Checking in from Oman

Well it seems like only a few days have passed, but in reality it is now March. Where did the time go?

So what has been happening you may well ask. We took the opportunity, in showing guests around, to visit old favourites and new places as well. I have now lost count of the number of times Wadi Fanja has been conquered by the Chevy and we have now been clued in to some desert dunes around an hour from home, rather than the 2 and a half for the big desert. All good for showing people around and giving them a bit of most things Oman has to offer.

Traditional boat building in Sur

Coffee at the Festival

And of course the Muscat Festival was on through much of February so, just the thing for guests. Think I went four times this year? just to show guests around and give them an opportunity to sample a wider range of crafts and traditions of Oman. Michelle and Kazzia both went home with a wonderful BBQ basting paste and an Omani Marsala spice mix. Mind you the Marsala mix being presented in spice layers, rather than mixed may make it a little tempting to just put away and bring out to tease guests.

"Xander" Meet beach!

Until a couple of weeks ago we had a constant flow of guests. That's now come to an end for this season and we are not expecting any more house guests for some months. In all we had visits from Katrina's sister Liz, our son Robert (BJ), Robin and Jeremy (who I missed, being away with work), Michelle and finally Kazzia and 10month old Alexander, and not to forget a work visit from SP (at the WCO). So our spare room now goes back to its normal unoccupied state.


For me after the Christmas/New Year break to Jordan it has been back to the grindstone, leaving Katrina to play mine host. From all reports everyone had a fun time in Oman. At this time of year it is rather idyllic, mid winter with overnight lows in the high teens and days low twenties has been just fabulous. But we know summer is fast coming and the 40++ days that entails.

Dancing at the Muscat Festival

Highlights of the past few months include the traditional boat yard in Sur (250k's away) that was fun clambering around the boats under construction. If I was more of a woodworker or a seaman at all it would have been "outstanding"! (if anyone wants pictures........... just ask)

The coast from up high

Vultures soar above the Hajar Mountains

Bahla Fort

We crossed the Hajar mountains a couple of times, got reacquainted with Nakhal Fort and got to see Bahla Fort (well more castle in both cases). Nakhal is rather quite nice and the rooms are laid out with some furnishings. Bahla on the other hand could do with some decoration, it is huge, still not finished and it would be interesting to know what parts date to which era's, as it was clearly built and added to over centuries. It justifiably wears a World Heritage plaque, but unfortunately that seems to be almost the only descriptive plaque in the castle at large.


As we get out and about more and more we are regularly seeing abandoned and decaying strongholds, houses and in some cases villages. When we have the time, we stop and have a look around as these can be fascinating places. But it would be nice to see more evidence of these historical/legacy places being shown more care and attention before they degrade completely.That's not to say there aren't significant places under preservation already.

Abandoned Village

One of the constant frustrations in Oman is the lack of decent tourist information. There is a lot to see and do here, but very little accessible information about just what is available and when it is open. There is also a lack of descriptive information once you are somewhere. One of the few exceptions to this is the Bait Al Zubhair Museum, which we take most of our guests to. There would be a good living here for someone that could come in and deal with this........

Sheesh a Smurf!

Our efforts in starting Brooke P's money box collection around 18 months ago have borne fruit, in that she now has more than 60 of them, so if anyone wants to please feel free to add to her (in)voluntary collection. I am sure that Ms Brooke will be most "appreciative" of your efforts on her behalf. We have a few here waiting postage..... The reason for bringing this up is that Michelle's visit coincided with a Smurf infestation of our house. Coincidence - I THINK NOT! But we did detect Brooke's "subtle" hand in this. (Katrina loathes Smurf's with a passion). As Smurfs are found a pogrom is enacted and, well, incidents happen. Anyone who has seen my recent facebook posts will have been witness to how we deal with Smurfs! Although we have since had regular Smurf sightings while out and about, including a recent Sheesha smoking Smurf - what next intravenous drug use Smurf????








Anyway to finish off, last weekend we went to Doha, Qatar simply to see what's there. The answer is a kind of miniature Dubai, but on a human scale, with the "Dubai" quarter confined to a relatively small part of the city. And at least in Doha the landmark/signature sky scrapers all seem to be reasonably original in concept.

