Al-Ain

There's something about Al Ain. Maybe it's green. Maybe it's right in the middle of the desert, away from the ocean. Maybe it's in the hills. Somehow, whenever I read anything about Al-Ain, I feel a strong urge to visit it. 

The first time friends asked me to suggest a place to visit, I recommended Al Ain. So, they drove around the place, saw nothing and deemed it boring with 'nothing to see'. 

Really?! Hmm... when I heard that, I thought that my friends did not do enough justice to this amazing land of Al Ain. There were so many things to do there! Hot springs, hills, museums, forts, oasis, zoos, camel markets, camel races and hot air balloon rides! Where else can you find all these in the UAE? 

Like so many tourists who come to Dubai because they thought of all the glorious promotional advertisements in the papers and documentaries, when they arrive in Dubai, they sort of get disappointed because it's just like any other city. Saddened, I decided to do a little promotional presentation pack on my own accord to promote the city of my heart - Al Ain. Then, I sent it to others to readjust their perception of this beautiful city. Thankfully, some were pretty receptive and decided to give it a chance. 

And so, at long last, I finally got to visit the town of my dreams! 

Introduction to Al-Ain

If I were asked to give an introduction about Al-Ain, here's what I would say: 

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Al-Ain is an amazing city. Located near the border of Oman, right in the middle of the desert, surrounded with nothing but sand, it's like an oasis. Al-Ain is also known as the Garden City or Spring or Oasis City.  It has more than 100 million trees and 18 million date palms. It's one of the greenest cities in the UAE, has its own unique irrigation system, with water sources from springs and underwater aquifer ducts. Plus, it was recently classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site! 

On top of that, if one loves outdoor activities, Al-Ain is the place to be. One can go biking on the hills, caving, hang gliding, shooting, balloon rides, go karting, horse riding, you name it. Wanna sweat it out? Al-Ain is the place to be. 

If staying in Dubai has bored you out of wits, tired of looking at the brown sands, blue skies and turqoise seas? Want to see some greens and big animals, come to Al-Ain. You'll see nothing but greens everywhere. You won't even remember you're in the desert. You'll probably imagine that you're in the Garden of Eden. 

Honestly, in the whole of UAE, if you want to see something natural, not man-made towers or fountains, you want to see the real UAE in its original settings, visit Al-Ain and you'll get a much clearer picture. It's better than visiting museums which narrows down everything to a pretty small scale. 

Stockholm Syndrome or... Did my job just turned into my hobby??? Oh no!

Three years ago, I turned into a workaholic. The worst part is, it happened by choice. It all began when I was thrusted into a particularly problematic project. (Which project isn't, right? Yeah... I know. Ok. Forget that you ever read this sentence) 

It started by saying the following phrase, "I will only be a workaholic for three months. After three months, that's it. I will go to Cambodia, or Laos, or Tibet." 

Somehow, three months turned into six months, nine months, twelve months and eventually thirty six months. 

Being a workaholic, is the worst thing that could happen to an individual. You think about your work day and night. You are always working towards deadlines that are due in a few days, working for deadlines that has already past, and working towards foreseen deadlines. Your mind is constantly thinking: How do I solve this problem? How to I improve this situation? What else can I do to make things better? 

Your brains and fingers are active 24/7. From the moment you wake up, 'til the moment you head falls on the pillow. At night, you'll suffer from insomnia. You just can't go to sleep because your mind is thinking about the next exciting meeting or workshop that's going to take place the next day. Sometimes, you'd wake up in the middle of the night, when an inspiration comes, and you just have to write the 'brilliant' idea down, just in case it slipped your mind when you awoke.

One fine day, I looked up from my keyboard, and I realized that I had lost my friends, my life and my soul. 

In most cases, when workaholics realized that it's getting too much, they jump out of the hot pot into freezing cold water. Some opt to take a sabbatical leave. Some choose a less demanding project. Some choose a different job altogether. Not me. To top it all off, I loved my job too much. It was exactly what I required. It demanded constant studying, reading of journals, writing reports, travelling, communicating with professionals and teaching others. All of which I loved tremendously. Nowhere else in other disciplines, can I find such a fulfilling job. Every second was eagerly filled with an insatiable thirst to gain new experience and theories. It's constantly filled with a rush of adrenaline that fuels me with something to look forward to each and every day. Hence, even when there came a chance to opt out, I stayed. So much so that I somewhere along the way, I lost sight of everything. 

