The Honeymoon Roadtrip

Our Route….

Whoa – this is going to be a long one… we’ve just returned from a week-long drive through most of the UAE.

We decided before heading of that this trip would also be our honeymoon, finally, and so we wouldn’t worry about splashing out more than usual. It was great to have our little rented car and head out with a vague idea of a starting point, and no idea where we would head to from there and when we would be back. Time for a little adventure.

Day 1: We started from our hotel in Liwa (big yellow star) and took a winding desert road on to Hameem. On each side, there was nothing but sand, and small towns, each with its own white domed mosque. We stopped before Hameem at a tiny tiny tiny place, made up of a general store and what seemed to be an abandoned hut. From the windows behind the store, two ladies waved and giggled at us.

On to Hameem, which was nothing more than a small gas station. The next road, heading north towards Abu Dhabi is a single lane track between dunes and dunes and dunes. We stopped once, in awe of a huge herd of camels striding along around a big black Bedouin tent. It was too far for us to get close, and besides, with the price of camels these days, the whole area was fenced off. Those weren’t the only camels we saw, gracefully gliding along, as camels do.

In these parts, our road map proved mostly useless – partly because there was only one road, and partly because none of the names on the map matched any named on signs posted along the desert. Then again, there wasn’t much in the way of civilization.

Suddenly, we came upon a line of trucks going the opposite direction on a road that ran parallel to ours. What were these dozens of massive trucks doing out here, each one filled to capacity? We were driving past the country’s largest dump! All day, every day, every minute, huge overflowing trucks make their way there, dumping their payloads and returning to Abu Dhabi for more. There were new trucks arriving by the minute, and a lineup all the way to Abu Dhabi. With no recycling program here, and with everyone drinking bottled water, for example, it was a very sobering view of the dark side of progress.

Across from this line of trucks was a huge artificial pyramid (small blue star) and the home of the so-called Rainbow Sheik’s car museum. It’s really more like his personal car collection of 250+ cars (with another 160 arriving in a month or so), including 2 Rolls Royces, several rainbow coloured Mercedes Benzes (some even sporting gold bumpers and wipers), a few military vehicles, a rocket car and the world’s biggest monster truck, which is really more of a house on wheels. The truck comes complete with two trailers, both three stories tall, one the shape of the globe, the other housing five bedrooms, a kitchen, lounge and a few other rooms. Everything else in the complex was either abandoned, crumbling or still being built, and pretty much empty. He (Sheik Hamad) is a cousin in the royal family and should be commended, perhaps, for attempting to build some sort of tourist attraction out here in the Western zone. The man collects cars like other people collect stamps.

On the road again, and heading off to Al Ain (orange star), and my step-sister Michelle’s house, where we would stay for the next 2 nights with her husband and 2 adorable daughters.
We were taken on a quick tour through Al Ain by Michelle on the way through to a more traditional supper of lamb and or chicken shwarmas. She showed us the market place which is similar to markets in a lot of countries with many of the same things on sale from competing stalls. Of course each country has its own special blend of things sold. Here there is plenty of brightly coloured material, couches, thrones, bedspreads… anything that can conceivably be lined with frills, trimmed with gold, and scattered with sequins, is (which of course Virginia loves).

There are plenty of religious icons, and then things which have symbols which seem to abound here, and are seen all over on roads, fences, walls and doors – the falcon, the cofeepot, palm trees, various fruits and above all, everything camel. The sellers are Arabic, from all over, often with big beards, and heads wrapped in all sorts of different ways (I’m guessing we’ll start to be able to tell which countries people are from just by their head-dress and dishdashas soon enough), or they tend to be Indian, Pakistani or from countries in that area.

Of course there are the shisha-pipe shops, and our final stop for the night was at one of these, where were offered tea and shown all assortment of smokables.

Day 2: With Michelle as a tour guide, and the girls (Lana and Aisha) as our in-house entertainment, we went off to tour Al Ain. Our first stop was the Al Ain Palace Museum, where the royal family had lived many years ago. The girls made our visit much more fun, especially in the dress-up room and by converting the covers of pots of dates into gigantic fun hats. Once again, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, except when a Korean tour group came through (at which point we busted out the Korean, and posed for a photo with a lady who came from Mokpo!). From there, we drove through the indescribably beautiful Al Ain oasis – a winding track between a jumble of palm trees – I have never seen anything like it, and on to the live goat market, where trucks full of goats were parked side by side, and Arab men straightened up and smiled as soon as they saw Ty’s camera. It’s funny how so many of our misconceptions of the “evil Arabs” have been undone in such a short time. This country is filled with people from all over, and generally whether they are from here or not, everyone is free with a smile or a nod or some kind gesture.

