Paul & Libby’s World of Travel

Well, after nearly a sleepless night for me (to bed at 3am; up by 6:30am–perhaps I’m not over the jet lag?), we departed Brilliance around 8am. Disembarkation was about as painless as could be. We exited our cabin, grabbed an empty elevator, went down six decks, walked right off to the pier, straight through the terminal building, and into a waiting taxi. Cabin to taxi: maybe 5 minutes? Wonderful.

We then headed to the airport to pick-up our car from Hertz.

Confession time: despite a calm exterior, I developed some mild trepidation about the day’s journey. First, while the trip has generally been hazy due to wind, today we awoke to a fairly significant sandstorm. Visibility wasn’t too bad in Dubai, but I had no idea what conditions we might eventually face. Second, Hertz didn’t have any available GPS units (despite my requesting one). We had a couple of low fidelity maps with us, but Libby’s not much of an experienced navigator. No matter, I could have had Ferdinand Magellan as my navigator — the maps were pretty much useless. So, I made a lot of statements like “which exit should I take from this roundabout? I don’t see a sign.” Who knows!

Thus, I drove from the Dubai Airport to the Hilton Ras Al-Khaimah pretty much by instinct. How’d I do? Well, other than circling the airport once when trying to exit and making a u-turn to take a different route through downtown RAK (which I later learned wasn’t required), I faired very well. Somehow, I lost the E-11 route in Sharjah (which would have been closer to the coast, more scenic, and leisurely), but I managed to easily find and take the E-311 Emirates Road (which is the preferred route according to Google maps anyway). We sped through the desert in our Volvo S60, passing through three new emirates in about an hour (Sharjah, Ajman, and Umm Al Quwain) before arriving in RAK. What a haul of countries! Too bad they all looked (other than Sharjah close to Dubai) nearly indistinguishable. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep us on the E-11 tomorrow when returning to Dubai, and we’ll see a bit more of each one.

Here’s a map that I updated from Google that highlights our route (in yellow) and helps to better show the boundaries (outlined in orange) between the various emirates (circled in red) that we drove through today – from Sharjah, through tiny Ajman, then Umm Al Quwain, and eventually into Ras Al-Khaimah.

The Hilton Ras Al-Khaimah Resort and Spa seems idyllic. We were upgraded to a Junior Suite out in the resort’s villa section, which line a private (suites only) beach that’s shaped like a crescent moon. We have a unit—decorated in a very charming Arabesque style—with a separate living room and master bedroom, as well as a large balcony overlooking the Gulf. We can literally walk down the stairs and right out onto the beach. As I’m writing this post, I’m listening to waves crash along the shore through the open veranda doors, while Libby’s reading from her Kindle on the balcony.

There’s an upscale, beachside bar for drinks and snacks about a hundred yards from our villa, where we had an excellent light lunch and perhaps the best iced coffee of my life (made with coffee flavored ice cream). We strolled around the resort and walked in the (surprisingly chilly) surf. While writing the post, we just had a fruit basket delivered – a welcome for being a HiltonHonors member. I expected the resort to be nice, but this is positively blissful for less than $175/night.

Tonight, we ate at Al Bahar, the resort’s seafood restaurant (one of a half dozen or more choices on the property), up near the hotel’s main saltwater and freshwater pools, which meander through a flower and palm tree filled courtyard. Like the rest of the food we’ve had at the resort, it was surprisingly good. Here’s a photo of my red snapper on a bed of onion and pumpkin:

Today’s box score: +4 countries (Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, and Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE)