Destination: Kalba (24/10/2009) - A belated entry

I have been planning this for quite some time. Our first long distance trip... to Kalba, in the Emirate of Sharjah. Kalba is a small town on the east coast of the UAE (Gulf of Oman), just a few km from the UAE border with the Sultanate of Oman. It’s about 130 km from Dubai.

Early in the morning, my wife cooked Nasi Lemak among other things. We were planning to have a picnic there. So, after Dzuhur, at about almost 200pm, we left Dubai. We headed for Sharjah by the Emirates Rd.

Then at the National Paints round-about, we took the Maliha Rd which will take us directly to Kalba. On each side of the road, we were greeted by sandy deserts and sand dunes.... but because we didn’t want to arrive in Kalba after dark, we didn’t stop to take photos.

We continue our journey pass the town of Maliha.... into the mountainous road towards Wadi El-Helo. The road was carved into the rocky mountain that separate the Oman Gulf plateau from the rest of UAE.

Sharjah-Kalba Road

Highway through the rocks

Wadi Al-Helo town, in the middle of nowhere

Wadi Al-Helo tunnel (reminiscent of our own Menora tunnel)

We're almost there... Oman is to the right side...

We arrived in Kalba at about 430pm... the weather was wonderful with temperature in the mid-20s. We performed ‘Asar at a small mosque and, afterwards, went to find a picnic spot by the lagoon.

We found a spot a started our picnic... feasting on the nasi lemak and the karipap that my wife made. There were quite a lot of people jogging and walking along the lagoon... women in abayas, children. There were also a few Arab families having their picnic not too far from where we had ours.

Nasi lemak & karipap...a Malaysian picnic in Kalba

I found this fox wondering in the clearings across the lagoon from us...

Sunset in Kalba

When the muezzin from the near-by mosque sounded the azzan, it was time for us to start packing and cleaning up. We left the lagoon to find a mosque to perform Maghrib and ‘Isya (Jama’ and Qasr).

We took a different route back to Dubai.

We headed north towards Fujeirah (by entering Fujeirah, we’d completed our trips to all the 7 Emirates), then to northwest towards Masafi, Al-Dhaid and Sharjah. Traffic was quite heavy that night... but we arrived home safely.

Harun Al-Rashid mosque, Kalba

My Mr Dependable in front of the mosque

A Malaysian furniture store in Kalba???

More Kalba photos HERE