The Last Epistle from Dubai

New learning - The buildings where I'm staying are brand new and along each exterior wall there is a black box at the base of the wall on the sidewalk. It looks like a mail box with a portal entrance on one end. I finally stopped to examine it and it apparently contains rat poison. The rat goes in and eats comfortably out of site and then finds out too late that a good deal is not a good deal.

Desert Safari - The desert safari was interesting and certainly well worth the $50 it cost me. I had a few problems with arrangements but, otherwise, it was great. I had arranged through my course coordinator for the event and she dealt with a tourist agent. The tourist agent, who apparently has a monopoly with SP Jain, insisted that the safari driver pick me up at the student hostel rather than the faculty hostel. The faculty hostel manager, who speaks little or no English, was to arrange for transportation to the student hostel. The timeframes were a bit tight in that I was not to arrive from the campus until 3:30, had to change clothes, and get over there by 4:00. As usual things were a bit screwed up and the hostel manager didn't have a clue. However, he apparently called the tourist agent who picked me up. The agent dropped me at the student hostel and nobody showed from the safari. About ten minutes later the agent showed back up and took me to the DragonMart which is a huge, and I mean huge, shopping center that is exclusively for Chinese goods. He indicated that International City was so new and expanding so fast that the drivers did not know where to pick people up. The development is huge and contains various sections named after different countries but there are no street names that I can tell. I am living in Persia cluster and the students live in China cluster. There's an England cluster and an Italy cluster plus many more. The tourist agent's words were prophetic.

I got in the SUV and we proceeded to the desert. The vehicle was a seven passenger Toyota Land Cruiser and was already occupied by five Indians and the driver of unknown derivation. He had his seat back reclined so that the person in back of him had no room. However, he always drove leaning forward and never wore a seat belt. The dude had a baseball hat on backwards, long hair, and a distinctive odor. We then drove for about thirty minutes through the suburbs and stopped at a little quick store where all of the drivers rendezvoused. The owner was trying to sell everyone fresh coconut juice out of the coconut and there was an Arabic guy there (blind I think) with a hawk on his hand. I think the purpose was for you to hold the hawk, have a friend take a picture, and give the guy a tip. We then left the store and proceeded to the desert. The driver insisted that everyone buckle up, but he didn't. We got to the dunes and formed a caravan and ran the dunes in the SUVs. It was sort of like a ride at the carnival, you run the crest of a dune about 50' high and the driver then points the vehicle straight down. You lose all visibility in tight turns because sand sprays all over the windshield but it blows off quickly. After about a ten to 15 minute ride we stopped the entertainment/dining area where you could ride, for an additional charge, ATVs within a confined area. I just watched as two Iranian girls proceeded to jump the barrier and turn the ATV over. Luckily they weren't hurt.

We got back in the cars and rode the dunes for another 45 minutes or so. All the vehicles were white except for the leader of the convoy which was black. We'd follow the black vehicle for about 10 minutes and stop, I assume to let the vehicles cool a bit, and then do it again. At about the 20 minute mark, we stopped for about 10 minutes and everyone got out. The black vehicle had a huge stereo speakers in the cargo area and the driver opened up the back hatch and played an Arabic radio station. The men then began to dance. It appeared a bit effeminate in my mind, but I guess in a Muslim world you have no choice. Some of the women did join but none of the more conservative ones who had their heads covered. After the dancing we drove some more and then proceeded back to the compound. There I got a camel ride and had somebody take a couple of pictures. Got an Arabic tattoo and looked through a couple of kiosks selling the typical sand designs in a bottle and some Arabic clothing for women. I'll not talk about the tattoo since I want Joyce to anxiously await its arrival. In a part of the compound you could smoke water pipes and there was a bar in which you could get any kind of alcoholic beverage that you wanted. I drank Coke so there is no correlation between the tattoo and the beverages available. During the period between the end of the ride and dinner, there was Arabic music playing from speakers that surrounded an area that was covered with something like Astroturf. In the middle of about a 50' by 40' area was a round raised stage. On the perimeter of the entire area were large pillows and then external to that were small tables about 18" high that could seat six for dinner and there were pillows around the table for sitting. During this period, the dancing continued. There were obviously some songs that were very popular and many people got up to dance. I was probably the only American there and the rest of the people (100 or so) appeared to be equally divided between Indians and Iranians. It was the Iranians who danced. Again, it was largely the men who danced and there was clearly some meaning to the dance, but I don't have a clue.

Next we had dinner which was an Arabic barbeque. There was bread, some sort of vegetable dish, and chicken and, probably, lamb shish-kabobs. There also was a barbequed chicken leg and a very small sweet pastry along with hot tea, with or without milk. After the dinner a belly dancer performed, largely on the raised stage. She probably did a 30 minute show, getting both women and men from the audience to participate. Again, the conservative Muslim women did not play. After the show, we left and headed back to town. We stopped again at the quick store to air up the tires as they are deflated a bit for the desert driving.

The ride back was a treat. I noticed that we passed DragonMart twice and knew there was a problem. The driver finally exited and got to International City but, as I said, that's a huge complex and I knew he was on the wrong side of a four lane highway. We then drove around for 15 minutes and he made several calls on his cell phone. He finally asked me where my hotel was I told him I didn't have a clue. We drove around some more, he made some phone calls and we stopped to ask several people for direction. I think the Asian culture requires an answer to a question regardless as to whether you know anything about it or not. Consequently we followed many sets of directions without finding the hostel. We finally found someone who pointed us in the right direction. I recognized where we were and told the driver to stop, politely thanked him, got out, and walked the rest of the way. The other five passengers (5 Indians) were still in the car and I can only assume that the driver found his way out of the complex and got them back to wherever they were going.

LWP