Al Qasba

Had the opportunity to go down to Sharjah and visit the popular Al Qasba (formerly Qanat Al Qasba) area. Being the weekend, the place was buzzing with activity.

Al Qasba is a specially developed facility for families and tourists and brings together culture, art, restaurants and general entertainment for the family. It has a general feeling of fun with loads of games (including a giant ferris wheel), several restaurants, abra rides and entertainment shows.

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Traffic Fines - Highest in the world?? (Dubai Style)

The recent report in Khaleej Times was very interesting. An Arab woman has run up traffic fines of about AED 73,000/- ($19,800). Motorists in Dubai owe the Dubai Police traffic department a total of AED 27 million!!

The deaprtment now has drawn up a list of the top 100 motorists who owe the department the most in traffic fines. The roll of honor includes a Lebanese man who owes AED 70,000/- and an Egyptian man who owes AED 42,000/-. A Syrian woman owes 38,000/- while a Jordanian man owes 23,000/-.

According to Dubai Police Traffic Violations Department Director Major Jamal Al Banay, the motorists can request to pay the fines in instalments if their vehicles are registered in Dubai.

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Dubai's Dhows

In afterthought, the reference to the tiny dhow seems somehow mocking. The only dhows on Dubai Creek these days take tourists on one-hour pleasure cruises.

Ever since Germaine Greer's article in guardian.co.uk, I have been itching to go down to the Dhow Wharf at Dubai creek and have a first hand view of what exactly the situation is.

So I took some time off and went down to the creek side to have a look at the dhows and their business. The place looked like it was business as usual. Lots of cartons of stock waiting on the banks to be loaded onto the dhows. The loaders were hurrying around at a brisk pace while a few were shouting out orders.

I asked a few of the businessmen around the place about their business but they couldn't follow me. I later understood that they spoke Farsi only.