We flew in to Doha late Thursday night and back to Muscat on the Saturday evening. Would have been a great weekend away, but for a bug/virus that struck on Saturday. Sigh spent the entirety of Saturday asleep in bed or shuttling to and from the little room. Fun for no-one! It wasn't until quite close to flight time that we were sure I was well enough to travel home - thankfully only an hour and a half flight.

So what's in Doha - well apart from the ubiquitous malls, the Museum of Islamic art and Souq Waqif are the two things we got to see. The souq is fun and quite different to Muttrah Souq here. This one is largely recently built, but in "traditional style". In consequence there is room to move around it is well laid out and includes a restaurant strip, making it quite a vibrant place and experience.

Indian wool carpet 16c

Quite a lot of thought has been put into this and it fits in well with the corniche area that includes the aforesaid museum, the (mostly tourism) Dhow harbour and public park areas. All in all a really nice use of the bay area.

11c Spanish ivory pen box detail

Illuminated Quran 13c Baghdad

The museum of Islamic Art was simply fabulous. We have to go back because we saw less than a quarter of the main collection. Sigh  What we saw was simply wonderful. Well laid out in display cases and in many instances viewable through 360 degrees. Carpets, architectural pieces, homewares and the list goes on...... So of course a picture or two is in order.




And finally our garden is now in full bloom, wonderful stuff, I'm off to smell the flowers.

Flowering succulent

So that was Jordan - Mosaics, Ruins and floating ON the Dead Sea

The Tree of Life at Madaba

Well late last night we flew back in from Jordan. We'd had a week there as a Christmas Break along with our son Robert (BJ) who we had flown over for the Festive season. He's still here and goes home to Australia in early January. then after that we have a constant flow of guests over the next three to four months. In the next couple of months our presence in Oman will have brought at least 20 people over for a visit.

What to say about Jordan? Fascinating. It really is a country of contrasts, desert in some parts, hills and snow elsewhere and bustling cities with historic sites in every direction. I joked to a Jordanian that the music of Jordan was the car horns, which are incessant as formal road rules seem to matter as much as road lanes, which while occasionally marked are universally ignored. A road has as may lanes as cars that can fit side by side across it. One of the things we did remark on was the smell, ever present and while not overwhelming it was a relief to get back to the clean air of Muscat.

The three travellers at the Citadel in Amman

Mind you the Jordanians we dealt with were nice, just always smoking and it seems always on the look out for ways to make money from you. When I checked the hire car in yesterday the rental company guy said "Yes Jordan is a nice place to visit, but you don't want to live here".

Jordan has been hit hard in the wake of the Arab spring. Apparently Saddam Hussein was providing free petrol to Jordan, meaning now they have to pay market price, and coming from Oman that was a rude shock. There have also been a range of other impacts meaning the cost of living has gone up markedly. At the same time the ongoing Syrian civil war is discouraging tourism across the whole country. And in Australia we think a few boat people are a problem (many from countries where our foreign policy has not necessarily helped). Well in Jordan there are UNHCR refugee camps scattered across the country housing Syrians and I guess also camps for Palestinians. In our travels we lost count of the number of camps, generally smallish, but I bet we only saw a fraction of the total.

Enough of that. If you like mosaics then Jordan is the place for you - in spades! There are so many old buildings and ruins to be found and many of the Roman and later ones have mosaic floors. In places like Jarash, (a wonderful Roman site which is only partly excavated and not fully see-able in one day) you can walk in ancient churches, on uncovered and partially uncovered mosaics. They have two museums in the site, one general (which we got to) the other a mosaic museum (which we didn't). The outside walls of the general museum have a succession of mosaics on them, all the way around the outside. We loved Jaresh and to do it justice would need to go back for a second visit. All around us were signs of the drop in tourism, the big dining room inside the site was empty and where we lunched it was just us and a few of the local hopeful taxi drivers.

Jaresh Roman column detail

The temple of Zeus at Jarash

So what is Jaresh? Well it was a Roman town and has a Hippodrome, multiple churches, Christian, Roman, Greek and so on. Villa's barracks, an amphitheatre and, and, and....... It is a work in progress which has been underway for decades and is probably not even half done.

From Jaresh we went to the Citadel in Amman - this had been occupied from Neolithic times up until after the second world war. So there is a temple to Hercules, Christian churches and mosques scattered around the hilltop in the centre of Amman (Jordan's capital). Oh and did I mention mosaics? It was an interesting place to visit and the views and contrast to Amman were fabulous.

