sana'a, and you land in a different world. Dubai's Terminal 3, devoted to Emirates flights only, is wonderfully impressive -- the four stories high roof held up by enormous columns, lots of space and light, a calming blue and white theme to the colors, and more than 20 baggage belts. This was built with an eye to the future.

Yesterday was a good day for some touring around, so I took the Big Bus tour, a hop-on, hop-off arrangements with recorded guide description of what we were seeing. Without realizing it, I got on the "beaches tour" and therefore got an idea of the city layout.

One thing you notice right away is the irrigation. Everything green plant or bit of grass is watered. The tour guide said that Dubai consumes an incredible amount of water daily, and most of it comes from desalination plants. The grass usually looks like the short bladed grass that we see on golf courses in warm climates. The green color is wonderfully soothing to the eye.

Among the sights to be seen along the beach is the self-declared "world's only seven-star hotel" -- the Burj Al-Arab. The shape of the building is like that of an Arab ship's sail, and it is said that some Middle East royalty keep a suite here at all times, just in case they decide to come by on short notice. Of course, it stands on its own man-made island. I understand you have to make a reservation about three days in advance just to visit for a coffee or lunch. If you wonder why I am not staying here, the smallest suite is about 1,820 sq ft and the per night cost begins at $2,000. The larger suites go up to 8400 sq ft and cost $28,000 per night. Not within my allowance.

This Burj Al-Arab hotel has a helicopter landing pad on the flat dish-like protrusion up near the top (just above the lamp in the photo) and we saw a helicopter landing while we drove by. The beach where it is located is called Chicago Beach, apparently because an American company from Illinois used to have a facility here.

The most amazing experience however was the Palm Jumeirah -- a man-made island that is five kilometers (three miles) wide and tall and is filled with houses, condos, hotels and a major resort called Atlantis (see photo below) at the top of the palm tree.

Knowing the entire thing is built on sand that was brought in and put there, well, it is just mind bending. You look around at homes with cars in the driveways, basketball hoops on the front of the garage, and these six or eight lane wide avenues, and you wonder where all the people come from who want to pay for houses here?

It looks a lot like a gated community in Florida, and there are guards sitting at little desks at many of entry roads to the communities.

One of the over the top features was when they imported 24 bottle-nosed dolphins from the South Pacific and placed them in a theme park called Dolphin Bay where guests can swim with them.

It is all kind of amazing. I kept wondering where all the money comes from? Where do all the customers come from? Who can be buying all this property and land? Yes, I know that there is money in the Middle East and in South Asia where prosperity is growing quickly. But, this much?

Whose idea was it?

Saturday, February 13 -- Whose idea was it to declare Washington open for business on Friday?

Did the people who decide these things know, in advance, that only one lane of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge from VA to DC would be open? They they realize that both I-66 and the George Washington Parkway would still be virtual parking lots at noon time on Friday. Did they as Metro about the fact that half the DC metro stations would have no service? And did they ask about the open stations that would have one train every 30 minutes? And that was before the derailment on the Red Line.

The Washington Post has a pretty good account of the horrors of commuting on February 12 in the Washington area.

It is in fact pretty clear that John Berry, the man at OPM who decides these things,figured it would be better to avoid the critical news stories about how much taxpayer money gets "wasted" every day the government is closed, and instead to let the employees suffer instead. He said, "I knew it would be an ugly commute."

The Sun Sets on Sana'a

One of the merchants in the "souk" in the marketplace in Sana'a with his many bags of grains and spices on display.

I've gotten kind of fond of this place. While there is plenty of poverty and perhaps there are even some violent people, it seems on the whole friendly. The men at least smile at you, even if they are not trying to sell something. Last night a man, his grandfather and his small son all stopped quite generously in the middle of the souk to let me take their picture.

There are beggars, especially at the intersections, but they don't persist and you do not get the feeling you are about to be overwhelmed by a crowd of them. (Although I've been told that if you give to one, you may suddenly find yourself surrounded by a crowd.) The women glide by in their burkas, making no sounds and only sometimes making eye contact. There are even women beggars (all in black) at some of the intersections -- they come up to the window of the car and ask for money, knocking gently with their knuckles on the glass.

The sun rises promptly at six o'clock in the morning and sets promptly at six o'clock in the evening, and the weather seems to be sunny and pleasant every day. People do stare at you if you are a Westerner, but for all I know they stare at each other, and maybe it's simple curiosity. The government seems to be paranoid about foreigners wandering around the country, and that makes it very hard to develop a tourism industry. There certainly is some spectacular countryside around Sana'a.

So, I will leave Sana'a with a sympathetic feeling. Sure, Al Qaeda is here and they are dangerous to us all. But I think I agree with those observers who find that lots of Yemeni people don't like the extremists and don't want anything to do with them. Tom Friedman was here last week, and he seems also to have come away with a certain sympathy for the place. There is no shortage of problems in Yemen, but there is a an air of mystery and excitement about it that is alluring.

Afternoon in Old Sana'a

February 9, 2010 -- an afternoon visit to the old city of Sana'a, just as the sun was going down over the mountains in the distant southwest. Those mountains must form the escarpment that falls sharply to the Red Sea.

The views in the afternoon sunlight, with contrails of jets in the blue sky overhead, were of the warm brown buildings with their white "icing" of plaster decorating windows, doors and rooflines. One can almost be surprised that a country as poor and challenged as this can manage to impose building regulations that require that any new construction in the old city follow the traditional styles.

