I haven't had time to blog for ages, as my sis was here, and when she was not, I was diving every weekend. It's been great to have so many visitors this year and thankfully there are tons to do outside of the UAE!
My sis and I and a friend made our way down to Muscat for 3 days. I had very high expectations as everyone told me that it was beautiful and they were right. We had a fabulous time, filled of course with tons of dramas which made the trip even more memorable!
Oman is such a lovely country, and the people are amazing -warm, friendly and so inviting. I never knew how big the country is (300,000km2) and there are only 2.8m inhabitants. It also has such a long and varied history, including conquering the East African coast (countries like Zanzibar and Mozambique!). We stayed for 2nights at a huge B&B where we had a triple room with our own outdoor patio, for the price of 1 night in a hotel in Abu Dhabi. They also organised a wonderful guide for us, who was very knowledgable and helpful and showed us so many amazing sites around Muscat. He also has 12 kids from 1 wife, and says that Westerners only know how to sleep at night. Yups, a very funny character who talked to us for 12 hours non-stop!
Muscat is such a nice city, it is so lived in, and established, which is very refreshing compared to life in the UAE. Locals are everywhere, driving taxis, selling things in the souks, and the souk was a real souk, not a fake air conditioned one that can be found in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. There is a nice vibe to the city too, and a beautiful promenade with lots of good food.
On our day tour, we went outside Muscat around the Wadis (valleys) and mountains. We also visited an archeological site (I saw a piece of pottery on the floor and asked the guy what it was, he replied in a blase manner that it's part of the ruins and said just take it home..). We drove through dried river beds, and swam in a beautiful turquoise freshwater lake called Wadi Tiwi. We also managed to visit a local's house for Eid in a small village, they were so wonderfully welcoming to us (the guy was our guide's friend). Unfortunately the host had a little boy who had never seen a lady with her hair down before and started screaming like he's seen the devil when he saw my sister! It was a perfect day trip however, ended with a wonderful turkish seafood meal!
We also had tons of dramas like getting stopped on our way back to the UAE at the border crossing. I suspect they thought we were on drugs because we were laughing so heavily at a chain of very funny events before turning up at the border. They stopped our car, took my sis and I into a separate room with all our belongings while my friend waited outside with the car and his stuff were checked by the male guards. The lady guard proceeded to spend the next hour checking every single piece of item we had in our bags. She also did not know what a tampon was when she saw it, and she also did not speak English so you can imagine the conversation! All the time we were inside, my friend was outside slightly panicky wondering if we were ever going to be let out. Finally after she scrolled through our photos and told my sister to stop smoking and find love, we were let go and proceeded to head back to Abu Dhabi.
All in all a great trip, really can't wait to explore other bits of Oman soon!
Photos are up on my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelle_d/