How many years did you spend in the cells at Al Karak

We also visited the Crusader castle of Al Karak, on our way from Amman to Petra.  Al Karak is interesting, the Crusaders held it for a brief period after which it was taken by Sal a Din and since then has remained in Islamic hands. Mind you the site was originally a temple from around 850BC.  The castle is an impressive sight and has the most spectacular of views, affording us our first (semi) glimpses of the dead sea and beyond that Israel.  Unfortunately it remains largely un-restored and the only way to see it with more of an understanding of "Oh another empty room, I wonder what this was?" is to hire a local guide which we did and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

But that view.........................

From there we went on to Petra and our two nights in a Desert Camp. Can highly recommend the Seven Wonders Desert Camp. Mind you being winter there it was cold and blowy, made all the colder by the fact that we had just missed a 1.5 metre dump of snow and there was still  some snow on the surrounding hillsides, meaning the wind chill factor was pretty extreme.

That movie shot!

And then Petra. If you've seen Indianna Jones and the Last Crusade then you have seen the treasury at Petra. There is so much more than that to Petra. We went in the front gate and when confronted with the reality of a 3 km (or so walk) to the treasury sensibly hired horses and guides who took us up and across mountains, around the back where we could look down on the main sites of Petra, before walking down into the main areas. Petra was once a bustling trade hub and many of the buildings carved into the rocky canyon walls were related to that or impressive family tombs. There were few that could be entered and scatttered around the canyon walls were actual residences, once again carved into the rocky walls. The reason for all of this rocky building is that the rock is sandstone, in a bewildering array of colours, which the local artisans make use of by creating scenes in glass bottles, for us tourists to buy. Along with horses, donkeys and camels to ride. Oh and we finally saw the treasury on our way out, it made a fitting end piece to day one there.

Looking down into Petra

The Royal Tombs

I don't really know what to say about Petra, it was stunning, but teeming with locals living off us tourists. I know the Jordanian Government tries to regulate things, but................ Petra is truly a place of wonder and well worth the visit. But be prepared to walk a long way - or PAY for the privilege of four legged transport.

Taxi anyone?

On the second day we trekked in through the back entrance to see the Monastery at the very top of  the Petra site. Once again wonderful and I was pleasantly surprised by how well Katrina dealt with the "trail" and its, at times sheer drop off's. We had a great time and will probably go back - just look at the pictures as I can't really describe it all.

The back way into Petra

From Petra we went and saw Little Petra, which put things into a much more human perspective. Same construct but not so grand and in a much, much smaller ravine. The locals there were much less interested in money and more than happy to explain things. A missing element from the main site.

First century roof murals in Little Petra

From there we went to Aqaba, on the Red Sea, which is the only place on our trip that we would not bother to visit again. If we were keen snorkel/scuba types it would be first on the list, but other than that it has little to offer.  Once again you can see signs of the downturn in tourism, with attractions closed and few people at the ones that are open. Aqaba borders Israel and across the Red Sea you can see Egypt.

Our Christmas Day drive paralleled the Israel borderline. For much of the drive we could see an Israeli highway mirroring the Jordanian one we were on and every few kilometers military observation posts on either side of the border. As we got closer to the Dead Sea the land became more and more fertile, with Desert giving way to farms - tomato, banana, olive, capsicum etc,

At Katrina's insistence we stopped at Lot's cave, where there was another church, with mosaics (as yet uncovered) and the cave - which we got to look into but not really enter. Lot's cave is on a hillside with a wonderful view out over the end of the Dead Sea and the flat lands stretching into the distance. There was no sign of Soddom or Gomorrah - but the hugest pile of salt I have ever seen. The original plan had been to get to the Dead Sea Resort by dark, but with 70 or so km to go we watched the sunset from Lot's plateau.

So Christmas Dinner 2013 for David, Katrina and BJ was at the Holiday In Dead Sea Resort, in a nice restaurant - 393 Below (that would be metres below Sea Level) with live lounge music and for once a no smoking zone!

And Boxing Day dawned with the obligatory dip in the Dead Sea. Interesting, you float on the water. If you swirl the water in the shallows you can see just how salt saturated it is. It looks rather like when you are cooking a syrup and the water is taking the sugar in - except in this case there is no heat involved. Rocks and the like on the shores are coated in salt. The water is so salty it stings the tongue and tastes incredibly bitter - not like salt at all!.

