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Published: February 17th 2009
The sultan's house
The sultan must be a very important man because he has a very big houseChristmas and New Year in a land where men wear dresses
Two years ago dad told us that we were going to visit a country called Yeah Man. Back then we thought daddy was joking with us. Dad's jokes are so silly and stupid that you wouldn't believe it. And a country just can't be called Yeah Man. But it turned out that there actually
is a country called Yeah Man. Well, strictly it's called Yemen but that is almost the same, isn't it? If you want to read about our adventures there you can follow
this link.
In December last year dad told us that we were going to a country called Oh, Man. That's got to be impossible we thought. This time it's
got to be a joke. To our great surprise it turned out it wasn't. There really is a country named Oh, Man, or Oman actually. Dad fooled us again! Oman is a neighbouring country to Yemen and they are both down in the Middle East. So we now guess that somewhere in the Middle East there's got to be a country called "OK, Man" and one called "Shit, Man". It's the only thing that makes
The sultan's boat
The sultan's boat is one of the biggest boats we have ever seen. sense.
We remembered what it was like in Yemen. There was a lot of sand, dust and dirt there. So we asked dad if there is sand, dust and dirt in Oman too. Dad answered "I don't know, I haven't been to Oman. But if you want to know we can all go there together and find out." It turned out that there is a lot of sand, dust and dirt in Oman and we think dad knew that all along. Dad isn't always honest to us. We will tell you more about the sand later on in the blog.
In Muscat, the capitol of Oman, lives the sultan. A sultan is the same as a king. Why he prefer to call himself sultan instead of king we don't know. Maybe it is because he likes the song
Sultans of Swing?
The sultan must be a very important man because he has a very big house. Dad called it a "palace", but we could see for ourselves that it was a house. A very big house it was. And it was very nice too. But a house dad, not a palace. We have seen
Cinderella's palace in Disneyland so we know what
The sultan's mosque
The sultan has a really big mosque. a palace looks like.
But the big house is not the only thing the sultan has in Muscat. He also has a big boat. The sultan's boat is one of the biggest boats we have ever seen. We would like to ride such a big boat one day. We have to ask mum and dad if they can take us on a cruise somewhere. Big boats are really nice.
The third big thing the sultan has in Muscat, that made us understand what an important man he is, is the mosque. The sultan has a really big mosque. In that mosque Emma had to wear a hat to cover her hair. It is the custom in Muslim countries that women wear hats or scarves to cover their hair when they enter a mosque. We can't really understand why the men don't have to cover their heads. Or even better, men should cover their faces. Men are so much uglier than women and men have filthier hair than women. Look at mum and dad for instance. Mum looks like a combination of a Hollywood actress and a commercial for shampoo. Dad on the other hand looks like a freaky
Dhow
This boat is smaller than the sultan's boat. But it is nice too. Size isn't everything. Just look at us. We may be small but we are still great bloggers
combination of
Goofy,
Quasimodo and
Medusa. The World would be a so much better place if all men had to cover everything above their shoulders. But in sultan's own mosque in Muscat the women had to cover their heads, not the men.
We don't have any photos inside the mosque. Dad told us that the Omani probably would be insulted if he took photos of us. We don't want to insult people, we want to make people happy, so we didn't bother to take any photos. But we did take a photo outside the mosque instead, and the mosque was nice there too.
After Muscat we went to a place called Salalah in the west of Oman. There we met someone who we think might be a relative to our friends Zakjekonijn and Joplin. If you want to know Zakje and Joplin a little better you can have a look at the blog entry about
our visit to the Star Wars Exhibition last year. We went there together all four of us.
Our friends are rabbits and the fellow we met in Salalah looked very much like a rabbit too. So much that we actually think he
is a rabbit. His name is
We met Abdullah, whom we think is a rabbit
His name is Abdullah and he is working as a garden consultant. That is a fancy way of saying that he mainly sits around eating grass and leaves all day.
Abdullah and he is working as a garden consultant. That is a fancy way of saying that he mainly sits around eating grass and leaves all day.
In Salalah dad took us to see two different ruins. One ruin was in Salalah and the other was an hour drive outside the city. We still have our doubts about ruins after the shocking experience we had when
we were in Pisco in Peru last year. We then learnt where ruins come from. They come from natural disasters! Well, we are trying to get used to visiting ruins again but it is difficult. We think we have to get used to them because dad really loves them and he seeks them up wherever he goes. If we are going to travel more with dad, we have to get over our fear.
