Day 89 - Monday March 27 Fujairah, UAE around 1pm

Fujairah photos
position at 7:15am: N15 00.49 latitude E56 37.32 longitude
(About 60 miles N of Fujairah, our next port)
temperature: 73F, 97% humidity, sunny
distance since FLL: 28,654 miles
Here is the description of ship tour we are taking today.
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Duration: 4 Hours.
Seated.

Departing the port area you will drive to the center of the city, where most of the main sights are located in a fairly compact area. The main business area is Hamad Bin Abdulla Road, where you will find banks, the post office and the central market. Your tour will start with a short panoramic drive through Fujairah, making a visit to the Museum and the Old Town.
The Fujairah Museum is one of the newest in the UAE, only having opened in 1991. There are two main galleries, archaeology and an ethnographic display. The archaeological gallery features items from the digs at Badiyah, Qidfa and Bithna. One item of particular interest is the container made from an ostrich egg. The ethnographic gallery features old photographs, weapons, tools, clothing and household articles.
Driving a short distance to the Old Town, there is a 300-year-old fort, which overlooks the ruins of old Fujairah. Some restoration is ongoing in the Old Town and at the Fort, and it may be difficult to gain access. Depart the Old Town and drive by the Palace, the residence of the ruler of Fujairah.
Drive to the Heritage Village in Fujairah and observe the local women at work on various craft items. From here, head out of town for a drive up to Bithna Oasis in the mountains, 12 kilometers outside of Fujairah. You will stop for a photograph of this lovely view.
Your coach will continue to the "Friday Market" outside Masafi, where pottery, craft and carpets may be bought, before driving through the mountains, the highest of these at 792 meters, before stopping at a canyon for a photograph. Continue along the same road to a 'wadi', (dried up riverbed), through which water flows year round. You will leave the wadi and go on to the coastal town of Dibba, before stopping at the tiny Bidiyah Mosque, the oldest mosque in the UAE. A photo stop will be made outside the mosque, before continuing to Khorfakkan, an enclave of the emirate of Sharjah. From here drive the short distance to the pier to board the ship.
Please note: All guests need to dress modestly with skirts below the knees or trousers and shirts or blouses with sleeves. The tour sequence may vary to avoid congestion at the venues.

Program Pricing
Adult: $99.00.

