The Raging Wadi

The flooded road to Wadi Hawer, Oman, March 2026


Wadi Hawer, a day before the photo above

Talking about rain (in the last post, I mean, not now. Now, it’s as dry as a parched desert (which is what this place is supposed to be), and getting hotter by the day), here’s an experience we’ve encountered for the first time in our long stay here in the Arabian Peninsula, a flash flood in the wadi!

We’ve visited many a wadi here in the UAE, and in Oman. And have heard about people, and cars, and what have you, getting washed away by flash floods that happened when the sudden rain hits. We’ve heeded the warnings on not to venture into wadis during inclement weather, and such… But in March this year, on the Eid Al Fitr holidays, we headed over to Oman, again (…yes, we’ve done it 4 years in a row now, during Eid), and one of our destinations, was a wadi! Wadi Hawer, this time, which is actually the downstream part of the popular Wadi Bani Khalid. And lo and behold! It rained, thru the night! Our hotel happened to be located across the wadi from the main road, and in the evening, a worried guest decided to move his car, to the other side of the wadi, saying that he drove a sedan car. We and another guest (who happened to drive SUVs) asked the hotel owner for his advice, and he said we could wait and see. Later that night, a person from the hotel came and told us that it’s best to move the car, and that he’d move it for us. We were lucky, he did it then… because not too long after that, we heard the roar of the water in the darkness of the night, from the wadi, below the hotel. I’ll let the pictures speak…


Mountains, here we come! Approaching Wadi Bani Khalid Town, on the way to our hotel in Wadi Hawer… Cloudy, with a high chance of rain in the evening, says the weather forecast (the best that I know of, is still Windy.com, if you know your maps)


That’s our hotel, the Inn at Hawer… in Anu’s favourite colours for a house – white and blue! (That’s her favourite since I knew her, we didn’t know at that time that it’s liked by so many around the world … e.g. Santorini (Greece), Chefchaoeun (Morocco), Sidi Bou Sayed (Tunisia), etc. Nope, we've never been to Greece nor Morocco, but we visited Sidi Bou Sayed in 2019. Anu wanted to paint our Silchar house white and blue when we bought it about 16 years ago, and I thought …hey, wouldn’t that just make it look like a police station?? (Malaysian police stations so happened to be all blue and white …since time immemorial, and it’s etched in my memory for good. Fancy staying in a police station!)


Cheers! Anybody for a cup of qahwah? The view from our hotel… Wadi Hawer!


Let’s go explore. And swim! A pool all to ourselves! That’s partly because the main attraction (a waterfall) is a further km or 2 from this place, and we missed the route that climbed up the hills, and decided to just chill here! Also, you can’t get to this pool without getting wet and swimming! See, no rain, only some clouds in the sky, eh?


Anu at Wadi Hawer! With the village (Wadi Hawer) behind, and our hotel (in blue and white) on the right


Papa and son at Wadi Hawer after a swim! You could see the road that we took to reach the hotel at the back of the photo. There’re 2 roads, the one on the left goes through the wadi (where the off-white SUV is), and the alternative road goes through the date palm farm at the back of the photo (near where the 2 people in black are seen). We took the route through the date palms because that’s the one they directed us to (for non-4WD cars, they said)


A view of Wadi Hawer from our hotel, on the day we arrived… with people walking on the route through the dry wadi, to the town on the other side (if you zoom in, you’d see the cars parked in the distance)


The same view, the next morning… a raging wadi, where the road had been. And that water is not at its maximum height (which happened sometime in the middle of the night). Luckily, the hotel people moved our car into the date farm…


The hotel’s owner helping us to carry one of our bags to get to our car… God bless him


That’s what became of the road that we came through the day before, a flowing stream. Look at all the debris strewn around, brought down by the water. Our blue & white hotel is on the right


Whew, we got thru! The hotel people and the villagers were really helpful, they helped us get our car passed the floods (see the first photo of this post, above)


Let’s go home… the highway near Muscat, Oman. Look at all the mountains behind. That’s why we love Oman!


A roadside stop for dinner, before continuing our journey… Look at the approaching thunderstorm (behind)

That’s all for today, folks. The stupid war is still on, with an indefinite ceasefire in place. All our traveling plans for the coming 9-day Eid Al Adha holidays (which we made in Jan) are in shambles now, thanks to the warmongers. May they all rot in hell!

The Prince of Trouble

Finally, I’ve put together the photos for Jayden’s 11th year of existence. He turned 11 last October, so I am… umm… 5 months late. Only. Wink!


