One of my flatmates long ago planned this trip to Musandam, let us pay in advance, confirm us several times, organized the boats and the cars. It all looked so good. Yesterday is was easier than expected to get everybody out of bed and ready to leave. The idea was to leave at 9 am, get to Musandam in like max. 3 hours and get on the boats at 1 pm.
We left the house only with half an hour delay. AWSOME!!!!

I was in the car with Daniel, my German friend and my other friends all from my flat. The trouble began at the first stop at the gas station 3 minutes away from our house. We left one car behind at the gas station. They were completely lost and didnt know how to find their right way. So Franck, our organizer, went back to fetch them and told us to already head to the border to meet there.
My friend Daniel told me several times that he knew his way to the border so off we went… We passed several signs which said “Hatta, Oman”… At some point i wondered that the street looked the same as the one time we went to Muscat, but i didnt really care, as i was sure he knew where we had to go. Only at the border, after an 3 hours ride, we noticed that we indeed were at the Muscat border, which was totally wrong. Obviously my friend never checked where Musandam is and thought Oman is Oman after all.
Musandam is a little pensinsula belonging to Oman but totally surrounded by the UAE and not connected to the “other/real” Oman. The idea never crossed my mind that he didnt check where we would be going. Well it was too late for that. The one to blame this time was myself. The atmosphere in the car was not at all the happy joyful roadtrip atmosphere anymore. What to do? There was still some time to try to get to the right border. We just had to drive through the whole country to the other side. But well, we might as well try. So the adventure began. As always we passed millions of roundabouts with the wrong signs or no signs at all but with 6 differet exits. We got lost on almost every single on of them and had to ask our way around.
It was getting later and later. We knew that 2 boats were booked for us, so one boat could leave on time with the rest of the people and one could wait for us and leave a little later.
The ”little later” was a 2 1/2 hours delay in the end. Obviously we werent the only idiots of the group. One guy in one of the other cars only had passport copies with him and not his passport. Needless to say that he couldnt cross the border and had to go back. So many people here assume that its the same way here to cross a border as it is in the EU…
Finally we arrived at the meeting point at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Chasab, just to find out that about 60 people had been waiting for us to arrive. The other beat DIDNT leave with them.
You might imagine the looks that we got from those people.

But we did end up on the boats and had a really good time there. Although we didnt see dolphins (AGAIN). Musandam is famous for its dolphins. Only i am not lucky to see them. Neither when i went there with my parents years ago (i dont count the old crippled dolphin that only swam UNDER our boat and therefore was almost impossible to see) nor yesterday.
We stopped several times to have a swim in the sea, the last time at night illuminated only by the light of the fullmoon…
Happy and exhausted we arrived back on the shore at 10 pm to start our way back to Dubai.
Shortly before the border i rememberd that i had hung up my bathing suit on the boat to let it dry. And of course this is where it still hangs.
Do i have to mention that it was the newest and nicest one i had? …

I went out to my favourite bar here in Dubai, called Barasti in Dubai Marina, a bar right at the beach packed with EXPATS, with my German friends to see the game Germany against Turkey. I was totally surprised that the Turks outnumberd the Germans by war. I had no idea that there were so many of them here. But thats Dubai, simply everybody is here.
The Turks not only outnumbered the Germans they drowned them out as well. TURKIYE TURKIYE…. Screaming, jumping, dancing… My friends were the only ones trying to keep up with them. But what two little voices do against a whole choir?!
Only when the Germany made their first goal you suddenly noticed that there actually were some more German fans after all.

For you to imagine the whole scenery. We all sat on the grass outside the restaurant infront of the harbour with all the fancy yachts. Smoking shisha and having drinks.

Right when the game got to its climax we suddenly lost the direct connection to the game. DAMN. Then you saw people on the phone, jumping up and down, screaming and dancing. Confusion – did the Germans score, or the Turks? Oh who cares…
Thats Dubai – where you even get the end results from the live soccer coverage over the phone from home.

