Sand, sea, mountains and rocks

Wild Wadi Water Park, Dubai

Summer here in the sandpit is mainly about a stay indoors, a late afternoon at the park, or an early morning or an evening troop down the beach. Summer means a three scorching then another three sweaty months. Summer is when we find ourselves in one of the many big malls here in Dubai (with a growing toddler to now a little boy at home, the only way to keep him sane, err tone down his grouchiness is to keep him out). And summer’s when I (supposedly) lose some flab -- as we mentally get sick being trapped in all-day in air-conditioned boxes, we do evening jogs by the beach or stroll by the street to relieve us.

The best part of knowing this kind of summer is eagerly celebrating even before it kicks in, and then immediately after the unbearable heat is over that says “see-you-in-six-months” in a cycle starting around June.

For pre-summer 2011, I mustered all courage and agreed (and got hooked) on long road trips, to UAE’s outskirts and even reaching mainland Oman and the Oman ex-clave north of UAE. These road trips made me realize that this desert is not just about oil, sand and sea, but it’s also about long spans of mountains – of rocky mountains! And yeah – the highest point of these rocky mountain ranges is twice as high as Baguio at 3000 meters elevation!

See these sand, sea, mountains and rocks we’ve seen in our road trips:

Shore Lines in Um Al Quwain, UAE

After a night's camp in Musandam, Oman

The mountaneous sight of Dibba, Fujairah

Left of ancient settlement in Wadi Bin Habib, Jebel Akhdar, Oman

Before I get you thinking that Dubai is about rocks and mountains, here's a night take of Dubai as viewed from the world tallest tower, Burj Khalifa.

It'll be summer in two months for us, and it seems that whatever we'll save on road trips will see us again through water parks, when water is just comfortbly warm. Or yet another entry to the man-made snowy Ski Dubai.

Dreamland Aquapark, Um Al Quwain, UAE

Ski Dubai, Mall of Emirates

Wild Wadi Water Park, Dubai

Oh no, now it reminds me of summer back home in Baguio, I miss home.

► About the Author:
Beverly Beswilen-Castro is an accountant based in Dubai. A Top 2 Winner of PEBA 2010 on her entry "Redefining the OFW". You can visit her site for more of her writings at Gremliness. Her blog is seemingly transforming into a trip journal of the Li'l Gremlin-Kalel.