Jayden, 2 months after his 11th birthday, at Mawlynnong, aka “Asia’s cleanest village”, Meghalaya, India

What can I say, Jayden? You’re 11 going on 12, and you’ve started secondary school. Why, oh why, do you keep doing the darndest things, that’ll get you (and us) into trouble?!??? I have a long list of those… Shall I let the list fly?? No?? OK, but on one condition… From now on, please THINK, use your BRAIN, before you friggin do, or say something! And grow up already, willya? We love you lots. Hope you’ll grow up into a responsible boy, who’ll know how to take care of the people and the things around you. Hope you’ll be loving and kind, well-mannered and considerate. That you’ll be hardworking, and know how to focus on the important stuff first (rather than waste time on clutter and nonsense). Hope you’ll be organized and self-driven. Hope you’ll be righteous and brave. Hope you’ll never be greedy, or boastful. Hope you’ll be smart and resourceful. Hope that when life throws you its problems, you’ll have the grit to persevere, and never give up. With lots of love, Papa. OK, here goes the recap.


A month plus after his 11th birthday, at the Address Beach Residence Hotel, Dubai, with his koko. Jayden was performing in the school choir for a pre-Christmas function at the hotel


Winter break 2024 – A visit to his mother’s home in India! Jayden with 2 of his cousins, Mahi (left) and Anshu (middle), Fulertal, Assam, India


Back to Dubai, and to school – Here he is with 2 of his school friends, Vivaan (left) from India, and Aryan (middle) from Iran, Metropole School, Dubai, Feb 2025


It’s camping season! Jayden with a blue lizard at our regular camping spot, Wadi Shawka, Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE


What’s Eid without a trip to Oman? (That’s what we’ve been doing for the last few years… including this year!) Jayden with 2 friends he met in the guesthouse that we stayed in, the Alshumukh Guesthouse, Qalhat, Oman, Mar 2025. The kids are Polish, but they reside in Jordan. The older one is Yager (pronounced 'ya-zher' it may not be spelt like that, it’ll probably begin with a ‘J’), and the younger one is Franco… We asked Franco where he’s from and he said he’s from 'ospital' (hospital)… ‘Be nice!’ Franco would say to his older brother…


Jayden dressed up for …what’s it for?? For his prom!??. When did Year 6s start having proms??! Oh, so, it’s the last year of primary school! I see! May 2025


His koko is back from Singapore for the midyear break. Here they are with mommy at Dragonmart 2, Jun 2025


The end of Jayden’s academic year means lots of school functions. He won 4th place for the Arabic Reading Competition (for non-native speakers)! Bravo, keep it up!


It’s the summer break! On the go again. Jayden, at the Great Wall of China (Mutianyu). A stopover at Beijing, China en route to Malaysia, Jul 2025


Here we are again, Malaysia! At the Floating Mosque of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia


With his grandpa and aunt at Empat Sekawan Restaurant, Butterworth, Malaysia – Malaysia’s all about food! Seriously, we’d kill ourselves from overeating if we stayed any longer in Malaysia


Some family visits! With his second cousins (children of his father’s cousins), Ginny and Eugene (I think… I hope I got them right), at Jayden’s father’s old home in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, Aug 2025


More family! With his favourite uncle now, Jack (they got lost talking about fish and marine life, Jack is an avid diver, among other things…) at a restaurant in Petaling Jaya (Kean Fatt Restaurant), Selangor, Malaysia


More Malaysian holidays – in the old town of Melaka, the place that gave the olden Sultanate of Malacca and the famous Straits of Malacca its name...


And finally, his 11th birthday party at home! Be nice!! Be good! Love you.

When Summer Ends…

Some hill near the UAE-Oman border, (Google Maps calls it Jabal Al Haleefah), Fujairah, Nov 2022

Another express post coming up. (Yes, yet another. The workload keeps piling up, which is good, bcoz that’s how we survive, OK?)

It’s mid-October. But it’s still hot and hazy. When is summer gonna end?? And people say that there’s no global warming?!?? (Yeah, I’m referring to you, o great President of MAGA. A con job, eh? Doesn’t look like it from here. But I have to say, President (Trump), you did a great job cobbling together the Israel-Hamas peace plan (I don’t wanna admit it, but I’ve actually praised him twice this year, although I’m no fan of his. But he delivered the results, you can’t deny it). I really hope it’ll lead to a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, and I hope it’ll bring about a truly independent Palestinian state, that is peaceful, progressive and cooperative, like the countries in the Gulf. If that happens, go ahead, take that friggin Nobel Peace Prize, you’d fully deserve it!) Oh, I spoke too soon. It actually friggin rained 2 nights ago… After, ummmm… a year? Or more? It’s just a little sprinkling, but it’s better than nothing, right?

