"Home" to Aotearoa

January 31, 2013

It’s not my home, but....both of my boys were born there, Andy’s entire family lives there, we owned our first house there, my iPod is full of old-school kiwi music, and some of the best friends I’ve ever made are there. My family even accuses me of sometimes having a slightly kiwi accent with some words. So, it’s not surprising that I always feel very “at home” in New Zealand. 

We have been fortunate enough to have had the last two Christmases in New Zealand with family and friends. Last year, we escaped rainy Vancouver for a summer Christmas in NZ. This year, we travelled from Doha to Bangkok to Auckland for another fun-filled three week adventure all around the North Island. 

Highlights of our Trip (in no particular order)

The farm in Taikorea. Will and Ben were in heaven on the farm - fresh air, running around, climbing trees, playing cricket, swimming, and of course, collecting the chicken eggs. Sam, Tom and Sophie were proud to introduce us to their new little brother Leo, the newest addition to the Mullin family. 

• Road trip to Rotorua - On our way back up to Auckland, we stopped for a night in Rotorua and to visit Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. Will and Ben were amazed by the geysers and all the thermal activity, but in the end, were most excited that our hotel pool was heated!

• Beachlands - staying with the Hydes in Beachlands was just like old times, like no time had passed. The kids got along famously. Ice creams at Maraetai (two for Andy). Robin taking the kids kayaking in gale force winds. Drinking wine with Kirsten and Nina. New Year’s Eve and Cranium. Swimming at Maraetai School. Cricket at Omana on New Year’s Day. Planning Will and Bethany’s wedding in 20 years time.

• Time in Auckland - catching up with the Stewarts, going to the zoo with Mike and Von, seeing Kristina and Amelia. The boys loved playing with Ronan, Mike and Von’s dog, in the back yard.

 Santa finding us at Grandma and Grandpat’s house in Ashhurst. Backyard cricket with Grandpat. Staying over at Steve’s house in Palmerston North. Seeing the look on Grandma’s face when she saw the wooden elephant we brought her from Sri Lanka. 

Thank-you, New Zealand, for another wonderful trip. We miss you and think of you often. 

The Kebab Kid - written entirely by Will Mullin

December 18, 2012

My favourite resaurant in doha is Shujaa restaurant. It is a small place near the bird souq in the Souq Waqif. There you can eat kebabs. 2 or 1 plates. Chickin or beef. The kebabs come on metel sqers. Be carefel not to poke yourself! 

If you visit Doha you HAVE to go to Shujaa Restaurant. 

I can’t wait to eat it again -  yummy!!!

Will, Age 6

Ahmed The Camel Has....One Hump.

Today we ventured off to find the camel races, which are rumoured to occur on Fridays and Saturdays at 6am and 2pm. Camel racing, “the Sport of Sheikhs” is an old Bedouin tradition in Qatar, but the races have changed in recent years...for the better. Before 2004, children as young as three, four and five were used as jockeys for the camel races. Most disturbing is that these children were kidnapped and stolen from Africa and Asia and their “owners” starved them of food to keep their weight down. There are some enlightening and very upsetting documentaries on YouTube about this topic; an HBO Real Sports story convinced the governments of Qatar and UAE to stop using children in this sport. In 2004, the Emir of Qatar followed UAE’s actions, and banned child jockeys. Robot jockeys are now used.  

The start

robot jockeys

When we arrived, we saw the camel owners, all Qatari men, and camel trainers, Indian and Pakistani men, getting their camels and robot jockeys all organized for the races. The robot jockeys are operated by remote control and are also outfitted with a walkie talkie. It’s quite funny to see fifty or sixty camels all sitting down with little tiny robots strapped to their backs. We saw the start of the race and were then ushered into a bus which drove along the inside of the track to watch the camels race along the 6km course. We drove alongside the camel owners in their Landcruisers and listened to the camel race commentary at full volume in Arabic. Camels are not very graceful runners, but they can maintain 40km/h for quite a distance.