On then, to the Al Ain mall, where I happily shopped in stores full of long skirts, where even the “medium” size was sometimes too big. What a difference from the mini-sizes of Korea. As someone who loves long skirts (and Randi, I’ve been wearing your brown skirt all the time here) and scarves, I think I’ve found my place.

We decided once we’d arrived back at Michelle and Scott’s place that we had some time to kill before heading off to for an evening drive to the nearby Jebel Hafeet, so we headed back to the Shisha-shop from the night before to take the Iranian shopkeeper up on his offer to sit down to some tea. It turned into a cultural experience of its own, as he told us how this tea, with loads of sugar added to the pot was the Emirati way of doing things, while in Iran, they would never add the sugar directly, but instead dip lumps of sugar into the tea and eat it as a treat.

He also told us how after waiting ten years for his wife to have children, she’s suddenly born quadruplets, and proceeded to proudly show us clips on his phone of his children playing. Then he showed us clips of a night he and his friends had had in the back of his store, playing music, he on the drums, another man on a crazy flute, and the rest of the room clapping, stomping feet and dancing as the music picked up pace.

He showed us his assortment of barrels of homemade tobaccos, from strawberry, to coffee to grape. Virginia bought me a beautiful wooden pipe, with some coffee tobacco to match.
Before sunset we drove a short way to Jebel Hafeet, which is the tallest of the mountains in Al Ain. The road up is steep and winding, and offers spectacular views from changing angles and directions. At the summit is a wonderful hotel with a 360 degree view of the area. From there we could look out across the rolling dunes in one direction, Al Ain in another, and the long straight road disappearing into the distance toward Dubai. Of course with this view, the sunset was beautiful. We stood and watched quietly as the sky changed and changed again over the dunes. The way back down in the dark, offered the same views of the town all lit up.

Day 3: On Michelle and Scott’s recommendation, we’d booked a special deal with one of the beach resorts around Fujeirah. Hugging the Omani border (we can’t cross to Oman until our work/residence visas come through), we drove along, once again through alien landscapes of sand and rock. There were less dunes here, and more jebels (rocky outcroppings), and less fences to keep the camels off the roads. We stopped at one point to take a few photos and were a bit freaked out when a camel calmly wandered across the road, oblivious to the speeding traffic, in that calm zen-like way that camels walk.

From a distance, we could see rocky brown mountains approaching – photos don’t do them justice – it was really like driving through Mars or something. We edged along hairpin mountain roads until we reached the sea.

Fujeirah, like the rest of the country, seems to be in the process of being built. There was a crane, a collection of half-built sky-scrapers, and not much else. We drove north, towards Dibba, with the mountains on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other, until we reached our luxury hotel resort (http://www.rotana.com/property-13.htm) – small purple star, and decided that this was officially our honeymoon (a month after our wedding in Korea), and time to spoil ourselves (taking advantage of a lot of special prices though – we aren’t crazy enough or rich enough to pay full price on any of these places yet). We took full advantage of our private balcony, with views on the ocean, and I made sure to take all the l’Occitane bathroom products with me when we checked out….

After a quick wander on the beach, we treated ourselves to an amazing seafood supper on the terrace of the a la carte restaurant, complete with a small noisy cat who insisted on cuddling up on my lap, purring as we fed him bits of rather expensive fish.

Returning to the room, we were happily surprised to find it had been decorated in true honeymoon style – fresh flower arrangements and rose petals all over the bed.

Day 4: We woke up to another blue sky day and another breakfast buffet. Off then, to the beach, to loll around on loungers and wander off to the sea to cool off between cocktails. It’s quite something to be sitting under a thatched umbrella, with a lady in a bikini on one side and a lady in a full-on burqa on the other, but that’s the way it’s done here. The Emirati women lounge in their abayas, not even looking at the ex-pat ladies who are barely covered. We took a break from the beach for a quick snorkeling trip. As I didn’t have my contact lenses, I didn’t get a full view of all the underwater life, but Ty did. I quite enjoyed floating on my back, watching the sun set behind the mountains and just enjoying the experience.

I think we’ll have to head back here for some actual diving. While Virginia was checking out the sunset, I was diving as deep as I could on one breath. There were loads of different fish. At one point I looked around and was in a school of two or three thousand fish, and could barely see the surface, because the fish were packed so tightly together.

The night was quite cool – surprisingly so – and we decided to eat supper indoors. To our surprise, we ended up on the biggest supper buffet either of us has ever seen. After three full supper plates, and 2 dessert plates, we rolled back to our room to groan and laugh at our ever-expanding buffet bellies.

