Visit to Al Ahsa Lake

I work in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. South of us is the Empty Quarter where there are mountains of sand and little else. Between here and there is the oasis of Al Ahsa, which contains the largest fresh water lake in the kingdom.

The lake and oasis are at the low end of a freshwater aquifer that starts several hundred miles away, and are surrounded by one of the largest date palm plantations in the world with hundreds of thousands of trees.

In May I went with a tour group to visit the lake, but it didn't go too smoothly and we never made it. So we tried again in June. We left Dhahran by bus, and when we were fairly close to the lake we piled into a group of Humvees to trek across the sand to the lake, which is half encircled by a giant dune.

Of course, I didn't realize this until we drove around the lake and up the flank of the dune and suddenly were parked at the top with a steep slope of sound just below my window! Heck of a surprise but quite a view!

The lake is beautiful, and extends for many kilometers. The tour guide had some snow boards, and some of the group took turns sliding down the slope - had to be quite an exciting ride for some of them.

 (click here to see more images from this trip!)

One young woman did something just right because she went down the hill like she'd been shot from a cannon, and kept going until she was in the lake at the bottom! One of the Saudi Hummer drivers took off running down the hill after her - I don't know how but he made it all the way to the bottom without tumbling. She was fine and laughing, and I was really surprised and impressed with his response. It took him quite a while to catch his breath and climb back up, but everyone was ok.

We stayed on the ridge until almost sunset and then planned to head to a desert bbq/cookout. It was a good plan, but you know how those things go, right?

We had driven in to the lake and dune from one direction, and went out a different way - across the dry lakebed. Things were fun until about a third of the way across when one of the Hummers was suddenly and with no warning buried in mud up to its axles! Turns out the dry lakebed was only dry for about the first half inch - below that was stinky, sticky mud! Within seconds all but 2 of the cars was buried in the stuff, and we spent the next 3 hours or so watching the Saudis try to extract the vehicles from the trap.

One car was finally pulled free, then another got stuck.  Eventually three small, lightweight Toyota pickup trucks showed up - local people - and we all piled in and left the giant Hummers and their drivers. We made it to an animal sanctuary in Al Ahsa for the bbq dinner, but by this time it was 10 p.m. and we were all feeling a little weary. The food was great, a traditional Arabic cookout - grilled chicken and lamb kabobs, along with a sausage kabob that was excellent. They had BBQ chicken quarters that were very well prepared, along with slaw, grilled vegetables (onion, tomato, peppers and mushrooms), green salad, beans, and more. Of course there was Arabic flat bread which comes with most every meal. All of this surrounded by giant date palms!

We all wolfed down some food, piled back into the bus, and headed back to the city 2 hours away. I got back to my room about 0130 feeling quite worn out, but at the same time I'd had quite an adventure! I saw a place very few people ever get to visit. I had 3 hours out on a lake bed in the absolute middle of nowhere watching a fabulous night sky open up overhead, and saw satellites, meteorites, planets, and the Milky Way galaxy.  And how many people can say they've been stuck in the mud on a lake in Saudi Arabia?! All in all it was a pretty cool outing!





Click here or on the wide lake picture above to see more images from this outing on Flickr!

Bad Teachers

Hello all – this is not my typical blog post. It’s not a travelogue and there are no photos. It started when I heard a new part of a story I thought I knew. This will be in two parts, and depending on the reaction (or not) I may include more such thoughtful pieces in the future. I would like to hear your feedback.

I have had some wonderful teachers in my life, not all of them in the classroom.  I’ve also had a good handful of classroom teachers I wish I’d never met, because they left a life-long bad taste in my mouth. You’ve had one, right? Everyone has. The teacher who loved your sister but for some inexplicable reason disliked you. The teacher who had no patience when you didn’t get it right away. The teacher who mocked you in front of the whole class.

In my case, my chief nemesis in the classroom was my third grade teacher, whose name is lost in the winds of the past. I don’t care to remember, so let’s call her Ms. Grundy (and thanks to Archie Comics).  To be honest, I was not a great student. I was bored. I was easily distracted by the bird whistling in the tree outside the classroom window (and yes, in those days we didn’t have air conditioning except for the air that moved through the open window). I had things to think about, or library books to read under the table top.  I think I might have been what is now called “gifted” but which back then was just called lazy.  

