Reflections on a year in Oman

It seems somewhat strange that we have been living overseas for more than a year now. Coming to Oman was a great leap of faith on our parts, what with leaving our home of some 20 plus years, our children and after almost 30 years moving to a new employer.

For the first time in our married life we have a house to ourselves, well  most of the time.   Life is quite different and now that Katrina has the thesis off her back we will have some time to explore this rather stunning country. Mind you work is hitting overdrive and now that Katrina has finished study I have enrolled on line with the University of Canberra.

In March 2012 we got off a plane at Muscat airport, and walked into a noisy, crowded and seemingly chaotic place. All the locals  (apart from the ones in uniform) wore white (men) or predominantly black (women).  Within two days of arrival I was at work, having been prodded and poked by the doctors at the Police Hospital. And that two days says a lot, when Omani's want something to happen it HAPPENS VERY QUICKLY!

In our year here we have never felt threatened or unsafe. It is a remarkably friendly, tolerant and safe place to be. Mind you we did learn that crime is not unknown as we left the house unlocked - and the inevitible happened.

So what to say about Oman. Hmmm. Different, spectacular, beautiful and forbidding at the same time. Chaotic and frantic, but also quiet with an overriding tolerance and politeness. I guess that’s probably well illustrated by the reaction here to the American movie that derided Islam last year. The Omani’s could not understand how or why someone would choose to make a movie like that, there was a sense of bemusement. And being a very devout Muslim country Omani’s felt the need to protest. A group of I believe about 150 went to the American embassy and paraded outside for a couple of hours, some with placards, to register their discontent. And then they came back the next day and did it again – point made. How different to the rest of the world.

The reaction to the footage of the Australian counter protest, where the Australian racist nutbags  were charged and beaten by the police made somewhat of a stir at work. But then that may only have been mentioned because I am Australian.

For much of the year it's hot!  Winter gets down to the mid twenties and is absolutely beautiful, fabulous outdoor weather. It's then that people go into the desert. Still hot but bearable. The wadi's have running water and the stark rocky mountains sprout patches of green as small trees and grasses spring into life.

Over the next few months these will die back and although still present most of them won't be noticeable from any distance away.

In the last few weeks summer has signalled its intent. Daily highs are hitting 40+ with growing regularity, in another month or so it will be 40+ everyday. You do start to get used to it, but right now even the locals are not happy. And now its Ramadan - long hot days with short nights and public fasting during daylight hours.

Life is a bit different here, work starts and finishes early, then its off home in the early afternoon to escape the heat. So consequently there's no formal lunch break at work, even when its not Ramadan. You get up early, go to work and come home for a late lunch. Followed by a lie down. And then after 4 things start to come back to life, shops re-open and people start to hit the streets and beaches.

We are relatively lucky, living in Al Hail close to the Al Seeb beach. A nice long sandy stretch, which the locals flock to in late afternoon. Games of soccer are played up and down the beach, often with their goals almost back to back. People like me walk up and down the waters edge, dodging the occasional soccer ball or even charging players. Every now and then the "lads" hit the beach in their Jeeps and tear up and down at speed. All adding to the mix.

The lady at our corner store always gets excited when I drop in to buy a case of soda water. She unfailingly asks after "Madam" and chats about life the universe and anything! We recently had to promise to go to the shop so she couldgive Katrina some of her food. And very nice it was too, think there may be some Katrina cooking ahead for the shop lady... And now there's henna to show added to the mix.

It's interesting living in a functioning monarchy. The Sultan has a Government and houses of Parliament under him, but laws are Royal Decrees and the local news is full of the doings of the Sultan, such as his diplomatic missions and the almost daily cables dispatched around the world, to celebrate national days, offer condolences or congratulations for things like election wins.

The Sultan is well loved and his picture is everywhere. And nobody seems to mind when streets get shut down for a convoy of VIP's going to or from the airport, often out past our place to the Royal Palace. When that happens the main highway gets closed down, as well as all the under and over passes along the way. People pull up and wait patiently, almost to the last person the Omani's then pull out a smartphone and start tapping away.

