Al Wadi Hotel Sohar

A city bus supposedly runs every half hour to the airport in Damascus for 50 cents and I was all about that type of deal. So yesterday I wanted to nail down the exact departure point of this bargain bus and I asked three people. Of course three people gave me seven different answers and while wandering around I sort of scoped out these locations. Green city buses with Arabic signs rolled by but if one was the elusive airport bus I will never know.

Cutting ...

... close enough :) The mountain was cool, it was rocky like what I saw in Hatta last year, and the view from the top is worth the annoying drive. The oasis is weird too, and there's a running hot spring in it, but the plants were all irrigated which I thought was cheating. :(

Then back home! One more rest day tomorrow then Bahrainnn!

Insha'Allah. I had read of this saying before coming here. But today, I discovered how real it really is. In English the phrase translates to 'God willing’ or simply, ‘hopefully’. Insha’Allah is used by people of all religions and is essentially used to indicate hope for a future event to occur. For example, if I were to say "See you tomorrow," the reply would be “ ...

... us as much. One of the Syrian's teaching us Arabic!

I got my teaching assignment today. I'll be a grade 1 class teacher (meaning Math, Science and English) and a grade 3 English teacher. They also mentioned a grade 5 social science, but that has yet to be confirmed. The school is really nice. The classrooms are simple, but the school is fairly large. I've already gotten lost. The school ranges from Kindergarten to Grade 12 and has about 800 students from 52 nationalities ...

... looked shallow enough to wade and give access to a spectacular walk. We'll be back to explore. After re-tracing our steps for half a mile we found the track we needed hidden between some date palms and a goat pen. The first few hundred metres were fine but when we got to the first steep hairpin and I suggested permanent 4WD, Natalie decided she'd had enough in the driving seat. We flicked the switch to engage the 4WD and carried on with only the occasional slip/slide. On ...

... flight from Dubai to Joh'burg was not great, managed to get about an hours kip during quantum of solace, but had a big fat guy taking up my arm rest :-( Any way, here are a couple of photos of the flight.

Ajman to Sharjah by minibus, it leaves right in front of the Ajman museum and goes to the Sharjah bus station, very practical for my bus change to the emirate of Fujarah that lies on the east coast of the UAE, so the highway goes across the desert, and ...

Une journée de tourisme organisé en perspective. Initialement c'était un tour en 4x4 dans le désert de sable que nous voulions faire mais le tour opérator nous a sournoisement revendu une excursion dans le désert de rocaille d'Oman à la place, soit disant parce que l'autre n'était pas programmé en cette saison. Bref, on a accepté en ...

Au programme du jour, une escapade à Al Ain, ville construite autour de l'oasis du même nom. Direction l'émirat d'Abu Dhabi. Nous arrivons à Al Ain après 1h30 de route à travers le désert. Premier détail surprenant, la couleur du sable. Celle-ci passe en effet du blond/blanc au rouge au fur et à mesure qu'on s'éloigne de la côte. Les abords de l'autoroute sont ...

... Heritage Village, I didn't know where I should have got off the bus. There were old buildings, forts, hills with flag paintings, and few villagers. Eventually I left the bus at the terminal and I talked to a villager passing by. I thought all the shops around there was closed, becuase the whole village was very calm, and asked him about it. He said, "They were all open". In fact, the bus driver was buying water at one of the shops ...