Barracuda Resort - Van's Second Excursion

On Thursday, I rented a car. Why you may ask? I felt confined. Perhaps if I was only in the area for a week or two, I may not have rented it, but since I will be here for 1.5 months, at the two week mark, I decided to expand my horizons. My other colleagues who have traveled from distant lands to be here - as is the case with myself - suggested that I was crazy to try to drive in such a foreign place. To tell you the truth, this is way outside my comfort zone, especially excursions when I am out by myself, as is the case today. The traffic in the cities is a little hectic and the interchanges are not quite what I am used to, but if you pay attention and know where you are trying to get to, you should be fine. Watch the signs and take your exits. A word of warning, most back streets - between the blocks - are one-way and will sometimes take you in directions you don't want to go. Be patient, don't panic and you will be fine.

But, ask yourself, how foreign is it really. It has only been since 1971 since this land was British ruled. Much of the infrastructure stems from that period of time. UAE is growing by leaps and bounds every year and it's infrastructure and urban development reflects that. They drive on the right side of the road. The speed limit is in KPH, but so are the speedometers, so why worry about conversions. The lane markings are relatively the same and people do use blinkers to change lanes. Just keep in mind ... Some people like to drive fast, just get out of their way and you will be fine.

The UAE is very open to foreign investment, including money coming in from tourism. As such, they are surprisingly open to Americans and Europeans. I only needed my passport and my US drivers license to rent a car. No international drivers license required. I am told that even the bordering countries (with the exception of Saudi Arabia) are open to crossings by tourists. These countries include Oman, Qatar, Yemen, etc. I hear the coast of the Indian Ocean is quite beautiful. Perhaps a trip on another weekend.

Today, I have driven 45 minutes northeast of Sharjah to a resort named Barracuda. The interesting thing about this resort, besides being on the water and quite temperate with a nice sea breeze, is it has a liquor store. The resort is in the next emirate to the east from Sharjah and so does not observe the same conservative restrictions as Sharjah emirate - namely the sale of alcohol.

This place is hopping. A friend at the office put me on to this place. He said I could sit at the cafe on the water (an inlet off the Persian Gulf), order a beer and some food, and relax. Something I am taking advantage of at this writing. As far as alcohol purchases in the store are concerned, it is accepted that people will come here to buy alcohol and then carry it back to Sharjah - mainly tourists and ex-pats. They put the purchases in opaque-gray bags, so one can carry the purchases into their residences and hotels. Sharjah is strict about alcohol in public, but relaxed on the law of it being consumed behind closed doors.

Anyway, the land is very flat leading down to the gulf and the gulf does not have many waves. It is kinda reminiscent of my recent trip to Lake Ontario. Not very many waves ... Really a lot like a lake.

I guess I'll be driving back now. The sun is going down and I am not sure about driving at night yet. I am told it "could" be dangerous on a weekend since people usually spend the whole day out and are often tired driving home.

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Hatta Tour

12 Hour Extreme Hatta Safari - One of Van's weekends in the Middle East

10:00a - It was an adventure just getting started this morning to meet up with Butterfly Tours for this 12-hour Extreme Safari tour in the UAE. We left enough time to get to our meet up spot from our hotel in Sharjah, but our driver misunderstood where we actually needed to be. We were dropped off at a place that was 20 minutes or so from the correct location. Taxi drivers in this country, do not know addresses, they know landmarks. That being said, you might be hard-pressed to find an address as it is, so maybe it is good that the drivers go by landmarks. Anyway, we met up with the tour driver and are now en route to meet up with the rest of the tour in Hatta (I assume), 61km away at the time of this writing.

There is a lot of desert out here. Once you get south of the cities on the Persian Gulf - Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, etc - there is not much development. None really, but lots and lots of sand. The roads are perfectly smooth with no potholes or unusual roughness. Occasionally, we see other people with recreational vehicles or recreational toys, dirt bikes, dune buggies, etc. This is the perfect area for that kind of play. It is doubtful there is much "private" property out here.

11:00a - First oasis stop - rest rooms, a little shop, some recreation (4x4 motor bikes and camel rides). There were also some falcons that were fun to photograph. I imagine these little oases are nice to have on long drives across the desert.

11:30a - On we go to the next stop. The driver has gathered our passports for the next stop. We are told that they will check our passports 5 times before this trip is over at various different borders.

11:38a - we have now crossed the first border into Oman. No pictures allowed at the border, unfortunately. The driver tells us that the road crosses the border a couple of different times on this trip. Checkpoints are at each one.

Omani mountains

11:48p - gas stop (Shell)

12:00p - past 2nd Omani checkpoint. Here are some hills south of that checkpoint.

12:37p - end of the paved road and a stop

1:00p - No more pavement from here. Woohoo! What they don't tell you is that the reason it's not paved from here on is that it is under construction. Oh well, it is still fun to drive on.

1:15p - Back on the paved road. :-( That didn't take long.

1:30p - Coming into Hatta

Hatta Dam - the dam has been here for 30 years, but for the past 4-5 years it has not rained enough to fill the reservoir.

2:00p - stopped for lunch at a service station. I like the way they spelled teriyaki.

3:00p - Back on the road

3:30p - after two more checkpoints, we are back in the UAE. Passports are back in our possession and in our pockets, so my assumption is that we will not be back in Oman anymore today.

3:40p - reached a big sandy hill ear Lahbab in the UAE. We are stopped right now to deflate the tires a little for sandy driving.