One day during math class there was some element of the problem which I didn’t pick up right away. I don’t remember what it was, and I guess I either figured it out or got along without it all these years so I’m not sure what the fuss was about, but it infuriated Ms. Grundy, who shouted at me that I was stupid and not smart enough to ever learn this.

Well, that certainly made an impression, and not just on me; the other kids called me Stupid Mark until they found someone more interesting to pick on. That left a scar. But the bigger damage was my immediate acceptance of Ms. Grundy’s judgment and pronouncement, and never exerted myself in math again. Oh, I got by enough to fly jet aircraft and navigate around the world by learning exactly how to use the tools that helped me do so (and I did it back in the early days, before computers took over every task but pour fuel in the tanks). But algebra, geometry, trig – I could never convince myself that I could figure them out, so I never tried.

Of course, I will take my share of the blame. I had many opportunities to step up, declare myself as able to figure it out, and then dig in and work until I conquered the problem.  But I was just a little kid at the mercy of this stern, rigid, angry authority figure and I took it hard. I do believe the bigger fail was on her part.

But that was decades ago. Thankfully ALL teachers nowadays are well-trained, better disciplined, and inspired with passion for teaching the youth of the world how to go out and do great things. Right?  Ummm, maybe not.  Certainly some, but most assuredly not all. 

Here are two other, more recent examples. Picture a girl who was a very talented writer, personable, cheerful, and enthusiastic. Her 7th grade English teacher loved her, appreciated her, and let her help teach some topics to classmates who needed help. She always scored near the top in the state tests.

At the beginning of the next year this girl came into her 8th grade English class and encountered a teacher who was surly, rude, impatient, and had absolutely no interest in this enthusiastic, bright, skilled child. In fact this teacher seemed to make it her mission to make the class unbearable for her, giving her the worst kids in class as partners, giving her nearly impossible project assignments, and then giving her indefensible low scores despite impressive completed projects.

I don’t know what it was about this girl that threatened this teacher so much (competence? enthusiasm? talent?) but when she failed the student’s final paper, worth half the semester grade, her parents, both professional writers, had had enough and called for a conference with teacher and principal. Despite the principal’s stated concern and support for the student, it was a hatchet job from the start. The teacher had already muddied the pond, and the principal stood by this awful teacher 100%. I’ve never been more disgusted with the school system, until I heard another story a few days ago about this same girl. (Oh, and her revenge on them? She stayed bright, brilliant, determined, and enthusiastic, despite their vitriol. Oh yeah, and she scored 100% on the state English test for her grade, the only student in the state to do so!)

The other story happened the next year at the same school. This girl sings, and has a clear, strong, lovely voice (and yes, as a singer I am qualified to make that observation). The choir teacher went out of her way to tell this girl that she wasn’t a good singer, and could never be a soloist because her voice just wasn’t good enough. What a crock. This woman simply had her favorites, who were not overly talented, but she not only had to put them ahead of this student, she had to insult her in the bargain. Another horrible teacher fail.

Fortunately, this young woman in question, always better than both these “teachers,” held her head up, stayed positive, kept singing, and still has an amazing voice and has performed on stage for thousands of people!

I know, this has been long, but we’re almost done. I think there are two great lessons in this tale. First, if you’re a teacher, please try to remember the massive impact you can have, for good or ill, at any point in a young person’s life.  If you are tired or exasperated, I hope you will be able to find some way to blow off steam other than to take it out on the child in front of you. You are the adult in the equation – act like it. Never forget that the student in front of you is a child, who looks up to you, trusts you, and is more or less at your mercy. Be kind, supportive, and positive. If you can’t, then get out and find something else to do.

Second, if you’re a student, don’t let a bad, tired, stressed teacher ruin your future. They don’t deserve that much power. Be the adult in the equation if you must. No, it isn’t fair, but sometimes that’s just how it is. Remember that this angry, unreasonable grownup in front of you may be dealing with unbelievable stress and crisis outside the school, and everyone reaches a tipping point sooner or later. Or they may just need to rethink their profession.  There’s nothing you can about that, but don’t let them damage you.

