UAQ Run

It's Friday today, the first day of the weekend, and our first run out to UAQ in a long time.

This morning we slept in late, sauntered across the neighborhood for a Keralan lunch of sadhya at the Indian restaurant (rice & variety curries on a banana leaf), and then caught a cab back to the Dubai Creek golf club to retrieve our car from where we had left it the night before (no drinking & driving, of course).  Our taxi driver wouldn't let us in the cab before knowing our destination; after he found it suitable and let us in, he notified us that, had we been interested in travelling to Sharjah, he would have declined. Too much traffic in Sharjah, apparently. This irked me, and I briefly considered calling the transit authority to report this dubious mother*&%^#@, for what is a rampant taxi crime frequently reported on in local newspapers, but then decided he's just trying to make a living... I'd let it slide, this time. What gives, really. We've had weird taxi drivers lately - the one who drove us home last night wanted to tell us all about the Philipinos who don't want to walk anywhere and call for 4-dirham cab rights with great frequency. 

Anway we got our car and headed out to Umm al Quwain to hit up the cheap liquor store, made it there and loaded up, after a jumpy start near the Dubai-Sharjah border where at least three separate drivers tried to death-careen directly into us. I often lament the lack of umph in our crappy car horn - you hit it with great fervor, and it just lets out a pathetic little "squeak squeak" that most likely can't even be heard outside the cabin. Oh well.

On the way back from UAQ, we passed through a small herd of three camels wandering down the shoulder and the median of the freeway, causing the cars in front of us to slow down and light up their e-flashers. Camel!! Camel!! I wanted to stop and ride one, but figured they were probably someone else's property. We spent the 20 minutes after that event pondering what kind of horrific damage would occur were you to actually hit a camel in your car at high speed. Our conclusion? Not pretty.