The UAE has more to offer than the latest Gucci sunglasses. Felicity Cousins hides from the heat in laidback Fujairah
Slowly the flat desert sand starts to ripple like an amber sea lapping at the side of the road. We pass camel trains and overtake lorries brimming with bricks. Soon the ripples become huge, rolling dunes and the wind whips the sand into glittering balls of dust. Abu Dhabi’s tinted high-rises and modern malls fast become a distant memory.
We pass roadside markets offering carpets and carvings, and then the dunes become jagged outcrops of rock rising into the Hajar mountains, which divide the UAE in two. On the other side of the mountain range lies the emirate of Fujairah.
About 300km from Abu Dhabi and 130km from Dubai, Fujairah is the only emirate lying on the gulf of Oman. The geography of this small state means its climate is more forgiving than its desert sisters. From October to March the temperature is a pleasant 26 degrees and the rain from the mountains and breeze from the ocean make it a fertile land.
Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi is the ruler of Fujairah and in the past five years, much investment has gone into this popular city escape. I am heading to Al Aqah, a strip of beachfront hotels about 40km outside the capital. There are several properties here but the first to arrive on the strip was Le Méridien, a modern high-rise luxury resort. I am staying next door at the Fujairah Rotana Resort and Spa, a low-rise complex with all 250 rooms facing the pool or the beach, the gardens hugging the central pool area right down to the seafront.
I am here to get away from the city, the intense heat, the crowds of shoppers with their Gucci glasses, and so I head straight for the water and book myself in for some wakeboarding. I’ve done it before on a calm sea in Greece, but this is different, with rolling deep swells turning into hard jumps and painful landings. I soon find myself flying through the air, my face thrust into the wake, my arms twisting in their sockets. After a lot of effort and several mouthfuls of warm seawater, I get into some sort of rhythm and am delighted to find that 20 minutes of sea breeze has given me a better tan than all the inert sun worshippers suffering on the blazing hot beach.
I duck out of the heat into Zen the Spa, which is housed separately from the rest of the hotel complex. There are 17 treatment rooms and the reception is candlelit with deep sofas and plants. I pad through the spa to the changing room, put on some unique paper underwear and step into a room with a stream flowing through it.
Inside, I feel like Alice in Wonderland – there are several doors leading off from the room, with a different experience behind each. In one I shower off the salty seawater and sticky sun cream, then head to a steam room where I sip a cool glass of water for a few minutes. After that it is back to the shower and then a dry hamman (with very hot seats) and again back to the shower.
I have visited all the doors bar one, and my spa guide explains I am about to enter an ice cave – the only one in the UAE, I’m told. She says she will leave me for no longer than two minutes as any longer in the minus-five degree temperature would be too dangerous. What are the benefits of this, I ask, shaking in my paper pants. You will feel alive and energised, she says with a smile, before the door closes behind me.
Left alone, I can barely make out the tiled walls through the cold air. I huddle against a frozen wall with small puffs of breath escaping from my mouth like a dragon in a cryogenic experiment. I feel my skin tighten and then it is all over and I am back in the shower. I feel alive, invincible.
Two hours later, after a full body massage, I am gliding away, the warm wind carrying me down to Waves, the hotel’s seafront restaurant. Tomorrow there’s a dhow trip to Oman or a trek through the rugged mountains. I order the catch of the day and settle back in my chair, the white muslin draped around the cabana, blowing in the evening breeze.
Visit rotana.com
