Archive for the ‘Fujairah’ Category

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The Road Home

July 10, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

silver tear drops

Singapore Airport has the best piece of public art. It is hundreds of silver tear drops, each suspended on a transparent thread and animated to move up and down in a variety of patterns. Very zen.

silver tear drops

It was mesmerizing. We could have easily missed our plane while watching it.

silver tear drops

Luckily, we tore ourselves away and made it back to Dubai safe and sound. Our plan for getting back to Fujairah from Dubai was a reverse of how we got there (taxi – bus – taxi). We fully expected to have a long wait in the heat waiting for the bus, however, we could not have timed it better if we tried. We arrived at the bus stop at 2:40 pm. A bus was waiting and it departed at 2:45 with us on it.

view of the front of the bus from inside

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Road to Singapore

June 24, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

We are safely in Singapore on vacation. It took a while to get our internet connection worked out, so I am already behind by 3 or 4 blog posts. So, let us begin. Here is how we got here.

It began with how to get from Fujairah to the Dubai airport. We could impose on friends to drive us. We could taxi all the way. Or, we could take the bus. The taxi ride from our apartment to the bus station = 5 AED ($1.36 US). The bus costs a whopping 25 AED ($6.80 US) per person. Our flight was at 9:30 am the next morning, so we had opted to stay overnight to make it less stressful and to avoid having to get up early.

night time, parking lot and kiosk

Above is the bus station. Below, inside the bus.

inside the bus, facing the front

We left at 9:15 pm and arrived at Union Station (just blocks from where we used to live) by 10:55 pm. We then took a taxi to our hotel near the airport. (Taxi from Union Station to the hotel = 20.50 AED / $5.58 US.) The bus ride was quite nice. The seats were wide enough to be comfortable. The Dubai taxi driver struck up a conversation beginning with “you have a nice beard” and including where are you from, do you have children, what work do you do, and how long have you been here – all the standard questions. Paul asked questions as well. The taxi driver was from Pakistan/Afghanistan and has been in Dubai for 10 years. His family is in Pakistan. They also discussed Fujairah – weather, housing costs, etc.

Once at the hotel, we splurged on dinner, both having steak. Very tasty, but not cheap (290 AED/$79 US).

two plates of steak, mashed/baked potatoes, broccoli

If you are concerned about our cats (I know you are), a friend is checking on them daily and we have a web cam set up above their primary napping place so that we can check on them occasionally ourselves. That should alleviate our anxiety and guilt somewhat.

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Le Meridien Al Aqah

June 15, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

orange blossoming tree

A recent afternoon “let’s drive somewhere and see something” turned into a drive up the coast to Le Meridien Al Aqah hotel. DaddyBird had been there before, but it was new for me.

There is a pleasant beach and grounds.

beach

multilingual sign warning of hot sand

fountain

Miniature golf, anyone?

miniature golf course

red Corvair classic convertible

Ah, when cars were beautiful…

red classic Corvair car head on

view from top floor of pool and beach

The view from an upper floor.

Indian Ocean seen from upper floor of the hotel

We had dinner before heading home. My pasta was very tasty and I was satisfied until I got a bite of DaddyBird’s fillet mignon. Then I realized I had made the wrong choice. So yummy!

ketchup & mayonnaise in miniature jars

No pictures of the food, except for the condiments in tiny jars.

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Nepal Kitchen House

May 24, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

We’ve been meaning to eat at the Nepal Kitchen House for a while. We noticed the small sign while driving by. On another day, we ventured into the building to check out what kind of business it was. It turned out to be a restaurant. (One can’t always tell by a business’s title what it actually sells.) A few more times we drove by on our way home from some other restaurant and said “oh, we should have tried the Nepal Kitchen House.”

cubed potatoes with parsley, rice with lentil soup and chicken

This is aloo jeera fry (cubed potatoes with cumin seeds and parsley) and chicken rice (lentil soup, rice, chicken in a sauce).

vegetable dumplings

These are vegetable momos (dumplings).

chicken dumplings

These are chicken momos (dumplings).

cup of tea

Our meal began and ended with tea. This feast was 42 AED ($11.50 USD).

small lighted sign

I’d like to know more about the building that the restaurant is in. The building still has several businesses in it, but it has fallen into disrepair. It may have been the first “mall” in Fujairah. There is an inner court with two escalators going up just one floor that clearly no longer work. The columns are covered in beautiful tile work. It must have been impressive in its day.

