Monday, May 28, 2007

Middle East Travelogue - Part V (Final)

I had been on an official trip to Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar) and UAE (Dubai) and to Oman (Muscat) on the way returning back. This trip was on behalf of my employer - Wipro Ltd and it was between 25th of March 2007 and 12th April 2007. I wrote my travelogue in 5 parts and it is now available for your reading.
Here goes the travelogue Part V (Final)....

Welcome to one more of my "time-swalloer" mail.. Right now am travelling in a taxi in dubai back from office.. Forgot 2 tell u abt the price of petrol in dubai.. its more costly than saudi, around 2.5 AED (1 aed = 12.5 inr) per litre.. here it is sold in gallons , where 1 gallon is around 4 litres.. u know what, the taxi driver next 2 me is a tamil person.. this is not something strange, as 50% i meet only pakistanis as drivers and balance indians - either malayalam (mostly) or tamils.. this particular driver is the person who drove me home some 2 days back also.. and am meeting him again. indians, pakistanis & the bangalesh person persons are considered as slaves / low profile people here. they are sometimes even treated badly.. whereas US, and europeans are treated with respect & given all concessions right from visa rules till what our customers pay for the consultants. even if an indian & a us person does the same work, they will pay the us person 2 times / 3 times wht they pay to the indian if he has a US passport.. You cant find any localite doing a common low graded work in UAE / Saudi.. Whereas in Oman, the population of oman people is huge & you can find lot of local people doing these normal jobs like waiters in hotels, in shops etc..

when i told abt huge high rise buildings in dubai, mention should also be given about the multi acred estates & bulidings coming up in teh sea. I got the local map of Dubai, there were 3 locations given as under constructions and one more is coming in the shape of world map. u can travel from the mainland only thro water, its a man made (to be made) island..

when the petrol fare is low, shouldnt the transport cost should be less? that is not the case both saudi & uae (hope the same in other gulf countries also).. in Dubai, the taxi fare starts at 3 AED (this is the starting fare - fixed cost) and 1.5 AED is the cost of each km.. you know what, everyday i spend about 100 AEDs to go to office and come back, in indian cost its around 1200 Rs. So, why they charge this much? in UAE, the answer i got (& of course saw, experienced) was the value of the service provided. In Dubai, all cars are AC cars, cars are not like our Ambassadors or Tata Indicas. They are Toyota Camrys & other luxury cars. The model of operation is there are only 3/4 major carriers - one govt owned (about 3800 taxis) & other private ones (with about 500 - 3000 taxis each). So, they are easily some 10,000 taxis running daily in the city. Still, I struggled 2 get taxi in the morning 2 go to office. Thats the demand of this wealthy & costly city.. The govt operated taxi is called Dubai taxi, it has got all the latest features - automatic gears (no clutch will be there), gprs enabled screen, which will the interactive map of dubai, u can see where u are currently, & all high funda stuff.

As I told you earlier, Dubai traffic is terrific.. A six lane road called Sheik Zaeed road, one of the key roads in dubai with 5/6 lanes on each side, but still the traffic is piled up.. In this condition, wont the taxi operations get a hit because of the slow journey. They are following a tariff plan where the customer is screwed bcoz of the traffic. If you board the taxi, there are 2 ways in which you are charged, one in running mode & the other in waiting mode.. If you travel below 15 kms, u are called as travelling in Waiting mode. Once you board a taxi, 10 minutes is allowed as waiting time.. More than that if the taxi is held up in traffic / going slow, you will be charged @ 1.5 AED for every ten minutes..thats why i give around 42 AED in the morning & around 55 AED in teh evening..

Then what else noteworthy in Dubai - Dubai museum , a good place which will say everything about the tradition and history of UAE & dubai, sheik saeed house, gold souk. Ah, this gold souk - meaning gold market.. A big 5 km diametered place with lot of shops in a place in dubai called gold souk.. All shops are gold shops - gold gold everywhere, all wonderful quality gold..and without fail you will also our marwadi brotherns shops - "xxx chand jewellery" types..other than this big big shopping malls, camel race, horse race, dubai rulers had lot of high quality horses..arabian horses.. I forgot 2 mention.. There is no rail system in the gulf (or atleast the countries where i had been) but in saudi they've just started. In dubai, to arrest the traffic conditions, the construction of metro rail system is going on (on land & over head, not underground) & expected to be finished by 2009.. As usual, funds for construction is not an issue and its planned that it will b finished even b4 that..