It was a fun night. As a neutral swiss i didnt care about the outgoing of the game anyways
But on Sunday i will cross my fingers for Spain. Sorry guys…

Maybe for once i dont start with my job right away but with my apartment. Right now i feel like im living in a refugee camp. Not only has some guy been sleeping in the hallway on a spare bed – so right when you come out of your room – hung over from too much partying the last night – you fall over him – this morning another guy was sleeping on the couch in the kitchen.
For those of you who dont know – im already living with 7 other poeple in this flat. Right now we are 12!!!! I have no idea how many more are coming… But it is definitely NOT relaxing. Not to mention the clash of cultures when French, German, Pakistanis, Canadians and French people are living together.
Unfortunatley is it still the only accommodation we can afford. One the of the only other options is International City, which is a huge complex in the middle of the desert, planned for some 60.000 people to live there. As located in the middle of nowhere you of course need a car to drive into Dubai. Another cost factor not to be underestimated. Ignoring the madness of Dubai traffic – a story of its own.

In terms of my job it is just not getting better.
As most of you already know i still havent started my theses yet. Two weeks ago i wrote an email to my boss explaining my problem to my boss. Due to either his lack of interest or his emmense travel agenda i havent gotten any response so far.
When it comes to the job itself i either don’t have anything to do at all or im helping out the others with their job. And it’s questionable if it will ever change.
Furthermore some power games are played in the background. Weird enough for an office of 7 people. There are attempts to play me off against my collegue and the other way round. At least that is the feeling I have so far.
So all in all its neither the job, nor the payment nor the environment I feel comfortable in.
Plus I seriously have to focus on finishing my thesis so I finally have my university degree.

So be prepared for me to come back home. Somehow I’ve started to say goodbye to Dubai, to my latest adventure. At least for the moment.

or the most chaotic camping trip…

On a normal boring hot Friday afternoon i was sitting on the balcony with Ryan, my Canadian flatmate and enjoying the peaceful quiet afternoon. He had to go and make a visa run (visa renewal by crossing the border to Oman) the next day and suddenly came up with the idea of how nice it would be to spend the night at the beach and make the visa run the next morning before returning to Dubai instead of making the whole trip on one day. And off we were to the next Carrefour (a french international hypermarket where you can just buy everything) to buy a tent, a candle and a torch. Back home we packed the car as fast as possible and headed towards Fujeira. At least that was the plan. Unfortunatley after one hour we hardly were out of Dubai. We underestimated the traffic on a Friday evening. After two hours of traffic jam we still were nowhwere and it was getting dark and it was getting hard to read the signs. At some points there were no signs anymore at all. Too bad when every intersection consits of a huge roundabout with 7 exits. Well streight always seemed to be a good option – at least until the paved road ended and we were suddenly driving offroad. We were driving in a Toyota Yaris by the way – so not the best car to make offroad adventures.
After hours of driving around blindly we finally found ourselves at the sea. YES at least now we knew where we were, although it wasnt the right direction. Flexibel as we are we changed our plan and decided to head streight up to Ras al Kheima, find a place to camp somewhere there and cross the border there. So far so good. We managed to find the raods until the border, the only problem we had: There was no beach ANYWHERE. When we reached the border is was like midnight and the border was deserted. As my passport was still with the immigration office i couldnt cross the border with Ryan, and he didnt want to leave me standing there alone in nowheresland. So no visa run for the day. But where to sleep and what to do? We decided to go back to the original plan and headed back to Fujeira anyways where Ryan knew a beach to camp.
Driving through the mountains at night with a full moon shining on us was amazing. Quite the experience. After 9 hours in the car and passing through 6 of the 7 Emirates we finally arrived at the beach.
The beach was like a 200 m wide beach, next to the road and therefor lit by the streetlights and right next to a Hotel. And we again forgot that it was a Friday – the whole beach was full of garbage. At least we had enough light to put up the tent. The glass is always half full.
At least till I found out that i forgot my swimmsuit back home. Nice…
Well exhausted as we were it wasnt a problem to fall asleep – until the sun was burning hot at like 6.30 am in the morning. Plus a whole group of Filiponos decided that this was the time to start a picknick at the beach. I have never heard a group of girls screaming like them. No way we could continue sleeping. Furthermore some Indians were walking around the beach cleaning up the Friday mess.
Totally tired and exhausted we decided that packing and heading back to Dubai to get some breakfast wouldbe our best option. On our way back we found – of course – a really nice beach off the road with palmtrees and no Filipinis. At least we didnt get lost on our way back. The shower and the bed have never been so comfortable.

The next trip can only get better!

This after all is the perfect opportunity to finally write about my trip to SALALAH…

So for the ones of you who still have no clue where or what this is let me enlighten you. Salalah is a small city in the very south of Oman close to the boarder of Yemen. It is somehow famous as it’s the only region on the whole Arabian Peninsula that has Monsoon rains in August/September. So all the Arabs go there during this time to experience the magic experience of rain.