If you’re doing your best, have faith and confidence in yourself. Don’t let another person’s angry rant convince you that you can’t do something, like I did.  Keep faith like the young woman in my story – I admire her strength, patience, and kindness, and how she came out on top of every situation.  She’s a great role model for us all!

Mad'in Saleh Trip Day 2

Last week I posted about a trip last month and challenged folks to identify the structure in the image below. My wonderful daughter Shannon came closest with " I'm guessing the circles in the sand are from some kind of plate that was set down during a meal break... Either that or desert 'crop' circles!"  No, not a plate imprint, but it is a kind of crop circle.

If you click on the image to see it full size you'll be able to see what I mean, but I am calling this a Wind Circle.  The grooves are dug by the plant as the wind rotates the plant in a full circle! These are very cool and I've seen several of them - fortunately sometimes I look down while walking!

The second day of this trip started with an SUV trip into the desert. We started from the hotel at dawn and had breakfast in an amazing canyon at 0900.  I don't know a name for where we went, but it was just outside the town of Al Ula, and only a few miles from Mad'in Saleh. It is surprising how much life is out here in the sand! It didn't matter where we went there were some amazing plants - some tiny, some big trees, sometimes just a wispy bit of green but there would be so much a whole field area would be tinged with it. It was an amazing place to see.

         

The sand in some places is hundreds of feet deep and completely buries the mountains, and we were just racing all over, up and down these dunes. There were seven cars with experienced drivers, and it was more fun than I expected it to be, especially when we lined up at the top edge of a dune and then raced down. Quite a ride!

This whole place was amazing - in some areas it looked like the Grand Canyon in the U.S., just not as deep, but the canyons went on for miles.  In other places the erosion patterns reminded me of Bryce Canyon in Zion National Park in the U.S. - tall pillars eroded out of the mountain and standing alone. Very impressive place.

We had a traditional Arabic breakfast in a canyon, on carpets. It was simple fare but delicious after being up and very busy for many hours already!  But everyone was game and we had a great time.

 After breakfast we headed back to another area of tombs, in the mountains overlooking Al Ula. These were situated high up on the cliff face, just rectangular openings chiseled out. At this point it was midday and very hot - which is why we started at dawn so we could a large part of the day done before the heat set in. Lunch was in the middle of a date palm plantation at the edge of Al Ula, and it was delightful under the trees, sitting on red carpets laid out for us, and eating grilled kabobs and vegetables with slaw, beans, and macaroni and cheese!

In case you missed the video in the last entry, click on the palm trees above to view it here!  After lunch we reloaded the bus and headed for the city of Ha'il about 3.5 hours away to start the flights back to Dammam, and I arrived back in my room just after midnight. This was an aggressive trip, and physically demanding, but wow did we pack a lot in!!  If you are in Saudi Arabia and wish to see the country, I highly recommend the tour operator who put the trip together, www.amazingtours.info, and look forward to my next opportunity to travel with them! #Mada'in Saleh  #Saudi Arabia

My Trip to Mad'in Saleh

Trip to where?? In the northwest part of Saudi Arabia is a World Heritage Site, Mad'in Saleh (lots of ways to spell this, and more ways to pronounce it - the closest I can get is "medeheen sally").  It was the Southern end of the Nabatean empire, of which Petra was the capital.  Many months ago I saw an announcement for a tour, and having been to Petra while in high school, I very much wished to see this historic site.

It was a busy weekend about a month ago. I had to leave my hotel in Dhahran at 0330 to catch a flight to Madinah, then we took a bus north for 3.5 hours to the small town of Al Ula, where we also spent the night. There were about 40 of us on the tour, all expats working in KSA from all over the world - Brazil, Australia, Ireland, Portugal, and the U.S. It was a pretty good group!

We stopped first at a place called Elephant Rocks - can't image where they got such a silly name - because it was on the way into town where we had lunch.  This structure is fantastic, and I'm guessing around 150 feet tall. Pretty good appetizer for the rest of the trip!

