we recently listened to a lady friend of ours who and posted a series of photos on fb. the idea being to spread good photos and [to my mind] make fb a little bit more interesting than dish water. because we blog [!] about life in dobuy as lived, the photos capture stuff that most tourists do not see. so here goes!
the first one is of something that is usually associated with desert and araby but which is rarely seen in the glitzy environs of dobuy - the camel! we see these single-humped dromedaries on our peregrinations around the country and being somewhat sympathetic to voiceless animals take a liking to them!
the next photo is something that is ubiquitous in this part of the globe - sand. with our propensity to walk with head down [the ancient greeks did it too...] we tend to notice things below eye level. this was interesting simply because of the numerous sets of footprints that were on the patch ahead of us, now all we need to do is give a fancy title and an even fancier description of the photo and rake in the doubloons!
this one was on a hot thursday night and we were drained after a few hours in sonapur - where construction workers are housed in dormitories called "labour camps", which description causes no little angst to the PC-brigade - and we needed to rehydrate ourself with speed. the interesting thing about this glass is that the word "perrier" turns green when cold liquids are poured into it. good brand initiative and slaked our thirst as well!
the clock tower in dobuy was till the 70s the end of the road - the city ended there! today it's a massive hub with jams (cars not camels). the clock was gifted to the ruler of dobuy by the sultan of oman and rolex has got its brand recall sorted.
a dose of reality just 45 mins away from the glitz, glamour and bling of dobuy. this is a side street in umm al quwain, the "poorest" of the 7 emirates. and given that india can never be far away from indians i met a tea seller from santacruz [a suburb of bombay] who's been here 35 years!
