My My it's July - Well almost

Ripening dates

So the 29th of June it is. Hard to believe the two months that have just gone by.  One in Australia and another back in Oman, since my last post with Ramadan having started today. Our third one in Oman, how time flies.

Well the Australian trip was an absolute whirlwind. A week here, a week there with a lot of driving and a lot of people. Splitting our time between Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne is going to be a fixture of our Australian sojourns now, as both Rufus and BJ live in Brisbane, our home is in Canberra and the rest of our families in and around Melbourne. Guess that's going to tie us to a lot of intra Australia commuting. Sigh. This time we hired a campervan, which was a good decision as while it was old and a bit clunky it got us safely from place to place with plenty of luggage space and on the occasion we needed it a bed for the night. AND it was cheaper than a rental car!   

Cheap and cheerful

We arrived home exactly a month ago, to an Oman where the temperature was on the rise. As we drove to the airport in Melbourne it was 14 degrees - when we left the airport in Muscat it was 45 degrees! And the temperatures have largely stayed up there since. Hot, hot, hot.

So what have we done this month? Not a lot to be honest. The first couple of weeks were spent getting back into the groove, letting the cats know we hadn't really deserted them and catching up at work. So no not a lot of out and about. Until these past two weekends that is.

Katrina storming Bid Bid Fort

Two weekends at home without going anywhere was a bit much. So on the third weekend we loaded up the 4wd and headed off for a place called Bid Bid. We were told it had a fort, the papers said it would be open and a blogg post or two said it was interesting - promising. Also only half an hour down the road. So after a quick Google Maps search the fort was located (not found said Google, but really rather obvious in the pictures!).  And then will wonders never cease the GPS said "yeah I know where that is..D'uh you don't?"

Omani Bucolic Idyll

Our drive to Bid Bid was rather uneventful. The fort was duly found and not unexpectedly closed! So we hung around the outside taking pictures of the fort and surrounding date farms and then simply drove off into the Wadi for some 4wd action before going home with a local pottery water barrel for the kitchen. It is date season here and the date palms were overburdened with fruit and really rather peaceful. The date grove was rather green and peaceful. Being towards the middle of the day it was also rather quiet, all in all very pleasant.

This weekend just gone we jumped a plane to Bahrain for the weekend, as an early birthday thing for Katrina. The original plan was to go to Dubai, but by the time I got to making the booking it was much cheaper to go to Bahrain and as we hadn't been there before it was a no brainer really.  Similar flight times.... SO Thursday night we hit the airport (Hint - Muscat airport has next to no long term parking now, luckily work is under 10 minutes walk away.) and but a matter of a few hours later we were in Bahrain, forking over a nominal sum for a visa and then off to our hotel, courtesy of their complimentary pick up. We can highly recommend the Palace Boutique Hotel in Bahrain, 20 rooms, pool, food, bar, restaurant....  But by the time we hit the hotel it was all getting a bit late so we took ourselves off to bed reasonably quickly, after a short study of the tourist maps.

Friday dawned, what else but bright, sunny and hot. Well it is officially summer after all. Breakfast was followed by more map study and the dawning realisation that we should have arranged a hire car. No problems the nice hotel people soon sorted that out and we had a Yaris for the weekend at a reasonable rate. Tally ho! And I swear I could hear the GPS calling from Muscat saying "D'uh Forgotten something?" Yes it has Bahrain maps which would have saved us a fair bit of mucking around.

Traditional Bahraini Garb

Trading Seals

As is pretty much our habit we started with the Bahrain museum. A nice, reasonable sized and very informative museum. Manama, the capital of Bahrain, has history dating back thousands of years. And the proof is there in the museum. It's a good first stop, because it tells the stories in a nice simple fashion, setting you up for the rest of Bahraini tourism, which doesn't have much in the way of informative information. Katrina was especially taken by the early (2000 odd BC) trading seals.  Interestingly the main floor of the museum has a map of Bahrain on it, which has lines running from points to various of the exhibits in the large entrance area. Really rather well done I thought.

From the museum we took off for Sheikh Khalifa's house. It's a rather large house laid out in traditional Bahraini style. A key feature of the house is the wind tower - an early form of aircon, absolutely essential in the climate. The wind tower has four air channels which allow breezes top blow into the room below, no matter the wind direction. Rather large wooden flaps can be opened or closed to allow or shut off the flow. It was stinking hot when we were there, but the gentlest of breezes coming through the wind tower made the room significantly cooler than anywhere else in the House.

