UAE

Dubai

Before Asia I had a stopover in the UAE and so I thought, why not, and hung around the area for a week. Went straight to Dubai after landing in Abu Dhabi on a free bus provided by the airline, thanks. Admittedly I had a fairly bad outlook as to how I would find Dubai. Rich cities that 'create' attractions don't usually sit well with me and rich this city definitely is. The crane industry is booming here, buildings springing up left, right and center. The city is really well spread out with areas of multitudes of skyscrapers, creating the feel that Dubai is a series of mini cities with areas of industry and desert between. Hotels are so plentiful that to stay in one of the bigger name places only costs around US$30 a night (breakfast included anyone?) The transport system is first class with trains arriving at stations every 5 minutes and air-conditioning keeps the trains nice and cool. This was important as during my whole time in the region every day was 40C degrees with the night only dropping to 30C. This severely restricted my outdoor activities. So I spent days pretending to shop in Dubai mall (world's largest) and saw the dancing fountains (wow he said sarcastically). What seemed to be all the major world brands are congregated within this mall including all those luxury brands. You could see why when one time I left the mall to get some photos outside of the Burj Khalifa (world's tallest building) I was confronted by Rolls Royces, what looked like armour plated Mercedes SUV's and other cars that smelled of money parked in the 'special' places directly outside the front doors. So did my opinion of Dubai change from my negative pre-trip perspective? Look, the place feels ultra safe and maybe if you lived here and worked out the goings on it may turn out to be good. I definitely didn't hate it but I definitely would need a good reason to go back and stay. I can't imagine what that reason would be though.

Oman

Muscat

After a few days in Dubai I hopped on a bus for the 8 hour trip to Muscat the capital of Oman. Again, the heat was full on but without the train system I had previously got used to I was walking about (aka. sweating) much more often. The port area was pleasant to walk around and the souk (shopping area) behind this area was interesting as a way to get out of the sun and, as it turned out, to find a hairdresser. All that time in Australia and NZ and I knew I badly needed a cut and yet I had to wait till I found a country where men's barbers have no idea what long hair is. To cut a long story short my long hair ended up getting cut way short. I had explained to him a number of times about the length I wanted but my Bangladeshi hairdresser just couldn't resist. In fairness to him it could have been a much worse cut and, I could have spoken out much earlier for him to stop, so let's leave it there. Other than the port area I also ended up at the main mosque, Sultan Qaboos Main Mosque.

One thing I found strange while here was the Omani money, the rial. I can't think of any other country I have been to where their currency is stronger than both the Euro and the US dollar. Having to work out conversation rates in the reverse direction was different to say the least. Definitely won't have this trouble in the next country I visit, India.

Special mention to the customs people going both ways between UAE & Oman. Have to give it to those guys, pretty thorough. Drug sniffing dog into Oman (nice dog found my lunch, not that it was lost) was followed up by full on bag searches going back the other way. Not sure what passes through these places but I am sure I wouldn't want to be caught. Jails in these places couldn't be good (gives me ironic shivers just thinking the thought).