These pictures are brought to you in association with the Ateliers Fabreguettes.
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After having gone through Syria, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman, our travels in the Middle East come to their end in the United Arab Emirates. We must admit that we never really got used to one aspect of local lifestyle: gender separation and women's "invisibility", although we respect the cultural, historical or religious factors behind such traditions. As a result, we met considerably fewer Arab women than men. They constantly proved to be welcoming, friendly and humane. We are grateful for their hospitality and cherish the friendship which has bloomed between us in quite a few places.
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Sultanate of Oman. Apart from the ObGyn ward, we had not expected hospitals to be fully gender separated.
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Sultanate of Oman. It was while visiting the beautiful fjords of Musandam Peninsula, near Hormuz Strait that we understood how in the old days, dhow skippers could keep on steering for hours on end...
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Museums in Muscat, Oman and Al Ain, UAE. Traditional leather masks are sometimes covered with gold leaves to improve protection from the sun. In 2006, we frequently spotted such masks being worn by country and city women alike, for instance in shopping malls.
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United Arab Emirates. To go from snowmobile to "sandmobile", this prototype was being modified in 2006 to face two last hurdles: protection against sand abrasive quality and making up for the cooling effect normally provided by snow. Already quite a thrilling ride on sand dunes though!
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United Arab Emirates. In case of a "sandmobile" breakdown, one can always turn to tradition and call upon sleigh dogs! Anything is possible in Dubai, including seeing a Husky play in the dunes in the winter time. The local dog, the saluki, looks very much like a greyhound.
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United Arab Emirates. One can doubt that these 4WD limos do actually get offroad...
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United Arab Emirates. To go to sea, this amphibian vehicle is equipped with a propellor and with colored lights according to marine regulations, red and green for starbord and port.
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United Arab Emirates. A purple horse marks the roundabout leading to Dubai racetrack, while a light blue one welcomes visitors to "Media City". Another dark blue specimen can be spotted in the same district and other colors can be found elsewhere in the city.
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United Arab Emirates. This replica of an Indian palace houses a car dealer's showroom and offices. Dubai is a melting pot of cultures where almost any idea could be financed...
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United Arab Emirates. In Dubai, all sorts of restaurants are available, even one serving drinks and food!
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United Arab Emirates. Is this shop name supposed to attract an Argentinian clientele? Will we one day get to see Barbara Bush-i, Bernadette Chirac-i or Raissa Gorbatchev-i shops?
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United Arab Emirates. With a name like "Vilebrequin" - (crankshaft) - we expected to find overalls in this shop rather than... classy underwear for men. More appropriate than "piston" though! And make sure that your sweetheart does not understand French before offering her a piece of jewelry from "Faux Bijoux"... (fake jewels, in English).
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United Arab Emirates. At the "Mall of Emirates", "Ski Dubai" offers visitors a permanent temperature of -4° C and slopes ranging from easy to fairly difficult, from green to red, enough to soothe sudden urges to rush to Chamonix ou Aspen. For locals, a visit at the "snow park" is often a first contact ever with cold and snow, which they experience warmly wrapped in lengthy black coats worn over traditional long dress with matching white or black headscarves. Westerners often come dressed in their shorts, since red and blue ski suits are part of the equipment provided which includes gloves, but not hats.
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United Arab Emirates. Right after your snow or ski experience, how about a warming "fondue"? Outside, the desert awaits you, with temperatures averaging 40° C...
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United Arab Emirates. Let your bank do the driving!
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United Arab Emirates. "Dragon Mart" offers quite a contrasting sight to Dubai's fancy malls, with its little shops sometimes attended to in a most relaxed manner... Within the same 4x8 meter shop will be displayed Chinese kitchen utensils such as ladles, side by side with Chinese compressors or industrial pumps... Would a new marketing concept be on the rise?...
