28 February 2011

lions and tigers and...camels, oh my!

i've been a bit of a beach bum the past few weekends so this last weekend i decided to do something a little out of the norm. 

i left our lovely city of abu dhabi and headed out for the greener pastures of al ain (which is another city within the abu dhabi emirate).  we didn't quite see everything there was to see there, but we had animal ambitions in mind for this trip! 

1.  check out the al ain wildlife park and resort (aka the zoo), its only 15 dirhams for adult admission (this is what, $5 US?) talk about cheap thrills! 
2.  find a camel market and take some photos with some camels!

mission accomplished on both counts, check it out!

 new white tigers (their names are sugar and spice.. we named our family dogs the same thing!)
 this is love.
 this is the love of simple things... food!
 did you know that giraffes have purple tongues?
 this little guy is a gazelle native to the region, so cute!
and this one... he just means business!

now, on to the camel market... which was to me anyway, much cooler than the zoo!

 late afternoon in the desert, after one wrong turn, a small issue involving sand and our SUV, we finally made it to the camel market.  which is, for those of you that are wondering, on the road between al ain and dubai about halfway in between the two cities. 
 this guy was awesome, hanging out, trying to get us to drink warm fresh camel milk, and generally enjoying our over-fascination with their livestock...
 baby camels, so much better than the zoo babies!
the whole time we were here, i kept picturing some role reversal... in my mind the people at this camel market look at us the way we would look at them if they pulled off the highway in the countryside of the US randomly to stare at a pasture of cows... the must have thought we were crazy!
 i think this one liked me!
  he's cute right?! little food in the teeth though...
why did the camel cross the road anyway?!

i can't take credit for any of these photos by the way, they are all taken by my good friend JW... who happens to have a killer camera and used the day testimg out her skills in manual mode. i think she did a fabulous job!

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