My family, thankfully, stuck with me through thick and thin. My parents knew they were losing their daughter to a poisonous thing called 'work'. They jerked me, shook me, quarantined me, poured cold and hot water over me simultaneously, but it just didn't work. My brother on the other hand, used a more subtle approach. He cared, he supported in every possible way when I was stuck in the lurch. One friend lent a faithful listening ear. Another offered advice on how to speed up my work. Another encouraged it by offering her own insight. It always worked, only for a few minutes, days or hours and immediatey after, I'd be back on the keyboard, clicking here and there. 

One time, it became so bad that I realized that I was in deep trouble. Now, not only I lost my sleep and my hair, I also began sending mails at 3am or 4am! So much so that I decided to join Workaholics Annonymous. Sadly, this organization is only available in the US. So, what was I going to do? It was then I decided to something intangible, a long forgotten idea known as God. Things did improve eventually, but I was still hooked to my work - to a lesser extent. 

As such, when the heat was too high, when the stress level was too much to bear, I'd always imagine myself flying up in the hot air balloon. Heard of the phrase? 'Up, up and away'? Yeah... to me, I just had to fly away from everything, as far away as possible. The only way? Was to ride in a hot air balloon. Yet, in Malaysia, there's nothing like that. At most, there was hang-gliding. But most of the time, the wind just wasn't strong enough. 

And so, when I found out that hot air balloon rides were available in Al-Ain, I seized it. I just had to take it up to fulfill one of my innermost desires. 

Ride in the Sky

Did you know that taking a ride up on a hot air ballon is a pretty scary experience? 

A hah! You didn't? Well, allow me to describe it in detail. 

First, you'd have to wake up extremely early to arrive at the destination. The departure point for the balloon has to be in an open area. Because the balloon is so huge that it requires a lot of space. In addition, when it flies up, it has to ensure that it wouldn't get stuck among any buildings. Naturally, in the UAE, the desert is the most ideal location. 

Next, the ride has to be very early in the morning. Why? Because the balloon can only rise up when the air around it is cold. According to the theory of convection, hot air is less dense than cold air. If we heat up the air in the balloon during dawn, the balloon will rise. It won't rise up in the afternoon because the air will be too hot by then. How about night? It's extremely cold in the night, especially in the desert. One might argue. Yes, that's true. But there wouldn't be anything for you to look at in the night. So, dawn is the best time. 

Whenever cartoons draw people riding up hot air balloons, they always forget to draw the most important thing. The fire. Hence, when I saw the team of experts, heating up the air in the balloon with gas tank and fire breathing out of it, I was scared. Geez! It's pure, naked flames! Imagine the ring of the balloon, just few metres away from the fire, and the team is heating the air up within the balloon, literally, with fire! What if the fire strikes the balloon? 

A few years back, there was a hot air balloon ride that went bad. The wind was too strong and the balloon crashed. Oh my god! What did I get myself into this time? Was I even making the right decision? At that instant, I was thinking, Oh no... maybe I shouldn't fill my head with funny, weird ideas. Who cared about imaginary rides that would make me feel better? Is it worth the risk? 

Nevertheless, since I came all the way, and even managed to persuade a friend to come along with me for the ride, I could not possibly back out now. Moments later, I discovered that the friend who came along with me, had actually ridden in one before! which made me feel worse, 'coz whoever in their right mind would take a scary ride like this, twice? And so, I stuck with it. Silently praying that nothing awful would happen. 

To take my mind off, I looked on at the team with intent focus. The balloon was several metres long, as it lay almost 80% inflated on the ground. The straw/rattan basket was about 5 metres long, and perhaps 1 metre wide. It was divided into four compartments, which could accomodate about six people in each. 

While the team heated up the air with the pure, naked flame, our pilot gave an intense, short safety briefing. "Once I say 'go', all of you rush and climb up the basket, hold on tight to the ropes. When we land, bend your knees, take off all loose items, keep your cameras in the pocket, hold the ropes, and lean right back. Don't get up until I say so." 

That's it? Wow. That seems like a crash course on my offshore safety training. 