As we are Europeans theres no need for us to go there during the Monsoon days. We do prefer the sun and the beach at least for the moment. .

This time it was only Audrey and me. When we found some cheap flights in the internet we took the opportunity, took one day off from work and booked it.

So last Thursday finally it was time to pack our bags and get ready for the trip. Thanks god we planned in the hassle of finding a taxi in Dubai as it took us nearly an hour to find an empty one. Finally in the car the driver asked us if we flew Terminal 1 or Terminal 2. HUH????? There are 2 terminals? We didn’t know. Almost out of credits and out of batteries we tried our best by calling the airlines office, the airport and several of our friends to find out from where our plane leaves as it was not written on the 10 page printout of the ticket. But thanks to the help of our friends we found out that we had to go to Terminal 1. Ufff… relieve… Once at the airport boarding time passed by and still nobody was at the counter and no plane at our gate. After an hour someone finally informed us that our plane was late for at least one hour. What a start…
But everything else went smooth so we landed in Salalah 2 hours later than planed. I have never seen as relaxed people as Omanis. The passport control procedure takes FOREVER. They don’t have computers and write down everything in a big book. Very traditional those people!!!!

So our plan for the evening was to find a travel office to book our day trip for the next days as we wanted to see the sights around Salalah. The tours the office itself offered us were very expensive – but they organized another guide – a freelancer – who was willing to take us for the price we were willing to pay.
Our guide happened to be a taxi driver as well and offered us a free ride around the city. This ride lasted for the rest of the evening, including a complete city tour, traditional Omani dinner (which he payed), drinking fresh coconut milk in between and shisha in the end. That was all pretty nice of him but we didn’t wanna end up having to pay for a 2 day trip. I’ve experienced it before.
But he kept on telling us that the amount we payed for the the one day was more than enough and he was doing this for us to have a good time. Hm… ok… whatever…
So next day bright and early we left for our little tour. First we got to see the sights of East Salalah which included an old Fort, a Mausoleum of some relative of Prophet Mohammad, some ruins and an old port in one of the cities. Then we went up into the mountains, cruising around for ever and ever while enjoying the fantastic scenery before we headed west to see the frankincense trees and the blow holes. On our way back to the city we took a refreshing swim in the sea. Unline Dubai there were huge waves which made swimming quite some fight with the water.
Back into town we finally went to the souq to spend all our money on scarves, frankincense’s and jewelry. Of course we ended up spending far more money than we intended to but who knows if and when you will ever be back in Salalah. We ended our day with a great simple meal in the middle of the city.

The whole day we were listening to the same 10 cheesy 80s love songs from the cassette (!!!) in the car…
We had a great time with our guide who took us everywhere we wanted though at some point he got a bit too intimate with us when he started to ask very personal questions. We got a bit uneasy in his presence and had to think about how to make it clear to him that the next day we wanted to spend some time at the beach WITHOUT him…
But it was easier than expected and we set up a date to have one last lunch with him before leaving for the airport. So next morning we started our walk in search of the perfect beach we saw the first night we arrived. After one hour of walking in the sun we found it. White sandy beaches, palm tress… We felt a bit like Robinson Crusoe on his island as there we were the only people on the whole beach. PARADISE!!!!

So we enjoyed our peace and quiet time at the beach before we had to return to busy and noisy Dubai.

The farewell from our new best friend went easier than expected.

So after all it was an amazing trip with excitement and relaxation and we can’t wait to get to plan our next trip to Oman.

Is there any progress concerning my work? Hardly…
I dont have work right now – but i least i got fed with popcorn. (Have i mentioned before that i urgently need to buy running shoes so i can hit the treadmill again?)
Today no customers are in the office. My boss is on a business trip in Italy. So everybody is taking it VERY slowly and relaxed….
Should i complain? At least i have an email address and internet access. Oh… no phone so far…
But i keep telling myself that it can only get better… the deadline for this will be after one month. Thats the limit i want to deal with boredom. There were days were i was busy. You cant call it challenging work – but at least i was busy. So lets hope today again is an exception.

At home we got a new flatmate…. nothing bad so far to tell about her… except that she arrived with her mother (the girl is 28). So right now we have a small mummy issue in our flat. We are all poor and young… and the flat is not the most luxurious one. Believe it or not we can cope without a kettle… in total emergencies we can boil water on the stove. There IS a microwave to heat up water for a coffee or tea too. If you ignore the fact that our toaster looks a bit disgusting, it toasts the toast good enough and the washing mashine at least works if u sit next to it and push the button for the next programm every 15 minutes.
We learn how to take it with a smile

Its just not the place your mummy fits in.

