Episode 18 - Burnett Heads, Australia
Burnett Heads, Australia
It has taken me all this time to get my secretary into action to write up this blog, the final one for this year. Fitting it seems as it’s the final day of the year.L booked our tickets home giving us a stop over in the Middle East and a side trip to visit some of the Gulf states.
The car David took up to London to have the engine overhauled, it was meant to be done within a week, however, after the workshop had had it five days they had barely started on the job and were still waiting for spares when we left the UK on 1st December. In fact it is still sitting in that workshop up in London.
Our stay in England was mostly wet, it seems to rain every day for the first 3 weeks we were there, then it fined up and we had some very heavy frosts during the last week of our stay. There was very heavy frost on the ground that we crunched through when we went out to get into the taxi that took us to Heathrow airport in the early hours of the 1st Dec.
It was somewhat warmer when we got off that aeroplane in Abu Dhabi late on the same day. We took the bus directly to Dubai where L had booked a hotel for us in a fit of efficiency that surprised everyone including herself. Mind you it was around midnight by the time the taxi driver had found the place in the oldest part of Dubai near the old gold souq. The streets were still thronged with shoppers at this late hour.
Next morning we ventured out for a look around this city that one hears so much about. In contrast to all the activity last night only the odd shop was showing any likelyhood that it may open any time soon. We meandered through the various narrow, covered streets of the old souq area encountering mostly other tourists doing the same thing as us, or being accosted by young men, mostly Indian, trying to sell us fake Rolex watches. Finding our way to the nearest metro statin we though we might take it to one of the places where we could catch the hop on hop off tourist bus D had seen advertised. Well, would you know it, our timing is damned impeccable L says, this day, 2nd December is a National Holiday for the formation of the UAE 45 years ago, and the metro station wasn’t due to open until into the afternoon.
Dubai had a fairly new metro system. This part in the old city is underground but most of the network is above ground and we had travelled alongside of one line as we came in on the bus from Abu Dhabi last night.
So, we made our way towards the creek where we saw a large number of old wooden fishing boats moored along the embankment. They were all done up nicely and seem to be restaurants, though of course at this hour, mid morning, they were all still closed.
Meandering along, and it was getting somewhat hotter, and David was beginning to wilt under the relentless sun, when we came to a shopping centre and there saw one of the hop on hop off busses that we’d been wanting.
My lot bought a couple of tickets, they were very expensive apparently, but I don’t bother myself with such trivialities, leave that for the humans. When the next bus came along we hopped on, climbed up stairs and sat right at the front so as to get a really good view. It was a great view too!
Soon we were seeing those sky scrapers for which this city is most famous. The Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest building in the world at 830m gives one a crink in the neck trying to look at the top. Beside it is the Dubai Mall, a vast shopping centre on 4 or 5 floors. We would leave exploring it for another time, for now we stayed on the bus so as to get the opportunity to see as much of Dubai as possible during our 1 day here this time around.
Tickets to the top of the Burj Khalifa, we later found were around $200 AU ea.
My lot hadn’t realised just how vast a city this is, it is spread out over an enormous area and travel on the bus was fairly slow due not only to heavy traffic but also the traffic lights that seem to take forever to change. More that 5 minutes is common to wait, and L timed one stop at 7 minutes after which only a few vehicles managed to whiz through before they changed back to red. Because of this most of our time on the bus was spent waiting for lights. Being a national holiday when we got to one of the main beach areas we got stuck in a even worse traffic jam and only got a very brief view of the lovely sandy beach, turquoise water, and crowds gathering to fry themselves in the sun. It was a hot day.
Our trip took us past that huge hotel that stands on an atrifical island just off shore and has a helipad stuck out on one side like a handle. Then we drove up the Palm Tree, a huge artificial island lined with flash apartment blocks and mighty hotels at the top. If you buy one of the apartments in this area then as a bonus they throw in a Porsche or something in a similar price range as a bonus. Don’t suppose they want the tone lowered by someone driving in a Ford Focus or the like.
At the top of the Palm, at another shopping centre we changed busses and caught one that would take us around the Marina district.
There must be more marinas about the place as this one wasn’t nearly as big as we had been expecting and considering the number of people who lived in this area, one apartment block is over 100 stories high, we had been expecting to see more boats. Still the tone was’t lowered any as they all seem to come into the "Porsche” class of vessel. No little tinnies here for whipping out to check the crab pots.
We did learn from the commentary that the water in the Persian Gulf is saltier than that in the Indian Ocean. Very little fresh water makes it’s way into the gulf, the only big river being the Euphrates and not too much comes down it any more because Turkey has huge dams on both the Euphrates and Tigris. the gulf is fairly shallow and has a high rate of evaporation.
Considering the vast number of tourists in this city our tour busses were far from crowded so every time we changed we managed to get the front seat at the top. I did enjoy that, a great view.
