We only had a short time in the UAE, so we found a way to get the most bang for our buck—a day tour to 5 of the 7 Emerites.

On December 2, 1971, the Sheiks of what are now 6 of the 7 Emerites (the 7th joined a year later) decided to unify and form one country—the United Arab Emerites. (However, each Sheik still controls their own Emerite.) Throughout the country, there are many references to “7”: murals depicting the 7 Sheiks, 7 pots, etc.

We had already explored Dubai a bit the day prior, so this tour focused on Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Funairah. December 2nd is their “National day” of celebration, which just passed. So there were many UAE flags and decorations all over the country. Similar to the US for Fourth of July.

(Fun Fact—the Traveler’s Century Club (whose list we are currently using to count countries) counts each Emerite as a separate country/territory. While we are counting each Emerite separately in our personal total country counts, we are only counting the UAE as one country when we say we are planning on visiting 20 countries on this trip).

Here are some shots from the UAE! -J 🇦🇪

Some additions from Scott: