Apr 14-18 Dubai

I imagined Dubai as seen in Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol - you approach the city from the far off orange dunes and all of a sudden, a monstrosity of buildings appear in the desert. This is fairly accurate, however we knew we were getting close when a Ford Super Duty dually passed us pulling a racing boat. I hadn't seen one of those since I last checked my parents garage (the truck of course!)

The Burj Khalifa could be seen from 50 km away (on a hazy afternoon). It made the rest of the buildings look minuscule, although they were all very tall. Dubai reminded us of Vegas in some ways, luxurious hotels, extravagant cars, urban tourist attractions, high end shopping, and everything had a shine to it. However, it was missing the sincity aspect, so Vegas still takes the cake in that category.
For Carla's last day in Oman, we browsed through Matrah souk for 'souvenirs'. We decided to don our outfits for the drive to Dubai, otherwise, out and about, our outfits would've been too hot. A nice Omani lady gave us a hand with our head scarves when we were clearly struggling to piece it together.

We stayed at the Novotel right beside Mall of the Emirates. This mall has the famous indoor skiing attached. It was tempting to feel 2C again and put on a snowboard. We opted out and went for a beer instead in the 'chalet', but the skiing was reasonably priced ~45 CAD (180 dhs) for 2hrs full gear, so maybe next time.

The lady at the front desk had recommended an African restaurant, Tribes, for dinner. After cruising the mall, which had a ton of stores and restaurants, we decided on Tribes and weren't disappointed. The food was fantastic! Yum, those were some good beef ribs (sans booze, surprisingly alcohol was still a hit or miss in restaurants).

Tribes in Mall of the Emirates

   
Day 2 we checked out the rooftop pool and gym and made a plan for the day. We decided to make use of the Dubai metro to the Burj Khalifa. The train line is really handy as most stops are walkable to the major attractions. The day pass was only 10 dhs (2.5 CAD, less than our single ride C-train ticket) and worth the experience of being able to gawk out the windows at the buildings. Plus, me and Carla took full advantage of the 'Ladies Only' carriage! The transit stations were really impressive.  If the World Cup ever came to Dubai, they'd be ready for the masses. The system seemed to be running at half vacancy, much like the rest of Dubai (I've read ~30% commercial real estate vacancy vs Calgary's 3%). If we build it, they will come... 
We arrived at the Burj Khalifa. Ground zero of 162 floors or 828 m. Excavation started in 2004 and it was officially opened Jan 2010. The tickets to the observation desk were sold out the day of, so we got our tickets for the following day. The Dubai Mall (newer than Mall of the Emirates) was built around the Burj Khalifa along with multitudes of hotels, promenades, and even a souk (a high end one of course). The Dubai Mall is known for the world's largest 'dancing fountain'. Think Vegas Bellagio, but bigger. It's also known for the indoor aquarium. Another world record, for the largest single pane glass wall.

Dubai metro station

Promenade around Dubai Mall

Bridge to the Souk

Dubai Mall

Lunch over looking the Burj Khalifa

Aquarium in Dubai Mall

The Atlantis at The Palm (palm shaped man-made island) is not to be missed. The Palm is an amazing feat of engineering and development. I didn't expect it to be so big. Huge condo complexes make up the 'trunk' and the 'fronds' have mansions stretching out further than we could see, all with ocean fronts. Again, it felt half empty and yet there is the Palm 2 and 3 development on the way. Makes us wonder how many properties were sold as vacation homes and the number unsold. Anyway, the Dubai marina was also another unique part of the city. The marina is built within the city surrounded by huge skyscrapers. We took a stroll around the water front walkway, surprised that not a single restaurant served cold beer. We were parched at that point and decided to make a break back to the hotel. 

