Return

I'm sure someone somewhere once said .. it sometimes takes a Jolt to get back into a groove. The groove I'm talking about is my blogging. What was the jolt then? Crunching metal/plastic/aluminum. That sounds like an accident! It sure was!

Driving to work after lunch, getting my way around traffic, when the pick up in front of me swerves to avoid the stopped car in front of him, he succeeded, I didn't manage to avoid him.

Here is the car before..

Ouch - after.. 1

Ouch - After 2

This is where the accident happened

Anyway, at the end of the deal, nothing happened to me (in case you were wondering), but the car was pretty badly done for. Sorry buddy.

So there was the jolt and here is my comeback blog.

Till next time

Dune Buggies

I've really wanted to go ride the Sand Dunes with some buggies ever since I got to Dubai.. I don't know why I had to wait till it was super hot to do it, but hey, better late than never I guess. Since it was the summer, we couldn't do it in the afternoon, so we headed out at 8 AM, which didn't really make any difference, because by 9AM, it was 35 degrees Celsius (95F). That is pretty hot for 9AM! Anyway, after everyone got one some sunblock, a helmet and some goggles, we were all ready for our buggies..

My awesome blue buggy before we set out to bash the dunes

Michael tested out the frontal crumple zones, the buggy suffered

I tested out the roll cage - it worked. Ok, so we just came off a really bug dune and I was going really fast.. then the guy in front of me braked really hard and fast.. and I had to swerve to avoid him, my right rear wheel dug into the sand.. and flipped me over.. So.. I found myself upside down, strapped in, engine running and fuel leaking from the gas tank onto my back. I was a little freaked out.. turned the engine off... scrambled to undo the seatbelt, which was stuck for a while.. but finally got it loose, fell on my head, then crawled out and ran away in case the buggy caught on fire. Anyway, it didn't catch on fire, we flipped it back on its wheels, pumped the tire up with air and off I went again.

At the end, it was pretty sweet driving around, specially when we drove between the camels and tried to scare them, but I guess they were very used to buggies on the desert, so didn't really pay too much attention to us.

A good experience, and I'll definitely do it again, but will probably wait till its cooler next time!

Taxi's

I believe I have written about my frustration with Taxi's in Dubai before. The following is another overflow of frustration. I did learn more information about how they work, so my thoughts are not completely unfounded.

A taxi driver is expected to make a minimum of AED 400 ($109) per 12 hour shift in order to receive a full salary at the end of the month. If they make AED 400/shift, at the end of the month, they will receive 35% of their total earnings. So, if a taxi driver had a perfect shift every day of the month.. this is what it will work out to..

400X30=12,000
12,000@35%=AED4,200 / month ($1176 / month).

Naturally, the cab drivers like people who want to go across town. A trip across town will cost approximately AED 40-50, so 10 of those rides and their day is well spent. OR, pick up as many customers as possible and make the AED 400 mark. Quality or Quantity.. either should work.

BUT what the cab drivers really do is not pick up people and hurry to the nearest mall and wait in a long line to pick up customers from the mall.. ofcourse, every other taxi driver has had the same idea and sometimes, you see 100's of cabs lined up outside a mall to pick up customers... while there are 1000's of people waiting all over the city for a damn empty taxi. Of course, even if you see an empty taxi, that doesn't mean they will stop for you (which they are supposed to do).. the drivers will assess the possible passenger as to whether he/she is likely to give him a good fare or not. I am not even joking.

Everytime I see a long line of taxi's outside a mall, I can't help but question their intelligence. Why don't the authorities do anything about this? I see complaints about this all the time in the news paper, but still.. it doesn't change. Makes me think that there needs to be a change to the system in which taxi drivers get paid.

Also, if you assume that a taxi driver is supposed to make AED 12,000 per month... there are two drivers per car, so AED 24,000 per month per taxi is the expected revenue. Take away AED 8,400 for the driver and you are left with AED 15,600 per month as their revenue per taxi.. of course you have to take the cost of fuel, maintenance and all that.. but its still a darn pretty good profit at the end.. and to think there are some 4000 taxis here.

