During 2006, Martin has spent quite a bit of time working in Dubai, usually for trips that run from Monday to Friday only. This time however, Martin spent the weekend in Dubai and so had the chance to explore the country and a little of the adjacent Sultanate of Oman (to give it its full name!) and of course take some photographs. Just to make it clear that these trips are *not* all about fun and adventure though, the first photo is of the place where Martin spends most of his time working! Not a window in the place! No road!
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| This is the data centre owned by Du, UAE's new telecommunications company. The road isn't quite finished! |
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| The weekend in UAE is Friday and Saturday. On the Friday morning, Martin decided it was time to work off some of the hotel restaurant food he'd been living on... and go for a run. There's a park on the opposite side of the creek to the hotel, so the route selected was west along the north bank of the creek, over the Al Maktoum bridge and then east down to the park. Perhaps not surprisingly it turned out to be... quite hot outside of the air conditioned hotel! So once at the park, the run became a walk and some photos were taken. This one is of the creek with an "abra" (water taxi) and Martin's hotel and the Dubai Creek Club with its many moored boats on the opposite bank. |
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| The pointy building is the Dubai Golf Club. The cranes in the distance are a very small proprtion of the number of cranes in Dubai at present. |
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| A closer view of the hotel |
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| Dubai has a cable car that runs along the south bank of the creek. This photo taken in the park. All that greenery is a testimony to determination to conquer nature... and having the money to do it. The natural state is in fact not green as some of the photos below will show! |
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| What a nice pic |
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| View west from the Al Maktoum bridge. Dubai has some wonderful architecture. |
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| View from my hotel balcony |
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| Now it's Saturday. Martin hired a car and headed off on a 500 km road trip across the country. The route is shown above on the map in red. Obviously it starts in Dubai on the west. From there, the direction was essentially clockwise, heading east and then north to Dibba and a small way over the border into the northern exclave of Oman. From there, south along the eastern coast via the deep water sea port at Khor Fakkan and the city of Fujairah, across the border into Oman proper and south along the coast, eventually turning west again and hopping in and out of Oman and UAE as the fairly straight road crossed the not so straight border between the two countries several times. Stops were made at various places for photos. |
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| In the small town of Masafi, just before turning off the main road and heading into the mountains towards Dibba. |
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| On the mountain road to Dibba |
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| A house. In the desert. Nice! |
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| And another weird place to live! |
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| Not much grows around here |
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| A mosque in the centre of Dibba. Dibba is a geographically strange place. It is split into three parts... one part is in Oman, two are in UAE. One of the UAE parts is part of the Emirate of Fujairah and the other is owned by the Emirate of Sharjah over on the west of UAE! |
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| Crossing the border into Oman's northern exclave. No border controls here. |
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| North of Dibba on the "beach" |
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| Looking north |
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| And again.. |
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| Flag of Oman |
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| Back in the UAE part of Dibba |
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| Another nice pic of a boat! |
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| UAE flag! |
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| Cool! :-) |
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| Palms and mountains |
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| Somewhere on the way to Fujairah, possibly north of Khor Fakkan. Nice sign... shame about the rubbish behind it! |
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| Heading in the direction of Oman |
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| Just over the border into Oman proper with the border control in the background |
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| Oh look, wild camels |
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| About to turn west back towards UAE again |
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| Border control between Oman and UAE |
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| Near Hatta in UAE |
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| And again |
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| In Oman again! |
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| What the desert gets used for in UAE |
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| View from hotel balcony again |
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| And again across the creek |