Howard Johnson Muscat

... though discreet,<br>observation, I can confirm that there is no fly or opening in a suitable location at the front.<br>Therefore, how do they pee? Do they hitch it all up while standing, or do they sit down like<br>ladies?<br>Which brings me to a related question: what do they wear under it?<br>Methinks that in the interest of global understanding, I must pursue my research. Perhaps I<br>should hang out in a public loo until all is revealed?<br><br>T.<br>

... outside of Muttrah can be a bit of a struggle if you don't have a car. Mini-buses were available but Arabic would have been needed to communicate our destination. Nonetheless, the rocky Western Al Hajar Mountains dominate the landscape of Muscat while the city lies on the Arabian Sea along the Gulf of Oman and is in the proximity of the strategic Straits of Hormuz. The white buildings typify most of Muscat's urban landscape, while the port-area of ...

... we haven't yet seen these nature reserves - we've just been briefed by a number of different people. Tomorrow, we'll be heading out to the Dmaniyat Islands to see the preserve first hand and meet with some of the ranger staff. We'll be out there for 2 nights/3 days. Toward the end of the day, we attended a very interesting meeting organized by OMRAM, Oman's quasi government development agency. They assist and facilitate development projects in the country ...

... of dolphins hunting around. Call it a group or whatever, but suddenly there was hundreds of dolphins swimming and jumping around the boat. Really awesome thing to see. We have been trying to bonding as much as possible with the culture here in Oman by eating heaps of Kebab, drinking lemon mint juice and smoking shiisha (how do u spell that??). A couple of days we have also joined the local ...

... en outre beaucoup à la fantastique histoire du pays dont sa fabuleuse taille actuelle témoigne de la gloire ; sa très riche géographie ("le pays des 4 saisons", m'a-t-on tellement répété) lui donne en outre un charme indéniable qui ne se révèle qu'à force d'une longue exploration. Des 4 saisons ? Skier à Teheran et bronzer à Busher ? Bah comme en France, quoi. Comme en France, effectivement. Il y a un paquet de points sur lesquels ...

... the sour flesh I stood talking to the boys and joking with them and each vied for my attention as they wanted me to take their photo. There were a few locals living along this Wadi and a few were out and about doing chores for the day, including washing their taxi's in the fresh water, which was really pointless as they would need to drive back along the dusty river bed to get back to the road! Heading back toward Muscat we ...

... bare, rugged mountains and whitewashed houses in between. We met the businessman and his son for breakfast and they decided they didn't need Kym until 6pm - so suddenly we had the whole day to ourselves to go exploring. Happy Birthday. We soon realized that as it was Friday nothing would be open so we had a bit of a drive around the city. It is a remarkable place. The Sultan (Sultan Qaboos, love the name) has maintained the integrity of the architecture - all ...

... back to Dubai; for instance, overly deferentially asking if they could drink a beer; and making me take down the car's licence plate, so in case anything bad happened to me I could report it. Make fun all they want--I was now the one in power. And they left me at the University and drove off, undoubtedly muttering in their native language something to the effect of "crazy-ass *****". And now I've finally learned why you're not supposed to hitch-hike!

... waiting for the plane I met a young guy from Lisgard in Cornwall. This small place is where my ex work mate - Peter Blake - used to live and he knows the bakery which Peter´s family own. Small world and apparently they do very good Cornish pasties too... He had been in Thailand for 3 months staying with his grandad, who was clearly an old rogue. He is 74 years old and has a...wait for it...a 19 year old Thai girlfriend! As he readily admits he has no idea ...

... the spot we celebrated took snaps like we were the only "pirates of the Arabian" :) As we were getting late (0545pm) so we had to literally jog our way back and reached our waiting guide 0615pm. Then through a better road this time we saw a town called Sur and had evening snack and coffee. Then by 0900 pm we reached our hotel at Ras-al-hadd, called beach hotel. We had a hearty dinner as we were really hungry after that wonderful trek n also because we couldn't eat much in ...