I have had some good taxi drivers take me around.. I'm not going to deny that..

Why do I have soo many complaints against taxi drivers?? Its what happens when you can't get a driving license without having to wait for 4 months and then taking 20 classes and then waiting 3-4 weeks more, then taking a driving test and hoping the guy got up on the good side of the bed.. so that you pass, because they fail a lot of people here because they don't want the roads to be more crowded than they already are. Oh, you don't have to worry about the above if you are from America, Europe, Australia, etc.

Yes, I am a little frustrated with my transportation situation.

Been A While

Wow, it sure has been a while since my last post about the wonderful experience at a certain dining joint. Since back then, I logged 18,024 miles in the air (not an approximation), visited the U.S. and Canada.. caught up with my brothers again.. and spent time with my Kiran and then unfortunately had to come back here to Dubai.

No matter what though, it was a great trip, even if it was very very short.

Macaroni Grill

After you are done eating at the Macaroni Grill, when the server brings over a device that looks like a calculator, and asks you if you want to fill out a survey about your recently concluded experience, please kindly decline. Why? Well, after a recently concluded dining experience at MG, and after being disappointed that Macaroni Grill did not have Mac N Cheese (????), while filling out the survey, we said that there weren't enough food choices and that the food was bland, because what I got was pasta shells with cheddar cheese on it.. not Mac N Cheese. Not 5 seconds later, the manager of the restaurant walks by and asks us why we didn't like the experience. We were like what? How did you know? Apparently he gets a beeper message when some one isn't satisfied and then comes over to your table and asks you why! Needless to say, after that embarrassing moment, all other questions were answered with an 'extremely satisfied'. Those surveys must be inaccurate!

Dubai World Cup!

The Dubai World Cup is the world richest horse race with a pot of $6,000,000 for the winner. Of course, most of the people who go to the races go there for the social aspect rather than the race itself. It is a pretty cool event! There are competitions for best dressed couple, best dressed man, best dressed woman etc, with the winners taking up to $5,000 each!

The lines to get into the race was ridiculous. Some people waited in line for 2 hours, while I had to wait in line 'only' 45 mins because we cut the line, it was still bloody hot standing there in the sun with our suits and boots.

The track!

Man, I'm sure glad we left early, cos otherwise we would have been one of the 20,000 people waiting at the Nad Al Sheba race course for a dang Taxi! Got out of there in the nick of time!

New Diggs

New Diggs

So I finally got out of the Lotus to a new place near the Dubai Creek. Its a lot nicer location. The old Hotel Apartment was really nice in terms of the apartment being very big, nice and clean. But the location was totally horrible. Yes, it was close to work. A 5 minute drive.. if you had a car. Since I don't have a car and had to wait for hours for taxi's, it didn't matter to me whether I was a 5 minute drive from work or a 20 min drive from work. The good thing about the new place is the view..

Thats Al-Makhtoum bridge right outside the apartment and you can see the 'downtown' skyline in the distance, including the Burj Dubai (now the tallest structure in the world). I'm still waiting for a clear night so I can get good pictures of the view.. but being that summer is 3/4th of the way here, it's going to have to be a long wait for a clear night I think.

Another good thing about the new place is the location. I am close to Deira City Center mall, a 5 min walk.. so if I wanted to see a movie, I can just walk to the mall and see it and will NOT have to wait for 45mins in the taxi line to come back home.. ahh.. that is great!

Holi in Dubai

This is definitely very late, but better late than never a smart person once told me. So anyway, on Saturday, March 21nd, at Dubai Wonderland, near the creek, 1000's of people celebrated Holi! It was pretty crazy! There were a lot more people than I ever expected. I haven't ever celebrated Holi like this ever before in my life, it was a lot of fun.

Oh, I'm sure some of you are wondering what Holi is. Source:Wikipedia

Holi also called the Festival of Colors, is a popular Hindu Spring Festival observed in India

People spend the day throwing colored powder and water at each other. The spring season, during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and cold. Thus, the playful throwing of the colored powders has a medicinal significance: the colors are traditionally made of medicinal herbs prescribed by Ayurvedic doctors.