Wind Tower outside

Wind Tower inside

But by then, after struggling with the back streets and the museum Katrina's knee said called time and we headed back to the Hotel and a couple of refreshing hours in the pool. Followed by a rather nice but rather expensive restaurant dinner and bed.

A thught for Sui

Some culture is universal......

Saturday dawned bright, sunny and hot. Our first outing for Saturday was the National Craft Industries center. Open 7 days from 0700!
Yippee, yeah, but no. We got there to find closed doors and the only people there were the glass workers, must be a dedicated lot. They told us that yes the website says 7 days, but they're never open Fridays and Saturdays, not even the craft shop. So we looked at the glasswork -

Bahrain Fort

which we greatly enjoyed and then took off for the Qalat al Bahrain - Bahrain Fort.

A massive pile of rock it is and that is mostly what it is. A UNESCO site under restoration and excavation since the sixties. The fort was impressive, but the museum on the beach below was even more so, especially as the temp was well above 40. The fort grew over a few millennia and was in use until the late 16c when it was abandoned and by the sixties very little was visible above the encroaching sand. That's not the case now, as we walked the 300 meters from car to fort the true scale slowly became apparent. Wandering through the ruins and the excavated and intact parts of the fort was fascinating. Unfortunately the only signage throughout the castle were for the art installations, or a simple number for the audio tour -  which you had to get from the museum on the beach below, but as we went straight to the fort..............

It used to b e a well

It was hot and getting hotter so we retreated to the museum below and inhaled water. Then we hit the museum. We had already seem similar things the previous day, but there was enough interesting differences to keep us happy and interested. More seals for Katrina, some tombs and diorama's. I was most impressed with the scale model of the smelting furnace. There was stuff and other stuff mixed in with other stuff..

The smelting furnace

From there we headed for some shopping, after all we hadn't bought any souvenirs yet. On our way to the fort Katrina had noticed a large mall at the side of the highway boasting Bahraini made arts and crafts. We wended our way through some back streets to the mall and went in to the small stalls. In the end we came out with a drink coaster that has an image of one of those seals that Katrina so admired and a painted rock that kinda looks like a camel - so it's in our camel collection now.

As we drove around Bahrain I had wondered about the police cars parked in reasonable permanently looking posts where the police always seemed to be looking away from the road as we went by. Well that's because they were. In the streets around the craft mall there was a lot of graffiti and we saw two makeshift barricades ready and waiting to be put back in place. As we drove out a little man on a motorbike drove up to one of the police points to deliver the pizza lunch!  And that was Bahrain. We will go back.

Oh got in the car this morning to be greeted with "D'uh did you miss me?" from the GPS"
Me "Shut up I know the way to work!"

And as of today it's Ramadan. The Holy month of Ramadan a month of celebration and fasting. So in the spirit of the times "Ramadan Kareem" to you all.

I do have to say to our friend Bob - get well soon, falling off motorbikes is not good for you. Stop doing it!!

