Taking Sports to the Extreme

In a land of extremes, with the biggest, best and richest of everything, I shouldn't be surprised to find a great interest in extreme sports. I never paid much attention to these when I was in the states, viewing them as on the fringe, but you can hardly avoid noticing them here as the big events are heavily promoted and front page news. For a country that does not seem to produce many athletes of local origin, this seems odd, but then maybe the events are more geared to the expat community or to promote tourism.

Abu Dhabi, about an hour down the road from Dubai, seems to be trying to corner the market. In addition to opening a spectacular new Formula 1 Grand Prix track on Yas Island last fall, Abu Dhabi has hosted ultimate competitions in desert racing and air racing. The latest event to make its debut will be the mixed martial arts competition known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship. This event strikes some as particularly inappropriate for a Muslim country that values peace and harmony given the apparent violence of the sport. Sen. John McCain reportedly called mixed martial arts "human cockfighting" but others note that this was before the sport became heavily regulated and that it is no more dangerous or violent than other popular sports like rugby or football.

Talk radio in Dubai has been canvassing local opinion to see what listeners in Dubai think, and of course the reaction was mixed. The ticket prices, ranging from $1,000 to $100, were the biggest surprise for me. I'm not going to be here for the big event, but I have to admit that I'm tempted at the lower end of the price range to attend and see for myself what it's all about. (That's what took me to the Dubai World Cup last month.) The UFC will be held outdoors with grandstands set up in the Yas Island complex built for the Formula 1 race event, and is being billed as a fantastic video and audio spectacle.

Getting to see something new in a nice arena with a big show has been an interesting part of the experience here in the UAE. I can't wait to see what they come up with next! But I draw the line at Mamma Mia on ice, which I saw a sign for today. Now that just seems ridiculous.

The Empty Quarter

We decided to venture out on a road trip to the Empty Quarter (Rub Al Khali) last weekend. This is the largest sand desert on earth, encompassing most of the southern Arabian peninsula, including a large part of the UAE and Saudi Arabia. British explorer Wilfred Thesinger made two famous crossings of the Empty Quarter from 1945-50, probably the first foreigner to do so, with help from local Bedu tribesmen. His journeys were immortalized in his book "Arabian Sands", just released in a new edition in honor of Thesinger's centenary year.

Book in hand, we headed the easy way, by car, to the place where we were staying, the Liwa Hotel, located in the middle of the Liwa oasis, which on the map looks like a green crescent to the north of the desert. From the hotel we got our first views of the endless expanse of massive sand dunes. These were not the white sand dunes of Dubai or the tan sands of Tybee Island off the coast of Georgia where I grew up, or even the dunes pictured in black and white in Thesinger's book. These dunes stretched to the horizon in colors of gold and red, with streaks in shades of salmon, highlighted against the blue sky. The most striking thing, in addition to the colors and vastness of the dunes, was the sand itself, which was blowing around fast and furious and finding its way everywhere. The hotel was evidently fighting a constant battle to keep sand out of the outdoor activity areas, with burlap sacks hung as barriers on the railing along the walkways. I had a hard time keeping it out of my eyes and mouth and found that it could be quite disconcerting.

There is now a modern highway leading from the coastal cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi to the Liwa oasis, connecting the many farms and small towns of the Liwa oasis area. We were expecting something of an off-road adventure to get out in the middle of the dunes. But we were happy to find a new road, well-marked, going to the area we were looking for, called the Moreeb Dune (Tal Marib), famous for its huge, 300 meter tall dunes. There we discovered expansive flat areas nearby, on the sabkhas or salt flats that run between the dunes, set up so it appeared for desert races of all sorts, including off road vehicles, horses, camels and falcons. The area was largely deserted, with just a few tourists like ourselves, perhaps because a large competition called the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge had just concluded the previous day. We did get to watch a few people try to walk up the dune face--a couple actually succeeded--as well as a guy on a dune buggy going up and around and down. It looked like fun, but definitely not something we would try in a Mercury Mountaineer.

We hesitated to go off-road from there, although we saw some other jeeps doing that, since we had no one to help us if we got stuck. It turned out that there were many areas around the salt flats where it was easy to drive around off the main road. It was fun to get away from the road and imagine ourselves alone in the wilderness. We came across some camels on one of these forays, one of which came right up to our car and seemed much less concerned about us than we were about him! Leaving the car and walking out into the dunes and salt flats, we saw that they were much less barren than they appeared, with small green plants and yellow flowers, rabbits, lizards and insects. Unfortunately, there was also quite a bit of refuse, especially close to the road, including plastic bottles that will probably be there forever. We came across what looked like a burlap sack but turned out to be the hide of a dead camel. It was closer to decomposing than the plastic we saw, with its teeth crumbling to the touch of my shoe.

