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  Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
Friday, June 1, 2007

Well, you may be wonder what I've been up to these past couple of days. Mainly just dealt with class and hung around campus. Tuesday night all of the Americans decided to go to this desert lazer, fire, water, and firework show called Jumana. It seemed pretty cool, but I opted out because of the $30 ticket. As it turns out, there driver got lost and then ended up getting there 30min late and decided to not go to the show. One of the people called the Jumana show and complained (I don't really know why) but somehow they ended up scoring 12 free tickets. So Thursday night I went to the show, it was alright, definitely happy I didn't pay $30 for it. It was like a ballet meets Middle East meets a lot of cool effects. Only problem was the effects got old fast, and the story was REALLY cliche.

So while doing some reading on the Emirates last week I saw that Fujairah (a small Emirate that borders Oman and the Indian Ocean) apparently held Public Lashings for criminals at the center of the city every Friday, well how could I pass up a chance to see that? So this morning at 7am, Ben, Kenny, and I embarked on our Fujairan Adventure. We rode in a minibus, through the desert and on the east coast there are mountains which were really sweet. It was flat for miles and miles and all of a sudden mountains arise. It was pretty barren, especially in the mountainous region, it looked like being on the moon or the Agro Crag (for those who watched the show GUTS on Nickelodeon in the 90's). We passed through some small towns and Masafi, which is like the Poland Springs Water of the UAE. From the moment we got off the bus, we knew this place was going to be unique. The "bus station" was an empty lot, with a couple of cabbies jostling for your business. We walked down the "main strip" and I finally got my first glimpse of the Indian Ocean. The beaches in Fujairah are fairly shotty, because they are trying to redevelop them and most of Fujairah's money is made in its Port, so the beaches have since long been neglected. We walked through a really small a ghetto souq, I've never had someone try and sell me watermelons by saying "hey friend, I have deal for you". We arrived in the city RIGHT before afternoon call to prayer, so as the calls rang out through the city, we watched as EVERYTHING closed down, and suddenly the place was an empty ghost town. I decided to eat at this shotty little cafeteria place (they have diner-like fast food places all around called "... cafeteria" my meal of the day was at the "Sahara Cafeteria" usually the food is pretty good and INCREDIBLY cheap) The other guys were not as keen on eating there, so we went over to the Marina. The Marina was a fun experience, because since Fujairah is on the Indian Ocean, a lot of wealthy people leave there boats there or travel through there on there boats. And the Marina was evidently the only place that sold alcohol in the city. So there all of the westerners congregated for a beer and to chat with other white people, in fact the only non-whites in there were the filipino servers. This entire set up was especially odd because once we walked out those doors, we saw absolutely NO white people, they all seemed to drive directly here and go directly to the marina bypassing all of the city. We walked in soaking wet from walking across the city in 105 degree heat, and the reactions of the people were great. We were being stared at for our first 5minutes there. This was also the only place I had ever seen any pork product for sale, they were really trying to make the westerners feel at home. We went to the location of where we believed the whippings were to take place, the little english that the man there spoke was enough to tell us that nothing like that took place around there, we were had. Afterwards we walked over to Fujairah International Airport. So your thinking "nobody would fly into Fujairah International Airport" but you'd be surprised to know... that your right, nobody flies into there because the airport has been turned into a airport for cargo purposes only. You'd think in this ghetto city with no need for an airport that the airport would be shotty, there you are wrong. The airport was immaculate, it looked brand new, infact, most of it was brand new. The airport had gone through a renovation recently and the results were evident. Upstairs was a cafe, completely empty, the chairs and tables still wrapped in bubble wrap, as were the several flat screen tvs that hung from the walls. Never used. That's typical UAE for you, excess, pointless excess. Then we walked to the Fujairah Shopping Mall, world renowned. It was this tiny mall, maybe a half the size of Ocean County Mall, and EVERYTHING was closed for prayer, although I speculate not much would have been going on there even if it wasn't time for prayer. We left the mall and flagged down a taxi take us to the Fujairah Fort, I read about it online and thought it would make a nice trip. Unsure of where it was I asked the taxi driver. We said he would take us for 30dirhams, I told him he's crazy, 5dirhams was as high as I would go, he came down to 20, I said have a nice day, he chased us down and took us for 15dirhams haha you have to haggle around here, especially when you are the only white people in town. So I tell this cabbie to take us to the "fort" he says "ok port" and I'm like "no the Fort!" the debate goes back and forth for the entire 5 minute cab ride until we pulled up infront of the fort and he said "this. this is port! PORT!" I was like "whatever WHO'S the native english speaker" paid the man and we were on our way. The fort was amazing, it was small but totally rebuilt and in a great position in the city. It sits on a hill that over looks both a valley before the rising mountains, and the entire city on the other side. There were also small house next to the fort that we checked out. After some time there we made our way to the street and hailed a taxi. The man who stopped said his 1993 Mazda would not be able to make it back to Dubai, and we believed him, so he took us to the "taxi station". I think it should be a requirement in ones life to make a pilgrimage to the Fujairah "taxi station". We were dropped off at a vacant lot, that held a couple of run down taxis, a tree and plastic chairs. Two arab men chewing sunflower seeds approach us and tell us it will be 25dirhams to go to Dubai, which is a set price. So we were invited to wait in the "waiting room" while they tried to gather more people who were going to Dubai. So there we sat, the 3 of us with a couple of Arabs in plastic chairs under a tree in a vacant lot, my first truly Middle Eastern experience. The guys were really nice too, we were talking to them, they were making jokes, when we all took pictures with them they are like "now you can tell your family you met Osama Bin Laden." We all packed into a minivan and headed home, incredibly satisfied with our trip to Fujairah, Over and out.

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