It's funny to think that forty years ago the main forms of transport for Omani's were donkeys and camels. They've come a long way in a short time and are keen on making Oman a great nation once again. It wasn't too long ago that the Omani empire stretched all the way down to Tanzania.

There are modernisation projects underway across the country, and the Government is following a process of Omanization. That is to say certain jobs are reserved for Omani's and major projects must have strategies in place to train Omani's into high skilled jobs. Unlike other parts of the region Omani's remain grounded and expect to work. The Sultan fully intends for Oman to stand on its own two feet, without needing oil or gas to maintain the economy.

Also unlike Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other parts of the region, Oman has maintained an incredibly strong sense of self. buildings retain traditional design principles and there are no sky scrapers. Traditional dress is the norm and while they have adopted the car with alacrity people walk the streets of their neighborhoods and are quite friendly, it's a rare day when I walk down the street and don't get greeted by most men/children walking by.

As we move about Oman we see quite a range of sights. The mountains are stunning, with seams of minerals protruding through the surface, giving the rock strata very obvious and rapidly changing colours. Red, green, bluish grey, off whites and a stunning array of browns. Everywhere you look it seems there's another seam of mineral.

When you dive off the beaches small reefs are easily found and the fish are fairly happy to tolerate your presence, just look mind you. Those fish come in all colours and sizes, and occasionally a turtle comes by. There are sharks around, but they aren't so close inshore as we swim and tend to be further to the South.

So all in all, do we regret coming to Oman - No. It's been a fabulous experience and we are looking forward to see what's next here.

Back to Oman and the Desert beckons

Must be almost a month since the last post - another two weeks in Australia and now about three weeks home.  An awful lot has happened in that time, both work wise and personally.

Nothing but sand as far as the eye can see......

I spent the second half of my time in Australia hanging around Canberra like a bad smell.  Being a tourist in my home town and just being there if Katrina needed me. Not too taxing!  I did get to see Government House and did a Parliament House tour as well as Tidbinbilla and the Canberra Zoo, all with a dash of National Arboretum.  As a tourist town Canberra is not too shabby.

(The Arboretum has hundreds of clumps of trees spread over many acres - or hectares to you young uns! - fabulous views and when fully grown will be something quite spectacular. Its one of those vision things, and thankfully once every generation or two you get a politician with a sense of vision.)

My Australian sojourn finished with a trip through Sydney to the closing day at the Rowany Festival.  I was there for the Fighter Auction Tourney and had the opportunity to catch up with many people. That was really rather pleasant. Then the following day I farewelled Katrina and set off for Oman and work again.

When I got back home after unpacking and sleeping, it seemed the first thing to do was collect Rufus and Georgie from the airport. The snow in Canada had melted enough for them to be released from their lakeside isolation. First thing they did was jump a plane to Muscat.  So in less than a month I got to see most of my family and also most of Katrina's as her parents were also on the visiting agenda.

Ray and Isobel (Katrina's parents) relaxing at the beach.

I guess the big thing on the agenda was the weekend just gone when Rufus, Georgie, Katrina and I joined a small "adventure tour" into the desert at Wahiba sands.  An 8 am start on the first day of the weekend after a work week that included two consecutive post midnight finishes - hmmm could have planned that better!!

First duty in the sand is to get bogged! the only bogging of the trip though.

I had found the tour through an online group called Internations. Seems we aren't the only expats to have been here for a while without making it into the Desert. So ten of us (7, plus two drivers and one organiser) piled into two well packed 4wd's and set off for desert.

Nothing much to say for a few hours then we hit the desert. After a few hours of seriously abusing dunes in 4wd's we stopped for the night and set up camp. Along the way we saw some stunning scenery and learnt a lot about how far you can push a 4wd on sand and how close to horizontal they get without thinking of rolling.

