Musandam,Sultanate of Oman

 The next day i woke up to the murmering of  adventorous photographers who where getting ready to capture the sunrise. It was just 6 am but the beach had started to buzz with excitement & positive energy. As i went out of the car i was in awe of the surroundings around me. The sky had a golden tinge which was reflected on the crystal clear waters of the beach. I truly realised then that the world is full of beauty-beautiful beaches, massive mountains & amazing sun rises/sunsets ; provided we make the effort to explore the world around us.

As the sun started to rise slowly,  I felt all my tensions ,anxieties & fears disappearing. It was like a natural healing process-God sent & God gifted. I  just simply gazed at the sparkling beauty that was surrounding me. I walked along the clean beach & found beautiful sea shells along its shore.Collecting the shells was so refreshing. The seemed untouched & pure-each one different from the other in shape,design & pattern. My gaze fell on the small mountain which was to my left. The sun’s rays reflected on it to the extent that the whole mountain seemed golden in color. The whole ambience of the place was blissful. That is when i realised that nature is the best healer of the mind, body & soul. The beauty before & around me was too breathtaking to describe in words; it left me speechless for a few minutes & when i gained some composure i was able to click some pictures with my DSLR camera. A picture is worth a thousand words indeed.

 At about 9 am when we where satiated with the beauty around we decided to grab some breakfast so off we went to Khasab Hotel again in the heart of the city. After having our stomachs filled to our hearts content, we decided to travel along the higher reaches of Musandam. When we looked for our GPS position, we found that we where in close proximity of Wadi Bih, located in   the Hajar Mountains, Ru’us Al Jibal range, east of RAK. Traditionally, wadis are a source of water for people living in rural areas, and most oases and villages have sprung up because of their proximity in addition to being  a travelling route, whether through d

unes or mountains, between towns and villages, or even between countries.

Some of the most scenic drives are through wadis. However when we reached the army check point, the army man enquired where we where headed to. I had the Lonely Planet guide about musandam in front of me which actually puzzled the armyman.He asked to see it & i simply gave it to him. When he was certain that it was just a book & not some sensitive information, he politely returned it to me. When we told him we where headed to Wadi bhi, he informed us that only 4 x 4 vehicles could take that route. He however told us that we could go upto straight & then turn left for some breath taking scenery. 

 We saw acacia trees on the road on both sides . I was reminded of my experience while on the road in Wadi Wurayah last year in Fujairah. Though it wasnt as scary but the feeling of being the only human’s around did strike me many times. The area might be used for mining as at many places i saw signs saying” dont touch anything “.We checked the map & came to know that the place we where in was Khor Najd ( or Khawr An Najd).   It has the distinction of being the only one of Musandam’s fjords ( a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity) that is accessible by road. At one point we could either go straight or go left onto a mountainious track which went all the way up . We decided to opt for the mountaneous track. As we began our ascent, we found it a good oppurtunity to stop the car & take some pictures. As we got down, we saw many Land Cruiser’s whizz past us with Sand scooter’s & small boats towed to them. These 4 x 4 vehicles where having some difficulty in negotating the curves of the road. This greatly disturbed us as we thought it wasn’t safe to take the risk of plying our car on a road on which even the 4 x 4 cars where having difficulty. So we decided to turn around & go back. However we did make a promise with the place, of returning again some time soon but with a 4 x 4 jeep & discovering the hidden & exquisite beauty of this fantabolous Wadi & many more Wadis like it.

 

 However our adventure did not stop here. As we got down the slope we decided to click some pictures with the acacia trees (after all seeing so many trees after such a long time in the wild in this desert was a treat to my sore eyes), we heard the car coming from the opposite side blowing horns. After some time it simply stopped behind us. A local man came out of the car wearing a kundoor & told us very politely that we couldn not take pictures of the mountain. Any pictures we wish to take would be away from the mountain. Saying this he left, but not without observing how we had taken his advice. I saw him wave to another local in a car that whizzed by. Thats when i realised that the mountain might be under the military & thus realised that though the military in the UAE isnt visisble much but its omnipresent even in the desolate Wadi’s of Oman. Truly having a polite & helping attitude towards your country men & tourists in addition to being honest with your job will do wonders for your country

 Now as we left the place to go back to RAK, my heart swelled with joy. The joy of having visisted Musandam & seen such unparalled beauty  was satiating to the core. As we drew back we saw such beautiful sights en route that i wanted to leave everything & settle down on the banks of the beach. But its easier said than done. So i just absorbed the beauty around & captured it on film for all times to come.As we drove along the sea, i saw at one point that the water was reflecting the image of the mountain so completely that it looked as if there .The Tibat beach is the last beach before the checkpoint to Ras Al Khaimah. As we halted for our last photo oppurtunity we where dazzled by the color of the waters . Truly Musandam qualifies to be heaven in the Gulf region hands down

