TravelStream™ news feed for member oandm on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/oandm en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:39:41 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1258386358/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1258386358/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1258386358/tpod.html Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:39:41 -0500 Oh, man! ...Life in Salalah.

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Salalah, Oman

Well, we're here. Actually we've been here since Wednesday. Yep, the company all of a sudden, without warning said 'You're flying tomorrow! go go go!' and the next morning we were carted off to the airport, stuck on a plane and flown to Salalah.

Flying over the desert was pretty. It was so flat in some parts that I could see the shadow of every cloud perfectly. And there were some more mountains, and some dried-up rivers that looked pretty neat. I'm turning into a big advocate of airplane-photography.

They put us in an apartment in the center of town that is gigantic compared to anything in Japan, huge livingroom, separate kitchen.. hallways bedroom etc. There's no internet in the building but there's a net cafe next door which is where I am now. The first floor of the apartment building is a supermarket so we don't have to go far for anything.

Oli has started work at the college, met some other foreigners (surprisingly quite a few Canadians) who've given him the low-down on living here. There's one bar, Oasis, where apparently everyone goes... there's a nice gym at the Crowne Plaza Hotel where memberships are fairly cheap and include use of their private beach, swimming pool, and exercise equipment... and all that greenery that we saw pictures of is a good 30km outside of town and requires a car.

Well, damn. I call false advertising! But people have been really nice to us and apart from the staring (which is driving me mad) it's just a quiet, boring town. The weather ranges from slightly hot and dry to cool and breezy in the early evening, not really humid at all which is nice. The apartment the company put us in isn't really in an ideal area so we're going to start looking for a place in a nicer one. Renting is pretty cheap, you can get a 3 bedroom villa for under 200rials ($500CND?) except that in tourist season (June-September) the landlords kick you out so they can charge the tourist waaay more. Apparently this is normal, and everybody just deals with it somehow.

That's about it, I'm not super happy being here but it's only the first week. Hopefully I find some sort of routine to take up my day.

-M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1259851730/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1259851730/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1259851730/tpod.html Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:35:25 -0500 Oh, man! ...Life in Salalah.

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Salalah, Oman

We've moved! About a week ago we made the move to our new temporary home in Ad Dahariz. As soon as we got here we felt better. The place is gigantic and nicely designed, and out of our windows there is the green green green of palm trees and the twittering of interesting-looking birds with long curved beaks. Those were my observations on days 1,2 and 3. By day 4 I came to realize that we're still in the middle of the desert, still with very little to keep us sane.

We tried going to the beach. Our apartment is about a 15 min. walk to the Crowne Plaza Resort and it's private (read: bikini allowed) beach. We walked there and checked out it's Health Club, which at the time only had men working out in it and then had an over-priced beer in the poolside restaurant. It was so weird seeing that many westerners in one place after spending so much time either in our apartment or in areas with mostly locals. The beach was full of Swedes! Bikini-clad, middle-aged Swedes! The beach itself looked really nice, but we hadn't thought far enough ahead to bring our swim stuff so after our beer (our first in WEEKS) we wandered on back home and promised ourselves to go swimming in the near future. We still haven't, but... baby steps.

Back to the apartment. All the rooms are bright and airy, and we've done our best to decorate with the bits and pieces we brought with us. The current bane of my existence are these tiny sugar ants that home in on any crumb of food spilled or dropped, before you know it there are a bajillion of them crawling all over everything. Ick. Windex is my friend.

Annnnd today the plumber finally came in to fix the spout for our washing machine, last week it flew off the wall and water started gushing into the bathroom. Unfortunately, it was Eid holiday and that plus the previously mentioned 'Omani work ethic' meant that it took a week of Oli asking every day for a plumber, and every day being told 'Yes, yes... tomorrow.'. Well I guess tomorrow finally came. Now I can do laundry!

I know I'm complaining an awful lot about being here so here's something positive: the locals I've met and actually talked to are super nice people. When Oli and I went to the supermarket the other day, we planned to catch a taxi and waited by the side of the road for one. A local Omani guy just pulled over and asked us if we needed a ride someplace. Not a taxi driver, just some guy who happened to be driving by. Often, Oli gets rides home from work from people just like this. So, see? Something positive!

-M

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1259285474/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1259285474/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1259285474/tpod.html Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:46:59 -0500 Oh, man! ...Life in Salalah.

