Dunes and camel toes!

mneedham said:
KGD,

My wife is British, her parents were ex-pats and lived in Sharjia, Dubai, Iran, Bahrain. My wife was in the area between 76-88... Her parents left about 6 years ago.. My wife really misses the desert, but I can't leave the woods we live in, so she humors me...... Its hard to think of that area having a "ghost town" isn't it...
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Sharjia is one of the most conservative of the Emerites - a dry city state. Has she every gone back after 2006? The changes there would probably blow her away. Abu Dhabi is still the economic powerhouse of the UAE (it has all the oil). It was also very conservative in managing its growth and will no doubt serve the economic difficulties of the times. Dubai just tried to take the bull by the horns, but it happened to grab a wild beast and it remains to be seen if the rider can hold on. Sharjia is still pretty small and has the older little village/city charm. It seems more real to me than the glam of the new city scapes.

Doc - the Desert can be a beautiful place, but ultimately I am like you. Nice to visit, but I feel like a fish out of water there. I haven't experienced the 50oC temperatures yet. Everyone kept on remarking about how nice 36 degrees is and the fact that it still cools to about 26 degrees at night. In fact, I have no idea how to really survive out there, although there are some desert folks who still hold to their traditional ways. The real desert folks love their landscape as much as we love ours.

In the end, I think we always fix our perspectives of what nature's paradise is based on what we grew up with and have the most nature experience with. This year, while I grew to love the visuals of coastal zones and jungles of the Carribean, I still feel out of place there. How do you find your drinking water? What is the best way to fish etc. You can get along there quite happily if you know what to do.

Personally, I love the little freshwater lakes of the Canadian Shield. I know the winters are harsh, but I also have some concept of how my great grand parents and those before them survived those winters and took advantage of how plentiful resources could be during the rest of the year. Like you - the forests and lakes of Canada are my paradise. It really is a great pleasure and gift to have been able to experience these other places though. I'd love to visit the arctic and greener parts of Africa some time.
 
KGD - last time I was in the Emirates was about 2000. My folks were living in Ras Al Khamiah at the time. They had moved up there from Sharjah, (Bahrain, Tehran, and Dubai before that respectively!!) When we first moved to Dubai in '76, there was about an hour's drive to get from Dubai to Sharjah - it was just a road, nothing in-between. Last time I was there, you couldn't tell where one finished and the other started - driving around was somewhat of a challenge because of all the new roads that seemed to circle around the place and never seemed to get me where I actually wanted to go!!! Although Sharjah is "dry", expats are able to get a drinks license to buy alcohol, although the last time I was there Abu Dhabi had given them some money to build a new Grand Mosque so the thinking was that the little hole in the wall beer places would be forced to close. Personally, I didn't like the growth that each of the Emirates has gone through in the past couple of decades, it seemed to me that what made them special was lost in all the building and technology. But maybe that is true for all of us......

- Mneedham's other half (I hope I haven't violated some rule by responding....!)
 
KGD, thanks for the pictures, they were awesome. It was cool to see something that we don't see as often in this group. I'm with Doc-Canada, though, I prefer trees, streams and lakes.
 
Pretty, yet austere looking landscape over there KGD. You took some nice photographs to share with us here in the BF WSS, thanks for taking time out of your trip to do so. It'd be hard for the average person to understand the type of environment over there without them and your commentary. Welcome back, take a nice walk in the woods!
 
Stunning photography thanks :thumbup:

wonderful colours too.

Only ONE complaint, I prefer a smaller,neater,prettier type of camel-toe myself:D
 
Awesome pics KGD! I'd probably wither away in that landscape... I love the pics of the dunes :thumbup:
 
more awesome pics man...:thumbup: the deserts are pretty wild.. my mom is from the deserts of AZ..

those tent compounds sure are cool...:o that one even has a fence...:D
 
Do the locals also need to drink as much water as you? I'm fascinated by people who can adapt to that type of climate. What color of clothing do they wear?
 
sodak said:
Do the locals also need to drink as much water as you? I'm fascinated by people who can adapt to that type of climate. What color of clothing do they wear?
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The traditional outfit is white, linen-type of robe called a dishdasha or kandura. Hmm, I don't know if they drink less water or than us or not. I sure as heck don't do as well in the sun as the folks who are acclimated to it, that is for sure!
 
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