Visit Oman without leaving the UAE or border control – SUPER COOL; AI bringing dead people back to life?

If you find yourself in the UAE and have done all the usual touristy things like visiting the Burj, consider crossing another country off your list without leaving the UAE! Did you know that there is a part of the UAE that belongs to Oman but is completely surrounded by the UAE? What is even more interesting is that within this territory of Oman, there is a territory of the UAE, that is completely surrounded by Oman!

The UAE territory is called Nahwa, and the Omani territory is called Madha; a technical description for this, from Wikipedia, is as follows:  “(Nahwa) is a counter-enclave within the Omani territory of Madha, which is itself an exclave of Oman and an enclave within the United Arab Emirates”. At this point, a picture is probably in order so you can better visualize what is going on here:

As you can see from the images above, within the UAE, there is a place called Madha, which is part of Oman, and then within Madha, there is a place called Nahwa which is part of the UAE. How did this happen? Well, according to sources online, when the borders were being drawn, these regions voted who they wanted to be a part of and Madha stayed with Oman and Nahwa wanted to be part of the UAE.

To get to Madha, its about a 1 hour and 30 minute drive from Dubai. It will be mostly highway. Your hotel will probably not know about this (ours had no clue) so its pretty useless to ask them for advice. As you enter Oman, there is no border control, and there will be a sign indicating you are now in a different country technically (as you may know from reading this blog, I am trying to visit every country and Oman was #70 for me)!

Your cel phone will also switch providers and you will notice Omani flags, different street signs etc too. One of the first things I did was visit the mosque.

…and another angle with the Omani flag waving:

Across the street, there was a store and I bought some chips that were made in Oman, and asked for change in Omani currency as a souvenir.

After this, I wanted to visit the UAE territory of Nahwa, inside of the Omani territory. Here is a cool sign; again, when you cross back into the UAE, there is no border control, but there is a police station at the border:

…and some cool markers showing you are in a new country:

There is not much to do in Nahwa. Going back to Madha, you can see a dam with nice azure blue water:

…and a castle on a hill:

There’s not much else to see. There are some small stores, and restaurants, and I wanted to find one with Omani food, but couldn’t find anything open. Anyway, this was an amazing experience and a very unique way to visit Oman.

…and now for the investment thought of the day…

A recent article highlighted a program that uses AI to allow users create chatbots of dead relatives (or friends or anyone you want to talk to that is deceased). You answer some questions about the person’s personality, and upload a sample of their voice, and the program does the rest. According to the article, the service has helped a lot of people overcome grief or tell someone something they had wish they told them while still living. There is a fee to create a person. What do you think of this? How have you used AI in interesting ways? Comment down below. A lot of investors are wondering how companies will monetize AI. Yes, it can do a lot of cool stuff, but companies are investing billions into AI, and will eventually need to see a return on this investment. What are the ways you see companies monetizing AI?