Here are some pictures. After looking at the reason for throwing color at each other, and honestly, I didn't know that until today, I have no idea why all those people got into that large area filled with stagnant water, if they were trying to avoid getting sick. I didn't get in the pool, but it was fun never the less!

Dead Slow

What is the point of a sign that says Dead Slow? The dead don't move!!!

Today isn't the first time I have seen this sign at the side of a road. I've never understood the point of it before and I still don't get it. Why don't they use "very slow" instead, or "please crawl". I just think Dead slow is silly.

March

Its March already?? Where did January and February go? Wow, this year is going by fast. I don't know if I like that very much. On the other hand, its St. Patrick's day!

Formula 1: I have been waiting since October of last year for the 2008 season to start, and it did last weekend in Melbourne and what a s**t show it turned out to be! (excuse my language). I say the race was crap because, if you have read my previous posts on Formula 1, you would have noticed my support for the prancing horse (Ferrari), particularly a rather chilled Finn driving the #1 car this year.

So Melbourne comes around and I am up at 8AM all giddy on a Saturday morning to watch qualifying... Kimi couldn't go to the final session of qualifying because of an electronic fuel pump problem! Crap.. here goes the start of another season! So, even though I was excited all winter long for the first race, when it finally came around at 8:30AM on Sunday, I didn't really care. Kimi was 15th in the starting grid and Massa was 4th. At the end of the race, both cars retired due to engine problems. Both Ferrari's retiring from the FIRST race with engine failures?? That can't be right! Kimi ends up getting one point because Barrichello got disqualified. So yay? I don't know. Sepang is this weekend, we better have a more favorable result!

Shoes: Shoes? Whats that all about you ask. Well, let me explain it to you. When I came to Dubai, I packed light. Actually, no matter where I go, I usually pack light. I brought along a couple of pairs of work shoes and a pair of Puma running shoes - like the one below, but not in those rainbow colors.
I don't really like wearing work shoes when I go out at night. I did it once and they got wet somehow. So my Puma's got a little dirty due to me wearing them out every time I went out! I searched for shoes at all the malls in Dubai and honestly couldn't find anything that I really really liked. So finally, this weekend, I gave up on finding something fantastic and went and got myself a pair of Adi Racers.. I have the same shoes in Blue(!) Here is what I got.. finally!

U.S. Trip: I seem to have a lot to talk about. I was supposed to leave for the U.S. for a short trip on the 14th of March and come back after Easter on the 24th. I was very excited about this as I hadn't been home since the 20th of November. I had my tickets booked, my seats assigned, my meal ordered and everything! Of course, last minute, it all got postponed to apparently this weekend. That was a major disappointment! Its ok though, you live and life moves on. Hopefully I will get to go back next week because I really need to take care of things back there. I won't get excited about going back until I'm sitting in the plane and it takes off!

Huge car pile up!

This is pretty crazy and frightening. Early this morning, on the Abu-Dhabi to Dubai freeway, there was a pile up of about 250 cars, buses and trucks. The accident was caused due to low visibility due to dense fog.

This is a road that people often drive very fast on and some of the pictures are very intense. Current death toll is 3 and many injured. The critically wounded could not be airlifted until 11:30AM when the fog cleared.

New Information!
250 cars involved
30 cars destroyed
3 deaths
347 injured!

Check out the following link: GULFNEWS

Drive safe.

Global Village

Global village in Dubai lasted from December 13, 2007 to March 1, 2008. Of course, me being me went on the last day. On my way there, it quickly became apparent that I wasn't the only one with the idea of going there on the last day. Looks like there are other procrastinators out there in the world. Anyway, after battling traffic for an hour and a half and doing some off-roading, (will add video later), I finally arrived at Global Village.

It wasn't too bad a show, as the name suggests, Global Village is a huge fair with pavilions from 31 different countries in the world. Each pavilion consisted of products from that particular country. Out of all the pavilions, the India Pavilion was awarded the 'Best Pavilion Award', aw yeah!

