Camping in Dibba

Last weekend we went camping with friends from school on the East coast of the UAE just near Dibba. We arrived late on Friday afternoon with our brand new tent, only to find that three of the tent posts were broken, and the tent didn't come with tent pegs. (Note to self, check any purchases like this first before heading out to use them). Luckily the boys were able to be good

boy scouts and make do with the tent poles and one of the other familys had spare tent pegs.

The kids were having a wonderful time playing in the sand. We camped right on the beach; literally, apparently about an hour after we went to bed on wave missed our tent by centimetres (another note to self: when camping on the beach check the paper for high tides first)

The kids were up at the crack of dawn the next morning. No need for alarm clocks in our family.

The next day the kids played in the sand and helped one of the other families unbog their car. The kids were so cute trying to help, but in the end a nice English gentleman had to give us a

hand by towing the car out.

After packing up we all headed to the Sandy Beach Hotel next door where we were able to use their facilities, pool, showers etc and snorkel out to Snoopy Rock, where Peter and I were able to see numerous colourful tropical fish, in the meantime our lovely friends kept our five amused on the beach.

For a first camping experience as a family it was great fun, and we will definately try it again. We will first get another tent, the one we bought was supposed to sleep 8, (8 very very small adults maybe) so we think we will make this one our kids tent and get ourselves a more luxurious adult size tent. Our next plan is to go camping in the desert and really be away from the city and lots of people.

On our way home, just near the Green Community roundabout we experienced the worst sandstorm we have seen to date. In this photo we are four cars back from the traffic lights, and we couldn't see a thing. It was pretty intimidating, luckily we were not on the beach in our little tent when it hit.

Catherine in Beijing

I recently visited Beijing to attend an IB workshop for Diploma coordinators. The workshops were very informative and I learnt a lot and met some lovely, informative, interesting people. We worked hard between 8 and 4 but I was able to get in quite a bit of sightseeing both before and after the workshops. Friends of mine had lived in Beijing and gave me the low down on all the places to see before I left. I am not known for being a morning person but made the effort to get up at five one morning to go to Tianamen square at dawn for the raising of the flag. I think I was the only westerner in a sea of Chinese, it was an amazing experience, and I was startled by the number of Chinese who would go to see their flag raised.
Food was certainly an interesting experience. I did have some very nice meals especially the Mongolian Hot Pot I shared with Steve, Rod and Iona. But I only looked at the various fast foods on sticks displayed here.










I had a bit of a giggle when I saw the Chinese version of the Kebab.





















Even funnier was when we came across a camel at the Great Wall of China. That was definately not what I was expecting in China.














We had been warned to avoid the busy tourist parts of the wall but that was the only place our driver knew where to take us and it was still beautiful, coming into Autumn all the leaves were just starting to change.






















In addition we got to really feel what Iona called the "press of humanity".
















I loved the old architecture throughout Beijing. Beijing is now a very modern city and these were not so easy to fine, but I am glad to see some of it has been preserved.

















There were also some great signs to be found.
















All in all I loved Beijing and would love to take the whole family back there for a visit and to explore more of China.