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So I know its been forever since I posted but, in my defense, I have been in South Africa for over a month and have spent the last few weeks getting back into the swing of things.
After being in SA for so long, we came home appreciating where we were and the life we have here. As much as we love our homeland, we missed our 'little' villa here in Al Ain and all our wonderful friends that we have made here. It was lovely to lie in our own bed and survey my messy nest feeling oh so happy to be home.
A few days after our return, the heavens opened. The rain poured down for hours and left a scene which lead me to understand exactly why Noah needed his ark. The truth of the matter is that people in the desert have no idea how to deal with rain. Our driveway was a small river while our street was a larger river. Every house surrounding us was leaking in some form or another, with my neighbours the Philpotts having water streaming down their electricity box, of all things, rendering their top floor into darkness. They also had a leaky roof and, like the rest of us, leaky windows. We ran out of towels in minutes flat but all of this did not dampen our Christmas spirits as we celebrated with those that were leaving for the holidays. For once we had a function indoors as the kids ran around in the rain outside. Dishes were brought in the rain from the various houses in our complex and some of us did not fair so well in terms of negotiating the soaked marble steps, resulting in some nasty bruising and aching bones.
The next morning, after dropping the kids off at school in her tiny Yaris, braving drowning and/or flushing away, my neighbour Pauline and I decided we would go and watch New Moon at the mall. We decided my car was a better idea to forge the rivers and off we went at a veritable snail's pace. It was quite a thrilling journey to the mall as we tested my car's swimming capabilities as she swam around roundabouts and waded through parking lots. The funniest bit of the journey occurred when we saw man
y cars stopped on the side of the road up ahead. Fearing an horrific accident, we slowed down even more, only to find several Arabs with their cell phones taking amazed pictures of the tiny waterfalls trickling down the mountain. Hilarious!
Once in the safety of the cinema, we shared a wonderful 2 hours trapped in the warm haven of the cinema perving fine young things along with just one other patron before having a bite and zipping off to collect kids again in the veritable Venice that Al Ain had become. All in all a very extraordinarily fun day. At least I got to wear my boots once this year :).
As I sit here now and gaze out of my now well-sealed window, its as if it never happened. The sand is as dry as ever and the roads are back to being simply dusty. I still have not yet bought an umbrella and doubt I will until this time next year when it pours again and we wonder why we don't own one.
Meanwhile my son would like to know when the snow is starting as expat association is instilling in him the idea that snow is synonymous with Christmas. Time to whisk him off to Ski Dubai for a day I think....
Its been forever since I've 'blogged' but I was ill for a bit and then I just got lost in life again. By the way, did you know you can get antibiotics over the counter here? Very interesting as I hear you can't get things like antidepressants at all and try and find a bottle of Vicks Medinite or something similar...forget it! There is too much alcohol in things like that I suppose.
So Jaco and I decided to attend the Iftar Feast at the Hilton Hotel. We got a babysitter and off we went. I spotted the restaurant in the lobby of the hotel, being that it had fake camels outside and the decor looked OTT gaudy. Walking in, one encounters 3 tables full of food, arranged in layers. It looks like an enormous amount of food and it is!
We were seated at our table and then we started the game of looking around to see if anyone else was drinking the water that was poured for us (more about this later) or eating the dates, nuts and other dried fruit placed on the table between us. It appeared that some people were dishing up already and I spotted others taking sips of water so I decided to risk it and chomped a date. I felt a few eyes on me so I decided that perhaps that would be my last morsel until we could be sure. With that one of the staff rushed past us to get outside and muttered 'Just a few more minutes ma'am'. He was the lookout...or 'listenout', waiting to hear the muezzin with his call to prayer (or, in our case, call to EAT). Upon his hearing it, he signalled to the man at the CD player to play the call to prayer for us.
Thereupon we noticed people tucking in so we decided to get started on our soup we had dished up. The soup was pretty mediocre but the breads were phenomenal. There was an entire table (bar the 2 pots of soup) dedicated to different types of breads. It reminded me of the displays the church used to put out for Harvest Day.
