Saving the Best for Last: Exploring Dubai & Sharjah

Abu Dhabi's new souq

Abu Dhabi Corniche

 My time here has come to a close - and I spent the last weekend of my two and a half-month long jaunt across the Middle East in Dubai and Sharjah. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE, and of course the site of my dissertation research, but ...there is something about massive cities in the desert where you drive fast with the stereo up loud and the cities are criticized for being modern and soulless, but they are places where larger-than-life dreams come alive. They are cities of possibility. Los Angeles is one of these, and I didn't expect to like it before I lived there and fell in love with it. Maybe that's why Dubai immediately felt right to me: I recognized the humming of energy and big dreams. Emily Dickinson said it best: I dwell in possibility.

The Burj Khalifa by night

I stayed at the Ramada Downtown Dubai, right next to the Burj Khalifa. It is the tallest building in the world, and it's really beautiful. The hotel was really great, too. It was a quick (but sweaty) walk to Ara Gallery around the corner, which had a really beautiful exhibition on Arabic calligraphy. If I hadn't been so desperate to see Rob, I might have pawned my ticket back just to buy something so beautiful to look at.

Ara Gallery, Downtown Dubai

Backstage

I also drove up to the Museum of Islamic Civilization in Sharjah. Getting there from Dubai wasn't a directionally complex story, but the roads got skinnier and the traffic didn't slow down accordingly, so it was a bit harrowing. And the signs didn't point to where they were supposed to, which is always disconcerting. I was really thankful I had paid $7/day for the GPS, it proved invaluable.

Sharjah, of all the Gulf cities, has the jump on museums. The government has about 16 of them, incorporating various facets of Gulf history and built heritage. Many of them are located along the Corniche in or near the Arts Area in the heart of Sharjah. The Museum of Islamic Civilization is located in a former souq, and it's a really long skinny building that's quite beautiful. Due to Ramadan, entry was free and there was free parking. Fantastic!

Museum of Islamic Civilization in Sharjah, UAE

 The museum's ground floor is dedicated to temporary exhibitions, a hall on Islamic faith, and a hall about Islamic scientific and technological innovations. The display above was entitled "stretching assist." Uhm....what? When paired with the drawing behind the little mock-up, and the slicing & dicing tools in the foreground...call it what it is, folks!

Upstairs, the galleries attend to Islamic decorative arts chronologically. The museum houses over 5000 artifacts in total, and many of them are just stunningly beautiful.

After the museum, I headed to Maraya Art Center. I thoroughly enjoyed this place, even if I had to do some minor off-roading in my Mitsubishi Lancer (that's right!) to get there.  

It's the Middle East, so yes, obviously it's about camels...

Installation from The Beginning of Thinking is Geometric

by Basmah Felemban

Both the exhibitions were excellent. The Beginning of Thinking Geometric felt akin to exhibitions in New York & LA, big open white cubes that are covered in various interpretive contemporary art. In a different vein, the RE:Oriented exhibit of Arab modernists was thought-provoking (even if there was only one female artist included). While the security guard followed me around the exhibit, and I was the only one there at the time, it wasn’t as awkward or oppressive as some similar experiences have been (ie, Crafts Museum in Bucharest, Romania – that security guard takes the prize for creeper guards). At the end, he handed me a pretty sweet canvas tote with the exhibition catalogue and a bunch of swag inside. I’m a grad student, so please understand I am extremely susceptible to being bribed with free swag or food.

While in Dubai, I thought I’d check out Al Serkal Avenue, which is a trendy new consortium of galleries that have set up shop in the warehousey, industrial area of Al Quoz. Many galleries are closed or operating on restricted hours for Ramadan & August (because, really, who leaves their air-conditioned office, car or home during this heat? Really.). This crazy girl, apparently. A half-block walk from where I parked into Ayyam Gallery had me coated in a slick film of sweat, and I wished there were some way to un-awkwardly hang out in the entryway and cool down sufficiently under the A/C before any of the immaculate gallery attendants saw my pink face. Alas.