One more important tourist attraction in Dubai is something called Dessert safari - a 6/7 hours journey to the desert land near dubai.. the features in the saffari is sand duning in the desert, (a ride in the desert with vehicles also going upside down and in all different angles), sand skiing, falcon show, camping in the desert with the group, model dressing for male & female in arabian costume, shisha (the arabian hukka), belly dance & dinner. while you might know other things, falcon show is an age old traditional sport cum hunting activity of the arabs. A falcon is trained by the trainer and used for hunting birds.. A rope is tied to its legs, and its made to fly targetting other birds, it will catch them and bring it to the hunter. The hunter will wear a leather glouse in his hand for the falcon to land without hurting his hands.. To train and tame the falcon is a skill..

I also want to mention about one problem i faced here, particularly in Dubai. You would knw that the traffic is "Keep right" here..But in my senses, its deeply rooted that vehicles will come in the left in the road. so bcoz of this, while crossing roads, i did mistakes in estimates the vehicles arrivals & also in traffic signals. infact, in one place a vehicle was about to hit me when i crossed the road seeing the other side...

My flight from Dubai to muscat, on that particular day when i wanted to travel was cancelled and hence i needed to travel from dubai to bahrain the next day morning and then to muscat after some hours.. Since i had to spend one last night in dubai, i decided 2 go for an english movie. theaters in UAE are only multiplexes with even 10/15 screens in one theatre.. you might appreciate the fact that this trend of multiplexes is also growing in India in a big way through Inox, PVR, Innovative multiplex etc.. Have you wondered why these are seeming 2 be a copy-cat model.. Reason is there, what are the things you will see in a multiplex, lot of restaurants, shopping centres, hefty fee for parking, some activites and also theatres, So revenue comes in all these modes.. You know what, It is said, in India, that even 30-40% occupancy in multiplexes is enough to breakeven. & the customer (film watchers) dont mind paying a huge amount (say 150,200 even 500) to watch a film in that ambience..

Would wish to put a few words on oman also.. the county is Sultanate of Oman, with capital Muscat, currency Oman Riyals, valued @ around 115 INR, the lowest form is Baisa , where 1 OR = 1000 Baisas. Again, a US ally, but not that well known, a quiet country with high levels of secularism. In fact i heard that during the babri masjid issue, the sultan ordered arrest of pakistani people who attacked hindus on Oman.. Oman's economy is not built only on oil, but also on other manufacturing & other things.. instead of deserts, u will find lot of hills and the famous caves here..(though i couldnt have the chance the caves, sea and hills in Muscat)..

So, before i close my travelogue, thanks for listening to my boring mails.. before i close, i invite you to spare some time in thinking about why India, having all the resoruces - natural wealth like agriculture, iron ore, minerals, oil reserve, wind, water eneregy etc, highly trained english speaking manpwer, very old traidion and civilisation history, big manufacturing & consumer base, world class defence equipments & soldiers, huge land area, still a developing whereas smaller countries in europe, americas and even asia are developing fast?? I found three reasons -
1. Lack of proper infrastructure,
2. Huge population & lack of measures to take care of the masses & their problems like unemployment, health & educational facilties;
3. Lack of projects and developments activities with a vision...
Just wanted to write this as whatever i saw in these countries I travelled, in my first international trip, I only compared them to my home country India and felt bad.. But, whatever it is there is no match to India.. I used to long for a foreign travel, & now I wish to come back to india asap and see my lovable chennai & bangalore...India can be sleeping for 300 years of modern history. But not more than 10 years is needed for it to grow like USA or UK or any other country and pluck the status of World super power from USA....This is possible only if the above 3 things are taken care of at the earliest. Dont you also thing so?

Middle East Travelogue - Part IV

I had been on an official trip to Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar) and UAE (Dubai) and to Oman (Muscat) on the way returning back. This trip was on behalf of my employer - Wipro Ltd and it was between 25th of March 2007 and 12th April 2007. I wrote my travelogue in 5 parts and it is now available for your reading.
Here goes the travelogue Part IV....

i couldnt send the next episode of my travelogue till now due to severe work pressue (for people who dont knw what work is, it is something next to god / what you do to earn your living). I wrote my last mail when I was leaving Saudi. I missed out couple of things to write about Saudi, thought I could cover that in this mail..