From the breads, we moved onto the cold starters which were utterly phenomenal. A large table, up and down both sides in 2 or 3 layers staggered up the table of salads, pickles, olives, dressings and dips such as hummus and labnehs (Arabic yoghurt-type paste). After finishing this we were starting to wonder how we were ever going to do the main course justice but we were going to give it a good try!
Outside on the patio we found a long row of hot dishes, a braai with koftka and kebabs on the go and another long row of hot dishes down the other side of the patio. There were curries, lovely lamb dishes, mixed grills, pastas, shawarma, vegetables, potatoes, rice and small pastries. We took small portions of those things we really wanted to taste and gave the ordinary things (like pasta) a skip.
After this we were both feeling extremely full but we simply had to try at least some of the desserts that had been tempting us from the start of the evening. There were many different types of Arabic pastries, including my favourite kanafeh with cashews or with pistachio's, rich-looking cakes and moussey type things in individual cups. I managed 3 or 4 pastries (they come in tiny bite-sized pieces) and half a slice of cake before I had to give up and admit defeat.
The meal is advertised at Dhs 80 per person (about R160) but that excludes the lovely R25 bottle of water, the tourist tax and the 10% service charge. In the end it was closer to Dhs 100 per person (R200) but nonetheless well worth it! Next year I will have to fast on that day to get the full experience and to enable me to try more yummy things.
In other news, my neighbour picked up a stray kitten of minuscule proportions who she was unable to keep for various reasons so we decided to adopt him. He did not look especially well so we took him to the vet here in town in Al Ain. He is a Russian who has zero bedside manner but, luckily, nice
enough staff. His surgery is rather rough but at least they serve coffee which Jaco wasted no time in taking advantage of.
When we went through to see the vet, we were given over to a Russian girl who proceeded to examine our tiny baby. She asked me many questions, which I answered, but when I asked her questions I was not given more than a yes or a no. After she had looked at him she went to call who I assume is the actual vet who came and glanced perfunctorily at the kitten and took out 4 or 5 large bottles of liquid. When I stated that I was concerned about worms he muttered something about him being too young for deworming and then took out what I can only assume was a deworming tablet. He then filled the syringe 4 or 5 times with the medications and handed it to the woman who injected the little thing in his groin. It was traumatic, to say the least.
We were asked to come back in 2 days time, which Jaco dutifully did, at the same time that we were there previously, only to be told the vet wasn't there but would be back 2 hours later if we wanted to come back then. This meant he would be in at 8pm. We decided to give up on him, despite his very affordable prices and have since taken the baby to the German Vet in Abu Dhabi who has given me a course of antibiotics (the cold he was treated for before had returned) and has estimated his age a week or two older than the Russian guy which, at his age, is quite a difference.
That's all for now. Hope to have more for you soon enough. Did I mention I've been trying to work off the Iftar Feast ever since? No rest for the wicked....
I was upstairs running the bath for JJ when he came running up the stairs wailing like he had broken 3 limbs and a big toe. I asked him what was wrong to which he replied 'It's raaaaaaining...waaaah!' Of course, I did not believe him so I raced down the stairs and out the door where I was assaulted by the heady smell of a thunderstorm and, sure enough, massive drops of rain were falling and the low grumble of thunder confirming what my eyes refused to believe. To make utterly certain I had to walk in the rain and breathe in that unmistakable 'wet' aroma to my neighbour's house where we shrieked in joy at each other over the rain.
There is a downside to a rainstorm, however, and that is the truckloads of dust that get blown about. If you haven't sealed off your windows and doors with 'wide gap tape' and/or silicon, you will experience mini sand dunes under said windows and doors. My washing happened to be happily drying on my balcony and acquired a lovely layer of dust (those items that weren't blown down the driveway by the gale force wind, that is) which I had to shake out this morning.