It's possible and easy to camp out in the desert, and we saw a few campers. Without a good tent, I wouldn't want to, what with all the blowing sand. But it is said to be a magical experience under the night sky. We took many pictures but they don't really capture what I saw in the dunes. Not like the cartoonish pictures I've always had in my head of "desert" and "oasis," but something entirely new, vast and awe-inspiring. Maybe a wide angle lens and filters would help, but it's really worth seeing for yourself.

How did all the sand get here? We don't know, but worth investigating. We get the National Geographic at home and will look for their feature in the February 2005 issue, which has some amazing pictures: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0502/feature1/index.html

After spending some time in the dunes, there's really not much else to see or do in the area beyond the hotel. The local gas station seemed to be the only other option for coffee, and a quite nice one at that (the gas stations throughout the UAE are very nice, like they used to be in the USA in the 60's with uniformed attendants waiting on your car). As we headed back to Dubai, we took a detour to visit a new resort that recently opened on the eastern end of the Liwa crescent, called Qasr Al Sarab. We looked into staying there but decided against it based on location (60 kilometers from the Moreeb Dune) and price (three times more than the Liwa Hotel). But having nothing else to do, we drove 10 kilometers off the main road to look around, and found it stunning. The interior was beautifully done and the views were amazing. (Whether they had problems with the blowing sand, I don't know.) We bought a few things in the gift store, this being the only place that we had found to do so, and the sales person told us that the resort cost $800 million to build! Obviously, the government of Abu Dhabi played a big role, given the need for a new 10 kilometer road off the main highway. But it was not even close to being full. (It might have been busier, as was the Liwa Hotel, during the Desert Challenge the previous week.) I imagine that the price of staying there, expensive as it might seem, was being subsidized by the state, so it was probably a bargain. Definitely worth considering if we ever make our way to the Liwa oasis again.

We also stopped at the Emirates National Auto Museum, which was on the way back to Dubai, but it was closed for no apparent reason. It was Easter Sunday, but in the UAE it was a regular workday--perhaps they were still in mourning for the recently deceased Sheikh Ahmed. We got glimpses of a massive globe on wheels and the world's largest wheeled caravan, but missed out on seeing the world's largest truck and the Mercedes in all different colors owned by the so-called Rainbow Sheikh. No match for the colors of the desert, I'm sure.

A Kiss is Just a Kiss (Not)

The case of the British couple tried and sentenced to prison for 30 days to be followed by deportation for the "crime" of kissing in public has been receiving an unbelievable amount of attention in the worldwide press. The current spate of public decency cases in Dubai, which I have mostly ignored, include the British couple having sex on the beach, the Indian couple exchanging sexy text messages, and most recently, another Brit arrested for giving the wrong person the finger.

It's too bad for Dubai's image, since it is an extremely tourist-friendly, family-friendly, safe and tolerant place, and the public decency laws do not intrude in any way on daily life. I find it amazing that the Brits, of all people, seem to get in trouble the most, despite having been here the longest! Is it ignorance or arrogance, neither of which is an excuse? Alcohol, of course, is often involved, which is another big issue locally with lots of gray areas. But I would expect that most tourists and expats would make the effort to determine the local rules and etiquette and try to behave accordingly, at least in public. What happened to "when in Rome"? The lady in the kissing case reportedly showed up in court for her appeal wearing a miniskirt, of all things!

There could, of course, be more explicit guidance and better public education about the rules. The notice posted in the malls calling for modest dress leaves plenty of room for interpretation. I myself wouldn't know that shorts are frowned upon, especially after having been to the malls and seen many people in shorts, unless I had read it myself in a guidebook. The radio commentary today suggested that a flyer be handed out to all airline passengers disembarking in Dubai, but noted that it would probably have to be written in 100 different languages!

In the occasional cases that are brought, the penalties do seem extreme to someone from a western culture. The same can be said of the penalties for traffic violations, some of which involve confiscation of the vehicle for up to 60 days on top of fines and "black points." (I was surprised to discover that for jumping a red light, the car could be confiscated for 15 days!). Dubai has a real problem with dangerous drivers so I guess an extremely punitive approach to traffic enforcement is necessary. I don't know that the problems with public decency require such an extreme approach, and many of the prison sentences seem to get reduced on appeal. But I have little sympathy for the offenders, who fail to respect the modest requirements of the region and cause so much undue attention with these cases of stupidity. I am much more worried about the dangerous drivers, and the horrific accidents receive almost no publicity.

