Hash House Harriers

I first hear about the Hash House Harriers about 15 years ago when a friend's father came to visit him in Japan and he was telling us about living in the Middle East. The way he was drunkenly describing this club of people who just run around in the desert following trails then getting drunk afterwards sounded insane. After my experience with the Abu Dhabi Hash House Harriers, it seems no less insane, but I feel that this "drinking club with a running problem" is the perfect combination of fitness and alcoholism that I have been looking for.

 I'd always meant to look into it when I originally got here, but I got caught up with running triathlons and my "serious" training. Fortunately, I'm past that for now. Finally, things have settled down at work and I'm done with my master's degree, so I have time for this sort of thing. Another stroke of luck was that a couple of friends of mine are members of the Hash.

My friends were kind enough to pick me up and give me a ride home so I could fully partake in the beer afterwards. We arrived at 6:30 for the 6:30 start time and were congratulated for being early. Fifteen minutes later, we began following arrows drawn on the side of the road in chalk. At some points we saw a circle and x pattern that indicated a turn so we had to find the trail. Sometimes I was near the person that found the trail and other times I was further away. I learned to just stay near the person who designed the trail because he wasn't going to run any further than he had to.

After the run, we drove the cars into a circle and had a mock award ceremony where I had to introduce myself. This seemed to be the real social aspect of it with a bunch of singing songs and hazing each other. While I have never been part of a fraternity, It reminded me of the positive aspects of what I imagine a fraternity to be like.

Also, I had been worried about the 6 km distance as I hadn't been running much over the past few months. However, with the running followed by all the searching for the trail and switchbacks, I needn't have worried. Since the heat and humidity kept everyone running a little slower, my legs were fine for the run. Anyone who is mildly in shape who likes socializing should come to this. It is free to run and 50dirhams for all you can eat and drink with beer and soft drinks included. I'll definitely be going back.

Al Ain Wadi Adventure

Last Wednesday my place of employment had a team building exercise at Al Ain Wadi Adventure. I was pretty excited about the whole thing because I had wanted to go and taking my family would be prohibitively expensive. Besides the cost of getting in, whitewater rafting is 100 dirham for an hour bringing the cost of an hour of fun to 400 dirham not including food and entry. Of course there is the 100 dirhams for all day kayaking, but that is something that you have to actually be skilled for.

When my director told us that we were going, I was pretty excited as I probably wouldn't have gone otherwise. There were three levels of rapids ranging from pretty tame to reasonably thrilling.

There's a rock climbing wall which is 40 dirham for 20 minutes. Unfortunately, between the heat and being tired out with that being the last activity for the day, I couldn't fully appreciate the full 20 minutes.

There's the air park which you can climb on all day for one price of 50 dirhams and is largely the reason that I was too tired for the climbing wall. It was pretty cool and don't worry, they have a harness for people to keep them from falling.

Included in the price of the air park obstacle course is the zip line, which was pretty much fun. You can even ride it as many times as you want.

I don't know what the pricing for this thing was, but for you get to have someone strap you and your two closest friends to a log and let you swing back and forth for a while. The sudden drop was pretty exhilarating. I was in the first group and lulled the others into thinking that it wasn't that scary, but that was more due to being afraid to open my mouth for fear of what would come up. My advice is to avaoid doing this one directly after lunch.

They even have a wave pool that creates a 3.3 meter wave for surfing, but I would never be able to do that without lessons. pictures aren't all that impressive, so here's a video to show what this is like. (Despite what the title of the video says, this is Al Ain, not Dubai.)

I enjoyed the rafting the most and would like to learn how to kayak as that looks like better value. The other activities were fun, but with the heat the water activities were more enjoyable. I would definitely recommend going to Wadi Adventure and having someone else pay for it.

Done

I've had an exciting past year of work and classes which has been so exciting that I had no time to write this blog. I am now finished with the Master's degree in Mathematics and finished with the teaching semester. I am probably not going to go back and talk about everything that happened, so will probably just pretend that I have already written about everything.

