Dubai Update #5

On the 31st of December we set off in the early afternoon heading north of Dubai along the coast. There were seven of us bundled into the Pajero, 4 adults and 2 children and one baby. We had booked ahead into the Ras Al Khaimah Hotel in Ras Al Khaimah which is the capital of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.
We arrived mid afternoon, checked into the hotel and then headed out to have a look around the town and to find somewhere to have dinner.  This is always an issue as naturally enough the kids are not as adventurous in this regard as the adults so a buffet style dinner is often a reasonable compromise and has enough Middle Eastern cuisine to satisfy the adults and a little western style food to keep the kids reasonably happy along with a little encouragement to try something different from the adults.

While we were cruising around we came across a recreation/park area along side a sea inlet that had peddle carts in 1, 2 and 4 seater configurations.  We grabbed a 4 seater and a 2 seater and the kids had a ball.  Interestingly it appears that middle eastern adults don’t take part in such frivolities, so we attracted a few sideways looks as we peddled around the paths allocated for the carts.

After exhausting ourselves we continued to look for a suitable restaurant for dinner. We have now learned that a cafe or a cafeteria is not as we in Australia understand them. They do not actually have food but are a place for the quiet indulgence of a “shisha” which is a massive bong filled with flavoured and scented tobacco.  We are apparently going to be invited to partake in a shisha when we head off for our desert safari on the 10th Jan (hmm we’ll see).  We eventually found a suitable restaurant and had everybody home and into bed for an early start the following morning.  The adults having a wine or two in our room, that we had brought with us from Dubai for a night cap before retiring.

We needed to set out early as we were headed into Oman for the day which obviously involved a border crossing that we new could entail spending some time with customs on both sides of the border. As Amanda and Christian were on diplomatic passports because of Christians Job with the Australian Gov., it was possible that there may be some additional time consuming issues. So the process is; pay a departure fee to get your passport stamped to exit the UAE, then drive 100m in no mans land and then fill out some forms to get a Visa to enter Oman. The whole process took about 1.5 hrs.

Once we left border control on the Oman border and a subsequent police check point, we gave a little cheer, only to be confronted by another police check point 2 km down the road. Surely that’s it we thought, but blow me down if there wasn’t another police check point a further 6km along the road.

When you are honest tourists just swanning around, good sense tells you not to worry, but it does put you on edge a little.

With the border issues now behind us we were able to take in the fantastic drive along the coast to Khasab at the tip of the Musandam Peninsula.  Once into Oman the mountain range hits the coast with very dramatic and jagged peaks, much like the images of Afghanistan that we have become used to on the 6 o’clock news.

At every break in the ranges along the coast there is a village, hard up against the mountainous backdrop .

Stopping a couple of times on the way to Khasab at the villages of Ghamdah and Al Jadi we soon reached Khasab . It was now lunch time, and this was always going to be a challenge with the kids in tow.  After poking our noses into a couple of eating houses we eventually settled on a Pakistani “restaurant”.

The proprietor was a little perplexed when confronted with this rather large group of westerners with kids. Other than locals, he was probably only use to a few back packers but not a family group of Aussies. (Shades of the reaction we got in the Egyptian restaurant in Abu Dhabi). It was very hard to get a smile from the proprietor.  We soon came to realise his reticence after ordering and receiving our meal.  We of course were going to share the dishes but had no plates or spoons for each of us. So with a little gesturing and pointing we eventually received some extra plates (still not enough though) and spoons to serve the dishes but no personal utensils to eat with (he did apologize for not having any forks). Obviously our host was not fond of washing dishes so the less you use the less he has to wash.  A few glances around the room soon confirmed that we were expected to eat with our hands.  Actually it is not that bad as the bread (cooked in the Tandoori oven) was fantastic and following the lead of our fellow diners, we proceeded to consume our curries and various other dishes with our hands keeping in mind to only use our right hands. The toilets in the middle east are only supplied with paper where there is a high intensity of westerners (Dubai and  better Hotels) and as an alternative you are provided with a hose to squirt your nether regions. This of course explains why toilet cubicles often appear as if they have been squirted with a fire hose. So using your left hand to eat with is considered unclean.

Back to our host; now that we were hoeing into his food with gusto (magnificent tucker) traces of a smile started to appear on his face and by the time we departed he was quite happy.

Being the very generous fellow that he is, Christian shouted the lunch at the princely cost of 4 Rials plus a 1 Rial tip which is a total of about $10 Aussie.

After lunch we had a wander around the town and explored the local Khasab Castle and then headed back along the road to UAE with the police road blocks and customs on both sides of the border in reverse order to the mornings proceedings, and then returned to the Ras Al Khaimah hotel in Ras Al Khaimah. For dinner that night we went to an up market Indian restaurant attached to a large 5 star hotel.  Food was good but the cost was about 8 times that of lunch but still only about $80 for all of us but the food was actually no better, however we did have eating utensils.

One of the advantages to the 1 day sojourn into Oman was the fact that to get back into UAE we received a new entry visa that has a life of 30days. Had we not gone out of the UAE we would have had to pay the equivalent of $200 to extend our stay on the entry Visas we received when arriving by air.

The next day we were heading for Diba on the East Coast of the UAE in the emirate of Fujairah.

Cheers for now,

Graham

[restrict] When we left Dubai to head for Oman we packed a case of wine and a half carton of beer into the car.  We figured that although we would be restricted to drinking this in our room it would add to the enjoyment of our few days away, and after all a man is not a camel.

The problems that this entailed was

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