Anyway, back to my post, the family’s eagerly waiting for it to cool down so that we could go camping again! Here’re some photos of our camping times of past years. Mountains, we’re coming! (When summer truly ends, that is).


The road to the east, (one of the roads anyway), the E102, or the Sharjah to Kalba Road, the one we used mostly to get to the hills nowadays… because it leads to our favourite campsite in the UAE, Wadi Shawka! On our way to our first overnight camp in Wadi Shawka, Dec 2021. The first of many, bcoz after trying lots of locations, this seems to be the best!


Standing around a fire, in the desert-hill, Wadi Shawka (Or is it Showkah? What the heck, it doesn’t really matter in the UAE, because they’re just transliterations of the place’s Arabic name, anyway), Ras Al Khaimah, Dec 2021… This was Justin’s only time camping in Showkah before he went to Singapore for his studies (And we, ummm… maybe close to 10 times now)


And this is from our least favourite road to the east now… the E88, or Al Dhaid to Masafi Road. E88 was the main road to the east before. Now, there’re so many roads to choose from. The last time we used the E88, it was packed with traffic. This photo was taken near the once popular (or maybe, still popular, but not for us) Friday Market, Fujairah. Just look at the dirt! Oct 2020


Another nice location to camp, where there’s close to no one around, in the Madha Exclave of Oman, Feb 2023. We found this place by accident in Oct 2020, on our first ever overnight camping excursion by ourselves. The Khor Fakkan Road (yes, another road to the east) had just opened, and we went exploring. We decided to check out Wadi Shees and the connecting road (or more like ‘track’) to Madha and Nahwa, but we went too late. Finally, after driving up and down between Nahwa and Khor Fakkan a couple of times in the dark, the missus picked a random spot in the hills, and we set up camp (in the friggin dark). It was scary, because we were the only ones around… but it came out all nice and cool (check out this earlier post) … So, why not a second visit?


That’s where we parked out car and camped. The road (i.e. track) is just below, and you’ll hear cars driving past in the night, if cars drive past that is, but they’re very rare. Madha Exclave, Oman, Feb 2023


Our first overnight camp after Justin left for Singapore, Nov 2022, at some random spot by the road near Ain Lighmour (Blossom Valley), Fujairah (It’s called Jabal Al Haleefah according to Google Maps). Somehow or other, I repeated the same stupid mistake I did in Oct 2020, (on our first trip to the Madha Enclave). This time, I headed out to the interesting-sounding ‘Blossom Valley’ in the afternoon, underestimating the time it’d take to get there (i.e. 2 friggin hours, …and I thought we could get everywhere in the eastern Emirates in an hour, plus 30 mins tops). And so, we ended up, reaching Ain Lighmour at dusk, finding out, in the dim light, that it ain’t a field of flowers, and that there’re no suitable campsites… But luckily for me, I have a missus, with a knack for good camping spots. This is the spot we finally camped in…


Good morning, everyone! How was the night? Scary? (Bcoz there was only us and us alone, but we survived!) Let’s hike up the hill!


Sunrise! And we’re all alone!! (See our car? Our tent is by the tree in front of the car). This is near the UAE-Oman border. The land in front, where the sun is, after the road and behind the hill, is Oman proper! Jabal Al Haleefah, Fujairah, UAE


And that’s Blossom Valley (Ain Lighmour, or Ayn Al Ghamur, depending on which transliteration you fancy, yes, another confusing Arabic transliteration problem), in Nov 2022, without a single flower! Only friggn DONKEYS! That’s why, it’s important to do some research before you head off, silly… (How would it have flowers, if it hadn’t rain?? But it friggin rain! Did it rain here?? Doesn’t look like it, does it?…)




Wild flowers!!! Blossom Valley in full bloom, finally, after rainfall! Ayn Al Ghamur, Fujairah, UAE, Feb 2023


That’s it for today. Signing off. On the Sharjah to Kalba Road (E102), UAE

The Green Mountain of Oman

Jebel Akhdar (literally, ‘Green Mountain’ in Arabic), Oman, Dec 2022 – A view of the hanging terraces of Jebel Akhdar, from Al Aqr village. The villages in the view are Al Ain (top, right), Al Shuraijah (middle) and Al Qusha (bottom, left). The pinkish building in the background on the top of the mountain, in the middle left, is a palace belonging to a prince of Qatar. A nice thing to do here, in the cooler months, and if you have time, is to trek along the terraces from Al Aqr to Shuraijah… and beyond! We went half-way, and came back (bcoz our phone batteries ran out! What’s the point of having beautiful views, when you can’t snap ‘em!)


