East from East

Today we went on a tour to the eastern part of the UAE with my dad. Gratefully, he took a day off work and drove Andreas and I to the east of UAE.

The middle part of the country is actually quite mountainous...nothing us British Columbia-ers would call a mountain. More like a foot hill but impressive none-the-less. Very rugged and quite inhospitable aside from a random goat or a few donkeys we saw trying to eek out a living in the mountains. It was really interesting going from Dubai - metropolis to desert scrub to dry, rugged mountains in the span of about 45 minutes. Right at the top of the pass through the mountains we crested the peak and boom, here is a HUGE street-side market! Both sides of the highway had stalls for about 1km at the summit selling mostly fruit (strawberries, watermelons, oranges, figs, bananas, apples, lettuce, corn and tomatoes). There were other stalls selling a strange assortment of practical to useless things such as acrylic blankets, blow up kids play toys, fake tiger carpets and furniture. There were also many stalls that seemed to be more focused on selling plants, the kind that you might buy for your house. We stopped to take a picture and a guy ran out of his stall with a corn cob on a stick trying to sell it to us. When I said no thanks, he said something quickly in Arabic and I'm sure he was calling me something rude!

Continuing down from the pass we drove along, viewing many wadis (dried up river beds) that were very impressive. Some were over 30 feet deep and it didn't take much to imagine what it would be like after a heavy rain during the end of winter! Apparently many of the Bedouin tribes used the wadis to pass the mountains before there were any built roads.

The first place we came to on the east coast was a town called Dibba. It was a nice town with a sea walk and many boats that were used for fishing. Dibba is on the gulf of Oman and with only a short 2 minute drive north along the coast and a large blue sign stating you are about to pass into Oman, we were in our third country of this trip! The architecture difference between Dibba (UAE) and Oman was visibly different and I know this sounds strange, but the people in Oman seemed much friendlier! We had a man wave and smile at us from the side of the road. We also encountered a small flock of young children getting out of school and they all broke out into smiles and waves when they saw us....so of course I smiled and waved like crazy back!

It's amazing what a giant connection you can make by bearing your teeth and turning your face to a smile. Regardless of age, gender, race and religion there is a connection. I wonder what would happen if a genuine smile was mandatory before you had to shoot someone? I don't think we would have as many wars....(anyway, I digress after reading about Saddam in the papers today...)

After Dibba we drove south through Sharjah, Khor Fakkan, Qidfa, and Mirbah. Noteable in Sharjah there is a large hotel resort on the ocean called Le Meridien (which we tried to get a room at...$800/night for jr. suite! eeek). We drove by the resort and right beside it is a very large stretch of empty (clean) beach! We parked down by the water as you can drive on the beaches here and I went for a swim in the Indian Ocean! (for free! hehehe) There was a large school of small fish in the ocean with me as well as a few small floating pieces of trash (no doubt from the resort) but they left me alone and the water was incredibly warm and very clean and clear. It was totally lovely!

The next major town we stopped in was Fujairah. Actually more like a city, Fujairah is a very important major port city where much of the petroleum resources are shipped out of the country. Dotted along the horizon, almost too far out to see, where the large transport ships similar to those seen in Vancouver, were floating there anchored, waiting their turn. There were about 5 large container cranes as well so no doubt, other goods were coming into the country as well.

We ate at KFC (after not being able to find a McDonalds!) and if you closed your eyes, you would have no idea that you were in a middle eastern, Muslim country below the equator in a city edged along a desert! I don't normally eat at KFC but/and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try fast food in a foreign country!

One last note on Fujairah is that it holds the farthest north and largest Mangrove stand in the southern hemisphere (according to my dad). Thank goodness it's considered special and is a protected area. Not even boats are allowed in.

The drive home was much the same but along a different route. The drive home was on a beautiful new road just over 1yr old, had two tunnels and many small mosques along the side of the road. It was a totally unique and amazing tour, one I don't think we would have experienced without the help of my dad. Thanks Dad!