Blogs from Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Middle East

Everyone knows Dubai. Or even Abu Dhabi. People even refer to them as countries. The country name is United Arab Emirates. And it is made up of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi (the biggest, by a lot), Dubai (the most well known), Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras al Khaimah, Ajman, and Umm al Quwain. I highly recommend the Etihad Museum in Dubai which gives a nice breakdown of the formation of the country in 1971. But this blog is the first of others around the country that I would like to share. This one will focus on Fujairah. Now, one thing to note is that the borders of each Emirate can be very confusing, as you have multiple enclaves especially in the mountains. The Emirates are formed primarily by the tribal affiliations, not necessarily geography, which also includes Omani ... read more

December 10 2015 One of the 7 Arab Emirates, situated at the Gulf of Oman, surrounded by flourishing countryside of Fujarah and located in the endave of Sharjah. Women are prohibated to bear flesh including tourists. Took a walk to town put our feet in the Gulf of Oman and visited with an Arabian horse training for a race.... read more

The big escape..... It has been a long , tough year... and a drive through the desert to the East Coast has become our pilgrimage of refuge & respite. To have space around us... driving across barren, mountainous, quarry like, landscapes and sand dunes dotted with ghaff trees and low scrub. Seeing groups of camels hanging about in the sand dunes... munching away, not bothered by anything.. a slower pace... Our eyes and senses can rest and we can take in a 360 degree view and vast horizon line... something I miss living in built up Dubai. It doesn't take long to leave the high rises and manicured street scapes of Dubai... a quick exit behind our place takes us directly on the route out to the desert at our back door.. and across the the ... read more

This morning I met Matt, a doctor of geology (or, "Rock Doc" if you will) before heading out to my favorite road cut in Khor Fakkan. I was looking forward to this because I love site visits, and rocks, and I was looking forward to learning about geology in general from a former geology professor. I hadn't been this heavily involved in Geology since college and I miss it. It is starting to come back to me, but it will definitely take lots of practice and research. fortunately, dork that I am, I enjoy reading about geology. We actually missed our freeway exit and since this is the UAE, there was no place to easily turn around so by the time we found the next exit we decided to take the scenic route - back roads. ... read more

Recently we had a trip driving across the UAE desert to the East Coast, to the Fujairah region of Al Aqah. I always find it extremely interesting to see life outside of the metropolis of Dubai and to see the lay of the land and lifestyle in the more isolated regions of the inner desert across to the east coast. The contrast is extreme. Leaving the manicured palm lined streets of Downtown Dubai, past the sparkling glass towers lining Sheikh Zayed road, the desert routes lead you in to a very different landscape. Although the roads continue to be excellent dual highways, lined with streets lights all the way across the country, the views change to a different pace. Skyscrapers are replaced by sand dunes and low scrub, dotted with Ghaf trees. Small townships are scattered ... read more