Following on from National day, the Omani's had 3 days extra off with which to celebrate their anniversary of the Sultan's reign. We decided to celebrate in the typical Omani fashion, and leave Oman for the bustling and awe-inspiring Dubai.
After getting a letter from the admin staff at the school to ensure our visa's weren't cancelled at the border, we caught the coach from a part of Muscat called Ruwi (filled with tacky shops, neon lights and shwarma places) and prepared for the 4 hour journey ahead:
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| Ticket- 9 rials return. |
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| SO happy to be going on holiday! |
Unfortunately, this journey took 8.5 hours, during which a huge thunderstorm took place (awesome to see) and the bus-not being designed for the unexpected complication of rain- began to leak. We arrived in Dubai at 11.30pm without a place to stay, a bit damp and with a sense of terror that we would be spending the night on the streets! Every hotel we called was full due to the Omani national holiday, or only took men. Finally a taxi driver found and booked us into a hotel in Sharjah, a neighbouring Emirate about 30mins drive from central Dubai. We expected The Sunrise apartments to be a bit of a hole for the price we paid (400 Dirhams- around 70 quid for the four of us) for the room, but it was actually a clean 2 bedroom apartment with everything we needed for a comfortable nights rest. The only thing was mine and Tom's beds stank of chicken chow mein- weird!!
We woke up refreshed and ready for exploring and thought we would call a friend of ours whom we had met in Tiwi (take two) who lived in Dubai. Purvik offered us a place to stay that night and said he would take us out on the town in the evening to celebrate Tom's birthday. Things were looking up as we grabbed a cab and headed over to Purvik's flat which was also in Sharjah. Purvik is a teacher at a school in Dubai and all the teachers live in the same apartment block. It was pretty plush, there was a swimming pool on the roof as well as a gym and sauna; we agreed we would go for a relaxing swim after our day out.
First we visited the Dubai Mall in order to see the aquarium and the Berg Khalifa (the world's tallest building). It was nice to feel like we were going back to civilisation after sleepy old Muscat, but I could see how easy it would be to get bored with the materialistic lifestyle out there also:
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| Chilling with the fishies! |
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| Freddie, Tom, Will and Purvik |
The aquarium confirmed my feeling that emirati culture seems to be one of breaking world records; so much so that the aquarium actually had a sign to tell us that the Dubai Mall held the record for the World's largest single sheet of acrylic (BORING). After marvelling at the acrylic we then moved outside to see the Berg Khalifa. It was impressively tall, and we enjoyed having photos in front of it :) However the general consensus was that it was a bit ugly and looked like a spaceship:
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| Looks like something out of Tron doesn't it? |
Next up was the Dubai fountain show, where these fountains move beautifully to music- weirdly it was actually very moving, so we watched it 3 times over our stay!
Here is a link to a video of the fountain:doesn't seem the same but in case you are interested :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6-jgoqC4FQ
After all these new, tall buildings we needed a bit of authenticity so headed on down to the Dubai creek. Not quite as authentic as we had hoped but at least it seemed like people lived there! We grabbed a dhow and headed on a half hour cruise across the creek:
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| Poser! |
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| Left hand side, the Rolex building; Right hand side, the more traditional part of Dubai. |
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| Little bear thinks that this bit looks like Venice- and it did feel very Venetian! |
We alighted at the other side of the creek and went exploring down some alleyways with Market stall, where Freddie broke a picture, Will bought a 'my first camel' toy, and Tom bought spices. I won't reveal what I bought- I don't want to ruin your Christmases! Turns out Tom is a very good haggler and I was becoming his protege, I'm getting better at it! Thirsy for more culture, we stumbled upon a museum which depicted a traditional emirati house:
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| Joining the exhibit! |
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| Traditional Emirati Bride and Groom |
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| Tom and his new mate! |
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| Hmmm..... |
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| Tom and Purvik enjoying the hospitality |
After looking around we were fed Arabic tea and black eyed peas, all for free and once again showing the hospitality of people in the Gulf. We retired to Purviks for some fantastic Lebanese food and a dip in the pool before numerous Gand t's and a night out at Barasti Bar with my friend tequila! Freddie and Will along with Rory ended up going to an Irish Bar called Fibber Mcgee's due to them being under 21.
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| The pool at Purvik's |
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| Our new Irish friends! |
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| This one is for you Jack! |
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| Tequila! |
We met some amazing people at Barasti and I managed to talk a lot of Arabic- maybe it was cause I had a few drinks but I felt really comfortable chatting away in Arabic to some Egyptian guys and girls about their political situation: although they did laugh at me for my accent! We all met up back at the flat later: that advantage of not spending the night together is that there are many stories to tell when you get back. Freddie, after speaking Spanish to a lady in the Irish bar attempted to talk to the taxi driver in Spanish about the plant life in Pakistan - 'muchos muchos greenery'- clearly the driver did not speak Spanish..... maybe you had to be there?
Anyway the next day was relatively uneventful, filled with malls again and smoking shisha at the creek before another hotel stay. I excitedly told my mum about the cash point where you could buy gold in the Mall of the Emirates to which she replied 'well they have one of those in Westfields' - You heard it here first!
Discoveries of the week- Omani buses run to their own schedule, not yours!
- There are a lot of Irish, Egyptian and Lebanese people in Dubai
-Sometimes unplanned travel doesn't work!
Next time- Camping in the Wahiba Sands and the Sultan's toilet!
