Golden Oasis Muscat

... of charm as it has retained most of its authentic atmosphere and history. The country has a handful of hotels and has not suffered from overdevelopment. The capital city of Muscat is one of the most beautiful capitals in the Middle East ...

... Rhodes restaurant, with our travelling friends,Maureen and Bruce and a delightful meal it was. I also discovered Sloe Gin with sparkling wine is a great aperitif. We managed afterwords to dance a quickstep and waltz around a near deserted dance floor , with the Sunflower band, and their lovely singer. The musicians in all the different venues have been really good. Then off to pack, as we leave the ship tomorrow, for a stay with friends in Dubai and then return to England

... 1.50). You also find falafel being sold at these places. Dates, which I was looking forward to and had read were a staple here, are actually out of season right now. I haven't seen any available. However, I did have an incredible date milk shake! We also found some fantastic ice cream - saffron almond has been my favorite. Another really nice treat has been the fresh juices. All the places we've eaten at have fresh juice on the menu. My favorite has been the mint lime.

... dans le vaste cadre de l'observation et de la comprehension du pays dans sa complexité. Le brillant - anonyme - étudiant de Yazd me dît à ce propos que les iraniens ont cette blague selon laquelle si une femme ne peut fuir l'homme qui tente de la violer, autant qu'elle en profite. La situation en Iran n'est pas tout à fait celle-ci mais il y a une part de vérité dans cette anecdote d'un goùt douteux ; je souhaite écrire au nom d'une ...

We hired a car, the driver who took us to our busn meeting. His name is Hammud. Interesting fellow; told us that his dad had two wives and 23 kids. We wondered if the places he took us to were run by family. :) He taught us a little bit of Oman's history, about the good king who had taken over after his father (not so good of a king) died. I had read some of this before traveling, so ...

... refresh ourselves over a long tall pomegranate juice before combating the Mutrah Souq. At the entrance there was an old man in a dirty dishdisha serving up hot omani coffee. I wanted to ask him for his photo, and when I told Trina I was going to ask I actually said to her "I was going to ask for his phone number". I know its been awhile but come on!!! The souq was just starting to come alive after the afternoon break ...

... a jumble of broken ashphalt, concrete blocks, light poles and twisted armco railing. A cyclone hit Oman in June and this was some of the evidence. A serious reminder that you don't want to be caught in a wadi if there is any rain in the area. Those of you who have read Salmon Fishing in Yemen will know what I mean. Having turned left at the roundabout with the golden eagle we found our way to the wadi and thoroughly enjoyed our first and much anticipated 'wadi ...

... and then you smell like smoke again. Someone forgot to send Jordan the memo that smoking kills! By the time we got to the airport we still had several hours to kill. We spent the time flipping through celebrity magazines and wondering why the duty free didn't carry Pepto-Bismol. Our first flight was short and a bit disorienting. At one point I thought we were about to land, but it turned out it was time for dinner. Our plane touched down for about ...

... on the way to the beach standing up on their back legs trying to get some branches off the trees. The beach was totally secluded there weren't even any roads to get there we had to go off-roading. I was still really sick especially after the drive so Tina made me my own little Oasis under an umbrella. I pretty much stayed there all day occasionally getting up to climb over the sand dune with the spade to use the WC. That took a lot of effort! It was about 43C and ...

... gets covered by sand dunes in the night because of wind. So municipality has lot of work everyday. The distances were large so by the time we reached our next destination it was 1030 am, this place was called Wadi bani khalid. It was cool effect to find some green place suddenly after rough mountains, rocks and dust. We could find lot of people picnicking here. We actually went into water to cool ourselves. The water was not deep so it was good for me as I cant swim. Actually ...