Notes from Al Ain

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G's International Friends

on April 09, 2014

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Here are some of G's friends from school:

She knows people from Libya, Jamaica, Pakistan, England, Finland, Sudan, etc. This was a birthday party at Bawadi Mall.

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Modern Al Ain and traditional Al Ain

In one-two generations, Al Ain apparently went from date palm frond tents, no air conditioning and a nomadic life, to malls, SUVs, and fast food. I can't really get my head round that. It all feels very modern now. Above and below are scenes from Al Ain Mall's food court. People in traditional dress (which Charles says they were too poor to wear a couple decades ago, and then when the money arrived, they adopted the traditional Saudi dress - white kandouras for men and black abeyas for women) eating at KFC. Hatam is Iranian food - kabobs, and houmous and stuff. Henry at the top of the Mall. See the Islamic crescents. This is how Sheikh Zayed used to live from the 1930s to the 1960s, when he was elected as the UAE's first president and presumably moved to Abu Dhabi. It was a nice palace with lots of rooms. This is one of the public rooms, or majlis, where people could come to talk to the sheikh and ask for money or help. That's Zayed wi

More license plates

I may be the only one interested in these, but here are some more. Sharjah above. We understand that the smaller the number, the more important the owner of the car is. Dubai One of the may different Abu Dhabi plates, this one with the arabic numerals (they read their numbers left to right, as we do, but their letters are read right to left). Ras Al Khaimah (or RAK).

A day in Macau

Charles and I went to Macau by ferry from Shenzhen across the South China Sea. It only takes an hour, but the ferry was sold out so we had to hang around in Shekou by the ferry port for four hours. The ferry only takes an hour but it was very crowded that day as it was Chinese National Day week. We took a taxi in Macau to the historical area and saw lots of Portuguese churches, colonial buildings, and huge crowds of people. It was interesting to see the intersection of China and Portugal. Charles having a Macau pork chop sandwich. A ma temple.

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G's International Friends

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