Bodhi Bum

Needless to say, living in the desert, in a Muslim desert no less, was never really on my wishlist of places I wanted to call home. If I had a choice in the matter, it's not difficult to guess how long it would take me to pack up my bags and catch the next plane to Thailand. Back home to my little condo overlooking the Gulf of Siam. Back to where my heart yearns to be.

But my heart has nothing to do with the matter. Unfortunately. And the mind says to buck up and shut up, and stop winging. And so, since I am stuck here in the desert, and I have never been one to just sit around dreaming about the future and wasting the present, I figured I might as well get my head out of all these Thailand blogs and stop daydreaming, and actually go see what is right out my front door.



Hence my little day trip I took today. To Jebel Hafeet. The biggest mountain in the United Arab Emirates.






Jebel Hafeet is located in Al Ain, which is about a 1.5 hour drive from where I'm based in Abu Dhabi. It's right up against, and overlooking, the border with Oman. I've done the road trip to Dubai over a dozen times now, and have even ventured once out past Dubai to Sharjah and Umm Al Quewan. But was far from impressed. The UAE is a big dustbowl of a country, with the most boring scenery you can imagine. Abu Dhabi is by far the biggest Emirate, and is composed mostly of flat hardpacked dirt, with sand dunes starting up the closer you get to Al Ain. Al Ain is an oasis, so it's pretty green which was a nice change of pace. I've been stuck in the desert so long it's amazing how a burst of green trees when you come around a corner can lift your spirits.




So with desperate need of having my spirits lifted, I hopped in my little Yaris rent a car and hit the road around noon. Long, boring ride there, but I found BBC on the radio so entertained myself on the ride there quite nicely. You can see Jebel Hafeet mountain right when you pull into Al Ain, so with most signs in Arabic, I was still able to find my way to the mountain.




I read somewhere on the internet that the Jebel Hafeet highway was considered one of the most beautiful mountain highways in the world. And it's actually hard to dispute that. Simply for the fact that there are few other countries in the world which have the money and balls to make a highway like this straight up to the heavens. It's pretty amazing. The roads are so twisty that it's a miracle they could make this highway. And it's high. Real high. My ears started popping only half way up. And my ears have never popped anywhere on land, only underwater and in planes. I actually have a bit of an earache today, since on the way down I thought i was Speed Racer and imagined myself drifting around the mountain curves. But then a real racer (eg: the usual Arab in their obscenely expensive muscle car that they don't know how to drive) decided to race me and I let him pass in order to conserve my life. That's what happens when you give a guy on a camel a handful of cash and tell him to go buy the fastest car he can find. No wonder the UAE has one of the highest road fatality rates in the world.







So it was a decent day out. Nice to get the pics and say I was there. Still hasn't taken off the edge I've found myself struggling with lately. It's only been a few months since I left Thailand to return back to work, but for some reason this time it was harder to leave than usual, and harder to stay away than ever before. I've settled on this life of compromise, living at home in Thailand for part of the year, and returning to work overseas for the remainder. It's the best of all possible solutions, since I am no where near retirement age, and otherwise I would have to choose either, or. In this case I can have what I want, at least for some of the time. It's better to be happy for half of the year, and miserable for the other half. Or at least that's what I thought.

Recently my brother commented that he thought I was living my life on hold right now. And I guess in a way that's true. I guess I'm not unlike many Thailand expats that live most of the year at home like a hermit, so that they are able to afford that precious time back in LOS. I always thought that was a sad state of affairs. But in the end, what other viable alternative is there. The only reason I've chosen this path is that with my earning potential I have the ability to only have to live this life for a certain length of time, then I can finish with this work thing and get back for good. However, that period of time is not insignificant, and the longer I go the longer it seems to stretch out before me.

Anyways, the here and now is a solo day trip to a mountain in the desert. Which I thoroughly enjoyed, and will have to suffice for adventure for now.

Bodhi