Day 4, December 26: Sharjah and Ajman

Today was a day to visit 2 other emirate states. We started at Sharjah, which is the third largest emirate state by population. Sharjah is not as developed commercially as Dubai and it still had a lot of undeveloped land. The primary reason for this is that it adheres more closely to conservative islamic principles, less concern or interest in modern commercial development. However, its ruler, Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, believes strongly in education and holds a doctorate in agriculture. Therefore, a unique thing about Sharjah among the seven emirates is that it is the education center of the emirate world. Seven or eight national and international colleges and universities, including a medical school, are located way out in the middle of nowhere in their educational academy village. These campuses and classroom buildings are enormous and the site which hosts the institutions goes on for miles. Unfortunately, buses are not allowed on campus without special permission, so Doug could only get some outside shots from the bus, as we were riding by the compound.

In addition to the educational academy village, Sharjah has a monument commemorating when UNESCO designated Sharjah in 1998, as a world history and culture center, as being the embodiment of Islamic culture. Here are photos we took at the multi-story monument.

We then drove around a roundabout in the cultural heritage area, which features a monument to the Koran in the center. This particular emirate is very religiously conservative and really follows Sharia law. We saw Sheikh Sultan's palace, his court assembly hall where he hears petitions and pleas for assistance from his citizens, and the mosque that he attends.

We made our way toward the final highlight for Sharjah, but stopped at a local coffee shop, also seeing the Gulf of Oman, the Mercy Mosque, and some trading ships along the way. The Mercy Mosque was built by Sheikh Sultan (as he is commonly referred to) as a tribute to the death of his son from a drunk driving accident, as we mentioned earlier. The trading ships, dhows, carry cargo between the U.A.E. (and other Arabian Gulf countries) on one side of the Gulf of Oman and Iran on the other side. In past years, we have heard news about conflicts that threaten the Strait of Hormuz. This strait is the ocean are that connects the Gulf of Oman to the Arabian Gulf (aka the Persian Gulf). So this was a reminder that the U.A.E. lies at a critical juncture in geography and geopolitical affairs.

The highlight of the tour of Sharjah was the Museum of Islamic Civilization. The museum takes up a city block and it contains archives of the history of Islam, the development of mosques around the world and information about Arabic inventions in science and architecture. Patrise and I roamed through the museum separately, because we were interested in different exhibits.

After the museum, our guide took us to the Souq Al Jabail, a large meat, fish, fruit, and vegetable souq (market). The sights, sounds and smells were amazing! What was ;more amazing was how clean it was. We saw everything for sale from fresh local fish, red snapper, lamb, goat and camel. Then we visited the fruit and vegetable stands. We enjoyed a chai coffee compliments of our guide and boarded the van for the next destination.

Top row: (l) Sharjah street scene, (c) front of Souq Al Jubail, (r) meat section of the souq.

Center row: (l) a view of part of the meat section, (c) a camel's head, (l) one vendor's sign.

Bottom row: (l) pictures depicting what type of meat this vendor sells, (c) a camel steak, (r) us near the exit of the souq.

Our visit to Sharjah was limited, and within 3 miles of the Sultan's palace, we were in Ajman. Ajman is the smallest emirate. It's principal activity is fishing and tourism. Unlike Sharjah, Ajman allows liquor to be sold in restaurants and hotels, so a lot of people from Sharjah drive the few miles to get a drink, then return home. Sharjah wasn't always a "dry" state. The Sultan use to allow alcohol sales just like the other emirate sates, until his son was killed as a result of a drunk driving accident. (Refer to the Mercy Mosque above.)

We headed back to Dubai in the late morning to go by the Perfume and Gold Souqs. Members of our group said that they wanted to shop some more in this area. However, when they got there, they ended up getting nothing. Patrise purchased a mixture of natural oils perfume which she selected. She then conspired with Marshall, to get Doug a surprise Christmas gift. Doug was upset, because he didn't know where she had gone and with his phone out of power, he could not reach her. In the end, all was forgiven when she explained what she and our guide had been up to.

Sharjah buildings

Various scenes around and within the gold souq

We left the souqs and traveled back to our hotel, We had lunch outdoors beside the infinity pool on the 64th floor. We met a wonderful waiter named Simon, whose nickname was Sipi. He is from Kenya, but has been in Dubai with his twin brother for 5 years. His life story regarding the challenge of led him to leave Kenya and settle in Dubai was fascinating. After lunch, we took a much needed nap. By the time, I woke up it was 8:00pm and we decided to have dinner in our room, sort through our souvenirs and catch up on the blog.

Tomorrow, we will go to see the Miracle Garden and then the Butterfly Garden.