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My favorite day so far. I kept asking people at work about camel racing because it was in my guide book.
A little camel racing background:
There are approximately 14,000 active racing camels in the UAE due to its popularity as a national pastime. Camel races are mostly during the late October to early April. The race distances vary between 4 to 10 kilometers and may include anywhere from 15 to 70 camels or more. The lifting of the large net signifies the beginning of the race. Admission is free.
Camel jockeys in the past were young boys between the ages of 6 and 7, weighing approximately 20 kilograms so as not to weigh down the camel. This became an international issue in addition to the trafficking of child jockeys from different countries for the race. Betting on the races is illegal in the UAE, but winners receive many different prizes, many times in the form of luxury cars. Very successful racing camels are worth millions of dollars.
We took a break from work and Tarek took us to go see camel racing - which was great fun to watch. I was taking a ton of pictures and during the race, we sat down to watch the action on the TV monitors.I tried to pet a camel with no muzzle - but he was not having it.I felt bad for some of the camels - they looked exhausted, malnourished, and sick.
They line up a group of 20 camels behind a net.Then all of a sudden, they are off! Some stumble and fall during the takeoff because it is so crazy.They don't have riders - there are remote controlled, tool driven whips. The owners will drive next to the track in their cars using the remote controls. The race track is huge and takes about 10 minutes for the 1 lap they run.As soon as 1 race is over, another starts.
As I was going out to the starting line, one of the camel trainer/owners (?) stopped, handed my camera to Tarek, and stood next to me.He asked Tarek in Arabic to take a picture with me.He then put his headcover on me with hilarious results, as can be seen in the picture where I can't stop laughing because I have no idea what was going on.(I was only 1 of 2 women at the entire racetrack).So, so much fun.
From outside the city, you can seriously tell how tall the Burj Dubai really is.I looked it up online and it is said to be "Already the world's tallest structure and still growing taller every day. The exact final height remains a mystery, but it has already passed 600m (100m taller than Taipei 101, the previous record-holder) and is expected to pass 800m before completion in late 2009."
On Friday Mike arrived. We took a tour around the city of Dubai, then on to Abu Dhabi.We went to see the Burj al-Arab (which looks different in the day time).It is the self-proclaimed only 7 star hotel in the world.From the beach, we also saw the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and 360° bar. It's at the end of the hotel marina and we could see people getting to it by golf buggy!
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