23 February 2013

Arabian Adventure - Final part

Day 6


Gooooood morning  Oman


OOOOOoooooooooooooooooo


After breakfast


On the bike....



Past cliffs


And the sea.....


Back onto this awesome road....


Today the sun is behind us....


The views are clearer......


And sharper....



look carefully...can you see the zig zag road ahead....



Much clearer huh...



Beautiful...


Isn't it  :-)


Look at that , mountains ,sea and road. All perfect.....




A small village along the way....



Very small...



A fort in an isolated town...


See the cliffs, the road is along it  :-) :-)      alllllllll the way




One of the bigger towns... 


Bye bye Oman. You were amazing


Back in UAE, from mountains....


To the sandy desert...


From Ras Al Khaimah

We're headed to Ghantoot ,near Abu Dhabi....


Short R&R as this ride was about 400km.


Arabic KFC with camel burger ???   ;-)


Back to the magnificient freeways


Too far to see, but those white specks are SUVs playing in the dunes


On the bike .........



We've to ride past the whole of Dubai


Love seeing other cultures...


Dubailand ???


Heading south west...


Into the sun....



Finally Ghantoot...



Home for tonight...


The sea canal next to the hotel  



Traditional Architecture....



We took a walk along the 7km canal.



Not the whole distance though...


Hotel.....with its own air bridge ??
Eye  oso don no  :-)


Long day riding. From Oman into the south of UAE.
Time to relax  :-)



Day 7

Today is an interesting ride.....



And interesting destination....




With an interesting view ;-)


Imagine with the scenery like this, it was so nice and cool



On the way to the mountains



Scenery changing



Sand to mountains



Now we climb... the Al Ain mountain range


At the base.....



Of some of the best driving and riding roads in the world....


Welcome to Jebel Hafeet  ( Mount Hafeet )


Perfect surface....



1/3 up


Unfortunately i was 2 up


On a Goldwing.....
If  a sport bike....oh man :-)


Soon we reached the top...




And our digs...


Not too bad...


Nice room....
But the attraction is at the balcony  ;-)



WOW  




We're quite high up. 1200m i think


OOOooooooooooooo


After freshening up. Time to look around


Dinner ?  ...Hmmmmmm


Checkout the amusement ride....


Nice pool...


crazy huh.....


The view all around...



As we had lunch...



nice huh...


Just don't drop anything  :-)


Most of the time was spent on our balcony...


Once it got dark....


It got amazing  :-)


Day 8

Wife insisted again  


Downhill today...


I've got a lot of inertia   



puts Genting to shame


Perfectly smooth roads...


Look at that la...




So cool ......


See how amazing the road surface is ?



What a ride 


Going there....





And the view  :-)


Twisty  :-)


Almost at the base...........Damn


So beautiful , this road is



Ah well.....


Heading to the highway....


To some place different.....


Sights of the rocky cliffs





Passing a small town



Actually not so small...duh


Today we're headed to Bab Al Shams



130kmph here..... 


Perfect cruising speed for this bike.... 




I think the shrubs along the roads are planted to prevent the sand getting onto the road....




Today is desert day...



Straight roads...


Jump off a plane ??


Off the highway here.....


No hunting .....


Nice.....


Now we're riding into the desert proper.....


You'll see a lot of this


Caravan  :-)


So cool..............



Riding into the desert proper



Cool huh.....


Arabian horses are so expensive


Off road on a Goldwing  :-)


Ok , this one i asked her to take  :-P


My baby in the Arabian desert   :-)



Adventure.......


Team Griffin   :-) :-) :-)


Back on the road, where the roads suddenly ends???


U turn and find our way. See the sand being blown across the road ?
So cool




Desolate...



Almost there...



Here we come....



To our oasis in the desert..



This place is so cool


Its built like a desert fort.....


With its courtyards and grooves....


Fountains and cul de sacs


so cool ....



Really like an oasis.Being escorted to our rooms.....


Though alleyways


Courtyards......


Finally...


Nice room....


Like a Sheikhs tent



our surroundings...


Sheikh Al Bunny   :-P


After freshening up....


We went to get some food



Have to find the place.....


Got lost a bit  :-)


But what a place to get lost  in  :-)



Amazing place....


Nice huh


The internal oasis...



Feel like a Sheikh myself  :-)


Tea sir ?


Multi level pool





Lower level.....



With the infinity pool overlooking the desert


finally....


Time for food  :-)


Walking to the lobby after lunch


So cool.....


The lobby ........also so cool  :-)



We were taken to here


for our desert adventure.


From Vietnam to the middle east  


So cool


Land rover of course....



Us   :-)


Beautiful huh


Footprints in the sand



see those white things ahead




Meet the desert Oryx



Meet some locals


And the king of the desert




and the ship of the desert


We had a demonstration of the falcon



As the sun set


Desert sunset and the falcon


As its our last day


Now what ?


Time for some desert hospitality


Bedouin tents



Courtyard of the vilage


So cool....



Lets go check it out


Its really high up here


A really cool experience


Nice huh


Bigger than it looks


Time for dinner.
Traditional meal...


For the ladies   :-)


After the desert experience.
After the camel ride.
After the Bedouin meal.
Time for entertainment  :-)


Dervishes



What a way to end the day and the trip.


Oh wait...lets do the other side also  :-P



When i came here i didn't know what to expect.But the people of UAE and Oman were so friendly and welcoming that ,  that one thing made the trip amazing.
Thats why i like to ride alone or in small groups.You meet the people  :-)
From the ultramodern cities ,to the sea ,to Oman ,to the mountains and finally ending in the desert.
All of this had its own experiences and all were awesome.

I knew the Goldwing was a good bike and handles well. What i didn't know was how well and in what level of comfort. I ride an FJR which is a very comfortable.But its worlds apart.
Great bike.I'll keep the FJR thank you...

All the ''on the bike'' shots were taken by my wife.Good shots huh...

It was an amazing ride in 2 amazing countries.
More soon.

Cheers  :-)