Ras Al Khaimah (RAK)

This weekend, for Heather's birthday, we headed to Ras Al Khaimah, one of the northern emirates.  They call it the "Wild West" of the UAE.   Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) has mountains, dunes, and of particular interest to me, a 40 km beach!

The hotel we stayed in, the Al Hamra Fort Hotel, resembles a fort and is constructed like an Arabic Village with an Arabian Nights theme.  It is a huge complex, so just checking in required a golf cart ride.

Time to check in....

Kim checks out the digs...

Our villa on the beach

It also has a gorgeous beach with a natural lagoon.

View from the beach looking at our villa

Lagoon

We took a birthday cake decorated with penguins....inside joke..... Kim packed frozen water bottles all around it, trying to keep it cool enough for the trip there.  It worked!

Happy Birthday to Heather!

Before......

...and After

Beach--gorgeous!!

Heather had warned us about the jellyfish in the water!  Fortunately, they were BRIGHT blue and easy to spot.  Of course, Kim and Cory thought it was hilarious to keep touching our legs, making us think a jellyfish had us!

Warning sign....uh....they're BLUE, not RED!!

The only good jellyfish is a DEAD jellyfish!!

Ooooooh!  Touched it!!!

We played in the water all day Friday.  It was calm...and 115 degrees!  That whole day we kept our eyes turret gunning, searching for the elusive jellyfish!  I got so paranoid, but none of us got stung!

One of the pools:
We ended up here for the afternoon because it was just TOO HOT on the beach!!

Balcony View

Sunset

Later that night we walked over to the Al Hamra Residences to check them out and see if we would be interested in coming back one weekend to stay in them.  While we were inside we decided to use the restroom.  After walking around for a while and not seeing one, we headed through an open door down a short hallway and saw a man coming out.  I asked which one was men's and which one was women's.  About that same time, I spied a room key card plugged into the electric controls......meaning this was his residence and we had just walked in on him and tried to use his bathroom!!!!  We whipped around and walked out just as fast as we could, trying not to die laughing!  He wasn't as amused.....

Al Hamra Residences at night

Had a good meal at Le Chalet, where you pick out your own food and they grill it for you.

Le Chalet

Salad Bar....and aquarium

We did check out a few other places....including this one that you picked out your own seafood--

Then, Saturday, the waves churned up and the weather turned a little cooler...106!!  We heard that Tropical Cyclone Keila was heading up from the Arabian Sea, so we weren't sure if the waves were a forerunner of that storm.  Because the water was so cloudy, we couldn't see the jellyfish, so we just tried to forget about them and have fun.

We had the BEST time riding these waves!  I lost my Georgia baseball cap, and Heather lost her sunglasses--knocked right off our heads ~ ha-ha!  Kim found my cap floating in the water, but the glasses are gone-gone!

This is my new favorite place in the UAE.  The beach is gorgeous and it's only about a 2-hour drive!!  HEAVEN!!