At each shopping centre we encountered massive crowds, they appear mostly tourists hell bent on spending as much as possible in the few days they are here in the mistaken idea that they are buying bargains. Then again, perhaps they are buying bargains, my lot as not shoppers so don’t really know how prices here compare to elsewhere. Every top-end designer label has at least one outlet in every shopping centre and there are a vast number of shopping centres all around this city. Most of the workers in such places come from all parts of Asia. The locals are more easily spotted, especially the men who tend to wear the traditional long white gown, the dish-dasha, and lots of other names too.
Extremely few of the women wear a Burqa, and possibly the ones we did see are tourists from Saudi Arabia. Many do were the Hijab, but at least they don’t have their faces covered. Still, in this tourist orientated city tourists can comfortably wear shorts and sleeveless shirts but not swimsuits and really skimpy shorts and tops apart from on and around the beach areas and in tourist hotels.
We finished off the day by taking the city lights bus tour after dark. Most buildings are a kaleidoscope of brightly coloured flashing lights, quite a sight but our camera didn’t do any of them justice, so my lot gave up trying to get photos and just enjoyed the spectacle.
The next day we spent the morning again meandering the souq that wasn’t any more lively than it had been the previous morning. Just tourists like ourselves.We then took ourselves off to the airport and flew up to Kuwait, near the north of the Persian Gulf, adjoining Iraq.
What a difference to Dubai, it just isn’t comparable.
Like Dubai and the UAE it is another ‘oil’ rich state, but the downturn in the oil price here has not be compensated with growth in other areas and the place looks very depressed. Also it suffered in the first gulf war back in 1992 as it was the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussiens Iraqi forces that triggered that war. There are some high rise, and the Kuwait towers are one of the sights of this city but also there are a vast amount of partly constructed buildings that look as if they have been in that state for a good many years. Like Dubai and the other Gulf states the majority of those who live here are foreign workers too. Unlike the UAE tourists are an almost unknown quantity and we seemed to be the only ones about. Plenty of foreign business people but not common, garden variety tourists.
The place L had chosen for us to stay was well out of the city centre and it took us about 11/2 hours on the bus to get into the centre.
Not that there was much to see really. We meandered about the souq and my lot bought the most delicious, fat, juicy dates it’s possible to find. They scoffed one lot and had to go back and buy some more, not that I got to try any of course, being a stuffed toy I don’t get to do those sorts of things.
The small eateries in the souq covered all conceivable Asian cuisines so my lot tried a different one each time. All were most acceptable. All the major foreign fast food chains are represented here, catering mostly to the foreign workers, their being so few tourists. We saw far more people in traditional Arab dress here, though again, almost no women wearing burqas, only the hijab. It was much chillier here than in Dubai so have no idea if foreigners can get away with wearing shorts, though, probably not. It was long trousers, shirts and even jackets while we were here..
David wasn’t feeling the best so we didn’t get a hire car and visit outside the city as was originally planned. We did go up one of the Kuwait Towers, the one with the viewing platform and got a great view of this city and the Gulf. On another of the towers, the bubble half way up is the water reservoir. All the fresh water here is produced by the de-salination plants. A vast amount that must be too because this country has about the highest water consumption per capita of anywhere in the world. This is the least prosperous, downright runned down in fact, of the Gulf states we were to visit or have visited, include Oman, that we visited last year in that too.
We wandered along the waterfront in the central part of the city and also in the beach area where we were staying. Although it’s still a nice sandy beach with the same calm blue turquoise water it wasn’t kept nice and clean like that in the UAE, plenty of rubbish strewn about here. Further along the coast from where we were staying there looked to be a massive oil terminal but we didn’t get a closer look at it.
Not quite the same number of parks and gardens being watered as in Dubai but still vast areas, and people just leave hoses running where ever they drop them. No-one bothers about what runs to waste. Up until the mid 1950’s all the fresh water was brought in by dhow from further north in the Persian Gulf. Of course back then there wasn’t the massive number of foreign workers there are here now. There is no underground water what-so-ever.
Overall we really don’t have much to say about Kuwait except that my lot are glad they took the opportunity to visit here.
Next we flew to Bahrain. Now this place looked far more prosperous.
Bahrain is an Island state, situated off the coast of Saudi Arabia, used to be the main stop over for all long haul flights between East, and South-east Asia, and Australia before the 1992 Gulf War. Not sure if that war brought in the demise of this traffic or it happened because Dubai made a major effort to capture that trade, whatever the cause very few flight stop here now.
Still effort is being made to attract tourists, not that we saw many of them, only read about new tourist hotels being built. We were also back to big shopping centres having not encountered any in Kuwait, but we do expect there were some there.
Again David didn’t feel like hiring a car so this time my lot negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to some of the main attractions outside the city.