Swimming is interesting, floating on your back a good half of your body is out of the water. And as for swimming, well when doing the Australian Crawl you feel like you are skimming across the surface and it feels effortless to move at speed. Just one international swimming meet at the Dead Sea and there would be new records for all styles and distances - without the need for performance drugs. You are not so much dragging yourself through the water, rather propelling yourself across it.

Katrina and BJ tried an experiment. As BJ has almost no body fat, rocks were stacked on his chest and abdomen while he floated. Rock after rock was added to the piles, until there was room for no more, it made a most negligible difference to his flotation.

Swimming the Dead Sea

And all too soon it was time to pack and go to the airport. Although there was one last surprise in store for us. The GPS gave two routes, I chose Madaba. At first we thought this was a mistake as the tourist signs in Madaba were not very good, but we eventually found the Information Center and after much mucking about with stationary traffic and one way streets I managed to park there - which the center people said was the only sensible thing to do.

There were old churches and the John the Baptist beheading chapel (next time) but most importantly a mosaic museum. And boy were we in luck, on entry there was no-one at the ticket booth, so after a few minutes we went on in and started taking pictures. After a little while I saw there was an attendant in the booth, so I went back and paid our dues. He turned out to be quite a nice guy and after talking to a colleague he whisked us off for a guided tour, which included him spraying water on mosaics so that for the first time on our trip we got to see the true colours of the mosaics. He also ushered us through to the best viewing vantage points and took us through a small chapel to see the tree of life! Wonderful stuff.

But then it was time to go as the airport and Oman beckonned....

The Four Seasons in colour

Where we stayed:
Amman - Amman Pasha Hotel - its in the centre of old town Amman, almost directly opposite the Roman Amphitheatre. Rooms are ok and reflect the cheap price. Incredibly cheerful hotel and each night the staff sing and dance in the adjoining cafe - heaps of fun.
Petra - Seven Wonders Bedouin Desert Camp, located in Little Petra - about 10 minutes drive from the entrance to Petra. Shame it was mid winter as guest numbers were well down, but a lot of fun and personal attention from the staff.
Aqaba - Double Tree Hotel, by Hilton. Certainly up to international standards, just a pity that there was smoking allowed in all the public areas.
Dead Sea - Holiday Inn Resort Dead Sea. Really rather pleasant. Once again shame about all the smoking, but we did find a non-smoking restaurant.

And there was a Flamingo

Can't remember how long since I last posted, but it has been a while, months even. So what to tell?

Well visitor season has started with Katrina's sister, soon to be followed by our son Beej for Christmas/New Year and then a steady flow of guests until about April. So we will not be lacking Australian company for the next little while.

5 ton rope meets an end

As expected work has been busy so weekend outings and the like have been rather limited, with work happening one or both days of most weekends. in between we did manage to fit in a second visit to Jabal Akhdar (the Green Mountain) - thanks Liz your visit was timely.

That trip involved a quick dash up Wadi Fanja before a drive to the mountains, aimed at maximising Liz's exposure to the different scenery that Oman offers. On the way up Wadi Fanja we stopped at a water hole to dangle our feet in the water and have them nibbled by little fish. While we were there I heard various cars passing up and down the Wadi and then a range of odd noises followed by animated conversation. Being a nosy sort I poked my head out and took a look.

Three young Omani guys in a Jeep had landed themselves in water up to the window line. Not good I thought, so being civic minded I wandered over and had a bit of a look. No probs got a 5 ton tow rope we'll have you out in a jiffy!  Ahhhh NO. 5 ton rope took up the slack then,...... my Chevy just kept on going, the Jeep never budged. Hmmm, that's really stuck!

Abandoned village

Luckily for them a party going the other way (towing a Hyundai SUV) stopped and lent me their much more substantial tow rope. Multiple full tilt pulls later the Jeep came free, leaving us free to wend our way up to the mountains. Ruined villages, canyons and terraces beckoned and were duly explored. Then all too soon we were back in Muscat and Liz was on her way home to Australia.

Sisters whooping it up

Mind you our adventures took it out of the poor old Chevy and it took almost two weeks to get the parts and everything back in order. Just in time for a long (four day) weekend. So we spent three of those days in the car doing STUFF.

