I went to our senior exhibition on Monday night. There were students that I had in a few courses, so it was nice to see how they are doing. Some of the work was really good, and all of the students should be congratulated.
Fri 21/11/08 04:41
I went hiking today in the Hatta Mountains in Oman. I’d been in the area before, but this was the first time that I just got to wander around a bit. We left at 5:40 this morning and got back at about 2, but only got a couple of hours actually hiking since it’s a couple of hours driving to get there, and then back. It was a good time, and I’d love to go again. :)
Tue 18/11/08 23:48
Yesterday a group of us from school went to Abu Dhabi to view some artwork displayed in a couple of galleries. There really isn’t a lot of time to write about it now, but here are some of the pics that I took. If you want the original, let me know…. Yesterday a group of us from school went to Abu Dhabi to view some artwork displayed in a couple of galleries. There really isn’t a lot of time to write about it now, but here are some of the pics that I took. If you want the original, let me know….
As you might have guessed, I’m back in Dubai and have been for about five days. It happens every time I get back from a long vacation that I tend to ignore the blog. I don’t know why exactly, but it just seems to make sense to me that it happens. It probably has something to do with burnout, or maybe just getting back to my regular life doesn’t leave much time for other things, or maybe I just don’t want the vacation to end.
I think that this may be my final entry for the summer, though I must admit there is more that I could write. It’s just that it’s so close to the semester starting and I need to prepare for my classes that I doubt that I’ll find the time to actually think about what has transpired for just over 60 days. It sure went fast.
It’s nearly 8pm on Sunday and in less about two hours I’m going to be heading to the airport for my 130 flight back to Dubai. It’s been a long time coming and although I don’t really want the summer to end, I knew and expected this day would come, so no whining and man-up.
I headed for the top of a mountain that overlooks the city this morning. It’s kind of a big deal touristy thing that I had to do. I did Google the route and pretty much knew where I should go, but I ended up getting lost, not bad lost, but lost enough that I decided to take a taxi the rest of the way. The problem was the stairs that I had to take, I mean Google maps doesn’t show hills in map mode, so I had no idea that I was going to climb about 1000 steps. The funny thing is that there were outdoor escalators for going down but not up. I’m dumbfounded. By the time I was at the top of the stairs I was literally drenched in sweat, but the good thing was that all the people around me were too so I fit in.
The taxi dropped me at the cable car that carries passengers up to the top of the hill. Like I mentioned, this trip is a must-do trip for tourists, and the cable car is a must-do as well. I got to the observation deck and started to take massive amounts of photographs. The problem is, is that I didn’t take many with me in them, and after a while there are only so many photos you can take of a city. It was so pretty though I didn’t want to leave. I noticed that there were people walking along a sidewalk below, many were drenched in sweat, and others where wearing workout clothes. So I decided that I would go that direction on the way back.
The path wound around the mountain next to the observation platform. Every sort of person you can imagine was using the path, there were walkers, hikers, runners, dog walkers, and every other kind of person so I fit right in. I don’t know the distance, but I’d guess that the trail was about 5k, but it was asphalt and level so the distance went very fast. I wasn’t through when the trail ended either, in fact I was just getting started. I headed down another path, then another, and eventually I was getting close to my hostel, maybe 15 km from the peak… though that’s just a guess. I’m still sore tonight, so it may have been even further than that.
Like I seem to have from time to time today was a kind of “throw away” day. I don’t know what else to call a day that I don’t really do anything significant, or have expectations to do anything. I guess I did have the idea to go up on the top of a mountain to see the city, but I didn’t do that. I though about visiting the biggest Buddha around, but I don’t know, it really doesn’t inspire me. So yeah, there are things that I could have done, but nothing really special.
It took all of my effort to actually get out of the dorm room for dinner. There has been a huge change in people in the dorm today and I felt odd being there this afternoon and as a result I just kept to myself and watched a movie. Tomorrow is my last day here and maybe not doing anything today will be a good thing. Possibly I’ll be more motivated to get up early and head out to do the final two things that I mentioned earlier. If I don’t I won’t be upset though. In the end I did manage to go out and take more night photos. I’ve taken so many the last few days I don’t know if I should even post any of them… why not?
My plane leaves Hong Kong at 130 in the morning, Monday morning, so tomorrow, Sunday I’ll have a full day then leave the hostel at about 10 pm. Should be a perfect time too I’ll get to sleep on the way back and get to Dubai at about 7 in the morning. I’m not really looking forward to returning to Dubai though since it means it’s back to my normal life. Fortunately I’ve got my Winter vacation planned and unless something very strange happens I’ll be in Australia for Christmas and New Years… which should be pretty depressing. The other days though hopefully will make up for the actual days that are holidays. I’m hoping that I’ll get to do some snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.
