Let's see... We arrived in the country on August 5th. Thirty days later would be....
Ummm... 31 days in Aug...
non-inclusive... so you have to subtract... that makes 30 days on Sept 4th.
Yikes! Today is Sept 6th!! Oh. no.
Actually, I'm not in trouble... Yet. There is a 10 day grace period.
Lindsey & I realized the kids' & I's visas would be expiring this past week; we had already planned this trip to Oman. We waited until the weekend because I didn't think it would be a good idea to pull them out of school.
See, all you have to do is get your passport stamped for another 30 day tourist visa. And the simplest way of doing this is to drive across the border between the UAE & Oman. You even have a choice of two places to do this as Oman borders the UAE on two sides!!!
We chose to go toward Oman via Al Ain because it's only an hour away by car. (The other border is about 4 hours from Abu Dhabi).
Abu Dhabi, Dubai, & Al Ain are the 3 largest cities in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. They (sorta) make the vertices of a geographic triangle road system between the three cities. Each leg takes about an hour to drive the (approx) 130 km. Al Ain is inland very near the Oman border while Abu Dhabi & Dubai are both on the coast.
So as it became apparent that our (the kids & I) residence visas were not going to happen this week, we started planning our run to the border...
Lindsey's residence visa is somehere "in the pipeline". We were hoping his resident visa would clear by the end of the week, but it did not. This means he cannot leave the UAE at this time. Ug.
Al Ain is the perfect location for this quick passport stamp trip. Here's why:
The really nice thing about Al Ain (other than being an oasis full of really neat stuff to do, including the zoo!) is that it's only 27 miles (33 minutes by car!) to the UAE Border Crossing to Oman. Yea!!!
That's a big plus for a place that's mostly, well, sand between cities. Lindsey can stay here at the Hilton (thank you, Hilton Honors points) while the kids and I take the drive to the border crossing... stamp out UAE, stamp in Oman. Then u-turn on the other side... stamp out Oman, stamp back in UAE... & voila!! We're good for another 30 days!
At least, that's the plan. I hear (from the other expats who have done this EXACT routine) that the border crossing could take up to an hour each way. I'm packing snacks & water. I'll let you know tomorrow...
In the meantime, we are enjoying our Executive Suite here at Al Ain's Hilton ... complete with gold bathroom fixtures & a bidet (that was a tough one to explain to the under 14 crowd!)
It's very roomy!!!
Of course, that is if Devin ever gets off the free internet (remember we still don't have access at the apartment!)
Of course, I'm happy because this hotel includes several resturaunts (& a bar) that serve "grape"!
I FINALLY got a glass of red!!! In fact, we bought a whole bottle & they let us take it back to the room.
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