Our first day involved driving to the desert and into it through Bidiya for about three hours before setting up the camp site and relaxing for the night. There were four cars, seven people and four nationalities in our little group - Herman - Dutch, Bob and Ali - Brits, Robby and Lucy - South African and us.

Desert in the morning

We found a dune with a view and camped there. At which point I became our only bogging of the weekend, by driving in last swinging off the line of the others and involuntarily parking in soft sand - axles here we come. Some digging and towing later all was good.

Camp was set up and we settled in to a round of relaxing ales, sunset watching, cooking and admiring the sunset over the rather green desert. It had recently rained and there were little green bushes everywhere. Once the sun had set there was silence, dead silence and one of the best night skies I have ever seen.  Bliss. And then someone discovered there was Internet access and of course Bob's phone rang!

But other than that the night in the desert was fabulous, low temperatures (high teens) so cold that long sleeves were indicated. And of course the obligatory camp fire and tall tales and true?

Over and down

Day two dawned with coffee and bacon rolls. Ahh noice. After which we struck camp and set off to find our way across and out to the beaches for the second night.

This was my first time driving over dunes. Interesting, drive up to what you can't see over and go over it! Trust that the car before you got it right and just go, there is that feeling of oooh aaaah when all you can see is sky as the car noses over and down, then things come into view and you control the descent with gears and throttle to ensure the bump at the bottom is not too hard! This part was okay for the two older cars in the group, but the rather new Pajero ended up with damage to soft panels, front and back. And later in the day the new Land Rover shed a few plastic panels.

How to make a Land Rover more reliable?

We were doing okay getting out of the Desert until by following the purple line on the off-road GPS we ended up in car breaking territory. By consensus we turned back. Thinking we were back where we came in we headed off down a track, but hang on where did that camel farm come from? The nice guys there gave us typical country directions, drive that way to the X, turn right, go about 40k's and.....  So we did and after a total of around 170kms of sand driving we popped out onto a main road, maybe 2km's from a service station. Ahhh refuel and pump the tyres up from sand pressure of about 12psi to 30+psi.

By then of course we were hopelessly behind time and our beach camp site suddenly became a place called Filim a full 100 or so k's earlier than originally planned. Setting up camp in full dark has limited attraction.

Not sure what to make of Filim. Not that we ever worked out exactly where Filim was. So we found an uninhabited beach that had fisherman's shacks made from date palm fronds, co-opted one of them as our kitchen and set up camp around it. Nowhere near as quiet as the desert and much windier, but still a pleasant enough camp.

Camp Filim

In the morning I got up and went for a walk along the beach. It was quite dispiriting as I found lots of dead turtles. Some looked like they'd had run in's with boat propellers and others had clearly been cooked and eaten. But at least there were signs of recent hatching's as well. And then as I walked the beach I saw a wading bird that rather stood out - a bit unusual, yep a Flamingo.

And all too soon it was road time just under 500k's to Muscat and work the next day. It's a great drive down the coast as the terrain changes every half hour or so. Gibber plain, high dune desert, sandy plains, beaches, rocky escarpments in many colours. I could go on and on, but I won't.

The last thing of note that happened was when our little convoy was flagged down by some Chinese guys in a rental Nissan 4wd.  Seems they'd discovered what happens when you ignore the "Caution Dunes Cross the Roads" sign and Police warning board placed before the tag end of the dune. In their words "There was a big bang and then the car would not stop bouncing". They ended up a good 100 plus metres off road, bogged to the axles and leaking radiator fluid. Lucky for them one of our party was a mechanic and able to diagnose the problem. A quick bypass of the heater later they were on the road again. Mind you given the number of zip locks holding the front together they were far from the first people to come to grief in that rental.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, but it was a very tired David and Katrina heading off to work on Sunday.

And the Flamingo at dawn

Roooned I tells ya, roooned....

No I'm not talking about English Football, rather the ruins that scatter Oman.

One of the things about work is that around the halls and offices there are pictures of things and places in Oman. One of the pictures I paid heed to this week was of a ruined castle/fort/keep. Where's that I asked - Oh that's in Bowshar I was told! Bowshar, that's a suburb in Muscat, no problems an easy day out for sure.

So when I got home from work I said to Katrina, "Did you know there's a fort in Bowshar?"
"No, but I got lost in Bowshar not long ago and found some really narrow streets with deserted traditional houses in them." She replied.

If I put the keystone back, will that save the fort?

