Ahmend

Ahmed was born in UAE, and so were his 5 children. But that does not mean that any of them has the UAE passport. Quite the contrary. He was born to a traditional family with his father arranging his marriage at the age of 16. Now, only 27, he has a family of 6. He works hard, loves his family – but can only spend 2-3 (late) evenings with them. The rest of the time he drives for one of the many desert safari companies in Dubai.


Ahmed became my driver for a couple of days when in Dubai. I wanted to see and experience the desert - but not necessarily with another 30 people whilst bashing through the dunes until you sick, having 10 minus for "sunset photos" followed by belly dance dinner. So after a bit of negotiations I got my own driver to take me around for photos and to get to know the place.
It definitely was a good choice. Ahmed was brought up with desert being part of his life. He later explained that when there is no work he likes to go to the dessert with his friends, have some food, shisha and sleep under the sky. It's all about the cool night air and clear skies. Even in the summer months he prefers the dunes to the countless shopping malls. He loves the expanse of the desert and nature. His job allows him to spend time outdoor, away from the air-conditioned malls.

But finding the real piece of desert becomes quite a challenge. It took hours of driving and looking for unspoilt dunes that were still unspoilt by the 4x4 tyres. In each direction you culled easily spot yet another Toyota Landcruiser jumping from a dune to dune accompanied by screaming of the passengers paying for the "real desert experience".

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out in the desert


But just how (un)real is the experience? Well… you will be picked up in the afternoon from our hotel and head for the dunes. After some half an hour of dune bashing you are likely to be taken for the 10-minutes sunset stop before you are harried to one of the "real beduin camps" for dinner and entertainment. There you'll have a chance for some quad-bike and camel riding (both in a circle) and be offered food and drinks. Most of the camps would also provide some "traditional dances": belly dance and fire dance in the camp I visited. up to a hundred of happy tourists are munching on the grilled chicken and mutton kebabs, watching the show and not giving any concern to the fact that none of the dances have anything to do with the place. Belly dancer is actually russian, the fire dance is performed by an Egyptian… Since me and Ahmed were the only people staying overnight other "revelations" soon became apparent: the moment the last car leaves the gates all camp staff slips out of their Arab robes and dress in their Pakistani clothing. Half of the drivers are immigrants who never lived in desert before.



4x4s everywhere...

Skiing slopes, aquariums and other wonders of the countless shopping centres....

Russian belly dancer in the Pakistani-run Beduin camp near Dubai...

We spent hours chatting whilst having shisha. As the darkness fall and the noises of the roaring 4x4s faded away we spoke about Dubai, desert and changes that are happening. Things are changing. Some traditions and respect for the nature are still guarded in the hearts of some like Ahmed, some other are challenged. Ahmed's brother is now 15 and so his father wants him to get married. Ahmed opposed his father, taking the younger sibling under his protective wings. "I want him to learn and enjoy life. I don't want him to start working to support his family at the age of 16 like I did". He wants him to have more time.
Ahmed also takes his kids to the desert - he wants them to understand the connection that they ancestors had with the place, to be part of it, to cherish and understand it. To enjoy the barefoot walk on the sand, the still moment of sitting on a dune, watching the sun go down.





enjoying the place

Unfortunately, most of the "real experiences" offered in Dubai are as artificial and unreal as the whole city. As the night falls the sky above the "real beduin camp", instead of the famous Arabian sky you will see an orange glow of Dubai's lights and countless aeroplanes making their way to or from the airport. Instead of the silence you can enjoy the distant noise of jet engines. The only one element that seems to be real is the sand...



Dunes and camels

B&B in the Mountains

After driving through a road that seemed to be an endless spaghetti of bends and turns we have finally arrived to the heart of Alishan National Park. After reaching one of the peaks the green, peacefully looking mountains bluntly remind us of the power of nature with the daunting remains of the last land-slide: missing roads, hotel torn in half, empty slopes after all the vegetation was forcefully pulled out. We stop at what used to be a hotel – now standing as a skeleton with a large chunk of it hanging above a cliff…


We stay nearby in a B&B and a working farm. After parking the car we start making out way down the hill. As we slowly approach the warm, spring air fills up with scent of caramelized sugar with a hint of ginger. Though it’s only 1st of January, the spring is already manifesting its arrival: cherry trees are shyly letting the first blossom to meet the sunshine, green tea buds are slowly disclosing the yellow flowers in the morning whereas the cane sugar already attracts busy buzz of bees.

The scent thickens as we approach the farm building. First we see a pile of freshly cut sugar cane on the ground and a pile of squashed, flat and lifeless sugar cane stems that have already met the mysterious machine standing between the two stacks. Bees are busily buzzing around, collecting any remaining drops of sweet juice. As the air is getting warmer both the scent and the buzzing intensify.

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juicy cane sugar


Then we meet our hosts: Mrs Lai and Mr Chen. They both in working attire as in winter, during the season, they are busy with running the farm and making cane sugar. The B&B is open to friends as only one B is provided during the busy times.

During the season the whole life at the farm oscillates around making sugar: from dusk the mysterious machine is making hamming noise squeezing the last drop of syrup from cane sugar, with empty buckets quickly filling up with the sweet juice. Son after the first wok is filled to the brims with the bees-attracting liquid, filling the morning air with the sweet scent. The juice is being boiled till it thickens up enough – or more precisely until the bubbles look right... Again the tacit knowledge seems to be more accurate than any new technology or process...

