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This has been a long time in coming I know, and yes I am alive and well.

Sharjah is the third largest of the Emirates after Dubai and Abu Dhabi and doesnt have the huge oil wealth of these but there are 4 others that are quite poor in comparison, more about them later.

I arrived in Sharjah around 7am and alighted from the bus in the middle of town at Rolla Square. I then grabbed a taxi it took a while because I couldnt get the first few drivers to understand me. Finally however I was on my way and searching for the Sharjah Youth Hostel, an hour later I was still searching and beginning to run out of patience so I headed for a cheap central hotel which turned out to be more expensive than expected but the room was good.

I then rang the travel agent to arrange a trip in to Oman's Musandam Peninsular for the next day, but when I asked to talk to the guy I had been dealing with he didnt work there anymore. So after a bit of arguing they agreed to take me anyway at 6am the next morning, they kept telling me I was the only person and it was alot of trouble. For $250 they should be bloody bending over to be helpful, when they arrived for the pick up the next day there were 10 other people in the van.

The main reason I came to Sharjah was to visit the Sharjah Desert Park which has no public transport so I was into another cab this time the driver was a Pakistani from Peshwar, I honestly dont believe the rumours that there are Arabs in UAE.

We agreed on a price for him to take me there then to wait for a few hours then to bring me back it was about $20 not bad. He then proceded to talk about cricket they are really passionate about the game while he took me to the wrong place, when I told him again where it was he didnt seem overtly worried and we were off again.

About ten minutes later we found the place but they wouldnt let me in because it was woman's day, I laid on the travelling across the world sob story and the guard went to the phone and they agreed to let me in when all the buses full of school girls left, never seen so many in my life, but that wouldnt be for a couple of hours and would have cost me more in waiting time for the taxi so I went back to town. I plan to have another go at getting there later if I can squeeze it in.

By now it was getting pretty damn hot, yet I only had a day in Sharjah so off I went first to the Grand Mosque which was big but not overly attractive then to the monument to pearling and the Central Souq, which has to be one of the most attractive Islamic or any other type of building I have seen. The inside was full of gold shops littered with expensive and for the most part unattractive jewellery.

I then wandered on to the Fish Souk (market) and the Plant and Animal markets before heading into the Heritage Area which had some restored buildings that looked right out of Beau Geste. This area also contained the Islamic Museum it displayed a lot of old armor, weapons, Quran's, and coins and was suprisingly good, it was even labelled for the most part in English.

On one wall of the museum they had this amazing photo of the Hajj in Mecca where god knows how many devotees were praying in what looked like a stadium or ampethetre, totally incredible. Its a shame I can never go there short of conversion.

A bit more walking in the sun brought me to Al Hisn an incredibly well retored Fort, I asked a lad to take photo of me in front of it, he did but you can only see me and not the fort.

I then got my self pretty well lost for a while before heading back to the hotel had to be up, packed and fed by the time the bus arrived.

Sharjah is definately worth a visit the Khalid Lagoon and it'd dhow's are attractive and it is easy to see the main sites quickly. It is however a city of contrasts and reminds me of some of the cities in South East Asia with sparkling mega buildings next to heaps of rouble.

PS if I can ever find a computer with a USB point I will load some photographs.

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