These pics don't do the "dune bashing" experience much justice, but ... Pay attention to the horizon, it will provide evidence to how tilted the truck was on these dunes.

4:30p - Arrived at Tazeem Al Sahara - a tourist destination where we will be served dinner, belly dancing and more importantly, a drink. We have been dry since we arrived in Sharjah.

Waiting for the crowds to arrive.

Finally found a place to get a beer $7 for a beer imported from Mexico. I look a little dazed because I don't know where to look when my picture is being taken with my iPad.

7:00p - dancing started

 

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Kayaking at Big Pool

Pam and I went kayaking Saturday for the 2nd time in our new kayaks. We went up to Fort Frederick State Park in an area called Big Pool, Maryland - obviously named after the water body we were in, named "Big Pool". It is a long narrow lake between the C&O canal and the Potomac River. We were out for 4 hours.

We explored a side creek and found a flock of geese way back in the woods. No pictures .... Sorry. We've decided that these were the mythical "Forest Geese", so perhaps we wouldn't have been able to get their picture anyway. We chased them all the way up the creek until they ran out of water, at which point they scrambled up the bank and disappeared into the underbrush.

On the side of the lake I found these blue dragonflies hanging out near to the surface of the water. I wasn't able to see their wings with my eyes, but the camera was able to stop the action just fine.

There were LOTS of turtles. Unfortunately, we did not get very good pictures. We had the waterproof camera with us and it is not the best at zooming in, especially on small subjects from a moving base. They were quite skittish and slipped into the water whenever we got close. However, Pam did manage to catch a little one - she just floated up next to him and grabbed him with her bare hands. Perhaps he was too young to know any better. Pam really wanted to bring him home with us, but we had no way of getting him there. He was VERY cute.

 

Explore. Dream. Discover.

of sailboat & sunset...
Originally uploaded by MalNino

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so:

Throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Mark Twain

I saw this quote and just had to post it.

Namibia

Reading an article in TRVL magazine this morning, I learned that Namibia is one of the world's LEAST populated countries. Wide open spaces allow for amazing natural phenomenon and many wild animals. Given this and the affable population makes it one of Africa's most beautiful and friendly places to visit.

What Did Van Learn Today? ... Circumnavigation

From a book I am reading entitled "Around the World Sailing Guide":


I WISH I had that much time to travel ... To spend as much time as I pleased ... And not a care in the world.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mavi

Mavi
Originally uploaded by pamramsey

Per a suggestion from my good friend Eneida, Pam and I tried Mavi when we were in San Juan, PR. I asked the waiter at the restaurant if they had it and unfortunately he said no, but he did confirm that it was a local drink and that I could probably find some at one of the restaurants down near the port.

Well, while we did see it elsewhere before getting back on our cruise ship, the stand in this picture is the first place we saw it. Pam didn't like it so much, so as it turned out, I drank hers and mine.

For those out of the know: Mavi is a tree bark-based beverage grown, and widely consumed, in the Caribbean. It is made with sugar and the bark and/or fruit of certain species in the Colubrina genus including Colubrina elliptica (also called behuco indio) and Colubrina arborescens, a small tree native to the northern Caribbean and south Florida. Its taste is initially sweet, somewhat like root beer, but changes to a prolonged, but not astringent bitter aftertaste.

Xmas Delerium

Xmas Delerium
Originally uploaded by 1Sock

Pam and I were thinking it would be fun to travel to Texas this year for Christmas. The whole conversation started following a phone conversation between me and David a couple of weeks ago. David had suggested that maybe the whole family could come down and it would be a big 'ole Texas hoe down - or something like that.

Sadly, after talking with mom and dad this past weekend, it sounds like this year is not going to work, if it was going to be a "whole family" event. Besides which, it would make my schedule pretty tight too. I have a few Xmas gigs that I am expected to sing at with my madrigals group - the least of which is First Night in Herndon, Virginia, which would mean the Xmas trip would have to be cut short so I could be home for that.

Perhaps, if we start planning now, next year's Xmas could be pulled off flawlessly. In the not too distant future, Pam and I will try to find another time to make it back to good old Waco, Texas.

Hello from Wisconsin

Ever been to River Falls, Wisconsin? That's where I am now - taking some technical training (long overdue). The weather is great - cool but not too cool - and sunny. My brain is working hard trying to cram as much information in as possible without concentrating on the fact that this new knowledge may mean many many hours of re-work when I get back to NIST. Haven't had a chance to take any photos - hopefully will before I get to the airport on Saturday. There's a great kayaking river here in town - the Kinnickinnic - but no time to do it. The university where we're holding class is practically empty since it is June so the town is almost shut down. It only has 12,500 population listed on the sign. It's less than an hour from the Twin Cities airport. Anyway, guess that's it for now....lunch break is over.

GPS

So, be careful in New Mexico when you're following GPS directions. You may end up off-road on dirt paths they call roads in middle of a forest in Cloudcroft after dark surrounded by elk! Thank goodness we had a 4 wheel drive vehicle - a RAV 4 - that did pretty well. The other thing to be careful of is driving on tribal land without permission. We had a nice friendly chat with a Warchief about that when trying to go to the Taos Peublo yesterday. But he let us continue on the road only to find out that the peublo was closed - think he would have known that. But nevertheless we went there today. No pictures of that though.

Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin

I just wanted to share with y'all a couple of shots that I took at the tidal basin last weekend. It was generally a gray day, but it was fun to see the cherry blossoms nonetheless.