Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Beware of Jaguars
This happened on the road I drive down every morning after I have dropped Max off at Nursery.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
In the footsteps of Lawrence
I'm just back from a 3 day business trip to Yanbu, near Mecca and Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. This place was notable for being home to Lawrence of Arabia for a while during the Arab Revolt and is reputedly the home of King Solomon Mines. Now it is an unpleasant small industrial city full of big oil refineries, gas plants and petrochemical works. If there is another reason for going there, it wasn't obvious.
I didn't want to come to Saudi Arabia, and neither did my wife want me to. As I sat in Jeddah airport I mused that the best thing to come out of this country is the Emirates flight to Dubai. However, sometimes, needs must. We really should have sent the woman who is doing the work on the project but, in a country where women still can't drive and have to cover themselves completely, it just isn't possible to get a visa.
The journey over was very difficult. Heavy fog meant a hazardous late night drive over to Abu Dhabi airport only to find that airport was closed to all flights. Can someone please tell me why a modern airliner cannot take off in fog? These things practically fly themselves and radar tells you where all other planes are. I genuinely can't understand it, but assume it must be something to do with pilots not trusting computers. We finally took off almost 10 hours late after an uncomfortable night trying to grab some sleep. Why the hell can't the airline call you and tell you not to come when they know the place is closed and doesn't look like re-opening? Better for everyone surely?
On the plane I felt like I was travelling to a Ghandi convention. It was full of Indian muslims, dressed in towelling robes, making their obligatory once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca (known as the Haj and Umrah). Jeddah is the nearest airport and the numbers who come here, around two million per year, are staggering. For the full duration of the two and a half hour flight, the Imam chanted ceaselessly, gasping only occasionally for breath. Thankfully, business class passengers were excused the incantation.
The late departure of the plane meant that the connecting flight to Yanbu had gone. The only option was a 350km taxi ride. I was wary of this and always like travel plans to be made well in advance and pre-booked 'in-Kingdom' (as expats refer to it). Although the Saudis are boastful of recent successes against terrorists, it was still in my mind that attacks on westerners are not unheard of and, indeed, seven people were shot dead at the refinery I was visiting in 2004.
Security is all around you. There are police check points on every major road and you have to stop, and occasionally show your passport. Expat hotels are surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by police cars. Security at the refinery was even tighter with many, many armed police with machine guns. I got the impression they wouldn't hesitate to use them.
The taxi driver was a Saudi, probably in his late sixties, with a terrible cataract in one eye and a squint in the other. He didn't know where he was going and he spoke no English whatsoever. This, coupled with the appalling standard of driving (much worse than Dubai), filled me with dread. However, he got us there with very little incident, although when he pulled off the road in the middle of nowhere I was worried he was calling up his Al-Qaeda brothers in arms. Visions of kneeling in an orange jump suit on Al Jazeera flashed through my mind. The truth was, as usual, more prosaic. He only wanted to pray and chuck his rubbish into the desert!
I didn't want to come to Saudi Arabia, and neither did my wife want me to. As I sat in Jeddah airport I mused that the best thing to come out of this country is the Emirates flight to Dubai. However, sometimes, needs must. We really should have sent the woman who is doing the work on the project but, in a country where women still can't drive and have to cover themselves completely, it just isn't possible to get a visa.
The journey over was very difficult. Heavy fog meant a hazardous late night drive over to Abu Dhabi airport only to find that airport was closed to all flights. Can someone please tell me why a modern airliner cannot take off in fog? These things practically fly themselves and radar tells you where all other planes are. I genuinely can't understand it, but assume it must be something to do with pilots not trusting computers. We finally took off almost 10 hours late after an uncomfortable night trying to grab some sleep. Why the hell can't the airline call you and tell you not to come when they know the place is closed and doesn't look like re-opening? Better for everyone surely?
On the plane I felt like I was travelling to a Ghandi convention. It was full of Indian muslims, dressed in towelling robes, making their obligatory once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca (known as the Haj and Umrah). Jeddah is the nearest airport and the numbers who come here, around two million per year, are staggering. For the full duration of the two and a half hour flight, the Imam chanted ceaselessly, gasping only occasionally for breath. Thankfully, business class passengers were excused the incantation.
The late departure of the plane meant that the connecting flight to Yanbu had gone. The only option was a 350km taxi ride. I was wary of this and always like travel plans to be made well in advance and pre-booked 'in-Kingdom' (as expats refer to it). Although the Saudis are boastful of recent successes against terrorists, it was still in my mind that attacks on westerners are not unheard of and, indeed, seven people were shot dead at the refinery I was visiting in 2004.
Security is all around you. There are police check points on every major road and you have to stop, and occasionally show your passport. Expat hotels are surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by police cars. Security at the refinery was even tighter with many, many armed police with machine guns. I got the impression they wouldn't hesitate to use them.
The taxi driver was a Saudi, probably in his late sixties, with a terrible cataract in one eye and a squint in the other. He didn't know where he was going and he spoke no English whatsoever. This, coupled with the appalling standard of driving (much worse than Dubai), filled me with dread. However, he got us there with very little incident, although when he pulled off the road in the middle of nowhere I was worried he was calling up his Al-Qaeda brothers in arms. Visions of kneeling in an orange jump suit on Al Jazeera flashed through my mind. The truth was, as usual, more prosaic. He only wanted to pray and chuck his rubbish into the desert!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
View from the top
This is the view from the top of the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, when it was 134 stories, or about 550m, high. It is now nearer 160 and there is still a way to go. The final projected height is thought to be 818m.
To give an idea of scale, the other skyscrapers in the picture are around 50 stories (the height of Canary Wharf tower).
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