Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (16.02. - 18.02.2009)

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. When reading various Travel Guides it is often referred to as the forbidden Kingdom, since getting a visa as an individual tourist is hard. Claudia started calling the Saudi embassy in the mid of November but it was nearly impossible to reach anybody. We found out that the reason is the upcoming Hajj. So we decide to visit them late December when the busy time is over. The embassy in Dubai is an impressive complex. We reach it a few minutes before 12 but at a wrong gate. When the guard hears that we are German he calls the visa office and announces us since they close at 12. We will notice again and again that being German makes things easier in this part of the world. After entering the visa department and a 45 minutes wait we talk to one of the office stuff to find out what documents are required. We don’t understand right away what we need to bring so the guy seems to get tired and gives us a telephone number to call for additional information. It turns out to be a visa agent. When visiting their office we are told which documents to bring and that we need to have a Jordan visa before we can apply for the Saudi visa. Moreover, we are informed that the easiest is to get a 3 days transit visa. A tourist visa for a longer time would require an approval from the Ministry of Interior for Claudia and that can take time!! To cut it short, we decide for the transit visa and after a visit to the Jordan embassy and some additional visits to the visa agent we get the visa within 7 days. This is a real relief, since the only other way to get to our next stop Egypt would be through Iran.







So now we are approaching the Saudi border. After being told by friends that it is absolutely forbidden to bring in magazines with indecent dressed people, pork or alcohol and that they ask you to offload the content of the complete car we get prepared. We started the evening before to censor with a black marker our German magazines, and there is a lot to cover, and Thomas even considered emptying his after shave. Like often things that seem complicated are much easier than anticipated; within 45 minutes we have cleared the UAE border and have our Saudi stamp and car insurance. Customs only had a brief look at our cooler. No searching the car. Nothing!!

So - here we come Saudi Arabia. It is cloudy, a flat desert and the first buildings we see, a gas station with some shops, look like from the fifties but not maintained since then. So not the golden streets we expected and fancy buildings. Traffic is little and the highways are well maintained. As we continue our journey the roads get worse, big potholes, and often 2 lanes are closed for rebuilding the street. When we approach Damman traffic increases and we see the industrial backyard of Saudi. Not really a nice sight. As we continue the desert transforms and looks more than a light green savannah with tents of bedouines and their camel and sheep flocks in the background. With the increasing wind and dropping temperature it reminds us of pictures of Mongolia. We find a spot for our tent off the highway before the wind increases even more and thunderstorms with light rain start. Now we understand why they sell woollen galabayyas with a fur inside in the shops we passed. The next morning when we get up after a stormy night the thermometer shows -2 degrees.

The second day around noon a sandstorm starts and the visibility goes down to 100 meter maximum and we have to decrease speed to 80km/h since the automatic goes constantly in kick down mode. Shortly before dawn the wind gets less and we go off the road and set up our tent. We prepare for a windy and cold night. After 10 minutes sand is everywhere in the car as well as in the tent. The temperature drops quickly and at 7 pm we are already in bed. Luckily a little later the wind stops and we have a nice but cold night.

The next morning, we wake up under a blue sky and -2 degrees. We enjoy a coffee without sand for the first time in days and the warm sun.

The last 600 km of our 2000 km journey are covered within 6 hours and we approach the Jordan Border at 4 pm. Procedures are similar to the ones entering Saudi but require a little bit more running around and paperwork on the Jordan side. Due to a lot of cars and the hassle to change money and not to get a bad deal it takes two hours and we are in Jordan. Finally Claudia can change back to the normal dress code.

In the three days in Saudi we drove 1946 km and have seen desert, gas station, desert, gas station …..

By the way, thanks to all of you for your nice comments in our blog and via e-mail. It's always nice to hear from you and it's a big motivation to continue as well. Writing the blog is not as easy as we thought, since during daytime it's too bright for the computer, at night it's too cold or windy. So working on the blog is limited to the few hours we spend in hotels...

United Arab Emirates (09.02. - 15.02.2009)

The few days in the UAE made us love this country even more. Of course it’s due to our lovely stay with our friends who “pampered” us in every aspect. We arrange a couple of things with banks, visa issues, some shopping and just enjoying… Claudia becomes sentimental and it’s not easy to make her leave the Ibn Battuta Mall, a place she visited a hundred times before, all of a sudden realizing that it’s such a wonderful place… But after 2 days we finally leave, with not only one crying eye… Connie tries to convince us to stay, but if we don’t leave now, we don’t want to leave at all…

On our way south to Abu Dhabi, the temperature reaches 34 degrees, which makes us a little nervous: will we be hit by a sandstorm? Hopefully not, because we are going straight ahead of Rub al-Khali, the Empty Quarter, the biggest sand desert in the world.