On Saturday, I visited a colleague at his university office at Al Ayn. In two days, I put 700km on the rental car and visited 3 of the top 4 cities in the UAE – much more movement and activity than two weeks in Abu Dhabi. I couldn’t help but think, at the end of my first research trip here (inshallah, one of many, if I do my job well!)…I think we, Westerners who reside in the West, perhaps judge expats in Dubai and Abu Dhabi unfavorably at times. But this is a place where people who don’t belong anywhere can belong, and as someone who belongs nowhere and cringes at the question “Where are you from?” I understand the desire to live somewhere that question is irrelevant. My professor friend here said that belonging and citizenship are different things. They are. And one of my interviewees told me, “The great thing about Abu Dhabi is that you come here, no matter who you are, and you are accepted. It is open.” And it is incredibly diverse – more than just a lip service diversity.* The UAE has made itself a land of dreams coming true, of big aspirations, of grandiose plans, and a desire to shape the future. We can criticize the Gulf and its expats for this, but at the end of the day… at least they’re going for what they want. They're doing. By putting it out there, they change the terms of the conversation and make it necessary to acknowledge them. And they may just represent a post-nationalist way of belonging.

*To be clear, diversity does not always mean equality and there are always discrimination and exploitation issues where migrant labor is involved.

The Last Weekend

Manarat al Saadiyat by night

This is my job: going to art exhibitions, going to talks about minarets (for real), and hitting up an affordable art sale (and no, I didn't bring anything home). Not bad, all in all.

Did you know minarets existed before Islam, and served a general announcement function - often doubling as lighthouses for coastal cities?

Ramadan Cultural Talks: on Minarets at Manarat

Affordable Art Sale at Abu Dhabi Art Hub

I recognize that I don't really have any right to complain about my job, especially not right now (talk to me again in winter, and I will have grounds for copious complaints)...but I'm so excited to go home in three days. It's been a long trip, and not all of it easy or comfortable. This weekend, I'm giving a talk at Art Hub, checking out some galleries and museums in Dubai and Sharjah, and visiting two friends before heading to the airport late Monday evening. Hopefully all these fun things will make the time fly by!

The Waiting Game: Or, Joys of Fieldwork

These days, there's a lot of waiting. I should be grateful for it, because it's a chance to catch my breath after going non-stop for ... well, a year. As my generous boyfriend never fails to remind me, it's been a busy year full of change (although I think he lets me off the hook too easy). I have never been one to relax well. It's an art, and I am a novice.

I'm here in Abu Dhabi, having put out feelers to all my contacts in the Emirates...just waiting for them to get back to me. In the meantime, it's also Ramadan - which means shorter working hours. Most places in the UAE follow the requisite 9a-2p workday, and since it's illegal to eat, drink or smoke anything in public places (including buses and taxis) during daylight hours in the UAE during Ramadan, you can't even go work in a coffeeshop for the afternoon. They're all closed. Things open up at night after evening prayer, and iftar, when Muslims break their fast. So the tea shop I'm currently sitting in is only open from 7p-midnight, daily. The weather in the evenings is nicer, a blistering 95 degrees instead of the 111 during the day.

Abu Dhabi's Corniche at dusk - today's mandatory "you can't stay inside all day alone or you'll go crazy" preventative outing

Another slight complication for my plans is that I don't have a keycard to get into the building I'm staying in, and security has to buzz me in every time I come back. Half the time they remember me and it's no problem - I've taken to trying to make eye contact and smile every time I exit the building to encourage friendly recognition - or asking questions I already know the answer to so that they remember talking to me. The other half of the time, we have an awkward conversation where I show my passport and the key and namedrop, attempting to communicate across multiple language barriers to the Filipina/Singaporean/Pakistani/Indian security guards that they should let me back in. It makes every outing an adventure. Can I go home again? Will I ever see my belongings again? Stay tuned!

