Trip to Fujairah

One of the things we've been looking forward to about living here is the opportunity to visit parts of the world we have never been to before. I'm not sure what Jo's score is but so far I have visited 14% of the countries in the world, so there is lots more to go at.

But before we go further afield there is still plenty of the UAE for us to visit. Of the seven Emirates we have done Abu Dhabi (obviously) and Dubai so far, so at half term we were determined to tick another one off the list. We decided on Fujairah as we had heard good things about it, plus we wanted to scout out some potential camping spots for later in the year.

We booked an apartment at a hotel just outside Dibba, the second biggest town in Fujairah, situated in the North of the Emirate, just across the border from Oman. It was a drive of 160 miles, but the roads were good all the way so it took just under three hours, including a brief stop for lunch.

As we got closer to Fujairah the landscape started to change from sand to rocky mountains. "Mountains" may be too strong a word as they only rise to 1,000m, but that's what they are called, the Hajjar Mountains, or "stone mountains". Anyway they presented a picturesque finish to our journey.

We found our hotel, the Radisson Blu, without too much trouble, checked in and headed to the adjoining beach to enjoy the last couple of hours of sunshine. In the evening we went to another hotel a few miles away and had a lovely Indian meal for our tea.

Much of Friday was spent on the beach, or by the pools, but in the afternoon we went on a boat trip up and down the coastline. The kids really enjoyed themselves, especially when the boat was going at top speed. We saw some interesting sights as well, one of the local sheikh's beach house (complete with helipad), a fish farm (I think it was sea bream they were farming) and a fleeting glimpse of a sea turtle's head!

We also saw the beach which you can apparently camp on. It looked fine, with a couple of small shops for provisions, so we may head back over there with our tent at some point during the rest of this year.

Saturday came too quickly and it was time to check out. We decided to head home via the town of Fujairah itself. En route we happened upon Al Bidyah Mosque, the oldest mosque in the UAE, dating back to 1446, so stopped for a quick photo.

Onwards to Fujairah. The town itself is pretty industrialized, with lots of development going on like in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but didn't look particularly touristy so we didn't stop.

We did though happen on a lovely park and stopped there for a picnic lunch and a game of football. We've been impressed with the number of parks there are dotted about the major cities of the UAE, all with great facilities, and often very quiet. Jo finds a new one pretty much every week, and Archie and Flossie enjoy trying them all out.

Before too long it was time to get back in the car for the long slog home. All in all we had a fantastic weekend and will definitely be heading back over that way again.

As always, thanks for reading.

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Driving in the UAE

Last week was a two day week thanks to Eid Al Adha. Private sector employees were given three days off, whereas Government sector workers were given five days, making a nice nine day stretch if you include the weekends at either end.

The weather is cooling down slightly, so we took advantage of the break to get out and do a few things, including a desert safari, a walk around the Grand Prix track, go karting on the Corniche, and our first Friday Brunch (a subject for a future blog entry).

Dune Bashing

The highlight was the desert safari when we spent the afternoon and evening being driven up and down sand dunes (as good as any roller coaster), riding camels, and sand boarding (which Archie demonstrated a talent for). There was also a BBQ, belly dancing (which we didn't partake in), and shisha smoking (which I did, because you have to do these things once). The evening ended with the lights in the camp being turned off for ten minutes so we could lie on our backs and look at the stars in total darkness.

We were only really on the edge of the desert, but we enjoyed ourselves so much that I have moved camping in the desert to the top of our Bucket List for the rest of this year.

Go Karting on The Corniche

Alongside enjoying ourselves progress continues slowly with getting visas, etc sorted out for the whole family (including me, given that I lost my wallet a couple of weeks ago, containing the collection of ID cards, driving license, etc that it had taken me a month to accumulate!).

Jo's visa should arrive this week, which means she will finally be able to get a UAE driving license, and drive the car that we bought a month ago.

The rules about driving here are unclear to say the least. From reading certain Government websites it appears that if you have a UK license you can drive a rental car, but only until the point that you apply for your residency visa, when you must stop driving until you have received your visa and then your UAE driving license.

This would be a real pain for Jo given that until Flossie moved school just before half term, the afternoon school run involved a 15 mile dash across Abu Dhabi.

However, other websites suggest the rules are open to a different interpretation, meaning Jo would be able to continue driving a hire car. This is the route that we chose to take. Jo did try to get definitive confirmation one way or the other, including a visit to Khalifa A Police Station, where she asked a succession of officers to clarify the position, until she got the answer she wanted!