Pirates plumb the depths, says The National

Pirates plumb the depths - The National Newspaper

At first I thought this article in The National, Abu Dhabi's main newspaper, was about the Somali pirates, who have been busy hijacking UAE boats and taking hostages of late. Imagine my surprise when the Pirates on display, wearing the familiar Bucco logo, were those from Pittsburgh, described as "one very, very, bad baseball team."

Why in the world would anyone in the UAE even be interested in the Bucs? A big case of schadenfreude, perhaps? Many in the USA seem to take pleasure in the whoops and downs of Dubai: the alleged sinking of the Palm island, the leak in the aquarium, the debt default. So I guess the losingest team in North America makes for a good read here.

Certainly a familiar story for those of us (can't be that many) from Pittsburgh, now in the UAE. (I've met a few.) A friend and devoted Bucco fan points out that the margin between losing and winning in baseball is very small, and getting to see many of baseball's greatest players (mostly on the other teams!) in the comfort of beautiful PNC Park more than makes up for seeing a few more losses than wins. So it's not a bad story, really. Let's hope the Pirates have stopped plumbing the depths and hit bottom so things will start looking up in the new season.

A Sheikh's Funeral

It was huge news in the UAE and around the world when Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the UAE, disappeared after a glider he was riding in crashed into a lake in Morocco. It took four days of searching before his body was found, and the funeral was held the next day on March 31, as is the Muslim custom. A three-day period of official mourning followed, with all flags at half mast. More surprising to me, all radio stations in the UAE suspended their normal programming, playing classical music instead of the normal fare, with newscasts focusing on the sheikh's funeral, and many concerts and other events were postponed.

Since there are many sheikhs in the UAE, it is not clear who would qualify for this high level of official mourning. Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed, still young at 41, was not in the line of succession--his half-brother Mohammed bin Zayed is the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and presumably the next in line for president of the UAE--but Sheikh Ahmed was very powerful in his role as the managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which may be the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. He was considered modest, polite, a great humanitarian, and elusive, and despite many tributes and the huge outpouring of sympathy and grief among the local citizens, very few details of his personal life have emerged. In marked contrast to the excessive attention paid to minor details of the lives of celebrities, politicians and royals in other parts of the world, the lives of the sheikhs remain a mystery to most of us. No doubt they prefer it that way!

A Long Day at the Races

Adding to the list of biggest, best, and richest in Dubai is the new horse racing course called Meydan, which looks like a spaceship landed in the desert. Meydan just opened at the end of January for a series of horse races called the Racing Carnival. But Meydan officially celebrated its grand opening on March 27 with the main event of the season, the Dubai World Cup, the richest raceday in the world. It may even be the richest one-day sporting event in the world, with over $26 million in prize money spread over 8 races.

With London's Ascot as the template, one of the primary attractions for attendees is the opportunity to get dressed to the nines, with ladies instructed to wear hats and men to wear coats and ties. While the official program recommends modest dress for women, the fashionistas choose to wear very dressy short tight dresses with bare shoulders and high heeled sandals, and, of course, eye-catching hairdos and perfect makeup. A milliner's delight, many ladies wear hats but even more wear what they call "fascinators" attached precariously to their heads--kind of a cross between a bird and a tiara. The men also look very nice and lots more comfortable in their loose summery suits and comfortable loafers with colorful ties and shirts, but very few hats, probably so as not to compete with their lady friends in the head gear department.

Since we were by ourselves, I did not see the need to impress anyone by buying a new outfit. I chose something simple and comfortable, what I would call classic, but not very dressy--no beads, sequins, gold or silver--prompting my husband to question whether I was in fact dressed before we left and mumble a word that sounded like "frumpy" . I am glad I didn't try to put together a look since before I got there I did not know what the look was, and there were quite a few older women like me who looked like they had tried but failed miserably. (Need I point out that short dresses look awful trying to cover up the few too many pounds that many gain with the few more years under their belts.) Now, after having been there I realize I did have a dress that would have worked, but definitely no shoes or hat, which I'm sure would have cost a fortune had I been able to find anything suitable. My husband with very little effort looked much like the other men, with the addition of a strikingly nice Panama hat. So as a couple I felt we evened out pretty nicely.