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Salalah, Oman

It does not exist. Seriously. The entire country is so very relaxed that in order to get anything done you have to wait weeks for the person who is supposed to be doing it to *feel* like doing it. In some ways, this is a good thing. Like in the way that Oli is someone who is working and he can also adhere to these non-rules. In other ways, ohhhh so many other ways it is a bad thing. Like say, when we went to buy a modem at one of the only two outlets in town and although the shop was open... there was nobody running it. I don't know if he went on an extended lunchbreak, if he had to use the toilet for a good long while or maybe he just wanted to catch a movie. But we waited at this OPEN shop for about 45min until somebody came up to us and said they'd been waiting for 2 hours for someone to come back. Mind you, the person who said this didn't looked pissed off the way you or I would be pissed off if we waited 2 friggin' hours to be served. He just kinda shrugged and continued waiting. But he was Omani so I guess used to it.

How does anything get done here?! There is absolutely no communication between people in offices, no set schedule I can see, and no repercussions for slacking off. I bet it's not even considered 'slacking off' here, it's just how it is. Another example - before we got here we were deciding whether we should come together or if Oli should go first, and I wait until the family-joining visa goes through before flying in. Oli's company said to him ' No problem, you come and you can have your wife here in a week. We will give you a loan to buy your wife's air-ticket and then do family-joining visa.'

Well. I still don't have the visa (over two weeks later) and we got the loan TODAY (over two weeks later!). And anytime we tried to call somebody to sort things out it became a game of phone-tag, with one person us directing us to another person who would direct us to that first person who has now gone home for the day.

There's a quote: 'You can't go into another person's house and start criticizing the way they've arranged their furniture. As a guest it's not up to you to start moving things around.'

But. What if their furniture hasn't even been unpacked yet?

-M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1258984125/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1258984125/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1258984125/tpod.html Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:48:45 -0500 Oh, man! ...Life in Salalah.

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Salalah, Oman

2 weeks in and I don't have much to report. Granted, I'm staying in a lot... I'm having more trouble adjusting than I thought I would.

Oli and I went to look at apartments/villas last week and the first two we looked at were in dusty, depressing areas much like the area we're in now. Then we hit the jackpot when a co-worker suggested the apartment complex she lives in. We took a look and it's pretty much perfect (or as close as we're gonna get here). Surrounded by palm trees, with a big shaded garden (with a peacock!) and a 15 minute walk to the Crowne Plaza Hotel and the beach. The master bedroom is big enough to hold a dance party, and we even get an actual kitchen-sized kitchen (take note, Japan)! All for 200rials/month.

The only downside is that during Khareef season when all the tourists come to town the landlord kicks us out. But after asking around, that seems to happen no matter where you're living. Oli has his holiday around that time anyway so we'll probably just take off for the two months and visit his mum. Of course, this all depends on whether or not I last until holiday time but after seeing this apartment surrounded by actual GREEN things I think I can hold on.

Speaking of green, we got hold of a map of Salalah and for anyone moving here I have some words of advice: live in Dahariz area!!! It's the only area with a reasonable amount of green! The other apartments we looked at were in Saadah, which is *supposed* to be a good area to live in... but it was all under construction and even though there are a bunch of new apartment buildings there, the area is so barren and dusty it isn't worth it.

Sooo.... That's all I got for now. I'm spending my days playing Sims and missing Kyoto, and my evenings watching bad movies on Satellite TV with Oli. His company is still processing my 'family-joining visa' and they've already seen my medical exam papers so I guess I don't have any weird viruses... oh! And Oli and I have the same blood type, AB+. Explains why we're both so nuts.

-M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1257654039/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1257654039/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1257654039/tpod.html Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:43:41 -0500 Oh, man! ...Life in Salalah.

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Muscat, Oman

The last 24hrs have been an absolute NIGHTMARE. I never ever ever want to travel alone again. Oli and I were together up until Fukuoka airport, where we separated for Oli to go to Seoul, and myself to Kansai. I arrived at Kansai airport a good 6hrs before my flight and 4hrs before I could even check in. I like airports, even by myself I kept entertained parading my cart back and forth infront of shops and using the free wifi. Finally it was time to check in, and the problems began.

International flights allow 30kg of check-in baggage. I had a suitcase, a box and Oli's guitar which added up to 38kg. Every kg over the limit costs 3500yen (aprox. $40CAD) so it would have been a small fortune, something I really can't afford. I say would have been, because in the end I only paid 10,000yen ($120CAD) because after taking out 3 pairs of shoes (which brought it down to 36kg, still too heavy!) and bursting into tears in front of the check-in girl they finally took pity on me, or were just sick of dealing with me, and said 10,000yen was fine.

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 7kg. Of course. And his flight was Fukuoka-Seoul-Dubai with the first airline being Korean Air, who apparently don't charge a ridiculous amount for excess baggage so in the end he only paid 7000yen. Bastard. I bet he cried too and just didn't tell me.

