a trip up north and over the border
on wednesday we started the journey up north and our first trip into oman. we had decided to visit dubai again and stay a night there so we could catch up with my nz friend sophie who lives at the moment in sharjah (though is about to head off to ethiopia to teach).
dubai is largely unappealing to me as a city despite having the apparent ‘sydney syndrome’ and being a popular place for visitors. most people thought when we said we were going to the emirates that we’d be based in dubai - in fact abu dhabi is the capital of the uae… we did pass the time in good ways though despite it’s a busy, messy, dusty city. apparently also very empty now compared to 6-12 months ago but this didn’t bother us one bit!
we went to the mall of the emirates to see the huge ski slope inside. it was quite busy and quite sizable. after this we checked into the hotel and went for a coffee with sophie on jumeirah road at the one. post-coffee we decided to fit in some sights so went down to the souk madinat which is well worth the visit. sitting on the bank of a creek sipping a rarely found bee and watching people go past in water taxis was very pleasant.
we had a slightly touristy plan for the evening based on a recommendation from a friend of my mum’s - dinner cruise in a decorated dhow on the creek. it was nice to be out on the creek and the boats looked very pretty but i definitely think if you’re going to do this don’t go for the budget option - our boat had an egyptian theme for some reason. it was nice to have more hang out time with sophie though and would have been hotter in town i guess…
thursday morning bright and early we headed up to oman through sharjah and ras-al-khaimah, two more of the northern emirates. we were a bit foiled by the sights we had planned to see - the blue souk in sharjah could not be located by our trusty gps (which seems to know even the smallest places) and when we got to r-a-k the museum was closed for the afternoon period/siesta type portion of the day. undeterred, we headed to cross the border. the border crossing was fairly low key - despite an alarming lack of signage or indication of the process we figured it out eventually and went through. i am not used to land borders really; from the states into canada it was weird and here too. there are only sea borders from nz!
the northern part of oman is called mussandam - it’s separated from the main part of oman by the uae; the capital of mussendam is called khasab, a fishing town where we planned to stay. pretty much as soon as we crossed the border the geography and architecture changed. instead of camels, there were goats roaming next to the roads. the sand dunes disappeared and we saw why this part of land is referred to as the ‘norway of the east’ - the mountains basically plunge straight into the sea and there are lots of fjords. as we drove around the winding road there were lots of tiny towns - some with only a few houses, a small mosque and several fishing boats.
khasab has only been open to tourism for a short time apparently and it’s well worth the effort to get up there. we drove around the small town and loved the small alleys away from the street, the beautiful sea and the way the mountains were right in town. we checked into the khasab hotel (pretty much the main place to stay in town unless you go for the golden tulip which is much more expensive) and had a lovely swim in the pool and dinner.
friday morning saw us on a dhow cruise again - this time a bit more of an authentic experience out in the strait of hormuz and around the so-called pirate coast. the docks were an experience in themselves - a group of dhows lined up and tied together. to get to the boat we were on we had to clamber across the ones in the way. the dhows were lined with oriental carpets and embroidered cushions which made for quite comfortable travelling.
we pulled out into the strait and headed around the rocks for telegraph island. on the way out there we saw both lovely groups of dolphins and little towns built into the side of the mountains so the trip had quite a surreal feeling. apparently the water between mussendam and iran (i.e. the strait) is used by smugglers which made it all seem even more exotic! after about an hour we stopped sailing and jumped overboard for a swim in the warm waters - the only problem being that it just wasn’t that refreshing!
this dhow cruise was well worth it but we were also ready to bid farewell to mussendam in the early afternoon and headed back to al ain via al dhaid - a drive with a LOT of sand in it! we got home early evening and ate dinner with my mum, my brother and sister-in-law who had arrived from australia the previous evening with the niece and nephew.
