#7 Edge of the World

Snap quiz – what is the difference between a bactrian and dromedary camel? Answer: the number of humps (bactrian has two). More about camels later.

As for the countdown of my experience in the Kingdom I have been here for 38 days and have 50 remaining – not that anyone is counting. There are two main reasons I am anxious to get home: one, I miss my dog Norm, and two, like many Winnipeg homes this winter season I was informed that a pipe burst in my basement and I will have a mess and an active insurance claim waiting for me when I do get home. You will note that I didn’t say anything about the environment here, sure I have complained about some things here but if the roles were reversed and I was an expat coming to Canada there would be things I didn’t like there either. Also while I complain about not being able to have a cold beer sitting around the pool on the weekend not consuming alcohol is a good thing. So if anything my liver will be happier for this experience.

Another week has ended and another weekend came and went though this one had some memorable moments. First off is one couple is returning home for good. The problem wasn’t so much it was time to go home but that the Saudi’s didn’t want to extend the visa of this gentlemen because of his age (66). That is the story anyway. While I don’t know for sure the details of his departure I do know that the Saudi’s have complete control over who stays and who goes (as it should be as they are footing the bill) and MHI merely suggests appropriate people to do particular jobs. 

There is another couple leaving next week as well for no other reason than they have done their year long contract commitment and it is time to go home and “be retired”. I think I mentioned previously that myself and one other guy are still employed with our regular jobs waiting for us when we return. The rest of the 18 or so others as part of the MHI team here have since retired and are, what I term, double dipping – collecting pension and getting a nice salary working here. 

Nice thing for them is that being retired most have an opportunity to bring their spouses over as they too are retired, and the kids have since grown up (though they all report of missing their grandkids). Of the wives here (we have no women working here on our team) it is split in half as to how they approach there husbands change in work locations: some are here full time, others come part time spending a few months here (winter usually for obvious reasons) and spending the rest of the time back home (usually summer). While the heat here will drive you away in the summer another big reason is that most do not want to be here during Ramadan and Eid which happens over the summer time (like Christian Easter it is not a set date like Christmas as it is based on the Islamic calendar). Ramadan is a month long period of “ease” as noted in the Qur’an but for us infidels a month of major inconvenience: Muslims fast (nothing goes in the mouth including smoking) in the daylight hours, eating only after dark. You say yourself – fine whatever your into, though here it is held in strict observance country wide. No restaurants are open in the day and I have heard reports you can get fined if you are caught driving and drinking (anything). For the guys working here it means either not consuming anything during the day, or going into the bathroom to hide and have a quick drink, or ‘schedule’ a private meeting with only expats where you can sneak a sandwich or something.  Again I have not experienced it but have heard that when the sun goes down they all go out to eat (most restaurants serve only buffet style due to the rush) and unless you have a reservation you’re not getting in. You would think people would start to get cranky come sundown – especially the smokers (and there are lots here) who have been denied there nicotine fix for 8 odd hours.

On to better things. The weekend started off with a progressive dinner (Italian themed) arranged by the wives that are here (single guys like myself were spared any official duty and only had to provide our share of the common costs). It was a lot of fun, lubricated with a little homemade beer, wine, and spirits. Five stops and five different villas where each course was served. I think everyone had a good time though we were done by 10pm because the next morning we were all going out to a place in the desert commonly called here the “end of the world” (not to mention the youngest of our team is a year younger than me at 52). My best description of the end of the world – think of the Grand Canyon without the other side. It’s about an hour and a half outside Riyahd to the west (and south) with much of that distance done off road through the desert (we were packed into 5 SUV’s) to literally the end of the road (no guard rails here and you could drive off the end of the cliff). Funny how when there are no roads to keep control you have other vehicles going every which way making their own path thru the desert. At literally the end of the road the earth drops off dramatically several hundred (even a thousand) feet in spectacular fashion. Definitely worth the trip and so glad this event was organized. You could hike to a lot of places, sometimes quite precariously (a woman did accidentally plunge to her death some years back), providing fantastic vistas of the dried river beds far below. The wind that day was very strong adding to that peril. This is quite a popular place, especially among expats. I will stop trying to describe it and just let the pictures do the talking - look closely as you will see me and Steve in some of them (something worthy of a public photo gallery if I was technically inclined).

After spending a few hours there exploring we headed back out to find a nice shaded spot in the desert to have a picnic of sorts. Again I thank the wives again for organizing and getting the food for us all to eat – with the main snack being the North American delight of cold KFC (like pizza, cold fried chicken is good to have cold) with potato salad, chips, watermelon and sadly water and soft drinks only (no beer). 

While it may sound like a strange place for a picnic but you would be wrong. This is a very popular pastime for locals who will pack the family up and drive to the desert for the day. This was evidenced by the drive out of the desert (before finding the pavement) where you see numerous vehicles parked under the nearest tall tree, spread the rug out and let the party begin. The desert here is not just the vast expanse of soft sand in endless dunes devoid of any vegetation (though it is here I haven’t seen that part of the desert yet), rather a dry soil of gravel/sand/rocks with scrub brush and some tall trees (if you have been to Vegas or Phoenix you know what I mean). The scrub brush here is predominated by a wicked thorn bush (was this the same tree that provided JC his crown of thorns I wondered?) with barbs several centimeters long and very, very sharp.

Now let me tell you a bit about camels (an Arabic word derived meaning beauty) – amazing mammals. When we did our journey through the desert (no roads just GPS coordinates) we saw randomly grazing thru the desert several small herds of camels including some that were quite close to where we had our lunch (unlike bears at home when camping they don't come looking). I couldn’t resist the urge to make chase (Norm would have loved it as well) to see how close I could get to these curious, odd looking creatures. I did actually get quite close (within a meter or two), of one camel that was happily chewing contently on this same bush of thorns I just mentioned. Whoa I thought – that in itself is worthy of my respect – a bush I couldn’t even touch without spearing myself provides a nice meal to camels. These are, I realized, perfectly adapted animals, and worthy of my mentioning a few quick facts that makes illustrates just how specialized they are for this very harsh environment. Everything about this beast is to not waste water, or too preserving it. Unlike other mammals (humans for example who only operate in a small temperature window) camels operate on a range of body temperatures between 34 – 40 C. If they do sweat they can sweat up to 25% of their body weight and still function normally (for us cardiac arrest is a real danger at 10%), and can go up to a week or longer without water. Living in an almost constant state of dehydration (why their blood cells are oval versus round like ours to facilitate circulation while dehydrated) when a camel does find water they can consume a third of their body weight in only ten minutes (a hundred liters minimum), something that would put any professional beer chugger to shame. The hump/s are actually fat deposits (not water as first thought) evolved as such because fat deposits all over the body (to the dismay of many humans) act as an insulator and this is not desired in the hot, hot desert climates. These fat deposits can then be metabolized not only for energy but water with a super efficient conversion that 1 gm of fat can yield 1 gm of life nourishing water. The last unsavory little tidbit is that when they do pee it is a thick syrup, and poop so dry it is ready for the fire immediately! I could go on but I will not bore you with the details that google can satisfy easily with a quick search. In Saudi only the dromedary (one-hump) camel is dominant, and sadly hardly any feral camels remain,with most all now domesticated in the servitude of the ever exploiting human. Often you see trucks on the roads with either goats, lamb, or even camels packed in the back on a journey I care not to think about.

Well I'm not overly garrulous this time as it was an adventure more worthy of the cliche a picture is worth a thousand words.

Standing on the precipace to everywhere
So amazed you can only stand and stare.