If you see the world map, saudi arabia and bahrain are neighbouring countries. Bahrain is a very tiny island near Saudi.. They've built a magnificant, mind blogging bridge between saudi and bahrain. This is called Causeway.. (You can think of something similar which could connect Rameswaram (TN) and Sri lanka by road).. This bridge runs to around 30+ kms in the water... that too a 3 way lane on both side with a median in between.. In the centre of this causeway, both the countries' immigration counters are also built. So, obviously this place should be bigger than the road na and both the countries have built towers in their respective border. Tower means like our Anna Tower in chennai, but a smaller tower only with restaurant, view points etc... This area alone spans to some half a kilometer diameter (may be even more).. Just think of something in the sea a gigantic human construction.

They say that if bahrain starts to suck oil from the sea bed, then the oil reserves of Saudi will be drained and flow into bahrain's oil field. I heard that to avoid bahrain from doing this, Saudi pays a hefty sum periodically..(dont knw how far this is true). You might recall myself saying bahrain is a place where saudis go for all sorts of entertainment viz alcohal, pubs, discos etc...

When I went from airport to our office in al khobar, it was night time and i couldnt see anything both the sides of the road. While returning from office to airport only I saw, there was nothing but desert, sand, sand everywhere wherever u see. That place is nothing but desert. I saw a book in Saudi in which they say that US was the one which turned a vast desert into a wealthy nation.. Obviously US wont do this for charity right, they have share in the wealth created in Saudi. Almost all the gulf countries give visa on arrival to US & UK citizens, UAE doesnt even require any visa for UK naitonals.. I read that Israel nationls are not allowed to enter UAE, even if your passport has Israel stampig, then also you are not allowed...

One funny thing here, there is a form which you need to fill when you enter or leave a country, its called immigration form.. The person at Saudi airport who is supposed to give that form to me didnt give it to me at the gate. Only his colleague asked my passport, saw that am not an Saudi national and told him to give me the form.. It seems that he thought that am a Saudi. Dont know whether I should be proud of feel bad about this..

Its enough of Saudi, lets come to UAE.. The most happening place in the gulf.. Things are in total contrast between Saudi and Dubai.. The country's name UAE stands for United Arab Emirates, to denote that its a union of some emirates, (like United States, made of 50 states).. Seven emirates make up UAE, They are Abu Dhabi (Capital of UAE), Dubai, Sharjah (Al sharjah, very close to dubai), Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain & Ras Al Khaimah. Each emirate has its own ruler. Currently the ruler of Abu dhabi is the president of UAE and that of dubai is vice president cum prime minister of UAE..

When i reached dubai airport, there is something called duty free shop in the airport (Duty free shops are there in all international airports for the use of transit passengers to buy something)... This duty free is very famous and also big, The variety of alcohal items, cigarettes, electronics, mobiles, Gold etc. were amazing.. But one thing, I didnt find the items to be cheaper than in India...

Dubai has a very old history of trade, culture and prosperity. If you see the map (ah, once again?) of UAE, Dubai is in the northern tip, There is a water body which flows into dubai (like back waters) its called Dubai Creek, this creek has travelled a long way in dubai's history.. Trading was flourishing through dubai port, via this creek, even today you can see boats (called Dhow) carrying materials to india, australia and other places. One more important activity is Pearl diving in which dubai earned a lot..

If a city's population is growing and if it cant extend further sidewards, you know that it can grow taller with high rise buildings.. Thats what we know happened in big cities and even in indian cities.. Dubai has gone step ahead.. Its is enlarging its boundary into the sea, (persian gulf).. There is a famous hotel in dubai called Burj Al Aran, (Burj in arabic means tower). It is built in the sea, as a manmade island spanning to a height of 321 meters.. (see picture)
Entry to the hotel (either restaurant / rooms) is only upon advance reservation. U can see that the shape of this hotel is in the form of a dhow (boat)..