Abu Dhabi Skyline

Driving here is a lottery most of the time. Everybody is in a hurry to get wherever they are going which means that normal rules of the road are often forgotten. You have to be constantly alert to what is going on all around you, because undertaking is common, often using the hard shoulder (or rough ground if there is no hard shoulder), or worse, squeezing through between the fast lane and the central reservation, where no lane actually exists.

New roads are being built all the time, meaning that a route you have been used to using can change overnight. And it doesn't help that some roads have at least two different names. Signs for motorway junctions often don't appear until you are pretty much on top of the junction, so it is also common for cars to swerve across five lanes of traffic to get where they want to go.

The authorities are trying to clamp down on speeding, and think nothing of putting speed bumps on three lane roads. The road I use to get to the motorway every morning has at least ten in a stretch of a couple of miles, which makes for a very frustrating first part of the journey.

New bumps can appear without warning. Indeed last week two appeared almost overnight on a road I use regularly. If you don't watch out you can do your car some serious damage!

We have very quickly got used to some practices that we wouldn't dream of doing back in the UK. For example, the majority of motorists (us included) leave their engines running whilst they fill up with petrol. When I say "they fill up", I mean the attendant fills the car up whilst the driver sits in the air conditioned cool of his or her car, winding the window down just briefly to thrust a 100 dirham note out as payment.

All of the above doesn't mean that you can get away with driving how you like. The Abu Dhabi Police website lists 147 offenses for which you can be given a fine and /or a number of "black points", including three points for "overtaking in a wrong way"; "abuse of a parking place" (poor parking place!); "opening the left door of a taxi" (why doesn't the left door want to be opened!?); or "using your horn in a disturbing way" (the mind boggles).

Apparently you get a text message each time you commit an offense (none of those so far, touch wood), and at the end of the year when you go to renew your license you must settle your accumulated fines, and take any other penalties. Allegedly at this point, if you break down in tears, it is likely the fine will be reduced. I will have to try this if it comes to it!

The system makes for some interesting stories. A case was reported in July where a woman had committed 1,551 offenses over a period of four years, accumulating fines of approaching £200,000.

I have probably rattled on for long enough, so I shall let you get back to whatever you were doing. As always thanks for reading.

 

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Crowns, Cars and Uniforms

It's a few days since my last update, and today was my first day at work. More about that another time but for now let's rewind to Thursday.

Jo and the kids spent Thursday morning settling into the apartment and enjoying the pool. I headed into Abu Dhabi for my first experience of the local healthcare system. On Wednesday afternoon I had lost a crown from one of my teeth (no idea how it happened, it was certainly nothing to do with the Riesen chews, honest), so I had managed to secure myself an emergency dental appointment before the weekend.

I'm not the biggest fan of going to the dentist at the best of times, so wasn't looking forward to the prospect of doing it in an unfamiliar country. However, I need not have worried, as the whole process was very straightforward and the care was very good (although getting a text message seconds after leaving the premises asking if I'd enjoyed the experience was perhaps a little much). I need to go back in a few days to have the new crown fitted, but the idea of doing that is far less intimidating than it could have been.

The next job was to pop into the office to collect the Arabic translation of my driving licence, and then to head to the Service Centre where I would hopefully be able to exchange this for my UAE licence. If you've been following this blog from the start you can probably imagine how it went.... take a numbered ticket and wait to be called forward to the counter.

The lady dealing with me didn't understand much English (why should she?) so it was a fairly challenging process. The first hurdle was to get her to understand what country I am from, I would have thought the translated licence would have helped here but it didn't. After running through various countries including Bermuda and Bahrain, an Emirati man sitting at the next counter helped with the translation, so we could move onto the next question.

The next question caused a great deal of excitement between the lady on the counter, the lady at the next counter, and their boss who was sat at a desk behind them. They spent at least five minutes discussing it before asking the Emirati man to translate again. I was getting a little concerned by this point, so was relieved when the question was only "do you want a licence to drive a small car or a big car?"! Not sure why it caused so much excitement but there you go.

Having battled through the rest of the questions I handed over my 200 dirhams and had my photograph taken. At this point I was sent back to the waiting area, I thought to wait to be called for an eye test. However five minutes later I was called back to the counter and presented with my licence. All in all probably 20 minutes from start to finish, you can't really complain about that.

Once I was back at the apartment it was Jo's turn to head out, with Henry, to the uniform shop. She was a little concerned about this due to the chaos I had described from earlier in the week. However she returned a couple of hours later, with everything she had gone for, telling me it had been one of the more organised uniform shops she has been too, and certainly better than anything she has experienced in Bolton!

The rest of the day was spent by the pool and going out for dinner, so all in all another good day.

As always, thanks for sticking with me, and for the kind comments.

 

 

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