Vacation Excitement

Well I'm, nearing the end of my first vacation in honor of the end of Ramada, Eid al Fitr, and before I plunge almost entirely into working (sometimes I have to remind myself of my primary reason for moving to Dubai) I thought I'd review my recent escapades.

Monday, what started as an innocent shopping trip with Samantha became a scenic tour of the neighboring emirate of Sharjah. I got a little lost. Obviously my skills at getting around in Dubai are still developing. In my defense, Sharjah is the nearest emirate and the neighborhood I live in, Qusais, is right on the boarder of Sharjah. On the bright side, I saw camels for the first time. On the downside, driving through the desert with no food, water, or extra gas in the car is a rather disconcerting experience. Vultures were circling my little Yaris. Fortunately, Samantha is a very understanding riding companion, and we did wind up at the mall we had originally intended, but only after we had picked up Heather who has been living here for over a year. She knows her way around.

Yesterday my neighbor and colleague, Wasan, took several of us to Ras al-Khaimah for the day. It was beautiful. After a month of seeing only desert and cityscape, I saw mountains and greenery. Before you judge these pictures too harshly as there is no greenery in them, let me say the greenery was sparse. Also, I forgot to take pictures of it when I had the chance, so now it appears I'm telling a whopper about the greenery that got away.

As if seeing a more varied landscape were not enough, I swam in the Arabian Gulf for the first time. I also learned from the Salamah, an Iranian friend knowledgeable enough about Ras al-Khaimah to chauffer us around, that “Persian Gulf” is not an appropriate term any longer. In fact, it rather smacks of the Victorian notion of “Persia” being anything in the Gulf region. Historically (and I’m cautious of writing this and thereby inciting a backlash from all of my history colleagues more knowledgeable about all this history stuff) Persia is very specific to what is now modern day Iran. Who knew? Even if I hadn’t known all of that at the time, swimming in the Arabian Gulf was lovely. It was all I thought it would be and more: warm, clear, salty, mild water. Lovely.