Our entire trip was only a week long, and if you've read my previous blogs, you know by now that I only like to spend 2-3 days in a city. To me, that's enough time to see the sites inside of a city before exploring outside the city. Outside of Dubai, however, is mostly desert. Still wanting to see other parts of the country, I looked at various tour companies for day trips that would pick us up and drop us off at our Dubai hotel. One Emirate that we really wanted to see was Fujairah. The same coworker of mine who originally recommended Dubai to us, simply raved about Fujairah. Fujairah is on the opposite coast from Dubai. For us, the best way to see it in a single day was to find a company that provided us with a full day tour. After researching the most popular sites along the route to Fujairah, I found a seemingly great tour offered by Rayna Tours. The tour would last most of the day and take us to the popular Friday Market, the Al Badiyah Mosque, the historic Fujairah Fort, a cultural museum and still have us back in Dubai by dinnertime. So, I mention above that our desert safari cost $260. But, I knew that I was paying for a nicer experience than others. We could have done a desert safari for cheaper with a similar experience, but the reviews for Platinum Heritage Safaris were unparalleled, so I went with them. The Fujairah tour with Rayna only cost us $140 but it didn't include any food or entertainment. It was simply transportation, admission fees, and our tour guide/driver. I just didn't expect the experience to be quite as awful as it was. And it's hard to say who is to blame.
Like the desert safari, our tour to Fujairah also included 4 other people besides ourselves. Three others were from Korea (2 girls in their 20s and their father) and one 40-50 year old gentleman from the UK (who I shall henceforth refer to as Mr. Grumpy because he was simply miserable the entire day). The British fella sat in the front seat with the driver; my husband and I sat in the first row behind the driver, and the Korean group sat in the back row. The first problem that we encountered was the fact that our driver was from Pakistan and spoke with a heavy accent. This didn't prove a problem for us or for Mr. Grumpy because he could understand us, and we could understand him. It did, however, prove to be a huge problem for our Korean friends in the back seat. They spoke very broken English at best, so my husband ended up being the translator between them and the driver for the entire day.
Our driver, either by his nature or realizing that half of the car couldn't understand him, decided not to say too much to us...about anything...at all. The previous night during the safari, our driver chatted us up the whole time. He told us about himself, about the desert conservation, about anything we asked. Our Rayna tour guide...nothing. Sure, he answered questions politely but vaguely, and he always made sure we were comfortable. He asked us often if we wanted to stop for pictures or if we needed water, but other than that, he literally told us nothing about the area or what we were going to see. After each stop, I waited a few minutes and then asked him where we were going next so that I could make sure we were at least keeping to the itinerary. It made for a very awkward day. From Dubai, it took us two hours until we arrived at our first stop. A good tour guide would be cheerful and friendly and ask everyone where they're from, how they're enjoying Dubai, etc. etc. etc. Instead, my husband and I ended up chatting with Mr. Grumpy and hearing about how he refused to honor other culture's traditions when he visited them. He told us a funny story about a waitress that chased after him when he left a restaurant in Las Vegas without leaving a tip. "Tipping is an American thing," he said, and that since he is not American, he refused to tip even when dining in American restaurants. Now, I fully understand and agree that restaurant tipping in America has gotten ridiculously out of control, but at the same time, I wouldn't dream of not tipping anything just because I was from another country. Whenever we visit other countries, one thing we make a point of researching is whether or not tipping is expected. The last thing we want to do is be offensive or "rude Americans." This guy, didn't agree. He didn't earn the nickname Mr. Grumpy for nothing.
So, not the greatest start to the day. Our tour guide decides to be nothing more than a driver, and our traveling companions have made us horribly uncomfortable. But the first two hours go by at last, and pretty soon we have arrived at the Friday Market. (We were there on a Wednesday. It's just called the Friday Market.) The Friday Market had all sorts of vendor stalls along the this particular stretch of road between Dubai and Fujairah and has earned quite a bit of fame among tourists for being an authentic Emirate market. What they failed to mention is that the stalls are no longer run by Emirate people, but they are instead run by foreigners didn't seem exactly happy to see us.