When I finally met up with Oli in Dubai airport I was cranky, exhausted and overjoyed to see him. As I said, I am NEVER traveling alone again. I need travel support! Our final flight was Dubai-Muscat and I passed out through most of the flight, but woke up in time to see the desert and giant mountains surrounding Oman. Even in my half-asleep state I could appreciate that, it was gorgeous and so...vast. Haha, I'm so observant, yeah?

Anyway, when we arrived at Muscat airport there were a few more kicks in the teeth awaiting us. Oli's guitar didn't arrive (the one that made me CRY before I could check it in) so we have to call the airport every day to see if it comes in... and the company rep who was supposed to pick us up was not there. We waited for half an hour before calling the company, who then took another HOUR before a hotel driver showed up. We arrived at our hotel, the 'Al Bahjah' and passed out for 14hrs.

So now it's 8:17am here, 11:17pm in Ontario, Canada and 12:17pm in Japan. We had a lovely breakfast of pita bread, refried beans, feta cheese, yogurt and salad. Oli's guitar is still MIA and nobody from the company has contacted us. I feel like an alien.

-M




]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1257538367/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1257538367/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/2/1257538367/tpod.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:25:10 -0500 Oh, man! ...Life in Salalah.

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Nogata, Kyushu-Okinawa, Japan

Here we go again, off to lands unknown (to us, anyway) with our lives stuffed into luggage. The last time we do this will not be too soon! I suppose it's the price of an adventurous lifestyle.

Speaking of which, we are currently in Nogata, Fukuoka which is probably the *least* adventurous town ever. It consists of rice fields and... rice fields. My grandparents live here though, and it's also where we stored all the stuff we didn't carry in backpacks for the last 8 months so here we are, unpacking and repacking boxes, and shifting our necessary items to suitcases to bring with us to Oman... which is, tomorrow! Yep, our flights have been booked and tomorrow we leave Japan to fly all the way to Muscat, where we're staying for a couple days until we do the short jump to Salalah our new home.

What is Salalah like? I have no friggin' idea. I've been trying to research it on the internet but have come up with very little as to what kind of life we'll be living there. Which is one of the reasons I've decided to revive the travel blog and maybe somewhere down the line, someone else is moving to Salalah and will actually have some idea of what it's like before they get there. Here's hoping it's good!

-M

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1252135768/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1252135768/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1252135768/tpod.html Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:31:51 -0400 Travel and Adventure before the Big Day.

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Ko Phangan, Surat Thani, Thailand

We did it! We're married! And it was gorgeous. The weather was
fantastic, the food was as well... Brett was an awesome DJ/saviour (our
first DJ was AWFUL, so we kicked him off and Brett took over, thank
GOD) and I loved my hair/makeup and dress.

!!!

Everything's
been hectic since we reached the island, the first week I was vomiting
with anxiety (literally! isn't that weird?) and as more and more people
showed up it turned into party central. We took them all on a
snorkeling trip to Coral Beach, and Oli and I had our
bachelor/bachelorette parties which were a blast. The day of the
wedding I felt like a princess, and have never smiled so hard in my
life.

Everything fantastic.

There were photographers in
our faces the whole night, like paparazzi, but we paid them to do so
and now we have hundreds of really nice candid shots. The photographer
fiddled with a bunch of them and posted them up HERE.
But there are tons more and I'm going to take time out later to sort through them and post my favourites somewhere, later.

-M. Dammacco!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1250398650/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1250398650/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1250398650/tpod.html Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:12:40 -0400 Travel and Adventure before the Big Day.

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Melaka, Melaka State, Malaysia

We flew from Bali to Singapore at 12:30am so we didn't arrive until 3:30. Our bus to Melaka wasn't leaving for another 5hrs and we were absolutely EXHAUSTED, so we walked around the airport looking for a place to sleep. The people who built Singapore airport are clearly sadistic, and instead of putting comfy couches and carpeting in the area outside the security gate, what they've put is a 'viewing mall', a cold tile-floored place with windows that look *into* the carpeted, comfy couch filled lounge ( which is past the security gate).

So all we could do was press our faces against the glass and imagine how nice it would be to sleep on one of those couches, while we arranged ourselves in a corner of this (sadistic!) 'viewing mall' and tried to fall asleep on the cold hard tile floor.

Anyway, I managed to sleep until it was time to catch our bus at 8:30am. It was a 3hr drive to Melaka and the coaches here are roomy and comfy, a luxury compared with a lot of the transport we've taken on this trip. I slept pretty much the whole way.

Melaka is an old Portugese colony so apparently there's a lot of historical sites and cool old architecture to check out. So far, we've been to the mall, lol. Tonight (after going back to the mall to see the new Harry Potter movie!!!) we're heading into Chinatown to see the weekend night market, and since we decided to stay here 4 nights we have a lot of time to explore the rest of the town.