When the pilot gave the green light, we climbed up and into the basket eagerly, like school kids going on a field trip. I suppose, that's how the phrase 'basket case' was coined. At that instant, I thought I must have been out of my mind to actually think of implementing a long harboured idea. 

In the basket, in the centre of a crowd of 24 persons, stood our pilot. Anxiously shooting burning flames into the air, muttering, "We're late! We're late!" like the Rabbit of Alice in Wonderland. "All because somebody's car got stuck in the desert sand." (That somebody happened to be the car that my friend and I were travelling in. The team didn't warn us that we'd be driving in the desert, mind you. They just said, meet here. But they led us to the desert! Of course we got stuck.)

After several minutes of intermittent firing, the balloon began to rise up a few inches of the ground, gradually increasing, in the order of 1 to 10 to 100 metres. Did it reach thousands? I'm not sure, but I think it did. When I mean, gradual, I really mean gradual. It's so slow, you won't even realize it. What did you expect, Jean? That the balloon would rise up like a rocket shooting up hundreds of kilometres in a minute? Come on, be realistic. 

As we flew up, the heat of the flames got to us. The heat was pretty intense. It had to be. Otherwise, it'd be impossible to heat up the air in the balloon which was probably about the height of a 5 storey building. I was afraid that the hair on my head would catch onto the heat and flame up too! "See! I told you that you didn't need the jacket up here. It's pretty hot, ain't it?!" teased the pilot as he continued shooting fire flames. 

when we reached several hundreds metres away from the ground, the balloon turned and turned and turned, 360 degrees. The view was simply so amazing and so awesome! Ahead, we saw the sun rising, amidst the haze, which formed because of suspended solid particles in the air. Below, towards the west, we saw land divided into several even squares, filled with greens, probably date palms and other desert plants. Magnificent palaces, mosques and square residential villas dotted the landscape. I saw how the long, lonely roads eventually lead to one point. Towards the east, was just desert, miles and miles of it. Nobody lived there, but still, there were roads going through it. As we flew up further, we saw camel farms and camels having having those needle, pine trees as breakfast. Floated up further, and saw water reservoirs. 

Once we reached about a thousand metres off the ground, I realized that the desert consisted of sand ripples, one upon another. You could probably look at the desert at zoom level of 1, x10, x100, x1000, and you'd see ripples at every scale.  Ever heard of euletide? Where the peak and trough of the sea levels were in the order of 1,2,3... infinite? Here was proven physics, demonstrated by Mother Nature right in front of my eyes. It was simply magnificent. 

As we flew away from the original point, the wind blew us towards a village called Sweihan. Now, that sounds distinctively familiar. Where had I heard it before? As I scavanged through my memory, it struck me. This, was the very place that the camel race and camel market were located! Now, it got me really excited. 

"Oh! Look! There's a camel race going on!" our pilot breaks the silence as we absorb everything within around us in awe. 

Oh! Yes! Yes! Yes! Where's the camel race? Where's the camel race? My eyes inadvertently scan the whole desert, to the left, right, up and down, trying to spot running camels, the size of elephants in my mind. Somehow I forgot that I was suspended thousands of metres in the air. When I eventually identified the running camels, I was a little surprised that they consisted of three specks of one centimetre creatures, running for their lives, as white 4WDs tailed behind. 

Wow!!!! One of my dreams ever since coming to the UAE is to see camels racing! and here, it was happening live! Talk about destiny. It was simply exciting! So, this is how the camel race track looks like. It consists of several outlines of at least 4 pendant drops, one bigger than the other. The small, short track for baby camels, the bigger track for adults. 

"Ok! Everybody! Smile!" the pilot cheerfuly nudges us to look at the camera suspended ahead of us, and snapped a picture of us. 

"Guess what? We, are going to land right in the middle of the camel race track, so that you can all see the camels racing!" says the pilot. 

Everyone's mind were blown away by now. Not only we got the opportunity to see camels racing from the top, now we'd get to be in the heart of it too? Cool! Let's do it! 

As soon as we landed, all passengers scrambled out of the basket and began snapping pictures of camel herds, their humps covered in colourful cloths. Some of the herders rode on them, silently leading the camels towards the track or back to the farms.

All I can say is "Wow! Oh Wow!"  

I am delightedly grateful to all the circumstances that landed me right here. 

Workaholism - I might have lost my life, but at this moment? It makes it all worth it.