Dubai is a very very expensive city.. i found it to be 3 times costlier in terms of the hotel rates.. The visa in which I came and the most prominent one for tourist ppl is the hotel visa.. In this, the hotel has to sponsor the guest and hence, the tourists have to necessarily stay in the hotel and not anywhere else while they are in dubai. Thats how the government is promoting the tourism industry... You can see all country people in Dubai.. some 150 nationalities live here....

Taking a break here to continue later.. and for your info, Tomorrow is my last day in Dubai..

Middle East Travelogue - Part III

I had been on an official trip to Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar) and UAE (Dubai) and to Oman (Muscat) on the way returning back. This trip was on behalf of my employer - Wipro Ltd and it was between 25th of March 2007 and 12th April 2007. I wrote my travelogue in 5 parts and it is now available for your reading.
Here goes the travelogue Part III....

My third and final write-up about Saudi and being in Saudi.. Am writing this from the Saudi airport. In some hours, I'll fly out of Saudi..

I wrote earlier that women in Saudi should wear purdah rite?? I only recently understood that its applicable not only for saudi female, but to all female in saudi, even other countries, other religions - whoever it may be.. in the city where i am - al khobar, the black dress is sufficient. but in Riyadh (capital of saudi), they need to fully cover their faces so, only the eyes will be seen, even the legs are to be covered with socks...
I told about Family section in restaurants rite?? Even in that family sections, there are internal partitions (screen clothes, windows etc) so that the male of one family doesnt see the other family's lady... (I was wondering how unlucky young boys and girls are)
Getting people for working is bit difficult here in saudi.. infact, once a proj manager needed to convince a new job applicant saying that he will tell his wife to speak to the new person's wife to that saudi is not a bad place to work.
but inspite of all these, people (incl women) are happy only, adapting to the situations and leading their life..

In the absence of theatres or other forms of entertainment, the time pass areas are big malls, parks and restaurants.. u can find a lot of these in saudi.. as these are the only places where ppl can spend their time...

May be some of you will know this.. The city in which am is Al Khobar. In this, the term "Al" is a very very common term, almost all names, all places will start with Al... It stands for respect like Shri / Beloved / respectful.. If i stay here for some more days, my name will also change as Al Gowri Shankar, (u know, even the king of saudi is very respectful to me).
One more word i want to give meaning - "bin".. Its not ur dust bin / recycle bin.. Osama bin Laden... bin means "son of".. That is they name people with their name + bin + father's name., In our example, his name is Osama and his father's name is Laden. It can also be kept as "My name" + bin + "father's name" + bin + "grand father's name".

If i ask you in what direction are letters and numbers written in arabic, you will unanimously answer "right to left". But if this is your answer, you are only partly right.. Number are written only from left to right like any other language... Confusing?? If you want to write Internet in arabic, u'll write "TENRETNI" (read right to left). But if you want to write "Internet 420" in arabic, you will write "420 tenretnI". Thus, For writing "Discount 50%", it is "%50 tnuocsiD".

When the king of Saudi is referred, the phrase "Custodian of the two holy mosques" is added to his name... Its obvious that the 2 holy mosques are mecca and medina..

There is no income tax for indiviuals in Saudi ( guess the case is same in other gulf countries as well). whatever you earn is for you only... no excise, no sales tax, no service tax... Only 72 companies are listed in Saudi stock exchange and there are a very few big companies, but those are very big.. Saudi treats US as its close ally and thinks only bcoz of US, it grew like this.. A very big company here is Aramco - its nothing but Arab America Oil company.. US has its air base here (particularly used in the gulf war against Iraq).

Saudi Railway organisation was recently launched and there is only one route - Damam to Riyadh.. Yesterday night, i wanted to see the train and i went to the railway station. But its like airport, only if u have ticket u r allowed inside the platform and your baggage is screened in the gate.. Since I was not allowed inside, couldnt gather much info about it..

Do u equivalent of paise to sadui riyal? its called halala i.,e 1 riyal = 100 halala...

Thats it as of now. If i remember anything more, will write you later..

Middle East Travelogue - Part II

I had been on an official trip to Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar) and UAE (Dubai) and to Oman (Muscat) on the way returning back. This trip was on behalf of my employer - Wipro Ltd and it was between 25th of March 2007 and 12th April 2007. I wrote my travelogue in 5 parts and it is now available for your reading.
Here goes the travelogue Part II....

