Oh, man! Oman!!

Where to start, where to start! We basically decided we needed to get away. Frustrations with work, with trying to find and buy a horse, homesickness, and general malaise caused us to take a sudden trip to OMAN! It seemed like a good idea at the time! I saw this on a T-shirt as we stood for 3 hours in the immigration line at the Hatta border in Oman. We don't normally travel during Eid holidays because of travel troubles, but for whatever reason, we didn't care. We wanted to get OUT of Qatar and see something NEW and MYSTICAL and MAGICAL (are those the same thing) and DIFFERENT! So, we took our horse money and ran for it! :) ROAD TRIP! It seemed like a good idea at the time!

At 2:50 a.m. on Sunday morning, we flew from Doha to Dubai. Having researched "road tripping" from Dubai into Oman, we had reservations for a car and since we were going into Oman, the nice young man gave us a brand new Yaris (24 km on the odometer!). I bought a SIM card so we wouldn't be without the ability to communicate, because who knew where we might end up or what trouble we might find? We headed for Al Ain to meet our new friend, Lynn and as it turned out, there was no trouble except that we were so tired and exhausted from our middle of the night trip. Although we had no trouble arriving, going through immigration, renting our car and getting out of Dubai, we may forego future middle of the night retreats. :) We immediately had trouble getting on the right road, so did what all Americans do (at least smart Americans with a woman in the car!) and stopped at a petrol station to ask directions. A very nice taxi driver asked us to follow him and away we went. He waved us off at the appropriate exit and we were OFF to Al Ain!

We had a little trouble in Al Ain finding Lynn, but again, a petrol station stop later and we found her with no trouble. We are delighted to have finally met this "online" friend, much like we did when meeting Maryanne in Egypt. She welcomed us into her home and fed us fresh fruit and cheese and tea....she took us off to find a market where we could stock up on food supplies for our road trip! We had a wonderful visit before heading off to our hotel on Jebel Hafeet (Hafeet Mountain/Hill). The wonderful thing about Al Ain is GREEN! Green, green everywhere, unless it's colorful flowers! We LOVED Al Ain and the trip up to the Mercure Grand Hotel at the top of Jebel Hafeet was an adventure. Just the thing we had been hoping for! FABULOUS! We arrived and were checked in with no trouble even though we were early. Our check-in was handled by a nice young lady name Maitha (I hope that's right) who travels often to Qatar and she is going to contact us when she comes again so we can get together for a coffee!

Our room was fabulous....a great view of the pool, the grounds, Al Ain....comfortable and luxurious at the same time. We managed a nap, split a steak sandwich and fried from room service which was absolutely delicious! We enjoyed some time poolside where we met.....you guessed it! A couple of families from Qatar! Go figure!

Our stay in Al Ain was the best medicine ever. We loved it tremendously and can't wait to go back. Our biggest regret is that we did not have time to get together with Lynn again. :( That will be another adventure when we go back and stay for more than one night!!

On the road again, we headed for the border crossing in Hatta (since we rented a car in Dubai, we had to cross the border in Dubai, even though there is a border crossing in Al Buraimi on the other side of Al Ain, because of insurance issues). No problem as we were on a ROAD TRIP and it wasn't that far really! In many areas, we drove right along the Oman border, from where we could see the mountains in the distance. It was beautiful and exciting. We finally made it to the border. We crossed at a checkpoint with an opening in the fence with barbed wire on top and drove past the welcome to Oman sign. We drove past handicrafts stores and cafes and steel workshops and continued on and on and on. Another check point at which they asked us to open the trunk and then waved us on. More shops, bigger hills as we drove deeper into Oman. At least we THINK we were in Oman. :) Eventually, we came upon a traffic backup. We were backed up for nearly 2 hours, after which we stood in lines at the passport office outside for another hour and a half or so. We met some nice people there, and had lots of great conversations, because what else could we do? It was our road trip adventure! After getting our passports stamped by the Dubai government allowing us to LEAVE, we drove on to the next checkpoint at which we waited about 2 1/2 hours for the stamp from Oman allowing us to ENTER Oman. We ended up in line with our friends from the previous checkpoint and took turns helping hold our places in line. Apparently all of this was due to a huge influx of Eid travelers. What normally takes a few minutes, took us a total of 6-7 hours (if you include the traffic backup!). More and more people arrived in line behind us. People started getting pushy. We had to maintain our positions or lose them! FINALLY we made it to the window!!! And the woman working that window announced "Shift change!" We laughed and laughed! It could only happen to us! It seemed like a good idea at the time! :) As we waited for our new processor to take her place, a fist fight broke out next to us as someone tried to cut in line with a fistful of passports. Those in line were having none of that kind of behavior (cutting in line!). Of course, the police and security had to come out and break it up. A nice young man finally sat down and took our passports from us. At first, he couldn't find our Dubai stamp, but eventually did. We were laughing so much by now, that he couldn't help but smile! And so, he waived the visa fee for us....handed us our passports and waved us on! :) As we drove on to Muscat, we saw several small little brownish donkeys grazing near the side of the road: the welcome wagon (or jinn?). :)

From this point on, it was another 4 hours (350 km) to Muscat and our waiting hotel room.....

Break time...this story is taking too long. I will have to write it in sections!!!

TO BE CONTINUED...

The drive to Muscat was long and we were tired, but our room was waiting for us when we arrived. They had several calls from people who would be arriving late. So, we were thankful to arrive and fall into bed! We did agree that the night drive was nice in that we were able to see the Eid holiday lights lit up and the Grand Mosque at night on our way into Muscat.

