Just returned from a fantastic trip to Abu Dhabi & Oman! This was a wonderful itinerary which was put together in conjunction with Explore Holidays & Abu Dhabi Tourism. I was the Etihad Airways escort for a group of Travel Agents on a trade mission to expericence what the region has to offer to the Australian travel market. Day 1 - Departing Brisbane Our Group flew from Brisbane to Abu Dhabi arriving at about midnight, so our group headed straight the Millennium Hotel, Abu Dhabi for a good night sleep before the adventures began!. