Week 5

Week 5 - Dubai
I spent the last few days with a Portuguese co-worker in a country that's younger than me; the United Emirates have only been around since 1971.  But that's not evident when you fly into the world's busiest airport and see so many of the world's biggest, tallest, flashiest sites. 

Burj Al Arab, the world's most extravagant hotel...******* Seven stars!

The world famous Palm Islands...

The world's tallest building (and18 other world records)  Burj Khalifa... 829.8 meters!

 The Dubai Fountains

 

At the end of the day, this city deserves its reputation for excess and  extravagance, and I'm not even saying these are good things.  Its all good to gold-plate your shoes and your cell phone or your Hummer, but its not for me. On the plus side, there is no garbage or graffiti anywhere, that I saw, in Dubai. I felt absolutely safe, never even saw a policeman.  Those travel alerts about it being illegal to hold hands in public are BS... many couples (Westerners, Asians, Arabs included) hold hands while strolling.  The alerts about not wearing shorts or showing any skin; BS.  People dressed in shorts and T shirts everywhere we went in downtown Dubai.  We took the metro to both of the biggest malls in the world where I managed to buy a new cell phone at an Apple store, a pair of cargo shorts at Abercrombie and Fitch and a T-shirt at Desigual, along with a half a dozen English novels at a book store.  The food was excellent.  Alcohol was difficult to get in all but a few restaurants but we did find a couple cold ones in a souk (market) at a Lebanese restaurant where I had a mixed grill of barbequed lamb, chicken, fish and prawns.  Our hotel was on the north side of Dubai at Jumeirah Beach which has an incredible marina complete with thousands of yachts and hundreds of restaurants.

 

 

 

 

 

  That's right.. yes there is a ski hill in the middle of the Emirates mall... go figure!

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favourite sites was the famous Cayan Twisted Tower which was right in front of our hotel at the marina. Incredible architecture!  I walked around the base a couple of times... it defies logic!

 

 

But alas, all good things must end, and today we flew back to a little village on the coast of the Red Sea where I have been promoted to Site Manager for Heath, Safety and Environment.  My Saudi Arabian visa says I have another 30 days of sun and sand before my next adventure which may well be in Qatar. Its back to work for me... :)

 

إذا شاء الله

Week 4 Update
Today, which is the 19th of Rabi al-Akhir 1437, marks yet another week in Saudi Arabia for me.  6 days I have toiled in the local titanium smelter producing Job Safety Analysis on an upcoming "dry tap" of the furnace which is scheduled for Sunday.  We are responsible for two brand new titanium furnaces, both of which have had catastrophic drains resulting in massive fires and melting of everything within hundreds of feet; one is out of commission and  the other is limping along at a fraction of its capacity. We hope to tap it and drain the molten titanium into a field that we have prepared for what will be a river of about a hundred thousand tons of 1700 C material. All will go well if God wills it... Inshallah!

Today, on our one weekly day off, about ten of us loaded up and drove to a beach about two hours north following the coast of the red sea.  It is a barren landscape around here, void of anything but for the odd date palm, a few camels and lots of rocks which were here long before Moses came across from Egypt.
At one point a jeep with a couple of Saudi Military police suddenly pulled up to us.  The driver, who never spoke English, was barking orders for us to produce our Iquemas (Landed Immigrant Visas).  The guys scrambled for their passports and he went through a couple of them, including a letter from our employer.  After a few tense moments, they drove away.
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The beach was unremarkable save for piles of garbage discarded everywhere.  Families sit cross-legged on carpets scattered here and there, fathers and children swim while ninja-like women watch.  We shared snorkeling gear and took turns diving along the coral reef which was nice... thousands of multi-coloured tropical fish swam through the thick underwater forests along with rays.
We all brought some meat and a barbeque and enjoyed ourselves.


 

 

 

 

It has become windy here; we have had several sand storms this past week

Next week I am required to leave the country as a condition of my visa.  I will fly to Dubai on Thursday February 4th and return to Baysh on the 6th for another 30 days. Inshallah!

