Al Dhafra Camel Festival

We recently had the opportunity to take family out to the Al Dhafra Camel Festival about 2 hours from Abu Dhabi near Madinat Zayed in the Al Gharbia Region of the UAE. Thousands of people from around the Arabian Peninsula came to celebrate their culture centred around their camels.

A few photos here to give you an idea of events which were spread out over several days during the middle of December.

First stop, tents with items for sale blowing in the breeze, what can they be?



On closer look it could be ladies underwear!



More underwear for the females and canes for sale for the men.



Some of the judges come to look over the females in their best dressed "underwear".

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Some of the ladies in their underwear.

It's the camel beauty contest of course. Shape, form, lips, face, hair colour and those long lovely legs are what counts.


Judging in progress

A couple of kiwis admiring one of the contestants.

People come from from all over Arabia to the camel festival. There are plenty of big prizes at stake in The Most Beautiful Camel Contest. Four large tandem axle trucks plus around 200 4WDs were lined up provided high interest and a passionate crowd in the stands during judging. We were met by a lovely Emirati man who gave a us a personally conducted tour of the contest and explanation of what was happening.



Being looked after in the VIP stand.




Five young Saudis who were very hospitable and wanted to tell us about their trip to the festival.

One of the young Saudis and the lady of his life.




Traditional wind tower

Sitting in the chairs under the wind tower was surprising cool and refreshing. Designed to funnel the wind or slightest breeze from any direction down into living areas had been used for centuries throughp0ut the Middle East. This type of wind tower is typical of those found in the old Bastikiya area of Dubai and originated in Iran. Open to the elements, I am not sure what when it rains although I did see some with triangular shaped windows.

After a good look around here, we moved on to the camel races for a 3.00pm start. Non stop racing was all over in half an hour!


Racing!

Supporters, trainers and owners follow the camels controlling the electronic jockey and talking to the camels! Apparently the camels recognise their trainers voices through an on-camel loudspeaker.


One winner



Training

This was the first time we had seen human jockeys leading camels immediately behind a race. By the time the newcomers had finished the next race was about to start. Non-stop action at the camel races!


Another winner

National Day Celebrations - Abu Dhabi 2010.

National Day Celebrations in Abu Dhabi centre around the Corniche. After dark the action hots up as huge crowds head down to the waterfront to see the procession of cars. Judging by the density of the crowd and the fact that the Corniche is around 8 km long a crowd of 250,000 to 500,000 was set to enjoy the night. A fireworks display later in evening kept the crowds there until 10 pm.

The following photos give some idea of the nights events.

The Corniche, Abu Dhabi

Firstly, dress up your car.

A brightly lit car adding to the spectacle.

All photos here were taken with my trusty Canon 450D and EF-S 17-85mm lens. Using an exposure compensation of -⅓/f stop, ISO-800 and between ⅓ and ⅙ second, the IS function worked overtime to give these hand held shots some respectability.

Secondly, add participants to hang out during the procession.

Hanging out the windows and the moon roof.

Just as well speed is slow!

Real fun for everyone!

The first time I saw celebrations in this country was the night the UAE had won a Gulf soccer competition just after we arrived here in 2007. Cars hooning along at 80 to 100 km per hour with passengers hanging out the windows and moon roof, left me speechless and wondering if Newton’s Laws applied here. However the police here did a great job of controlling the traffic and restricting speeds. I am not sure how many came to grief though.

I saw one car with four young lads squeezed out the moon roof and the fifth standing on the roof!!!

A good idea to wear a mask so you can't be found out!

Thirdly. Make some noise!

Back firing 4WD behind the red car.

The high point for many of the local lads is to modify your car, rev to the maximum then to get it to backfire to deafening effect. If you can blow the engine up doing this, then even better. You know when this has been achieved by the huge palls of smoke! The noise echoing off the glass tower blocks behind the Corniche adds to the entertainment! A few illegal tyre burnouts in the middle off the proceedings is evident by a different smell!

On the last day of the four day holiday we had been down to the beach and were heading home through the park when we drawn to the sounds of drums and singing.

I hope you now have a little insight into what happens here in the UAE during National Day celebrations.

Next blog could well have something to do with Oman as we have another holiday, for 2 weeks, starting on 17 December. This is the end of semester break which we used to get in January / February. Coinciding with Christmas this year is a real bonus.

Merry Christmas and a

Happy New Year.

Abu Dhabi by Night - National Day lights 2010

Each year Abu Dhabi gets "dressed up" for National Day celebrations which occur today, 2nd December. The buildings and streets along the Corniche come alive after dark. Below is a selection of a few photos I took last night.  These were all taken within a 10 minute walk for our apartment.