Global Village was jam packed! There wasn't really space to move around as you can see from the picture below.. just a mass movement!

I love pictures of giant wheels, they are just so majestic and giant! (duh!). At the global village, a pretty perfect setting was presented to me to be able to take the picture below..

To Qatar and Back

I had to pay a visit to the small Emirate of Qatar a couple of days ago. It was only to be a day trip, leave at 6 AM and get back at 8 PM. I had big expectations of Qatar, it is ranked #2 in the world in terms of Per Capita GDP (by the CIA).

I must confess that I expected it to be a lot like Dubai. It will get there soon, but it is still a newer country, and hasn't had as much time as Dubai to develop and grow. I definitely felt like I was in the Middle East when I was in Doha.

Anyway, I am sure these pictures do not do Doha justice as we basically flew in late because of a 2 hour ground hold in Dubai for fog, got in a cab, drove to Al-Udeid AFB and stood in the sun for a couple of hours, got back in the cab and drove to the airport to catch our return flight. My impressions are purely just first impressions and was probably of a less developed part of the city. I wouldn't mind going back there and checking it out when I have more time to roam around.

The aspire tower and the stadiums built for the 2006 Asian Games that was held in Doha

The "Oryx" - Qatar Airways' mascot

Money Money Money

Definitely more of a 'desert' feel

R35 GT-R vs. GT3 vs. BMW M3

Wow, what a line up. Three of todays most lusted after cars and they have been put through their paces head to head. Please watch the two part series below! Wish I was Chris Harris during this video (he's the driver).

You want ME to do WHAT for a driving license??

I have to say this before you get too deep into this very disturbing blog... this experience has been a massive blow to my ego.. a huge injustice.. unbelievably unbelievable.. a gross failure of the system... ok ok. you get the point.

The need: A local UAE drivers license
Problem: Should not be any problems at all... after all we are talking about ME getting a license
At Fault: The damn system!

Alright, so the ordeal started when I first got to the UAE in October, 2007. I went to get myself a drivers license so that I could get a long term car to be more mobile around here. I was told that because I am an Indian citizen, I have to get a residence visa before I can get a license. Ok, a little weird, but fine.. so the process to get a residence visa started and after 2 months.. I finally got one at the beginning of February.

Alright, try number 2, now armed with a residence visa and a U.S. drivers license.
Me: Sir, I have a residence visa and a U.S. Drivers license, can I get a local license please?
Man behind the counter (MBC): Can I see your passport
Me: Sure, here it is.
MBC: Oh, you are an Indian citizen?
Me: Yes
MBC: You can't get a license without taking driving classes
Me: What??? Driving lessons??? But I already have a drivers license from two countries! I've had a U.S. license for 5 years and have driven on the right hand side of the road for that long!
MBC: You have to be a U.S. citizen to be able to use the U.S. license and get a UAE license right away. If you are an Indian citizen, you have to go and take driving classes.. Thank You.

What the crap!?!?! ME?? Take driving lessons?? (still hasn't sunk in). I mean, I have never taken driving lessons, if there is one thing I take pride in, its my driving. I've been driving since I was 10!! .. after a while I think to myself - let me at least go and see what these driving lessons entail...

Now I think to myself... F&@# it, I'm just going to have to take taxi's everywhere. Why? What I found out about the driving lessons absolutely destroyed what was left of my ego.

20 classes, 1/2 hour each, max two per day.. so that itself will take me 2 weeks at the minimum. During that, a Preliminary lecture, a signal lecture, a final lecture and a safety protection training course! What on earth?? Oh, and if the lecturer woke up on the wrong side of his damn bed, or is having a crap day and decides to fail ME(!) on a lesson, I have to start all over again!

The best is yet to come, first problem, I will have to wait a minimum of 3 months to get on the list to be able to get into a class. 3 months??? And then take driving LESSONS??! Then, after all this, I find out how much it will cost... AED 2,000!! That is $544.95!! For a drivers license??? Are you freaking kidding me? I am NOT paying that much and going through all that to drive here! I'm going to take taxi's everywhere. I can't believe I just said that. Damn it all!

