Dubai Update #9 – Overnight in Hatta

With some trepidation, on Monday the 14th January, Chris and I grabbed a hire car to drive to Muscat, the, capital of the Sultanate of Oman.  The fact that I had not driven on the right hand side of the road since our visit to Italy some years ago was a little concernng. However, with the aid of a GPS navigator we were soon on our way.  The first night we were booked into Hatta Fort Hotel in the town of Hatta, nestled amongst the ranges, only about an hour out of Dubai.  To get to Hatta which is in the UAE, you have to cross a small peninsula of Omani territory. This means two police check points. Chris had read in a tourist book that we should check out the small village of Hadf, just off the main road in Oman, that is virtually on the border of UAE.  After checking out the Village we decided to take a short cut down a minor road that led us into the UAE without going through the main police check point. So at a rather lonely check point on the border we disturbed a solitary soldier who was snoozing in his hut. I guess having a couple of westerners approaching from an area that they are not normally expected to be, made him a little suspicious, but I think for effect he also wanted us to realise who was in charge and thought that we would be some amusing mornings entertainment.  He was a very large fellow, and throwing his assault rifle over his shoulder he came around to my drivers side window and quizzed us for some time, slowly checking every page of our passports.  Had it not been for a local behind us, also wanting to get through I am sure he would have let us entertain him for a while longer.

Hatta was a great spot and the Hotel was very good and expremely freindly, and I could get a drink!!

Met a great bloke, Adrian in the bar that evening who was from Brisbane over for a training conference and invited him to join us for dinner.

See the gallery for some pictures on the way to and around Hatta.

Hatta was an interesting spot, however the road to the main tourist attraction was closed but we had fun looking  around the town that was very disjointed wedged as it was amongst rocky outcrops of the mountain range.  Once again we took the plunge with a back street “Restaurant”.  Pakistani once again as many of them are.

The next morning we headed for the main border crossing and onto Sohar on the East coast of the peninsula where we were booked in for the night.  Hatta to Sohar is only a distance of 85km but we thought that as Sohar is on the coast we might find it interesting.  Not likely, not much to see in Sohar and the Hotel while clean was a little dodgy and a far cry from the previous nights accommodation in Hatta.

The next day we set of early for our drive to Muscat, having used Wi-Fi access in Hatta to make a booking.

Next post – Muscat.  More particularly the area of Muttrah, where the Sultan moors his little boat.

See Reference Map below