Atlantis at The Palm

Looking back at Dubai from Atlantis

Dubai Marina - yes there is a marina amid the skyscrapers

     
I had read up on Dubai's hotspots in Time Out magazine. The ladies night's specials were something to take advantage of. Every night of the week, you could find a bar that had some sort of happy hour or ladies specials. This served us well for 2 reasons. Where there are specials, there is a party! And secondly 2/3 of us can our on party on at a discount. The second evening out, Apres (ski chalet bar) had a DJ and offered 3 complimentary glasses of the bubbly for ladies, no disclaimer involved.  The next evening we went down to the Dubai Marina Resort because they had a couple of bars to choose from - Malecon (Cuban), Serai (nightclub), and Loco (Mexican). We stopped in at Malecon, but 8 PM was clearly too early. There was one other table besides us and the Cuban band didn't start until 9. We decided to try Loco instead, which proved to be a good time. The live house-band (acoustic-rock cover songs) played songs we could sing to and the they had plenty of beers on tap.
The last day on the town happened all by luck, and turned out better than we could've planned. We stumbled upon an Aussie bar Nezesussi for dinner, which happened to have a ladies night special, free food with your drinks (100 Dhs/$25 Cdn). When we finally found the right door to get in, the place was packed and they even had a hockey game on! (on the smallest tv in the corner, but it was still playoff coverage). We intended on going to the Burj Al Arab (world's only 7 start hotel), later that evening, but had dropped the ball and called too late. Reservations are required for entrance, even just for drinks.  Plan B turned into a night at the 360 club in the Jumeriah Beach Hotel. We were looking for the bar and the front desk told us to go down to golf carts and they would take us there. I didn't know what to expect, and thought maybe they assumed we were wimps in our high heels. So the cart took us out past the beach, past the yachts and to a island-like bar. The club was amazing! Completely open air, 2 levels of ocean views with the Burj Al Arab 100m away. We also found out that if you had a group of 6 girls, you get free bottle service! Unheard-of....Dubai was a good change of pace from life as-we-know-it-so-far in Oman. I can see why people head there every few months for a weekend getaway.

Burj Al Arab

The ladies chariot, on route to 360!

Burj Al Arab

     

Exploring Muscat with Carla - Apr 2 to 13

For the past 2 weeks Janelle and I had another "nukabroad" visiting. Carla and Janelle work together back home and we were really happy that one of our friends from Calgary had made the trip out. This was her first time to the Middle East, and we were excited to share the experiences we've been trying to blog about. Since Janelle was working and I'm sans job (hopefully not for much longer...) I was the official tour guide for the week. I took Carla to most of the tourist spots, spent a good chunk of the day at the beach and took her grocery shopping to get a good feel for life over here. There were a few things we did that were new to both of us including going to the Grand Mosque.

Before we get to that, you may remember the flat tire from the desert camp. With the trip to Dubai coming up, I had to find the Ghala Subaru dealer to get the tire fixed and oil changed. Day 1 I tried to book a service online but did not hear anything back. Day 2 of trying to find the dealer did not work out, I thought I knew where to go after extensive research only to drive through the Ghala area with Carla for 30 minutes finding nothing (I felt bad hauling Carla along with me as she was on holidays and soon feel asleep). Day 3 I checked with Donna to make sure I knew where to go and set off in the morning to find the dealership feeling very confident that I had it nailed down this time. Sure enough it was the same spot that Carla and I were looking for only it was in behind the Isuzu dealership (which is owned by the same group) and has no signs (again par for the course here). Unfortunately with construction going on in the area I missed the service road exit and the right turn and was forced into a 30 minute loop to get back to a place that was 50 m from my car when I missed the turn. Finally finding the service door I went in, only to be told that the actual service bay was another 100 m down the road. At last I was at the right spot and was told that they had tried to call me from the original online form but our phone was disconnected. Regardless I arranged to drop the car off the next morning and left the tire with them to be fixed.