Firstly we headed off to the causeway that links Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. This causeway is 26k’s long and the border with Saudi is almost the far end. There is an observation tower next to the border post but at present it is undergoing some re-construction and closed to visitors.
Just on the Bahrain side of the border there is a Macdonalds and other western fast food chain outlets, probably, to cater to fast food starved Saudi’s as soon as they cross the border. They don’t have to go any further, they can get their fast food fix right away. Not really a great lot to see and nothing much that looks good in photos but it’s the nearest L has been, or likely to ever be to Saudi Arabia. D on the other hand once landed at Riyadh whilst on a Geruda flight.
The next place on the agenda was the Formula 1 racing venue. This is a massive purpose built track and stadium.
Here we could have a bit of a look around and climb up into one of the huge grand stands, the one that actually over looks the start/finish line. After a look here at the view of the tract, only the strait in front of the stand was visible and the pits on the other side of the track, David decided it was far more comfortable and a much better view to sit at home and watch the race on the TV. After paying a massive amount of money for a seat here, one still has to watch most of the race on the big monitors, and even the start/finish is clearly visible to only a few patrons.
On the day we visited there was an ‘Iron Man’ race scheduled for later in the afternoon and because of this we could pass through the tunnel under the track and visit the buildings above the pits on the other side. This was where registration was taking place for the Iron Man race so competitors and spectators were wandering about here. It seems that most of the competitors appeared to be expats working in Bahrain. There was a shop here selling all the gear these people could conceivably want at what was probably premium prices. Still that didn’t deter many as the shop was doing a roaring trade. A shop near the entrance sold motor racing promotional gear.
Personally, I would have liked a circuit around the track in the Mc”Laren that was on display but the best on offer was to get my photo taken with it. Ah well, them’s the breaks.
Next we headed out into the oil well pocked interior of the island. This is barren desert, not a blade of grass to be seen, but a great many oil wells and a maze of rusty pipe lines threading their way across the desert. Out here in the most desolate part of the island, or so it seems, is the Tree of Life, said to be, (by whom is a mystery) all that is left of the Garden of Eden. Talk about climate change, it certainly must have here. To reach this tree we had to make our way along a narrow strip of tarmac bordered with these rusting oil pipelines and passing through a temporary holiday camp.
Our driver told us that school holidays are coming up and that a popular way to spend those holidays is to camp out here in the dry and dusty desert with the flies, though it’s pleasantly cool at present. No proper toilet facilities, or even a basic latrine, there might be water on tap someplace, one would hope so. there is however, entertainment in the form of a fun fair with dodgem track and bouncy castle among the attractions. What better way can you think of to spend a carefree holiday. Apparently the beach is not a popular option with the locals.
The former Garden of Eden was only a short distance further on and this lone tree does not appear to be anything special until you go right up to it. It sits on a mound and has possibly tapped into some underground water supply. It is a huge Prosopis cineraria tree, 9 to 10m high and with branches about double that in length. A couple of these branches have been propped up with poles. After checking up on the internet L read that it’s only about 400 years old, but as that would spoil the story we won’t mention it. There are no other trees within sight.
On our way back towards the city we called at the village of Al’Ali where there are a number of pottery works but the main items of interest here are the ancient burial mounds that date back to the 4th millennium BC, the Dilmun era in the Bronze age.
There are a vast number of these high dirt mounds spread around the village and beyond it, altogether they form largest ancient acropolis ever found and were built over many thousands of years, or so the literature says. Not a great deal has been discovered in these tombs as they were most probably plundered long ago. It’s thanks to the very dry climate in this region that they have lasted so well over such a long time.
Just a short way outside the city of Manama, the principal city of the state of Bahrain, there is the ancient Bahrain fort. Excavations have revealed that it too dates back to the Dilmun period though what one sees now, apart form the excavations actually dates from the 16th Century and was built by the Portuguese. Actually much of it has recently been rebuilt, circa 21st century AD, but that too spoils the story.
Whilst here we saw a load of tour buses and spoke to a tour guide. It seems that a cruise ship was in port and tours arranged for the passengers. It seems that this is the only time tours are conducted so that nothing is available for tourists like us who aren’t off a cruise ship. Maybe in the future.
Next we were off to Qatar. Now Qatar is only a very short distance from Bahrain and there is a proposed causeway that will connect the two countries should it ever be built. It will be 40k’s long and no double get plenty of use once constructed.This short hop to Qatar was far from short for us. The cheapest option had been for us to fly to Dubai then back to Qatar thus filling a whole afternoon and arriving in Qatar well after dark. there are direct flights between the two places and it’s only a very short flight but far more costly.
Qatar is a Dubai in the making, and not all that far behind.
Of a population of around 2,000,000 only 300,000 are locals, the rest are foreign workers, and again many of them live in great style with a whole luxury development north of the main city on reclaimed land built especially for them.
