It seems these visa runs come more frequently the longer I live here.  A series of SNAFU’s, bureaucratic red tape and a very laid back management at the company I work for still have me in limbo between the category of a tourist and a worker here. Therefore I am taking these visa runs as an opportunity to see other countries as a tourist rather than just an airport to jet in and out of.

We took an overnight trip into the Musandam region of Oman and stayed at the Golden Tulip hotel just out of Khasab. What a beautiful part of the world with arid mountains directly on the coastline and an undulating coastline that is nicknamed “The Fjords of Oman”. Khasab is a small port town with fishing and tourism as its main reason for existence. I also hear stories that it is a main artery for illegal smuggling of goods, mainly electronics from Iran in exchange for what I don’t know. But don’t quote me on that.

I’ll let my pictures tell the story in this post so enjoy.

Approaching Oman

You know you are getting close to Oman when you see the mountains suddenly jut out of the landscape.

Omani Coastline

The road to Khasab skirts the thin line of land between the mountains and the sea.

Caution, cattle crossing - literally

Livestock abounds, both in Oman and the border towns of the UAE as you approach Oman.

Everyone has a few goats in Khasab

You can’t go anywhere in Khasab without seeing goats everywhere.

A local resident lets us take a photo with him.

This local resident let us take a photo with him at the Marina.

Catch of the Day in Khasab port.

Fishing is a way of life in Khasab.

Sunrise in Oman

I awoke early the next day to catch this photo.

Vacant beaches in Oman

Wide open beaches with plenty of room to spread out.

Local Khasab family

A small family sits ouside their house.

High and Dry Dhow

Someone forgot where their marina slip was.

Khasab Mosque

This mosque was located near the marina. Nice view of the mountains in the background.

Golden Tulip Hotel

The hotel where we stayed.

Khasab Marina

The marina at Khasab, Oman.

Hope they has the car waxed.

As I said, goats are everywhere.

Beachfront View

Just a short walk from the hotel.

Seaside village in Oman

This can be seen from the hotel.

Larry, Moe and Curly

I have found a new and exciting pastime while eating breakfst in the UAE. When I was a child, cereal boxes usually had a game or puzzle printed on the back  to keep me entertained while mindlessly consuming the artificially sweetened cellulose they passed off as nutrition. I guess the marketers figured they could sell more boxes with the entertainment value printed on the outside of the box rather than hope to sell the taste of the contents in the box.

Censored Cereal Box

I am reliving my childhood once again with the slick marketing campaign designed on the outside of UAE cereal boxes, disguised as censorship. As you can see by the photo, the innocuous looking model on the back of the cereal box has been turned into a suggestive sultry maneater by the addition of two carefully placed censorship stickers over her immoral parts.

They say that once you aren’t allowed to do or see something, you desire that thing even more than before. When we moved to Portugal 11 years ago, there really wasn’t a minimum drinking age. Minors were allowed to purchase beer and hard liquor for their parents. At first we were shocked having come from California where you can legally go to war and kill people at age 18, but can’t drink to anesthesize that experience until you are 21. However, in Portugal, there wasn’t an underage drinking problem because alcohol wasn’t demonized by a law banning alcohol until an arbitrary amount of time had passed living on this planet.

Damn! Better luck next time.

These censored cereal boxes remind me of a bizarre type of adult Advent calendar. You know, each day of Christmas has a numbered window that you open, behind which a cute drawing of some sort of holiday icon is revealed. Now I look forward to breakfast and my morning cereal box as a challange of my manual dexterity and to the unrealistic fantasy that I will uncover much more of a visual treat that I know is really there.

Abu Dhabi Taxi

1.) Indian Cab Driver (as another cab almost collides with our cab): “Those Pakistani cab drivers are crazy, they don’t know how to drive”.

2.) Pakistani Cab Driver: “Where do you come from?”

Me: “I’m from the USA originally”

Pakistani Cab Driver: “Your drone attacks kill many innocent people in my country.”

Me: “Well, I have nothing to do with that and don’t necessarily agree with everything my government does.”

Long uncomfortable silence during the remainder of the ride as the driver seems to be a bit more reckless in his control of the vehicle.

3.) Muslim Cab Driver: “What you do in Abu Dhabi?”

Me: “I work in health care.”

Muslim Cab Driver: “You are doctor.”

Me: “Technically, yes, but not a physician.”

Muslim Cab Driver: “I have a very important medical question for you, a question that I think of all the time.  Is it possible for a woman to still be a virgin on her wedding night but to have lost the proof of her virginity?

Me: “What? This is not my area of expertise.”

Muslim Cab Driver: “You are a doctor, you will know. Can a woman still be a virgin without a hymen?”

Me, thinking I’d better not make a joke about this: “Well, I guess a very athletic woman; one who competes in sporting events could be so active that it could tear.” Somehow that came out of my mouth without skipping a beat.”

Muslim Cab Driver: “Yes, That is correct. That is very good answer. You very smart. That is very good answer.”

4.) Pakistani Cab Driver (as another cab almost collides with our cab): “Those Indian cab drivers are crazy, they don’t know how to drive”.

5.) Pakistani Cab Driver: “Where are you from?”

Me: “I’m from America.”

Pakistani Cab Driver: “Obama bombs my country and kills my people.”

Me: “Well, I haven’t lived in the USA for over 10 years and am not up to date on word politics, but I am sorry to hear that.”

Long uncomfortable silence during the remainder of the ride as the driver seems to be a bit more reckless in his control of the vehicle.

6.) Sri Lankan Cab Driver: “Today I am a very happy man. My wife gave birth to a son three hours ago.”

Me: “Congratulations. Why are you working today? You should be with your wife right now.”

Sri Lankan Cab Driver: “I drive cab. I work every day.”

I gave him a good tip.

7.) Me: “I’d like to go to the BMW showroom in Khalidiya.”

Elderly Cab Driver: “You know how to get there?”

Me: “What? That’s your job to know that.”

Elderly Cab Driver: “This my first day working as driver.”

Me: “Well, I have a map. Do you know where we are now?” (I had been walking and wasn’t sure what intersection he picked me up.)

Elderly Cab Driver: “I think Electra Street, I get directions at petrol station.”

Me: “Wait, you’re going the wrong way.”

8.) Pakistani Cab Driver: “Where are you from?”

Me: “I’m from Canada.”

Pakistani Cab Driver: “Canada! Very good, very nice.”

Christmas Tree

You wouldn’t think that there would be any hint of Christmas here in a country where Allah has the upper hand over God, but you couldn’t be more wrong than Daylight’s Saving Time or skin care for men.

In a country whose national pastime is mall cruising and shopping, what better way to get the tourists and 85% of the non-local population to add to the GNP during the month of December than to pander the commercial side of Christmas.

If the idea of a young girl dressed in the traditional black abaya with her head covered in a black scarf sitting on Santa’s lap seems just plain wrong you have to remember that Father Christmas is just a pagan tradition, along with the Christmas tree, gift giving, hiding your brooms and the Festivus pole. These traditions do not conflict with Islam whatsoever.

Santa in Sandyland

You won’t, however, see any Nativity scenes or shop closures on the 25th. In fact, today is just another working day like all others and after opening our presents this morning, we are going off to the Marina Mall to do more shopping. Merry Christmas from the UAE!

Camel Beauty Contest

Nearly 20,000 camels from the UAE and other Gulf Arab countries have converged on Abu Dhabi’s western region for one of the world’s biggest camel beauty contests involving prizes worth nearly Dh35 million ($9.5 million).

The camels have been brought from various parts of the UAE as well as neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and other Gulf nations for the week-long beauty competition in the western town of Dhafra.

The contest, which started on Thursday, will stretch until next Friday and officials described it as one of the largest camel beauty pageant in the world in terms of the value of prizes and number of camels.

More than 800 camel owners from the UAE and other regional nations are participating in the event, which is sponsored by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces. It is organised by the Culture and Heritage Authority.

Although I was not able to make it to this year’s pagent, this is something I am putting on my “to-do” list for 2011.

Flag of Portugal

Portugal has four distinct and noticeable seasons. The UAE has two; unbearable summer and normal summer.

Both countries enjoy a confusing, inefficient bureaucracy, long queues in public buildings, and government employees that aren’t paid enough to care but with enough power to ruin your day.

English is a second language in Portugal and is spoken well enough to be understood. English is an official language in the UAE and is unintelligible coming out of the mouths of the service sector population.

Food in Portuguese restaurants is unbelievably delicious, not expensive, but most of the cuisine is pretty much the same thing from restaurant to restaurant. Food in UAE restaurants is unbelievably varied, a bit expensive but disappointingly tasteless (unless you opt for the really expensive restaurants).

Portuguese drivers are really horrible and you have to drive extremely defensive on the roads. UAE drivers make the Portuguese look like driving instructors.