We slept in until 8 or so the next day. We had hoped to make a trip to Sur, but that was another 300 km and we didn't have it in us to drive that far again. So, we explored the beaches of Muscat, drove around and took a look around. Guess what? Muscat is GREEN! Soooooo GREEN! After exploring a bit and taking a few photos, we settled on the beach at Al Qurm for a swim. The waves were quite dramatic and we had a grand time "wave bashing." It was a LOT of fun, refreshing and enjoyable, which was really the whole point of our trip anyway! We enjoyed an ice cream from the ice cream truck as we sat in the sun and dried off. A small, but loud, cat showed up and wandered around us. As my students had warned me about the jinn (plural for genies, singular is jinni) and that they can take other shapes and I shouldn't make one mad at me, especially around sunset, I decided to share my ice cream. The cat seemed appropriately grateful and moved on.

Unfortunately, our hotel in Muscat was not the best....the internet was awful, could hardly maintain a connection for more than 5 minutes at a time, and the food was even worse! We simply ate, had naps, watched TV and went to bed early so we could get an early start to Nizwa, the last adventure on our short journey!

Nizwa is a town about 90 minutes-2 hours from Muscat in the mountains. To avoid giving you a whole history here in my blog, here is a link if you'd like more info:

http://www.nizwa.net/oman/nizwa/nizwa.html

Our main objective in Nizwa was shopping in the souks and seeing the fort. On our entrance to the souks, we saw several trucks with steers in them. We were impressed that each truck had plenty of room for the steers, a hay bag and water!! That was impressive to me! It's also unusual to see cattle here in Qatar, so we enjoyed the number of cattle we saw in Oman! Unfortunately, the goats tend to roam free along the highways and the byways which meant we did see some roadkill. Nothing bigger than a goat, alhamdellulah! There weren't camel fences along all the highways either!

And so, we shopped: Oman is famous for its frankincense, its silver, its khanjars (traditional daggers), and pottery (among other things, but those are the most famous, I think). The first place sold us some special frankincense and gave us a piece to chew.....it is supposed to have special antiseptic properties and is good for oral hygiene and the digestive system. It has the consistency of gum, a funky, woodsy/citrus flavor, but is not going to be my new favorite treat. It tends to get STUCK in your teeth AND, since it's a resin, if you try to pick it out with a fingernail, it sticks to everything! That flavor stayed with us ALL DAY! No kidding! However, I bought some nice lapis lazuli from Afghanistan there and some frankincense for burning. I can't tell everything we bought because some of it is surprises for family and friends back home. But we have LOTS of photos to share!!! If you are not on Facebook, try these links to see the photos of Nizwa:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=573820&id=620235789&l=e40b583198

Check out the photos of the crafts in the souks. Omanis are fabulous artisans!

The fort was also a huge treat! It's the biggest one in Oman. More info here:

http://www.nizwa.net/oman/explorer/places/nizwafort/nizwafort.html

There are some photos in the link to our Facebook photos that describe some of the special features of the fort and defensive tactics used by the Omani. They are absolutely brilliant!

When we were leaving, there was a festival of sorts going on to celebrate National Day and Eid. Eid went on for 3 days last week and the Omani National Day was the last day of Eid, so it was all especially festive. We bought Omani sweets, popcorn, some Omani flag decorations....and then headed back to Muscat.

I think it is definitely worth mentioning that AGAIN, as always, we met great people here. We met a nice young Canadian woman named Tracy who works at Sohar University. We had a wonderful chat with her and then, the next day, as we were checking out of the hotel, of course, we saw her again. At our hotel! I gave her my information and she has declared herself our official guide in Oman. :) Sometimes I think that the best part of our traveling adventures is the people we meet. The scenery is always different, but meeting great people is something that seems to stay the same for us! It always happens, no matter where we go!

Our return trip to Dubai on Thursday was uneventful. There was no huge line to leave Oman or to enter Dubai and we were able to see a lot more of the UAE. We passed the dunes on Route 1 which remind us for all the world of Sleeping Bear Dune in Michigan, except for how red/orange the sand is!

http://www.offroaduae.com/off-road/routes/dubai---hatta-road-sand-dunes-route-1.html

Even here, with all the sand around us, there was GREEN, which often got in the way of my attempts to take photos of the dunes! LOL However, it was beautiful. The people in the UAE were all friendly and polite, although there was a remarkable difference when we passed from Oman to Dubai in "atmosphere." I can't explain it. It just was. Different. It wasn't just the difference between the dish dashi that Omani men wear and the thobes that Emirati men wear....

There was a long line at immigration when we returned to Doha....seemed a LOT of people were returning from Eid travels that night. But we made it home to Al Khor, safe and sound and are now resting up from our vacation. :) Sorting our pictures and trying to remember everything for this blog has been a lot of work.

We had a delightful surprise when we returned home: my beans and cucumbers and tomatoes had not only sprouted in the 5 days of our absence, but were HUGE already! Our wonderful neighbors had cleaned and swept our "yard," cared for our plants and the house was so clean! :) We are soooo lucky to have such good neighbors!

In any case, it's back to the nutrition and fitness plans of Spark People! A friendly little bird with a sweet song just sat outside my door, begging for more crackers. I can't wait to get my bird guide for Qatar so I can tell you what kind of bird he is!

61 days to home....