The brownish soup needs to be constantly stirred and as the cooking proceeds Mrs Lai busies herself up with preparing simple (but tasty!) breakfast and some ginger tea. The cold, refreshing mountain air mixes nicely with the sweet, hot ginger tea. What a way to start New Year.




almost ready!

The bubbles thicken up and the juice is nearly ready. Buzzing on the farm intensifies. Everyone gets ready, taking their position. The first wok is being emptied on the sheet of metal to be cooled down and turned into chunks of cane sugar. Hands, equipped with various tools, busily mix, cut, turn what started as a brownish, glue-like hot paste into baskets of ready-to-be packed sugar.




pouring, mixing, stirring, chopping..


As the evening comes we are invited to have some tea and a drink of together. The evening passes into late hours spend on sipping refreshing green tea grown on the fields nearby and some Kaoliang (高粱酒) to keep warm. It feels like being home. It feels good. Later on we head for our cozy, Japanese style dorm to get some sleep. Tomorrow is an early start to catch the sunrise.







Before we leave our fantastic hosts a surprise arrives: Mrs Lai bought some milk-fish from the fishmonger for us! What supposed to be a simple lunch turns into a feast of many mouthwatering, home-made dishes. And the fish – simple but perfect.
Barely being able to move, we bit our farewell – but for sure we will be back. The best B&B so far. Fact.




The final lunch

Next time you in Alishan national Park, stay at Song-Jolly B&B and Cane Sugar Farm. It's the place to experience!

D300 or D7000?

Similarly to the hundreds of others out there for quite a while I also toyed with the idea of selling D300 and getting the all-new D7000. So when an opportunity of getting a new D7000 for a very reasonable price presented itself I jumped on it...


The fact that I was in an exotic location, where I could put the machine into the tests within hours of the purchase, helped with the decision making process. The idea was to use the opportunity to get a cheap D7000 whilst abroad, get back, sell D300 and reduce the size and weight of my gear bag for future travels whilst improving an overall quality of the pictures (well, technological quality, not necessary meaning that I will take better pictures!). With the Internet buzzing with all the reviews about the greatness and superiority of the D7000 it sounded like the way forward. Well, two weeks later I am back to D300 whilst the D7000 enjoys having a new owner...

By this point many of you are already wondering: why? What’s wrong with it? Is it the hot pixels?
No – I haven’t seen any hot pixels and, if it comes to the picture quality, there is absolutely no problem with the camera. Quite the opposite: sharpness, noise, colour reproduction and metering of D7000 feels like two steps ahead of D300. Improvements in the picture quality are significant, no doubt about that. And there are many other great futures that D300 is in dire need for:
* ISO100 is back in D7000 – which means you may just get away without the 2-step ND filter to get the blur…

* low-light is no more a problem for D7000: ISO1000 produces photos - see for yourself below!

* putting the camera into Live View is now much more usable without the need for going back to your dials.

* the camera is extremely quiet compared with D300. Helpful if you shooting temples or events. And that’s without switching to the Quiet mode

* the virtual horizon is absolutely fantastic. I am not talking about the flight-simulator gadget on the Live View but about using it in your viewfinder. Assign the Fn button to switch your virtual horizon, get all your settings in place, switch it on and off you go: whether it’s a tight indoor shot or a set for panorama you’ll find all your photos perfectly levelled. Sweet!



Handhels @ ISO1000: no noise, great colours...

So, with all the great features and qualities already outlined you probably asking why on mother Earth did I go back to D300? Well, first of all, getting a smaller and lighter camera also meant getting a less comfortable grip, lesser built quality and, after a couple of ours of running around a historic site with a viewfinder glued to your face, pain in your arm. There are also some other caveats that make the switch to a smaller, less robustly built camera hard if you got used to toying with something like D300. So, in a nutshell, things that did not quite work:

* the grip is much less comfortable. It’s thinner and makes your hand feel crammed. I do not have big palms, though the small finger was hopelessly looking for somewhere to rest on. After half a day of running up and down ruined temples my palms were desperately calling for some rest!

* reduction in size also comes with less substantially rubberised grip – something that becomes apparent when you need to held the camera in one hand whilst hanging at the edge of wall holding with one hand to a tree or scaffolding. Probably not the most common position for photos, but I really liked the security that the rubberised grip of D300 provided. It feels that you will have that extra grip when you need it – and save your gear from high-impact meeting with the ground…

* rather annoying effect of down-sizing the camera is much smaller controls wheel at the back of the body. Add the OK button in the middle of the wheel and it becomes less accurate and slower in getting your focus points in the place you what them. Because of the extra button the thumb is not resting as comfortable as on D300. It also feels that the wheel is too low, hence you end up desperately pressing the LiveView lever instead…

* pixels and less buffer also can prove to be a problem in some situations. The buffer fills quickly up, stopping any operations for quite a while (a cup of tea or two…). On a number of occasions the last of the shots of fast-moving objects was the one that worked – well, you may just miss it when the buffer overflows and there is a long period of silence from the shutter! Examples? The two shots below are both taken as one of the last in a sequence…

* finally, if it comes to the built quality, D7000 feels less substantial. For example, pop-up flash feels cheap and about to pop out for ever!


None of the above may be a problem for many – especially if you coming from D90 or some of the smaller cameras. But for me these became a problem and so I will keep my eyes peeled for a wee longer till the D400 (or something similar) comes out.



When good buffer really mattered...