On our way to Liwa, we pass by a fancy and crazy automobile museum. A rich Sheikh from Abu Dhabi has a collection of more than 200 cars, all the old cars from the first minicooper, the first Hummer, Toyota, Beetle, a rich collection of old offroad cars up to the biggest pickup truck in the world (Dodge). Normally the museum is open only on weekends, and today is Wednesday, but Shami Kumar, a very friendly and helpful Indian, lets us in through the back door, and a little bakshish even makes him show us the inside of the big Dodge: a big apartment with 4 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathrooms, absolutely incredible and crazy. And this truck was even able to drive, which it did for 29 kilometres! It’s really worth to visit the museum, even for people who are not interested in cars at all (like Claudia).

Only a few kilometres after the museum, we find a nice campsite between the sand dunes and are happy that the weather is absolutely quiet and nice. As we enjoy sitting in front of our tent, all of a sudden the storm comes! We cannot believe it! Within seconds, a very bad sandstorm is hitting us. We have to flee into the tent, where we find already little sand dunes. We are lying in our sleeping bags, watching how we are more and more covered by the sand. The wind is very strong and the next morning we hardly can believe the tent is still in an upright position. The weather is bad, still stormy, no visibility at all. Quickly we pack our things. Everything is full of sand (and we left Dubai soooooo clean!!). We hardly can see 50 metres and all of a sudden, like a Fata Morgana, 40 camels are standing around us. Five minutes later they are disappeared. Like a dream. The herdsman passes by and tells us that this is only the beginning, the storm will increase! How much we love him for these "good news"!!

On our way to the Liwa oasis, we almost see nothing, driving with light is required to be seen by other cars. After a lot of looking around for a quiet place, we finally find shelter for the day and the following night behind a nice farm where trees protect us against the storm. In the evening, two nice guys from Bangladesh, who run the farm, give us an insight of what they plant, invite us to their house which is just one room. They are very proud to show us an English DVD and after “enjoying” their hot milk, we leave and spend a very quiet night. Thanks God! The next morning, the wind is almost over, but we and the car are still full of sand.

Finally we can entry the Empty Quarter and find a truck road, leading us from Hameem south, through the enormous sand dunes. It’s a really breathtaking trip, and at the end we even hit the border to Saudi Arabia. Long kilometres of fence with barbed wire and a service road with tarmac! We didn’t think that we would come so close to Saudi Arabia! On our way back, we climb a 200 metres high sand dune. It’s not easy to climb, but going down is fascinating. Unfortunately the air is still full of sand which makes it difficult to take photos. To all our friends in Dubai: you absolutely have to come here! It’s a MUST. Even if you don’t leave the track, you see amazing dunes, however, good weather is a precondition. The next day we find another very beautiful road from Liwa city south to the Moneeb dunes. Amazing! The best we ever saw! It’s hard to leave the Empty Quarter, especially because the weather is finally nice now… On our way to Ruweis we spend another beautiful night in the dunes before heading north to the Saudi Border.

One last night in UAE which we spend at the beach in Sila, preparing for crossing the border tomorrow morning. Now we are well prepared to enter Saudi Arabia: We destroy all suspicious food, get rid of suspicious newspapers, empty Thomas’ aftershave, since any kind of alcohol is forbidden, last dress check for Claudia (black galabeyya) and finally, after 1 ½ years in the UAE, it’s time to say good-bye…

Total distance driven in the UAE 1214 km.

Oman (26.01. - 08.02.2009)

Bye bye Dubai – or „buy buy, do-buy“? We are in the middle of the Dubai Shopping Festival, and it’s a good time to leave, otherwise our travel budget is finished even before starting the trip. One last photo at the black palace beach, with a marvellous view of the Burj al Arab, and here we go.








During our trip to the Omani border, we are very quiet. Being a little sad is not the only reason. We are shocked! Shocked about our car which is hopelessly overloaded… packed up to the ceiling, not one single centimetre space left. And HEAVY!! If we don’t get rid of many things soon, we don’t know how to continue the trip. However, our depressed mood is blown away as soon as we reach the Omani border where once more we make the experience that Omani people are extremely friendly. We get our visa in no time and are treated in a very nice and friendly way. About 40 km after the border we find a nice place for our tent between the sand dunes. As soon as we settle down, the wind is getting stronger, and having the sand in the coffee, the mouth and everywhere makes our appetite “growing” for what is lying ahead of us. We eat only dry bread, not only because of the sandstorm, but also because we don’t know how to find anything in our chaotic car… The night is stormy and the tent doesn’t stop to make a rattling sound the whole night, but in the morning the storm is over and we are going ahead to the mountainous region in a good mood.