So far i have been the lucky one to show her how to heat the water in the microwave and where to switch on the oven. (isnt a mummy supposed to know that???)

Yesterday there was the big issue (again it was me sitting in the kitchen at the time of the discovery) that someone took her cheese bought the day before. Thats not the way its supposed to be. You cannot just eat the cheese of other persons, at least ask if u want some… Did i mention that we are living with 7-9, depending on visitors, people living in one flat? So it can happen you use the stuff thats in the fridge… as long as its the basics no big deal…
Mummy thought so differently and even woke up one of my flatmates to ask him if he was the one…

Do i have to mention that we all got an email from the person responsible for the flats, that stuff from the fridge has been missing…

The cheese indeed is a big issue compared to the laptop that went missing last week and surprisingly turned up in the trash in the stairway …

Wednesday Mummy is supposed to leave. Then again there will be Peace and rest in our flat.

 But some days ago i found another amazing place, an Iranian restaurant around the corner. A very tiny place, with old pictures from Dubai (meaning Dubai 15 years ago) on the wall, owened by two iranian brothers, one of them a former body builder. The food itself was fine but the whole atmosphere was pure entertainment. They were joking and fooling around with us during the whole dinner. I enjoyed every second i spent in that restaurant.
And there were even locals having dinner there. That it so extraordinary in Dubai to see them somewhere “normal” having normal dinner and not in a GUCCI store or driving their HUMMER.

So whoever wants to come for a visit… be prepared for some fun dinner at this place.

View from our balcony on the morning when the storages in Al Quoz blew up.
The sky was all black from the smoke and people first were panic-sticken that some terrorist attact might have happend.

I finally got my email adress from work today plus a guy from the bank HSBC was here as i will get a local bank account. Finally feels like I am settling in… Unfortunately I still dont have work – so finally I have time to write about our Oman trip last weekend. One step at a time…

We were 8 people on the trip. My landlord and his Italian girlfriend/wife (I’m not sure about their status) 3 of my flatmates, one girl from the flat upstairs and another French guy. The trip started fine at 6 am in the morning, we were early at the border, didnt have to line up for a long time, got our visas and the car insurances and could continue Muscat.
Close to Muscat the problems started to appear. Cause obviously Shahid, our landlord had some other plan in mind than the rest of us. He wanted to stay in a fancy Hotel and started looking for one somewhere in the outskirts of Muscat without really knowing where to go… (we weren’t asked about asked about our opinion at all) so while driving around in circles the fight between him and his gilrfriend/wife started… and didnt stop. After what seemed to be hours we finally could convince him that all of us wanted to stay somewhere cheap close to the center… Then we started looking for a beach and the whole driving around without any clue where to go started all over… I have no clue how many wrong turns we took… But we did find some beach in the end and even were lucky not to pay anything. Unfortunately the sun was already down so we soon had to head back to the hotel and the whole arguing started another time about where to have dinner… not to mention that we took the wrong road back from the beach and were lost one more time…
But in the end we had some decent dinner and we found the market/souq to walk around… which at this time already closed down.

So next day we decided to change plans and split up into smaller groups so everybody could do their own thing and was happy in the end…
I ended up wandering around the city with Audrey, the French girl from upstairs, as we both had the same idea about how we wanted to spend the little time we had. The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining so we went to discover the city. Only once we were disturbed by a yound Omani guy following us in his car trying to hit on us… but after several turns and twist we got rid of him as well…
We went back  to the market where we spent hours bargaining for the scarves made in Oman… too many colours from which to decide…. but in the end we were successfull and broke… After lunch we headed back to Dubai where we had fantastic cheap Pakistani dinner.
As we only have two bathrooms in our flat the only fight we had was who could shower the sand and dirt off first…

I loved Oman. Its not the most exciting place to be but its a beautiful place to be. The landscape is amazing and the people are so layed back, relaxed and friendly. If you live in Dubai its amazing to see locals working as Taxi drivers and in the supermarkets… actually amazing to see locals at all. All dressed up in their traditional local style. All of us girls decided unanimously that the Omani man are pretty handsome.
Definitely a place where you can relax from Dubai – the city that never sleeps… and definitely worth a visit!