Day 5: Off again, up to Dibba, and once again hugging the Omani border through sparse mountains that framed blue seas. Oman and the UAE co-exist, crossing into each other along the coasts…. Kind of a strange arrangement, where some cities straddle the border. We continued on to the middle of nowhere, and our next hotel (and next deal), the Khatt Springs Spa – small pink star. Except for the giant castle-like hotel tower, the town boasted nothing aside from some bold goats wandering the streets. We had decided, as it was our honeymoon, to treat ourselves to some spa services. Although we were separated into different sides of the spa, we had both opted for the same treatment: a salt and oil scrub, followed by a crazy chromo-therapy bath (a Jacuzzi with different glowy lights) and a massage, followed by ear-candling. After our three hour treatment, we both felt completely relaxed, and with much cleaner ears than before.

Another supper buffet, smaller than the night before, but with the added bonus of some musical, uh, entertainment in the form of two Southeast Asian ladies who mumbled and wailed their way through a selection of songs. We were convinced that their song sheets were made up of nothing but vowels and Ws… We have been serenading each other with wahwah we wuv you songs ever since, to fits of giggles.

Day 6: Leaving Khatt Springs, we started off for our final luxury hotel experience at the Al Hamra Beach Resort in Ras al-Khaimah – light blue star. As we were heading out, we passed a young sheik, being escorted through the lobby flanked by one bodyguard, while another scouted around for hidden dangers (in the flower arrangements perhaps?).

With the idea of a scenic coastal drive, we headed north up the coast towards the Omani border crossing and were disappointed to find that instead of mountains plunging into the crystal sea, we were treated to a series of cement factories and refineries with massive trucks driving around. At one point, we wandered off the highway, into a small crumbling village that boasted more goats than people, with each doorway decorated and painted with elaborate designs. Not knowing what the reaction of the people there might be, we decided not to take any photos and headed back down the coast, through the uninspiring city of Ras al-Khaimah and on to our hotel.

As with several other places, the Al-Hamra resort is in the process of being made bigger and better, with no less than 10 more towers being added to it. We were happy to end up in a villa-style room, with a private balcony that faced away from most of the construction. We spent an afternoon at the mostly-empty beach. The water on this side was far colder than the Indian Ocean side, keeping us from dipping more than our toes in. Every inch of the beach, however, was covered in beautiful shells – relics, perhaps, from the UAE’s history of pearl farming.

Heading back to our room, we stopped by a small shop in the lobby to fondle the Persian carpets that were on sale (the shop clerk tried valiantly to get us to buy a 12,000 dirham carpet – about $4,000 CDN or 24,000 Rand – featuring 120 knots per inch…)

Day 7: Another day, another breakfast buffet…. And a long drive from Ras al-Khaimah, through Dubai and back to Liwa. Our adventure was not yet over. Confused by the highway signs, and with a thwarted attempt to stop at the Global Village shopping/amusement park (only open from 4pm to 1am? What’s with that???), we found ourselves in downtown Dubai, driving past the Burj Dubai, which is going to be the tallest building in the world, at nearly a kilometer tall. It’s pretty amazing how this one skyscraper can make all the other tall buildings around it seem absolutely tiny in comparison.

We tried to exit for the Mall of the Emirates to see that indoor ski-hill, but missed it, then tried to exit for a gas station (as our bladders were bursting) and ended up instead on one of the famous artificial islands shaped like a palm tree…. There are several of these islands – 2 palm trees, an incomplete map of the world, and more to come: one in the shape of “the universe”, a few flowers, and another palm style – if the economy holds out, that is. We kept driving until we reached the Atlantis hotel at the very end. We convinced a guard to let us into the ultra-posh hotel, just to use the bathroom, you know, nothing else…. And ended up walking around the immense lobby, and down a few of the Louvre-like hallways, all decorated with glass sculptures and gold leaf. Down one immense hallway, past the Harry Winston diamond store, and the Rolex shop, we were faced with a huge 15-metre high aquarium, filled with a variety of fish, rays and sharks, including a (controversial) baby whale shark. I’d seen pictures of this aquarium online, and was quite beside myself to find myself in front of it, and all purely by accident (and by sneaking into the “guests only” part of the hotel.) Read about it and take a look at a few photos here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1060285/Pictured-Inside-800m-Dubai-hotel-boasting-13-000-night-suite-dolphins-flown-South-Pacific.html
Yes, we took a bunch of pics next to that huge blue and yellow glass sculpture in the lobby. No, we weren’t brave enough to stop in any of the restaurants or even enquire about one of the super expensive rooms….

Our mini-stop through Dubai marked the end of our little road trip. From there, it was straight on through to Abu Dhabi, then to Madinat Zayed (we stopped to visit the cats, who are preferring Paul’s hospitality to us) and back to the Liwa hotel.

During our drive through Dubai, we got some good news: the office in Abu Dhabi called us to tell us that a villa had opened up in Madinat Zayed. We’ll be seeing it tomorrow (as I think it needs a few repairs), but perhaps in a week or two, we will be moving into our new house! This is quite exciting as we’d heard a few stories of people “living” for up to 5 months in the Liwa hotel, waiting for accommodation to come free.