We liked it so much, that we revisited in April 2023! This is the view from the other side, i.e. from Al Shuraijah side. That Prince of Qatar’s palace can be clearly seen here!

I’ve been pretty busy recently. During the Eid Al Fitr holidays (end of March), we went over to Oman (yes, again), and I discovered that our trusty ol car’s 4WD no longer works! Oman’s full of mountain villages, and we were driving to one (Wadi Mibam) and our car couldn’t climb a friggin slope, in the middle of a congested village. We sat there, parked at the side, watching all the other 4WD’s driving easily up the slope. Heck, even some saloon cars were doing it! We eventually drove back down, parked our car and hired a local pickup up to Wadi Mibam (10 OMR, for a return trip – Not bad! If you want the contact, message me, haha). Yeah, the road’s pretty steep and narrow, and you’d have to be a pretty good driver, but I’m not a bad driver myself. Am I getting old??

I then remembered that during last year’s Eid Al Fitr holidays, we failed to drive up another slope, at another mountain village in Oman (Wukan). And then, there were a couple of times last year, that we struggled to climb up some slopes at our local Wadi Shawka (in the UAE), which we had no problem, going up before. So, I suspect that it may not actually be me. Could it be our trusty ol’ car? So, I sent the car for checking, and lo and behold! They confirmed what I feared all the while. The 4WD, or in the case of our car, the All-Wheel-Drive (AWD), has stopped working! And to fix it all up, it’ll cost us a hefty 37000 friggin AED!! Fuck, that’s more than what I can sell the car for. In fact, it’s nearly double the friggin market price of our car, if we sold it! But this was from the OFFICIAL Hyundai workshop. Maybe, an outside workshop could fix it up for cheaper. I’ve not sent it out for checking yet. Summer’s already in full blast here, no plans for driving up any hills for at least the next 6 months, so, there’s still time.

I can’t emphasise how important 4WD is here, if you wanna drive around and explore the mountains of Oman and the UAE! Jebel Akhdar is actually, officially forbidden for non-4WD (or non-AWD) cars. No kidding! There’s a police checkpoint at the foot of the mountain road, that checks your car. Non-4WD cars would have to park there, and hire a local 4WD to drive you up, and down. (Don’t worry, there’re loads of them, waiting around just for that opportunity!)

Since, I’ve not sorted out the photos of our recent trip to Wadi Mibam and Wadi Shab, and last year’s trip to Bilad Sayt, here’re more photos of Jebel Akhdar, the Green Mountain of Oman, which we visited earlier (2022 and 2023).


Good morning people! Breakfast at our hotel, the Green View Hotel, Saiq, Jebel Akhdar, Oman, Dec 2022


The town of Saiq, the main town on Jebel Akhdar, from the Green View Hotel


A view of the mountain terraces of Jebel Akhdar, from near Shuraijah village, Apr 2023. We revisited in spring, to visit the rose gardens when they’re in bloom! Check out my old post of the rose gardens!


A view of the mountains from near the Jebel Akhdar public park, on the road to Alila Jebel Akhdar


A wonky tree, at the Jebel Akhdar Public Park


Cliffs at Al Hulailat Village


Ahem, yours truly, at the cliffs near Al Hulailat, on the road to Alila, Jebel Akhdar


Wow! It’s friggin high! Canyon viewpoint, near the Alila Jebel Akhdar


That’s the end of the road! Sunset from the Ar Ruus mosque!


Let’s get back to town… Dusk on Jebel Akhdar, on the left is the town of Saiq, where our hotel is. Jebel Akhdar is on a plateau, high above the rest of Oman, which you can see on the horizon in the photo. It was the last bastion of the Imamate of Oman during the Jebel Akhdar War. (Yeah, there was a war here before). Oman used to be 2 separate countries, the Sultanate of Muscat (which controlled the coastal areas of Oman) and the Imamate of Oman (which ruled the interior, and had Nizwa as its capital). Subsequently, Muscat invaded and annexed the Imamate, with British help (yup, they’re the culprits, again). Jebel Akhdar was the Imamate’s last stand before it was defeated.


That’s it. Let’s get back down… On the way down, Jebel Akhdar, Birkat Al Mouz Road, Dec 2022


Here we are again, at the same place, Apr 2023


Back to the plains! Birkat Al Mouz Fort, Dec 2022. (Birkat Al Mouz is the gateway to Jebel Akhdar).

That’s all for now. Bye.