Safari Nizwa

... or were just sick of dealing with me, and said 10,000yen was fine. <br><br>By the way, I am NOT proud of crying at the airport. That was super embarassing and it didn't even have a very good effect on the check-in staff. They just looked vaguely uncomfortable and slightly irritated that they had a crying gaijin refusing to pay 480573805yen for her excess baggage. Later I found out that even though Oli was 17kg overweight he CHARMED the check-in girl down 10kg and only had to pay for ...

... them to reveal all, so that&#8217;s as far as the<br>research got! Still, I am here for another 9 days, so I&#8217;m sure the answer will eventually be<br>revealed.<br><br>Apart from the above research, I didn&#8217;t find a lot to do in Muscat. It&#8217;s not a very walkable city<br>as it is spread out with lots of highways, many of which are lined with swathes of grass!<br>This being an arid,desert climate, it seems nuts to be growing ...

... the spot where one unfortunate driver failed to negotiate the hairpin bends with vertiginous consequences." Lesson: Read the f*****g book. The drive from home to the foot of the mountains was uneventful. The readout in the car told us the outside temperature had hit 48°C so we were looking forward to having our picnic at 30°C, at 6500'. Eventually we reached the appropriate signpost and happily turned off the main road towards our destination. Looking back, I have to ...

... I might. Nizwa was very nice, we visited an Old Portugese fort from the 1600's and had a nice walk around the Sooq. I did a bit of bargaining and bought some goodies, then we went off to lunch. Ended up sitting next to Cassie and her Dad (from Bolivia) we had a great chat about Bolivia and the Finc they have there. He has over 150!!!! horses.*drool* Me and Cassie talked about shopping and emptying Dad's wallet. (she's a good girl :p) Very precocious, only 12 and acts all ...

... the fort but no. Instead, we have a 20 minute drive through lots of one way streets in the heart of the city.  It was truly amazing to not have a clue where to go and how we made our road choice was based on the width of the road.  Finally we got ourselves out to a road and took a left.  That was the right was to go but we were on the way other side of the city and needed to get back to the fort and souk.  We found both and parking was no problem as there were about ...

... women but there are diving clubs that charge entry fees which seems to discourage locals to visit. Went to a party with family and friends, lots of food and at least ten kids running around playing. Today we did a long trip first to Nizwa, a quite big city in the interior famous for its military and police schools two hours from Muscat. Had some food on the local market before everything closed for ...

... it seems) around, haggling with interested parties. As I was standing there, watching the scene, a nearby calf started headbutting me in the groin, smearing snot all over my pants. Luckily, I found it almost as funny as the bystanders did. The fort in Nizwa is also impressive; particularly the gigantic round tower, providing a wonderful panorama of the farms nearby and the mountains distant. There were wonderfully detailed geometric ...

... little more in them than some books or maybe some pillows. There were even some employees or possibly locals who were napping in some of the rooms. That really didn't seem like a half bad idea as the day grew hotter. Eventually the sun was out in full force and we were ready to head back to Muscat, however the next bus wasn't scheduled for another 5 hours and we were ready to be there now. Stores were shutting down and ...

... amp; all the towns within about 4 hour's drive (mostly inland). I didn't see any of the south, which is supposedly much cooler &amp; even has waterfalls, or the very north (you have to drive through the UAE to get to the northern most towns). And there is supposedly good diving near the islands south of Muscat. Also, I met some people who flew via Dubai or Abu Dhabi and were able to stay a few days there too. But they all liked Oman more - more interesting &amp; more to do.

... once we arrived at our destination there was plenty to explore and look at. To get to Ghubrah Bowl, we had to travel through Wadi Mistal. Along the way there were some houses and fascinating vegetation wherever a Falaj had been built ( Falaj is like an aquaduct or irrigation system for water). Check out the photo album for this entry to see what I mean. Ghubrah Bowl ...