The Corniche dressed for the occasion.

 All these photos were taken with the Canon 450D and the EF-S 17-85mm lens. My tried and trusted formula of -2/3 f stop exposure compensation has worked quite well here.



It is 39 years since the emirates amalgamated.



There are 7 emirates in the UAE.

Initially there were 6 Emirates, Adbu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain which joined to form the United Arab Emirates. Ras Al Kaimah joined the UAE in 1972.



Reflections in the lake at the end of our street.



Another view



One of the Corniche restaurants lit up like a Christmas cake



It's a challenge to find a gap in the traffic!



1971 was when it all happened.



The view 5 minutes from where we live.

Kerala, India, Part 3.

It was only about 140 km from Kumarakom, but 5 hours later we arrived at Munnar, in the heart of tea country. The Tea County Resort was very comfortable but the succession of curries on the buffet menu at night a bit hard to take - fortunately there was enough to choose from the menu.

Part 3, Tea country in the Western Ghats.

Munnar is a relatively small town at an altitude of around 1,800m (6,000 feet) and quite cool and much drier than the coast of course.

Munnar

It was the middle of November when we were here, there was plenty of cloud and heavy rain showers. The monsoon had eased off but was still lingering around in Tamil Nadu on the other side of the Western Ghats.

Local market

Travelling in India is easy to organise. Make sure you arrange a transfer from the airport to your first hotel, or you can haggle with the multitude of drivers outside the arrivals hall. The hotels can arrange a driver to show you all the sites and transfer you to your next destination if it is not too far away. We had the same driver at Munnar for three days including the trip down to Kochin. Prices are quite reasonable and seem to be set by the local government and advertised at the local bus/ taxi station.

Heading out of Munnar towards Top Station (shrouded in clouds unfortunately) we passed through the tea plantations and several "tourist spots"

Tata tea estate.

Most of the workers live on the estate in company provided housing. The flat land on the valley floor is a huge market garden. We went down into one of the housing blocks after this photo was taken.

Camellia sinensis - the tea bush

Tea plantation



Tea picking in progress.

The green shoots are harvested every 10 - 20 days by armies of women working the steep hillsides. The fresh shoots are sometimes plucked by hand but now most of the harvest is now done using shears like you would cut a hedge with.

A cheerful estate worker who posed obligingly.



Another hard at work.

These women have to pick / cut 25 kg of leaf per day in order to get a pay of 120 rupees. This is equivalent to around $NZD3.40! Slave labour you might think - if they got a decent wage, we would all complain about the price of tea! However the tea companies, like Tata do provide free housing, health care and I think the fruit and vegies grown nearby are supplied free of charge. We were taken to one housing estate where everyone seemed very happy with their lot - probably because they knew no better.

Front doors to row of around 6 houses.



Running water and the "sink" to wash the dishes,
using charcoal to clean the pots.

A westerner in the kitchen!

A dam "tourist spot"

On the way back down to Munnar the driver stops at a couple of dams. The locals flock there to sample the delights of various fruits, spices, drinks and the tackiest souvenirs you could wish for! Needless to say we didn't buy anything as we had a full time job watching where each foot was placed in amongst ..... well everything that would go in a rubbish bin or down a toilet; which were conspicuously absent.

Munnar schools boys parading their trophy. What is for I have no idea.

No stay in Kerala would be complete without a night of local culture!



A traditional face painting job and head gear.



Facial gestures mean something as well as the hand positions.

After 3 nights in Munnar it was time to move on to Kochin. We only had a few hours there but checked into the Reds Residency Homestay for a few hours, 750 rupees - cheap but very nice.

Kochin was and maybe still is an important port city. It has been variously occupied or controlled by the Portuguese followed by the Dutch, who built the fort and then the English who eased them out until independence.


St Francis Church, Kochin

 Vasco de Gama was buried in the church yard here in 1524 but his mortal remains were exhumbed and transferred to Portugal in 1539.


Kochin rainbow

(Canon 450D, EF-S 10-22mm lens at 10mm. f/4, 1/40s, ISO-200.
0 exposure bias.)



Kochin sunset

(Canon 450D, EF-S 17-85mm lens at 61mm. f/5.6, 1/15s, ISO-800. -1⅔ exposure bias. For sunset photos, play with the exposure bias down to -2 f stops, the results are amazing. For this one I rested the camera on a rail to help improve the sharpness even though the image stabilization was on. A good result I think.)

As the sun set on this day it was time to head back for a short sleep before heading to the airport just after midnight to catch the plane back to Abu Dhabi.

Where to next? Wait and see. There are 2 weeks holiday starting on 17 December.