The dune was that high

And then of course as dusk approached the wind sprang up and well with the wind came migratory sand. It got into everything.  Even the bags that were zipped up.  Sitting on a chair watching the sun go down while being sandblasted was an interesting experience.  Not keen to repeat the sandblasting  bit of the trip. And then after all that wind the ridges of the sand dunes are left as sharp as an ironed crease.

Rufus and Katrina in for some sandblasting.

After the day of traipsing around we settled into an evening of esky emptying!. By this time the whole group had gelled and the evening was spent in a session of rather loud hilarity. And as it was too hot to sleep most of us stayed up well beyond our bedtimes. I am told that when bed eventually won out Katrina and my snoring was a sound to behold!

Most of the group...well half anyway.

The morning brought a new and bleary day, but also a lot of surprises. As I walked around the camp in the early morning light there was spectacular scenery to behold. But the truly amazing thing was the sheer quantity and variety of tracks in the sand. Around and through our camp were dung beetle, Gerbil and Lizard tracks. Not too far away were snake, fox and sand fish. All mixed up with assorted bird tracks as well.

Signs of Desert death - and life ....

For such an inhospitable and forbidding place the variety and volume of life is impressive. We did of course also see Camels and goats - the two immutables of the Omani animal world. As we drove the 50+ kilometres out of the desert we also saw lizards and sand fish to go with the beetles and flies.

Georgie and our hostess

At deserts' edge we stopped at a Bedou (that's Bedouin to you) house, which now operates as a tourist stop off point. It's operated by an elderly woman who lived there when all the desert dwellers lived in such houses. The buildings were entirely made from palm tree wood and fronds. The floors were covered by carpets directly onto the sand and one side of the Majlis (meeting room) we sat in was open. Despite the open wall it was significantly cooler in the Majlis than outside. We bought various home made trinkets, drank coffee and ate dates.

Our final stop on the trip was Wadi Bani Khalid on the way back to Muscat. This wadi has a permanent watercourse and wonderful swimming holes fed by underground springs from the mountains.  Ahh glory, nice cool water and all (well a big proportion) of that sand washed away. Glorious surroundings and crystal clear water. So good in-fact that it unclogged two of the press buttons on my watch - they'd been clogged up for well over a year.

Wadi Bani Khalid

Swimming was fun, the unexpected was that when you sat still in the water little fish magically appeared and started to nibble the dead skin off your feet. Gave me a bit of a surprise when they started nibbling, but it wasn't too bad. The longer you sat the more fish gathered on your feet. Ahh exfoliation, apparently people pay for this treatment.

But then it was back to Muscat and work for me,
      Muscat then Tanzania for Rufus and Georgie and
            Muscat and the post thesis brain search for Katrina. Sadly the brain search has really only been a partial success (a small part at that) so far.

Katrina's foot meets fish

Home again.............

Twelve months have passed since Katrina and I left Aus for Oman. That means its holidays - yippee and as my contract includes annual airfares, coming home to Australia for a while seemed the sensible thing to do.  That and it's time for Katrina to finalise the thesis and hand it up.

So here we are, a week and a bit ago we landed in Sydney and made our way to Canberra. Courtesy of Michelle (who is now in the UK) we have somewhere to rest our heads.  The Etihad flight home was pleasant enough and the return flight in early April will surely be as good.

The first few days in Canberra were great, beginning to catch up with some people, there are many more to come in the next days and week and a bit.  Katrina has immediately buckled down to thesis work and I have immediately buckled down to holiday mode! Yay.

After running around Canberra for a few days I hit the road and went to Melbourne. For many years I had been meaning to go to a Grand Prix, so this year Albert Park it was......  What can I say? Noisy, smell that fuel, and FAST - so fast that the auto focus never stood a chance. So it was prefocus, try to track and time the shot.  In the end I just put the camera into sports mode and pressed the shutter for multiple shots. Meant I ended up with lots of empty frames, but they're easily deleted.

Mr Webber practising.

Being the cheapskate I am I had only paid for general admission -which of course meant that I was not tied to a seat and could roam the circuit looking for the right place. For me that meant around turns 11 and 12 - something they called a fast chicane.

