Dubai - Day 5 (Final Day)

Today we took the train up to Bur Dubai and Deira, which are the oldest part of Dubai.  In Bur Dubai there is a neighborhood of historic buildings with little shops of crafts and textiles.  We stumbled into a "Coffee Museum," which had an extremely large collection of historical coffee-making tools and was roasting and making traditional Turkish and Ethopian coffees.

 We then  went into a little shop that had middle eastern crafts, including frames made from a method of combining bits of wood, stone, bronze and camel bone.

We then walked past the oldest building in Dubai - Al Fahidi Fort dating back to the late 1700s, which is now a museum.

We then wound or way through a tiny little alley of Hindu shops, restaurants and temples and came out in the old textile market.

After we checked out a couple of shops and bought a couple of things, we took a water taxi (abra) down the river to the Gold Souk and Spice Souk.

Spice market:

Gold market:

 It was extremely hot today - 102 degrees with a heat index of 126 - so we couldn't last more that a couple of hours at the markets.  We then took the train back to John and Alexis's apartment and stopped at the grocery store to grab some fruit and humus for a late lunch.  We'll then head out for one last dinner before going to the airport around 9.

It was an incredible trip with fantastic hosts! 

Khasab, Oman - Day 4

We woke up very early this morning to meet our driver at 6 am to head to Khasab, Oman for our tour with Khourshem Tours.  There are two countries at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula below Saudi Arabia that are roughly the same shape and size: Yemen and Oman.  But in addition to making up the eastern half of the bottom of the peninsula, Oman actually curves northward toward UAE and the Persian Gulf - and has two parts that are unattached to the rest of the country.  Khasab is one of the main cities in the northernmost portion of Oman - a region known as the Musandam - although according to our driver it has only a couple of thousand people.  The below map shows the Musandam region of Oman above the UAE and across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran.  On the left is the Persian Gulf, on the right is the Gulf of Oman.

The below map zooms in on Khasab, which is settled among the fjords of the Musandam.

Our driver was great - very safe and very helpful with the border crossing (for which we had to get exist stamps from UAE and pay a fee, then get an entry stamp from Oman 100 yards later and pay another fee).  We got to Khasab after about 3 hours - which was a bit earlier than expected, so we first checked out Khasab Castle, which was originally a Portuguese fort from the 1600s.  The castle is now a museum with letters dating from the 1300s and examples of shipping vessels, pottery, tools and traditional fishing equipment.  There are also prehistoric stone paintings from the region.

We headed to the dock at 9:30 and got on board our dhow.  Then we took off for an all-day tour with a couple of other families through the impressive limestone fjords.  We sat on the top deck, which was laid out with Persian rugs and pillows.  A brusk wind offset what was an extremely hot day.  After an hour or so, we anchored off a reef and did some snorkeling off the coast of Telegraph Island, named for its prominent role in British communications in the 1800s and 1900s.  The fish were quite abundant.  We then had a lunch on the boat of rice, chicken, pita and humus.  After lunch, we headed back among the fjords to the dock, and then rode home, sleeping on the top deck most of the way.  Although we did not see any dolphins, there was certainly an abundance of cormorants. 

 

 

It was a great day out on the boat in the sun and with a warm wind blowing.

When we got home, we showered and then went for dinner at Fume Neighborhood Eatery - a trendy new restaurant in the complex attached to John and Alexis's building, which was delicious.

Alexis is back to work tomorrow, but we are going to head to the markets in Old Dubai before heading to the airport for our flight back late tomorrow night.

Dubai - Day 3

We stayed in last night and got some impressively delicious Indian take out, drank some wine that was transported by hand from the Philadelphia International Airport's Duty Free store, and watched UAE MTV, which had the same 15 videos on a loop.

View from Alexis and John's Living Room 

We slept in this morning and then took a taxi over the the Marriott hotel, where we had brunch on the 52nd floor at the Observatory.  Brunch lasted about 3.5 hours and was excellent (e.g., there was a "mojito trolley" that involved a guy at a mobile cart making customized mojitos.)  Incredible views of the city, the marina and the gulf surrounding the entire restaurant.

The Palm Islands

We came back to John and Alexis's place after brunch and had some Arrack (a liquor derived from coconut), which they brought back from their trip to Sri Lanka.

Then around 8 pm we took a short but very hot walk over to the beach (about 1/4 mile) for a night swim.  The water was probably about 90-95 degrees (like a hot tub) and there were no cold currents whatsoever.  The sand was only cool enough to walk on because the sun had gone down.  There were very few people in the water, but several on the sand, and hundreds at the brand new restaurants and shops that line the beach.  It was an incredible view of the skyline at night from the water - very cool experience.

We then walked back over to the apartment, showered and ordered takeout from a falafel place.  (We had planned to go out to dinner, but we were rather tired and sweaty/wet from the beach and walk).

Tomorrow we head out early (6 am) via a car service to Oman for a day trip on a traditional dhow boat.

Abu Dhabi - Day 2

After Guinan got back from the police station, having sorted out the fender-bender and turned down an invitation from Raji to have coffee (true story), we headed to Abu Dhabi, which is about a 1 hour drive on the highway.  We forgot the directions we printed out, and then my data on my phone turned off because apparently the phone service is monopolized here and charges $20.38/MB for global roaming outside of my firm's usual $25 per 100/MB, so when I reached $500, it shut off.  So we winged our way to lunch, which was at Sontaya, a Thai restaurant at the St. Regis on Saadiyat Island outside of Abu Dhabi.  It was fantastic - and because we were at a hotel, we were able to have a drink too.  The setting wasn't bad either - overlooking the turquoise waters and sandy beach of the Persian Gulf.

Then we headed to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque (the Grand Mosque), which was completed in 2007 under the direction of Sheikh Zayed and between its indoor prayer rooms and main outdoor courtyard can accommodate 40,000 worshipers.  Before we went in, we were stopped because Jen (pictured below) was dressed way too skanky (see arms).

So she had to borrow an abaya (which most westerns have to do when they visit):

Much better.

John and I, as men, were cool and didn't have to cover up.

Every detail of the place is incredible.  For example, the main prayer room has a 60,000 square foot carpet that was woven by hand by 1300 carpet knotters.  There is also mosaics, marble work, stained glass, word work, stone cutting - all of which is on as grand a scale and as detailed.

After the carpet was installed, they used a machine to shave down rows to subtly show where prayer rugs should line up during massive prayer gatherings, which you can see in this picture running from the bottom left to the top right.

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Then we headed back to Dubai, where we had to return the rental car.  Traffic was heavier on the way back because it was getting to be the end of the working day, and weekends here are Friday-Saturday instead of Saturday-Sunday.  We passed by Alexis's office, which is in of the most unique buildings of Abu Dhabi (if not the world): the "coin building."

And we also passed some billboards of Sheikh Zayed, who founded the UAE and also built the Grand Mosque (and is buried outside the Grand Mosque).