Death's Highway to Visa Renewal

It's a road trip (yes, that is Tony Roma's in the back. :) )

The desert on Death's Highway

Mr. Big's and Big Buddy's visa were about to expire in T-2 days. So we decided we had better either fly to another country or hit the road and drive to one. After rock-paper-scissors a few times, it looked like it was going to be a road trip! The best place to drive for a visa run (the internet said) was to drive to the bordering country, Oman. Sounds fine and dandy. Right. After another hour of research discovered that you have to drive on Death's Highway to get there. That is interesting. So it was no surprise that of course we left late for our road trip, 1pm (we like to play it dangerous!). Then to make it even more interesting, we had to stop before leaving town to buy car insurance for Oman (turns out you cannot enter the country without it and it is really expensive at the border).  So after all of that, we were finally on the road.

We drove to Hatte which is on the border of UAE and Oman. What a quaint little dirt town.  After another minute or two, you are on Death's Highway. After a little bit more research, found out it is known as this because it is the second most deadly highway in the world! Fantastic! I have always wanted to drive this stretch of fun and beauty (now I can mark that off my bucket list). Turns out, lots of people fall asleep on this highway and never wake up. And, it is very

Skinny camels roaming wild right next to the highway.

common for camels to just walk up onto the road causing accidents (as you can imagine). I was a bit nervous traveling on this road (Mr. Big would say that was an understatement)...and of course we did see our fair share of camels along the way.

Once we reached the Dubai exit post, I was a bit surprised to see that it was a shack, LOL. I had also read that when entering Oman, it is a good idea to cover your hair. So I brought a head scarf and as we pulled up realized that I have been fighting having to wear a head scarf. I don't know why it was such a big deal at the time, but

Police checkpoint after UAE visa check out.

at that moment, realized that just because it is their religion, I felt like it was about to take away my freedom...or rather oppress me and the essence of who I am. As I put on the scarf, I felt an overwhelming emotion come over me, and I began to cry. Poor Mr. Big.

I snapped this photo of the police/military guy checking
the vehicles luggage before passage.

Quickly, Mr. Big helped me realize that it would be a very bad idea for me to be crying when we are trying to exit the country. Who knows what would happen to us. So, I pulled myself together. We stood in the outdoor line, receiving strange looks from the police officers, who finally stamped our passports, exiting us from the UAE. We jumped back in our rental car and headed to the next checkpoint. We crossed through two more checkpoints before we came to the Oman passport check in. Feeling completely stressed out if you can imagine (I have heard horror stories about being thrown in jail, yada yada.) we entered the building. Now the building looked quite nice from the outside. I did quickly notice that cameras were not allowed. I felt lucky to get a picture of the building...hee, hee! Inside, we were asked to fill out papers with all of our information. Then we stood in line. Now, this nightmarish line normally takes up to 2 hours to make it through. However, we were very fortunate to not have to

Me wearing scarf to conceal my beauty (I don't quite know
what Big Buddy is doing).

wait 2 hours like we had heard. THANK THE LORD, as Big Buddy was freaking out all on his own. Poor little guy was tired, hungry and just plane grumpy (I have a feeling he was riding off of mine and Mr. Big's stress). After a while and many questions we were finally given entry visas. Now, I have heard that you can get your entry visa and then wait an hour and then get an exit visa. However, we have also heard that the officials frown upon that...and with the looks we were getting Mr. Big opted to enter "Scary Country". Now we had to try to figure out our next plan of action.

Oman Visa check point (there is a large sign that states
no photography!) Hee, hee.

Back in the car, we realized that it would be getting dark in an hour or two and it would take us another four hours on Death's Highway to get to Musscat (the capital of Oman). Since there was no way I was going to be OK with that, Mr. Big quickly took a look at some maps and found a town called Fujairah, which was located in the UAE right on the other side of the border. The idea that we would be able to cross back into the UAE in just a little over an hour and a half, felt safer then were we currently were heading, so off we went.  We came to the Oman exit visa station which was a shack in the middle of nowhere. Then you drove awhile and actually crossed a defined border. Mr. Big stopped the

One of the police documents that will let us pass into Oman.

car to take a picture. We felt just like it looked! It was stressful, stressful, stressful! Once through the UAE visa checkin we all felt a bit better. One funny thing to note, during our checkin at the UAE boarder, one of the officers noticed that we were from American and he told us all about how much he loves America. This was a sure sign that things were about to pick up for us. :)

An average sign on Death's Highway. No explanation needed!

Final visa checkpoint back into the UAE.

In Fujairah, we read about two hotels, one being more authentic, the other a Hilton. I think that Mr. Big could sense my desire for the nicer hotel after all we had been through today and he drove us straight there! I love you Mr. Big!

Things definitely picked up for us. At check in, the hotel staff could see how frazzled we were and decided to surprise us with an upgrade to their nicest room! We were given a personal Butler, named Vinay. He was wonderful. He fetched your bags, parked the car, and introduced to our room for the night. Wow. The suite was nice! The bed even better! Mr. Big took us to the little restaurant on site which was outdoors right on the beach. We had a nice calming dinner listening to the waves crashing in. We must of sat there for a little over two hours. Thank You! That night, all three of us slept like babies!

The next morning, Mr. Big and Big Buddy swam in the pool right off of the beach. Big Buddy loves to swim! We also took some time and strolled along the beach picking up seashells. This Beach was so clean and nice. The sand was dark and so soft! Mr. Big swam out a ways into the ocean and quit enjoyed himself. After a few hours, we packed up our bags and Vinney our personal friend/bellman helped us to our car. What a super cool guy he was! So helpful and fun! He kept interacting with Big Buddy and even gave him a toy car to play with (we will never forget Vinay)!

The three of us relaxing on the beach after one scary road trip.

Hilton hotel

As we drove away from the Hilton, Mr. Big and I decided it would be fun to explore the area while on our way back to Dubai. We had purchased a little travel guide booklet about Dubai and decided to pull over and see if it had anything about Fujairah. Sure enough, it did. The first thing we found was the cool little tour of a 300 + year old Shakes Palace. The tour book mentioned that it was out of the way and we would meet an interesting man named Muneo.

Watch for the special blog entry on Muneo and the palace!

Hilton pool and cabana.

Big Buddy enjoying the Arabian Sea

Big Buddy and our new friend Vinay!