Dubai's Mountain Village

Hatta, UAE – view from the Hatta Hill Park

Hectic times call for drastic measures. Therefore, another short picture post haha.

Here’s where we go for picnics when we get bored with Dubai, the city I mean. Dubai has a little enclave (territory) in the Hajar Mountains far to the east of Dubai proper. I don’t really have time to describe the geography of the Hajar Mountains in relation to the Arabian Peninsula, and so on. Let’s just say it’s a range of mountains which runs along the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula separating the coast of east Arabia (the UAE and Oman) with the desert in the interior. Heck, just Google Map or Wiki it, will ya?

This enclave, Hatta, is about 90+ km from where we stay in Dubai (or about an hour and 15 minutes’ drive). But to get there through the shortest and most direct route, you’ll have to enter Sharjah territory, then Oman (yeah, that’s correct, Oman, the country), then re-enter the UAE into a tiny enclave that belongs to Ajman (another constituent emirate of the UAE), and finally Hatta, part of the emirate of Dubai. Complicated? Well, that’s the way it is here. The UAE’s borders are full of complications. Check out this post.


A picnic in Hatta – at the Hatta Hill Park. We made a couple of trips to Hatta last year, for picnics (obviously) and also to get Jayden’s visa done. Hatta is one of the popular exit points for Dubai visitors to get their visas extended, for those who can get a visa on arrival that is. (Example, Malaysians hehe). Exiting and re-entering is also required for conversion of a Visitor’s Visa to a Resident’s Visa (don’t ask me about how this works, I have completely no idea. If I’ve had some idea, I wouldn’t have blown a couple of thousand bucks on the darn process!)






More pictures from the Hatta Hill Park, UAE

Pictures from the Hatta Heritage Village: -




Those spotlights sure spoil the 'village' effects eh?


Now that’s more like it, an oil lamp


Posing with a dummy in the Hatta Heritage Village – they’ve converted the actual village into some sort of a museum




More dummies!






More scenes from the Hatta Heritage Village, UAE


The Hatta Dam – Was actually trying to get to the Hatta Rock Pools, which are located in Omani territory. Didn’t succeed, stopped by an Oman border guard. Later found out that we had to take a completely different road. Aw, heck, better luck next time.

Here’s another post on Hatta, …our very first visit there, the time we got our aunt’s visa extended in 2009. Justin was less than a month old then!