Oh Babushka - trips within a trip - Thailand, UAE, Oman, Spain, Portugal, UAE again, Sri Lanka and Singapore

[Seat0B]

Friday 20 Dec 2024 - MAD-DXB EK142

Feeling like zombies, we easily navigated the metro back to the airport as this was now our fourth time. I can feel the beginnings of a headache. Takes me back to new parent levels of exhaustion!


Enjoyed the line jumping privileges of One world Emerald for speedy check in, and then made our way to Terminal 4S, which involved security, quite a walk, and inter-terminal train, , many escalators, immigration, and took almost 40 minutes in total. My toe is still very sore and I am limping.

Found our way to the Neptuno Lounge, which is a common use lounge shared by Emirates and a number of other airlines. The lounge was thronging with Spanish families heading off on their Christmas jaunts and the level of exuberance was very high, and the noise level was very loud, which did nothing for me emergent headache. The lounge was a nice space, but very crowded. We were soon joined by a voluble family with Grandma, Mum, Dad and 3 kids, who all crammed into the two seats available and then yelled at each other, with a few excited phone calls thrown into the mix.



The food and beverage offering was pretty average. It was morning, and there was no alcohol being served at that time, just a selection of juices and fizzy drinks. Food options were yoghurt, the dairy snack Americans call "pudding", and various sandwiches and rolls. There was also some cereal and a few sad looking plastic wrapped pastries like croissants.



First world problems, but hey I was grumpy.

The next adventure was getting to our gate. The boarding pass said Gate 23. The departure board said Gate 23. The announcement in the lounge said "passengers on EK142, please go to Gate 23 as soon as you are able." So, in a culturally deaf moment, we immediately left the lounge and headed for Gate 23. Another longish walk on my sore foot, and we walked past Gate 21 and Gate 22. Both of these were labelled EK142 and were heaving with people lined up, including a number of Emirates crew. Got to gate 23 and it was totally deserted. As in, there was no-one there but us. Looked out the window, and there was no aircraft at the gate. But there was an Emirates A380 at Gates 21/22. They must have changed the gate then. So over we went to Gate 21/22 and joined the Platinum priority boarding line. Waited there for 15 minutes. Our boarding passes were inspected by a gate agent and we were bounced - back to Gate 23 "that Gate is for Business Class passengers madam". So back to Gate 23, where there was now 1 person other than us, another very confused looking passenger. We waited another 10 mins or so, and a few more people started to arrive at Gate 23, including a friendly Spanish lady who laughed at our naivety in responding to the first boarding call. She said no one in Spain moves from the lounge until the 4th or 5th call, and that's probably why the gate wasn't open when we arrived, as they were not expecting us at that time!

Mystery solved, and soon we boarded and settled in. Decided I had no idea what the time actually was, and didn't really care, so accepted a glass of bubbles and a nice warm towel. Then I settled back to watch the rest of The Sympathizer. What a great series it was about the experiences of a double agent Viet Cong/South Vietnamese guy during the American War, with Vietnamese Australian actor Hoa Xuande in the lead role.


Dinner was the always delicious Arabic mezze platter followed by the seasonal main of roast turkey and veg, which wasn't great - quite dried out. Had a cheese plate for dessert, and a rather nice 2009 French red Chateau Something or other, but honestly, I've had better Aussie reds.



Napped for a few hours and then we landed in DXB. Arrival formalities were very smooth and we were through everything in a trice - around 40 minutes from exiting the aircraft to being on the airport concourse for collection by Seat Son and Almost DIL at 0100. They had been at a Christmas Party and so did not mind. We were delivered to our hotel, the Pullman Dubai Jumeirah Lakes Towers and checked into a very spacious studio style room - not quite a suite, but it has a separate sitting, reading and working space, and a large entry foyer.

Enjoyed a long hot shower, a cuppa and off to bed by about 0230 local. I am sure I will sleep well tonight.

 

[Seat0B]

Saturday 21 December 2024 - Dubai - a very short day

Slept. And slept. And slept some more.

Woke for the day at 1430 - yes I literally slept the clock around.

Had a quick bowl of muesli in the room as hotel breakfast was long finished at 1100

Seat Son and Almost DIL arrived to collect us and we had a coffee in the in-hotel Starbucks and did a bit of catching up before heading to her parents' house for a lazy afternoon and dinner.

Home again and as we walked through the foyer, I noticed that the Starbucks was gone - while we were out they had completely removed it and replaced it with a more localised offering!

Was asleep for the day by 2300.

 

[Seat0B]

Omani E-Visa Update

Mr Seat 0A'as visa has changed status to in-processing, and he has been asked to pay the fee.

