I decided that it was time to venture out of the city of Dubai and explore some of what the UAE has to offer. So, this morning, Teresa, Cecil and I went on a mini road trip 1.5 hours down the highway to the city of Al Ain, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Al Ain is situated right on the border of UAE and Oman, and is known as the garden city, since it has a huge palm tree oasis and much more greenery than Dubai. It is the only place in the UAE that is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with tombs and artifacts dating back as far as 3000 BC. There are many forts in the area, although we were only able to see one of them (from the outside).We arrived in Al Ain without much of a plan, and decided to head up Jebel Hafeet, the second tallest mountain in the UAE at around 1240 masl. (You can drive all the way up Jebel Hafeet, whereas Jebel Jais, the tallest mountain is only accessible (at the top) by foot). It was a beautiful and very windy road, voted among the top 10 great mountain roads (at almost 12 km long and a speed limit of around 30-40 km/h). We took a snack and photo break, and then enjoyed the view of the desert back to Al Ain and towards Oman.

We then tried to visit the Mezyad Fort, but when we arrived, the road was closed. Heading back in to town, we stopped at the Camel Souk, which was quite deserted (it was still prayer time and most people were at the mosques). There were a few other tourists around and we got to take pictures of the camels for sale. (Most are being sold for meat, but there were a few racing camels.) The camels ranged from new born (3 days old) to 5 years. The 5 year old camels are being sold for approximately 3000 dirhams ($1000 CAD). The 3 day old camel was quite cute, and is walking, although it was still a bit unstable. Its mom was very close by. Thankfully, none of the camels spat at us. In addition to camels, they have goats and sheep available for sale too.

We then drove to the town centre, and went to the Al Jahili park and Fort. It is really nice to walk through a park. We couldn’t actually get into the fort, but it was still nice! (I am guessing that it was closed because it is Friday, the Holy day). There are many other museums in Al Ain, although they are likely closed as well on Fridays.

Right beside the park is the Al Ain Oasis, where they have almost 150,000 date palm trees and over 100 species. They still use an irrigation system (falaj) where they took the water that came to the surface from the underground channels (known as shari’a). We wandered through the palms and the shade. It was refreshing! And that brings us to the end of our mini trip!