Just as quickly as it had come, so it was over. Fifteen minutes of water falling from the sky had managed to lift my spirits to new heights after at least 4 months of not seeing a single drop.
In other news, I had to take DH to the doctor a few days ago as he managed to injure himself after exercising for the first time in about 4 years (does golf actually count as exercise though??) and has been bitching about it for the past 3 weeks. I'm so glad I have never needed any kind of urgent medical treatment here, touch wood, as it is quite a process to see a doctor. First, you wait for a cashier to be free, then you have to assist them in filling out a form for you, afterwhich you pay Dhs 50 (before you've had any kind of treatment). Then you go and wait in the waiting room, or waiting rooms as the case may be if you happen to be of differing genders. Thankfully I remembered to bring my book as we sat there for about 15 minutes before they called DH through to triage. They checked his blood pressure, oxygen levels, weight, height and finally, found out why he was there. Then, back to the waiting rooms for another half hour or so. I think I actually managed to doze off at one point as I was nice and private and alone but for one other in the 'women's waiting room' while DH sat with the many men in the 'men's waiting room'. At last they call him through.
The doctor is a nice enough Indian fellow that asked many, many questions to establish that he has an inflammation of the muscle between the ribs and that he is to do NOTHING for the next 3 weeks, except breathe. I, of course, found this hilarious as that was obviously not going to happen and DH looked so pleased to be getting medical permission for being the lazy sod that he already is (just kidding love!). I don't think the doctor appreciated my hearty laughter at his medical advice though.
So, we're done right? Noooo. Now you must go back to the cashier and have them check if you owe anymore money. Then we're done right? Wrong again! Go and wait at the pharmacy while they haul out a bucket load of drugs (no jokes). Finally, we are done! What a process.
So we took a few days to travel up to Dibba close to Fujairah on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. It was amazing to see the difference in landscape as we drove through beautiful mountains. It turns out the whole of the UAE is not boring sand dunes!
The place that we were staying at was really well kept and the location was fabulous. Right on the beach with a view of the Dibba Marine Reserve - a massive rock sticking out of the sea with coral reefs all around it - for the price we paid it was an absolute gem!
It took us a while to get into the idea of being at a hotel during Ramadan. We were hesitant to order anything consumable but it turns out they were happy to provide it. This was a dry hotel and the 'Hole in the Wall' (bottle store) was closed for Ramadan so we had an alcohol-free time which is actually fine with me. I think Jaco would have appreciated a beer or two but we managed to survive! At sundown the Muslim staff were given what looked like a large Iftar feast at the beach.
We went on a boat ride out to the Dibba Marine Reserve where we did some snorkeling around the reefs while JJ sat on the boat and sulked about the fact that he was sitting on the boat. He refused to get in the water with us so we had to go one at a time. That kind of thing is no fun for me on my own so I spent all of five minutes out but I did manage to spot Dory and some other large fish with yellow, grey and black markings. We spotted 3 sea turtles from the dock and from the boat which was a treat. Its amazing what you can find when you step out of your routine and go looking for a bit of adventure.
We seemed to be the only people staying at the hotel which really is a shame as it is a lovely place. The chef, waitresses and maitre d were there just for us which was great but a bit weird. During the day there were other people on the beach which we assume are tour groups that come to the beach and pool for the day. I don't know if living in the UAE has increased my modesty radar o
r if I'm just a bit backward coming from South Africa, but there was a horrid display on the beach that can only be described as mildly pornographic. Two Russian um...ladies...in g string bikini's where having a photo shoot in the surf, by the pool and in the baby pool (gross!). Now while I don't have an issue if a girl has it and wants to flaunt it, I do believe there is a time and a place for that sort of thing, and on a beach with perfect strangers and young impressionable girls in the middle of Ramadan is perhaps not that time and place. That's all I'm saying. When Jaco and I later saw one of those young girls of about 6 or 7 years of age striking the exact evocative poses that the other two...um...ladies had struck, my point about corruption of impressionable young minds was proven. There is something to be said for a bit of modesty when in view of the young (and those partaking in Ramadan). *Gets off soapbox*.