My identical, absolutely identical, application has been rejected. I am totally shocked @1022.

My visa status is now officially:



As you may have gathered, I'm a bit of a girly-swat, goody two shoes kind of person, and I was really upset by this, especially the inconsistency between my application being rejected and Mr Seat 0A's being accepted, in identical circumstances and with identical explanations.

But Seat Son just laughed at me. "Mum, it's the Middle East" he said. "Don't lose sleep over it. We will use the paper form at the border and I guarantee you will get a visa". Stay tuned for the next episode of adventures in Visa land, coming up on 23 December!

 

[Seat0B]

Thanks! I have an overnight at MAD next year and would have naturally looked at Accor.

It would be absolutely fine if the Feria is not kicking off - so just look into that. Otherwise, we were looking at the Ibis Styles.

 

[RooFlyer]

It would be absolutely fine if the Feria is not kicking off - so just look into that. Otherwise, we were looking at the Ibis Styles.

I was looking at the Melia INNside which is near terminal four with a shuttle. But then I just realised that my flight leaves from terminal one. . Seeing also that the Metro station is right outside the Pullman it’ll probably be that one, with care.

 

[Seat0B]

Sunday 22 December 2024 - Dubai

Woke at normal time today and had a small breakfast at the hotel as we are planning an 'engagement celebration" lavish brunch at the Arabian Tea House in the Jumeirah Archeological Site. This is a very local experience and the atmosphere was really lovely. it was decorated very daintily, with flowing sheer white curtains, delicate gold rimmed floral china and floral cushions. Many local families were out enjoying each other's company and we had a very enjoyable session, with a delicious local meal. We ate hummus, olives, labneh (both savoury and sweet), foul (pureed fava beans served with olive oil, coughin, extras such as parsley, garlic, lemon juice, and chillies), many other bean and veggie dips that I did not recognise and an endless supply of Arabic breads, rose jam and other sweet accoutrements to go with chbab (thin crepes) and piklet sytle sweetened breads. These were accompanied by various fancy jiuces, mint tea, karak (cardamom spiced milky sweet tea), arabic coffee and western coffees. We demolished it!



There is also an actual archeological site here too. It was a bit too hot and no one was keen, so I had a quick look myself but didn't have any photos.

A quiet afternoon cooking curry for family dinner.

 

[1022]

Calling @1022 to the courtesy phone - this is instalment 1 of the great e-visa debacle of 2024!

Very much noted if we head back to Oman!! In fact I've just saved my e-visa email just in case!

 

[Seat0B]

Very much noted if we head back to Oman!! In fact I've just saved my e-visa email just in case!

Yes when I finish the big reveal I was planning to note a few lessons!

 

[Seat0B]

Monday 23 December 2024 - A Day Trip to Oman

Up at the obscenely early hour of 0530 and waiting, visa-less, on the hotel doorstep at 0600 to be collected by Seat Son and Almost DIL for the 2.5hr drive to Khasab Harbour Oman (part of the Musandam enclave of Oman - the history and geography of this are fascinating). The pink line on the map below shows the land border between UAE and Musandam Oman.



We are going to Khasab for an all day Dhow trip, which sounds fabulous. It did indeed take about 2.5 hrs to get to the land border with Oman, mainly on good freeway, so we were looking vry comfortable for our 1000 departure from Khasab Harbour. As an added bonus we passed through the emirates of Umm Qumain and Ras Al Khaima, meaning I have now "visited" all of the Emirates of the UAE - Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah,Fujairah, Ajman, Umm Quwain and Ras Al Khaima.

I caught up with a bit of sleep in the back seat and we stopped for a very welcome coffee break at a roadside Starbucks (please don't judge - it is hard to find non-Arabic coffee!) and so we were well fortified for the upcoming border crossing ordeal.

I was already feeling nervous because of the on-line insistence on a copy of my now expired passport from 2016 and the consequent rejection of my e-visa. Mr Seat 0A had not proceeded with his either, on Seat Son's advice not to complicate the conversation we were going to have to have at the border.

When we arrived at the land border (UAE side), we held a tactical briefing in the car park with our large family group. Seat Son advised that each family grouping should make their own approach to the border guards. All the females in the group should take a back seat and make an attempt to appear to be quiet and calm and under male protection, and that if anyone needed help, our family would go last so that he could assist with some Arabic.