After a bit of online research - not much found - two pictures that reasonably matched the office picture I'd seen, but taken in 2004/5, so reasonably recent, but with useless directions because so much has changed. Looking good the fort looked in reasonable shape and the photographers talked about being able to go up stairs inside it.  Promising!

Bowshar Fort Circa Nov 2005 - Photo courtesy of Panoramia and taken by Siddiq Balushi

Google maps weren't much help, so today we set off to have a look see. If we couldn't find the castle/fort/keep then we could just get lost in Bowshar and see the old houses. There was a plan to go further afield too, but that went west after two hours of poking around Bowshar. And given that it's still Ramadan, so no eating or drinking outdoors - at all - being seen risks a fine or worse!

So down the highway, turn at the Muscat Grand Mall, on past the Bowshar dune and towards the hills. On into parts of Bowshar that I did not know existed. Pretty soon we started to see the green of date palm tree-tops - a sure sign of the Falaj (ancient water distribution system) at work. Where there's date farms clustered around an old Falaj there's sure to be a stronghold of some type nearby! After all the Ministry of Heritage consistently quote that there are more than 500 Castles or Forts in Oman! (This all dates back to the recent past of a tribal based society, where you may not be safe from reasonably near neighbors.)

Following our noses - well driving towards the biggest green cluster, we started to explore side streets. Not encouraging all new "Mc Mansions" lining the streets. Keep going - hang on what was that, back up and sure enough in the near distance the remnants of a tower top plain to see. After about five more minutes we discovered that had we ignored the side turn and driven straight for another 50 metres the Bowshar fort and its entrance road were immediately visible to the left. Sigh!

Tower remnants

To say that the fort had deteriorated somewhat in less than ten years would be an understatement! We drove up to the fort and parked. The basic structure of the fort is still there, a square construct, around 30 meters a side, with round towers at diagonal corners. We poked around taking pictures and were rather stunned at how rapid the deterioration has been. Given how much has happened since 2005, it seems likely that it must have been in use through the seventies and possibly later.

Bowshar Fort in its "glory"

Omani fortifications (and traditional houses) are often/typically made of packed earth (mud - aggregate mix), with some stone mixed in and stony foundations. Means they're relatively easy to make and maintain, but when left to fend for themselves they rapidly deteriorate.  Sadly it seems this one is not on the list of forts to be restored as left alone it will soon be no more than a pile of mud and stone, sitting atop a small hill.

Still we had fun poking around the ruins, but being good boys and girls nothing came away with us.

Bait Al-Maqham

After the fort we headed off deeper into "old" Bowshar and found Bait Al-Maqham (House of the Maqham's) after Bowshar Fort we had no great hopes, but were pleasantly surprised. These two forts are no more than 3 kilometers apart and what a contrast. Sadly Bait Al-Maqham was not open and from the lack of signage it would seem to remain in private hands. Everything looks to be well maintained and the date palms in the grounds appear well kept.

Ruins ahoy!

From there we explored crumbling houses. Interestingly rooms appear to be much smaller than current buildings and the houses packed much closer together. Sharing walls in many cases, this is something we noted in Adam, Jebel Akhdar and other places with traditional homes. Once again the houses are the mud mix. Floorboards are made from split palm trunks laid side by wide, with palm fronds to provide the flooring. But sadly these houses too are in advanced states of disrepair and to enter many of the rooms would be to invite trouble.

Partly fallen/intact flooring

Home shelving traditional style.

So off we went, with a side-trip to the Bowshar dune, try as I might the sand was just too soft for me to get to the top. And I wasn't interested in letting the tyres down to sand pressures, so after traumatizing Katrina for a while I gave up and we headed off to refuel the bodies. Thank-you Radisson for keeping the bar and grill open. No sooner had we sat than I realized that television on the wall was playing the Brumbies, against some NZ team. Turned out to be the final - Ah well better luck next year Canberra.



After a few weeks of working every day it was nice to have time out!

This week is only three days and then Ramadan ends, followed by the Eid celebrations. So the office shuts down on Wednesday and the return to work is either Sunday or Tuesday, depending on when the astrological observation is made by the duly appointed observers...

So on Thursday we will be off to Masirah Island, where there's the prospect of camping, kayaking, ship wrecks, turtle hatching and goodness knows what else.  So after considerable time of not much............  

