Hello all, I know it’s been a long time since I last posted.
It’s been a busy several months, so let me bring you up to date.
As you may have surmised from previous readings I’ve spent the past 3
years working as a technical writer in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for Saudi Aramco –
the Kingdom’s oil company. For a variety of reasons it was becoming clear that
it was time for a change. Then an opportunity showed up right after
Thanksgiving when a friend emailed me a job listing and insisted I look at it
because it was meant for me.
I looked, I agreed, and that set into motion events that led
me to leave Saudi Aramco early in February, spend a lovely month at home with
Dana, and then arrive last week in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab
Emirates, right after the worst thunderstorm ever here.
An auspicious start, right? At least I saw a rainbow afterward, something
I never saw in Saudi Arabia, so I’ll take that as a good sign. For the past week I’ve been getting started
at work, also a technical writing job. I’ll be creating flight manual
documentation for the UAE Air Force C-130s, an airplane I spent many years
flying. It should be very interesting work!
For now, I’m staying in the very nice Crowne Plaza hotel on
Yas Island, just a few miles from my work. Staying in a resort hotel has its up
and down sides but all in all it beats the heck out of the place I spent my
first 1.5 years in Saudi Arabia, so I’ll try to make do. I’m about 20 miles
from the main city of Abu Dhabi.
The day after I arrived I needed to get in some activity after
my long flights, so I went for a walk toward the mall and Ferrari World. I
haven’t been inside the place, but it is somewhat eye catching, and appears to
be part museum and part adult amusement park - with roller coaster! More on this later, I'm sure.
In Saudi a group of us built and flew quadcopters and raced
them for fun – pretty cool hobby! The second day after I arrived here one of my
team members invited me to go with him to Dubai for an international quad
racing event.
A most-of-the-day trip to one of the biggest cities in the
Gulf area was not really how I thought I’d start off here, and the “race” was
kind of a bust (although most of the finalists went home with some serious
prize money, so great for them!) but I had fun, got to see some very cool quad
flying, and got some great iPhone shots of the place. Note, this is the very southern part of Dubai, and these beautiful tall residential buildings are not the any of the giant ones in the main city. Hopefully I'll be able get some photos of them while I'm here.
I’ve been asked what it’s like to be in Abu Dhabi, and while
it’s too early to give you a really good answer on that, let me describe a short
outing yesterday afternoon. I went for a walk, about 1.5 miles round trip from
my hotel, and these are a few things I saw.
Boys and girls and men and women in normal swimming attire at the
pool. An Arabic couple lounging by the
pool – him in white robe (thobe) and head cover (Keffiyeh), her
in black gown (abayah) and face veil (hijab).
In addition there are dozens of physically impaired men and women here for a hand-powered
race, and they have some of the coolest machines I've ever seen - like recumbent racing bicycles but with a hand-crank.
I saw these car brands going by on the street: Honda, Hyundai,
Chevrolet, Toyota, Dodge, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Ferrari, Jaguar, Bentley, Maserati, and
McLaren, to name a few. Just normal traffic.
I saw an auto race taking place at the Yas Marine Circuit Formula 1
racetrack across the street – not a formula 1 race, but they use the track for
everything they can think of, including the hand-powered race. I didn’t attend the race, but from an
overpass I could watch and listen as what I can guess were modified street cars
raced around a short segment of the track.
The overpass I was on crossed over a segment
of the raceway to reach a giant luxury hotel right in the middle of the race
track grounds. This place is beyond words to describe here – I will provide
some images soon. But accessible from the hotel grounds, also within the
raceway compound, is a marina where I saw everything from a 15-foot skiff with
dual outboard Mercury engines, to motor yachts that would cost more than your
house just to operate for a month, to a lovely two mast schooner, to a UK
flagged, 110-ft (estimated) ocean faring yacht that my whole house would fit
into.
On the walk back I passed an Arabic family
going the other way – all in normal everyday clothes, and a 6 year old boy in a
brilliantly colored American flat shirt! Welcome to Abu Dhabi!
One of the coolest things about being here is that, unlike in Saudi Arabia, my wonderful bride will get to join me sometimes, and that will be a blast! More to come soon, best to all, Mark
#worlddroneprixdubai, #yasmarinacircuit, #ferrariworld,
#yasisland
