Thursday May 18, 2006
now playing: Herb Alpert - Rise
When my parents told me they were flying over to visit my initial reaction was surprise - despite all of the good PR Dubai has received this past year I still had the impression they saw this place as another war-torn Iraq that just happens to be dotted with Ferarris and indoor ski hills. To make sure that they got a good first impression of the City we made sure the first few days of their visit were filled with all of the 5 star things to do here, starting with a nice room Christine scored for them at the Fairmont. After some time touring them through the Madinat, a gorgeous indoor-air-conditioned version of a traditional souk, I felt it was time to take them on a tour out of the city so we took a day trip out to Hatta, an old trading post in the mountains a short camel ride from the Omani border.
Hatta is one of those places frozen in time. Unlike it's shiny plastic neighbor two hours drive to the west (Dubai, that is) Hatta remains a traditional Arabian town complete with three mosques, an old fort, and its very own non-airconditioned meat market (you can just imagine the smell ... eeeckhh!). Aside from the nearby hiking, climbing, and off-roading spots in the mountains, the only other thing to do in Hatta is to visit the Hatta Fort Hotel to grab a nice lunch and shoot guns on their desert rifle range (nice to know the true spirit of the redneck is able to span cultures).
We were only there for a short visit, but it was nice to take them to the UAE equivilent of cottage country and show them was the real middle east is like.
posted by Jason Boyer at 08:03 PM EST |
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