Travel Map

This is actually kind of neat. Below is my travel map so far. I've visited 18 countries in my short life. Pretty lucky I would say. My goal is a 100! Wish me luck.

Lets see how many I can add before I leave the U.A.E!

• Create your own travel map or travel blog

• Visit TripAdvisor.com

RIP HD-DVD

VS

The final few 'nails' in HD-DVD's coffin have been driven. On February 19th, 2008, Toshiba made an official announcement that the company would no longer develop, manufacture or develop HD-DVD products. Today, Microsoft slashed prices of its HD-DVD player from $129.99 to $49.99. Ouch.

I guess I'm going to have to go and buy myself a PS3 now that we know who won the format war. This might actually help boost the sales of the PS3.

Mannequins Banned

The municipality of Sharjah, UAE has recently imposed a ban on mannequins that 'resemble human beings' from being displayed in shops. They can, however, be displayed headless, or separate from their heads. This decision was made due to mannequins arousing the lust of innocent people thus leading to horrendous behavior.

Personally, I'd be more worried about the effect of headless human like mannequins on children, but thats just me. It will also be interesting to see how they dress up mannequins that do not resemble human beings.

Allowed

Not Allowed

Sunday to Thursday

Once again I find myself sitting in the office on a Sunday while most of my colleagues are getting ready to enjoy the second day of their weekend. This whole having a weekend on Friday and Saturday isn't really working too well for me. I don't really have Friday off because the rest of my offices work on Friday and I have a conference call every Friday evening. So, in the end, I am left with one day, Saturday, where I am on the same page as the rest of my colleagues.

So why is the work week Sunday through Thursday in most Muslim countries? I don't know yet, but I shall find out. I would at least like to find out why I am sitting in the office on a Sunday the next time I'm here.

Shopping Festival

The world famous Dubai Shopping festival is on! Woohoo.. I say Woohoo with a proper dose of sarcasm because I do not consider myself a shopper. I have never been excited at the thought of going to a mall and looking around for things to buy. On ocassion, ideas come to my head of what I need next and I go to the store, buy what I need and exit the mall and all of its booby traps.



There are positive aspects of the Dubai Shopping festival, prize give aways, I've been reading of the number of people who have gone shopping and come home with bars of solid gold, or cars, or houses, tv's, trips, etc etc. Needless to say, I have never won anything. It could also be because I have not been hanging around at the malls increasing my chances of winning. I doubt very much that I am going to win one of these great prizes by sitting at home.



There is also the vast number of concerts, performances, shows, fireworks displays that come along with the DSF. I love fireworks.. so I did venture to the mall with my camera for the sole purpose of taking some pictures of the fireworks show. I have always wanted to take pictures of one, but have never been at the right place at the right time. I did manage a few pictures of the fireworks, being my first time, I was a little shaky, but there is always next time to improve.



What are the bad parts of the DSF?? Crowds, 1000's upon 1000's of people come to Dubai from all over the world with one sole purpose in life - to shop till they drop! Why just last week I got up at my usual waking time, got ready and walked into the coffee shop to get my usual breakfast. What I saw and heard, gave me a heart attack and ruined my desire to eat at the same time, and let me tell you, it isn't easy to make me not want to eat. There were 180 middle aged women (I say middle aged because I searched for the young ones) all wearing bright red shouting, screaming, laughing and generally unable to contain their excitement of being in Dubai for the Shopping festival. Apparently some software company that was based in India decided it would be a great idea to let all their women employees and the wife's of their male employees and their mothers, sisters, aunts, etc etc to go on an all expense (except for the shopping) paid trip to Dubai! As luck would have it, they decided to settle in at the same hotel I stay at, what bloody luck! It took 4 large charter buses to take the group to the mall.