Another thing that I noticed is the excessive amount of spam in the comments section since I last looked at this blog. I might get to deleting it, but the interface is so clunky that it might not happen. from now, I have now restricted who can commented on my posts. If you want to comment, you need to be a member of the blog or a friend or whatever they call it. I'm pretty open to comments, I just don't want people clogging up the comments section with garbage.

I intend on starting to write this blog again, and depending on whether I get tired of it, hope to continue. I have a lot of Guitar Hero to play and a lot of TV to catch up on so I can't guarantee it.

Island Getaway

I know that a lot of my posts may give a fairly negative view of Emiratis, but there are some pretty decent people here, too. Just as my job doesn't put me into contact with the bottom third of Emiratis as far as functionality, it doesn't usually put me into contact with the top third, either. That's where my friend, "Khalid" comes into play. Khalid is the guy that took me around the Formula One track in his Porsche. From all the times I've met him, he is a really down to earth, fun guy to hang out with. Over the past few months, my family and I have gone out for beach excursions with his friends Safwan and Safwan's wife Katie.

Back in February, we went to Safwan's beach house about a 20 minute boat ride off of Sadiyat Island.  We were able to have fun on Khalid's jet ski and relax in the shade with a few soda pops. Safwan and Katie put on a wonderful BBQ for us and their neighbors kept sending over food that they had cooked. It seems that a lot of the people who life in Abu Dhabi spend their weekends relaxing at their island houses. Of course this seclusion comes at a price. They have to import all of their food and water. I'm not entirely sure of where their electricity comes from, but I think they must have a generator somewhere on their property.

Lucas showing his stuff on the jet ski.

I was going to take Safwan and Katie's parrot back with me so I could be the "weird parrot guy."

She sells seashells by the seashore. The seashells she sells are seashells, I'm sure. In particular, one of them had a dead crab in it.

This is the beach house from the water.

After the wonderful hospitality, we had another chance to relax in the sun with our new friends. A few weeks ago, Khalid took us to a fairly secluded beach on Sadiyat Island where we me Safwan and Katie for another BBQ.

On our way to the beach with the Abu Dhabi construction in the background.

Lucas relaxing near a floating cooler filled with soda pop.

Stopping for gas and a potty break for Khalid's dog at a boat petrol station.

Lucas and Tia enjoying a swim while jumping off the boat.

Sailing into the Abu Dhabi sunset.

After Khalid brought us back to  Abu Dhabi, he said that next time he would take us around Abu Dhabi Island. The total estimated time for that? About six hours.

Tia ready to go around Abu Dhabi Island.

My wife and I with the Sadiyat bridge in the background.

Considering that a majority of my contact with Emiratis is with guys in their late teens and early twenties going to a mid-range post-secondary school, I haven't been meeting a wide range of the local population. Meeting Khalid, Safwan and their wives has given me a better idea of Emirati life.

Carlton Traning Camp

Anyone who lives outside of Australia probably has not heard of Carlton Football Club but apparently it is the most successful team in the Australian Football League. Last Friday, the Carlton Football Club completed a successful training camp in Abu Dhabi. They stayed at the Emirates Palace and "utilized the world-class training facilities the Palace has on offer." Previous to their visit here, they spent two weeks training in Qatar. This trip was meant to promote tourism in Abu Dhabi for Australians. There were some suspicions that since Emirates Airlines have their name on the stadium that Carlton play in that they might be announcing that they will sponsor the the team.

Tia's unimpressed to be near some guys that only Australians know.

One of the team members taunts Lucas after Lucas told him that he'd rather be playing baseball.

What this meant for my family is that because my kids play Australian Rules Football, they got to participate in the training camp for kids that Carlton sponsored. It was really fun watching the team run training drills then make themselves available for pictures and autographs. After that the team ran drills with the kids for about a half an hour. To finish things off, they handed out caps and balls to each kid in attendance.

Tia showing her impressive kicking skill as some guy looks on.