The next day was another challenge as we only have 1 car, so thus the problem with dropping it off and having to wait four hours for it to be done. Our solution was that Carla and I would drop the car off at 8 and then walk to the Grand Mosque, only about 2 blocks away. Dropping the car off they said it would be done at 5 but we needed it at 12 so they agreed and off we went walking. The walk was actually quite nice as the area around the mosque is very well landscaped and no stores. It's free to go into the Grand Mosque between 8-11 Wed through Sat if you are non-Muslim. The trip was well worth it as both the ladies prayer room and the mens are both amazing. Of course the men get to pray in the main prayer hall while the women are separated into a smaller area. The main room is home to the worlds biggest Persian rug which weighs of 10 tonnes and took 300 Iranian women 6 years to sew. There is also an amazing 14 tonne chandelier (that's all we gleamed evesdropping on a tour guide). After the mosque Carla and I cabbed it to the new Grand mall to kill some time waiting for the car to be finished. The mall building and common areas were very nice, the big problem with the Grand Mall right now is that there is nothing there. Only a few stores were open, hardly anything in the food court and more people cleaning than shopping. Another short cab ride back to Subaru where we picked up the finished car and our adventure was finished.

We also got an invite over to our friends Pete and Zan's place at the Wave for a true South African braai. Funny part of this story is before going Zan asked Janelle to pick up a "box" of wine as the liquor store at our club is very cheap. Janelle came home to grab Carla and I and sure enough had a box of about 8 bottles of wine. Great we thought, should be a fun night. Upon arriving at Pete and Zan's we realized they simply meant to buy boxed wine, not a box of it. The company was great as always with amazing food, watermelon & feta salad, chicken skewers and my favourite of the night were the toastie's complete with Mrs. Balls chutney! We even finished the night off with an Easter egg hunt thanks to Pete.

Another place that we hadn't been yet was to the relatively new Muscat Opera House. Janelle had bought tickets to see the Salzburg Orchestra. The Opera House looks stunning from the outside so we were all very excited to see the inside. The girls put on dresses and I threw on nice jeans, dress shirt (tucked in) and dress shoes. We got there only about 5 minutes before the start and were quickly ushered in as they wanted to close the doors. It was a good thing we were late and were being rushed to our seats as I found out there was dress code, no jeans. A couple of the Omani ushers kept pointing at my legs saying "No jeans" but I just kept moving and made it through. The music was amazing, the inside is as stunning as the outside and indeed I was the only man not wearing a suit.

The last interesting adventure we had with Carla was our beach bbq. This is a very popular and as we found extremely fun thing to do on the RAH club beach. The beach has permanent built-in bbq's, that have a light, running water, sink and prep counter. For our bbq we did chicken wings and a boxed wine (the right kind this time). The night flew by and we spent most of it playing beach soccer with the Omani family bbq'ing next to us. There were 4 Omani women (maybe 1 was a grandma), 12 kids and 4 maids. They had people everywhere. The women sat on the wadi mats relaxing and watching the kids play while the maids got the food ready and looked after all the kids, including the young ones (nice to have hired help!). We caused a fair bit of mischief giving the kids the toy water guns we had bought to play with. Initially they didn't know what to do but kids learn quickly and soon there were water fights going on all over the beach until the mom's had the guns returned. We were also amazed at the generosity of our neighbours as they brought over a large plate of sweets and of bbq chicken, prawns, skewers and stuffed crab as a thank-you for playing with the kids. With the usual great weather, good food, good wine and a bit of exercise chasing the soccer ball around we all got home completely satisfied. Thankfully Carla and I got to sleep-in as it was a late night, sorry Janelle.

Main prayer hall and the rug

Ladies Prayer Room

 

Women have to cover their head while at the Grand Mosque

Grand Mall, nothing but blank spaces and signs

Inside main opera hall

Opera lobby

Opera building at night

Burying our Omani friends in the sand

What a handsome chef

Canadian - UAE Visas

Our visit to the UAE was the first country which we had to obtain an entry visa. It is still a relatively new process for Canadians, being in effect as of Jan 2011. Unfortunately, Canada and the UAE had a fallout over the Emirati airlines wanting extra landing rights within Canada. It was not granted and the reaction was to impose entry visas on Canadians amongst other things (see Wiki for more info).