The good things about going to a Grand Prix? Well the noise, speed and party atmosphere and the spectacle. Quite outrageous just how fast these things are. If you try to watch them you very quickly end up feeling as if your head is on a swivel and wondering just when the safety mechanism is going to give way allowing your head to simply spin off......

The bad - well the crowds, how far you are from the interesting bits of track, all the catch fencing (which makes photography rather difficult) and the fact that you see much more at home. For much of the race I had no idea who was leading - turned out to be a Finn, although I had worked out that the Force India had to have been leading for quite a while!

Saturday turned out to be rather dismal by the time qualifying rolled around. Wet and to my current sensibilities rather cold. But because I had chosen the right spot to spectate from I saw almost all of the incidents. Massa hit a wall - but kept on going, Perez pirouetted behind Button, a Force India spun, Webber had a moment and Guitterez hit the same bit of wall as Massa - but a bit harder and as a result shed bits of carbon fibre everywhere. But of course I have no shote of Guitterez going in, as my camera called it quits.

That's a jet, not a boat, despite all the water washing over it!
I did say it was raining......

And then it was just too wet, so I made the sane call (well before the stewards did) and took off for drier climes.

Sergio "I can't keep up Mr Button" Perez demonstrates a spin.

And then it was race day. So where was I? At the camera shop saying why won't this work? Being told "yep its not working - and in dying it fried the battery too......"  So I earnt lots of Katrina grumpy points by buying a new camera body, so I could go to the circuit again and photograph the race.  By the time I got there all the support events were over and it was simply find a spectator place and wait. At least it wasn't raining.

Ferrari vs Mercedes

Race came, race went and while I enjoyed it I don't see the need to front up to another. Well not unless someone gives me seats in a well appointed corporate box! - Not likely.

So after a feed of Melbourne fish and chips - OH YEAH how I have missed decent fish and chips this last year.  Grilled not Fried, with a twist of lemon.

It was off to Geelong and a short visit to the ancestral seat.  Caught up with a collection of parents, brother and his family (most of). And of course on Monday it was overcast and drizzly. By midday it was time to do something. So Mum, Dad and I jumped into the rental (VW Golf) drove to the beach and walked most of the Geelong Bollards.

Bollards I hear you ask. Yes Bollards - those big lumps of wood used to tether ships and give them something to bump into, rather than demolish the wharf.  And what's so interesting about old bollards? Well when the Geelong waterfront was re-developed a whole bunch of well used bollards (newly surplus to requirements) were given to an artist.

The result is 47 installations stretching from Limeburners Point to Rippleside Park. The Bollards are carved and painted to represent elements of local history. They have been there for quite the while now, must be close to two hundred bollards all up in those installations, as while many are a single figure others are in groups of up to six or so. Eminently walkable but a few kilometers in all.

The third bollard represents Cristovao de Mendonca a Portuguese explorer who is believed to have visited Limeburners Point in 1522.

Grand Dame of Society

Sailor and????????

A real life Gnome no less!

There have been enough artefacts found around Geelong to show that something certainly happened. So much so that folklore provides an explanation for the old kettle found washed ashore, believed to have brought the original "little folk settlers" to the region, well in advance of the white settlers.

And then with family visited it was time to go back to Canberra and be there to help Katrina (mostly just by being around) and see young Robert and help him with a few house things. But of course the trip back had its own twist. A few Kilometers out of Holbrook the VW threw up a warming light. Sigh. Pull over (in Holbrook) outside a rather nice bric a brac store, which Katrina benefited from to the tune of a black lace parasol. Two hours later the nice NRMA man, sent by the rental company, had me on the road again.

So alls well and all that...

Muscat Festival (Did I mention the drumming?)

From the frequency of my posts you might have thought that we had been hibernating since Christmas. Far from it.  Katrina is working mighty hard on the thesis, she is in the final lap and is due to submit on the 2nd of April.  No ifs, buts or maybe's.

So the plan is that we will go home to Canberra for a few weeks in March so that Katrina can submit.  We should be flying out on the 10th....  That is of course dependent on work booking my tickets.