Seeing that I didnt get any bad response for the first part of the travelloque, chose to write something more. Whatever am writing are specific and unique to Saudi. I dont think this will b a case in other countries (or thats what i heard)

My current beard style has paid off.. While i boarded the flight in Blr, the lady near me told that thought am an Arab, particularly due to my beard.. Yesterday also, in a hotel, one person told me "Aassalamu Aalaikum" seeing at me. My next plan is to get the wardrobe of the arab and the head cloth / ring, just as i had the costume of turban when i was in punjab. Expect the photo soon.

As i told u already, during prayer time (you can heard loud speaker voice during this time), shops are to be closed.. That time, you are not supposed to walk anywhere in the road, should sit in the tables in the roads. there are some religion police called mattawa (spelling wrong), who will travel in the roads in this time and question people who dont prayer.. But fortunately in the city am in this much control is not there except that shops will b closed.

One big bad news for people who live on liquid diet. there are no liquor shops in saudi, its totally banned, but not cigarettes. So, i heard that ppl go to baharin in weekends for drinking.. those days the roads to baharain will be very much busy with traffic. baharain earns a lot in this way. if you are caught drunken travelling, heavy fine is levied.

in all the big restaurants in saudi, there is the practise of having two entrances - one family entrance and the other singles entrance. Yesterday, i went into the family entrance and wanted to order something veg. he asked me whether am a family, when i told no, he adviced me to come through other entrance. family entrance is only for ppl who come with family, that means with ladies. so, those coming as only gents are not allowed in this way. the family entrance places are completely covered, even the windows are painted so that no one can see inside.

ladies are not allowed to drive cars in saudi.. and a male can take a lady in the car only if she is his wife... i saw cloth shops with all modern dresses for ladies. i was just wondering who uses all these dresses when they cant boast it off in public.

the toilet flush is designed in a different way.. normally, in india, some water will stay in the closet and when we flush, it will move to the sink and little water will stay in the toilet closet. but here its different, i guess this is the case of all gulf countires, will update u when i go to dubai. there is one inlet and one outlet inside the toilet ceramic.. when v press the flush tap, the inlet will pump water and teh outlet will suck water. so all the bad water will be sucked and good water pumped in..

there is a sea shore near our office, its not beach, but shore and park nearby.. some boys were playing volley ball, thought of soliciting and joining them, but even for shouting help, i dont knw how 2 shout, so choose to keep quiet

learnt 2 words in arabic - "shukran" - thank you, "Moya" - water.

thats it as of now, will write later.

Middle East Travelogue - Part I

I had been on an official trip to Saudi Arabia (Al Khobar) and UAE (Dubai) and to Oman (Muscat) on the way returning back. This trip was on behalf of my employer - Wipro Ltd and it was between 25th of March 2007 and 12th April 2007. I wrote my travelogue in 5 parts and it is now available for your reading.
Here goes the travelogue Part I....

Blr to muscat - started with a sweet surprise - upgraded to business class, first time travelling in business class. really posh and more comfortable travel. but i doubt whether the air hostess gave me a differential treatment as am a upgraded case.

Flight delayed in muscat.. my cousin brother is in muscat.. tried here and there to call him... cant call from booth as i didnt have calling card. finally got a tamil person who gave missed call and could speak with my brother.

Reached damam (KSA) at abt 11:30 PM (02:00 IST). very bitter experience in immigration. had to spend about 2 hours in immigration.

Taxi person was missing, was totally left out in the big damam airport. then called the wipro hr person in KSA office, he then sent the taxi (whcih had come and left) and it came after half an hour. '

the distance from airport to guest house (near wipro al khobar office) is about 65 kms.. what a road yaar, three lane road, each to and fro.. no cross i.,e cutting in between, car can go very fast but for the fog.. not even a small pot hole in the road.. car with automatic gears... finally came to guest house and slept, now came to office and writing this mail..

today afternoon when i went to hotel, that was the time for prayer. during prayer, no shop can be open.. so, the hotel person (malayalee) told me to have lunch in an inner room (i.,e hiding)...

Thursday, May 10, 2007

My first blog

This is my first blog.. I created my id today and basically wanted to try it...