Sharjah, Camels, and Desert, OH MY!

• Midtowntsl0's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Sharjah, Dubai, Middle of Nowhere,

Trip Start May 09, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 03, 2007 Next
Entry

  Sharjah, Dubai, Middle of Nowhere,, United Arab Emirates
Saturday, May 26, 2007

Wow, the word busy does not do justice to these past couple of days. Thursday, me and some of the Americans from school ventured over to Sharjah. Sharjah is the neighboring Emirate, just as Dubai is an Emirate, as is Abu Dhabi. Emirates should not be confused with the city, it just so happens to be that every major city in each Emirate is named after the Emirate or vice versa, who knows? Anywho, we took a private bus to the main bus station downtown. The way the transport system works here, is the city has there buses and then there are the private buses. They usually come more frequently, most of them are Minibuses, which are like a mix between a bus and a van, its hard to describe. We got to the downtown station and there was a RIDICULOUSLY long line for the buses to Sharjah. Luckily, we were able to slip into a bus that just arrived. Sharjah is about 20min east of Dubai. Most of the people who work in Dubai, live in Sharjah because the cost of living there is lower and there are more housing units available there (since maybe about 70% of Dubai is still being built). Sharjah has always seemed to me like Dubai's little brother. It often gets overlooked, but it is quite a pleasant place. We exited the bus and walked one of the main streets, and made our way over to the Corniche. I don't know if I have mentioned this yet, but in most Middle Eastern cities that run along the ocean, they tend to build up a really nice walking area, like a boardwalk. Sharjah had an amazing Corniche, with hundreds of palm trees perfectly lined up and a MASSIVE mosque at the end. The buildings that overlooked the bay were beautiful as well. The Sheikh of Sharjah is a trained architect, so he has made sure that most of the newer buildings have some sort of unique trait. Then we headed to the Central Souq. It is this HUGE mall, full of gold and jewelry, rug, clothe, and other random shops. He haggled for food and jewelry and clothing and then I went into a music shop. Among the menagerie of instruments and other oddities, I spotted this awesome looking contraption. An Oud, its like a lute, its Syrian made and it looked ridiculous. For those who aren't familiar with instruments, its like a small guitar with a bent neck. I haggled the guy down to $34USD including case, which is a GREAT deal as opposed to anything you can find in the states. Afterwards, we walked around in search of a taxi to the bus station. We stood on every main street for about an hour with no luck, because it was Thursday everyone was heading out since Thursday is the equivalent of the US Friday. Finally we got a taxi to the bus station and hoped on a bus home.

Friday, I headed over to another mall called Mercato. Its fashioned in an Italian sense, with incredibly ritzy shops. For the first time since I got here I was in a place where white people outnumbered all other races. It was an odd feeling, since Mercato is located in a REALLY rich area, both residentially and tourist wise, all of the western tourists were at the mall. People would be leaving and there Lexus's would pull up with there Drivers and they would be chauffered away. While I waited for the bus for about 45min in 105 degree heat to get home, haha the things you do to save a buck.

Saturday came and it was time for yet another great adventure, DUNE BASHING!! Dune bashing is essentially going out in SUVs to the desert and speeding up and down and sideways on the dunes. The dunes were HUGE, as we approached them I was like "they sure are bigger in person". It was like being in a rollercoaster. The driver would have us sliding sideways down 40ft faces and speeding up mountains of sand, it was intense, insane, and amazing. After about 45min of that we were brought to a Beduoin village. It was a bit of a mock setup, but the effect was still there. There I finally got to see my first camel! Not only did I see it, I RODE IT!! It was a ton of fun, even though they kept trying to bite us. We also did some very unsuccessful sand surfing, the sand was too soft and you kept sinking in, so you would only go like 1mph down the hill. Furthermore, for those of you who have never climbed to the top of a 100 foot hill of sand, I advise you it is not fun in the least bit. As you walk your feet sink and you make virtually no progress. Needless to say we were exhausted afterwards. Everyone went over to have some shisha, with is flavored tobacco smoked out of this huge watery pipe. I figured I'd try my first and probably last attempt at smoking it. It was ok, it basically felt like you were inhaling second hand smoke, and your mouth feels like an ashtray after it. We settled in for an Arabian buffet full of hummus, daal, kebabs, rice, and other odd foods, all of which were delicious. Then the bellydancer took the stage and we enjoyed the show, although I refused to dance with her haha, but so did like half of the crowd, it was just too embarrassing. We did a little dune bashing in the dark and heading home tired, full, and fully content with the experience, the entire trip costed only $40USD, probably the best $40 I've ever spent. Over and out,

P.S. Pics are slowly being uploaded, so keep checking The Photo Album entry

Print this entry Share Sharjah hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry