Oman had a National
Day on the 18th November but for some reason the free days are given
in the end of the month, so Andres has two extra days off this week,
making for 4 days off in row. It was a good opportunity to make some
longer trip. We had several destinations in our mind: i.e. Salalah in
the southern part of Oman, around 1000 km from Muscat or Masirah
Island in the east or Musandam in the northern part of Oman. We were
discussing the options back and forth: spending only for 2 days in
Salalah sounded «pointless» because we had needed other two days to
drive forth and back. Masirah Island had not been as far as Salalah
but we were afraid it would be too windy to spend lots of time on the
beach with the kids (and the sea water is already chilly as well;
«chilly» by local definition;)) but also, the accommodation was all
booked out, so this was crossed out as well. Musandam, the most
northern part of Oman can be reached via mainland (through UAE) or by
the ferry (by the way, on the ferry that travels to Musandam have
several Estonian employees, so we have renamed it to «Estonian
ferry»:)). The ferry prices for a car and 5 persons forth and back
had been out of our budget but the accommodation in Musandam was also
pretty much booked out (at least reasonable priced accommodation), so
we had to cross that destination out as well. But then we got a good
idea (at least it sounded like a good idea but in the end... you'll
get to know later): to travel to the UAE, Ras Al Khaimah, that is
situated about 80 km from Khasab (a city in Musandam), stay overnight
there, spend some time there but also make a trip to Musandam. UAE is
visa-free for Estonian citizens since March, so in theory it looked
easy to cross the borders, even several times per day.
We left
around 9.30am on Wednesday and by 2pm (most of roundabouts on the way
from Muscat towards Sohar had traffic jams and we spent quite some
time waiting) we arrived at Khatmat Malahah border that was the
closest border point on the way to Ras Al Khaimat. We knew we had to
get exit stamp of Oman to the passports to be able to enter to UAE
but there were no clear signs about the procedures and finally we
were waiting in a loooong queue together with other cars and it
seemed it was the first place the cars stopped on the border... In 2
hours! yes: t-w-o h-o-u-r-s it was finally our time to give our
passports and car documents to the man in the control booth but he
said we needed to drive to the parking lot and go to the bigger
building nearby with our EU passports. When Andres had entered the
building (me and the kids decided to wait in the car first) he texted
me there were lots of people and some of them had waited for already
for 2 hours! In some time he texted me he could give our passports to
the border guy and our passports were at least on his table. Sounded
promising, eh? By then me and the kids also decided to go into the
building, hoping «the end» was close (and secretly hoping our
fair-haired kids would help to hurry up things a bit), there was no
specific queue, people were pretty much just jostling in front of the
desks. Then, another European tourist was asking the border guy if he
could stamp his and his family passports with UAE entry stamp because
in addition to stamping the passports they also i.e. issued visas for
those who needed (and that, of course, took much longer time than
stamping the passports) and then it was the moment of truth: the poor
guy's and his family's as well as our passports missed Oman exit
stamps that meant we had to drive back to Oman border and get Oman
exit stamps to our passports first, to be able to get UAE entry
stamps to our passports. Needless to say how angry we were because of
the lost 3 hours! We decided to give it up on that border and drive
back some 50 km to try another border near Hatta (that is one of the
borders on the way to Dubai), hoping it had shorter queues. Before,
of course, we had to get Oman exit and Oman entry stamps to our
passports in Khatmat Malahah border. Fortunately it went quickly and
we headed to border near Hatta. There was almost no queue at all and
of course we were wiser this time to look carefully where is Oman's
border booths/buildings where we could get our exit stamps. Things
were much better organized in thar border and in 45 minutes we were
done with all exit and entry stamps! Yet, we had lost around 4 hours
on the borders:( We had hoped to have half of day in Ras Al Khaimat
on Wednesday but with all the mess on the border we arrived only by
8.30pm. We had late dinner at hotel's restaurant and that was it for
that day. After that experience in Khatmat Malahah border we had no
desire to try out any other UAE/Oman borders in the north and our
idea of driving to Musandam did not sound that good any more at all.
We decided to spend rest of the days in Ras Al Khaimat and its
surroundings.
We
spent Thursday by the hotel's pool but also had a nice walk and
dinner on the corniche in the evening. Ras Al Khaimah's city line
consists of high buildings here and there, there are lots of hotels
and beautiful corniche. The city as well as many cars were decorated
with national flags and photos of their president because UAE
celebrates its 43th birthday on the 2nd of December.
On
Friday we discovered a bit of the surroundings. We drove to Jebel Al
Jais (Jais Mountain) and enjoyed a beautiful view over the area to
the sea as well as mountains on the other side.
In the evening we
went to Dhayah Fort, it was time of the sunset, so everything looked
even better:)
On
Saturday we started to drive back home right after waking up, around
11am, not knowing for how long exactly we would need to spend on the
border this time. Before we left Ras Al Khaimat there was one more
“mission impossible” to solve: to fill up gas. Doesn't seem like
a difficult task in a “kingdom of oil”? But oh, it was. In the
3rd gas station there was finally some gas (and long
queue).
It went
rather smooth in the borders. There was some queue on Oman's border
but being Omani residents we did not have to wait in the long queue
in the border building but could get our entry stamps in the booth
outdoors. At 5pm we were back at home. It was maybe not the most
relaxing holidays but we could at least get the first impressions of
the UAE.
