Wednesday 26 January 2011

Someplace called Dubai


These are a couple of pictures I took when I was in Dubai some time back. The picture above shows the Emirates towers which rank as the 12th and 29th tallest towers in the world.

The Etisalat Building.

The metro line. Sadly, i couldn't get lilblack out fast enough to click the train. Or maybe i was too lazy. Yep, the later definetly seems more likely.

View of the Emirates towers from underneath the metro line.


I'm standing right next to it, looking for a way to get in without being noticed.

Nope, that wasn't gonna happen.

...But i still got some good pictures of as far as i could see inside.


Oh, yes. The pride of Dubai...The Burj Khalifa.



Dubai just is full of interesting looking structures.

Pyramid of the Wafi City.


Tuesday 11 January 2011

Farmland RAK!

These are various pictures taken in some farms in Ras Al Khaima, UAE. Compared to my native place, it just looked so...dry. But really, not bad for a desert. Its that effort, that power of sweat and blood that gives this place its beauty. Its nice.

On the way to RAK



The road to R.A.K takes us through hills and mountains. All every brown. Though spread out like a sea, they seemed lonely.









Ok, this is one of the places where we went first. It was like an orchard. A date palm orchard. But there were mangos and fig and other fruit as well.
The thing about these farms are that they are left open for tourists to come and go as they please, which is all good, but sometimes tourists are heartless people. I saw an Indian family there, a plump balding dad with two lil critters, his wife and some friends. They were just having a good time. They were also making a mess. And then baldy thinks he's gonna be hero in front of his kids and brings out a huge plastic bag from his Land Cruiser and starts shaking a puny little mango tree to get the mangoes. So what? the guy just wants a couple mangoes, he's just having some fun...Gray, why are you being a kill joy?!

I'm not. Its not my intention to. I certainly didn't interfere and stop them even though i wanted to. The mangoes in that tree were roughly the size of the long "Enter" key on your keyboard. They were unripe. They were as yet unusable. And they filled his plastic bag to the brim. Sure a mango or two of that size, with a little salt and chili powder is explosive, but so much of them is gonna give you a stomach ache. Besides, you just know that all those mangoes are going to waste. It feels kind of sad. Also i feel bad for the owner of the farm and for the farmer whose wage depends on those mangoes.




 It wasn't until I came to this other farm that I actually saw veggies and stuff. You know, like there is this image that pops into you're head when you saw farm. You see potatoes and tomatoes and carrots and peas and maybe an Old McDonald(Gah! the side effects of conventional schooling). Well, there was nothing like that over here, but I did get to see some tomatoes and other veggies. Also there were a truck load of farmanimals around





Some amazing creatures.

The hottest guys in the plant knigdom


Not you're average farm animal, eh? :)

Really friendly looking.

Look at him smile

Dunno whats up with him, but he looks like a shcoolkid on detention!

Grass. Yuck. Thank God you're a camel and I'm a human! I 
And then I stumbled upon, Dull Green Paradise!!
 We drove to the next farm and then the next and then the next. And then we stumbled upon this place. It was full of cabbages. All green and huge and juicy.



I seriously had no idea that cabbages could BE so big!!!.



I took this picture at max zoom in my trusty Lilblack. It was so far away. Though bright yellow, we were all guessing what exactly the fruit was.

They were sweet melons.


This one really likes to pose.

Isn't she a beauty?!

More veggies!!!
 There were figs and eggplants and more tomatoes, melons and lemons. We even got to take some home. The farmers there were just too eager to give away their produce and with no charge.

That one cabbage, lasted us a month. Guess what I think about cabbage now...

Thursday 6 January 2011

A lil collection



These are some of the gems in my Aunts little garden. I don't know the names of all these, but i do know that they are pretty.








Its weird, I've never seen dragon flies with coloured wings anywhere else, even in pictures. Yet, here they are, four black wings with white markings and they are all over the place. Just like butterflies!! This one was too busy to notice me. And thats just fine. Don't you think? 



Cats on the Road side


I don't normally go out for walks and stuff. Especially not in the mornings, but this one time I did. I mean hey, it was winter vaccations and i really didn't have much else to do.




So this is of when me and one of my friends went for a little walk around Sharjah city. Just wandering without aim, and catching up on stuff.(I was meeting him after a long time). We were talking about his pet cat (actually a stray that had taken a liking to him) and other things when we came upon this lil get together :)



A lil get together!



I tried snooping a bit, but they didn't seem to like it.

 
"You have a problem mister?"



"Na-ah, sonny, this is an elite club. You need to be a cat to get into this club. You need to have fur and whiskers and paws and claws and a special ability to smell fish from 2 kilometers away to be a cat. Now, do you have any of these?"


"Tch! NO, that black fuzz on top of your head does not count as fur, nor are those whiskers...they are not paws and unless u find a way to sharpen them and master the ability to retract them among other cats, those don't count as claws either! Now sonny, are you gonna walk away by yourself or should I make you?"