Then there is the issues with taxi's. I am going to need an entirely different post on taxi's, but let me just say that it is impossible to get a taxi in Deira (where I stay) during the shopping festival, so I hate it already. What is the point of going to the mall, when it takes you an hour to get a cab, and once you are done shopping at the mall, you realise that you have to wait 2 hours in a line for taxi's to come back home. Not my cup of tea. So there you have it, a short breif account of the shopping festival.

The travails of single South Indian men of conservative upbringing ...

I really wish I had come up with what you are about to read below. It is pretty funny. Unfortunately, I received it as an email forward. Much credit to the writer for this entertaining piece. Hope you enjoy it.

Yet another action packed weekend in Mumbai, full of fun, frolic and introspection. I have learnt many things. For example having money when none of your friends have any is as good as not having any. And after spending much time in movie theaters, cafes and restaurants I have gathered many insights into the endless monotony that is the love life
of south Indian men. What I have unearthed is most disheartening.

Disheartening because comprehension of these truths will not change our status anytime soon. However there is also cause for joy. We never stood a chance anyway. What loads the dice against virile, gallant, well educated, good looking, sincere Mallus (From Kerala) and Tams? (From Tamil Nadu) (Kanadus (From Karnataka) were once among us, but Bangalore has changed all that.)

Our futures are shot to hell as soon as our parents bestow upon us names that are anything but alluring. I cannot imagine a more foolproof way of making sure the child
remains single till classified advertisements or that maternal uncle in San Francisco thinks otherwise.

Name him "Parthasarathy Venkatachalapthy" and his inherent capability to combat celibacy is obliterated before he could even talk. He will grow to be known as Partha. Before he knows, his smart, seductively named Northy classmates start calling him Paratha (Indian Bread). No woman in their right minds will go anyway near poor Parthasarathy. His investment banking job doesn't help either. His employer loves him though. He has no personal life you see.

By this time the Sanjay Singhs and Bobby Khans from his class have small businesses of their own and spend 60% of their lives in discos and pubs. The remaining 40% is spent coochicooing with leather and denim clad muses in their penthouse flats on Nepean Sea Road. Business is safely in the hands of the Mallu manager.

After all with a name like Blossom Babykutty he can't use his 30000 salary anywhere. Blossom gave up on society when in school they automatically enrolled him for Cookery Classes. Along with all the girls.

Yes my dear reader, nomenclature is the first nail in a coffin of neglect and hormonal pandemonium. In a kinder world they would just name the poor southern male child and throw him off the balcony. "Yes Appa we have named him Goundamani..." THUD. Life would have been less kinder to him anyway.

If all the women the Upadhyays, Kumars, Pintos and, god forbid, the Sens and Roys in the world have met were distributed amongst the Arunkumars, Vadukuts and Chandramogans we would all be merry Casanovas with 3 to 4 pretty things at each arm. But alas it is not to be. Of course the south Indian women have no such issues. They have names which are like sweet poetry to the ravenous northie hormone tanks. Picture this: "Welcome, and this is my family. This is my daughter Poorni (what a sweet name!!)
and my son Ponnalagusamy (er.. hello..). ." Cyanide would not be fast enough for poor Samy. Nothing Samy does will help him. He can pump iron, drive fast cars and wear snazzy clothes, but against a braindead dude called Arjun Singhania he has as much chance of getting any as a Benedictine Monk in a Saharan Seminary.

Couple this with the other failures that have plagued our existence. Any attempt at spiking hair with gel fails miserably. In an hour I have a crown of greasy, smelly fibrous mush. My night ends there. However the Northy just has to scream "Wakaw!!!" and you have to peel the women off him to let him breathe.

In a disco while we can manage the medium hip shake with neck curls, once the Bhangra starts pumping we are as fluid as cement and gravel in a mixer. Karan Kapoor or Jatin Thapar in the low cut jeans with chaddi strap showing and see through shirt throws his elbows perfectly, the cynosure of all attention.

The women love a man who digs pasta and fondue. But why do they not see the simple pleasures of curd rice and coconut chutney? When poor Senthilnathan opens his tiffin box in the office lunchroom his female coworkers just disappear when they see the tamarind rice and poppadums. They have all rematerialized around Bobby Singh who has ordered in Pizza and Garlic bread. (And they have the gall to talk of foreign origin.)