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The seas were very calm overnight and it was very pleasant on deck this morning. Clay was into his third mile before anyone else arrived on deck, and when he finished, there were only two other people there. The temperature was in the high 60's and there was a litle breeze. We ate breakfast up in LaVeranda. There were chocolate croissants for Debbie and Clay had cereal. Debbie got a big bowl of raspberries from her new buddy behind the buffet. She noted that there was no oatmeal today, but what looked like either cream of wheat or grits. Presumably, it was cream of wheat. But, that will mess with Debbie's regular breakfast if oatmeal is now off the buffet. Debbie is still fighting her chest congestion and has a fever, so she rested up during the morning so she would be fresh for our ship's tour in Fujairah.
Around 11:00am, we slowed and took on a pilot, so Clay went up to deck 12 to watch the sail-in from his regular position. He did not want to waste his bridge sail-in invitation on this port. We were docked on the starboard side by 11:30am and then we went down to Compass Rose which was opening at 11:30 for an early lunch so people could make their tour times and still have lunch. We ordered by 11:35am. Clay got his regular burger and Debbie got her regular turkey sandwich. Then we waited, and waited, and waited. We saw people get their food, eat it, and leave. So, just after 12, Clay lost his patience and flagged down one of the head waiters to ask him to check on our order. Another head waiter appeared with our order within 3 minutes of a conference between the 2 head waiters. Good thing Clay got impatient, our order might never have come out otherwise.
We got down to the dock and were welcomed by what looked like a troop of Boy Scouts. They were handing out small pottery pots provided by Fujairah Port. It was a nice little welcome. We got on the 2nd of several buses doing this particular tour. We left the dock around 12:45pm and went directly to the Fujairah Museum where we were turned loose for 20 minutes to browse the museum on our own. The other buses there were lead through the exhibits by their guide. They had many ancient pieces (~4500 years old) as well as some more recent pieces found in some 1500-year old tombs in the area. Our next stop was a photo op at the Fujairah Fort. Then we drove about an hour to see the Friday Market. (Dubai's souks are not in danger from this market!) This is apparently a spot on a highway called Friday Market and there are machine-made rugs and fruits and vegetables, etc. sold there everyday of the week. We had a snafu with a passenger miscount and were the last bus to leave here after far too long a stay. The guide and driver both said we were 1 person short, not 37. Debbie got up and counted after they went out to search for a missing passenger and told the RSSC rep that she counted 37. Including, the RSSC rep. Yep. The RSSC rep counted again and confirmed Debbie's count. The RSSC rep got the guide and driver back and another count took place. All aboard and we left after a good 10 minutes of head counting in the blazing sun. After another 30 minutes or so, we arrived to unload at the UAE's version of the Grand Canyon, a dry wadi. You could see goats at the bottom with the naked eye so it wasn't too large. Then we drove another 30 minutes to see the Bidiya Mosque. This is the oldest mosque in the UAE, some 400 years old. We were there right as there was a call to prayer, so we could not go inside. There was a restroom there. One room, 3 stalls, 2 sinks. 2 western toilets and 1 eastern. The women ceded the 1 eastern stall to the men and we all used the same restroom. There were some old watchtowers on the hilltops over the mosque and Clay went up to take pictures. Not sure what happened here, but our guide bathed himself (face, arms up to the elbows and feet up to the knees) in a tile footwashing room at the restroom, put his socks and shoes back on, and then vanished. By the time, the bus driver blew the horn to roust him 10 minutes after the time he told us to be back on the bus, we had lost another woman passenger and the RSSC escort who went to search for her. No idea what happened here. It was a very small and contained physical area. We stopped for a last photo op at a new-looking strip mall of bank branches overlooking the Gulf of Oman. Again, not sure what was going on here. There was nothing photo-worthy. Then we headed back to the ship, arriving about 5pm. It was far too long for many people on the bus! (We did not go to the heritage village listed in the tour description and there was no explanation for this omission.)
In general, Fujairah looks a lot like El Paso, TX, but without the population. Desert with rocky mountains all round. Fujairah may be a little dryer than El Paso, and it has better roads. But they do share the same geological look. In all honesty, there was not much to show off here and had we not been on the tour we would not even have had a drive through the countryside. It took us through parts of Sharjah, a neighboring emirate, and past parts of an Omani enclave that is cut off from the rest of Oman by Fujairah and this part of Oman controls the Strait of Hormuz. So, it was somewhat interesting. This emirate is the second poorest of the seven United Emirates and it showed. The ship's shuttle took people to Lulu Hypermarket and people who did not tour and went into town on the shuttle said it was an enormous, amazing store with everything you could ever want and excellent prices. So, some people who have been onboard for a while had a nice restocking opportunity. We are happy that we took the tour, such as it was.
Sail away was on time and smooth sailing so far. Tonight was Country Club Casual. We showered and changed and went down to Compass Rose because they had chocolate souffle on the menu tonight. Debbie's taster is not working too well and she hasn't much appetite, but together we finished off the souffle. We hope to continue smooth sailing. Tomorrow is an early morning arrival in Muscat. We have a 4-hour morning tour there. The newsletter says that there is a strong taxi drivers union here so no shuttles and that because of the lock they have they also are very expensive. The newsletter quotes $15USD for a 2 mile ride to the closest area of interest. (In Dubai, the same length ride was only $3-5USD.) We are here for a 10-hour day, but that will probably preclude us doing any other exploring in Muscat outside our tour, so we will keep our fingers crossed that this will be an excellent tour. The Captain told us last night that if we were not going on tour here that we should go to the Al-Bustan Palace Hotel. He said it is quite stunning to approach and wonderful inside as well. He told us that next year's World Cruise cocktail party will be held there instead of in Dubai at the Burj-al-Arab Hotel. Given the taxi prices here and Debbie still not feeling well, we will probably not make the trip out to visit the hotel.
Fujairah photos