We survived the visit to the two ruins. No natural disaster hit us this time either. The next place we stopped at this day was a nice Valley. Valleys are
so much better than ruins. Believe it or not, a valley actually becomes
better after seeing a ruin. Once you've had a close encounter with death just about every aspect of life
Ruin in Salalah
We have our doubts about ruins. But we survived the visit to this ruin. gets better than before.
They have a lot of valleys in Oman. Dad has another name for them of course. He calls them "wadis". Dad always wants to complicate things. When there is a nice name for something he wants to change that and give it a new name. If it looks like a valley it is a valley and if it is a valley we call it a valley. Well, the other valleys were very nice too. One of the valleys was nicknamed Grand Canyon of Arabia. We thought it was fabulous. Dad told us that one day he is going to take us to the real Grand Canyon in United States. Dad has never been there but he thinks that is even better. Grand Canyon of Arabia sure was nice and if Grand Canyon in United States is better we can't wait to see it.
Something else they have a lot of in Oman is forts. We went to see three different forts and we wanted to seen many more. The forts were really cool. But after seeing the three forts dad thought it was enough. Dad said: "We have now seen the best of all
Ruin of Queen of Sheba
We didn't like this ruin either. Ruins scare us. But we survived the visit to this ruin too. the forts in Oman. Now let's see all the other things there are to see in Oman, shall we?" Well, dad really looked like he was fed up with forts so we didn't bother to try to persuade him into seeing more of them. We can always come back some other time and see more forts. The forts of Oman have been here for hundreds of years and they will probably be here for hundreds of years more.
One day dad told us that we were going to a place called Wahiba Sands. Until then we had seen more than our share of sand for one trip. So Wahiba Forests, Wahiba Moors or Wahiba Savannah would all have been more to our liking. Even Wahiba Lake or Wahiba Swamps would have ranked higher than Wahiba Sands.
Wahiba Sands is a sand desert. A sand desert consists of sand, sand and more sand. There really is not much else in a sand desert than sand. Sand is nasty because it gets stuck in Jean-Claude's fur and in Emma's hair. We tried to stay in dad's bag as much as we could. But of course dad had to play a
Valley
This valley we saw after we left the two ruin sites. We really loved it. silly game with us. He took us out of the bag and put us in the sand! Dad tried to wipe off most of the sand from our butts afterwards but there was a lot left. It was a nasty thing to do to us. Dad thought he was so funny doing that. Dad, why don't you get it that your jokes aren't fun?
But it is true that we did get some nice photos of the sand too. When we didn't have to sit in the sand it was almost OK.
One day when we were in Oman dad took us to a market. Dad is not much of a shopper though. He only went there to take photos. We on the other hand are genuine super shoppers. Shopping is our middle name!
Emma: "I found a stall where they were selling perfumes. I am not content with just looking good. I want to smell good too."
Jean-Claude: "Perfumes are girl stuff. I found something more to my taste - toy cars!"
Outside the city where we went to the market there is a ghost town. First we though that meant that there live a
Another valley
They have many valleys in Oman. This one was wonderful lot of ghosts there and that sounded scary. But then dad explained that ghost town simply is the name for any town, city or village that has been deserted. We asked dad what "deserted" means. If it means "
dessert", like ice-cream or cake, it sounds nice. But if it means "
desert", like Wahiba Sands or Sahara Desert, it is not nice. It turned out it is neither really. Deserted means that nobody lives there any more. That the houses are all empty. Funny with a town where people don't live, isn't it? It took us a while to figure it out but finally we got it. "Many people living in one and the same place" is the same thing as a town. "Not a single person living in one and the same place" is a ghost town.
In the end of our trip we went to a place called Bat. In Bat there are many really old graves. It was really nice there. But what made the trip really great was that we made friends with some Japanese toys on the bus when we went there. Their father, a Japanese man, brings them with him when he travels. We
Touristy valley
This valley was very popular among tourists tried to make all three of them go with us to Bat, but they couldn't. Their father wanted to see another place and they had to go with him. We hope we meet them somewhere else in the World in the future.
We really liked Oman. But there was one thing we never managed to understand when we were there. Why are the men wearing dresses in Oman? At home men don't.
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Zakje & Joplin
non-member comment
Vi med!
Vi vill med på kryssning!!! Och Sallad säger att ni borde frågat Abdullah-kaninen om det fanns klippdassar i Oman. Det ska det göra i Egypten, men han hade inte träffat någon.