Arabian Adventure - Part 2

                           

Day 3

Wife insisted on pic...

Finally on the road                                                                                                                         

Dubai roads.....

lovely surface

Four lane highway each side.....

For hundreds of KMs

Bye bye pointy building

We are headed east

Leaving town

Buildings getting sparce

Did i mention lovely roads

No more buildings

Straight roads

Shrubs still.....

Getting more sandy

There you go .....

The desert proper

Its just us and the road

white line fever

Passing through a town

It was small

Another town...

Also small

Mountains ahead

Camels   yay  :-)

We are headed there

In supreme comfort

Traditional village

Scenery changing

Craggy cliffs

Leaving the sandy desert

Entering the mountanious one

Stark...

But beautiful

Highland village

nice huh

Almost reaching our destination

Hmmmmmmmm  BMW sign

Parking

And what a view

Road to the lobby

Zoom of the view

Not photoshopped at all

Beautiful

Nice room

Nicer balcony

Great room

Views

Sitting in my balcony and taking it in

Zoom....craggy

Arabian lights

Cool huh

Looks small from the outside

Time to explore

More bikes

A lot more

nice grounds

BMW were having an off road course

U.A.E

From here we were taken to the old town

To see the Hatta heritage vilage

Nice door

Tower no 1

Village majlis

Hatta fort

Inside of the fort

old school

Tower no 2

The main building in the fort

Nice huh

Interior of the main building

man toys...

More toys

Nice huh

from the fort we walked around the vilage

Smaller courtyard in a house

Old rooms

Nice kitchen

Another room

And if you mess with his daughter  :-)

Another house courtyard

So different nowadays

Lets go see the tower

One of Alladin's lamps?

Verenda along the way

Walking up

Rugged

sheds for livetock

Old tower

Almost there

Finally

lets look around

Holy hell

We can see the next tower from here

We can see the old village from here

And the mountains - zoom

Shot by shot of the Hajar mountains

Amazing.....

Life in the old days

Back in the hotel..wow

Ride , explore .....and now  :-)

Here...

As we watch the end of a glorious day

Day 4

On the bike

Today we're headed north

Nice huh

Fantastic riding

From UAE into Oman

Oman border post

First ride in Oman

Second country...

Omani village

Hey look...green

Oh well..... 

All we do is ride.....

so cool to be here

So different from Asia

Sights,sounds,smell.......

Signboards,food,people......

Everything !!!    :-)

We entered Oman....

Back into UAE

Thats the Hajar mountain range

Thats also the sea there....

More sea pics soon

Once we were out of the main cities.........

There was hardly any traffic......

All we had to do....

Was take in the views.....

Quaint towns

Straight ahead

With the Goldwing....

we almost didn't have to stop for a break

Our first view of the Gulf of Oman

Almost at a major city in the east coast

We decided to stop and see a local attraction...

Little did we know we would become the attraction

Fujairah fort

Parked the bike and the locals freaked out....

Hmmm i think the attraction is behind   :-)

And here it is.....

Fujairah fort  :-)

On the bike...

Ever north

every where the roads were awesome

UAE and Oman both

grippy and smooth....

Passing a wadi

Curves   :-)

Our destination is Dibba

Which is in Oman

Some of the best roads were here

Passing mountain passes

See how far it goes...

Nice huh

There were mountains on either side but, smog or haze filled the air

Almost at the Oman checkpoint-not border

You dont get your passport stamped like earlier as the hotel is at the end of town.After that is a whole lot of nothing.....

Surrounded by mountains ...

nice design

Mountains behind ,sea infront...

Looking back at UAE

Very nice   :-)

We came from that direction

Mountains start here...

And go all around

See........

Zoomed in at the far side. 4WDs playing in the dune

Hazy mountains. Eat  ,swim, eat some more and zzzzzzzzzzz

Day 5

Good morning Oman

Time to ride

Leaving Oman

Back in the UAE

Still hazy...

Going through one of the smaller emirates -Ras Al Khaimah

Through , not to....

As we are going to ride to the west coast of the UAE......

From there ride deep into Oman this time.

Small village

Sport bike heaven

On a fully laden Goldwing...

I had to keep an eye out for the Speed cameras....

Eventhough the speed limit was up to 140km/h legally...

Speedometer is in miles.Here i'm doing about 120km/h

Us.......    :-)  :-)

Nearby...

Passing a small desert town

I personally prefer to ride alone

Or in very small groups...

But magical places like this....

Have to be seen to be  believed...

The country is harsh....

Stark.....

And rugged...

But that too has its beauty...

The mountains are on our right.....

They were on our left yesterday...

Passed the main town....

We're headed right.....

Want wash car..cheap sir  ,cheap...

Ok. We stamped our passports out of UAE and into Oman...

i have to say the next stretch of road is among one of the most beautiful i've ever seen.Sheer cliffs on your right, the Gulf of Oman on your left for the entire duration.Remember its winter ,so the temp here is about 20C. With the visor open its like an A/C. The road was perfectly smooth and perfectly grippy.I would say-Perfect ride.

The view on film is a bit hazy, but in real life .....Amazing.

Ready  :-)...

Look at that...

Slowing down to just appreciate the awesome spectacle...

We 're going to be riding next to all those cliffs.....

Look at the road surface.....

See how far the road follows the coast...

ALL the frickin way  :-)

Think of this and smile.

This and Phan Thiet in Vietnam....

Are my personal favourites...

Nice huh...

There you go  :-)

Yup we 're following the coast still..all the way there...

Tiny village...

Passing an old fort

If not for the haze..perfect...

Look at that...seriously...

Look at where we're going...

Sheer cliffs.....

Never get tired of this....

This is so out of this world...

Just imagine.....

we are going to come back tomorrow ......

along this same road.....

with the sun in a different angle.....

Great road and you know you are going to have a great view.

Our last destination...

Look at the road.....awesome..

again.

and again  :-)

See the far distant cliffs....

And the roads to get there...look at the surface  :-)

from here we're going down there..

small village along the way

I know i'm showing a lot of this road...

We came from there...

Anyway...showing a lot of this road cause its the most beautiful i've ever seen

More and more

Sadly...

we reach our hotel...

in Khasab...

With a view...

of the Gulf of Oman

And what a VIEW  !!!

After some R&R ,we came here...

To take a traditional Dhow cruise along the fjords of Oman

Our ride...

Carpets and cushions...

Typical traditional style...

Al Capitan

And the view....

Arabian mint tea...

While we just relax.

Flag of Oman...

We had the whole boat to ourselves

Look around...

Beautiful huh.............

Three crew to take care of us...

imagine looking at this with the crisp cool sea wind in your face...

Those cliffs are huge

Zoom Zoom

Still hazy though

Passing isolated colonies...

Telegraph island...Ye olde British waypoint...

They ran a cable from India to England through here....

More and more mountains...

Lets stop for a break.....

feed the fishies...

And partake of an authentic Arabian meal...

In a traditional dhow...How cool is that....

Another attraction here is those...

See them ?

Dolphins  wow :-) :-)

the captain got them next to the dhow ,gunned the engine ,made a bow wave,and the dolphins loved it...

So many of them...

On either side....

He did this 3 time over the next half hour....

See the baby dolphin.....

So close huh....

What a rush..........

Look at the scale of the mountains

And the views....

On the way back to our hotel...

Khasab fort.

Time to relax.....

And catch our dinner  :-)

What a frickin amazing day

** part 3 soon..