dhow ride in dibba, musandam

we had 3 days of public holiday this week due to the eid al adha. so on tuesday, 2 of my colleagues and i (we were later joined by one of my colleagues’ friend, a fellow malaysian) decided to make a day trip to dibba, musandam, which is in oman. oman is a neighbouring country to the u.a.e, and is just about 2 hours’ drive away.

passing through sharjah, one of the 7 emirates of the u.a.e. i didn’t know sharjah city is so nice, coz everyone’s been telling me that there’s nothing in sharjah. people only stay there because the property is cheap, but most of them work in dubai. but what about this place??

the tour agent’s van came to pick us up at 7.30am at the hotel. but they had to go pick up 3 other groups from around dubai and sharjah, so in actual fact, we only started leaving for musandam at about 9.00am.

leaving the city behind us, the landscape is only of the dessert…

then after a bit, it changed to rocky hills…

after driving for about an hour, we stopped by this place called “friday market” (even though it wasn’t a friday), which is said to be quite a famous market.

there were stalls selling all kinds of fruits, as the soil of sharjah is said to be very fertile…

other than fruits, there were also stalls selling knick-knacks, pottery, carpets, plants and flowers…

we stopped again after driving for another 1/2 hour, this time at a scenic spot for some photo-taking. here i’m standing at the edge of a cliff that overlooks the black rocky mountains of sharjah.

the van that we traveled in…

the roads were winding without any street lamp. i wouldn’t wanna be driving here at night! the view at some parts were great, tho’.

we arrived in dibba at 11.30am. this is the oman side of dibba, just a few minutes from the border check-point. while crossing the border, our driver kept warning us that we’re not allowed to take any photos. but as it was an eid holiday, the omani border guards let us through quite swiftly. they didn’t even check everyone’s passport! but going back to u.a.e. is a different story. the emirati border guard checked each of our passports thoroughly before letting us through...

we got onto one of the many dhows waiting there, and went up to the upper deck. that’s the omani flag, by the way…

there were deck chairs in the middle of the deck and cushions all around the sides…

here’s how a traditional omani dhow looks like… as it was a public holiday, there were quite a lot of people. the previous time one of my colleagues came, she said there were only 2 dhows, but this time, we had about 9 to 10 dhows setting sail together!

the sea was so BLUE! ours was the last dhow to leave, only setting sail at about 12.30pm. and the water was rather choppy that after a while, we got quite tired of the rocking motion…

after about an hour, we arrived at a cove with a short stretch of sandy beach. here, we dropped anchor and are allowed to go for a swim in the water. people were just jumping down from the dhow into the sea, even though the dhow was quite high…

the dhow operators also prepared speedboats to bring us to shore, but they refused to bring the boat closer to shore (like some of the other operators), so we had to wade to shore and get our shorts wet up till our thighs. and it was really crowded there on the beach, plus there weren’t any place for us to sit (other than on the sand), so we decided to go back onto the dhow.

initially, my colleague and i had planned on going for a dip, but as only i alone wore my swimsuit under my clothes and the toilet facility was rather icky, my colleague lost her mood to change into her bikini. and without any kaki, i didn’t feel like swimming alone. so we just sat around, waiting for lunch to be served.

lunch was finally served at 2.50pm, coz they waited for everyone to come back on-board before starting lunch. i think they could’ve just let those of us already on-board to get started first, and those who went for a swim or to the shore can join in as and when they come back.

instead, we had to queue up for our food…

after lunch, we set off again for home, at about 3.30pm.

halfway, our dhow stopped right in the middle of the sea. we thought it had broken down, but actually they just stopped to allow us to do some fishing. fishing lines and baits were provided and a few people in the lower deck gave a few tries. but the sea was even more choppy than when we came and the dhow was rocking violently from side to side, that i felt like i was gonna vomit at any minute! do you think i’d have the mood to fish some more? i just wanna get moving, dammit!

here’s a video of how bad the dhow was rocking. imagine rocking like that for 1 hour plus. i was still feeling the rocking motion even after i’ve arrived home!

and the evening sun was streaming in that we kept changing our place on the deck trying to stay away from it!

all in all, i didn’t quite enjoy this trip. i should’ve thought of taking some seasickness medicine before going on-board, but other than the choppy waters, i think the dhow operators didn’t do a good job in the organization. i don’t think i’d be going there again… maybe to khasab, another part of musandam also famous for these dhow rides, but definitely not dibba!