I have been busy making plans, hoping that, as the Beatles song promises, life will start happening because I'm making other plans. I am interviewing the ED of the Tourism and Culture Authority tomorrow, and she has promised to put me in touch with her senior culture managers to interview them as well. Hopefully that starts the ball rolling. One of the artists I reached out to has responded to me. I have signed up for a couple of talks and workshops on Saadiyat Island, and looked up talks at the Abu Dhabi Art Hub. There are a bunch during Ramadan - and all at 10:30pm. I've been working my schedule sideways to accommodate Ramadan, but in general I don't like going out at night, and I definitely don't like going out alone at night via taxi. But I'm going to bite the bullet, because otherwise I'll just hide in my overly air-conditioned apartment and never get any actual research accomplished. And figuring out these sorts of logistical things are important - they are clues and indicators of how I'm going to have to structure fieldwork in the long-term. Important to know, but honestly, a pain in the butt and seriously outside my comfort zone. Is this what I signed up for? Oh. Yeah. I did. 

Additionally, I made an executive decision to spend the last three days (2 nights) of my trip in Dubai. I want to check out the gallery scene in Dubai, as well as the museums in Sharjah, and connect with an NYU colleague who works for the Sharjah Museums Authority.  Dubai is a 2-hour drive from here, so I wouldn't want to make the trip multiple times, and since everything is open at night, it makes sense to stay overnight rather than drive back to Abu Dhabi at 2am. In an odd way, I am looking forward to my little trip - I will have a key to my room and unquestioned access (!), wifi on my own computer (I have to borrow my host's because NYU, despite still taking chunks of my meager income for my MA degree, won't let me sign onto the NYU wifi WITH MY NYU LOGON), a car and the flexibility to go where I want when I want, and a pool. When I come back, I'll drive to Abu Dhabi to attend one final talk on Saadiyat on Monday evening, then go to the airport, turn in the rental car at 11pm, and (in sha allah) board a 2am flight to London, connecting to a 10am flight to Chicago O'Hare.

You told me I was like the Dead Sea, you'll never sink when you are with me

Thursday we took off from Petra to head up north, to spend two days in Hammamat Ma'In Hot Springs at a resort. On Hotels.com, it looked like it was close to the Dead Sea.When we arrived later, our local map told a different story.

On our way up, we stopped to check out the Crusader castle at Karak. It was pretty sweet. Turns out the castle was initially built around the time of Jesus (lots of stuff going down in this part of the world at that time, it turns out) and then rebuilt and expanded by subsequent empires including Crusaders and Mamluks. Perched high on a ridiculously steep hill, it's easy to see why Karak was chosen as a site - it's easily defensible. Bonus note: during the Crusader era, they had three ovens: two for bread. This system sounds great (guess who loves carbs?).

Afterwards, we drove on to the Dead Sea Highway, meeting up with it at the very southern tip of the sea. The view was pretty amazing - you just round a bend in the freeway, and then the Dead Sea spreads across the valley below you. It's so blue. The GPS freaked out a little bit (our suicidal GPS, that kept trying to get us lost) because the Dead Sea is the lowest place on land and the shore is about 350 ft BELOW sea level.

Our GPS, the bane of our trip and our attempted killer, told us to make a right off the Dead Sea Highway to get to our next hotel. The road was one lane, and after we passed a hotel and a few houses, got insanely narrow and steep. Jordanian civil engineers have a rather loose understanding of what "acceptable grade" and "manageable turns" are - both Rob and I were totally freaked out as we basically slalomed up a one-lane road with massive potholes, surrounded by boulders and a devastating dropoff. Our little Citroen (never buy a Citroen) ate so much gas...there were points where I was afraid I was going to have to get out and push because we were driving so slowly and the car was barely negotiating the grade. Both of us were being calm to avoid freaking out the other one, which I suppose is good, but when we hit the top we began breathing easier and congratulated each other on surviving (without fighting) another attempt by the GPS to kills us. When we told the guy at the hotel what road we came on, he said, "What? There is no road where you say." Exactly.