<div> So the 29th of June it is. Hard to believe the two months that have just gone by.  One in Australia and another back in Oman since my last post, with Ramadan having started today. Our third one in Oman, how time flies.</div> <div> <br></div> <div> Well the Australian trip was an absolute whirlwind. A week here, a week there with a lot of driving and a lot of people. Splitting our time between Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne is going to be a fixture of our Australian sojourns now, as both Rufus and BJ live in Brisbane, our home is in Canberra and the rest of our families in and around Melbourne. Guess that's going to tie us to a lot of intra Australia commuting. Sigh. This time we hired a campervan, which was a good decision as while it was old and a bit clunky it got us safely from place to place with plenty of luggage space and on the occasion we needed it a bed for the night. And it was cheaper than a rental car!   </div> <div> <br></div> <div> We arrived home exactly a month ago, to an Oman where the temperature was on the rise. As we drove to the airport in Melbourne it was 14 degrees - when we left the airport in Muscat it was 45 degrees! And the temperatures have largely stayed up there since. Hot, hot, hot.</div> <div> <br></div> <div> So what have we done this month? Not a lot to be honest. The first couple of weeks were spent getting back into the groove, letting the cats know we hadn't really deserted them and catching up at work. So no not a lot of out and about. Until these past two weekends that is. </div> <div> <br></div> <div> Two weekends at home without going anywhere was a bit much. So on the third weekend we loaded up the 4wd and headed off for a place called Bid Bid. We were told it had a fort and the papers said it would be open and a blog post or two said it was interesting - promising. Also only half an hour down the road. So after a quick Google Maps search the fort was located (not found said Google, but really rather obvious in the pictures!).  And then will wonders never cease the GPS said "yeah I know where that is..D'uh you don't?"</div> <div> <br></div> <div> Our drive to Bid Bid was rather uneventful. The fort was duly found and not unexpectedly closed! So we hung around the outside taking pictures of the fort and surrounding date farms and then simply drove off into the Wadi for some 4wd action before going home with a local pottery water barrel for the kitchen. It is the beginning of date season here and the date palms were overburdened with fruit and really rather peaceful. The date grove was rather green and peaceful. Being towards the middle of the day it was also rather quiet and peaceful, all in all very pleasant.</div> <div> <br></div> <div> This weekend just gone we jumped a plane to Bahrain for the weekend, as an early birthday thing for Katrina. The original plan was to go to Dubai, but by the time I got to making the booking it was much cheaper to go to Bahrain and as we hadn't been there before it was a no brainer really.  Similar flight times.... SO Thursday night we hit the airport (Hint - Muscat airport has next to no long term parking now, luckily work is under 10 minutes walk away.) and but a matter of a few hours later we were in Bahrain, forking over a nominal sum for a visa and then off to our hotel, courtesy of their complimentary pick up. We can highly recommend the Palace Boutique Hotel in Bahrain, 20 rooms, pool, food, bar, restaurant....  But by the time we hit the hotel it was all getting a bit late so we took ourselves off to bed reasonably quickly, after a short study of the tourist maps.</div> <div> <br></div> <div> Friday dawned, what else but bright, sunny and hot. Well it is officially summer after all. Breakfast was followed by more map study and the dawning realisation that we should have arranged a hire car. No problems the nice hotel people soon sorted that out and we had a Yaris for the weekend at a reasonable rate. Tally ho! And I swear I could hear the GPS calling from Muscat saying "D'uh Forgotten something?" Yes it has Bahrain maps which would have saved us a fair bit of mucking around.</div> <div> <br></div> <div> As is pretty much our habit we started with the Bahrain museum. A nice reasonable sized and very informative museum. Manama, the capital of Bahrain, has history dating back thousands of years. And the proof is there in the museum. It's a good first stop because it tells the stories in a nice simple fashion, setting you up for the rest of Bahraini tourism which doesn't have much in the way of informative information. Katrina was especially taken by the early (2000 odd BC) trading seals.  Interestingly the main floor of the museum has a map of Bahrain on it, which has lines running from points to various of the exhibits in the large entrance area. Really rather well done I thought. </div> <div> <br></div> <div> From the museum we took off for Sheikh Khalifa's house. It's a rather large house laid out in traditional Bahraini style. A key feature of the house is the wind tower - an early form of zircon, absolutely essential in the climate. The wind tower has four air channels which allow breezes top blow into the room below, no matter the wind direction. Rather large wooden flaps can be opened or closed to allow or shut off the flow. It was stinging hot when we were there, but the gentlest of breezes coming through the wind tower made the room significantly cooler than anywhere else in the   </div> <div> House. </div> <div> <br></div> <div> But by then, after struggling with the back streets and the museum Katrina's knee said called time and we headed back to the Hotel and a couple of refreshing hours in the pool. Followed by a rather nice but rather expensive restaurant dinner and bed. </div> <div> <br></div> <div> Saturday dawned bright, sunny and hot. Our first outing for Saturday was the National Craft Industries center. Open 7 days from 0700! Yippee, yeah, but no. We got there tho find closed doors and the only people there were the glass workers, must be a dedicated lot. They told us that yes the website says 7 days, but they're never open Fridays and Saturdays, not even the craft shop. So we looked at the glasswork - which we greatly enjoyed and then took off for the Qalat al Bahrain - Bahrain Fort. A massive pile of rock it is and that is mostly what it is. A UNESCO site under restoration and excavation since the sixties. The fort was impressive, but the museum on the beach below was even more so, especially as the temp was well above 40. The fort grew over a few millennia and was in use until the late 16c when it was abandoned and by the sixties very little was visible above the encroaching sand and soil. That's not the case now, as we walked the 300 meters from car to fort the true scale slowly became apparent. Wandering through the ruins and the excavated and intact parts of the fort was fascinating. Unfortunately the only signage throughout the castle were for the art installations, or a simple number for the audio tour -  which you had to get from the museum on the beach below, but as we went straight there...............</div> <div> <br></div> <div> It was hot and getting hotter so we retreated to the museum below and inhaled water. Then we hit the museum. We had already seem similar things the previous day, but there was enough interesting differences to keep us happy and interested. More seals for Katrina, some tombs and diorama's. I was most impressed with the scale model of the smelting furnace. There was stuff and other stuff mixed in with other stuff..</div> <div> <br></div> <div> From there we headed for some shopping, after all we hadn't bought any souvenirs yet. On our way to the fort Katrina had noticed a large mall at the side of the highway boasting Bahraini made arts and crafts. We winded our way through some back streets to the mall and went in to the small stalls. In the end we came out with a drink coaster that has an image of one of those seals that Katrina so admired and a painted rock that kinda looks like a camel - so it's in our camel collection now. </div> <div> <br></div> <div> As we drove around Bahrain I had wondered about the police cars parked in reasonable permanently looking posts where the police always seemed to be looking away from the road as we went by. Well that's because they were. In the streets around the craft mall there was a lot of graffiti and we saw two makeshift barricades ready and waiting to be put back in place. As we drove out a little man on a motorbike drove up to one of the police points to deliver the pizza lunch!  And that was Bahrain. We will go back.</div> <div> <br></div> <div> And as of today it's Ramadan. The Holy month of Ramadan a month of celebration and fasting. So in the spirit of the times "Ramadan Kareem" to you all. </div> <div> <br></div> <div> I do have to say to our friend Bob - get well soon, falling off motorbikes is not good for you. Stop doing it!!<img width="1315" src="http://i.imgur.com/vwSrwx7.jpg"></div> </div> </div>