Here's the composition of our very complicated family group (and yes there will be a pop quiz on this later on ) :

• Mr Seat 0A and me - Australian passport, 1 pending payment Omani e-visa, 1 rejected Omani e-visa
• Seat Son - Australian passport and UAE Resident card, Omani e-visa
• Almost DIL - Portuguese passport, forgot to bring her UAE Resident card, Omani e-visa rejected, has a letter of permission to travel from her father. Yes this is a real thing. Although she is eligible in her own right for a work visa to the UAE, it has been more practical for her to remain on her father's visa as an "unmarried daughter under his protection". So every time she leaves the UAE, she needs a permission note!!!!!
• Almost DIL's mother - South African passport, UAE Resident Card, letter of permission to travel from her husband.
• Almost DIL's sister - Portuguese passport, UAE Resident Card, letter of permission to travel from her father. Neither Almost DIL or her sister bother to take their South African passport anywhere except if they go back to South Africa.
• Almost DIL's cousin - dual national of South African and Italy, UAE Resident Card, no attempt to get Omani visa.
• Almost DIL's cousin's husband (let's call him Michael)- has both Italian and Zimbabwean passports with him,UAE Resdient Card - but....his work visa for the UAE is in his Zim passport not his Italian one, no attempt to get Omani visa.
• Almost DIL's cousin's two small daughters, aged 5 and 3, Italian passports and UAE Resident Cards, no attempt to get Omani visa.
• Almost DIL's cousin's husband's parents - Italian passports, no attempt to get Omani visa.
• Almost DIL's aunt and uncle - South African passports with single entry UAE visa, no attempt to get Omani visa
• Other various friends and relatives on a combination of South African, New Zealand, United Kingdom passports - all UAE Resident Cards, and no Omani Visas.

Yes it was complicated. So, how did we all go??

Well, everyone made it through the UAE Exit formalities without difficulty except Almost DIL's aunt and uncle, who were told that they could leave, but would not then be eligible to re-enter the UAE until they had applied for and received a new visa for the UAE, which would likely take 2 weeks. Special treatment for South Africans. All the rest of us (except SA and Zim) were entitled to a free 30 day multi entry tourist visa on arrival at a UAE Border. South Africans have to apply formally in advance, pay a fee (unknown) and I think they were told they were ineligible for a multi entry visa. So they dropped out of the trip at this point and their daughter, Almost DIL's cousin, stayed with them, leaving the 2 little girls to go on the adventure with their father Michael (Italian/Zim) and his parents. Seat Son tried, fruitlessly, in Arabic, for over 40 minutes to find a solution for them, but the decision was firm.

Our next task was to enter Oman. We nervously approached the counter - and this was a new experience for me as I have always been confident that I will be admitted to the country - had the right visa, the right forms, the right passport. But this time I was not so sure. Seat Son went first - his paperwork all in order and easy as he has a UAE Resident Card. Then in Arabic, he told the border official how happy he was that his parents were visiting, all the way from Australia, and that we had particualrly asked to see Oman after the wonderful visit we had made here together in 2016. Such a beautiful country, lovely people, yada yada yada. Border official, in English, to Mr Seat 0A and me - you are welcome to my country. How lovely to see a family group travel together. Your son speaks excellent Arabic. How is this possible? So Mr Seat 0A told him that Seat Son had learnt at university and now he lives in the Arabic speaking world. Much chit chatting, a bit of key pounding on the computer, and the next thing, we were both just handed back the passports, with permission to enter Oman, and best of all, it was free. Border official aside to Seat Son - your mother's dress is very respectful. And that was it. Something of an anti-climax, but welcome.

Well for us. The trouble this time was for Michael. He had exited UAE on his Zim passport because that was the one which had his work visa. Now he wanted to enter Oman, presenting as an Italian, who was eligible for a tourist visa on arrival. But the problem was he did not have a UAE exit stamp in this passport, because it was in his Zim passport. Once they saw the Zim passport, they refused to give him a visa on arrival, as the proper process for the Zim passport was to make a formal visa application, which would take several weeks. They insisted that he had to use his Zim passport, and refused to accept his Italian one, because they said that the Oman Entry stamp had to be in the same passport as the exit stamp from teh last country. Now this sounds like made up nonsense to me, but they were in charge. Seat Son once again stepped up and made all the logical and legal arguments, in Arabic, but they were getting nowhere.

So a little side bar revealed an interesting point of leverage - the 2 little girls had already had their Italian passports stamped with Omain visas. With local cultural knowledge to the fore, Seat Son started a new line of discussion with the border official:

"Sir, but who will look after these two little Italian girls if you cannot admit their father? They need his protection. They are just little girls after all, and very exposed to danger without him."

This line of argument got immediate traction, with the offical agreeing that Michael would be allowed to enter Oman, but then there was disagreement about the mechanics of how that would be effected. In the end, he was stamped in via his Zim passport, and they did some sort of manual override in their system to facilitate this. What could possibly go wrong???? Spoiler alert - there were more shenanigans ahead when we came to leave Oman at the end of the day, but that is for another post.

