ROAD TRIP!
Trellace is great at planning trips and always finds the most interesting restaurants and the most unique places to stay. This time she has out done herself!
Saturday morning, we left Abu Dhabi for a road trip to a town called Al Ain where we stayed the night. We plan to visit Dubai today.
We had lunch at at a restaurant called Al Fanar, just outside Al Ain. We weren’t very hungry, but of course that didn’t stop us from ordering a fun lunch of local fare. Delicious! Check out the photos of the place on the website. I didn’t take any pictures there, but the website gives you a feel for the place.
Then, we proceeded to the oasis. The area we visited is now a collection of walled off farms belonging to private individuals, government entities, and the royal family. There are over 150,000 trees here with over 100 kinds of dates. I love dates! To this day, my favorite Christmas treat is my mother‘s homemade date balls. They are delicious! To see the dates growing here and in such plentiful amounts is quite something.
The way they harvest the dates is fascinating to me. I found a video that shows the process. Look for the green netting covering the dates. That’s a way to protect the fruit from the birds. Reminded me of my father-in-law’s tireless, and end the end (literally) fruitless, attempts to keep the birds from his blueberries! Dates are the main crop here but we also saw other fruit trees: lemons, figs, mangoes, and more. The guide told us, “Yes, but they only care about the dates!” Apparently the dates are the most lucrative so the other fruits that just grow naturally there are for the workers and farmers’ personal use.
We left the oasis and headed to the place where we spent the night–a resort in the desert called Pura Eco. There were a variety of lodging options there from plush to sparse. We hit the lowest end of the air conditioned places. We had understood that these were fancy tents, but in fact they were much sturdier than that: really more like cabins. Trellace and Sam had one, and ours was across the way. Last night, the resort brought dinner up from their restaurant and we had dinner around the fire pit. It felt very much like a desert picnic and the food was some of the best we’ve had here.
Last night, the dark was beyond black. To walk to the bath house, only a short distance from our cabin, we had to use flashlights. There was no seeing without a light of some sort. The reason: without the light pollution of a city, the sky is pure, inky blackness.
In addition to the black night, the terrain in the UAE, particularly in the remote areas, in the desert, is very like the land of Bible times. Often, in scripture, we find references to the dangers of stumbling, the importance of walking in the light. For example, in John 11, the text tells us how Jesus learns his friend Lazarus. had supposedly died. Jesus turns back to go to him, toward Judea, against the advice of his good friends. When they question him,
 “Jesus answered, ‘Aren’t there twelve hours in the day? Whoever walks in the day doesn’t stumble because they see the light of the world. But whoever walks in the night does stumble because the light isn’t in them.'” John 11:9-10 CEB
Jesus proclaims he is light. In his day, everyone around him knew how hard it was to walk in darkness, especially when surrounded by stones that threaten to grab unsuspecting feet. The depth of Christ’s meaning is even more evident here surrounded by stones so similar to the ones that threatened the feet of Jesus. I noticed this when I was in Israel many years ago, and I am reminded of it here as well. I’m grateful for the Light that guides me–and I’m not talking about my iphone flashlight.
This morning, Jay and Trellace got up to see the sunset and take a hike. The wiser ones of our foursome missed out on this opportunity. They enjoyed the hike quite a lot, though, and got some great pictures. We’ll visit Dubai tomorrow!