Camel trainer chatting on his mobile phone

After two laps on the bus, we decided to give it a go in our own little Suzuki. So off we went - it was crazy!! The camel owners drive on the road beside their camels and yell into their walkie talkies and beep their horns incessantly. It’s amazing that the cars didn’t bump into each other the way they were driving! What a crazy experience!

Click here to see a video of the camel racing!

From the boys: 

• Ben thought that the best part of the day was cheering for the camels, but the worst part was getting camel poo on his flip flop. 
• Will thought the whole thing was “awesome” and “cool”. Usually not a man of so few words...

Go Camel Go!

Fun Facts about Camels:

• Camels can cost as much as 1 million QR ($360,000)
• One hump = dromedary and two humps = bactarian
• Camels can be white, black or beige
• Camels have excellent memories.
• They can travel up to 160km in the desert without water; a thirsty camel can drink 135 litres in less than 15 minutes!
• They can run at speeds up to 65km/h
• A camel’s hump is not filled with water; it is filled with fat that is metabolized for energy and water when needed. But when all the fat is used up, the hump will become flabby or even look non-existent.
• The word "camel" comes from an Arabic word meaning "beauty" (?!)
• There are 17 million camels in the world (90% of them are dromedaries)
• A camel can weigh up to 1600lbs!

Thumbs up for camel racing!

And This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store

Back home in BC, it’s pretty exciting to turn 19 and legally buy alcohol for the first time, but from then on it’s a fairly typical and uneventful experience. Well, it’s been 20 years since I could first buy alcohol and it’s never been more challenging to buy wine than it is here in Doha. 

Since Qatar is an Islamic country, alcohol is not legal here, but there are rules in place for expats consuming alcohol:

1. It is illegal to import alcohol into the country. 

2. It is an offense to drink alcohol or to be drunk in a public place. People breaking this law may be deported, fined or imprisoned.

3. Alcohol should not be transported within the country, except to take it home from the distribution company.

Sports clubs and hotel bars serve alcohol to tourists and expats, but in order for people to purchase alcohol to have their homes, they must have a liquor permit. To qualify for a liquor permit, they must have their Resident Permit (RP), which, for us, took about 7 weeks to process (that’s another whole blog post!). Then they must obtain a letter from their work place stating their salary, marital status, religion and job title. The expat must pay a returnable deposit of 1000 QR (about $275CAD) before being issued a liquor permit. Based on your salary, the Qatar Distribution Company calculates what your alcohol quota is per month, and it cannot exceed 10% of the your basic salary. Yep, they tell you how much booze you can buy! 

So...we have the letter for Andy to get the liquor permit, but we haven’t gone yet. I did however tag along with our friends Glenn and Cathy on one of their recent trips to the liquor store. We decided that our story of me being Glenn’s second wife would probably not be believed, so he had to ask for special permission to bring in two women. He told them I was just looking...yeah, just browsing at the liquor store. 

I was surprised by the small size of the store; it really was no larger than one of the small liquor stores in BC. But it was packed and of course, everyone had a huge Costco-sized shopping cart because they were not just there for one bottle of wine or a six-pack. There was very little room to move around, but fortunately things were quite well-ordered and easy to find. Sadly, no Oyster Bay or NZ beer. But plenty of Bombay Sapphire. And Andy was excited to have some VB (Aussie beer) for the first time in a while. We filled up the cart, and Glenn had to buy his order, my order and another friend’s order. A hefty bill. 

And just because one shouldn’t be surprised by anything that happens in Qatar, I should tell you that there is a pork section in the liquor store. Pork. Yes, all kinds of pork products, including cans of “pork and beans” and packages of “pork rinds”. While this is not terribly exciting to me, as I don’t eat pork, I could see by how busy this section was, that many of my fellow expats were very excited about the bacon. 