 En route i chanced upon the reflection of a mountain which was so clear &  unwavered that it seemed as if there was a mountain under the sea, just below the one above ground level. I couldnt stop myself from getting out of the car & clicking the picture. I stayed there for about 10 minutes & thanked God from the bottom of my heart for bestowing me with all the good things in life. We always crib about whats not good with our lives or whats bothering us or even worse what we want in life but we seldom stop to take a minute from our busy cribbing to thank God that he gave us sight to see such beauty around us.I feel truly blessed to have been able to see beauty in the hot & burning desert of the Middle East. As we went along the way further i saw some beauty all around me. In the sparkling sea to my right, in the blue cloudless mountains, in the magnanimity of the towering mountains to my left. In short, everything seemed heavenly then.

 Indeed the trip to Musandam has been one that i wont forget easily. It has given me memories & photographs that have touched me & my soul. Everyone out there who feels that the Gulf is a boring place filled with buildings & skyscrappers only my advice is to go & visist Musandam. You will simply fall in love with the place

Till next time

Take care folks & enjoy the beauty around

 

Ras Al Khaimah & Musandam

                         

A common complain i hear from many expats living in the UAE is that here one has no places to unwind. There is desert & the sun all around. Something that i was positive about a year ago when i found Fujairah. Since then having been to Al Ain & Musandam i feel the desert has beautiful sights to offer provided we are on the lookout for it & exert a bit.

 I have been in the UAE for 2 years now. In addition to the usual discomfort of the hot summers & lack of natural beauty around i did find some respite in places like the al ain zoo, Jebel hafeet, the hot springs of Al Ain, beaches at Diba & the malls around. This Eid i decided to visit Ras Al Khaimah. Notably though the place wasn’t as developed as Dubai or Abu Dhabi, it’s the most northern of the seven emirates but due to the new emirates road extension one can travel from Dubai in less than an hour. Exploring this emirate was some sort of an adventure that we couldn’t let go, so off we went for RAK.

The meaning of Ras-Al-Khaimah means “Top of the Tent”. It’s the Northern part of UAE bordering Oman. The journey has the usual desert landscape on both sides of the road with an occasional camel being seen here or there. En route to Ras Al Khaimah we found some camel race tracks with many camels huddled together at some places. Some human settlement’s where also visible on both sides of the road. Camel racing is very popular here, as with all the other emirates. The camel race track at Digdagga is something one can stop at. The majestic Hajar Mountains rising just behind the city & the Arabian Gulf stretching out from its shores-Ras Al Khaimah offers the best scenery in the whole of UAE.

 The National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah was our first stop after entering the city. Though we were too tired to enter the building, however we did admire its architecture. It’s housed in an impressive fort which was formerly the house of the present ruler of RAK.Once we reached RAK we felt relaxed. The pace of life was slow & the traffic was less even though it was Eid. Finding the hotel we had booked on phone was tough as the GPS wasn’t able to locate the hotel. Somehow we found another hotel which looked good.It was next to the creek so we just went for it. The 3 hour drive was very taxing in the November sun. We had our Eid lunch in a way which we will always remember. We went to the nearby Thai restaurant & had a dish, the name of which i even can’t pronounce now. It comprised of noodles, prawns & tomatoes. Our waitress was an authentic Thai gal who was bubbly & ever smiling. After a quick snooze we went around to see the nearby attractions. The view outside the hotel room was so refreshing. The slow pace of life & the relaxed outlook of the people on the roads makes it an ideal get-away destination.

 I saw a boat being towed by about 10 people pass on the creek. But at that time i was too tired to grab my camera, so i thought i would click them when they return. Unfortunately they did not return & i missed a wonderful photo opportunity & also learnt a great lesson. When a good frame knocks at your door, dont let it pass unclicked. I learnt this the hard wayWe drove by the Manar Mall-a large shopping & leisure complex, housing cinemas, family entertainment centre & water sports area. Then we found a nearby beach. It reminded me of the beach in the Hindi film “Ek Duje Ke Liye“. The water was blue, the boulders near the shore where huge & the waves splattered water all along the low lying pavement. Unlike the beaches of Abu Dhabi, this beach had no island separating it from the main sea. It was wild & untamed. Witnessing the sun setting on the horizon while walking alongside was a wonderful experience. Who can imagine that a desert region has such beauty & grandeur of its natural water resources?