So all up, it took over 2 hours to get our depleted group through the 2 borders. This made us very late for our dhow booking, so while all the negotiations were taking place, Seat Son's phone was blowing up with the dhow captain calling and texting to find out whether we were even still coming, and what time we would now arrive.

 

[Seat0B]

Lessons Learnt
1. If there is any possibility that you will ever want to go to Oman after an earlier visit using a now expired passport, make sure to keep records of the passport and if possible the visa that you used at that time. If you do not have these details available, it is hit or miss whether your e-visa will be approved.

2. It's the Middle East, and an anything can happen. So even though the Royal Omani Police web site makes it clear that only e-visas are acceptable, we must have met the definition of "exceptional cases" to get so many paper visas approved. I expect that this will get harder and harder as the e-visa system becomes more widely adopted.


Note the lack of sympathy in the below - "online visa is a requirement, which everyone must be adapted to."

3. I don't really have any helpful advice for those of us who have been to Oman before, had the passport expire, and don't have records of it, other than to plan ahead for future potential visits and to allow plenty of time to participate in to and fro if/when you e-visa application is rejected. In retrospect, we were probably a bit casual doing the application with exactly the 4 days recommended time frame, and with 2 of those days virtually unusable by us because of international travel. So I would get onto this earlier for a future visit.

4. All this palaver made me look in more detail at the UAE entry requirements too, which are a bit odd - see dot point 3 below.
Usually, leaving a country for a few weeks on a genuine tourist basis, and then returning resets a new visa period. Makes sense now of the 10 day grace period - so really it's 40 days in total, including all periods that you are out of the UAE after the first entry.

We arrived on 24 November, so it was lucky we actually went to Sri Lanka on 26 Dec (2 days into the grace period) and returned after the original 30 days had passed and so got a new visa and thus a new 30 days. If we had not done that, we might have inadvertently overstayed our visa and grace period by 1 or 2 days because we did not leave for good until 4 January.

And even luckier that we went to Oman and returned to the UAE on 23 December, within our original visa validity period. Still the guards at the UAE land border did not seem to know this rule, and they just gave us a whole new 30 day visa on arrival. But that also could have gone pear shaped.



5. Because of all the potential for chaos, always make sure you have plenty of money (including some local cash) for unexpected meals, accommodation etc, and try not to run up against hard deadlines like flights as your plans may run aground.

 

[Seat0B]

The terrain of Oman is exactly as I remembered it from our 2016 trip. It's incredibly steep, craggy, barren, rocky mountains right down to the waterfront, where small villages are strung out along the very narrow coastal flat. It is stunningly beautiful in an austere way.


No, it's not the same mountain in both of these photos- two slightly different but clearly related pieces of Omani rock


An example of the narrow coastal strip

Our dhow captain was waiting for us (not so) patiently at the not very picturesque Khasab harbour - Seat Son had kept him advised of our progress with the authorities, and we were all soon aboard the vessel.


The dhow was much bigger than I expected, and our party of 18 was easily able to spread out all over the traditional seating - large rugs laid in the middle of the deck, surrounded by cushions for sitting/sprawling. Over all this was a big shade cloth sail, so we were able to choose seats in the sun or in the shade according to preference. There was also a similar space on the upper deck, but without shade cloth. This was mainly used as a ladies changing area. There was also a clean but primitive "natural toilet" which fed directly into the beautiful water .



Captain at the helm, happy in his work

As we got underway, we were welcomed in the traditional Arabic way with dates and Arabic coffee and mint tea. The dates were especially delicious, being Saudi style (softer, juicier dates) and some tahini to dip them into. A very delicious combination.

The waterways were very calm, and uncrowded, and the water is a very beautiful green colour. It looked very clean, despite the dhows and their natural toilets. As we motored to our first stop, we were joined by a very playful pod of long nosed dolphins. They swan along beside us for a good few minutes, frolicking in the boat's bow wave and wake jumping, diving and generally putting on a show for us. Lovely




We passed two very small villages(150 people, 50 people) that the captain said have no land access at all, everything and everyone must come in and out by sea. Quite mind boggling to think about the impact that this would have on your way of life.


Locals on the way in/out of the remote villages

We reached our first anchor point and had our first swim in 23 degree water. The kids (both old and young) had fun jumping from the top deck and bombing the swimmers. Then came lunch - a fantastic spread of rice, dal, veggies, fish curry, tandoori style chicken, salad and Arabic flatbreads (I forgot to get a photo - in my defence, we were all dripping with salty water when we came on board for lunch). Then a short trip to the second swim spot, where we did the same activities!