We spent two incredible nights at the Evason Resort at Hammamat Ma'In, a spa built onto natural hot springs in a stark desert valley, a lush oasis of green between two cavernous mountains and the Dead Sea visible in the distance down the valley. It reminded me a lot of Palm Springs - same climate, same landscape....just Arab. The resort is SO beautiful, and I'm glad we arranged our trip this way, to cap off a week of scrambling around Amman and Jerash, Roman ruins, Crusader castles, and Petra with a few days of peace, a massage, and lots of time by the pool.

 We had a lovely dinner at a (the?) panoramic overlook, and watched the sun set over Israel. The food was really delicious, and it was a beautiful evening. You can tell how high we are by the road and the lights in the photo below, at the bottom of the mountain - so tiny!

On Saturday, we woke up and went for a quick dip in the Dead Sea. It was pretty trippy - you just pop right up, and the salt is so intense that you immediately feel every scratch and bug bite, anywhere there's a cut on your skin, you feel flames. Rob opened his eyes under water, and couldn't see for a few minutes. It's called the Dead Sea because all life dies in it, fish and birds can't survive the intensive salinity. It coats your skin with a weird film, too. However, it was worth the experience, and pretty fun to sit down and just be able to lay back like you're in a pool chair...the Dead Sea takes all the effort out of floating. That song is true, you'll never sink when you are in the Dead Sea. Like how I feel about my loved ones - I never sink when I am with you. You all keep me floating.

(Dead) Sea salt anyone? Dead Sea Beach

(The subject line is from this amazing song by the Lumineers, Dead Sea. You should listen to it.)

A few summer days in Amman

 The weather's much more manageable here in Jordan (than Oman) but it's still pretty warm. Two days ago, Rob and I slept in late as he arrived at 3:30am. We headed out to visit Amman's Roman amphitheatre and the citadel. The amphitheater is about five minutes walk from our hotel, if that, and nestled right next to a main highway.

 After we slogged to the top of the amphitheater for the obligatory top-down shot, we walked up the opposite hill to see the citadel. The view of Amman is amazing! The city was originally built on seven hills, but has spread to 19 now. Amman has been inhabited for a very long time, and was known as Philadelphia in the Roman era. You can see the layers of the city as you walk through the streets: it has been built and rebuilt, and remains in the process of becoming as new buildings emerge and old ones crumble.

 At the citadel, there is also a small archaeological museum with relics from the site dating back to the Stone Age (gives 'historical' a whole new meaning). There was also a pretty bizarre jewelry display (see below: Rob asked, "Liz Taylor?").

 The view looking down into 'al-balad' (as the downtown area is called) is pretty incredible, and you can see the highway and the amphitheater again.

Later that night, we tried out the Wild Jordan Cafe for dinner. We ate a delicious healthy meal on their patio, overlooking the city spread out beneath us.

Above, you can see the citadel illuminated at night. It's gorgeous, but belies the many many hills of Amman we climbed...it was an exhausting day. We learned some important things, though: everything is negotiable. Never accept the first offer, and never pay more than 500 fils for a big bottle of water. Always ask the driver to restart the meter on the cab, cause he won't do it on his own. Even when you speak to Jordanian cabbies in Arabic, they will still try to take you for a ride, and you have to yell at them when they take you the opposite direction of your hotel just to get the meter up a bit. It's really tiring to constantly haggle prices and fight down superinflated prices ($3 for a can of Coke, for example). In this respect, I miss Oman: Omanis don't care about taking foreigners' money. They are scrupulously honest, and will hand money back to you if you overpay.