 The car wash there seems to be what might have existed in Abu Dhabi a decade ago. You won’t find any Adnoc outlets but a very basic form of car washing. The streets reminded me of old delhi.Flodded with shops of all shapes & sizes-as if fighting with each other for space & customers. The overall landscape gives a feeling of ease & comfort. We then chanced upon the “Cove Rotana“. This luxury hotel had a beautiful ambience around it.When we entered it, we found it to be comprising of  two & three bedroom villas stretching over 50 acres. What actually amazed me was that the private balconies offered views of the Indian Ocean; the two & three bedroom villas where equipped with a private plunge pool & the location was at Arqoob beach overlooking the Arabian Gulf. However due to the Eid rush the hotel was fully booked until next week.Anywyas, seeing the hotel was very pleasing in itself. We may well drop in next time. Who knows?

 Slowly the dinner time approached & seriously my stomach was asking for the usual meat & rice combo which it was used to. Plus the combination of Eid & meat are synonymous to me.So we decided to find the nearest Indian/Pakistani restaurant around. While GPS did give some nearby restaurants, finding them was quite a task. Being in a new place & slightly hungry makes restaurant hunting a bit difficult. Luckily, en route we chanced upon “Al Sehri Resturant“where we found quite a crowd of people eating, chatting & enjoying. So we decided to try it out. I must say it was a wise decision. Not only was the food delicious but the prices where reasonable. My stomach was delighted at the end of the meal.

With our stomach full, we went for a walk along the Ras Al Khaimah creek. We then returned to the restaurant. It was evening time & all the people had gathered around the nearby coffee shop to talk, drink coffee & smoke shisha. The whole surrounding was so relaxing. People mixing together at 9 pm over a cup of coffee & shisha on the garden overlooking the brightly illuminated creek with some football match about to start on the television–reminded me of the Italian phrase Dolce far Niente–the sweetness of doing nothing.

 The next morning we woke up at sunrise for the prayers & the view of the creek from the window was amazing. The whole horizon had turned golden. The water was reflecting the golden colour of the sun & the blue colour of the sky. Together it was giving an awesome ambience to the creek. Plus the birds singing on the palm trees & the morning breeze seemed to be having a symphony of their own. Truly if this is what we can experience on earth, it amazes me how heaven would be.After staring at this beautiful sunrise for 20 odd minutes i felt hungry. One thing i realised was that when you don’t have something you can eat around you, you feel hungrier than you would if you had say a pack of chips with you. Our hotel didn’t have room service so probably the anxiety of feeling hungry made me feel hungry earlier than i would normally—sounds confusing, doesn’t it

 As is customary, we decided to check out the places/sights around. On our travel guide book we found the Khatt hot springs to be nearby. But we decided to leave it for the evening as walking in the November sun felt draining to us. We decided to head to the ancient sites of Ghaliliah & Shimal. Ghaliliah is a small village located in northern RAK.In addition to finding the “ghalilaih type tombs (a large ovoid tomb type with a central, internal pier), remains of an iron age settlement have also been found here. Shimal is also located nearby. It’s the site of several hundred pre-Islamic tombs. It was here that for the first time significant quantities of pottery, stone vessels, bronze/copper weaponry &beads of 2000-1300BC were found in the northern emirates.

This was what the travel guide said about these two places. It seemed interesting so we headed for the sites, having tracked them on our GPS. As we went on the road, en route we saw the signs for Musandam. Having gone to Musandam via Fujairah, we had not been able to spend more than 2 hours at Musandam last year & had vowed to visit it within a year. This seemed like the ideal time to visit this place at ease. So off we went straight to the border check post for Musandam.

 However we were in the least prepared for what was awaiting us. As we reached the border checkpoint & entered the main building for getting our passports stamped we found an unending que of people waiting with family before 3 or 4 counters. In our excitement we had forgotten that on Eid the rush at these check points is phenomenal. Having come this far, we didn’t want to turn away empty handed so we waited for an hour & finally got our passports stamped.

Then the next formality was getting the insurance for our vehicle in Oman & getting entry stamp to enter Oman. There is where we felt exhausted. Standing in the que for an hour without any water bottle with me took its toll on me & i simply fainted, just near the counter & after having braved 50 minutes in the hot sun. Thankfully the people before me allowed me to get my passport stamped first & before i knew it, i was out of there. That’s when i realised why so many tourists have a water bottle with them all the time- the body gets dehydrated in the sun & needs fluids to maintain its composure .A lesson i learnt the hard way round.

 Having finally managed to enter Oman, the awesome & spectacular view of the sea to your left & towering mountains to my right where all i needed to bring me back to reality. It felt heavenly to the core of existence. As we went higher into the mountains, we could feel the beauty of the sea, the mountain & feel humbled by the magnanimity of God.Thats when i understood why it’s called “The Norway of the Middle East”. The jagged mountains cliffs plunge directly into the sea & the coastline is littered with fjords.