The thing to remember with this whole thing is that this is the equivalent of your favorite American Football team or favorite Rugby team coming to town to run a training camp for the kids and only about 50 people showing up. It was a really fun time and well run.

Nightswimming

Recently it has become so hot that it is too uncomfortable even to go swimming during the day. Right now, at 10:20 pm, it is 93 degrees, just about right to go swimming. This past Friday, since the kids didn't have school the next day, we went to the roof to go swimming. Here are a few shots.

Bicycle Thief

Living in Abu Dhabi, the first thing that people will tell you how safe it is here. Apart from the obvious danger of getting run down in the road by some maniac driving 100 miles an hour while sending a text message on his mobile phone, I would agree with that. Unfortunately, that feeling of safety can make a person complacent as I found out on Friday.

I went for a bike ride with my kids to a nearby park. For them the bike ride is the main part of things with the park just being a destination in mind. Usually we ride to the park, spend about 30 minutes there, and head back. We tend to go in the early afternoon, but got off to a later start so by the time we got to the park, it was pretty crowded.

After letting the kids play around for about 20 minutes, I decided that I'd had enough. When the kids went to get back on their bikes, we found that Tia's bike had been stolen. Even though I realized what had happened, something about seeing my daughter in tears over the loss of her beloved bicycle infuriated me.

Sure enough, after a ten or fifteen minute search of the park, I found the culprit: a girl about the same age as my daughter. As I suspected the girl has just taken the bike for a joyride with no ill intent. While I wasn't too hard on the girl, the sight of a man confronting her about the bike must've scared her plenty, because she ran away. After I thought about it, I felt bad. The poor girl was having a great time on this new toy without having understood that she did something she shouldn't have. Still, it was nice to be a hero in my daughter's eyes.

Dibba

With having a week off of work for the Eid holiday, I wanted to go somewhere. The problem that I have is in paying loads of cash to go somewhere to do something that we could do around our home. While the idea of traveling to exciting new cities appeals to me, the idea of dragging two complaining kids around an exciting new city fills me with dread. As much as I'd like to tell myself that we'd be organized enough to plan around the kids, I know that we wouldn't and that traveling out of the country with our kids would be hell.

A few weeks ago, a student of mine suggested that we go camping in his hometown, Dibba. (To see where Dibba is in relation to Abu Dhabi, have a look at the map below.) He told me that he could show us a secret little beach that he knew that wouldn't be be busy. I've had similar offers before and they tend to come from students who are the biggest pains. I tend to just ignore them until the students forget. This guy mentioned it a few times and since he's a genuinely nice guy, I thought we could take him up on his offer.

I was slightly worried because I wasn't sure whether he'd be available like he said he would. Also, we had friends who were coming with us who hadn't been camping in the Middle East before who were relying on us. My wife and I made alternate plans in case things didn't work out, but since I'd never led a camping trip before, there was added pressure.

We left on Saturday morning and got to Dibba at about 12:30, just in time for lunch. I called my student after we ate lunch and he took us to the combination internet cafe, gaming center complete with Playstation 3's, a pool table, and table soccer. We were able to relax and enjoy my student's hospitality before heading off to his secluded spot.

When we got there, we were a bit disappointed to see a lot of broken glass by the rocks near the beach. While the beach itself was fairly nice, there was the worry of the kids cutting themselves. on glass. To be fair, it was cleaner than a lot of beaches and camping spots that I've seen in this area. In addition, with the speed that my student began helping us clean the area up, I could tell that he was a bit embarrassed by the state of things. Once we did a quick check of the beach area to make sure that there weren't any surprises, we were able to reason that as long as we kept the kids away from the rocks where the broke glass was, we'd be fine.

Camping went well with the kids having a blast splashing around in the water and digging in the sand. As the tide went out, we had more and more places to spread out. We built a fire, had our dinner and roasted marshmallows. Once the kids were all riled up from the sugar, we put them to bed and ended up going to bed around 10:00 pm.