How to vacation in the Middle East (and get paid to do it!)

Update Week 3

The best way to get through a traffic circle here is to take a breath, close your eyes, step on the gas and take your chances.  Those assumptions you might have about everyone going in the same direction, and cars entering the traffic circle yielding to the cars already in it; forget about it.  Signal lights; forget about it. Passing on the left; forget about it.  Imagine if you will, 14 million Arabian men playing high speed bumper cars, and not one woman driver in the whole country. That’s what we have here folks.

I have survived yet another week on the Red Sea coast.  I bought myself a chicken at the market and fried it up which lasted a few meals.  I’ve started taking lunches to the plant to get away from all the rice and stew (lamb, chicken, beef) and for that I make tuna sandwiches and buy fruit when we go to Jizan once a week.  One of my highlights this week was the discovery of Philippino hopias, which are small hard puck- like pastries filled with different fillings like beans, dates or pineapple.  I have tried onion hopias and date hopias this week, both of which were tasty with tea.

Hopias

Tuesday night after work we went into Baysh village and had dinner in a Turkish Restaurant.  Apparently no women are allowed inside because they sit with their children on the curb, covered head to toe in black like a bunch of ninjas, waiting for their sons and husbands to finish eating.  We had souvlaki  style wraps, beef and chicken kabobs and fries for dinner, along with all the hummus and Arabian bread we could dip. Young beggars, children, waited at the door and watched us eat, pointing at us and discussing who was going to cling on to whom when we left.   We gave them our plates of left overs and got through them okay this time, but once before, with no food in our hands, they clinged on to our clothing and wouldn’t let go unless we gave them money.

Arabian Bread - A staple here along with hummus (also a staple!)

What we would call Souvlaki, is actually a Turkish fast food... barbequed meats wrapped in Arabian bread. "Kapoks"

Kabobs

And now for our Friday activity this week.  Myself, 10 Finns and a Portuguese  fella drove an hour or two southeast to a canyon just north of the Yemen border.  It is called Wadi Lahab or another name for it is The Rift Valley, known for its high mountain passes, narrow canyons and flash floods.

From the parking lot which is a couple kilometers off the highway, we started walking, rock hopping, swimming across pools (back packs held high) and climbing cliffs. We swam through caves and climbed underground waterfalls upstream with blinding water splashing our faces and running down our backs.  We scaled and climbed cliffs, jumped canyon walls and boulders the size of cars and houses. We swam through small holes with barely enough room to squeeze through. It was physically demanding but well worth it. I started out in Jeans and work boots but quickly learned that this was the wrong combination because I bravely stepped in a pool and disappeared. It was such a struggle to get back to solid ground. (I don't know how they do it in the movies because I damn sure can't swim well with boots and jeans on...) Thereafter I swam bare foot with my boots tied and looped around my neck, and my backpack perched on my shoulders.

Antii, Juoni and Mika

This is the entrance to Ladi Wahab (Rift Valley)

This is me soaked to the skin after many swims through pools that were deeper than I am tall. 



L-R Bottom:  Myself, Mika, Karri and Matti,  Top: Petri, Ricardo, Jari, Jouni, Antii and Jonas

Jari

Mika

Karri

And so it begins, another week in Saudi Arabia. My visa only permits me to be here for 30 days at a time so I booked a flight to Dubai on Feb 4th for 2 nights which will be a nice break. Work is going fine as I try to pull an out-of-touch corporate health and safety team into alignment with my department and the people who are doing the work. It is less the credentials I have and more my ability to get people to work together that serve me best in my role as OHS Manager.

These are SARs (Saudi Arabian Riyals) One Riyal is about 38 cents Canadian

Local Market in the village where I walk for fresh fruit and veggies after work.

Seemingly wild camels roam the countryside...

Local Monkeys here, known by the Finlanders as "Red-Assed Monkeys"...

The titanium smelter in which I am presently employed...