Well, it works.

February 8 -- Chewing qat in Yemen

While wandering in old Sana’a, we happened into what was called a hotel. Literally it was an ancient five-story building, very dark inside because it had no artificial lighting.

It had a center “lobby” or “atrium” that rose to the ceiling five stories up and the floors were built around that space. The owner, pictured here, explained that in the old days (and only God knows when that was!), the livestock stayed in the center space and the travelers took rooms on the floors above where they could sleep in the little cave-like rooms on each level. The top floor or roof is actually a space where Yemenis entertain on top of the city rooftops, as it were, and with a spectacular view of the mountains that surround it.

Our guide to the hotel was chewing qat, the ubiquitous woody branches of a plant that all Yemeni men chew each afternoon. The leaves and branches give off a drug that is both calming and slightly addictive. The chewers tend to drink lots of liquids and engage in what are at first lively, but later increasingly somnolent conversations. At the end of the afternoon, they slouch off to sleep it off.
And they return the next day to do it again.

It is said that 70 percent of all Yemeni men engage in qat chewing, which really means that they get nothing accomplished in the afternoon and evening. Then there is the cost – about 500 to 2000 riyals a day, which is about 1 to 10 dollars. That’s a lot of money in a country as poor as this. There is one entire souk or market in the old city devoted only to qat, and from what I saw, the bargaining is pretty fierce.
And then, there is what qat does to the economy. The chewing of qat is so popular that its production on farms has displaced virtually all food production in Yemen, a country that once supplied fruits, flowers and vegetables to the entire Gulf region. Moreover, qat growing requires enormous amounts of water. It is said to consume 40 percent of the available water in the Sana’a basin, and there are predictions that the Sana’a valley will run out of water enough for the growing population in about 15 years unless a solution is found. There is no solution in sight.

So, buy some qat leaves and start chewing.

Yes, it looks like you’ve got a mouthful of azalea branches and leaves.

In case you were wondering, no, I have not tried qat. One good reason is that it is classified as a class one drug in the U.S.

An American in Old Sana'a

Another vignette from Old Sana'a...I arrived at the Bab Al-Yaman gate and entered the old city, just have many others before me. The stones are worn smooth by the soles of many feet.

At the entrance, there was a young man dressed in traditional Yemen clothing and wearing a prominent "jambirra" or dagger in his ceremonial belt.

I indicated I wanted to take his picture, and he nodded. After I snapped it, he asked in perfect American English where I was from. "Washington," I replied. "And you?"

"New York," he said simply.

There are thousands of Yemeni-Americans -- maybe as many as 70,000 -- in Yemen today. No small number are people who were in prison in American and converted to Islam. After they were released or paroled, they came to Yemen to further their religious studies.

Obviously the concern is that some may have come under the influence of radical clerics or other recruiters.

The encounter, brief as it was, left me wondering...

More of old Sana'a:

It was simply fascinating, like stepping back into a medieval city -- all small shops, crowded and twisty streets, little light but the sunlight, and all kinds of work and trade going on.

One of the best was the camel walking in an endless 15-foot circle to make a sesame seed mill grind the seed. The camel had blinkers on, despite the fact that it was pretty dark in the cave-like room where he was working. When asked, the owner said, through a translator, that the camel had to be blindfolded, otherwise he would "go crazy."

"You see," he said, "the camel thinks he is on a journey. If we take the blinders off and he sees where he is, what he is doing, he will die!"

That could be applied to a lot of us, I thought...

February 4, 2010 -- Today I made a trip to the UNESCO-protected city of Old Sana’a. We entered through the Bab al-Yaman gate, amid a crowd of men with daggers in their belts, goods under their arms, and suit jackets over “skirts” of fabric wrapped around their waist. The sights, the smells, the architecture with brown mud bricks and white icing (actually mortar), and the constant sounds of bargaining and prayer calls – it’s a magical experience – walking around in some of the oldest, most artful streets, passing by a mosque built 1,400 years ago and still in use today…
Each shop is tiny, just big enough for one or two people to sit inside the doorway and work on some craft or sell some product. The Souk al-Milh is really a collection of souks or markets, each featuring one or another product line, like silver, or jambiras (daggers), or shoes, or spices, or windows, or door locks, or donkeys…well, you get the idea. It has to be the closest thing you can do to re-create the experience of walking though a city anywhere in the world a thousand years ago. Small, tight, crowded, often dark, sometimes lit by the sunlight, dusty but basically clean, cats scurrying here and there (no dogs seen!), and the most wonderful smells, especially in the spice market.
There are lots of men and boys, both as shoppers and as shopkeepers. As the morning wore on, we saw more women. Mostly they were in the entirely black abaya from head to foot, not even a shoe showing. All you see is the eyes, through a slit. Sometimes you notice wrinkles around the eyes, and sometimes the eyes look very young, but mostly you can’t tell much of anything about who is under the black abaya. In contrast to the men, who shout and gesture as the meet friends and negotiate deals, the women seem to be wordless. In fact, of course, they do speak to the merchants, although softly. So, often you sense a movement beside you, a soundless one, and a black shape floats by. I began to think of them as black ghosts, making no sound, but glancing about observantly.
We spent almost four hours there, and I could have stayed all day. For one thing, the views from the roof of some of the four and five story buildings is a spectacular view over the city, minarets rising over the mosques, wash hanging on some lines on building roof decks, and views down into the narrow streets below.