On the Commonwealth

Over the last week or so I have been reading about the Australian Government Commission of Audit and the upcoming budget, which by all accounts is reckoned to be a horror story in the making for the common man.

What I have read about the commission of audit recommendations fills me with dismay, it is a narrowly focused set of findings based on the principle that Government has no place in service provision and market forces are best. In my view this is wrong on so many levels that I don't really know where to start.

Now correct me if I am wrong in any of this. A government is elected to serve the country and the people of the country. Not just one sector but all the countries peoples.

Governments - be they state or Federal exist to govern and provide essential services that pull a community together and give a common direction. Or at least a direction that the majority can agree to.

Australia is a Commonwealth, a federation of the states and territories. They banded together to build a stronger Australia as a Nation. The concept of a federation and a commonwealth is one of common purpose and mutual assistance. States and Territories are not competitive market driven entities, and should not be forced into such a role.

Have a think about the word Commonwealth. Yes sure it means an aggregation of entities into something larger. But the origins of the word are "the common good". That's right the common good, in other words to safeguard and improve the lot of everyone, the common wealth.

I am no economist, but I can see that pushing current federally provided services out to states to run competitively  (on a business footing) does not make sense. Doing this will create winners and losers across the country for no other reason than where you live. Larger or more populous states will have the economies of scale to provide good services. Tasmania, Northern Territory, ACT and probably South Australia will be disadvantaged. And it's not as if you can walk around the corner to another "shop". You would have to move state. Sure people do that all the time, but not everyone can or wants to and for every "economic refugee" this creates the worse the lot of those remaining will be. Less people, less money, less services and thus a downward spiral.

I guess the thing that gets my goat is just how narrowly focused this commission of audit is and how one sided the proposed solutions are. An audit by a self interest group for a self interest group.

What we are seeing in Australia (and other countries) is the effect of an entrenched political class. People who view politics as a profession and an end in its own. The loyalty is to the party, not the people and the country as a whole. What matters are the deals and interest groups that provide the patronage. If you don't belong to the party or support the party then your interests don't really matter.

I don't doubt that many people enter politics out of a sense of public duty, but somewhere along the way the majority give the impression of having lost that focus.

Of course the two party preferential system doesn't really help things either. Successive legislation has entrenched the existing parties, making it difficult for other parties to gain traction. And of course when a threat to the existing order comes along the two parties close ranks to negate the "common enemy".

To jump around a bit. Over the past twenty plus years I have watched as a succession of economically driven policies have divested Australian Governments of a range of Government business enterprises and sold off public assets. I am sure there is sound economic theory behind this. But by doing so the Government's ability to affect the market place without legislation was lost, and the revenue base narrowed to simply taxation.