Flag of the United Arab Emirates

Both the Portuguese and the Emirati are the nicest people you will ever meet.

Public urinating is a national pastime in Portugal and a jailable offense in the UAE.

Taxis in both countries are not expensive. You can get across Lisbon for about $10 and Abu Dhabi for about $7.

Fresh water in Portugal comes out of the skies, is collected in lakes, streams and wells and is relatively cheap to purchase, unless you have a furo, then it is free. Fresh water in the UAE comes from the ocean, is desalinated in large factories that burn oil to process the salt water, and delivered to your faucet at about half the price it costs to make it, unless you are an Emirati where it is subsidized  further and costs even less.

When it rains in Portugal the streets drain quickly due to the spaces between the calçadas and the accurate engineering of the slope of the road down to the storm drain. When it rains in the UAE, which is about two days a year, most buildings leak and the roads flood as no one engineers rain into their construction projects.

Drive 10 minutes north of the Algarvian coastline and you are in the agricultural, green countryside. Drive 10 minutes south of the UAE coastline and you see nothing but sand and camels.

If given a choice, the Portuguese walk rather than drive. In the UAE no one walks.

Portugal enjoys freedom of the press. The UAE does too, as long as they like what you print.

Combine cruising down main street on a  Saturday night in the 1970′s with the Fourth of July, add a dash of innocent Halloween pranking and you have the 2010 UAE national day celebration.  No alcohol allowed and you have good clean fun in an amazing environment.

Original article here.

Mariam Yammahi has three children. Two have genetic abnormalities.  “I would never allow my child to marry a first cousin,” she says. “Not after what has happened to me.”

When Cousins Marry

Mrs Yammahi, 26, is from a traditional family in Fujairah. Eight years ago, she and her prospective husband, her first cousin, were screened for the most common genetic diseases at the Thalassaemia Centre in Dubai.

Her first son, Abdulaziz, now seven, was born with a condition that remains unnamed. Among his ailments are an enlarged head with dangerous water retention. He also has congenital heart disease and had to have surgery for a hole in his heart. He cannot walk and his speech is only just developing.

Although she expected further complications with her second child, she was born healthy and is now five. It was her youngest, Sara, now three, who would be born with the same condition as her brother. She is deaf and refuses to use a hearing aid, which has resulted in impaired speech.

The children of Mrs Yammahi’s second cousin have the same condition, as do three of Mrs Yammahi’s cousins. It is probably no coincidence that they all married cousins.

The tradition, she says, is more common in more rural areas, such as Fujairah, and her new home, Al Ain, where she moved to study computer engineering at UAE University.

No all traditions, even legal ones here, are necessarily good ones.

Al Bidyah Mosque

On my trek to the east coast of the UAE a few weeks ago with my friend Richard, we stopped by the Al Bidyah Mosque near Fujairah. This is the oldest known mosque on the Arabian peninsula and dates back to the early 1400′s. It’s architecture is unique as it consists of four pointed domes and is still in use as you can see by the photos.

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No shoes allowed.

We happened to arrive at prayer time and weren’t sure if the mosque isn’t open to the public outside prayer time or not. Needless to say we did not go in. There is a small castle above the mosque from where I took the last photograph of the tower below.

Tower above Al Bidyah Mosque

I named this bull Mr. T.

Who says there’s nothing to to on a Friday afternoon in the UAE? I was cruising the east coast of the UAE with my friend Richard about two weeks ago when we came across what seemed like an open field surrounded by hundreds of people peering into a small arena. At first I thought we came upon a small local camel race but upon exiting the car and walking over, noticed several bulls tied up along the perimeter of the fenced in field.

Bloodless bullfights

Welcome to the UAE’s version of bullfighting. Before you get upset, you have to realize that here the bull does not get killed, nor is it injured in any way. This is an actual bull fight. Two bulls are brought into the arena and they “fight” by facing each other, locking horns and PUSHING. It’s sort of a push-of -war, the bull who causes the other to back up wins. Or so it seems. There is a referee who decides who is declared the winner and keeps the bulls facing each other.

Spectators with a deathwish.

Most of the spectators are safely outside the fence, but a collection of spectators (VIP’s, bull owners, daredevils?) are sitting in the arena a few feet from the fighting bulls. The most entertaining part of the afternoon was watching these internal spectators scramble when the bulls got too close or when one got free from it’s restraints and charged the crowd.