Tish's visit

"Only your real friends tell you when your face is dirty."
- Sicilian Proverb

We chose the quote above since that’s the kinda thing Tish revels in telling you about. Then, he brings it up in awkward moments for years to come. Classy man.

For those that don’t know Tish, he is a good friend of Tina and mine from back home in Canada. He came all the way out here to visit us, consume our limited alcohol supply, and see a piece of the Arab world. We gladly agreed to all three.

Tish arriving on a plane from Dubai seemed no problem, except for the fact that his flight was sandwiched between planes from India and Pakistan. Both of which were filled to the brim with labour workers that are hassled through customs and then herded onto a waiting bus to go to work centers. If it wasn’t for a few quick waves, our Canadian friend of Indian/Fijian heritage might well be still somewhere in Oman, wearing a blue one piece suit working way too hard. Heavily moustached faces wobbled in agreement as Tish and I exited the airport averting a near misunderstanding that would have lead to years of good banter.

In the first week in Oman we took Tish around our city and into the surrounding hills. We headed to the mountains as soon as he dropped the bags at the house and weaved through villages, past camels and palm oasis’ on the way to Oman’s highest peak. The rest of the week was spent in Souks (markets), beaches and around the city sites. After a few days we headed Dubai.

Shy of social commentary I will merely suggest that for all the economic brilliance of the Emirate it is an environmental catastrophe. But it sure is crazy. We drove in late at night and had no idea where our place was. We ended up in the old area of town and it was great. It was seedy, extremely fluid and very multiethnic. Our place catered to East African traders that were in town on passes as their boats lay in the creek. They could only enter town to go to the grocery store or trade goods. If they abided by the rules they could leave tax free (all this info comes second hand) Made for a lively lobby as the men piled their goods in the entrance and stayed up all night watching it.

The newer parts of the sprawling city are all the modern shopping malls, luxury hotels and audacious development that make Dubai the world’s largest water consumer and an architect’s dreamland. Indoor ski hills, island communities shaped like palm trees and the world, underwater hotels and 7 star resorts on the water left you shocked by the disregard for the environment, impressed by the architectural brilliance and humbled by your inability to afford any of it. We couldn’t even afford the entrance fee to walk into the lobby of the Burj Al Arab.

Apparently all of this development has helped Dubai to lower oil to only 2-3% of its GDP and will enable it to be prosperous beyond the drying up of its oil reserves estimated to be in the next 10 years.

After completing our weekend in Dubai we headed back to the border stopping briefly to rip around the red sand dunes wearing goofy helmets and giggling like little kids. We capped off the trip back in Muscat with some relaxing evenings outside and some days at the beach before we had to send Tish back to the cold realities of an upcoming Canadian winter.

It was great having him here and look forward to our next set of visitors soon. We would love to show as many of you as possible this wonderful part of the world.

Enjoy your holiday seasons. You are in our thoughts.