Weird televised sport 2 for the day - drag racing, up sand dunes!

More ruins, showing how close things were built.

Ramadan again

Lunch will be served, when?

Almost two weeks ago now the holy month of Ramadan started. This is a time of the year when Muslims fast from dawn to dark. Being summer here the long hours and heat are hard for people as the fast extends from around 0430 to roughly 7pm.  I think next year will be a little better as the Islamic calendar uses lunar months meaning that the month called Ramadan moves forward by around ten days each year.

During the fasting period it is illegal to eat or drink in public. Throughout Ramadan the sale of Alcohol is banned across the country. As a result many of the licensed bars, clubs and restaurants shut down, giving their expatriate staff an opportunity to go home. licensed restaurants even stop serving any dishes cooked in alcohol.

It's a little bit strange seeing all the coffee shops, restaurants and eateries closed through the peak lunch period. Makes the food courts seem almost worth going into - nobody's there so it's nice and quiet! And Mc Donalds are getting the amount of custom their "alleged" food deserves.

In many ways it is the Muslim equivalent of Christmas - at least in terms of public acknowledgement and celebrations that go on around Ramadan. Radio stations change their programming, and air introspective programs talking about religion, society and core values. Each morning 90.4FM - "The Nation Station" starts with a reading from the Koran in Arabic, then English and a discussion on the meaning of the passage. This is repeated with verses coming up to prayer times throughout the day.

Supermarket chains advertise Ramadan specials, there are lucky shopper giveaways and everybody competes to offer "specials" through the month. Ramadan deals on cars etc, buy this get that free, two for one chickens in the supermarket..................

Because of the fasting office hours are reduced for the private and public sector and nobody really expects a lot to be done through Ramadan. Although that's not the case for me and the project at work. the morning drive to work is fabulous, but afternoons coming home are another story entirely.......

Ramadan is meant to be a time of introspection and also one of family and strengthening family ties. So in the lead up to dusk Omani's head off from wherever they are to join a family Ifthar (breaking of the fast meal) this may be at a home, or it could be at any number of restaurants that put on Ifthar banquets. The Grand Mosque in Muscat holds free Ifthar banquets after the dusk prayers. These are for the workers and the less fortunate.

Many restaurants have set up extra areas for Ifthar diners. One near here has a set up which is close to the largest marquee I have ever seen, it fills two thirds of their large parking area. (Out 8*5 metre tent would hardly bother a corner) Restaurants offer special Ifthar meals - banquets or fixed menu meals at reduced prices.

The temporary ifthar hall

Once started the celebratory eating continues to the wee small hours and after a small sleep its time to get up for breakfast and prepare for the long day ahead. Because of this people are up and about at all hours. Shops close in the afternoon and open again by about 8, staying open until 1am or later. There are special activities in the evenings - the Muscat Motorsports club is running go-kart sessions at their track until 1. Movie sessions slip back, theaters open at 8 and sessions start as late as midnight.

Charity bins and giving places have sprung up in the malls as Ramadan is when Muslims are meant to honor their annual giving of excess wealth to those less fortunate. Of course the counter to this is you now see beggars on the street - something which the local Imams preach against. I have read articles decrying begging as against Islam. And to be honest throughout the rest of the year there are few beggars to be seen anywhere in Oman. If a Muslim is needy they should go to the mosque and seek aid there.

Throughout this month one of the most common questions I get asked is "Do you fast?" zyou should join us it is a wonderful experience, good for the body cleansing and the soul. My answer is always that I fast at work and in public and I never say that I would not fast. Maybe there will be a day or two in there somewhere.....

Anyhow

Ramadan Kareem

Tomb raiders.

We did that without Lara Croft along for the ride!

Inside a tomb, looking up

Last weekend the Chevy got loaded up and we took off for two days in the Hajar Mountains. We'd booked into a 4wd tour, run by "The Guide Oman", cost 40Rial each ($100 a head) BYO 4wd, tent etc, food, drink (soft) and guidance supplied. We were rather surprised on arrival at the set-off point to discover that 40 odd other cars were also booked to go along, plus the guide team. So just us and about a hundred of of our nearest (read never met any of them before) friends.

Apparently there was at least one other Australian there, but we never caught up. Instead we fell in with some Brits, Dutch.... A real mixed bag, including more South Africans than I have seen in the one spot.