Yesterday, we headed to Darat al Funun, basically because Rob is being very generous about putting up with a few research items that have ended up on our itinerary. Darat is one of the first art centers in the Middle East, and has been a pioneer, so I couldn't pass up the chance to check it out. This place is a sanctuary: a series of three buildings amongst Roman ruins and lush gardens terracing down the hillside. It is quite the breath of fresh air from the busy tumult of Ammani streets.

After Darat, we headed to the Jordanian National Gallery in Jebel Weibdeh. We walked (again) and it was quite the long walk, but worth it once we found it, nestled in two buildings adjacent to an art park. The collection was lovely - unfortunately, we are missing the opening of their 70 years of Jordanian artists exhibition that is coming up soon.

Last night, we went to Beit Sitti for Jordanian cooking classes. Turns out Beit Sitti is basically right behind Darat al Funun, which would have made us pretty cranky except we took a taxi there this time! On the menu: cucumber salad, mutabel, matloubeh, and osmaliyeh (a kunafeh-y dessert). We started our lesson with Laure, and she talked us through their spices, including turmeric, sumac, garlic, parsley, mint and tahini.

Our "kitchen" was outside on the patio, overlooking the hillsides of Amman, and we chopped and minced at Laure's direction. We even made our own pita bread. Everything was so simple, and she used spoons and cups but no official measurements. You can see the stove and oven in the back, above, where we cooked the matloubeh, the eggplant for the mutabel, and the pita.

Happy chefs!

Here is Rob after Laur said, "You should do something! She is doing everything!" So we documented his labors (to be fair, he did cook quite well).

The final meal was delicious: at the top left, you can see our cucumber salad (with mint making the starfish pattern), the pita under the napkin on the top right, the matloubeh (upside down dish: with chicken and rice, cooked in one pot and then flipped), and the mutabel on the bottom left. It was so incredibly delicious, and we ate more than we should have but didn't regret a bite.

Afterwards, Laur gave us a ride over to Jebel Amman and we enjoyed a brief 'argileh (shisha) and lemon-mint juice before hitting the sack so we could get up for Jerash in the morning.

من عمان إلى عمان

Safely here, from Oman to Amman. Yep. In Arabic, they're spelled the same.

More soon, once Rob gets here! Alhamdullileh.

Jebel Akhdar

Jebel Akhdar is located in the Sharqiyah region of Oman, and in Arabic it means "the green mountain." We parked the bus at the base of the mountain and transferred into 4x4s. The falaj at the base of the mountain had been paved, with stone bridges over the falaj. Some local boys were using the falaj as relief from the heat, climbing underneath the bridges and floating down the channels.

We soon understood why the 4x4s were necessary: the mountain road was steep and windy. Our bus would have made it about 10 feet. It took a while to reach the summit, but the view from the top was magnificent.

From the overlook, you could see small villages scattered on the terraces below. And the mountain was surprisingly green: the falaj systems keep the terraces blooming with grapes, pomegranates, apples, grass for goats, olive trees, and corn, among other crops.

The stone outcroppings of the overlook also showcased the mountain's geological history: scores of worms, coral, shells and fish were captured in the rock. This area used to be underwater, and we could see the beautiful remnants everywhere. 

After walking along the falaj from village to village, we ate lunch and headed over to Wadi Ben Habib, a village abandoned about the time that Sultan Qaboos came into power (1970) and began his modernization regimes. You can explore the village, and get a sense of the structure and architecture of the old style of houses. Wadi Ben Habib looks over a wadi (obviously) where there are other inhabited villages, barely visible in the photo below - they are made from adobe and blend well into the surrounding land.

It was great fun to trek around the mountain all day, climbing on ruins, aflaj, and walls. The weather was warm, but far more temperate than humid sticky Muscat. We got tired out pretty quickly, and after arriving back to the hotel, hit the hay as soon as possible. Now, there is but to take the final exam and buy gifts at Matrah Souq...and then, on Thursday, my time in Oman will come to a close.