 

Camel Race Track

Oasis, Hills & Zoo!

Many people think that Al-Ain is like any other town in the Emirates, like Fujeirah, Masafi or Sharjah. In reality? it's much more unique than that. 

Let's start with the zoo. Is the zoo just for kids? Think you've seen it all? or that zoos are pathetic institutions which cage the poor wild animals in a confined space? Think again. The Al-Ain zoo is nothing like that. It contains animals from the Middle East continent to the African continent. We saw huge ostriches, extremely pink flamingoes and furry sheeps with antlers and beard. 

In one area, the compound was so big that you'd think you were visiting a safari in the wild. Zebras gallopped happily against the backdrop of blue lakes and hills, while deers and giraffes roamed around without a care in the world. The lions were so healthy as they devoured a thick piece of meat. In fact, they seemed more healthy than the lions we met in Tanzania. It conveyed the idea that for animals, life doesn't get any better than this. This, is the ultimate place to be. If an animal were hunted, injured and orphaned, this would be a perfect refuge. 

On desert slopes, green grass multiplied miles and miles across. Young ferns creeped up fences, cone shaped pine trees decorated the roadsides, and colourful flowers were present in every roundabout and kerb. 

Flamingoes

Arabian Oryx

Ibex

Barbary Sheep

Wow... Can you spot the Zebra?

Look! Leopard!

Healthy Lion!

Jebel Hafeet, one of the highest mountains in the UAE, offered a superb view too! As we stood from the top, one could see that the land was tremendously flat, despite the formation of anticlines and hills. When you looked down, you'd see dried up angular, paths, which used to be a river or channel flowing through the valley. One could see houses and hotels built on the edge of these hills, as we drove up the winding roads. 

Wow... and all these are carbonate rocks? My team petrophysicist tells me that carbonate rocks formed from corals will have high porosity and lots of fossils. Those without visible fossils and low porosity, will most probably have been deposited in deepwater, formed mainly by microorganisms, due to limited sunlight. 

Now, were these rocks formed in deepwater? or shallow waters?

Overlooking Oasis & Plains
+ Channel in the Valley

Carbonate! Vugs, Caves, Pores.... 

Look at this! Layers and layers of Carbonate.... 

House on the Edge of the Hills

See anything?

It's the Mountain Range!

Winding Roads Up the Hills

View of the Hills from the Valley

Ah... Al-Ain is a beautiful city indeed. If you're in the UAE, this is a must visit place. Don't cross it out of your list just yet.

Abu Dhabi

2 days after I visited Al-Ain, I finally got the chance to stay and work in Abu Dhabi. 

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are like two opposite sides of a coin. While one boasts boasts its wealth and value in extravagance and style, another stays rooted on the ground, cultivating art, culture and heritage. Citizens of Abu Dhabi are more well mannered. The infrastructure, shops and taxis are so near to each other that it's easy to travel around. One could walk and cross the street to buy groceries. They even have stencil shops, clothe shops and computer shops! In Dubai, whenever I wanted to buy something, I had to take the overhead bridge, take the metro or a cab to reach the mall. Shops like these are almost extinct. 

I also discovered something. That Schlumberger is well known in Abu Dhabi. Walk into a restaurant, they see you with a Schlumberger tag/lanyard, they give you a 30% discount on everything. Walk into a hotel, they know you work for Schlumberger, they will give you a discount off the displayed price. I think that is a great idea to implement loyalty in your employees. If you want them to feel special, and appreciated, this is a perfect way to cultivate their fidelity. Besides, everytime they want to get the discount, they'd have to say 'Schlumberger', and I think if you say it long enough, it sort of sticks with you, becomes your identity and a big part of who you are. 

Oh! The taxi fare here is relatively cheaper than Dubai too. In Dubai, a 20 minute ride would cost you up to hundreds. Here, it costs you just 25 Dirhams. Ahh! 

Plus, there's also a pedestrian underpass. There's no overhead bridge here, which makes the city look less crowded. 

I also discovered a new place to visit in Abu Dhabi. It's known as the Khalifa Park. Here, there's a very unique maritime museum. It's the first museum that I've been to, where you didn't even have to walk or read. They put you in a car, that moves you through time, viewing everything just from your seat. At the end of the journey, you'd get a short glimpse into the marine life around the platforms. 

Super, duper cool!