This is a great shot of the metro construction along Sheikh Zayed Road. In the background is an area called Business Bay. The handfull of towers which look mostly alike (Executive Towers) were for sale with no money down but for just over a million dirhams for a one bedroom in early 2007. Today, looking back, that price was a steal! That same apartment is now going for over 2.2 million Dirhams. 
For a guy who said he would never buy an SUV, Barry certainly signed up for the Explore Dubai event quickly. For AED250 Barry and Todd signed up for a day of 4x4ing which included breakfast at Hatta Fort Hotel, lunch in the desert, dinner and show at Jumana. Not going to get a better deal than that! Fire twirling and belly dancing too. Above are a few pictures of our truck in action and the last one is not our SUV but an example of desert driving gone bad.
Dubai is for sale! This is a picture I took from the car while driving down Sheikh Zayed Road (SZR). Typical views - the metro being built, ads for property, construction cranes and cones.
Our one-year apartment lease was up for renewal and was subject to the new rent cap laws put in place by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed. Contrary to what we thought, our landlord did not sell his property or move into it which meant we got to renew for one more year. This is very good news because a one-bedroom similar to ours is now going for AED110,000/year!
This is a picture taken along Sheikh Zayed Road which shows the machine being used to build the metro tracks. In the background is the tallest building in the world - the Burj Dubai. 
Ras Al Jinz was stunning and is known for turtle watching. Barry and I found a cave to prepare a BBQ lunch and afterwards went for a walk down the beach. There was a camping area further up from the water where we stopped into the restroom before heading back to the road. The floor, which was titled, was totally caved in. Regardless I tip-toed into a stall and back out to wash my hands without being engulfed by the floor. There was a girl, early-mid twenties, and her mother in the restroom both dressed in Abayas and had only their faces showing. The mother only spoke Arabic but the girl was translating for me. She said that I was very beautiful but no Omani man would want me because I was showing too much of my body. I thought I was being discreet because my long shorts only showed my leg below the knee and my arms were totally covered. In regards to my being beautiful, in this part of the world pale skin is beautiful so I didn't let this remark go to my head. I explained that I thought her daughter was more beautiful than me - she was. The ladies were very friendly and invited me to their camp. I regretfully declined and got back into the truck with my Fiancé who thought I was way too covered up for this heat.
The first photo is looking back at our campground from the night before - a memorable moment. The second photo was taken while driving through a town; at the time we were looking for a dealership because we went reverse down a mountain before our 4x4 kicked in and this made a distrubing red blinking light go off. I suggest you read instructions to all your toys before you use them. The third picture was taken after we had snaked our way through this very small town using narrow unmarked streets to find the mountain. The sun was going down and as we were winding up the mountain I caught the view of the town in the valley. The fourth is a fort in one of the towns we drove though. Barry took the fifth while I was sleeping - this is how you exercise camels. The sixth picture was taken in a very small roadside town - the board says "Sale of Foodstuff".
This was a great camping spot and definitely better than our first night which was spent on the side of a road (sheltered by a large half-mountain) due to the fact that all of the potential camping spots had become construction zones or had the roads leading to them taken away.
It was hot in Oman this weekend. Barry and I stopped for lunch in the shade of a bridge. We weren't alone, there were some locals there who welcomed us with Omani coffee and some kind of jelly dessert; they prayed and then carried on their way. The next group to join us was a group of younger men (possibly early 20s) who layed down mats and, so far as we could tell, played games which involved clapping and singing. Our next stop was Wahiba Sands. We decided to try our SUV in the sand. We met up with an Omani guy who asked us where we were going - we didnt have a destination in mind. He said we should follow him because driving alone in the desert is not safe and because he is Omani, he is very good at driving in the sand. He was delivering water to one of the few camps in the desert. He stopped to help a stuck SUV and we decided we have had enough of desert driving until we had our Desert Driving Course.
Here is a contrast: Prophet Mohammed’s birthday and Easter. These are the reasons we had an extra long weekend. Barry and I bought our SUV about a week before the long weekend and we were anxious to take it out. The first picture is a roadside shop where we got firewood; as you can see, they also sold National dress. The other photos were taken in Muscat (about a 5 hour drive away). Suzy did you eye those purses? In Muscat the dhows (old style wooden boats) shared the port with the cruise ships.
The mountains were beautiful, and where we wanted to camp, but it started to rain and we didn’t want to risk being blown or otherwise thrown down the mountain in our tent. Almost at the end of the track we turned back to Khasab to find a place to set up camp. We got a flat tire. In the rain and the cold we finally figured out how the tire was released from the bottom of the rental and we found all the gear we needed, UNDER our camping equipment, which was now strewn all over the roadside. We changed the tire with the assistance of a passing national who was obviously experienced in standard flat tire equipment being less than helpful. It was coming down hard but I still wanted to tent. Barry on the other hand suggested we stay in a hotel (the Golden Tulip in Khasab). My reaction to that was an odd look as this is not usually something Barry would suggest. I should have known something was up. We decided to camp under a hut on the beach which sheltered us from most of the rain. Once Barry made the lighting cozy we settled in for the night. This is where Barry proposed.