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United Arab Emirates, Dubai. Even a newcomer to this store could not fail to read its sign of warning! Supermarkets in Jumeira, a district mainly populated by expats, offer an array of international deli products, some of which are quite scarce in the Middle East, such as "unpure" pork meat...
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United Arab Emirates. Dubai is a gigantic construction site, such as here at "Internet City" which houses companies from the hi-tech sector. Some brand names are already well known and some might become so in the future...
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United Arab Emirates. Plumbing and electrical problems are a frequent source of frustration in Dubai homes. To fix an A/C or pool problem will require at least two or three attempts by a maintenance team of two, three, or even four "technicians". When the most qualified one is at work and needs a tool, a request will be passed down from one technician to the next and the tool will come up the same channel - that is if the least qualified, standing by the toolbox, can find it in there. We ourselves witnessed several such acts of stand-up comedy in a city where home maintenance is a favorite and endless subject of conversation among friends. Not only are repairs rarely successful on the first attempt, but the matter is only made worse by increasingly poorer construction standards, a phenomenon which has become even more worrisome for the last ten years...
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United Arab Emirates, Dubai. How not to cancel all your aqua-gym classes in summer time? A water-cooling system for pools is an essential piece of equipment in luxury hotels and homes and the only way to keep water under 40° C.
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United Arab Emirates. It is always fun to take a look at local packaging for global products and see how they are adapted to a specific market using a different alphabet but also different texts and photos. Here, men and women conduct their activities separately, a far cry from our stereotyped family pictures where daddy will invariably stand next to daughter and son next to mommy.
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United Arab Emirates. The Burj Al Arab hotel has become the Dubai international trademark. Its daring design - that of a sailboat complete with spider and tall masts - is reproduced on every postcard and souvenir in town. It even used to be represented on all new licence plates, although only a few still remain visible. Wondering why such a sudden fall out of love? Whispers have it that when viewed from the sea, its masts resemble a Christian cross...
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United Arab Emirates. You certainly have your driver's licence, but how about your alcoholic drinks licence? This document is issued by the police for a yearly fee to expatriates with a work contract and determines their monthly quota of alcohol according to their revenue. This is to prevent alcohol traffic. Tourists need not worry, they can always go to higher-end cafes and restaurants and consume alcohol at will, but they should not venture out into the streets when drunk, for this is a serious offence.
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United Arab Emirates. Why buy half a car? These are sold as "spare parts" for export to countries where cars are heavily taxed - whole ones, that is. So when labor is cheap, an organ transplant becomes worth it.
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United Arab Emirates, 2006. Dubai. Police point out several reasons for the high rate of accidents in town. One of them is that windows and windshields are heavily tinted, sometimes well beyond authorized levels, thus dangerously reducing drivers' visibility. Now how about a black veil? Does it interfere with front and side vision when worn over face and eyes, especially at night behind tinted windows? Martine agreed to put it to the test, but only within the perimeter of a private residence.
Road "acrobatics" and failure to maintain a safe distance between vehicles are part of a "Karach-mbay" driving style imported to Dubai by drivers hailing from highly populated cities.
Another dangerous feature of Dubai is those big double-engine vehicles often seen in residential streets of Jumeira going well past 90 km/h. So would you be surprised to hear that Sheik Zaied Road sadly holds the world record for deadly accidents?
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United Arab Emirates. No, not all fire trucks are red! They can be yellow such as here, a feature we also noted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman.
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United Arab Emirates, 2006. The free, home-delivered "7DAYS" newspaper has become a staple of Dubai. Through its articles and readers' letters, it often talks about those little glitches in local regulations which unnecessarily affect people's lives. It has recently pointed out a number of popular Internet sites which have been blocked by telecom authorities on "moral" grounds and Internet telephone services which no longer provide an affordable link between expats and their families and friends back home.
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United Arab Emirates, 2006. Before being placed on newsstands for sale, each Western magazine is reviewed by an officer whose job it is to censor nudity with a black marker. It is ironical that a rare example of meaningful and useful nudity in a French ad got censored just the same. This campaign against breast cancer says: "Last year, this woman showed her breasts and saved her life."