We are very happy to reach the Jebel Shams plateau, with a view to Oman’s highest mountain with 3.000 m. After a cold night (- 6 degrees) we start climbing it at sunrise, a real challenge, but it’s worth it. A beautiful view from the summit, walking in the snow, simply marvellous. We come back to our tent the moment the sun sets, after hiking 10 hours, 1.300 metres altitude and a distance of 23 km. Never in our life we were more exhausted, even too tired to eat (and that really never happened to us before). Just a hot soup, and at 7 pm we are in our sleeping bag, completely exhausted and freezing, even too tired to sleep. The next morning, it’s quite difficult to leave the tent due to our sore muscles, but we are very happy and proud of ourselves.























The Omani mountains are the cold-coffee-lovers’ country. As soon as the coffee is poured into the cup, it’s already cold, but it’s always a nice experience to see how to be happy with just a few things. Not having enough food on our yesterday’s hike, we were happy to eat just some spoons of honey…








From the mountainous region, we continue our trip, visit the very interesting Hotta caves, very huge caves with nice stalagtites and stalagmites, even a lake with a lot of blind fishes, before we continue to the desert. Ramlat al Wahiba (Wahiba sands) is an enormous desert with incredibly nice sand dunes. We find a campsite in the middle of the dunes. Amazing!!

The next day we go to Wadi Bin Khalid, beautiful freshwater pools where we enjoy some refreshing walks in the water before driving to the coast of the Arabian Gulf. In a very remote area we sleep behind the dunes with a beautiful view of the sea. Just some lonely fishermen cross our way. From there, we head 200 km to the South, following the coastline, a wonderful trip where the sand dunes of Ramlat al Wahiba reach into the Sea. At some places there is not even a track, and we have to decrease the pressure of our tires not to get stuck in the sometimes 100 metres high dunes. Some discussions if we should continue or not… almost the beginning of our first crisis…

































But at the end, we arrive at our destination, a nice place in the desert, where our friend “sandstorm” is already waiting for us… Camels are surrounding our tent, not understanding what these strange creatures are doing exactly under their tree…















When we leave the next morning, we have one of the most boring parts of our trip ahead of us. Endless kilometres of straight road, no tree, no dunes, no hills. We are very happy to see the first mountains in the distance, and even more happy when a breathtaking road takes us from 600 m to over 2000 m at the wonderful Sayq plateau. Another beautiful campsite at 2.300 metres, but while having our dinner, the temperature is already falling below 0 degrees. The following night turns out to be a nightmare. Storm of its best and terribly cold. We are happy when the night is over and we can quickly pack our things to go to the much warmer Muscat. High over the roofs of Muscat we find a nice campsite with a spectacular view over Muscat. It’s a wonderful moment when all the Muezzins of Muscat’s very beautiful mosques are calling for prayer at the same time. It makes us feel very comfortable to finally arrive in the real Arabic world…The next morning we make a nice trip with a small motorboat along the shoreline of Muscat. Ahmed, the owner of the boat, is laughing to see us holding tight to the boat, since the sea is very rough and we are about to fall overboard. However, we enjoy the beautiful view of the new hotels and bays along the shore… The rest of the day we spend in downtown, make a nice walk through the government quarter, the souk, and finally Carrefour. It’s nice, after almost 2 weeks, to be in another mall, enjoy junk food and free internet at Costa Café… but at the end of the day we are even happier to return to our quiet place above Muscat.

Muscat is one of the most beautiful Arabic cities we have ever seen. Very clean, very organized, a lot of very beautiful mosques and buildings, nothing compared to crazy Dubai… so we are sad to leave this nice place after another day and to continue our trip north along the sea. A last nice campsite in the mountains before we reach the UAE border at Al Ain, where we spend another day and another night close to Hatta before finally reaching Dubai.

Our lovely friends Connie and Hanspeter offered us warm beds with hot shower (obviously not knowing how packed and dirty we are). We spend 2 lovely days with them and really feel at home. Thanks a lot for your warm hospitality, Connie and Hanspeter, our dear friends. You really don’t make it easy for us to leave…

After the 14 wonderful days and 2700 km in Oman, we hope we are now well prepared to enter the Rub al-Khali, the Empty Quarter, the biggest desert in the world and from there on to Saudi Arabia.