Exotic spices for sale in Dubai

Exotic spices for sale in Dubai:

Henna/Mehndi in Dubai

Wikipedia post linked above on henna/mehndi. Excerpts follow. Of interest, the henna service these photos were taken from is a woman-owned business in Dubai and she is apparently trying to go global with franchises of henna.

On the skin decoration:

"Mehndi is the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration. This usage is popular in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia as well as expatriate communities from these areas. It is usually drawn on the hands and feet, where the designs will last the longest."

On the plant:

"Henna (Lawsonia inermis, syn. L. alba) is a flowering plant, the sole species in the genus Lawsonia in the family Lythraceae. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, southern Asia and northern Australasia with an arid or at least seasonally dry climate."

Sisha

Smoking shisha or hookah is quite popular in Dubai. Photos of colleagues enjoying it:

Musky detergent

I do not know about you, but I want my freshly washed clothes to smell like musk! As seen in a grocery store:

This way to Mecca

Of interest, my hotel room in Dubai has a sticker that indicates the direction of Mecca for daily prayers.

However, I noticed no equivalent to the Gideon's Bible (i.e., Gideon's Koran) in the room.

Boyd in Dubai

Kenneth Wong also posted this photo on his blog.

Local food & coffee

A wonderful meal of beef, flat breads, humus and other dips/sauces and STRONG, thick Turkish coffee!

Kenneth Wong

Kenneth Wong is my here in Dubai. He is from Singapore but is quite outspoken and quite fun to be around. A bona fide nerd and tech nut, Ken knows his stuff and is really helping out NewTel.

Islamic woman in burqa in an eatery

Dubai - 1991 vs. 2005

A picture says a thousand words. These two photos show the eye-popping amount of "progress" and development Dubai has experienced in 15 years or so:

1991 -



2005 -

International team -- wackily accented English

What is exciting about my consulting project in Dubai is the international team of expats and locals grooving together. (In fact, some 20-25% of the UAE's population is made up of non-locals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAE - 3.23 / 4.04 million = 80% non-locals)

However, with Arabs, Europeans, Americans, Filipinos, Indians and Singaporeans all speaking the new lingua franca (English), what is fascinating sometimes is the pronunciation. Examples:

An Indian: "Ve must cabture the revenues." = "We must capture the revenues."

A Singaporean: "It is guite goot." = "It is quite good."

A Spaniard: "Zhees committee is especial." = "This committee is special."

Arf! Arf! Lots o' fun!

Air quality in Dubai

After spending such a long time in heavily polluted China, it is a real joy to be in a part of the world with clean air. The air in Dubai is a bit sandy, but it does not suffer from China's industrial smog.

I analyze China's poor air quality quite a bit here:

http://spaces.msn.com/chinamusings/

Thank Allah It's Thursday!

In Dubai, the work week is from Sunday to Thursday. As such, today, Thursday, is not "TGIF", but is TAIT!