Neil Calvert
Explorer Graphics
neil@egl.co.nz
+64 27 552 9702
Monday, 30 August 2010
More Red Rocks sleepy Seals. What a life!
Neil Calvert
Explorer Graphics
neil@egl.co.nz
+64 27 552 9702
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Quick trip to the Middle East
I know this is the New Zealand blog...but one of the advantages of living and working on the other side of the world is having the opportunity to try new things. This is especially true with work - new company, new customers, new customer locations. This is how I managed to jet off to the Middle East for a week, to follow up on a 12 month old proposal to the Supreme Committee for Town Planning in the Sultanate of Oman.
The ceiling at the ESRI Muscat office
The ESRI Muscat office with the evidence of some lens steaming
A local mosque minaret
As I was in the area, I also popped in to see potential customer Environment Agency Abu Dhabi and meet the UAE ESRI Distributor GISTEC who are in Sharjah - just North of Dubai.
Like many people I have been through Dubai airport but that doesn't count as having visited the area so this was a first time visit to this part of the world for me and I hope it won't be the last.
I flew from Wellington to Muscat via Sydney and Abu Dhabi. The total travel time is close to 26 hours, 3 1/2 hour flight to Sydney, in Sydney transit for 4 hours, 14 1/2 hour flight to Abu Dhabi, in Abu Dhabi transit for 3 hours, 1 hour flight to Muscat.
Oman is an amazing country - very new as most development has been done by the current Sultan over the past 30 years. Before he started the redevelopment programme there were only 6 miles of surfaced road in the country - now it looks like anywhere else. One key difference is that Oman has done this without the money from oil - instead the Omani's have worked very hard to get where they are today...a thriving, developing country whose people are some of the friendliest I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Planning is tightly controlled and the result is low level, traditional buildings which are very unassuming in comparison to the ostentatiousness found in Dubai - quite refreshingly so!
The temperature is in stark contrast to New Zealand - nearly 40 degrees with 100% humidity. It is like living in a sauna. At every phase of existence you look for the next air conditioning unit whether that is the next taxi, your hotel lobby or a shopping centre that you don't really want to buy anything from - anything to get out of the sun and moisture. One downside is of course every time you exit the world of the friendly AC you gasp lungfuls of hot air and any glassware steams up, which in my case was my camera lens. It was quite amusing watching the glasses wearers of the group I was with deal with the consequence of a too rapid exit from a cold building.
Time was all too short in Muscat as is often the case with work trips. I did however manage to snap a few photos before heading to Abu Dhabi.
The ceiling at the ESRI Muscat office
The ESRI Muscat office with the evidence of some lens steaming
A local mosque minaret
Bougainvillea over the wall of a local house
The Ramada Qurum Beach Hotel
Spices at the Carefore supermarket. I was told off for taking this photo...
Spices at the Carefore supermarket. I was told off for taking this photo...
The lobby of the posh evening dinner Hotel!
The team sat waiting for the drinks order to arrive. Gin & tonic...mmmm....
The remainder of the Oman project team
I am already looking forward to my next trip to Oman so fingers crossed we win the work!
My next step was back to Abu Dhabi for 2 meetings over 2 days, the first with Environment Agency Abu Dhabi and the second with the United Arab Emirates ESRI Distributor, GISTEC.
I managed to get some time to look around Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but summer in the UAE means temperatures approaching 50 degrees and of course I managed to arrive in Abu Dhabi just as Ramadan started which means that there is little or no food available between sunrise and sunset. Eating or drinking in a public place during Ramadan will get you arrested - even a non-Muslim so it is commonly agreed that this is a very bad time to visit the region! I wish I had ready the Lonely Planet before I left!
Abu Dhabi is a very vertical city. Don't come here if you have a neck condition - looking up into the sky would only aggravate it. As well as the sky scrapers there are an equal number of cranes. Of course, in order to build a very tall building you need an ever taller crane. That is what I will remember of the Abu Dhabi experience.
I took a stroll early evening when the temperature wasn't quite so oppressive to Abu Dhabi mall - quite an impressive collection of shops which reminded me of just how much money is in the area. I'm not sure that I have missed having access to shops like that in New Zealand. Maybe I miss NEXT just a little bit...
Arab states awake once the sun goes down and over the course of my visit the Mall filled up and began to buzz with some Ramadan atmosphere...which was nice...
Skyscrapers
Skyscrapers
Skyscrapers reflecting other skyscrapers
Really tall posh skyscrapers
Skyscrapers
There aren't quite enough skyscrapers so they are building some more
The Abu Dhabi Mall set up for Ramadan celebrations
Ramadan in Abu Dhabi Mall
Nice jugs...traditional coffee jugs that is - as a gate to a park
Skyscrapers
Today is my final full day in the UAE. I fly home tomorrow morning.
I spent it travelling to Sharjah to meet GISTEC, the UAE distributor for ESRI software.
It was a very positive meeting - I feel like I have just found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I am sure that the EGL GISTEC relationship will be a very good one.
The majority of my time was spent in a car being driven in excess of 160kmph up and down the road between Abu Dhabi and Dubai - a journey which takes a little under 2 hours.
Dubai is something else. Any of you who have spent time will know how difficult it is to describe what you are looking at. It is the biggest of the biggest, the best of the best, the most unnecessary of the unnecessary! After my meeting the driver drove me around to see some of the must see Dubai sites. This of course included the Dubai Mall - the largest (of course!) shopping experience on the planet. It is indescribable and in my short time there I hardly scratched the surface. I had heard about the Dubai Mall Aquarium, but nothing really prepared for for it - it is huge - huger than huge and right there, in the middle of a shopping centre! For around 800 Diram you can dive in the tank - next time.
The aquarium's collection is impressive, Hammerhead Sharks, , Sandy Tiger Sharks, Grey Reef Sharks, Guitar Sharks, Giant Grouper (the largest bony fish in the sea) Napoleon Wrasse, Trevally, Sting Ray, Leopard Sting Wray, Giant Sting Wray and many many more. The tunnel only costs 25 Diram so I spent almost an hour wandering through that. Quite breathtaking.
By 3pm I was utterly starving...having not eaten or drunk anything due to unavailability rather than anything else. On wandering around the Mall I found Waitrose Dubai Mall! I haven't been in a Waitrose since leaving the UK so popped in to buy some food and drink. I bought Marmite and Jaffa Cakes to bring home plus a sausage roll and a litre of powerade to try and make myself feel a little better. Of course - you can't just eat out in public so I did the only thing I could - popped to the Gents, sat in a cubicle and ate my sausage roll and drank my drink! When I opened the bin to put my rubbish in it was full of rubbish from other people who had done the same! I imagine that all through Ramadan the weak non-Muslims are regular visitors to the loos for a quick feed!
Of course the Burg Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) and the Burg Al Arab Hotel (the most opulent Hotel in the world) are must sees - but the Mall Aquarium did it for me! By the way, who does own the very top office in the Khalifa? The tours to the top were fully booked but don't go to the top - they go 2/3 of the way to the top - but there is an external viewing gallery which would be incredible. It is disappointing that without a reservation you cannot get access to the Al Arab Hotel...I would have enjoyed a cold beer in that restaurant! For my next trip I will be very much more planned than I was for this trip and I now have a list of things to do...although a significant amount of cash will be required for that beer!
Yup - it's real
If you don't have a ticket, you can't come in
So there we have it - a whistle stop tour of Muscat, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Fingers crossed that the opportunities that I was here developing come off so that I can come back...
I am settling in for a good nights sleep before the long journey home - see you soon New Zealand.
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