Safari Muscat

... failed to re-start when we were wanted to set off home, but it was soon resolved with a bit of priming and some words of &#8216;encouragement&#8217;.<br><br>Ano ther minor problem on the way home was not being able to refuel at the marina - apparently they don&#8217;t take credit cards on a Friday. Go figure.<br><br>All in all a successful first family voyage. We ...

... be in its infancy. The infrastructure is very modern - the immediate Muscat coastline is traversed by 4 lane highways and good highways also head to the major towns across Oman. The airport is modern and being updated, there are 5 star hotels and large shopping malls (much to Maddie's delight). You can drink the water from the tap (yeah) and even buy alcohol (yeah!). Let me explain the alcohol rules more. Muslims are not allowed to buy alcohol, but expats are - if you are a ...

... s amusement. They meet once a month. I wasn't interested at first as I thought it would be the old women meeting place but apparently there is a broad spectrum, old, young, native and expat. Callan's swimming has come on incredibly. His confidence doubled in a week. He is now jumping in and kicking up to the surface on his own. The main thing for me is that he is actually lying on his back - he hated doing that in the pool at ...

... wait, as the bags go round and round on the carousel. But they don't show. After days of anxious gathering of stuff for the trip and much effort to squeeze 3 weeks worth of formal and field clothing into too small a suitcase, the bags don't show. The gifts for our hosts, my sport coat and tie for tomorrow's meeting with the ministers, and virtually everything else - all gone missing. More soon, as I sort this all out. David

... that didn't take long to do and once we had it done we realised we were... well, bored. Since that walk around yesterday afternoon we've had trouble coming up with other stuff to do; we've walked up and down the waterfront promenade (corniche) a few times wondering as we went where everyone was and trying to figure out exactly how hot it was (the latter became apparent once we reached the digital clock/thermometer outside the city souq ...

... wound up buying a traditional Omani hat, and even got it from the actual hat sellers, rather than the in-market touts selling machine stitched hats; the band and top were made seperately, and after the band was stretched to fit my gargantuan head, they sewed them together. When I put it on, one of the women nearby just bust out laughing, so I hammed it up, noting how I was a real Omani now. The next morning started with the goal of ...

... at the Oil Baron's Ball - along with 2,400 others, which was pretty awesome if you like things on such a scale. So there are some interesting things we get to do and the moans are minor, if frequent. We have bought a 1 year old Prado which is pretty exciting as now I am mobile and independent and we can drive on sand at last! From early January Kym will be spending 2 weeks of every 4 in Amman, Jordan for about 3 months and I am hoping to go with him when I can ...

... district of Shati Al Qurum to the Grand Mosque, the largest and most exclusive mosque in Oman. Construction began in early 1995, completed six years later and inaugurated by the Sulton in 2001. It can accomodate up to 20,000 worshipers, men and women separately. A major feature of the main prayer hall is a hand-made Persian carpet consisting of 1,700 million knots, weighing 21 tons and made in a single piece measuring 70 by 60 ...

... up for air and swimming all around. As we sat there eating our dinner watching him we noticed like 3 or 4 more turtles came too. We were so excited we had to call home and tell everyone about our sighting. (Oman is way better than Sri Lanka...Sri Lanka promised us the elusive spotted leopard, elephants, and what did we see..not a *******n thing...everything Oman had promised however they have delivered) We arrived at the turtle conservatory about an hour early. You ...

... hostel and they claimed to have no idea. Luckily Rick's new friend offered to give us a lift on his way to work, down at the docks repairing shipping containers. Getting up bright and early we packed up, grabbed a quick breakfast and jumped into his car. During breakfast there was a bit of commotion with Rick's new friends getting yelled at in Arabic by the hostel's chef. Apparently the Egyptian was taking away the hostel's money by giving us a lift even though the ...