KHOR FAKKAN // Peter Rodrigues has called Khor Fakkan home for the past 30 years and can remember when it was little more than a village.
Mr Rodrigues came to the UAE from what was then Bombay to work as a gardener for Sharjah Municipality. For the past 15 years he has been employed at Khor Fakkan’s biggest hotel, the Oceanic.
“When I first came here, it was just a small village and now it’s a city,” said Mr Rodrigues, 56.
“There weren’t many people and the locals just lived in small villas. There was hardly anything here apart from the police station and the tiny post office. The Oceanic was the only hotel when I was here first.”
Even today, there are fewer than a handful of small apartment hotels dotted around the town.
Mr Rodrigues’s wife Francesca lives in India with his daughter, 16, who is at college studying for a degree in commerce.
“Khor Fakkan is a place that is really popular with locals who come from all over the UAE. The corniche is always full in good weather over the weekend,” Mr Rodrigues said.
He said the developments would be good for the town. He calls Khor Fakkan home and speaks Arabic.
“The developments will be very nice for Khor Fakkan,” he said. “People come here because it’s different to the big cities, so different to Dubai or Sharjah. It’s peaceful.”
mswan@thenational.ae