I must say that Muscat in Winter is absolutely glorious, mid to low twenties every day and teens overnight. Blue skies and all that. But with Katrina locked away I have kept weekend venturing to a fairly low level. That and a quick weekend in Dubai to say hi to Megan, Jamie and kids as they moved from Sydney to Manchester. And then the week in Brussels.

Mattrah from behind - corniche, Portuguese fort
and on the right the Sultan's yacht.

Oh and of course wandering through another of Oman's Geotrail walks. This one took me from the back of an amusement park across some rocky spurs and into a wadi with an abandoned village and out through the back of the Matrah souq. Fabulous isolation and it was interesting at midday to go from complete silence and solitude to hearing the mosque calls coming in from all directions and bouncing off the cliff walls. The walk then finished by following a small stream to a pond and a quick, but very steep scramble across a spur.  Along the way there were some excellent views of the old Matrah souq and port area.

Silver harness, singing and parading, who says you
 have to be demure on horseback!

At the end of January the Muscat Festival kicked off and finishes tonight (the 28th of Feb). It's kind of a mix of a Royal Show and a cultural fair. We went to two of the three sites - to be honest the events at the third didn't sound all that interesting - light shows, concerts and a food court. And of the two sites we went to one was wasted for us - no kids.

Greater friendship hath no man...

But Al-Amirat Park was well worth the two visits we made there and the Traditional Horse sports on the local beach turned out to be a lot of fun as well. So the Muscat Festival was in the end well worth the visits and next time we will be back for more!.

The first thing we went and saw was the horse sports. Nice being so close to home, so we took the 4wd down the beach, parked behind a bit of a dune and wandered into the spectator area.  The whole thing happened between 4pm and dusk, which was a little after 5:30.

Drums ahoy!

To note that things were about to start a local traditional music group of drummers, bagpiper, shell player and dancer/singers paraded in.  What a racket, but they had a great time and we were all entertained. To us this quickly became the signature of the Muscat Festival, frantic drumming with an underlay of horn (sea-shell) and pipes.

Brave is all I can say!

The start was a parade by all the horses and riders that would be participating, numbered some two to three hundred horses and riders in all. Made an impressive sight as the horses were lined up, by colour, maybe 20 wide and paraded down the beach to acknowledge the viewing pavilion   (Men inside, women outside. I got told off when I went over to give Katrina my hat, but when I explained what I was doing the attendant was suitably understanding.)

Ouch!!!

And then they were off - mad careening charges down the beach.  At first they simply charged by (well apart from the guy with the trick saddle that opened proceedings.) But it wasn't long before they started coming down at full tilt two and three abreast, holding hands. This led to hands on shoulders, rubbing noses and finally standing - all while riding at full tilt. That there was only one fall was rather amazing, he tried solo standing, lost his footing, almost recovered and Katrina thought he was going to bowl me over as he came off and bounced. Not a bit of it, but I did get a half decent shot of him coming off. It was with much relief that I watched him stand up and run off after the horse, but that lasted about ten paces before the body said hang on I really, REALLY HURT! He did leave unassisted later, but obviously in second-hand condition.

Horse sports are over, time for more drumming.

Did I mention there were drummers at Amirat park?

And then to Amirat. This was fabulous, traditional food, dancing, singing, did I mention the drumming? and arts and crafts. A Bedou camp, camels, weaving, woodwork, frond-crafts (basket-weaving) and so on.  Labnah (Yoghurt) making, grinding grain, decorative sewing... and did I mention the drumming?

The camels at dusk.

Lady crafters at work.

Interestingly there are a lot of woven baskets, or flat bowls that have goat leather sewn on the outside. Apart from making them look good, the real reason is to waterproof the woven baskets so they can carry water or goat/camel milk in them. Amirat park was to a large extent all about the ladies. They were out in droves, dressed in the traditional colourful Omani garb. (Which sadly will gradually disappear as summer arrives and they all go back to wearing the black Hijab.) Women did most of the crafts and "manned" the stalls where fresh traditional food could be bought straight off the griddle, for next to nothing.

