UAE Day 3

Like a Fever Dream

Our plan was to wake up at 5:30 this morning to watch a falconry show but we had a bit of a rough night as our villa lost power at 2:00 AM followed by a beeping sound that started, It was 3:30 before maintenance got everything fixed and we were able to fall back asleep. But, I woke up on my own at 5:30 and decided to go watch it because, when in Rome…

Falconry has long been important in this part of the world and has been practiced by the Bedouins for more than 4,000 years. In fact, the falcon is the prominent feature on the UAE national emblem. This morning we were going to be watching two Gyrfalcons show off their speed and agility. It is done early in the morning before the heat of the day can take a toll on the birds.

The audience is warned not to stand up as the falcons come swooping down literally off the top of your heads.

Falconry for hunting has been outlawed in the UAE but as a sport for competition it is soaring (pun intended) with 7 million AED and 73 cars up for grabs.

My crew slept in until almost 9:00 when we were scheduled to do a short nature drive to try and see some oryx up closer and a stop by the stables to see some of the Arabian stallions they have.

After a delicious lunch, we started our drive for the emirates of Fujairah, on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. Still running into after effects of the rain.

If you ever look at a map of the seven emirates you will notice they are nothing like our states with contiguous land within one defined border. Instead, there are blips of land here and there, some on one side of the country, some on the other. Fujairah is mostly on the coast – it actually interrupts Oman’s border.

As we got closer to the coast and approached the Al Hajar Mountains, the geography became familiar. I had been so captivated by the mountains when Jenny and I were in Oman and that same feeling returned. The biggest difference this time though was there was a lot of green starting to show.

Emiratis only make up about 11% of the population of the UAE with Asians (particularly those from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan) making up about 83%. Nowhere yet, was this as obvious as it was here as we passed mile after mile of oil depots.

The area had an almost dystopian feeling with workers in blue jumpsuit uniforms lined up or riding on busses being moved from one area to the next. The huge electrical infrastructure was unreal here.

One thing that has really stood out to us is how incredibly clean all of the UAE is – even the highways have no trash at all alongside them. In all fairness, Morocco was exceptionally clean in most parts, there was the occasional area we passed through that was highly littered but really we were impressed by it.

Our hotel for the night felt like we had stepped back in time to the late 70s early 80s of Holiday Inns dominance in the beach resort world. On top of that, it was a bit strange as almost everybody there was Russian. Signs were posted in Arabic, English and Russian; even the Emirati sundry shop owner spoke Russian. Nothing at all appealed to us so we quickly decided we would get out without dilly dallying around tomorrow.