The process of obtaining a visa (either business or tourist) wasn't as straight forward as one might think. There is some info on the Canadian-UAE embassy website or on Emirates website, but it seemed that we just had to give it a go before it would all make sense.  I was especially concerned since our friend Carla from Canada was visiting and we had plans to visit Dubai for a week.
We had been through the border crossing Al Ain/Al Buraimi on route to Abu Dhabi a month before, and were forewarned that each crossing is different.  At least for us, having a labor card (resident card) in Oman makes it slightly simpler as we can apply for the visa at the border and do not require pre-approval. However, we did have some questioning since Adam's resident card listed no job and our last names are different. I guess this is why one should carry your marriage certificate while travelling in the GCCs.

Carla applied for a tourist visa through Visa Connections (www.ivpsc.com). She had intended to get her visa through the Emirates airline, but because she had a connection flight from Dubai to Muscat, they did not allow her to get the visa through them! Even after a lengthy discussion with customer service. It completely defeated the purpose of flying with Emirates as there is plenty of cheaper alternatives to Dubai. Her flight was Calgary-Seattle-Dubai-Muscat; (then we drove to Dubai, Dubai-Seattle-Calgary). The tourist visa is good for 30 days, single entry, and is $250. The difference with Visa connections versus getting it through the embassy is 15 business days vs. 20 days + shipping/return to Ottawa, but there is a $125 fee and they had an office in Calgary to save shipping time. Luckily, she got it 1-2 days before leaving!

There are 2 border crossing options when travelling from Oman to Dubai - Khatmat or Hatta. We decided to take Khatmat since there was only 1 crossing, which seemed simpler and it was only 20 km further. At Hatta, you cross into UAE, then back into Oman, then back into UAE. We decided to minimize the number of crossings... Keep it mind there are very few signs, multiple stops of people waving you through or not, and little communication so the crossings are nothing but anxiety.
We arrived at the Oman crossing and got a mixed hand signal and proceeded to the UAE crossing without getting our Oman exit stamp (yes, there are 2 separate stations anywhere from 2 to 20 km apart). We showed the UAE border agent our passports, first thing - "These are Canadian passports, you cannot enter." So then we tried to explain that we have our GCC resident card, which seemed to spark some reconsideration. "But your husband has no job, you can go, he cannot." Uhh, well that's no good either. Meanwhile Carla was digging out her visa to accompany her passport. The agent looked at me and Carla -" you sisters?". No..."she cannot go." Carla handed over the visa form while me and Adam explained that we were allowed entry at the Al Buraimi crossing (we didn't bring the marriage cert. this  time, an oversight on our part). Some internal discussions ensued while we waited outside the window in the blistering sun.  Then we were asked to come inside, not knowing if more questioning was next. We saw the eye scanning station and they motioned us to do the scan. Thank goodness, they were letting us in! $400 CAD for a tourist visa and $200 Dirham (~$ 57 CAD) for a business visa + $10 Dirham for what we don't know! That's the thing about the crossings, they ask for money, and we just hand it over. There is not 1 place where the fees are stated, we didn't pay the 10 Dhs last time. Just when you think you're go to go, there is another station where you stop and they give you a small white piece of paper that only has arabic writing. Sometimes they ask for the vehicle registration, other times not. Then you drive another 100m where you had over the white piece of paper to the guard. We guessed it was to know how many people were it the car?
Since we did not have the Oman exit stamp, we decided to ask the UAE agent if it was needed. They definitely knew the importance of that, they said we needed to go back to the Oman crossing to get it. Good thing these 2 stations were only 2km apart ;). So we went back and all got exit stamps. Adam got questioned again about not having a job...
On our way back to Muscat from Dubai, we took the Hatta crossing. Luckily the 2 of the 3 border crossing were just check stops, we didn't have to even show passports.  It was busier than the Khatmat crossing and they seemed to handle the extra traffic better. We didn't get charged this time to cancel our visa, last time at Al Buraimi, we had to pay $60 CAD, for what we could only guess was a fee to cancel the visa early.
Next time, we will try to fly and see how that experience compares. I'm guessing it too will be slightly different. 



