Ras Al Khaimah

To the main hotel from our suite

It was Chloe's spring break, and we didn't have the time (too early for Jim to take holidays) or the cash (hello, recession), for a trip away, so I booked us into the Hilton Resort and Spa in Ras Al Khaimah, about 70km north of Dubai. I spent hours on the internet, as you do, researching the options, reading gazillions of reviews, and comparing prices and deals, and it all paid off...except for a few clouds on Saturday, we had a glorious time. And the clouds probably saved us from worse sunburns. We sat by the pool, we sat on the beach, we swam and sunned, we read our books, Jim and Chloe jet-skied (while I read my book by the pool), total heaven. And I love that getting away from home for 2 nights can still feel like an entire vacation. We've all vowed to go on nearby mini-breaks several times a year. That's the good thing about living in an area with several small cities, lots of different types of terrain, and beaches on different bodies of water, you can get a good variety of mini-break!

Balcony view

The Hilton was lovely; we had a "beach villa junior suite", which turned out to be a one-bedroom decorated in lovely Arabian style (lots of heavy moorish wood and metal light fixtures) in a small building with 2 suites on the ground floor and 2 on the second. We were on the second floor, with a nice big balcony and a view of the private cove. The resort is quite new, and parts are still under construction, but it didn't bother us...the only construction you could hear was some rocks being dumped in the next bay where they were making a breakwater. There were several different restaurants and bars, extortionately priced of course, but we still liked the swim-up bar and the beachside cafe. This morning's buffet breakfast was nearly ruined by some very loud Italians, who seemed to all know each other but sat at different tables and shouted back and forth. I even knew enough Italian to know their conversation was totally inane. But then we soothed our souls on the beach for another couple of hours before checking out and all was fine. Ahhh.

We snagged a cabana by the pool

On the way back to Dubai we drove around in the desert some, and the area around Ras Al Khaimah is actually surprisingly green. There were lots of irrigated farms, and TONS of livestock; goats, cows, donkeys, sheep, and my favorite, camels. I get a total kick seeing camels by the side of the road. We even saw a camel racetrack, but sadly no races. Chloe drove in the sand some, she's quite good. I don't have much interest in actually driving off the roads, the whole 4-wheeling thing, except to take photos and enjoy the view. That's fun enough, I don't have to drive too.

Camel crossing

Mini Safari into Oman

Jim and the Jeep

After all the headache of getting settled in Dubai, we are finally starting to reap the rewards of the area. Chloe and I discovered a marvelous public beach not far from home, pictures to follow when the sun comes out again and I can remember to take my camera. And we had our first day-trip into the desert in Jim's new Jeep. This is one of the activities that makes being in the area worthwhile. In less than an hour, you can reach some pretty diverse areas: big sandy dunes for "dune bashing"(I think this means catching air off the tops of dunes and slamming down, sounds terrible), rocky desert for 4-wheeling, and beautiful fresh water pools for cooling off. Guess which one Jim chose to lure me out of the city?

Oman swimming hole

Um, yeah, pools! It had rained a few days earlier, so the pools were full of crystal-clear water. Not enough to do laps, but definitely enough water to sit yourself down under the tiny waterfall and cool off. We drove through the desert for a while, and then drove down a wadi, or dried out river bed, to the pools at the end. There were not many people about, a few Arab families picnicking, and a British group camping, but privacy at the nice pools. (And in case you think we're exploratory geniuses, we were following the excellent directions in the UAE Off-Road guide.) Jim is teaching Chloe to drive, and she successfully negotiated the rocks, bumps, twists and turns with minimal intervention.

Off-road Chloe

We hung about the pools for an hour or so, and drove on as the clouds gathered. You don't want to be caught in a wadi when it starts raining, apparently, and we saw evidence of the flooding on many of the paved roads -- the water must get pretty powerful, there were rocks all over the roads and in some places it looked like the asphalt was even torn up. (The paved roads themselves were in great shape otherwise, they looked brand-new). Chloe had fun figuring out how to get around the rockslides...

wash-out

We were happy to have found the first set of pools, as the next bunch of pools turned out to be very popular, and very crowded. The Hatta area is a kilometers-long gorge with many pool areas, but is also quite accessible by paved road and so very busy on the weekends. The gorge was filled with 4-wheel drive SUV's driving up and down, and lined with 2-wheel drive sedans whose owners were picnicking and hanging out. Given the locals' propensity for staring at white women, Chloe and I were not keen to go down and swim there. We happily headed back to Dubai, stopping halfway home to re-attach the Jeep's windows & protect us from the rising winds. A very successful first outing with our Off-Road guide, and it's definitely given Jim the bug to continue exploring the region. Next up, either a trip to the mountainous region to the north, where Jim's promised we can find a nice beach-front resort, or another trip into the desert...also to a resort for the night. He has my comforts in mind!