Traditional guitar played in the Bedou camp.

We had a great time poking through the stalls and talking to the crafters and others putting on the shows. Last night we went back for a final look see, to cover off the bit we missed before. Glad we did as the first thing we stumbled into was the Ministry for the Traditional Arts and Crafts pavillion.   Yay.  We went a little mad buying things managing to burn through a couple of hundred Rial - almost all of it on local handicrafts!. Coupled with our earlier visits to the Muscat Festival, I think we more than held up our end of the bargain.

Moroccan Craftsman hard at work.

Muscat Festival at night

 But then all too soon it was time to leave and as we left the fireworks started up. So we watched from the car park for a while, before deciding the show was over, only for the spectacular finale burst behind us as we hit the road. But did I mention there was drumming?

It's all over!

A plug for the sink!

It's Christmas day and what am I writing about? A plug for the sink, yep that's right one of those little rubber thingies that stops the water from running straight down the drain.......

Christmas morning our late lie in was interrupted by a phone call from our son Rufus calling from Canada. So some two or so hours later we crawled out of bed having spoken to the family and breakfasted on eggs and unsmoked bacon.  A little let down from the normal Christmas, but then we were keen to get on our way for two days in a luxury hotel on AlJebel AlAkhdar - that would be the Green Mountain.

A quick dash out to the kitchen with our dishes I racked n stacked then searched the kitchen high and low - yep no plug for the kitchen sink! Our stand in maid (all of four hours a week) had been yesterday afternoon and done the dishes.  What she did with the plug we may never know....

I called Katrina and she looked everywhere I had and maybe a place or two I hadn't. All to no avail there was no rubber plug for the sink.  It's OK says I I will just duck down to Zam Zam's Hypermarket and get one.  Hmmm no such luck, the store attendants just looked at me blankly when I said for the umpteenth time - no I don't want an electrical plug. Ok so I will go to Al Fair (another hypermart) that's just down the road I thought, probably unlucky I had driven, but then we were keen to get away - as if I hadn't driven there would be no story to tell.

So off to Al Fair - well sir we normally have them in stock, just over here - where I had already spent a few minutes scrabbling through the box of odds and ends.

Ah well Carrefour is just down the road at Muscat City Centre, surely they will have them.  Yeah right - after the first attendant said no not here in Kitchen ware, have a look in Bathroom. Sounds reasonable I thought. So I get to Bathroom and look around , nothing. Ahh there's an attendant I'll ask him - follow me sir he says (with a knowing look and air of absolute confidence) finally I think - until we walk around the corner and there's the first attendant.... d'oh.

I am starting to get a little peeved by now, spent close to an hour and no flaming plug for the sink!

At least there's a kitchen store, off I go and get blank looks. I'm sorry sir we don't stock hardware did you try Carrefour? GRAHHHH!!!  So with cries of Merry Christmas sir, I head off to Home Centre (and for good luck try e-Maxx along the way - yes I know they're an electronics store, but they do have a small hardware/housewares section) - and you guessed it more blank looks and Christmas wishes.

So hanging my head in shame and despair I head for home. And then I think well I could try the small building supply shops - So I stop at the first one I see and ask - only to be presented with a grand selection of aluminium pipe end plugs - no, no rubber plugs I say. More blank looks and Christmas wishes.

Sigh in desperation as I turn the penultimate corner to home I pull over and ask at the little "Household Items and Luxuries" shop (that's code for cheap crap - but sometimes useful). Ah no sir they say after showing me their selection of powerboards, but try the building supply shop across the road, and Merry Christmas - Arghhh.

So with  nothing to lose by now - it's been an hour and a half - I go across the road. Do you have rubber plugs for the kitchen sink I ask.  Ah like this the little man says and presents me with an aluminium pipe end - No says I rubber. ahh he says and comes back with a little bag containing the fixings to replace the whole sink outlet. We have this he says presenting the plastic bag to me - and miracle of miracles it also contained a rubber plug!