Very saw-toothed mountains surrounding our second stopping point.


And then on to a final swimming stop, with a massive mountain in the background. Geologist's paradise, eh @RooFlyer?


And for scale, this dhow was similar in size to ours, and look how tiny it is compared to the mountain.

On the way back to port, we saw more dolphins



And a spectacular sunset silhouette



It was a long day, but worth it for this fantastic experience.

 

[Seat0B]

23 December 2024 - getting back home again

We enjoyed the reverse journey along the coastal strip in the falling evening, with every little mosque along the way (and there were many of them) playing the melancholy and evocative call to evening prayers. The calls to prayer are such a sound track of the Middle East, a permananet reminder that you are in a strange culture.

When we got to the border, we experienced Part 2 of Border Patrol. I won;t bore you with all the ins and outs, but in summary, for inexplicable reasons the Omanis were now not happy about letting Michael out of the country. This was after they had struggled for hours to let him in this morning. Now he was in they were not in any hurry to let him back out again. Once again, Seat Son's Arabic saved the day. He chatted to the supervisor and gave a summary of the morning's events. The supervisor said "Why is his Omani entry visa not in his Italian passport? This is the correct place for it!" Arghhhhh- exactly what we had been arguing earlier in the day. I was so impressed with the way Seat Son maintained his cool, and just chatted away in a very hard to learn language. Proud mum moment. After a long conversation, the supervisor went away and spoke to the staff, with a few emphatic hand gestures thrown in, and hey presto, everything was sorted out very quickly. We all breathed a sigh of relief and headed to the UAE entry post, where things went without a hitch. Although, as I posted earlier upthread, perhaps Mr Seat 0A and I should not have been given a new full 30 day entry visa as we were technically still within the validity of the ealier visa granted when we first arrived. Anyway, I wasn't aware of that potential issue at that time, which was lucky as apparently I do not have a very good poker face and Seat Son ventured the opinion that I am "too honest for my own good, certainly for the Middle East." However it was, we made it safely back into the UAE after a very eventful set of border crossings.

Tootled along the freeway and stopped at 2030 for an evening "meal" of local fast food. Some had McDonalds, some had Subway! Finally back to the hotel at 2230. This was such a great experience, fun people, interesting cultural activities, the border drama and spectacular scenery, but I am really ready for bed at this point.

 

[RooFlyer]

Seat Son went first - his paperwork all in order and easy as he has a UAE Resident Card. Then in Arabic, he told the border official how happy he was that his parents were visiting, all the way from Australia, and that we had particualrly asked to see Oman after the wonderful visit we had made here together in 2016

I still think a SeatSon could do an excellent side trade in high- level souq haggling and board negotiation services.

1. If there is any possibility that you will ever want to go to Oman after an earlier visit using a now expired passport, make sure to keep records of the passport and if possible the visa that you used at that time. If you do not have these details available, it is hit or miss whether your e-visa will be approved.

That’s a really important thing. It would apply to me if I ever went back to Oman. Maybe you can post it under Destination guides and Oman?

Geologist's paradise, eh @RooFlyer?

The saying goes “The Earth is a geologist’s paradise”. And Oman’s rocks are especially famous but I won’t go into that now .

 

[Seat0B]

Our Hotel - Pullman Jumeirah Lakes Towers

I forgot to write about our lovely hotel in Dubai. We felt very welcomed on arrival with nice welcome amenities of western and Arabic pastries, and pretty flowers on the bed.



The room itself was lovely, and they again acknowledged our 40th wedding anniversary. Boy we got some mileage out of that one!



Room had great views of the city skyline in all directions.



And the hotel was decorated with a distinctly Arabic feel to it. This was a little sitting area just outside the breakfast area. I neglected to get any photos of thebreakfast buffet, but it was a pretty typical luxury spread. Also I did not even visit the pool deck, or take advantage of any of the Platinum perks like happy hour etc because we were always out and about with Seat Son and Almost DIL.

Given we are likely to be back in Dubai again, and will need a hotel, I would definitely stay here again. It was chosen for proximity to Almost DIL's parents' house in The Springs.

 

[Seat0B]

That’s a really important thing. It would apply to me if I ever went back to Oman. Maybe you can post it under Destination guides and Oman?

Good idea. I will get onto that shortly.

 

[Seat0B]

I still think a SeatSon could do an excellent side trade in high- level souq haggling and board negotiation services.

Hilarious - before working at the Abu Dhabi courts, he was a dispute resolution lawyer! The boy has skillz!