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United Arab Emirates, 2006. Could it be that the censorship officer would be mainly concerned by female nudity? Did he just miss this photo or is see-throughness not considered nudity? We do not know the answer but wonder who benefits the most from male nudity?
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Choosing a smashed car as a business sign for a repair shop is quite self-explanatory. But why are there so many car wrecks on the side of the road? We do not know whether these are private initiatives or an official campaign targeting road hazards. Either way, a most relevant and laudable effort for this country.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Urban decorations are often inspired by local geography, as is the case here along the Red Sea.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Red Sea, 2006. Wherever we camped on the Red Sea shores, our "security" was assured courtesy of the local police, with one or two patrol cars guarding us 24 hours a day... Forget privacy, we found ours in the mountains.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2006. Some police officials took to heart to enlighten us regarding their religion by giving us several booklets designed to convince and why not convert their readers. Such brochures clearly refer to the original ideas of peace and tolerance developed by this religion in the 7th century. Be careful not to promote any other belief though, for the religious police is watching you!
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2006. Gas stations, supermarkets or smaller shops such as this one all close down suddenly several times a day, at prayer times. Thirty to forty-five minutes later, one can return to shopping or eating at a restaurant. Visitors are sometimes allowed to remain locked inside during that time.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2006. Excerpts from dress code recommendations as described in the welcome booklet handed out to visitors upon arrival in Riyadh:
...In town it is generally unacceptable to wear shorts although on week-ends, even young Saudis can be seen wearing them in supermarkets. Sleeveless T-shirts are considered improper dress. The regional dress worn by nationals would be most unusual if worn by a Westerner, perhaps even frowned upon.
Western ladies should acquire an "abaya" (black opaque neck to floor length cloak) soon after arriving. Head covering seems to be becoming less and less of an issue but a matching (to the abaya) headscarf in one's handbag is a useful accessory. Far from being a constraint for Western women, the abaya is a positive boon. Buying an abaya means not having to buy a whole wardrobe of conservative clothes which you may never wear again after leaving Saudi Arabia. The all-purpose cloak goes just as well over T-shirts and jeans or shorts as it does over a glamorous evening dress. The rule of thumb is: if you are wearing an abaya you are properly dressed.
On the left, abayas as they are worn by Western women, with hair showing. On the right, an abaya worn with a fully covered face. Please note that Martine modelled for these photos, as we do not publish pictures of female nationals, out of respect for local traditions.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2006. Has this ad for a shopping mall been recycled from a foreign poster? Or does a drawing come with an artistic licence impossible with photos? Here, female faces are not covered, wear make-up and show a little bit of hair, which is considered locally as an object of sexual desire. Moreover, bodies are not hidden under abayas but underlined, while in the background, other female shadows show their hair undone.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2006. The window of a toy shop displays on the right the official religion's holy book, incidentally the only one allowed to be sold here. Even dolls conform to the local dress codes and make for a very popular item with little girls.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2006, "Cinema 500 km". This film's title illustrates a local idiosyncrasy: Saudi probably is the only country in the world which has no movie theaters. The director based his film on the true story of a friend and movie buff who, in order to see a film in a movie theater, had to: apply for a passport, drive from Ryiadh to Alkhobar, cross the border with Bahrain, go to a shopping mall, and lastly buy his ticket for a movie. The director, Abdullah Eyaf, mentions that although he got permission from the Ministry of Culture and Information to shoot his film, he knows that there will never be a public showing within the Kingdom.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Several times we have noticed drivers well under fourteen driving powerful sedans or 4WDs. For women, who are not allowed to drive in this country, this is a practical way of having a driver and a "man" of their family be with them at all times, according to the local custom. This custom does not apply to foreign women who can more easily take taxis - driven by men. And at what age is a local male legally considered a man then? Age 11. Please note that this is a custom rather than an official rule: women are allowed to go shopping or to the bank by themselves, although we ourselves have not seen any during our rather short two-week stay in the Kingdom. No offence meant here, this is just what we witnessed.
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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, 2006. The zoo's opening hours are based on Asr prayer time. And the zoo goes one step further in the non-coed regulations otherwise applied to public places. At museums, for instance, opening hours for men and schools are different from those for families. But at the zoo, entire days are dedicated to either male or female audiences, a system which mirrors a strict presentation of animals by gender: female animals on female days and male animals on the other days, thus with no risk of shocking women, teenagers or innocent little girls. Of course, little boys can go with their mothers and sisters until they reach the age of 10 or 11 and then become "men".
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Syria, Bosra. The upper left side of this poster reads: "...ALL KINDS OF SANDWISH...", which no doubt would have appealed to St Exupery's Little Prince. Less poetic, it also states: "SPECIALIST COCKERS FROM FRANCE. WE ARE NOT ALONE BUT WE ARE THE BEST"...
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Turkey, Göreme. What happens when a beetle and a Volkswagen minibus are left unattended?
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Turkey, Cappadocia. Here, even the police station is carved in a fairy chimney!
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Turkey, Cappadocia. Just to set the record straight, this road sign was already there well before our car stopped!
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Turkey. At the old mosque of Beysehir, famous for its medieval structure and pillars in red cedar, the Imam did us the favor of turning all the lights on and donning his "uniform" to pose for this photo.
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Turkey. In one of the turquoise colored lakes of Anatolia, we found shells from crabs living in sweet water.
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Turkey, souks of Istanbul. Just a paradox observed in everyday life here...
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Estonia. On their wedding day, young couples of Russian origin come to this bridge to follow a tradition: they attach a lock engraved with their names on this bridge, and together throw away the key. Quite a symbol there, don't you think?
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Kirkkonummi, Finland. This Prisma supermarket offers its shoppers a "left-luggage" service... for pets!
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Helsinki, Finland. A sight which blends tradition with modernity represented here by the cap bearing the name of a high-tech company... A way of saying hello to ex-colleagues and acquaintances from the software industry.
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Rauma, Finland. A jazzband on the market square on a Sunday morning. Why do all these young ladies wear stockings under their socks, in summertime?
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Kristinankaupunki, Western Finland. How to watch out of one's own window in wintertime without getting cold? This "horizontal periscope" is the answer to street peeping, an especially interesting activity when one lives next door to "cat whipper lane"!
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Kalajoki, Finland.
The sign says "clothes shop"...
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Finland. No, this is not a sight from "Terminator 1", but just a crane to pick up felled trees. Parked temporarily next to forests, these cranes await the trucks on which they are mounted.
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Finland. In this country, nature lovers are welcome to use freely such cabins, which are built and maintained everywhere, offering shelter for the night, a firepit, and dry toilets seen on the left of photo. On the right, a wood stack, regularly provided by the local community. The bottom frame shows a frequent design: an adjustable shelf, a bar on which can be rested wood skewers for "makkara", the local sausages eaten with rye bread and a beer.
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Danger, moose crossing.
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The Nordics. These poles on parking lots indicate a reserved spot, combined with another function: they include an electric plug for car heating purposes, allowing them to start up, even at -40°C.
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The Nordics. How to keep on practising cross country skiing in the summertime? On the street, on skis equipped with wheels.
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Norway. These Icelandic horses have 5 different steps. In addition to walk and gallop, they learned how to trot, pace and tolt.
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In this Dutch bus, the bedrooms are on the second floor. On the first floor, the front part of the bus recalls the roomy business class section of an airplane, while the back ressembles the interior of a sailboat: a table in teck wood, a kitchenette, a restroom and shower. A ship for cruising on the road!
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Havredal, Denmark, 200 inhabitants, 1 sex shop.
