Love and Getting There

Our crab hunting experience has to be split into two separate blogs because they are so jam-packed full of story. Starting with getting there...

On the day we were set to go crab hunting, we woke up early, super excited to get going and have this crazy adventure. It was like Christmas morning excited. So, I go online to get specific directions. Only to find that the resort where the crab hunting is taking place is a little over an hour north of Dubai. Huh? Sooo...not there's not a Metro stop to this place? Excuse me? $125 cab ride round trip? No, no, no. That can't be right.

(If you are asking yourself why I didn't notice where the resort was located when I booked the excursion, you don't know me very well, and I refuse to answer...)

So, I get to work finding a better route. There has to be a better, less expensive way. $125 is more than we're spending on both of our crab hunting experience. (and it includes dinner!) So, I talk to the resort and they mention a bus that goes through Umm al Qwain, where the resort is located. Cost? $3. Done. The only problem, she says, is that they don't go back to Dubai. It would only be a one-way. That didn't make sense to me, so I brushed it off as a language barrier misunderstanding. If I bus goes there, it has to come back right?

Wrong. I called the public transportation office and they confirmed that we would not be able to get a round-trip to our location. I spared her my thoughts on why this was inefficient and got the address to the bus station.

We left early, since now we had to depend on public transportation that didn't make round trips. We got to the station by cab ($25 fare), bought our ticket ($3) and waited for the bus. Only then did we realize that we didn't actually know what bus we were looking for. Back to the ticket station we went, where we were told that the next bus would bet here in half an hour. That's not so bad. So we wait and when our bus came up, we hopped on, ready for our adventure.

And as we sat in a back corner, I saw more people crammed into a tiny bus than I had ever seen before. And the bus was one of those that retirement homes use to transport residents on day trips. Only this one had no spare room for walkers and wheelchairs. They just put more seats in those spots. But, we were still blissfully excited about our destination, and nothing, not even these cramped conditions that were really starting to get stinky could bring us down.

Off we go! On our way to paradise! We passed through desert, saw camels, more desert and an occasional building going up. Strange scenery, but it only heightened the anticipation for the oasis that awaited us. An oasis filled with crabs and good times.

The first stop was ours, although Hubs wasn't entirely convinced. I can't say that I blame him. The stop was literally on the side of the road in the middle of the desert. No joke. Off the bus and straight into sand and sun. Just like in the movies, we're off the bus on the side of the road and in the barren. I love Hubs for not saying anything. Not that I gave him time to. I just avoided eye contact, stuck my hand in the air to hail a cab and off we went.


With the cab driver who spoke no English and who did not know how to get to the resort. Had I known I would need to know the Arabic word for "Flamingo", I would've looked it up. I called the resort, and passed the phone on to the cab driver who had at least a five minute conversation with the reception desk which, I assumed meant he was getting detailed directions.

Two stops to ask random construction workers and pedestrians which way the resort is, we finally made it. (cab fare - $10) To the least extravagent-looking "resort" I had ever seen...

Cheers to making it to our destinations the exciting way.