ORB-UAE Creative Group Offliners: ORB Meet 3 - 2005

From: "Sabiha"
Date: Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:19 pm
Subject: Trip to Al Ain - Report sabiha_orb

The trip to Al Ain was a success despite a lot of last minute drop
outs (four people dropped out for various reasons). The following
people attended the trip:

1. Abdul Kadir
2. Kelly
3. Edna
4. Sajjas
5. Thyaag
6. Sandeep
7. Saurabh
8. Shahbaaz
9. Yours truly

We started from Dubai at 8:30 and reached Al Ain by 10:00. During the bus ride
to Al Ain we had introductions and getting to know each
other with Abdul Kadir being busy with his handy cam and Kelly
entertaining us with her dancing and live commentary! Sandeep and
Thyaag who had both had a late Thursday night caught up on some
sleep on the way!

We spent the 1st two hours in the Green Mobazzarah (finally got the
name right!) chatting away and listening to some spicy experiences
of Sandeep while Abdul Kadir, Shahbaaz, Sajjas and the van driver
went off to pray. Kelly and Edna made sure they caught up on some
sleep in the van while the men went for the Friday prayers.

Afternoon was spent near the lake where we were joined by Sandeep's
friend Azhar who stays in Al Ain and all the men playing cricket
except Abdul Kadir and Thyaag. Thyaag decided he wanted to catch up
on some more sleep while Abdul Kadir danced away to glory with Edna
and Kelly while each of them took turns catching their action live
on camera. They provide ample entertainment to other tourist who
stopped their cars to have a look at the cross-cultural dance
(Indian bhangra combined with Pilipino jiving!)

I entertained myself with the fish in the lake (boy were they huge!)
and joined a bit in the dance party and later caught up with some
sleep myself in the van! The weather was awesome not to get a bit of
a wink myself:-P!

Around 4 pm we all went boating. I, AK, Edna and Kelly in one boat,
and the other six people took two other boats. We did have a bit of
an energy lapse while peddling the boat with AK having lost all his
energy earlier on during the dance, so basically our boat kept going
round and round in the lake while some passing boats decided to give
it and impetus by colliding with our boat! (If it wasn't for those
other boats we would probably be stuck in the middle of the lake
still!)

Sunset was on the way to Hafeet and as usual an amazing view of Al
Ain on the way up (its nicer seeing from the van than a car for
obvious reasons) while lots of jokes were passing by especially
Thyaag comments like "Amazing sunset!" "This is the best sunset in
the world….8th wonder!" which we all knew was his futile attempt at
humour!

Jabel Hafeet was cool and we promptly got into our sweaters! There
was a huge crowd on the mountain top where we spent some time
clicking pictures and then headed back to Town for dinner in an
Indian restaurant recommended by our local guide Azhar! The food was
simbly amazing!

The journey back home was fun with word antakshari being played
manipulated by the brother and sister duo of the Majgaonkar family:-
P. We had some gazals by Thyaag with his every popular "aaj jaane ki
zid na karo" being sung with all the emotion that only Thyaag can
muster! Abdul Kadir and gang decided that the journey back home was
great for catching up on that ever eluding sleep so Thyaag, I,
Shahbaaz, Sandeep and Saurabh laughed our hearts out with some awful
singing and awesome mimicry by Shahbaaz while poor Sajjas drifted in
and out of sleep trying to cope up with his sickness (he was sick as
he had an altitude problem!)