Today we have our 3rd evening in the Emirates and it feels like we have been here already for weeks.

On 27/10 we finally arrived at the harbor of Sharjah and after a very unorganized passport control, we were allowed to enter this amazing country.

Huge skyscrapers were accompanying us alongside the roads to our Ibis Styles hotel and after checking in, we could park our bikes in the garage.

After settlement we took a taxi to Linda, a school friend of Maurice and were invited to meet her local friends in the desert for a delicious BBQ.

Those guys & Marie are members of a Jeep Wrangler Sport association and drive their pimped cars through the desert dunes. The meat and shrimps were cooked to perfection and a welcome alternative to all the kebab with rice in Iran?. It wasn’t until 3 o’clock in the night before we were heading to our hotel again.

Yesterday we made a backup of all our pictures and Marie & her ‘shababs’ (Arabic for guys) decided to show us how to drive a 412 hp Jeep over the huge dunes in the desert close to the border of Oman.

What an experience!!! It takes you about a year to learn how to drive in this funny environment and bring back the Jeep without too much damages.

Linda and Nicolas (another school friend of Maurice from Hotel Management School Maastricht and both employed in the Emirates) joined us during the long dune rally and we were very impressed by the skills of the 6 drivers. Of course there was tea (zaatar) somewhere in the middle of the desert and we could also witness a flat tire and a Jeep which needed a little tow to move on.

 

It was already dark when we returned to the normal street (there is a tire inflating service, because you have to release the pressure to 6-7 psi for sand driving).

Together with Linda and Nicolas, we ate a huge tomahawk steak in the Hide before we left for our hotel and a very very deep sleep ?.

This morning after breakfast we dived into the Persian Gulf wich has a superb temperature at this moment. Surrounded by the famous Burj Khalifa (with 829 meters the highest building in the world) and the Burj Al Arab Hotel (for only $ 50.000,-/Penthouse/night the most expensive hotel in the world with 7 stars), we had a real relaxing day off and now it’s time to prepare already for our next track.

We bought already some survival food and tomorrow we will start biking to the north of the Emirates and Oman to return in about one week to Dubai again in order to meet with bikers from the Yas cycles association. They will guide us to the luxury Westin hotel in Abu Dhabi, where we are kindly invited to stay for two days!