The state of Qatar occupies a peninsula that juts out into the Persian gulf and shares a land border with Saudi Arabia.
David, after not feeling all that bright most days was much worse here and spent the day taking it easy in our hotel suit. We had been upgraded and given a suit, L nearly fell off her perch.
So it was just L and I who ventured out and about this day. We walked along the Corniche and admired the lovely wooden dhows that were moored all along the way. Most are restaurants open in the evening and a few offer cruises about the harbour. Along here we found the Pearl monument.
Pearling was the major industry here until the Japanese came up with the cultured pearl process in the 1930’s.
We also visited the Museum of Islamic Art, a purpose built museum where some of the best pieces that money can buy have been brought together under one roof. A number of rooms have been devoted to a Chinese collection too, no expense spared. In all sections there are most magnificent pieces on display. Gold and silver work, ceramic tiles, silk and wool carpets, weapons and armour, ancient pottery and wood carving.
The main city centre is about a 5k walk along the corniche and rivals Dubai with it’s jungle of high rise structures, although the really tall one that was meant to be completed this year, we could see no sign of. Doesn’t seem to have been started even. The metro was also due to be completed this year but it too is well behind schedule, could be another year or more before it’s up and running.
Not far from the museum is a massive souq that has been rebuilt in the old style with narrow lanes and is partly roofed in the old style, but still looks very modern. different sections are devoted to different products just as is the case with most souqs. The gold souq, the carpet souq, the spice souq and so on.
The next day when David was feeling somewhat better we took the hop on hop off bus that L and I had come across on our wanderings the previous day. This bus seems to be a fairly new enterprise here and we were at times its only passengers so I got to sit up front on the top and really enjoyed the ride. I really must be the envy of all other stuffed toys, the things I get to do.
The audio system on one of these busses wasn’t good so we missed hearing quite a bit.We visited a huge arabian horse breeding and training complex and got to see a couple of horses being exercised. There is a big hotel connected to this complex and also it is near the massive ‘education city’ complex of schools and university.
As L said we didn’t hear some of the commentary but we think it is also in this area that many of the new sports stadiums have been or are being built.
Qatar is hosting the 2022 FIFA world cup and also has an international tennis tournament scheduled for early January. This tennis tournament will be vying for top players with all the major ones in Australia at the same time.
Having to change busses at a huge shopping centre we had nearly an hour to fill in so we had a look about. There weren’t many people about apart from the food court area that was very busy with the usual multi national fast food chains well represented. The place also had an ice skating rink that no-one was using. The centre covered several floors yet there was only one toilet on the 2nd floor with just 2 cubicles, good job the place wasn’t crowded, the queue was quite long with the place almost deserted. Men were equally poorly catered for.
A tour of the city lights after dark finished our day. They have quite a bit of work to do on the lighting for it to rival Dubai. It had been pleasantly cool and David had got through the day without a relapse fortunately. Had to wait 8 minutes for the traffic lights to change on one major road, doesn’t do to be in a hurry here.
We flew back to Dubai and this time visited a couple of the massive shopping centres. In Dubai mall there is a skating rink, a waterfall and outside a series of ornamental pools with fountains. These fountains play at night and are quite a spectacle with coloured lights and dancing water spouts, we had caught a glimpse of them from the bus on our first visit, this time we managed to catch a daytime performance. It was quite something.
Then there is the Mall of the Emirates, said to be the largest shopping mall in the world at present. It is massive and more construction goes on.
After asking the way several times and walking miles, or so it seems we eventually found the ski slope. Inside an insulated glass module is a proper ski slope with a ski lift and plenty of snow. We saw people on the lift but no-one actually skiing down the slope. A couple of families were playing in the snow at the bottom. There would have been no more than 12 people making use of this facility.
Late in the day we climbed on the Etihad bus for the trip back to Abu Dhabi airport and for our flight home.
Our friend Helen collected us from Brisbane airport and we spent a few days with her, her partner Cliff and all their greyhounds before catching the train back to Bundaberg. Like everything else this trip, nothing went according to plan. At Cooroy the train was halted because the southbound tilt train had somehow brought down a section of power line onto the track south of Gympie. A fleet of buses was ordered, then they too were held up for an hour by a traffic accident on the highway before reaching us in Cooroy and taking us on to Bundaberg. we finally arrived in Bundy late in the evening, Peter and Tracie met us and took us home, it was 11.30pm by the time we got there. What a day.
Now life returns to its usual dull boring self, I’m sitting on the lounge waiting to be washed at some point while L is getting up in the middle of the night, going to the beach and crawling around the sand in the middle of the night watching the turtles. D, well, he doesn’t do much at all in this very hot and humid weather.
That’s it for this year folks, see you again in 2017 I hope!!!!
© Lynette Regan 31st December 2016