After leaving the resort we stopped at the Friday Market (open everyday) where I tried to buy some fruit and vegetables. The quality of the wares was excellent so I chose a few things (and by a few I mean 4 sweet potatoes, 4 mangoes, 4 pomegranates, 6 nectarines, 1 bottle local honey, 1 bottle date syrup, 1 bottle lemon juice). When we asked the gentleman for a total price he came back with an amount equivalent to
R600! Apparently the bottle of honey alone was R300. We are not stupid rich tourists though so we refused to pay that ridiculous amount. So he brought the price down R10...gee thanks! At this point they had already put the goods in the car so I had to go and remove the offending honey and the delicious date syrup so we could afford the few items we had left. If it wasn't such delicious-looking fruit I would have passed on the lot. We moved onto the carpet stalls from there where my eye was caught by a stunning rug (pictured left) that I had to have...but not for the price they had in mind! We managed to talk them down R400 which we were well pleased with as neither of us really likes to negotiate. So off we drove with 18 carrot (spelling intended) fruit, a new rug and 8 new flies to take home. It was a successful market day and a perfect trip!
Its the start of Ramadan this weekend (either today or tomorrow). This is the holy month of Islam when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for a month and its been interesting for me to see the run up thus far.
The shops are full of every kind of date you can imagine, in every form you can imagine: Chocolate covered, stuffed with nuts, plain, seedless...the list seems endless! There are also the most tempting-looking Arabic sweet pastries on display which are made from pistachio's, dates and other nuts. My favourite is a pastry similar to the Greek kataifi which, according to Wikipedia, is a shredded phyllo pastry. In Arabic its called Kanafeh. This particular one has pistachio's with lots of sticky sweet stuff surrounded by the kanafeh. Delicious! There are specials on food items and on serving items like plates and dishes.
The other noticeable thing about the run-up to Ramadan is that the shops have a very empty feeling to them. I was at the mall yesterday and, although most shops were open, it was definitely quieter than usual.
Jaco took a trip to the bottle store yesterday to stock up on our liquor supply and he came back with very little as they did not have stock. We were told earlier in the week that they were well-stocked. The only thing I can imagine this means is that the expats are freaking out and stock-piling for Ramadan. We would surely have done the same had we not had the benefit of having people in the know around us. The bottle store stays open but the hours are adjusted to 10am - 5pm. This is much more convenient than the normal hours of 9am - 1pm and 4pm - 8pm (or is it 10?).
During Ramadan we as expats are expected to observe a few basic rules. No eating, drinking or smoking in public in daylight hours, dress modestly (cover shoulders and legs) and no loud music. I am a little bit apprehensive about the implications of this as there will be no more trips to the mall over lunch times and catching a quick bite to eat there but its only a month and I'm sure I'll survive.
So that's about it for today. I am apprehensive, yes, but also excited to experience something new. I'll let you know how it goes.
Today I took our visitors to the livestock market in Al Ain to find some camel blankets and to see some camels. It was quite an experience!
The market consists of many, many pens of live animals (goats, cows, camels) that are waiting to be sold. It was exceptionally hot and rather smelly but we managed to get some blankets after a very complicated negotiation that did not result in any kind of discounted price that I could see. The general impression is that the people here will barter but the truth is that every time I've tried to do so the discount I get is either negligible or non-existent. Its also very difficult to haggle when the 2 parties do not speak the same language. Nevertheless, the experience alone is worth the price. They sold amazing things for camels in the shop. I kept trying to find out what they used the stuff for but I'm not sure I got the right information. Some stuff is for feeding, some for medicinal purposes like for when the camel has a bellyache and some just for decoration. It really is fascinating.