Malaysia is probably the most disappointing country we've been to on this trip. The food isn't anything special, the people aren't either ( of course, afew exceptions, but as a whole...) and the landscape and architecture are pretty bland. To be honest, I'm still counting down to Thailand ( 6
days! ) and I think nothing will impress/excite me compared to that. But we'll see.

-M

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1250150491/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1250150491/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1250150491/tpod.html Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:54:25 -0400 Travel and Adventure before the Big Day.

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Sanur, Bali, Indonesia

Well our flight is tonight, and after half a month in Sumatra and Java before Singapore, and now a whole month in Bali and Lombok... I'm all Indonesia'd out.

I finally got over that stupid cold that was plaguing me on Gili Air, thank god for antibiotics! We spent the rest of our time in Bali staying in the peaceful village of Sanur - much nicer than braving the drunken Aussie surfers & co. in Kuta. A nice surprise was our friends from Kyoto, Jodie and his girlfriend Michiyo showing up in Bali a week ago. It's obon summer holiday in Japan right now so they decided to spend it on the beach, and we hung out a couple of days together.

Jodie and Oli both drive scooters so we went on a couple excursions into the countryside, to Ubud and farther north to a place called Kintamani (which we couldn't stop making jokes about because in Japanese 'kintamani' means something like 'in golden balls' and we're juvenile like that...) In Kintamani we got a fantastic view of Mount Batur, an active volcano, and Lake Batur from high up. It was really breath-taking but unfortunately there were so many persistant hawkers following us around that the experience was ruined. We escaped to a restaurant and took in the views from there.

The next day we drove south to Uluwatu temple, where Michiyo wanted to see a traditional Kecah dance. There were signs everywhere around the temple that warned you to watch out for your glasses, earrings, and hats because the many monkeys living on the temple grounds would steal them. Those signs were a good warning, because almost immediately a monkey snuck up behind Oli and stole his sunglasses right out of his pouch. A local ran up with a bunch of bananas and traded the monkey for the glasses, and then turned around and charged us for the service.

Hrmm... something funny here. I think they've worked out a good system between monkey and human to make money and get fed!

Unfortunately, the kecah dance was all sold out so we settled for exploring the temple grounds and keeping an eye on the sneaky monkeys. Jodie and Michiyo went back the next day to watch it, but Oli and I were tired of so much driving (the roads here are crazy!) so we stayed in Sanur and bummed around until today, when we had to check out. Now we're in Kuta (ugh) with Jodie and Michiyo hanging around until we go to the airport at 10pm. Their flight is only 20min after ours so it works out that we can share a cab to the airport.

Next stop is Singapore, but only briefly as we're catching a bus into Melaka, Malaysia as soon as we arrive. Wedding in 2 weeks!

-M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1249362532/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1249362532/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oandm/1/1249362532/tpod.html Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:46:46 -0400 Travel and Adventure before the Big Day.

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Senggigi, Indonesia

Having spent the best part of 2 weeks on Gili Air, a slight change is welcome. A change not so much in the view, although this also apparent from the volcanic sand beaches along Lombok's West coast. More in the fact that we no longer have to brush our teeth or shower in salt water, especially before bed. And also in the fact that I no longer have to select local chicken curry from the smallest menu in the world, twice a day.

Senggigi town is pleasant enough, albeit the usual "buy this, you need transport, how about tomorrow?" periodic assaults along the roadside. Quite decent cafes, including one with a decent bakery that serves home-made olive oil and garlic ciabatta, a clean town beach, and reasonable-speed net. We even rented a DVD player (although the nice man in his peci told us apologetically that he didn't have any 'blue' movies. A dirty shame).

The place we're staying at Dermarie or something is a flashpacker $35 a night series of tasteful cottages with open-air showers, set in a beautiful grove of palms and indigeous tropical foliage. The staff are friendly (although apparently thought we wanted 'blue' movies), and most importantly, the place is clean. Very clean! No scratch yourself-to-death bead sheets. Can we afford this? Hell no. Do we care? Hell no. The are two justifications.

1) The last place next door: Lina Hotel was a $12.50 a night scratch yourself-to-death room, the mattress so infested, a ceremonial bonfire with powerful mantras, would only ensure the dimise of those PIG critters. I slept in a chair on the porch rolled like a human sushi in my sarong.

2) Becaue poor M has been sick (lying out in the sun again), we decided not to venture across to Flores island, and take the boat back via Rinca, Moyo and Karot (for Komodo spotting and paradise snorkling). So that's extra cash we don't actually have, see?

Tomorrow, we'll rent a bike and explore Lombok in a bit more depth. An Australian traveler we befriended on Gili Air, told us of this one particular beach, not far north, that is incredibly beautiful.



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