Dive Day! WooHoo! going to drive over to Fujairah today, one of the other Emirates, on the east coast, and do some diving. I went over there to dive the last time I was in UAE and it was quite nice enough. We had originally made arrangements to rent a car and I was going to do the drive myself but once we got here and looked at some of the traffic, I thought no way did I want to mix it up in the lanes and so we hired a driver.
Our driver arrived a bit early but we were almost ready to head out so we left the hotel at about 9:15 a.m. We are due at the dive shop at noon. Our driver, Abdul, is from India, even with a name like Abdul. He did speak English but it would take several tries before we could figure out what he was trying to tell us and then usually one of us would catch a word or two and by common sense and context of the conversation, we'd catch on to the meaning of the sentence
. He also speaks Hindi and Arabic but based on the different people to whom he spoke at various times throughout the day, I think it was all coming out of his mouth about the same. Wonder what the interpretation is of Indian sing-song dialect with Arabic words?
He offered to show us things on the drive to Fujairah but we told him we had to be there by noon. So we're off. Getting out of Dubai is like driving the Interstate 10 Highway through Houston. Sometimes there were 12 lanes of traffic, 6 in each direction, and it was still bumper to bumper and going about 60 mph. Not quite sure what the speed limit was but during the entire trip, we kept hearing the 'beep, beep, beep, beep" signal that means you are over the speed limit, then we'd get a step on the brake for a bit and then the speed would go up again until we got "beep, beep, beep". Abdul was big on the "post office method" of driving. When I was just out of high school, I hired on as a letter carrier. I drove my car sitting on the right hand side with my foot across the middle hump to reach the brake and accelerator. It was a stop and start driving. constantly moving just a few feet and then stopping to put letters in the mail box. Accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake over and over again. Driving on the highway with this technique drives me crazy
. Luckily for me, I was really sleepy because my loving hubby snored a lot last night and kept me awake. It was fairly easy to drift off in the car.
We drive through Sharjah, one of the Emirates and then into Fujairah but we still have quite a way to go. We stop at the "friday market" even though it's Sunday. The market is a bunch of open faced buildings along the highway with souvenirs, pottery, fruits and vegetables mainly, carpets, clothes, and other stalls. They are now open every day. We briefly walked up and down a tiny bit while Abdul when to check out the toilet facilities. He came running back and said they weren't appropriate for us. Geez. If he could imagine some of the facilities or lack of facilities I've used in the past, he wouldn't have worried. But that meant we had to drive on to a petrol station to stop for the toilet there. And at every stop, Abdul would run off to talk to someone he knew. He must know half the drivers in the country.
All throughout the journey, when I was awake, I'm thinking it is also so totally different than when I was here before. Everything is under construction. There are many fancy villas being constructed along the roads, hugh complexes of holiday homes, linear villages and strip malls all along the way
. There didn't seem to be too many spaces of open desert where something wasn't happening. I am reminded of Singapore during it's great building phase in the 80's and 90's and when they were finished, they looked around and said - "wow, this is impressive, what we have done - but we have plowed under all of our history and heritage!" I fear that UAE is well on it's way to accomplishing the same thing, Dubai having already finished the plowing under for the most part. Will be interesting to see what is left when we head into the "old city" on Tuesday.
Now we are motoring along and Abdul is stopping to see where the Raddison Blu Resort is located. I gave him a map but it must not be good enough plus he says the road is closed because it was flooded a few days ago. With all the stops and the road work, we finally pass the Raddison Blue Resort, make a u-turn and pull up to the Dive Shop at 11:50 a.m. The boat is supposed to leave at noon and we are not the only divers. We can see people walking out the back door as we walk into the front door.
As we are standing there to begin our check in and all, my poor darling hubby looks at me and says, "I'm not going to dive, I'm not feeling well.!" Well, shist and fooey and all that
. I'm not going to go diving without him so we sit to talk and see how bad he feels and if the trip can be salvaged. Unfortunately, we had mixed up the vitamins this morning and he'd taken my group of vitamins which also includes my arthritis pain medication so he was feeling a bit loopy. Wish it still made me feel loopy. oh well. Much better to be safe than sorry and we are very careful divers. If he's not wonderful or I'm not wonderful, we don't go in the water. We stop Abdul from leaving, tell the dive shop lady to release the boat, and discuss what to do instead. I thought we could go to a different Emirate and see the old fish market where the boats come in but either this doesn't happen any more or we couldn't convey it to Abdul.
We shared some dive stories with the lady who was from the Philippines and knows the area there where we dive. Then we put our gear back in the car and climb in for the trip back. We think we have explained to Abdul what we'd like to do on the way back but he is determined to take us to the beach so instead of heading back towards Dubai, he is heading further up the coast. He passes an old mosque and fort and slows briefly but then continues on. We ask where we are heading and he keeps saying something about the beach. We finally put the squash on it and let him know we are not eager to go to the beach so we stop for lunch at a chicken place
. My hubby finally hits the nail on the head - we will pay him what we agreed to pay him for the day and he doesn't have to make sure we are out in the car for the same amount of time. I think that must be what he was worried about. So NOW, after lunch, we head back towards Dubai.
We pass the fort and old mosque and ask him to stop. He has to go to a roundabout and head back to it but he's happy to do that now. We hop out of the car and head towards the mosque. Not expecting to be out and about in public today, we are both wearing shorts. A gentleman at the front office stops me and says if I want to visit the mosque, I am going to need to put on an abbaya - the total black dress covering the entire body, plus a black scarf. I'm game so he gives me one which goes over my body but the sleeves are too skinny to get my hands through the holes so only my fingers are sticking out. The mosque was Bidiya Mosque and is dated about 1446 they think. Abdul kept saying that Mohammed had built it. I'm not an Islam scholar but I think the time line there is faulty. Whenever and whoever built it, it's a small mud mosque that has been refurbished. There were 2 men inside praying so I didn't go in as I don't like to bother anyone in their worship but Abdul came along and went in and told them both that I was coming inside so there I went
. Still, we got to see it and the group that came along after us didn't. We walked up to the small fort overlooking the mosque and it also overlooks the oasis behind it. the fort was built to protect the oasis which was getting water from an aquifer.
And then it is back to Dubai, lickety split, "beep, beep, beep, beep, brake, brake, beep, beep" all the way. We returned in time to hit the rush hour traffic around the Dubai Mall. We drove along the monorail system for awhile and I still haven't seen a monorail.
So things did not go as planned today but we had a nice long ride into the countryside. Saw that many things are changing, except for 4 decorated roundabouts that had the same decorations last time I was here, and got back in plenty of time for some dinner later. we'll wander around in a bit to find a place to eat. And I have clearly marked the vitamin/medicine packs now so there will be no confusion in the future.
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