Day after Christmas...Visa Run to Oman

Hitting the road to renew our visas, with Spiderman in the back.

Since our visiting visas run out on Jan 3, 2011, we decided that we better hit the road since New Year's weekend will probably be crazy for driving.

With Spiderman in tow, and my hair completely hidden from site out of respect for the Omanies, we packed an overnight bag just in case and set out on our renewal adventure.

Rain in the desert! A real treat for us to see!

Only ten minutest into our drive, we noticed dark clouds forming in the sky. And then out of nowhere, it began to pour rain. We were so surprised, since we have heard how it can go for years without a single raindrop here in the UAE.

We felt really lucky to experience this downpour! Here are a few pictures of the rainfall in Dubai!

As we drove to the bordering city of Hatta, we realized that we had not seen any camels on "Death's Highway". Maybe it was because of the rain. We wondered if they take shelter from it or if they stand out in it? Hugh.

I snuck a snapshot of Mr. Big driving. All in all, we all seemed a bit more relaxed driving to renew our visa's. I do have to admit though that I was still really nervous inside.

Mr. Big driving on Death's Highway!

This trip I decided that I was going to try and get a few more pictures of the actual checkpoints and visa stations (please keep in mind that there are signs everywhere stating that no photography is allowed, so I felt really lucky to get the shots I did).

This first shot of a tan shack was our first police checkpoint to the border of the UAE.
 It was raining like crazy so they waved us through pretty quickly.


After about half an hour or so, the rain lifted and we were heading to the actual border between

First checkpoint. It is raining camels and gazels!

Road to the UAE passport checkpoint.

the UAE and Oman. I snapped a couple of shots of the giant signs letting us know that we were at a passport checkpoint. I also got a snapshot of the actual little building that you walk up to the front of and get your passport stamped. Hope no one saw the flash!

Lucky for us, it was once again not busy at this checkpoint and we only had to stand with Spiderman there for about 5 minutes before we were next to the counter. I was a bit nervous that Spiderman decided that today was the day that he needed to renew his visa also. But then I thought, "what the hell, why not! Big Buddy is only three and if these people cannot take a joke, then I guess we will all go to jail. ;)

I have to admit that it was so fun taking Spiderman with us on this stressful outing. Every time I felt the least bit stressed, I would look at him and laugh. Sometimes you just need to add a little bit of funny to the world when and where you can!

I was able to sneak a photo of Mr. Big and Big Buddy as they were walking up to the building from behind. I thought this photo was darn precious!

Passport checkpoint building.

Once in front of the building, though, not a single person cracked a smile at our little Spiderman. The gentleman who was stamping the passports seemed to be having quite a grumpy day and the whole costume was lost on him. We were able to make is through successfully and quickly and felt happy as we jumped back into our rental car.

Now, off to the checkpoint were they search your vehicle. This time I took a snapshot quite a bit away since I got one up close last time. We popped the trunk and after a quick glance (glad Mr. Big left his Marshall Radio Telemetry

Spiderman getting ready to renew his visa.

receivers at the apartment...or we would of gone to jail), they closed the trunk and sent us on our way.


The stretch of road from the UAE checkpoint to the Oman Checkpoint is quite a little distance. So we cranked our Arabic music, which really sounds like only one song that lasts for about 20 minutes and repeats over and over. I will say that it can be very relaxing to listen to in times of stress.


When we reached the large Oman passport check-in, Mr. Big and I decided that we would explain to Spiderman how we needed to act and what was going to transpire, so that he would better know what to expect this time. We did notice that it helped Spiderman act better inside and since we also knew the drill, we were able to get inside, fill out our papers quickly and get in line before the mass numbers of people arrived that were behind us.

As were were standing in line, Mr. Big noticed that

Checkpoint to search our car! We have nothing to hide!

our visiting visa for Oman from our last trip had not expired yet and we still had two days on it. So he politely asked if we needed to pay the $200 again since our visa's were not expired. The man just looked at us like we were completely right, however, he was not going to make it easy for us, so we should just pay the $200 again. With his hand out, we gave the man the cash and headed out the door to try and make it back into the UAE before dark.  Once again, Spiderman received tons of people starring at him, but nobody cracked a smile except for maybe a couple of other tourists. How strange! I am willing to wager that they all went home that night and told their families that

Oman passport checkpoint.

Spiderman came in today to get his Oman visa.

Since we made it through the Oman entry point and it didn't seem busy, we thought for sure we would just sail right out of the country at the next border crossing into the UAE. We were so WRONG!  Once we got to the border, shown below with the giant fence, we noticed the extremely large line of cars that were parked in the road. Now the road is a dirt two lane road, but the cars and turned the right lane into a two lane road of its own. The cars entering Oman were having a little bit of a hard time squeezing by in their now very skinny lane.

Physical border between Oman and the UAE.

So to help pass the two hours that it took us to crawl about half a mile, Mr. Big turned on the soundtrack to the new movie TRON and we all grooved out to it dancing in the car! We received the strangest looks from the surrounding cars, but we didn't care. We also broke out the PB &J's that I packed just in case along with apple slices. It was a car picnic!



After a while, we noticed that people were getting so crazy sitting in their cars, that they decided to get out and wander around. The guy in the photo below is an Omani gentleman. Notice the hat that he is wearing, it is customary in Oman.

Our family photo of happiness! We are almost
across the boarder!

While sitting in the car for two hours, if we drove up next to another car with kids, Big Buddy would wave to them like crazy and flirt. I took a picture of the cute little girl and her father. Now the reason I took the picture, is because it is very common over here to see a child sitting on someones lap in the front seat, especially while driving. Seat belts don't really exist over here. I have had to learn to bite my lip and turn my head (it makes me so angry!)

Two hour wait to get across the boarder. People got stir crazy.

Once we made it to the gate back into the UAE, it was very nice to have the police officer take a double take when looking into our car and then say hi to Spiderman sitting in the back. Yippee! We made it back into the UAE with an extended Visa.

On the way back to Dubai, it was evening and the sun was setting. I was able to get a really beautiful picture of the sunset going behind the mountains. Breath taking! A great note to end our visa run on. May we never need to do it ever again!

Typical to see a child on daddy's lap while driving.

Beautiful sunset driving back to Dubai.