Around 2:00 am, my wife woke me up to say that the waves were getting within a few feet of our tent and we had to move it. Both families dragged the tents with kids inside further up the beach and moved everything to a safe distance. Satisfied that we had taken care of the problem, I went back to sleep.

At 4:00 am, my wife woke me up again so we could move our tent again. This time we had to move it to the edge of the rocks and move all the chairs and other camping equipment onto the rocks. We debated whether we should move the tents onto the rocks with all the broken glass in the 4:00am dark, but decided to take our chances with the tide. Fortunately, our gamble paid off with the waves stopping about a foot from out tent.

Although we had originally planned to go camping two nights, our friends' tent broke. We figured that it was probably best just to head back and go to Dreamland water park for the day instead. We got there at about 11:30, ate our picnic lunch in the parking lot, and had the whole afternoon for the kids to splash around. Because Sunday is during the work week and the holiday doesn't start for most people until Tuesday, the park was almost empty. After a quick stop at the best liquor shop I've seen in the UAE (conveniently located next to the water park), we headed home.

While we didn't get to go camping in Musundam, Oman like we'd planned, we had a good trip. We had a day to relax at home before we head out to Musandam for another two days of camping tomorrow.

Sports City

Yesterday, my wife and I took the kids to Zayed Sports City, a complex of stadiums, playing fields, and various other venues for sports. We went there for the kids to use one of the practice fields to play Australian Rules Football before a club match then to watch an actual game. I thought it would be a good opportunity for the kids to see a real match and to play on a big field.

The name doesn't lie; it's about the size of a small city. While I've been to Zayed Sports City before for bowling, I didn't give much thought to all of the stuff there. There are soccer stadiums, a tennis stadium, a full-sized running track, a baseball diamond, practice fields, a huge bowling alley and from what I've heard, a nice ice-skating rink. The facilities available for public use are reasonably priced, too.

As we arrived, the UAE Japanese community was playing baseball on the field next to us. My son saw a classmate of his whose father was playing baseball. From that point on, he spent the whole time playing baseball with his friend instead of playing and watching Aussie Rules Football.

After that we went to the bowling alley where there is a full Chinese restaurant inside. The restaurant is good enough that the people I know who recommended it, go to the bowling alley specifically to eat there.

Things looked fairly well maintained, though the running track looks like it's suffered under the Abu Dhabi heat. With a over a week off for Eid, we will probably take the kids back to Sports City for bowling and / or ice skating. It's nice to have a place to go. It looks like it's well-used, though I don't know how many Emiratis go there.

Fun City

I recently took the kids to an indoor amusement center in Marina Mall called Fun City. We were planning on going there for my daughter's birthday but because it was Ramadan, it wasn't open during the day.

This past weekend, we gave it another go. When we got there in the early afternoon on a Friday, it wasn't too bad. However, by the time we left it was starting to get pretty crowded. I think we got good value for our money. The rides were generally 10 dirhams each and because we were there when it wasn't crowded, we got to ride for a bit longer.

They had mini amusement rides including a pirate ship pendulum, merry-go-round, roller-coaster and bumper cars. The roller coaster wasn't working but I'd like to give the kids a chance to ride it sometime. In addition, they had little climbing play-gym areas for 20 or 25 dirhams an hour that the kids enjoyed.

The unfortunate thing was that in one of the play gyms, there were cannons that shoot foam balls. It looked really cool until you realize that about 90% of the equipment in that area didn't work. The kids had a good time so I didn't complain but it's a shame that they cant do some basic maintenance to keep things running. I felt that letting the kids run around in the climbing places was the best value for the money with a a few rides thrown in. We won't be going there every weekend, but it was pretty good for a treat.

Children's Beach

Yesterday, our swimming pool was being cleaned so I took the kids to the beach. The Children's Beach is right in front of our apartment with about a couple hundred meter walk each way to get to the free beach. Usually, being the cheapos that my wife and I are, we instead opt to walk the extra distance. I just wasn't in the mood for that on Saturday so we just went to the first gate we saw. I was happy to pay the 15 dirhams ($5) for the two kids and me. It's 10 dirhams for adults and 5 dirhams for kids 5 and over. The woman who charged us didn't seem to care when my daughter very clearly said that she was 5 years old.