Once you have visited the liquor store, you must drive straight home with the booze in the trunk. You may not stop to shop or visit with anyone. If you were to get in a car accident (which let’s be honest, is fairly likely here), and you had beer in the trunk of the  car, you would asked to produce the receipt. Of course, you would tell them that you were driving straight home from the liquor store, but they would check the time on the receipt to see if you were telling the truth. I have been told a story of a man who went to the liquor store and on the way home, stopped at work to pick up something he’d forgotten. He opened the trunk of his car to give a colleague at work a few beers from his purchase. A photo was snapped of this exchange and the man was sent home days later. 

I wonder if the same rule applies to pork?!

Sri Lanka - Part Deux

fallen power lines in the storm

The second half of our week in Sri Lanka was spent at the beach in Hikkaduwa. We had a hotel right on the beach with a balcony looking out to the beautiful Indian Ocean. Our two little beach babies enjoyed their time in the sand and the sun....and rain. We had a lot wind and rain on the first day/night we were there. In fact, when we got home we learned that Cyclone Nilam was passing by not too far from where we were. http://news.oneindia.in/2012/11/02/cyclone-nilam-shakes-india-but-ravages-sri-lanka-1092649.html  On our way from Kandy to Hikkaduwa, several roads had been closed due to flooding or fallen power lines. There was no talk of the cyclone there, and our internet access was unreliable, so we had no idea about the magnitude of the storm until we got home. 

After the first day, the weather improved and we spent a lot of time playing in the surf and building sand castles on the beach. The boys found coconut husks to dig with and then they decorated their sand castles with beautiful shells and coral. When they got hungry, we refueled with banana pancakes at Budde’s on the Beach.

Banana pancakes - yum!

Tsunami Memorial

Like many others around the world, I remember watching the tsunami on Boxing Day eight years ago and being shocked by the devastation. The destruction along the coast is still there, and many places have not been re-built; the ruins of houses, shops and boats remain. There are thousands of graves along the coastal road. Estimates say that 35,000 died in the tsunami in Sri Lanka, but Sri Lankans say the number is closer to 50,000. 

Tsunami Memorial

The Tsunami Memorial is a haunting place. I hadn’t known (or remembered) that 2000+ people died on a train that was traveling through Peraliya at the time of the tsunami. After the first waves of the tsunami, the train signals were changed to red; when a train came though the area minutes later, the driver stopped the train without knowing about the tsunami. Sadly, the largest of the waves (some at 9 metres high) hit shortly after that. Only a few people on the train survived. The brass memorial, which has a sort of Guernica feel, depicts this tragic event. 

Ben and a 1 day old sea turtle

The highlight of the week was the Sea Turtle Hatchery in Kosgoda. http://www.kosgodaseaturtle.org. The organization, which runs entirely on donations from tourists, works to protect and release sea turtles back to the ocean. Sea turtles eggs are not safe buried in the sand in this part of Sri Lanka, as there are many predators (stray dogs mainly), so the owner of this organization take the eggs (or buys them from fishermen), buries them in sand at the hatchery, protects the new babies and then releases them in the evening when it’s safer for them. They also care for sick and blind turtles and also those who have lost limbs from being entangled in fishing nets. They protect five of the world’s seven sea turtle species, all of which have unique incubation times. The little tiny one-day old babies were so cute; Benjy thought they were “flappy” when he picked them up. We loved the turtle hatchery and next time we will go in the evening so we can release one back to the ocean. 

Will & Ben at Galle Face Hotel

On the final day we travelled up to the airport and took a detour through Colombo to see the Galle Face Hotel. My grandad, Robert William Robertson, served in the British Navy in World War II. He was stationed in Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, for a period of time. When he was there, he stayed at the Galle Face Hotel. We visited the beautiful hotel and had a cold drink at the pool side bar. Before we went, my grandma told me of my grandad’s stories of the hotel, like running up and down the stairway with his friends and playing football. It was a short, but very special and memorable, visit at the Galle Face Hotel. 