 
  

1000 Nights Desert Camp - Apr 4-6

Janelle and I had been wanting to venture into the Wahiba Sands since we arrived in Oman and decided it was a unique thing to do with our friend Carla. We booked a night at the 1000 Nights Desert Camp and off we went. The Wahiba sands are about a 250 km drive from Muscat and we set off in the early afternoon. We had never driven in sand before and only knew that you were to let some air out of the tires. After arriving in Al Ghabbi we stopped at the Shell station to fill up and noticed a parking lot full of Jeep's and Toyota's letting air out of  the tires. We also began to slightly question the Subaru's ability in the sand. The previous owner insisted it was great in the Wahiba sands. Our concern only grew when we reached the end of the paved road and two Omani men stopped (of course in a Toyota Land Cruiser) to make sure our "car" would make it to the camp. We only had 40 km of driving to do in the sand and we assured them we'd be alright.

Janelle drove to the camp and the AWD was more than adequate for the sand roads we were on. The feeling of driving in sand is similar to driving in deep snow with the car drifting around a fair amount. We reached the camp and saw a small compound with trees, a few buildings, a parking lot of white Toyota Land Cruisers and a small collection of bedouin style tents. We checked in and were greeted with Omani tea, coffee and dates. Inside our tent were 3 cots set in a U shape around the edge. The sun was setting so we climbed the nearby dunes to watch and realized just how vast the sand was. As far as you could see was sand, no trees, no rock, just sand. Supper was at 7:30 so we sand boarded down the dune back to camp.

We sat in the Bedouin section of the restaurant, meaning not tables or chairs just pillows. What was really nice is that the only other group sitting on the cushions with us were the Omani's who work at 1000 Nights, all the other tourists sat in the main restaurant area with tables. Supper was a buffet which is normal here, and the food was fabulous! The cooks led us out to see the uncovering of the Shuwa. Shuwa is marinated lamb wrapped in banana leaves and set over coals and then buried in the sand (similar to a hawaiian luau). The meat is cooked for over 24 hours and must be watched to keep animals away from digging it up. The shuwa tasted great and there was also BBQ lamb chops and chicken wings, chicken shawarma and various rices and pitas.

The next morning we decided to ride the camels. Janelle and Carla went first and although the ride was short it was definitely worth it to say we've all ridden on a camel. Similar to riding a horse except for the height and the start and end of the ride when the camel pops up and lays down. After breakfast we hoped into a Land Cruiser to go dune bashing with our guide Mohammad who drove with bare feet and no seatbelt (of course). We drove through the sand for an hour and with big grins stuck to our face the entire time. It was amazing where the Toyota could go. Once back at camp, we checked out and loaded up the Subaru to head home. In case anyone is wondering what this experience might run you for, it was 65 rial for the tent, 25 omr 4x4ing and 3 omr/ea for the camel ride.  It was my turn to drive in the sand but our return was short lived as we got a flat about 3 km from camp. With a bit of help from two passerbys (including our guide Mohammad, who was also the camel guide. A man of many talents obviously) we got the tire changed and were off again. Back in Al Ghabbi we stopped at the Shell to fill up the tires and made it back to Muscat, tired, covered in sand but very satisfied with the whole experience. 

Driving through the desert

No practicing shooting!

Carla climbing the dunes behind camp

Janelle in mid stride

Adam looking tipsy, into the wine already?

Sand boarding, a lot slower than expected

View of camp, our tent was in the bunch on the left

Shuwa pit, wrapped in banana leaves

With Mohammad our off road driver (Carla must be on her tippy toes)

Just in case you forgot

This picture is not an accurate depiction of the tire removal, Adam did all the work