Lurkers say hello

I know I have a lot of 'lurkers' that read this blog. In other words, those people who read but never comment. Come and say hello and introduce yourselves. Are you in Al Ain or are you just interested in the place? C'mon now, don't be shy....

Happy Valentine's Day and a kiss from our sponsor

Honest

He could've been at least $500,000 richer and been able to take a well deserved rest from driving the mean streets of New York but honesty is the best policy of this cabbie.

Just like many of the taxi drivers in here in Al Ain, he suffers from high blood pressure and kidney problems. What's the likelihood of someone leaving $500,000 worth of rocks in the back of a beaten up Nissan Sunny or Toyota Corolla driven by Jan Noor from Kabul?

Taxi tour of the UAE

OK, first of all let me assure you that the trip I'm about to describe is not possible to do in a taxi. For a start, the meter would probably burn out through excessive 'beeping' and secondly, the wheels would get stuck, erm, not far south of Liwa.

This weekend I took a trip from Al Ain to The Empty Quarter south of Liwa Oasis and back to Al Ain again. I guess you could say the trip formed a rectangular shape, skirting along the Omani boarders to the east, the Gulf coast to the north and the Saudi borders to the south and west. We even sliced through the middle of the UAE too. We did a lot of milage, as you can see!

Starting in Al Ain we drove north west to Abu Dhabi, taking the road west along the coast a little until reaching the turn off for Liwa which took us south into Liwa Oasis. Had lunch at Liwa Hotel, waited for the heat to go off the day a bit before driving into the dunes, had a look at Mereb Dune before driving deeper into the desert to set up camp before sunset:














Camp Taxi (please click photos to enlarge)
















The sun sinks behind the dune
















Just stick your head in the sand and try to
forget about it!


It was pretty windy around sunset and the tent looked as if it was going to go sailing off to Saudi never to be seen again. However, the wind did die down and as the sky grew black we were treated to an amazing blanket of stars and later a spectacular moon rise. I would've loved to have taken some photos of this but my camera knows its limits..

Next morning, damp from the desert dew we had breakfast, packed up and headed home. Rather than going the way we came we decided to take a 'short cut' back to Al Ain through the desert. After all, as the crow flies, Al Ain isn't that far away from Liwa, is it?! So, we drove to Hamim, the most eastern village on the Liwa Oasis and then engaged 4X4 for a three hour drive through the dunes on sand tracks until we reached the road which borders Oman and takes us north to Al Ain!














Our 'road' all the way from Hamim to just
north of Um Al Zumool.
















Camels far from the dangers of busy highways!


After a while on the road through the dunes you begin to lose your sense of perspective. At one moment I thought I saw a wrecked car on the side of the road which, as I got closer,
was actually a crumpled rubbish bin.














We need to take a right to Um Al Zumool..I think...
















Miles and miles of unconnected electricity poles
that begin in the middle of nowhere. This was the
last stretch of road before we reached the tarmac
that would take us back to Al Ain!

A bad smell

I love candles, especially scented ones that fill the home with the smell of baking without the chore of actually doing any baking! Candles are romantic and create a warm homely environment.

However...

This morning I woke up with a splitting headache. No, I hadn't been drinking so I took a some painkillers and forgot about it. The night before I had burnt a scented candle for a few hours and it had filled the room with the wonderful scent of cranberries. Headache now gone, I went to throw out the glass pot that the candle had come in. Imagine my horror when I discovered that the rim of the glass was covered with a thick layer of black soot. Surely that's not right?

Being the Google addict that I am, I did a search on 'soot' and 'scented candle'. It turns out that these innocent candles are not so innocent after all. They contain all kinds of nasty chemicals that are released into the air when burnt. Yuk.

So, I'm going back to beeswax candles. They smell gorgeous and even better, they're non toxic. Now does anyone know where you can buy them in Al Ain?