Did you read my post from Dubai Day 1? I mentioned that we went to the Gold Souks and had a most unpleasant experience as the Indian and Pakistani merchants shouted at us. Friday Market? Same thing. Only instead of selling gold, they sold beautiful Persian rugs (that we had no way of transporting) junky trinkets (and only a few of them) and tropical fruit. The merchants were so forceful in their attempt to get us to buy their wares that they would literally slice a piece of fruit (think apple or peach) with a knife and shove the knife in your face. I was more than a little uncomfortable with people constantly sticking knives in my face, so my husband and I sought out a restroom while the others in our little group walked around. After about 45 minutes, we were back on our way.
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| Friday Market en route from Dubai to Fujairah |
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| Al Badiyah Mosque - United Arab Emirates |
After the mosque, we drove past the heavily armed Omani border and then stopped for lunch. Our driver, at one point, asked us if we were hungry and wanted to stop for lunch. The Korean trio in the back said that they packed their lunch. Mr. Grumpy from the UK in the front seat said that he didn't eat between breakfast and dinner (this could be why he was always grumpy). But not wanting to go several more hours without eating, I asked if he would find a place for us to grab something quickly. He stopped at a place that had a small Lebanese restaurant for us that was within view of the ocean. The Korean folks who packed their lunch found picnic tables and enjoyed the beautiful day while Mr. Grumpy was able to go for a walk on the beach.
We enjoyed kabobs and biryani chicken/rice at the restaurant. After we ordered, the waitress soon returned with a salad, lentil soup, and hummus, all compliments of the chef. Delicious! Best part of the day by far!
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| Lunch in Fujairah |
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| Biryani chicken in Fujairah |
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| Lunch in Fujairah |
After lunch, we continued into Fujairah to see the old fort and the Fujairah museum. The fort itself was closed (or maybe it's never open...that was unclear), but we were able to walk around the grounds of the outside which we enjoyed though there wasn't much to see.
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| Old Fujairah Fort |
The fort was only a short distance from the museum and we spent very little time at both. The museum didn't exactly impress us though we appreciated the effort they took to present some artifacts. If you haven't read my blog about Japan, one of my favorite things to photograph were the poorly translated signs. Since English is the most widely spoke language in Dubai, we seldom came across anything poorly translated. The exception to this was the Fujairah museum. Here is just an example of an artifact description that left us scratching our heads and chuckling a little bit.
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| Poorly translated sign - Fujairah Museum |
After the museum we made our way back to Dubai. We took a new, recently opened route between Fujairah and Dubai that differed from the way we took to get there, and we made it back to Dubai in no time at all. Once back at the hotel we thought we’d brave the Gold Souks again, but the presence of the same scary men en route to the souks made us turn right around. It's very difficult to explain how I felt. I've had male friends tell me that they saw and enjoyed the souks without the type of experience that we encountered twice. The only thing I can figure is that being a woman, I was either more aware of the other people staring at me, or that they only stared/glared at me because I was a woman without the proper head coverings.
I will say that I noticed that all over the UAE, they made special accommodations for women in order to keep them separate from men. (I also found this to be true several years later when we visited other Muslim countries like Malaysia.) Dubai had separate metro cars that were designated as women-only; they explained at the mosque that the main area was reserved for men, and that women had a private room in the back. Even on the public busses, there were rows of seats in the front reserved for women only. It's not to say that there weren't women in the other cars, but I did take special notice that the women who did travel in the coed metro cars were usually traveling with other men. At one point on the trip, I even took comfort in riding in the women-only metro car even separating from my husband. I simply felt more at ease riding with other women and avoiding stares from strange men. (I feel the need to note again, that I maintained complete dignity with my wardrobe the entire trip. I always wore skirts down to my ankles, tops that came up to my neck, and a jacket that came down to my wrists. Walking through the malls, there were many other westerners dressed in "normal" attire, so I was most definitely not outwardly offensive with my clothing.)
We wrapped up the day by eating dinner at the hotel restaurant called “The Kitchen.” WAY overpriced and a complete rip off for the amount and quality of food. Feel free to check out my Trip Advisor review of this restaurant that I wrote when we got home.
Overall, the day just made us question why we bother ever leaving our homes. What did we learn about the world this day? It was mostly just scary, awkward, uncomfortable and relatively boring for a lot of it. It was easily one of the worst vacation days we've ever had. That and that awful day in Paris from a few years earlier. If nothing else, this day made us very grateful for the things that we have and our life at home.
Only two more days left of this whirlwind trip to the other side of the world. One day in Abu Dhabi and one more day in the heart of Dubai. The last two days were much better, I promise! Keep reading by clicking HERE.
Thanks for reading!
- Foxy the Traveler
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