Ramadan

It's an interesting time here in Dubai at the moment.  Not only is the weather stiflingly hot, but we're also half way through Ramadan, the month of fasting observed by Muslims all over the world.  As a non-fasting Westerner, it's been pretty eye opening learning about this and what those that are observing Ramadan put themselves through.  Not eating or drinking anything during daylight hours is intended to focus the mind on prayer and reflection, and encourages self-control and discipline.  Then the breaking of the fast in the evening is a cause for celebration and many Muslims party on into the night.  How they manage to do this combined with not eating or drinking anything all day long - not even water - is pretty remarkable.  Especially for an entire month.

The effect of Ramadan here is noticeable all over.  All restaurants, cafes and bars are closed all day until sunset.  When they do open, the bars aren't allowed to play music at any volume, and a lot of them close earlier than normal too.  It's illegal to eat or drink anything in public.  At work we're not allowed to eat or drink at our desks (my caffeine intake has massively reduced in the last couple of weeks...).  We're supposed to work reduced hours too although that hasn't actually happened yet...  The malls, usually packed full of people at the weekend, are eerily deserted.

In line with Dubai's generally more liberal Islamic views, the rules here are a lot less strict compared to other Middle Eastern countries.  In some you wouldn't even be able to get an alcoholic drink for the whole of Ramadan, so we're thankful for that.  The month of fasting culminates in Eid at the end of the month, when there should be more celebrations and two or three days of public holiday. 

The weather has reached it's summer peak.  The last couple of weeks have been pretty incredible.  You really can't spend too long walking around outside without ending up soaked through.  The temperature and humidity do vary day by day but generally it's very hot and humid - to the point when you feel you can't even get a good lungful of air at times.  That combined with Ramadan means there just aren't many people around in the daytime - even the beaches are deserted...

Weekend activities have been slightly curtailed by the the weather and Ramadan - no daytime brunches on a Friday, although we've done a few Thursday evening ones - the Rotana hotels ones in particular - great food and drinks for a lot less than you'd spend normally.  Other recent activities include an evening of karting at Motor City - they've got an awesome track, like a scaled down regular F1 course almost, so we had 15 minutes of bombing around there, which was about all you can stand in the heat.  Great fun though.

I'm off to Doha for a few days this week - it's looking increasing likely that I'll be spending some time there each week for a new project.  I went a couple of weeks ago for a quick look around.  It's nothing on the same scale as Dubai but has some pretty ambitious plans for the next few years, and now with the World Cup coming in 2022 they've got a lot of work to do to get their infrastructure up to scratch in time for the thousands of people who'll be visiting.  Interesting times for Qatar - but more on that in due course...