fujairah
Yesterday morning, Will was kind enough to be my tour guide through the UAE to the east coast Emirate of Fujairah. We drive about an hour and half east of Dubai through the Hajar mountains, all the way to the northeast tip of the UAE, right above Oman, on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It was a great trip despite the She-Devil’s (my new pet name for my Mitsubishi Lancer shitmobile) anemic response to the gas pedal, and the annoying beeping noise all UAE cars provide when you get over 120 km/h (rare in the She-Devil…)
The UAE’s oldest place of worship, the Al Bidyah Mosque, built around 1500 AD, and the two watchtowers guarding it, were fantastic. The mosque itself is beautiful but tiny in comparison to the enormous modern mosques of Dubai. There was a good group of people inside and around it, and so I felt disrespectful to take more pictures of the front doorway where they stood. Westerners are not allowed inside.
The watchtowers were fascinating and had great views of the surrounding Hajar mountains and the Indian Ocean. Here’s one of the watchtowers on the rocky hill overlooking the mosque.
This gorgeous mosque is a lot newer, in the small town of Dibba, northeast Fujairah, actually on the road that leads directly into Oman. The was very low, so the light was getting pretty harsh. I stood in the shadow of the minaret to get this shot.
In Al Aqqa, Fujairah, at the Sandy Beach Hotel, we had a bite to eat and saw “Snoopy Island” named because it looks like Snoopy laying on his back. There’s a great diving and snorkeling here, but we didn’t partake.
All the pictures are up on Flickr for your enjoyment. Next week, Cairo.