Once we were in we spread our beach blanket in the sand next to the water. Unlike last year, there were very clearly marked swimming areas and boating areas. There also seemed to be a lot more amenities than the last time that we were there. When I use the word "amenities," I don't mean to suggest that they were free. Everything from the lounge chairs on the sand to the lounge chairs floating on the water had a price.

I did find it amusing that one guy, either not knowing or not caring that the floating lounge chairs weren't free, lay down on one of them. The lifeguards stood there blowing the whistles to get his attention, but of course he had his eyes closed and wouldn't have known that they were whistling at him to move along. Because none of the lifeguards wanted to actually go into the water and swim out to tell him, nothing ended up happening about it.

The kids and I had a fun time splashing around in the water and digging in the sand. The next time I go, though, I think I'll bring a newspaper and splurge on a 25 dirham lounge chair with sun umbrella.

Austrailian Rules Football

A friend of mine who lives next door helps run an Australian Rules Football club for kids. He's one of a few assistant coaches, but when he started helping out, he asked if we wanted to bring our kids along. Since it starts before I get back from cycling on Fridays, I left it up to my wife who would be the one taking them. She followed my friend to a park off of 15th street that I've heard referred to as "near the helicopter landing pad." They got there at about 8:00 because our friend is one of the people running it, but it starts at 8:30. It will start around 10:00 once the weather cools off.

As it turned out, the kids had a great time. Here is a picture of our daughter attempting to kick a ball. I guess it is a little strange that we'd take our kids to play a sport that I don't really have any sort of connection to. In the end it comes down to convenience. It's on Friday morning when we're free and we know one of the people helping with it. It's just good to get the kids out and having a bit of exercise in the fresh air.

Formula Rossa

Ferrari World is all set to open on October 28th, just in time for the Formula One race in Abu Dhabi. For people who have never hear of it, Ferrari World is the world's first Ferrari themed amusement park and will be located in Abu Dhabi on Yas Island. The plan is to have Yas Island be an entertainment center. Currently, it only has a Formula One track, concert venue, a whole bunch of hotels, and Ferrari world on it.
Every Friday morning I go cycling out past Ferrari World and get a close-up view of the Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller coaster. It's top speed is 150 miles per hour (It is so fast that people are required to wear goggles to ride it. Not only does it hold the record for being the world's fastest, at 2 kilometers long, it is also the fifth longest. This past Friday, I took some photos of it using the crappy camera on my phone while slowly cycling past. I've never claimed that my photography was anything special and here are the photos to prove it. If you want better photos, click here, but I warn you that some of them are artist's renditions. At least mine are real.

Comedy

I was in a triathlon today that was held around a nearby hotel. After the event, they had a buffet breakfast and mini presentation ceremony. Even though the event itself was pretty small, they had camera crews with a Korean comedy duo harassing people asking if they knew "Phillipp." I could see that people weren't into it so I stood near them and started saying the only phrases that I know in Korean: "gamsa hamnida" (thank you), "silye hamnida" (excuse me), and "mekju tuge juseyo" (two beers please). This got their attention (and off the woman who was clearly getting tired of the guys asking her if she knew Phillipp). Once they realized that those three phrases were the extent of my Korean, they quickly lost interest and once again started harassing the woman relaxing by the pool.

One of the oddest things about it was that I don't think it was in any way associated with the triathlon or the hotel. The people that I was with assumed by their actions that they were Japanese and asked me if it brought back any memories. It's nice to know that 1) Korean camera crews and comedians can be obnoxious like Japanese ones and 2) even in the deserts of Abu dhabi there's no escaping them.