We were sitting in one of the higher priced seating areas, with an excellent view of the track and the huge video screen. We also had easy access to a nice terrace area with a string quartet playing classical music and an array of food and drink options, including dim sum, Indian dishes, hot dogs, nachos, pizza, full bottles of champagne, beer, soft drinks, and desserts, a real hodgepodge. Certainly very comfortable, which was good since with eight races to run and various fashion and other competitions and shows being put on between the races, it was going to be a very long day. Even the horses and jockeys were judged on their outfits, with one pair awarded the best turned out award for each race!

There is no betting on the races in Dubai, but there were several contests to enter on raceday. Everyone was encouraged to pick the race winners, as well as the top three finishers for each race, no entry fee required, with cash prices to the winners. (The best anyone did was pick 4 out of 7--we did not pick a single winner!) There was a raffle for a million miles on Emirates Airlines, proceeds benefiting a therapeutic riding program for the disabled, and for 2,000 people willing to pay 500 dirhams each ($136), a raffle for a Bentley Continental Flying Spur.

The eight races took place on two different tracks with different lengths based on where the starting gate was placed. The huge green turf track had a 1200-meter straightaway for the sprint race and curves for the longer races of 1800 and 2410 meters. The all-weather track inside the turf track was used for the other races, ranging from 1200 to 2000 meters in length. Arabians ran the first race and thoroughbreds ran all the others, coming from many different countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, France, Spain, South Africa, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, and Turkey. One of the pre-race shows displayed the flags of all the countries represented, world cup style.

I was surprised to see that the nationality of the horse sometimes had little in common with the nationality of its ownership, trainer or jockey. For example, the first race involving the Arabian horses was won by a horse from Great Britain owned by a sheikh, presumably from the UAE or another Gulf state. The winning horse for the second race was from New Zealand and owned by a Chinese couple. The ruling family of Dubai did very well, with a horse from Ireland winning one race for their Godolphin Stables, and Sheikh Hamdan, crown prince of Dubai, winning with a horse from Great Britain and another Maktoum family sheikh winning with a horse from Australia. The USA even had a winner. Great Britain had another big winner in race 7, which was owned by the composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber and named, appropriately, Dar Re Mi (whose wife accepted the trophy and prize money of $3 million in his absence). The last race of the night went to Brazil and a horse named Gloria de Campeao, with a trainer and jockey from Brazil to match, winning an amazing $6 million for their two-minute performance! This last race was the closest of all, with three horses in a dead heat at the finish. Gloria de C. was the inside horse, not very visible on the replays, just hanging on to win by a nose by decision of the judges, deflating the joy of the jockey on the outside horse who had come on strong at the finish and had pumped his fists in celebration thinking he had won. Second and third place needn't despair too much, winning $2 million and $1 million, respectively. Even 6th place won money in these races from $5,000 to $200,000.

In what I now will call typical Dubai style, the day was capped off by a spectacular show featuring acrobats, fireworks, planes, helicopters, video and light shows, which sounds like a dangerous mix, but it all came off spectacularly with no apparent mishaps. This was followed, needlessly in my opinion, by a late night concert featuring Elton John and Santana, but perhaps the concert was designed to stem the flow of people all trying to exit at once. We decided not to stay, attempting the quickest possible exit by shunning the long line for the parking lot bus and hoofing it on foot to find our car in the public parking lot. The place being so new, various parking arrangements being temporary, and our sense of direction having been shot by the circuitous route the bus took to get us to the stadium from the parking lot, we and everyone we asked were unable to find a way to walk back to the parking lot, which should have taken only 10 minutes. An hour later, we gave up and managed to catch the bus back to the parking, luckily before the concert let out!

Coincidentally, the Dubai World Cup celebrations at Meydan coincided with the observance of Earth Hour, which took place from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Dubai time on March 27. We had been notified of Earth Hour at our apartment and instructed to switch off our lights in observance. Apparently many in Dubai did the same, and famous landmarks like the Burj Al Arab and Burj Khalifa turned off the lights. But the fact that Meydan was all aglow, as an example of Dubai's conspicuous consumption, drove some to say "Dubai lied" in claiming to participate in Earth Hour. That didn't bother me--it would have been crazy to do otherwise, especially for a symbolic observance that I had never even heard of before--but it reminds us that the UAE has a long way to go if it hopes to become a leader in green building and other environmentally friendly initiatives.

At least I do my tiny bit to counter conspicuous consumption in Dubai by playing the part of the frugal frumpy American tourist who is so concerned about getting ripped off that she doesn't buy much. Either that or I am oblivious to the siren call of the mall ladies and fashion police in this consumer paradise that some like to dismiss by calling it "Do-buy." I certainly don't miss the credit card bills!