Hajar Mountains

Heading off-road into the hills was a foretaste of what was to come.  Slow, slow, slow apparently some of the drivers had never driven on dirt roads before. Average pace dropped to about 20k and even Katrina was complaining that it was too slow. Still that let her sit in the passenger seat and take pictures of cars, rocks, winding roads, goats, rocks, cars and dust.

Cars, rocks, windy road and dust.....

So where are the tombs? Well we're getting there...

After about 40 minutes we stopped at a cleared space on a ledge overlooking the coast on one side and the mountains on the other. Spectacular views all-round!  After a while the locals appeared and a more than adequate buffet magically appeared. Around an hour later we waddled off to our cars for the second leg which took us to the Salma Plain and the entrance to Majlis Al Jinns (Meeting place of the Genies) cave.

I won't bore you with details of the drive.  The cave entrance a was impressive, unfortunately no entrance - and no way to get safely in. From where we stood looking down into a black abyss it was 120++ meters to the bottom.  Yep that's right 120, with no safety fencing - just a reliance on common sense.  At its deepest the cave goes to 180 meters.  Apparently there are plans to make a glass gondola that can be lowered into the cave so that us mere mortals can look around, what must be a fabulous sight.

The entrance to Majlis A Jinns

That black abyss is 120m straight down!

There are three entrances and sunlight streams in lighting what is one of the largest single caves in the world - think Hall of the Mountain King from Lord of the Rings/Hobbit size. Big enough to stack all the jumbo jets owned by a few airlines.

Sadly all we could do was look and then drive away to camp for the night. Little clusters of 4wd's gathered at likely spots, tents appeared, beds were made and then magically Eskies (Cool boxes, Chilly bins - you know what I mean) appeared. Hot and tired as we were the new task was set to with a vigor across the camp ground.

Camp Hunt

Watered (?), fed, talked out and tired bed quickly became the preferred option. It helped that being so high up the temperature was a good 15 or so degrees cooler than in Muscat. Made for a very nice night of sleep.

Morning beckoned fresh and  for a change well below thirty. Breakfast came and went, as we were all entertained by the antics of local donkeys and camels.  Once the camels worked out that a) there was food and b) people soft enough to share, they were all through the camp. Thrusting their heads at anyone who looked like they might feed them and with those big baby eyes...... Fickle friends they turned out to be, what no more food, I'm off looks like that person has something vaguely food like..... And then one of them found the breakfast buffet table. Luckily there were enough people at hand to stare said camel down and send her packing.

Entertainment over and camels gone we packed cars and headed off further into the mountains, once again at 20kph........... Up hill down dale, round that hairpin, through that village and on.

Finally we rounded a bend and there were the beehive tombs on both sides of the road, just begging to be explored.  So explore we did with enthusiasm and camera. I have no clear idea of how many tombs there were, but it was well into the tens.  Two rose proudly up in their full glory, showing off to the world. Around them lay half intact or fully fallen tombs making piles of rock on that desolate hilltop.  I strongly suspect that the two intact tombs had been rebuilt, they were just too pristine for what surrounded them.

So what are they - well apparently they are up to 5000 years old, built as tombs. Beautiful they were - let the pictures speak.

Katrina leads the way out

By the time Katrina and I had finished looking we were almost alone at the tombs - when we went in there were a good 15 to 20 cars there, minuted later when we came out - three guys in a dodge and the sweep car were all that were left.  So for the final thirty or so kilometres to the lunch break wadi I got to drive at a much more reasonable pace - yay!

And then after a swim - or two - in the pools we had another buffet at Wadi Tayeen and then back to Muscat by the inland route. We had driven into the mountains at the coast near wadi Tiwi and finally found civilisation again at Ibra - on the inland side of the Hajar mountains.

Because we'd seen the beehive tombs in the mountains we did a bit of research and found there were others, much closer to hand. So this morning (Thursday - being the first day of a long weekend) we headed off with 10 year old instructions. We knew these would be problematic as road building goes ahead apace. Sure enough after a lot of mucking around we found the village of Halban and even more mucking around in Halban (new houses abound) we found them. Another twenty or so beehive tombs, once again in various states of disrepair. None of them rebuilt.

Tombs at Halban

So once again tombs raided we set off for home - all of about 30k's this time - and tomorrow for the rest of the weekend we are off to Jebel Shams - the highest mountain in the country which abuts Oman's Grand Canyon.