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Handcrafted Soap from Italy

May 23, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

Again, something I didn’t expect to find in a grocery store in a small UAE town – handcrafted soap from Italy.

store shelf displaying several flavors of handcrafted soap

Only the lemon and angy smelled pleasant to me. I don’t know what angy is, but I’m going to give it a try.

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New Cinema

May 18, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

mall food court with tables and chairs but no restaurants

The Century Mall in Fujairah opened with just a couple of stores, adding a few more along the way. As you can see above, the food court is all set, except that there isn’t a single restaurant, yet.

large, colorfully lit cinema lobby area

The cinema opened recently. This is the massive and spectacularly lit lobby. We’ve been to this theatre twice now. The admission price is a little higher than that of the old cinema which is still operating. We think this might be why the talkative teenagers are still frequenting the old cinema. That is fine with us. We prefer to watch movies without listening to the drone of teens who CAN’T SHUT UP, even being told to be quiet. Don’t get me started… It also helps to go during the Middle Eastern dinnertime 8-10pm.

Avengers cardboard advert

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Grocery Adventure

April 29, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

grocery store aisle sign stating "shoes polish insect killer"

It is sometimes fun to see what irrelevant items are lumped together in the grocery store.

ethnic food sections - japanese, thai, mexican, russian

What constitutes “ethnic foods” in a French supermarket in an Arab country? Japanese, Thai, Mexican, and Russian. I was just glad they had fat-free refried beans. Yeah!

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Lighting Up the Sky

April 20, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

Two nights ago we were on our way home from the grocery store and saw something flashing, very bright, lighting up the sky. It was happening so frequently and at such regular intervals, we thought it might be man made. We actually turned around and drove back to investigate.

a lightning bolt

It turned out to be lightning. There didn’t seem to be thunder, until I realized that there were no individual claps, just a contant rumble. It was quite a light show and then the rain started. Lovely, huge, cold drops.

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Falconry

March 25, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

A couple of weeks ago, we attended a meeting of the Emirates Natural History Group Fujairah where Guy Foster explained falconry and showed us some very beautiful birds.

four hooded falcons

The session was very informative. Falconry is actually not common in the Fujairah area because of the hills. It is usually done in wide open, flat areas so that one can maintain visual contact with the falcon. If a falcon flies over a hill, it may not come back to the “owner.” One never really owns falcons. They do not bond with people. Falcons are in it for the free food.

two men, two falcons

Female falcons are larger than males and more desirable for falconry. The indigenous falcons that are in country all year round are a small species. The larger species that pass through the UAE on their migration route have been considered more desirable. It is no longer legal to catch wild falcons.

falcon being taken through the audience to be seen and touched

We were all given a chance to gently touch the back of one of the birds.

man holding a hooded falcon

DaddyBird enjoyed the chance to get up close and hold a falcon.

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Blustery Days

March 25, 2012

Posted by Kanga.

This photo was taken in February.

the Moon just above the hills of Fujairah about to disappear

This is approximately the same view in March.

dusty haze and no hills visible

The wind has been blowing quite viciously this winter. “Sand storm” doesn’t really describe it, because the airborne particulates are a very fine dust not sand granules.

Living on the 16th floor of a new building with very leaky windows during these wind storms has been interesting. Aside from the high pitched whistle of the air coming through the windows, there is the vibrating of the building at large. It feels like living in a rocket ship about to take off. Even the cats didn’t want to be in the living room alone due to the wind howling around the sliding glass door.