Muscat Holiday

... why nobody mentioned the fact that instead of a smooth, well defined tarmac road stretching off into the distance, majestically climbing the mountain in long elegant sweeps, we were now bumping along a rough gravel track towards a deep cleft in a vertical wall rising 4000' above us. But press on we did, and for a good while it was a fantastic experience. For the first few miles the track runs along the dry wadi, flanked by lush date palms with the almost vertical canyon ...

... of pizza beside fully covered Omani women who were also enjoying the western treat. This reminds me of another story. These particular women didn't have veils so eating wasn't a problem. But when we were in Cairo at the Kosheri restaurant we watched a girl discretely lifting up her veil each time she brought the fork to her mouth. We had to chuckle as Lani showed us a YouTube video of a veiled woman trying to eat spaghetti with the caption 'Why Italian food won't catch on in ...

Oh, my god - we really did make it our here in the nick of time what with the British weather...we wouldn't have made it for days if we had planned to leave any later!   I called school this morning - we decided that F would start on Saturday for the new week rather than one day and then the weekend (remember that the weekend here is Thursday and Friday!). I'm jotted my notes down for today on the front step...I'm not quite at the stage of wondering what ...

... how the rest of the delegates are doing it. We're in meetings from 8 -5 pm and then we have to RUN and change for dinners that last till 10 or 11 pm. All this social activity is just exhausting. Yesterday was a VERY long day. There are over 400 people attending with 56 countries represented. Some ...

... in our memories it just seems right to attempt to explain what it's like to visit Muscat (and Oman) by way of comparing it to India. So here goes (and excuse any sweeping generalizations I may make here and the haphazard order in which I present these points). - The visa process The Indian visa process required a week of our time in Kathmandu, Nepal and €30 of our money. The Omani visa process involved paying the 6 Omani Rial ...

... India over there, Iran that way and so on.) I mostly just relaxed there; eating my nutella and doing postcards for people; they wound up being four-country postcards as they passed through the UAE and Bahrain before being mailed from Saudi Arabia. In short, I chilled and enjoyed the beauty of Oman and Muscat in particular. Nothing major, but the sort of thing that just reinforces how wonderful a city is and how much I'd like to revisit some day.

... platter. Rachel was kind enough to let me eat the crabs while she ate the mussels. That night we took a cab to a neighboring suburb called Ruwi. We decided that we should be more constructive with our time and planned on visiting Nizwa, a fort town about 2 hours away. After checking out the local Omani department store and wondering why they are selling halter tops we headed to a movie. Don't see Hannibal Rising, just don't.

... most marriages are within the same tribe or at least, within the same tribe class to avoid in-breeding, I guess. Our next stop was the colorful market at Muttrah Souq where the scent of exotic Arabian perfumes and spices fills the air. Here, a multitude of shops offer Omani khanjars, or daggers, as well as hand-made Omani costumes, (dish dashas), antiques, traditional silver jewelry, and handicrafts made from copper, camel bone ...

... far the next gas station was in relation to how close we were to the Jebel. We were about half way through our reserve tank when we entered the Jebel. I was a bit nervous but I didn't let on. About 15 minutes into our drive through the dirt Jebel road we came across a hitch hiker who looked like he had been walking for a long time. Seeing as how it was super hot I decided to pick him up. We had lots of space and AC. He was very appreciative but didn't speak any ...

... stared at by local boys. Continuing into town we passed the Muscat Gate Museum, closed for the midday break, as basically everything is closed between 1 to 4.30pm as it's so hot, and walked on to see both the Jalari and Mirani Forts. Grabbing some Indian for lunch and a large bottle of water we waited to cool off before getting a taxi in Ruwi to try and organise a tour into the desert. Finding the only tour place in town we decided that the tours we a little bit too ...