OwoMAN: Border Run to the UAE

Two weeks ago, on a Thursday, I jumped in a van with a Spaniard, an Australian, an American, a Brit and two Omani men to make the 2 hour trek to the United Arab Emirates border. In order for the Omani government to start the work visa process, I needed to first exit the country and cancel my current visitor visa. It takes 2-4 hours (Omani time) for a work visa to be processed at the border so the plan was for us to just hangout in Dubai (the emirate, not the city) until we got the call to come back. The drive to the UAE was actually pretty nice. Rolling sand dunes, rock mountains, and a few camel ranches. I was pretty excited when I thought I was going to Dubai city, but as it turns out, the entire emirate (state or province) is known as Dubai. So we never actually made it to Dubai city but were taken to a huge mall called Dragon Mart. As soon as we pulled up to Dragon Mart I felt an immediate rush of familiarity because Dragon Mart is an Asian market.

Dragon Mart "The Great Mall of China"

Dragon Mart
"Where you can find one in a million or a million in one"

How ironic that my first big shopping experience in the Middle East would be at an Asian market decorated with Chinese lanterns and full of shops with China made products. The shopping in this mall was extremely disappointing as I was expecting some big flashy mall that seems to be typical of Dubai. I did manage to snap a few pictures of some interesting items and landscapes, so it wasn’t a total loss.

After waiting in line for an hour at the border, we finally all got our work visas stamped in our passports and given the green light to return to Oman. The whole process took about 8 hours and we arrived back at work just in time to make it to our staff party at 7pm. Hopefully my next trip to Dubai will be a little more exciting!