Dreamland Revisited

Yesterday we went to the water park called Dreamland again. This time I was the instigator so it was on me to make sure that we got there. With my wife as my navigator we made it there all right. There was no great drama involved so I don't have a lot to say about it. I talked about Dreamland last September when we went there, but for those of you who missed that post, here are some quick details. It's about a three to two and a half drive there. The prices are really reasonable. The park is, apart from food which is reasonable priced, all-inclusive. One of the only differences I noticed this time was that you could put credit on your park-entry wristband to buy food so you didn't have to carry money around. For more details on the park or the water park experience in the UAE in general, check out this blog entry. As far as this entry is concerned, I mainly just wanted to post some photos.

Comics

Today as I was walking past the Starbucks in the library of the school where I teach when I noticed a new shelf. It was full of what are often referred to as graphic novels by people who want to pretend that they're not reading comic books. The main differences are that they are usually collections of a run of comic books with better quality of paper and you don't want your kids reading them. Right away I found three titles that I either have or have been meaning to read. That was without even looking at most of the titles. I picked up Alan Moore's Watchmen and Neil Gaiman's Stardust. I also noticed a teacher near me eying up the comics. He checked out Frank Miller's Batman: Year One based on my recommendation.

I realize that the comics are there for the students and I really wish I had students who were high enough of an English level to be able to read them. As I'm familiar with the stories of all three books, I know that the students would like the stories. With that in mind, I can recommend the movie versions of all three to them. I'd like to think that there are some students in the college that are sitting there reading them.

As for me, I was glad that I had a folder with me to smuggle the books back to my desk. Despite what some might think, I have enough self-respect to want to keep them hidden. It's bad enough that my co-workers think I'm about 13-years-old. I don't need to be supplying them with evidence.

Track

With all my complaining the other day about the beach closing, I forgot to mention that I was going to go cycling on the F1 track tonight. I had heard about it sometime last week and was considering going but with it being the middle of the week, I didn't feel like driving out of town to go riding my bicycle on the F1 track making "vroom vroom" noises and pretending I was a race car. The more I thought about it, the cooler an idea it sounded. I didn't know if they would do this again and I didn't want to regret missing it.

As it turned out, it was a good chance to get a cycle in during the week. The turn out was the usual suspects from my Friday ride. The person who organized it said they're hoping to make it a weekly thing. They're also looking at having events like an all-night ride and possibly other cycling events like races.

It seems that they spent a lot of cash on making this track and they want to make sure that it gets used more than once a year. Shortly after I hear about the chance to go cycling on the track I noticed a sign advertising a a night where people can drive their cars on the track. From what I heard, the cars need to have certain specs. I think they're looking for people with sports cars so I don't think there's much chance I'll get an SUV on there. To be honest, with the way people here drive I'd be scared to. As it is, I'll be surprised if there aren't any big accidents that evening.

Beach

Every Saturday when the water is not too cold (and believe me, it does get cold in December and January), I go swimming with a group of people on a mile swim in the ocean on the other side of the Emirates palace. It's a good wake-up and even though getting up at 6:00 on my day off isn't great, I feel pretty glad I did it even though I might not feel great while I'm inching my way into it. It's a good location because it's the only place with open water and one of the few places where there aren't idiots on jet-skis tooling around.

It's also a good place to go snorkeling from what I've heard. Some friends of mine took their kids snorkeling around there and saw a pod of dolphins. Because all the other beaches are man-made with fine sand imported from Australia and behind a breakwater, it's the only place that you can look at coral and other aquatic wildlife.

There used to be a bunch of palm trees there but they were removed last July just before I arrived here. Little by little, there have been signs that things were changing. As it turns out, last Saturday was the last day that beach will be open to the public. The Sheik has decided to build another palace on that location. It's sad to say that only a select few will be able to access that area from now on and it's a sure bet that if they do, they'll only do so rarely.

It is a bit of a reminder that my fellow swimmers and I are only guests. Even the citizens of this country are only borrowing the land they live on. It all belongs to the Sheik to do with as he pleases. It's only by his grace that we have all the green space and beaches that we do. As many events that are put on here and as many great places there are to go around town, it's important to remember who runs the show.