Ras Al Khaimat, UAE

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 2^nd 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 3^rd 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.