The same and similar economic theories have also narrowed Australia's range of economic activity. The loss of the car industry being a great example of that. Throwing up another set of disused factories in Australia's industrial wasteland. Victims of a sort of scorched earth approach.

I have to say that a community is not a corporation. Business is a part of it. But a community is and should be about people, their wants and needs and ensuring that we use and distribute our wealth equitably. By any objective measure that is not happening now.

Yes our captains of industry are doing well - for themselves. Just watch the business councils antics whenever general wage rises are proposed. Then watch their antics as they propose executive remuneration increases, that are completely out of kilter with the rest of society.

And what of the people in our society who are suited to manufacturing positions? Oh too bad they got left behind because they couldn't re-skill or weren't suited to another role. Australia used to have a well rounded economy, now? By my reckoning our economy is becoming increasingly hollow as manufacturing shuts down and service jobs are off-shored to wherever is cheapest.

Where to Australia? Is Australia may be a commonwealth, but where is the sense of Common Wealth?

Yippee it's holidays

Yay

In two days time Katrina and I will be flying out for home and just under a month back in Australia. Really really looking forward to time in Australia. We will spend the first week in Brisbane staying with no1 son (Rufus) - mind you I will spend much of that time at a conference, where I will be a tech talk facilitator and a workshop instructor. So my time with Rufus and Brisbane people will be a bit limited.

After that we head off to Canberra where we plan to arrive on the 11th. That will let us catch up with the Beej, our house and various friends. After that we head off to Victoria doing the round trip through Wonthaggi, Melbourne and Daylesford to finally fly out of Melbourne on the 28th. It will be a whirlwind three weeks but fun nonetheless.

So looking forward to Australia.

Just how unreliable can one 4wd be?

Since March we have been rather busy and so quiet in Oman. The 4wd has been off the road as much as on. A succession of sensors and diodes have died, usually at inopportune times. Last weekend we set off for a last quick spin up a wadi before leave. Within 2kms of the exit the crankshaft sensor died - so no spark, no go. Luckily I was able to coax the car to a tree where we sat out around four hours while our rescue was arranged - thanks to Herman and Jane and Robbie and Lucy.  Mind you a two hour outing became a full day and so now we are behind on our packing and so on.......

But as ever those views!!!

Summer is fast approaching and as a precaution I had most of the rooftop plants moved down and under the shade trees. Pretty soon the roof will become too hot to be relaxing. Unfortunate that.  But we have been lucky this winter with the temperatures staying down longer and more rain than usual. Far more rain than usual.......

The guys tell me that the last few years in Oman have been brilliant, with much more rain than they have seen  before. And boy is rain celebrated here, unfortunately sometimes with tragic consequences. You see drains have not been a part of urban planning and when it rains people come out to watch the wadi's in full spate and people get caught crossing in their cars or playing too far out into the water.

So while an upside is more rain, the downside is the deaths.

About to get it on

And the winner is - the Brown bull.

On a cultural front the only thing of not we did was going to the traditional bull fights. Interesting it was. Clearly a community based activity with a concrete bull ring and a hundred plus bulls in attendance. Apparently on the day of the fights owners bring the bulls in and tether them around the ring. Then they go into the middle and arrange the matches between each other.

I'm a comin to get Ya! - but when he got there he declined the bout!

So many bulls in one place - what a racket. The young ones are up and calling their challenges, while here and there an older bull sits and watches, as if knowing that saving their energy for the coming contest is the sensible idea - yawn.

So what is Omani  bull fighting. Well the bulls are pretty much matched for size. When their turn comes they are led into the ring and face up to their opponent. They are brought together and locking horns the contest begins. The two bulls push and shove each other around until either one is driven backwards and beaten, or time is up and an end to the contest is called, at which point their handlers pull a rope attached to their front leg forcing the bulls to separate.

Run and hide, run, run

And on occasion a bull breaks loose, or two bulls agree they've had enough and take off, scattering the spectators, as the handlers/owners desperately rush after them trying to bring them back under control. At one point two bulls took off together and made it all the way out into the car park. As soon as it was safe all spectators were back in the ring sitting down and waiting for the next match. But shush, please don't tell the occ' health and safety guys!

All in all the bulls seemed to enjoy their bouts and we saw no sign of any injuries. So while it was fun, interesting and a cultural thing, not sure that we will go again.

Cheers, bags mostly packed, an early night tonight and tomorrow night then off to the airport and Aus............

See ya

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