The market’s plant nurseries, carpet stalls, fruit stands and souvenir shops receive more visitors on the weekend, but a new bypass may be taking some traffic and business away from the shops, said Khasdar Hajikarnal, 25, an Afghani carpet seller from Mazar-i-Sherif. Business is slow during most days of the week for the salesmen at the Friday Market on the road to Dubai, a tourist attraction on the Fujairah side of the village. He is not the only roadside stop in Masafi. Visitors are sparse in the hotter months. Mr Al Mahrazi said that he could host as many as 200 visitors in a day, though the gate was closed and the office empty on Tuesday morning. The place is a continuing project for him and his five employees, Mr Al Mahrazi said. He keeps chickens, roosters, dogs, doves, rabbits, a donkey and a turkey in pens, which he uses as a small zoo, and gives some of them away as gifts. Mr Al Mahrazi likes to trick his guests by using 20 small shower heads that he has secreted in his buildings’ ceilings “to make people laugh” by dripping water over them.Įlsewhere on the property is a football field, playground and natural cave. He can turn on another waterfall on the hillside in the corner, and an old lamppost jutting from the roof comprises another. Mr Al Mahrazi keeps the water off when there are no visitors, to avoid waste.īehind the waterfall is a seating area with a view overlooking the RAK part of Masafi, with the town markets, farms and rooftop gardens, and the dark, rocky landscape of surrounding mountains. He turns it on so the water starts to run down the mountain and into a long drain leading down the hill. The main waterfall is at the top of the hill, outside one of the houses he has built to accommodate visitors. There are a lot of people who don’t know the Emirates.” “It’s open to all people,” Mr Al Mahrazi said. Every Friday he invites people from the town for lunch. He regularly receives people from the town and some tourists, especially on holidays and weekends. The town is known for its natural springs, the water plant and the Friday Market stalls selling plants, pottery and carpets that attract tourists and others.Īlthough the water plant across the street is on the RAK side, Mr Al Mahrazi, a businessman in the electricity industry, declined to say in which emirate his property is, preferring to say the UAE is all one. The site has become a roadside attraction in the village, which is split between Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, 34 kilometres away from Fujairah city. “I make waterfalls because I love them,” Mr Al Mahrazi said of his property, the Masafi Water Falls and Cave. He now has seven artificial falls on his hilltop property in Masafi, just across from the bottled-water plant. “We have five farms, why do you want to make a waterfall?” Mr Al Mahrazi, 55, recalled his father saying. We spent around 1 hour in the wadi.RAS AL KHAIMAH // About 20 years ago, Ali Al Mahrazi decided to build a waterfall in his quiet hometown of Masafi. The cold air, green palm farm and the mountain view were very pleasant. The sky was blue and bright in the afternoon. We spent some time hanging there under the sun. We took the steps to go to old residential area and check views from the top. There was no changing room or rest room nearby. We didn’t go near the waterfall as the depth was around four to five feet. People were already there enjoying the water fall. The little fishes in the water were ready to give us free foot spa. We stepped-in to take a glance at the water flushing from a small height in between the rock. The fresh water that was flowing between the small rock was dazzling on the sunlight. We parked the car and walked to the pool side. The farm on either side of the road made us feel refreshed. This wadi is quiet a small area, there are not much facility for camping. There was proper tar road to reach the place with necessary sign boards on the route. It took around 1 and half and hour to reach the spot from Dubai. We took Khorfakkan road which was crowd free and drove through several mountain tunnels which was 1.5km long. The weather was just perfect for the trip and the temperature was around 20 deg C. It was a sudden weekend getaway trip with not much of planning. Wadi shis/shees lies in the North of Fujairah.
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