Walking

I'm not a runner, so I went walking last week (probably the last time I will be hoofing it around Dubai until the next "winter).
I moseyed down Mankhool Road, and saw downtown Dubai from this vantage:

That's the Burg Khalifa (nee Dubai), surrounded by some of the most exciting buildings I have ever seen (except for that part which keeps them from being built...aka, Dubai's enormous, unreported debt problem).  I kept on walking down Mankhool, and saw this:

That is one of the Metro Stations here.  The metro is like the Subway in NY, only much cleaner and without riff-raff.  They have 3 classes of riders:  Gold (that's me), regular (you know, the sub-continentals) and women's (which has no race barrier).  I've yet to ride it, but I understand that it's really nice if you can afford the extra 17.6 cents to enjoy the gold class.

I kept moving...

A library!  Who knew?  I haven't yet met an Emirati who reads on purpose.

I'd been walking for 45 minutes, but I figured that my knees didn't hurt so I'd keep on going:

The flowers that bloom here, during this time of year, are gorgeous.  The birds that sing through here are amazing.  It's fleeting, as is everything, but it's still worth taking a minute to breathe it all in.

Still hoofing it, I realized I was coming into Satwa, aka Paki-land.  (That means that it's the part of Dubai that is populated mainly by Pakistanis).  But the Burg started to really stand out from every other building, kind of like it does when I look at it from the Al Sheba area.  I kept on walking.

This is even with the Grand Mosque here, but I couldn't take a picture of the mosque, because it was...uhm....afternoon prayer time.

Still walking...

Further into Satwa.  There's the Burg, and my new favorite building, the one with the square threaded by the needle.  I stopped for a bottle of water in this area, and the shopkeep told me it was free.  I stared at him, because I was holding an Aquafina (retail 3 Durhams), and he just smiled, wiped his brow and said "you too wet.  Free, friend."  I've never been one to bite that hand that feeds me, so...on I went.

Dubai used to have 60% of the world's operating cranes.  I'm pretty sure that it now has 80% of the inoperative ones.  After I took this picture, a vaguely European-looking woman walked by me with a Siberian Husky.  Really?  A dog that is bred for cold temperatures?  What a retarded and selfish woman.  I hope she dies of heat stroke, and that her dog relieves its thirst in her...nevermind.
Anyway, guess what I did.  Kept on moving it.

The Burg Khalifa caught the the remaining rays of sunlight, and I realized I was 2 hours (by foot) away from home.  And my feet hurt.  And my knees hurt.  And I realized I had nowhere to go to.  So I turned toward the Gulf.

Near the Iranian Hospital, I saw this.  It reminded me of a lot of things, for no particular reason.  But this flower was so well tended, so well protected, so well taken care of. 

Is it wrong to want to be taken care of?  Is it wrong to be saved from a sere landscape?  Is it wrong to believe that flowers can grow from sand?

This open mouth,
this thirst,
this color
demands something.
To be saved.

I was tired of walking after this, so I hailed a taxi, came home and cooked a chicken.  Somehow, that was enough.