Galle Face Hotel

The Tooth Fairy’s Temple in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka - Part One

Our trip to Sri Lanka was quick, but we loved it! The 4 hour flight to Colombo was fairly uneventful and the boys managed to get some sleep. We had arranged a hotel driver to pick us up the airport; Nilantha was great and ended up being our driver and tour guide for 3 days. We got onto the Colombo-Kandy road for the three and half hour drive. Our first stop with two very exited little boys was the Millennium Elephant Foundation in Kegalle. The boys loved the elephants!

Our tuk tuk

Our hotel had a great roof top restaurant. We saw huge jackfruit trees and lots of birds and little chipmunks while we ate our meals. The food was cheap and delicious - especially the Sri Lankan speciality, Rice and Curry. 

On our first evening in Kandy, we went to a performance of the Kandyan dancers. The boys were impressed with the fire eating and the fire walking, but were most excited that we rode there in a tuk tuk. 

Tooth Temple

We visited the Temple of the Tooth, which is located in the royal palace and houses the relic of the tooth of Buddha. It is believed that after Buddha’s body was cremated in India in the 543 BCE, his tooth was left behind in the pyre. 800 years later, the tooth was stolen and hidden in a hair ornament and taken to Sri Lanka, where is it said that the religion will be safe for 5000 years. The Tooth Temple, as the locals call it, has beautiful buildings, carvings and statues. The boys took an offering (water lily flowers) for Buddha and watched as people prayed in the temple. Our favourite memory of the morning was when Benjy said how much he loved the “Tooth Fairy’s Temple”. 

Cricket - Andy was very excited that we got to see NZ vs Sri Lanka at Pallekelle Stadium. Even though it was rained out, it was a fantastic evening!

Check out our video!

SriLanka2012-Movie

Dhows and Dunes in Doha

Isaiah, Will and Ben

Doha skyline

A few weeks ago we went on a dhow dinner cruise with friends. A dhow is a traditional merchant sailing boat that delivered goods between East Africa and the Persian Gulf. Dhow cruising has become a popular tourist attraction in Doha and other cities in the Middle East. They have been renovated so that tourists can enjoy a meal on board or go for a day trip to go swimming.  

Andy dancing with the Lebanese family

The boys had a great time on the dhow cruise: the food was good, the views of the city were incredible and the air was warm. We met some very friendly people on board. A Lebanese man taught the boys how to write their names in Arabic. And then Andy ended the evening dancing with him and his family to Lebanese pop music. They knew all the words and all the steps - it was hilarious watching Andy trying to keep up!

This weekend, our friend Natalie is visiting from Dubai. We took her to the souq because the boys wanted to show her the little chicks that are dyed pink, purple and turquoise. Poor little chicks!  

We squished her into the back seat between the two boys and went to see some of Doha’s sights. Our first off-road adventure took us to the Singing Sand Dunes about 30 mins outside of Doha. When you sit on the sand and scooch down the dune, the sand makes a humming or singing sound. They are just off the highway but to get to them, there is a rocky stretch of about 500m. Trying to follow someone else’s tracks in our little car didn’t work very well and since we didn’t know if we had a spare tire, we decided to park and walk the rest of the way. 

The boys were great - they just climbed right up the the top despite the heat and the flies. When we got to the top, we realized that the other side of the dune was the side to slide down as it was much steeper. Only problem was the sand was too hot to touch. Burning hot. I gave it a quick try, got the sand to “sing” but I lost a flip flop and had to dig for it while my feet were burning in the sand. Ouch! We’ve decided to give it another go when the weather cools off a bit. 

Disappointingly, the local people who frequent the sand dunes for dune bashing, do not take their garbage with them. Even though there is a huge garbage bin on the road side. There were hundreds of empty water bottles and wrappers from take out food. Will thought it might help if we put up some signs like he did he Ocean Park last year. Sadly, I don't think it would help. There is no culture of recycling or responsible waste management here, nor does there seem to be much a desire for it. Hard to explain to two environmentally conscious kids from BC.