As our trip draws to a close, what better way to top what we’ve done so far by getting out of town? Dubai is but one of seven Emirates, but by no means does Dubai represent what the UAE is like in general. Friday would be a day we saw the rest of the country.
But first, we got something to eat at Burger King. Bean Royale anyone?
Before we got on with the long road trip, we came across Sharjah Institute of Technology [I won’t say the acronym joke] and University City Hall. They would be the last modern looking structures for many, many miles. Many, many, many miles as we drove into the deserts.
We decided to head east, cutting through Sharjah en route to Fujeirah. The road to the Indian Ocean was about what I was expecting from a desert country. All desert. Even saw some real camels roaming the sands. Miles and miles of road surrounded by miles and miles of desert. Well, until we reached the mountains.
As we approached the mountainous parts of the country, it was pretty fascinating that you could literally see the exact spot where the desert ended and the mountains started to rise out the ground.
No more flat land. We were at the part of the journey where we were bobbing up and down along the mountains. There were parts of the road where apparently there was a risk of falling rocks. Or too steep to keep the road going up. So, they built these little tunnels everywhere.
There wasn’t much civilization out there. A few abodes here and there, a few identical estates, four, each for the man of the house’s wives. But we did see hitchhikers randomly along the way.
But there were mosques dotting the road the entire way. No matter how sparsely populated, there were mosques.
Eventually we came down from the mountains and ran into civilization again.
We finally found a place to use the bathrooms. Nduku’s brother-in-law warned us that the bathrooms aren’t like in America or Dubai. And not having traveled much outside the western world, I didn’t know what to expect.
The bowels relieved, which took the ladies longer than it took me, we started to see more of what life was like on the east side. Obviously, it was about that oil.
It was a long ride. And I enjoyed every single passing moment. Though not as glamorous as Dubai, the untarnished and organic landscape was just as magical for me. But when I checked on the ladies and kids to see if they were enjoying the ride as much as I was, well, they were probably just ready to get to wherever we were going.
contrails 