Mad'in Saleh, like Petra, is known for structures carved from stone. I mean as in pick a mountain and carve away everything that doesn't look like a temple facade!  They started at the top and carved away til they reached the bottom. Stunning workmanship, too - these were plumb and square and level, and the detail was amazing. All carved out, with hammer and chisel,
before the time of Christ.

And these were not homes - these are tombs and monuments to honor a family or king. They all face into a circular area, and the residents built homes of stone in that space. I guess you could say they were family oriented.  The image below is one of my favorites from the trip - can anyone guess what this is? Send me your guess in a comment and I'll announce the winners in my next post (which will cover day 2 of the weekend!)

We spent the afternoon at Mad'in Saleh, then late afternoon at a spot nearby - more on that in the next post. And don't worry, it wasn't too hot. I think it stayed in the low 100s, so it was very comfortable. I only really felt hot one time at about noon of the second day. Here is a group shot at the main monument at Mad'in Saleh.

And one more for all my adoring fans:

If you've read this far, thank you! I have a treat as a reward! I have too many beautiful images to share, and can't share enough to do justice to the amazing places I've seen, so I am going to try something new. I had forgotten that Dana and I have a subscription to a great service for making videos, but decided to make one with my favorites from this trip. I'm not sure if this will work or not, but please click on the image below and let me know what you think! If this works well, I'll go back and maybe make some more of these - after writing about the rest of this trip. Best to all, Mark

#Mada'in Saleh  #Saudi Arabia   #desert photos

Back in KSA

OK, you already know I've been back for over a week, but I want to close out the journey travelogue, if y'all don't mind. Beyond a couple of regulars, I don't know who reads this, but it's fun for me and I get to make stuff up if I want to, so I'll keep it up. This then starts on my flight from Dallas to Dubai:

I'm at FL330 (33,000 feet) in a Boeing 777 over northern Canada, approaching the North Atlantic coast. The ground is covered in snow and all the lakes are iced over at the end of April. It just seems surreal. It's beautiful, but a strange contrast to where I've been for the past year!

Earlier I left DFW and we flew right over Northwest Arkansas, and I could see Fayetteville out my window, and later we flew north of Montreal on a great circle route to Dubai. (below, Fayetteville and Springdale)

I left Saudi Arabia 3 weeks ago to go home, and the long, pleasant, mild Saudi spring was nearly over. Since then the temps have returned to upper 90s and low 100s every day.  I arrived in Arkansas to a glorious spring of mild temperatures, beautiful blue skies, and stunningly clear night vistas, which you don't see in KSA because there is so much light pollution. Here's the Arkansas forecast I left:

 Dharhar forecast (what I came back to!):

 

The 14.5 hour flight DFW to Dubai was uneventful, and I actually got about 6 hours of sleep - something of a record for me. Generally I cannot sleep on planes. My pilot senses just never let go of what's going on and I can't relax enough to sleep. I was so tired this time it wasn't too hard to rest. The following shots are approaching Dubai - one of them what it looks like everywhere here. It is a land of brown. The other shows a small town outside Dubai, and folks that's about as green as it gets here.

I took pictures on the ground in Dubai, but nothing new from my trip home except for this one, from the subway between terminals. I just like it, and am pleased that the iPad camera captured this motion so well.

I'm now boarded for the final leg of this journey, from Dubai to Dammam, and I'm sitting in a non-window seat for the first time in years! Hopefully I'll make it ok! Here's what business class looks like on a Boeing 777 with Emirates Airlines, in case you've wondered! It's a snug fit for someone my size, but it still stretches out full length which is wonderful on a 16+ hour flight.

We touched down at Dammam at 1700 local (0900 cdt us), just under 24 hours for the trip from XNA, and in 25 minutes I was through immigration, had my bags, and on the way out the door with my taxi driver - gotta be some kind of record! 

I do want to add a word of praise and appreciation for Dana. This past year was tough for her. While I was gone, she shot a busy schedule of portraits and weddings without me, dealt with significant health issues and problems at home and difficult people. It was hard, but she managed it, issues were dealt with and the work got done. Many women have told me they could never do what Dana is doing, and many men have told me their wives could never do it. I'm so proud of you, sweetheart. 

