An Afternoon in Dubai

Actually, our weekend started out with my band playing a charity show where our friend, Guy, brought his falcons to share with the children there. I wasn't as scared this time.

After that, we took a drive and headed over to the Deira area of Dubai along the waterfront.

Camels are so cute on the backs of trucks. They are like dogs.

After we arrived in Dubai, we started walking towards the corniche and saw one of the fire stations. We took a peek through the garage door windows and were instantly invited in by one of the Emirati firemen. He showed us the equipment and gave us a tour of the inside of the firehouse. He was very friendly and, I suspect, bored.

Firehouse in Dubai

Uh, ok.

Next we came upon Al Ahmadiya School which was constructed in 1912 and is the oldest school in Dubai. The school was founded by Sheikh Ahmed bin Dalmouk, a philanthropist and pearl merchant. The students sat on mats made from palm-tree leaves and only limited subjects were taught including basic math, Islamic studies and Arabic language and grammar.

Entrance to the school.

The school courtyard.

A typical class of students being taught by a clergyman.

We walked over to the corniche to see the Dhow boats.

Dhow in the creek.

Waiting for a ride.

A bird took a big crap on my shirt after I got this picture.

Preparing for National Day at the souk.

Muscat Love

The next morning we got up and headed to Wadi Shab. We heard it was a really cool place to visit, with natural pools of crystal water and caves that you swim to. We heard, but we never saw. Apparently the road leading to the entrance of the wadi had been washed away by the cyclone. There was a detour, but we couldn't figure out where we were supposed to go. Plus, it was raining, so it probably wasn't safe to go to the wadi anyway.

Dejected, we decided to drive on to Muscat. I was the navigator and looked through my off-road guidebook for the next thing I wanted to see. I finally found where White Beach and a water hole that I wanted to see, but by the time we had already drove past them. Damn it. Neither of us really wanted to turn around as we had already spent so much time in the car, so we pressed on to Muscat. The rain was subsiding when we reached Muscat.

We wanted to see the famous Mutrah Souk, but it literally had a river of water pouring through it from all the rain, damn.

US Navy ship.

The next morning, we headed out to Yiti Beach. The guide book said how great it was. It was nice, but not spectacular. We milled around for maybe 30 minutes and then headed out.



A friend of mine recommended we go to Sawadi Beach. The tide was on its way out and so we were able to walk across the inlet to a small island with a small fort on top including a helipad!
After the tide finished going out, all of these cars descended on the beach effectively surrounding us spinning around on the sand. So much for the relaxing walk. That was the last straw, it was time to head back to Al Ain!

Sea Turtles Don't Like the Rain?

On the second day of our trip, the weather turned pretty foul. It got very cloudy and began raining off and on. One of the things you must be aware of is the possibility of flash flooding in the wadis. A wadi is an Arabic term that traditionally refers to a valley, but we refer to it as a dry riverbed that only contains water during a heavy rain.

A cyclone passed through Oman a few days before and some people died in wadis after being caught in flash flooding.

As we were heading to the turtle beach in Sur, we decided to stop at Wadi Bani Khalid along the way. The skies were threatening and it was making me feel a little nervous. There were plenty of cars and people there, and there were supposed to be some cool caves, so we decided to check it out.

We parked the car and walked past the pools. Some Omani guy told us to be careful. He said, "Even if it isn't raining here, it could be raining in the distance and still cause a flash flood which is very dangerous." Great. Way to boost my confidence.

So, Thomas and I set off in search of these great caves that were mentioned in the guide book. We walked and walked. It was getting really nervous because I could feel small sprinkles of rain. I figured the caves couldn't be as far as we had walked, so we turned back. Sure enough. Someone pointed out a small entrance in the rocks that I had suspected was an entrance to a cave.

We peeked inside, but it didn't look like much. Soon, an American family walked over with 3 kids that were eager to explore the cave. At some point I asked where they were from. The wife was from Boston and the husband was from....wait for it..... Chagrin Falls, Ohio!! What the hell? I swear, everywhere I go I meet someone from a Cleveland suburb. Never fails. Weird.

So the dad went in and checked out the cave first and went on and on about how cool it was. His kids were beggin to go in the cave, so we decided to follow.

We crawled pretty much the whole time to a tiny stream. That was it. Really. Pitch dark, on our knees, in a cave, tiny stream. Ok whatever!

Strolling through the wadi.

I found a nice chair to sit in.

The very dark cave.

Where are we going?

Is this it? Seriously?

Family portrait.

We had enough of the wadi and wanted to make it over to Turtle Beach in Ras al Jinz before night fall. It started really raining and we finally made it there. We went inside to ask for a reservation to go on the beach and watch the turtles lay eggs and watch some babies hatch that night. They only take small groups of 15 people so as not to scare the turtles too much and no pictures are allowed. You can go anytime from 9pm - 4am.

The guy at the desk said, "No, full tonight." "Full tonight?" I said. "Completely? Even at 4am?" The man said, "Yes, no reservations for 5 days." 5 days? He continued, "Maybe cancel tonight anyway and the turtles not come because of rain." Seriously? The turtles don't like the rain? They live in the freakin' sea! How can they not like the rain? Ugh. So, no turtles for us.

Well, the would certainly be no camping for us that night. Again, we got a hotel room, this time on the beach. A very dirty beach. But it was ok.

O My, O Man, Oman! Country #30!

So, I was very excited that Thomas came back to the UAE to visit for 3 weeks. One of the things we said we wanted to do was go to Oman. So, we went shopping at Carrefour for a tent, and sleeping bags and stuff to go camping for 5 days.

We got all of our gear together and decided to take my little 1999 Honda Civic. I was pretty skeptical, but it saved us a few hundred dollars that we would have spent if we would have rented a car.

We set off on Tuesday morning with a basic outline of our plan. We were going to go to Alhoota Cave in Nizwa, then to Ras Al Jinz and Turtle Beach in Sur, head over to Muscat hitting some beaches and wadis along the way, then hit Jebel Shams on the way back.

After a few hours of driving and some fun at the border post, we made it to Al Hoota Cave. Al Hoota cave is located in the mountains near Jebel Shams, Oman's highest peak, near the city of Al Hamra. The system is a major subterranean wadi with Al Hoota cave as its inlet. There is a rare species of blind fish that dwell in the dark waters of t
he cave, as well as a system of interesting stalagmites and stalactites; one of which is even shaped like a roaring lion.

They only let a certain number of people to visit the cave each day, so we were lucky to get in right away without a reservation. There is a little tram that takes you from the visitor's center to the mouth of the cave. Beyond that, pictures aren't allowed. You get to walk around and there are guides there to point out the different geological formations.

The little tram that takes you to the cave.

A picture of the inside of the cave that I found online.

A picture of the roaring lion that I found online.

A picture of one of the blind fish that they keep in a tank at the visitor's center.

It was already getting dark when we made it to Nizwa and there didn't seem to be anywhere obvious to camp, so we ended up just grabbing a hotel and staying on town for the night.

The Honda!

You can never have enough sprinklers. Line up the holes? What for?

Apparently, you can never have too many locks either.