After this we went to see the camels. When we got there the handlers invited our visitors into the pen to be with the baby camels and took pictures of them. JJ and I stayed in the car as it was really hot but the handlers insisted we get out so we we went to stroke the camels and have our picture taken. They tried to get JJ to ride one but he was too frightened. They took many pictures and then included themselves while their buddies took pictures with cell phones. All this while the baby camels are milling about and, every now and then, sticking their noses out at us. When we were done, we went back to the car with the handlers right on our heels demanding 'Money money'. We gave them some Dhs10 notes and hot-footed it out of there with them knocking on the car windows and calling us back. Quite intimidating.
Next we made our way up Jebel Hafeet, the famous mountain here in Al Ain. We stopped at some look-out points along the way until we got to the Mercure Hotel near the top where we spent a very, very pleasant afternoon sun-bathing, swimming and riding the super tubes. JJ had an absolute ball and I think its safe to say that a good time was had by all. We left there feeling rather drained but content after an afternoon of fun in the sun.
We got back last night after spending 2 nights in Dubai with visiting family. Every time I go to Dubai I am reminded why I don't want to live there. Its wonderful to visit as there is so much more there than here (beach, shops, etc) but the traffic is a headache and the humidity is too much for me to bear.
Its interesting to see the UAE through the eyes of visitors. I think that everyone has a certain impression of this place and, no matter how much you try to explain it, it cannot be understood until you are here. You can tell people that it is too hot to go outside but its hard to understand how it can be that hot so they tend not to believe you. It needs to be remembered that this is the desert and that means sand and heat and not too much of anything else. Whatever else there is here is man-made and generally geared towards indoor living.
We visited the Atlantis Aquaventure park on the Palm Jumeirah which was really impressive. JJ had an absolute blast but freaked out when I was dumped off of my tube by a fake wave. He was very brave going down much bigger slides than I thought he would until he fell and grazed his foot and came crying to me that 'there was blood'. I didn't get to see the whole of the park as it was really too hot and humid to walk around too much but I believe they have a dolphin experience (for about R2000!) as well as quite an awesome tunnel through an aquarium that you do on the tubes (for a further R100). These prices are on top of the R500 per person (R300 for kids) that you've already paid to get into the park. A little steep, if you ask me, but it was an experience to remember.
Other than that we went again (3rd time for me) to the Aquarium at Dubai Mall because JJ just loves it there and for a bit of a mosey around the shops there. It really is a huge place and I am yet to see all I want to see there but one day I will!
What can I say about driving in Dubai? Driving in Al Ain is bad enough but it seems to be ten times worse in Dubai. The traffic lights are very very slow, the drivers are unpredictable, the traffic is unbelievable. It took me an hour to drive 25km. I spent the entire day in the car yesterday trying to get around Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman (the latter 2 being seaside Emirates next to Dubai) and then back home to Al Ain.
As much as there is to complain about Dubai, I still look forward to my next trip there as the change of pace and scenery is a nice variable on life in Al Ain.
Its been over 3 months since we moved to the city of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. Its a city in the desert, inland from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, originally started, from what I can gather, as an oasis.
We are living in a 4 bedroom villa in the district of Zakher, close to Jebel Hafeet, the most famous (but not the highest) mountain in the UAE. It is a semi-detached villa in a small compound of 5 villas. Our neighbours include 3 South African families and one British family. We share a wall with the British family who are really great people. They have 2 kids: a 5 year old boy called James and a 2 year old little miss called Robyn. JJ, our son, adores James and they spend every moment they can together. Their mom, Pauline, is rapidly becoming my good friend and we love a good chinwag over a brew with the kids screaming up a storm. We have spent many an evening having a braai (barbeque) and drinking up gallons of wine/ Savannah Light.
I am starting this blog to document our time in the UAE and our adjustment to life over here in the hopes that perhaps it may help others in similar situations or simply inform those that are far, keeping them close. I trust that an understanding of where we are at this time in our lives will be formed and that people will become educated in the ways of the Middle East along with me.
y cars stopped on the side of the road up ahead. Fearing an horrific accident, we slowed down even more, only to find several Arabs with their cell phones taking amazed pictures of the tiny waterfalls trickling down the mountain. Hilarious!