The night after I arrived we had a big storm here. Guys who've been here for 20 years say they've never seen anything like it. The damage looked like a tornado hit - signs bent over, panels stripped off buildings, walls stretched on the inside, and hundreds of trees broken or uprooted. Luckily this is a very green oasis and will recover. Many of the downed trees have been cleared, but there are still areas without water, and our building has very low pressure so there are some restrictions while things get repaired.

But then yesterday I was walking and came across this little lovely in the afternoon sun! It looks and smells like a magnolia - must be from the same family. Whatever it is, it made me smile! 

This weekend I'm taking a local excursion to see what could be an amazing place. I will post pictures when I have them ready. Here is a link with some information if you're interested!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mada%27in_Saleh

Best to all!! Mark

What I did on my trip home

Written weeks ago while home:

It's great to be home surrounded by green! I miss green in the desert. It's wonderful to be with Dana, and Sunday was Darby's birthday and we got to spend some time with her. Next weekend we'll see the comedian Sinbad at the Walton Arts Center, a comic we've always enjoyed and laughed with - what a treat! Lots of landscaping and planting and yardwork to do, which is great! I love being outside working with rocks and dirt and green things!

Written today to explain what I wrote weeks while home:

It was lovely to be surrounded by green!! I had no idea, before living in the land of brown, how refreshing, positive, and rejuvenating it is to be surrounded by green, luscious, living things! And as a bonus, I was home during spring when so many things were blooming!

I took these pictures with my iPad just to see how it would do to capture some detail. Then I went in and got my big camera to get some better shots. Sadly, I forgot to download those pictures and bring them with me, and somehow while home I managed to disable the utility that let's me connect to my home system from KSA. At some point I'll get Dana to help with that because I'd like to see those shots and share them. For now, though, I hope these will do!

And everything was blooming! The dogwoods, redbuds, daffodils, and wild flowers everywhere. We live in the woods and there is an amazing variety of beautiful little flowers that come up out of the leaves. 

Another thing hiding under the leaves is rocks! Our hillside grows them better than anything. The layer of topsoil is relatively thin over a layer of stone, and when the oaks and hickory trees push through they break up the layer into smaller stones. Sadly this also means we have many mature trees that souls live for another 50 years in good soul, but that have reach their limit in the fragile foothold they have at our place - they tend to blow over at some point, and we have several we'll need to remove soon. 

But Dana and I have been planning some landscaping projects for years that are finally underway! A big part of that involved me moving several tons of rock that I dug up to make a new walkway and rebuild a wall.  We also moved part of our fence, put up some lattice to cover the area below a deck, and planted a whole bunch of flowers, but sadly we ran out of daylight and energy before we could get them all in the ground. 

There's never enough time on one of these trips to get done everything you wish to. It's tough to jam in a year's worth of doctor appointments, dental cleaning and a new crown, work with our accountant, and re-landscape our place in a few weeks. I don't think we could've gotten much more done! And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  I loved working outside and doing hard, physical tasks. 

My next big trip away from KSA will be in August - more on that later but we're gonna have a blast! This coming weekend I'll take a short trip, though. When I was in high school I was fortunate to be able to go on a choir trip, and part of that was in Jordan where we saw the ancient city of Petra, carved out of the mountains (below).





This weekend I will go to Petra's sister city, Meddin Saleh in Saudi Arabia, at the other end of the trade route.  I planned this months ago and am now questioning my judgement to put one trip so close to the other. I'm still tired! But it'll work out and I can't wait to see what kind of images I can get - I'm a much better photographer now than I was in high school.  One of these trips home I will take a few hours to find those Petra images (which were pretty good, if memory serves) so I can have a matched set. I'll let you know!

The rest of the way home

I do apologize. I had every intention of writing a couple of posts while I was home, but it turned into quite a marathon of appointments, doctor visits, dental work, yardwork and landscaping! Dana and I only went to see one movie (Captain America: the Winter Soldier; I recommend it!), but we did hit most of my favorite restaurants!

