Camels!

Molly's shot of a camel crossing

Having a visitor has given me the impetus to do some of those cultural things I've been meaning to do. Tuesday, four of us went to the Al Dhafra Camel Festival in Abu Dhabi's Western Region at the entrance of the atmospherically named Rub Al Khali, or Empty Quarter.

Molly and Ben and I were grateful that Chris agreed to drive--he was much more adventurous than I would have been. This was my first experience having to navigate out-of-town. Thank God we also had the iPhone and its mapping abilities. I now see why everyone has a GPS and a road map with coordinates. The signage is extremely limited and tends to be right at the turn off or exit with no lead time.

We eventually made it to the festival with the help of the taxi driver hired by some folks we met at a rest stop. We had missed the poorly labeled side road for the festival and were well on our way to the Liwa Oasis when we turned around.

At the festival itself, we started at the Ministry of the Interior village where we learned all about historic and modern uniforms of police, military, and emergency response units. We browsed the other tents including one in which little kids could dress in uniform to have their picture taken, the military band's tent, and the Special Forces tent where we could have apparently fired a real automatic (?) weapon.

Then I asked one of the officers how we could get to the camels that we saw in the distance. He said, "No English," so I said in Arabic "where (is a) camel?" He pointed down the road. So, off we went in Chris's little compact car, down a road that increasingly turned to desert, until we found ourselves in a chaotic mix of camels and four wheel-drive vehicles--some driven by children (both the camels and the 4WDs).

Shot of Chris and camel owner by Molly

We pulled over and went to speak with some of the camel owners. Chris had a nice chat in Arabic with a man from Sudan in which we learned, among other tidbits, that his camel could go for $10,000, but the darker camels were worth a lot more. As we spoke, Emiratis pulled up in their trucks to talk to the owners, but we couldn't tell whether they were asking after the camels or us. We seemed to be the only foreigners out there and I'm sure we made a ridiculous sight--No one else was on foot unless they were corralling dromedaries.

Molly & me with camels by Ben

On the way back out, we got caught in a jam of trucks, camels, and a news crew interviewing people. Fortunately, Chris's Shanghai driving skills kicked in and he got us back to the cultural village.

While there, we got to see men perform the traditional Emirati dance (al yawlah?) with sticks and swords and possibly fake guns. They sang in a sort of call and response style accompanied by drums.

Camel babies!

Later, Molly and I were invited to drink Arabic coffee with cardamom and hot milk with ginger and sugar (surprisingly tasty!) with some ladies in full niqab. We asked after each other and they gave us each a little gift. We weren't sure what we were doing, but think we made it out without causing offense (?).

The way back to Abu Dhabi was down a dark road with semi trucks in the right lane and impatient locals in the left. It was a little scary, but in the end we got home with sand in our hair and shoes, but otherwise without incident. What a day! (Alf shukr to Chris for getting us back in one piece!)