Yay finally. Home dishes done and we hit the road almost two hours late. And the lesson for me is walk to Zam Zam's next time, coz you never know where you will find that odd thing in Oman.

But seriously nine shops to find a kitchen sink plug?

Happy Christmas everyone.

ps we did make it to AlJebel AlAkhdar and am sitting on the terrace watching the sun set, with beer at my elbow and feeling a little chilly for the first time since March.

Life is good.

Rock eyes and rifles

It's December now, which means winter in Oman. The shops are full of furry coats, mufflers and even ear muffs! Why they have any of them is totally beyond me as the day time top is yet to drop below 25 (even on rainy days) and the overnight low is still above 15. I could get used to this.

The Guns at Barka Fort, under observation of the guard. Interestingly some of the Guns bore a crest of Tudor Rose and ER - "wonder what that meant??"

After our little rush of guests  - Ollerenshaw, Hazell, Hunt and Hodgkin we have now settled back into the quiet of sharing our house with the cats.  Mind you they do manage to make an extra-ordinary amount of noise when the mood takes them.

One of the good things about having guests has meant seeing more of this amazing country. I think my mum summed it up best - "when you go around a corner a whole new vista opens up and you could just as well be on the moon!" Even after the better part of a year that still holds true. The mountains here are "rugged" and as you travel you quite quickly pass from one type of geological formation to another. Red and caramel coloured rocks replaced by gray and black, which in their turn are replaced by,,,,,,, Vertical strata replaced by horizontal and then something like this!  If you look closely you can see an eye shape in there.

The rock that watches you

The following series of pictures were all taken within a 20km stretch,  just to give you an idea of the extraordinary variety of geology. Don't ask me what they all mean, Kiriel was the one that took pictures of the explanatory signs!

Look at the wavy line - almost creek like!

Kiriel inspecting a Geological oddity

And with all the tourists we have been to Mattrah Souk quite a lot recently. So much so that I found an antique shop and we were back so soon after, that I found it again. I feel wallet pain coming on!  Katrina beat me to the punch and bought some silver couched fabric, which she is planning to have mounted in a display frame.  I was keenly eyeing off the things that went Bang or Slash! Hanging on the wall was the most amazing array of antique swords and firearms I have ever seen - matchlocks (yes you read that right - plural), flint locks, single shot martini henry rifles - but unfortunately the shop keeper knows his business and his pricing.  

I will come home with some things such as a silver powder horn, traditional leather buckler and sword at the least.  While a matchlock would be interesting at 1800 Rial (that's $4500) to you I'm not quite that keen for an interesting wall hanging. Not so worried about the sword but getting one of the shields could be interesting, as they were traditionally made from heavy leather, and of course the heaviest leather they had access to was Rhinoceros. So I will only be getting one of those if I can get the papers to apply for a pre-CITES certificate. Real ones start at about 150 rial.

Katrina has also managed to start her traditional Omani jewellery collection. Traditional jewellery is typically silver and much of it, from the 18c on was made from the Maria Theresa Thaler. A rather substantial silver coin.  They sell Maria Theresa "dollars" in the Souk, but precious few of them are real, mostly aluminium dumps with a thin silver coating.

And being winter it's cruise ship season.  Seems every time we go to old Muscat there's another one or two cruise ships in and hordes of tourists everywhere soaking up the atmosphere. Sigh. Although I guess the locals probably think that when I turn up in the middle of nowhere to interrupt their peaceful solitude.  Darn Tourists!

I guess that's bye for now.

Things you see on the beach.

A month of guests

How quickly a month passes.  Seems you blink and miss it.  Since my last post an awful lot has happened.

In that month we have had our first three sets of visitors, who have all come and gone back to Australia, leaving us here in Muscat.  Ah peace and quiet you may say, we have our house back and its all ours again.

At the beginning of November our first two sets of Canberra visitors appeared and left on the same days, and they weren't even known to each other until they were introduced in Muscat. These were the Hazells and the Ollerenshaws.