What follows then is a description of the rest of my trip home, and some images I took along the way and at home. Most of this was written enroute on my iPad with the hope of posting blogs along the way, but I haven't found a way to upload images from the iPad to the blog server.

We arrived at Toronto after an uneventful flight, and I learned that I'd missed my American flight to DFW, but was rebooked and pre-checked in on a later Air Canada flight. All I had to do was get through immigration, collect my bag, go to get a boarding pass, go through security, and get to the gate. No problem, eh?

Well, yeah, of course there was on a Pirate day. Arrrrrr! After doing all of the above I got to the Air Canada desk to get my boarding pass 45 minutes before departure, only to be told that I could go, but couldn't check my bag since it was less than an hour from takeoff.  Aaarrrgghhh! Another good plan shot down!

At this point there was only one obvious choice - give in. I got the Air Canada agent to rebook me for the first flight out in the morning, then went to find the Emirates counter. The very nice gentleman behind the counter set me up for he night at the airport Sheraton hotel with dinner and breakfast vouchers, and started work on arranging a flight from DFW to XNA late afternoon the next day.

I checked into the hotel and it was great - the most quiet airport hotel I've experienced.  I never heard a sound all night! The room was great, and after letting Dana know about the plans I went down for dinner and enjoyed a terrific steak. BTW, if you want a taste of scotch and it isn't on the menu, ASK the price before ordering. I paid as much for a double Chivas as I did for my steak, and could've bought a bottle for that price. Silly.

Afterwards I went to the spa for a massage, which was badly needed. I've had a painful kink in my neck for weeks, and haven't found anything to take care of it, but it is amazingly all better this morning. The Chinese lady who worked on me, Angela, was brutally effective. It hurt. But she got to the root areas which were tied in knots and got them worked out. I woke up pain free for the first time in a month! Oh, so nice!

This was a long, long day.

Day two
I ended up getting close to seven hours of sleep, and got up rested and ready to go and on the local time. Check in and all was quick and easy this morning, and I am now halfway to Dallas, and will have a couple of hours before my XNA flight. 


We just flew over a small town, Mountainberg, a few miles from home! It was very easy to identify from the dam and reservoir that were completed a few years ago. From there it was nice to follow up the road and see Fayetteville in the distance! No details but lovely to see it from here. It's nice to be at 30,000 ft. The flight is smooth with just a little chop, and it's a pretty day!

On the ground at Dallas it felt  nice to be one step closer to home. There were two slightly surreal moments. On the train from the arrival terminal we went by the International terminal, and parked there was an Emirates B777 that I should've been on 24 hours ago, and that if I'd taken their first offer in Dubai I'd have come in on today.  Then, walking past a Chilis on the concourse, one of the TVs was showing the Bahrain Formula 1 auto race that I could've attended if I wasn't coming home!

The flight from DFW to XNA must surely have set a record of some kind. Maybe the pilot needed to pee, or his girlfriend was waiting, or something, but it felt like the throttle barely left the MAX setting until touchdown. With a departure  time of 1345, we pushed from the gate at 1340 - i cant remember the last time a flight left the gate on time, much less early! 

Even taxiing for takeoff it seemed we were going pretty quick; not unsafe, just rapid. As we approached the runway I could see a jet on final approach but we didn't slow down. I could imagine the clearance from the tower: "American 123, you are cleared for takeoff, expedite departure for landing traffic." We made a quick turn onto the runway with the throttles advancing, so by the time we were aligned with the runway it was a quick advance to takeoff power and we were almost off the ground, with liftoff at 1350! The published flight time from Dallas to northwest Arkansas is 1+05 hours. Today, from takeoff to parked at the XNA gate took 46 minutes! Wow! Reminds me of my days flying fast jets! 

It has always been wonderful to get home from a trip, and returning from a long overseas deployment is even better, let me tell you! And to come home to NWA from Saudi Arabia is like coming back to color! More on the that in my next post, but as a preview above is a shot of an oak tree ready to leaf out under a beautiful blue sky, and here is my favorite shot of Darby and Nyima who came to see me!