Outside Dubai

The UAE is a lot more than Dubai, and we set out to see it. We took a bus tour across much of the country -- the fact that this could be done in a day shows how small it is. We drove through the conservative, overtly Muslim emirate of Sharjah that is becoming something of a cheaper suburb of Dubai. We paused at what our guide called the "Little Grand Canyon," a huge river dry river bed, and at a market with an astonishing diversity of produce given its location in the middle of nowhere. And oases really are strange phenomenon. The highlight of the outing was the couple hours spent in Fujairah where we got to swim in the Indian Ocean! We agreed that the sand on this beach was the nicest our feet had even encountered.