How can a man like me brought up in roomy lungis and oversized polyester shirts ever walk the walk in painted on jeans (that makes a big impression) and neon yellow rib hugging t shirts? All I can do is don my worn "comfort fit" jeans and floral shirt. Which is pretty low on the Look at me lady" scale, just above fig leaf skirt and feather headgear
a la caveman, and a mite below Khakhi Shirt over a red t-shirt and baggy khakhi pants and white trainers a la Rajni in "Badshah".

Sociologically too the tam or mallu man is severely sidelined. An average tam stud stays in a house with, on average, three grandparents, three sets of uncles and aunts, and over 10 children. Not the ideal atmosphere for some intimacy and some full throated "WHOSE YOUR DADDY!!!" at the 3 in the morning. The mallu guy of course is almost always in the Gulf working alone on some onshore oil rig in the desert. Rheumatic elbows me thinks.

Alas dear friends we are not just meant to set the nights on fire. We are just not built to be "The Ladies Man". The black man has hip hop, the white man has rock, the southie guy only has idlis and tomato rasam or an NRI account in South Indian Bank Ernakulam Branch. Alas as our destiny was determined in one fell swoop by our nomenclature, so will our future be.

A nice arranged little love story. But the agony of course does not end there. On the first night, as the stud sits on his bed finally within touching distance and whispers his sweet desires into her delectable ear, she blushes, turns around and whispers back "But Amma has said only on second saturdays..."

Rain in the Desert

"Rainfall is infrequent and scant and is largely confined to the mountains, where sudden storms can cause great damage and interrupt communications. The annual rainfall varies from an average of 43 mm (1.7 in) in Abu Dhabi to 130 mm (5.1 in) in Ra’s al Khaymah." - MSN Encarta

That being said, the UAE recently received a little more rainfall than they planned. I returned to Dubai on the 15th of January from India to a very stormy, cloudy and bumpy landing at Dubai Airport. Usually, when you land in Dubai, its just clear skies (maybe some dust) and a very smooth landing, but not this time. I was actually excited because believe it or not, I missed the rain. I hadn't seen any rain since October (Oregon, where else).

Got out of the aircraft, went through immigration, collected my bags and saw that the airports roof was leaking water in several places! It was kind of ironic that such a modern airport had a problem that no one knew about until it started raining. Then came the roads, which were absolutely flooded. The drainage system completely failed and all the roads were water logged.

So how much rain did Dubai get? Remember Abu Dhabi and Dubai get an average annual rainfall of 43mm (1.7in) with the average for January being 17mm (0.6in). In the few days in January, Dubai had 105mm (4.15in) of rain!

The rains caused very heavy traffic everywhere and also resulted in over 800 accidents!

Here are some pictures from the Gulfnews website:






All the water drained away in about 4 days leaving behind a cleaner looking city. I guess there was some good use.

To India and back - twice

Things have been pretty busy for me since right after Christmas. I did a lot of traveling. I went to Madras, India for New Years and spent time with my family and friends, so that was great. I returned to Dubai for a few days and was then called back to India for work.. went to Bombay, Delhi, then back to Madras before returning to Dubai. So I haven't been in Dubai all that much recently. I did get to stay at really good hotels and travel really well. Here is what we flew on.. not too shabby I think.

Of Course, it was a little bit of a downer to go from such modes of transportation to cattle class on a B777, which isn't all that bad, but still doesn't compare to sitting in the jump seat in the cockpit of a G4 during take off, or relaxing on the couch on the aircraft fully stretched out.

I also took some pictures while I was in Madras of things I've never seen anywhere else in the world.. (outside India)The Auto-Rickshaw - The Bane of any drivers existence

The 'Non-Auto' Rickshaw

Colors

Banana's and Sugar Cane's Anyone?

What about beetel nut leaves?

A kolam at our neighbors house
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolam

Thats about all for now, until next time..