Our first outings as tour guides! Seems that our guests were satisfied with our guidance and enjoyed Muscat and what little surrounds they got to see.  Things like the Grand Mosque, Matrah Souq, Sawadi Beach and so - on  All of which I have posted photo's of before.  A veritable social whirl, complete with restaurant dinners, roof top BBQ's and so on.

Fishies

And in that time our cat Bluey discovered how to get off the roof of the house, so there were a couple of set too's with his mum.  As well as unrelated cat set too's not involving our cats. All this ended up with us severely limiting roof top access since then.  And after a few days of nasty cat talk it has all gone back to quiet.  Mind you our British neighbour gave me an earful one night over cats - seems he doesn't like them!  Not sure what's going on there now, but then we've invited them over to dinner or drinks  a few times and they've never accepted, so I just guess they're a bit hermit like. Ah well they go home in six months, so maybe our next neighbours will be more social - one can hope.

All boxed up

But anyway the day our guests left Katrina and I shot off to the Royal Opera House for an evening of Omani music, supported by a few tunes from the Royal Symphony Orchestra.  All very nice, as for not much more than $100 I was able to get us box seats - I could get used to that!  The music was fun and the supporting dancers were "enthusiastic" but a fun night was had by all. So much fun that less than two weeks later we were back with Mum and Dad for the BBC Symphony Orchestra.  Tickets were about the same price, but this time that was for the cheap seats - sigh caviar one day, fish and chips the next. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

And then Mum and Dad arrived for two weeks.  They got here on a Friday morning and I had the Saturday off for a public holiday - Islamic New Year.  And all of this coincided with the 42nd National Day.  To say that Muscat had a buzz would be an understatement. The streets were (and still are) decorated with a flag on every pole and celebratory lights on every bridge/overpass.

One of the most popular businesses around that time had to be the car decorators. People had flags, pictures, stripes, swirly patterns and so on put on their cars to celebrate.  One evening we went out to dinner on the corniche. Nice and quiet when we arrived but HOPPING by the time we left, and somehow we ended up in the middle of the Mustang owners club parade of decorated cars. And then the following night Mum and I went out to try and get some distant shots of fireworks and ended up caught up in the celebrations of National Day. This time we almost ended up with the Jeep owners club.

National Day

That night out was a bit like a New Years Eve, people running up and down the street, riding on car roofs and bonnets, hanging out windows, running between and around cars.  Because we had our windows down we got happy faces thrust in the car with cries of Happy National Day, Welcome to Oman and so on.  And all the time the Police stood by and observed.  I guess if anyone had been dangerous or really TOO silly they would have acted. But everything was in great spirit, with none of the vicious edge that a drunken crowd can generate.  It was all a lot of fun and great to see a people proud of their country and celebrating that with anyone that came along.

In the end Mum and Dad had a great time in Oman and got home earlier today (Saturday) totally exhausted I believe. Not too many days ago they were on their safari of a lifetime with visits to traditional boat yard, wadi's, forts and a desert camp. And posing on the stern of the social club launch in front of the Royal Palace...

Katrina and the Kayak

Your friendly neighbourhood octopi

Over the last month the real revelation for me has been I have discovered after years of disliking the beach ( I grew up in Geelong where it's surf coast and not much to see that's readily accessible under the water) I am developing a fondness for it and seaborne activities. Now we have the Kayak I am happy to go to sea for a little paddle, not too far from shore and also in calm weather! But combined with all that if the water is clear I am happy to jump in with a mask snorkel and flippers to have a bit of a look around.  And my there is a lot to see.  Wherever there's a little island or sheer drop into the sea there are coral reefs and all that entails by way of colourful fish. Big ones, bright ones, small ones, colourful ones and well you get the picture, but not in this case because I don't have an underwater camera.  So you'll just have to make do with your imagination and pictures of some washed up aquatic life....

Not everything is safe

And there we have it a bit of everything.  In a month it will be Christmas, on a work day, may just have to take some Christmas cheer to work that day.  Maybe Christmas will come early with a big decision on the project at work...