Golden Tulip Seeb Muscat

... against a backdrop of high desert mountains, the capital has plenty to see including the Grand Mosque, one the worlds largest, and the Souk – a step back into the Middle Ages.

Most of the quality hotels in the country are in or ...

A typical Friday (Sunday) morning in the Mitchell household: Wake up late. Leisurely breakfast in jammies. Mum and dad chill on the sofa, Freya draws quietly, Callan careering around the house on his toy car, shrieking at every corner. "What shall we do today?" "Shall we go out somewhere?" "Yeah, ok." Pause 20 minutes for another cup of tea. "Where do you fancy going?" "How about we go out for a picnic?" "Sounds good." Another 20 minutes pass. "Where ...

Our fourth day in Oman...seems like we've been here for a longer time. Today, Thursday is like our Saturday and Friday is like our Sunday here in Oman. We are doing some work today, but hope to head out later to see some of Muscat. We'll my bags finally showed up last night; I understand they never left Boston. Now I know why the airline is called Northworst. For the first couple of days, I've spent too much time looking for clothes to keep me ...

... partie du peuple iranien dont le regime, à la tendance liberticide certaine, ne convient guère. Il est surtout jeune, ne m'autorisant à parler pour eux que parce qu'ils se sont en partie confiés. On a imposé à la jeunesse iranienne un systême et des responsables politico-religieux qu'ils n'ont pas choisi et qui, particulièrement pour les femmes, exercent une pression que j'ai tendance a imager comme de modestes mais désagr ...

... made it easier to understand him. Before the Sultan took over, Muscat (maybe even Oman) had two schools, no roads connecting towns. The sultan has connected the country, blasting roads through the mountains and building highways. He's built plenty of schools and hospitals and really brought the country out of the third world. Enjoy the photos and be sure to read the stories with them.

... shops selling wall hangings, arabic shoes, pashminas, oud and incense burners and silver jewelery and we were called into their shops to buy pashminas and the like. I walked away with a lovely wall hanging. Back to the hotel for a rest before dining at the hotel's seafood buffet, which turned out to be a bit of BBQ prawns, squid and hammour, but for OR 5 it was OK and by this stage we were so tired we just needed sleep.

... I must say it was pretty tame, but a good way to start what we hope will be many adventures in Oman. It was interesting scenery, rough stony country with small sand-coloured villages, date palm plantations and a quite dramatic section of rock walled canyon. We took a chance that one of the roads would lead us back to Muscat and it did - with some thrilling driving on the twisting hilly road in between - but The Beast doesn't make much of a rally car, and of ...

... minutes in Riad, Saudi Arabia. I was hoping that we would be able to get off the plane and have our picture taken in front of a welcome sign. I wanted some proof that I had been there. Women are not allowed into the country unless accompanied by a related adult male. Even then, women must be covered. Rachel was asleep and all I could see out my window was a dark tarmac and a couple of planes. There was nothing that said "you are in Saudi Arabia, now don ...

... over the dune when you are not feeling good and you haven't eaten in 2 days is not at all easy. By the time I would have made it back I would need to lie down in my Oasis for a good 30 minutes before I regained enough strength to climb the other sand dune that lead to the beach. I felt like I was starring in the remake of Laurence of Arabia: Dies of Dysentery. I felt really bad that I couldn't eat any of the amazing food that Tina had gone through so much trouble to ...

... small fishes were trying to pull my leg :) After that refreshing bath in wadi waters and having nice lunch of biryani on the highway we started for our final and the ultimate adventure destination. The Wahiba sand Dunes..! Here we drove ourselves for sometime on some rough patch before reaching the dunes. Driving on sand dunes requires quite a good experience else you will make the SUV roll down on sides. Our hearts started beating very fast as we drove through tilts of 45 degs ...