We drove right up to the Golden Tulip Resort. Its location was spectacular, overlooking the sea & elevated from the ground level. However it was fully booked for the week in view of the Eid holidays. Lunch seemed to be hard to get as all the waiters where over busy attending to the massive rush of guests. So off we went to the khasab hotel in the heart of Musandam.The food there was good & that’s when i felt the life coming back into me.It was nearly 5 pm & we had been unable to

Find a good hotel.Thats when we decided to camp on the Basa beach, near the Golden Tulip resort. We reached the beach & saw many people already camped there. Some with tents, Some with Sleeping bags & some with just their cars & family. We sat on the wild beach on our beach chairs & just relaxed. It was bliss to sit so close to nature yet so embedded amongst people. All people hailing from varied races, colors, ethinicities; irrespective of their differences where sharing the same space & celebrating Eid & togetherness with their family. It was a silent acceptance of how the whole earth is just massive land piece which we all can share amongst ourselves without fighting over.

After having our dinner, we decided to sleep in our car at about 11 pm. Having started from Dubai on the first day & spent it in Ras Al Khaimah, here we were about to end a wonderful day in Musandam. It felt like we had become major travellers. The next day had more beautiful memories which i will write about pretty soon

Flowers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rose

 

Al Ain

    Has anyone seen how beautiful a desert can be. If you havent, then you need to come to Al Ain. The word “Al Ain” in arabic means The spring. Its located 160 km east of Abu Dhabi ( inland on the border with Oman) & 120 km south of dubai. It is  the birthplace of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (the first president of the United Arab Emirates) .

After 2 years in Abu Dhabi i got the cahnce to visit Al Ain. The road journey takes about 2 hours; the roads are lined with dunes,palm trees & occasional camels.

When we reached Abu Dhabi we headed for our accomodat ion at Ain Al Fayda Resort.As it turned out this resort was located to the

south of the city& very close to the famous Jebel Hafeet. I must confess, the moment we reached  near our accomodation i was already in love with the place. Mountains surrounding the palm trees with a lake in the middle of the resort–i felt i was in some heaven.

 

Ain Al Fayda has a laid back & relaxed feel to it. It has a public park,ladies park, bowling centre, resturant & challets. We then had our lunch in the resturant.  The buildings are woven into the landscape & they appear to be a part of the place . A fter a delicious lunch we took a stroll along the challets. The cool breeze was a welcome treat from the heat of the desert. After a quick nap we headed straight for the nearby Jebel Hafeet Mountains

 Jebel Hafeet straddles part of the border with oman. It rises 1240 meters & what i came to know later was that it has an extensive cave system winding through & its home to a wide range of animals including bats,foxes,snakes etc. i was totally awe stuck with the motrable 3-lane road which scales the mountain & ends at a parking lot. At some points en route there are viewing points where we stopped to just take a peak into all the beauty surrounding us. Finally we reached the top & spent an hour adoring the magnanimity of the mountain, the view below & the people around.

 After an exhausting walk on the mountain we went to the medicinal hot water spring by the mountain. It is said to have healing properties & believe me the moment i put my feet into the gushing waters i felt relaxed to the core. It was like a personal pedicure for me, free of cost & hassels.

After the hot springs our next stop was the Al Ain Zoo. I got to see a giraffe,an ostrich, the beautiful flamingoes, owls, the fiery cats, the crocodile, elephants, rhinos & elk. I wanted to see the Royal Bengal Tiger for i had heard loads of scary stories about this ferocious predator. I took the ride on the train after exhausting myself walking along the path for half an hour. While passing the giraffes, i saw the beautiful animals up close & i fell in love with its eye lashes. They have the most beautiful eyes i have seen in any animal. I saw them run along the train & that was magical. They ran slowly,as if in slow motion but the grace of their long  lanky frame was amazing. The picture of two giraffes under an umbrella caught my eye & the moment i grabbed my camera, the giraffes looked my way & the photo looks more like a photo-op then a random click.Hahahahah.

 Our next stop was the Al Ain Palace museum.  It was the late Sheikh Zayed’s  Palace ,when he was the Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Region. Some more buildings were added to the original palace when the late Sheikh Zayed decided to live in it.  One thing i noticed was the ease with which one could eneter any room, navigate through each room & leave without being hasseled with the offical jagaron of “dont touch” or “dont click”. Morever each room was symbolic of the simplicity of life that the Sheikh practised.

  Looking at the emaraties now its hard to think how they could have lived life without their 4 x 4′s; AC’s & power supply. Living life in a simple way was what might have kept the ruler grounded. Indeed as we wound up our trip, i had trully seen a different & lovely side of the desert, which i had thought never existed.

So whenever you chance to come to Abu Dhabi,dont forget to visit Al AIn for a wonderful desert experience without the desert safaris,sand dunes, camels or elk.

Is It Real?

When everything comes with an expiry date,artificial flowers are thankfully forever. I just wish they could emanate the aroma of a real flower too…But thats asking for too much

Hahahahah

Droplets

 

 

 

 

 

Emirates Palace

Flamingo