Cool beer, mailbox, coke, ice cream cones or lollipops, toys for adults... one stop-shopping! Convenient, isn't it?
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In Norway, even gas stations will often be decorated with flowers. An original flower pot here, and a good idea for recycling old tires!
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Château du Fjord ®, the red wine from Denmark!
What a surprise for two French people to find locally produced wine in Højslev, in Danish Jutland near the town of Skive ! Sven welcomes us with a glass of red wine from his personal vinyard, and as we examine and taste it, watches us with keen attention. A beautiful deep red, a combination of well balanced flavors, this young wine could make blush with jealousy a number of Beaujolais nouveaux. To our amazement, Sven has just destroyed the general conception that there is in Europe a cultural border between wine and beer country. .. or at least that its border is situated much further North than Brussels ! And so, not just because our Eurocrats, a few years ago, alloted a wine production quota to Denmark, a fact we had never heard about.
We immediately go for a walk to Sven's vinyard. First planted in 2000 , he began his wine production in 2002. In spite of a catastrophic weather in 2004, Sven managed to produce 50 liters, 2% of which we just drank. We marvel at his Nordic determination in fighting such serious handicaps : long Winter freezing period, short Summers, strong winds, an unwelcoming soil composed of a one meter ldeep layer of sand with oyster and mussel shells, with clay underneath.
That's alright with Sven : he firstly carefully testes different grapes and opted for Rondo, which proved to both resist the cold and mature rapidly ; he built a protective tree fence around his beloved plants ; he mixed hay and sheep dung to both insulate his plants and enrich the soil around them. And he is rightly proud to add that he has avoided all chemicals in the process.
In June 2005, he already has 400 plants. Although he hopes to produce 500 liters of wine by 2008, this is not a business to Sven, it is a passion, which he loves to share with friends. A good present to put under the Xmas tree ? What a coincidence, Sven's business is to grow Xmas trees ! (*)
So forget about finding Chateau du Fjord ® at your favorite wine shop, his production will remain for the privileged only. We will let his 2004 production age a bit and come back in a few years time. Let's hope there is some left when we return !
(*) Sven Fenger, is a the founder and manager of a consultancy firm specialized in forestry
"Fenger Forst Service" www.fenger-forst.dk. He also runs his own forestry business in Xmas trees.
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Old houses. Summer homes or cabins often have their roofs covered with a thick layer of vegetation to provide insulation. Grass grows well on them, but sometimes flowers and even bushes develop! In the early middle ages, Vikings settled in French Normandy and may have brought with them this technique, which would account for the typical hay-covered roofs in this region.
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A word for word translation would be "Dr Dick - medical tests". Casablanca, Morocco
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The use of tiles around doors reminds us of the Arab influence still present in Portugal or southern Spain cultures where such decorations are widely visible there too
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A rusting ghost, sanded by the winds, this tank got stuck in soft sand. A strong reminder of the past conflict over western Sahara territories.
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A lesson in optimization... or how to double a carrot truckload? Well, braid carrot leaves together on the inside!
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Southern Morocco, Tan Tan. "Dumping fish waters is prohibited." Sardines and anchovies loaded from El Ouatia harbor, travel North to Agadir where they are sold locally or processed. Trucks leave full of fish and ice chips, but as heat melts the ice, "fish water" bounces back and forth and right to left on bumpy roads, with a negative impact on the truck's balance. Truck drivers are tempted to dump the fish waters anywhere, which creates a road hazard: fish waters full of scales and fat, make the roads very slippery... not to mention the smell!
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This stork has chosen a very safe place to nest in the Roman ruins of ancient Volubilis, near Fez, Northern Morocco.
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Never leave your pictures unattended when at a friend's place... An example of what they do to them: - "I can't believe this, they really went there and stole a truckload of carrots...?" - "You dummy! It's obviously a retouching job... we spent New Year's Eve together! - "Gosh, they really fooled me!"
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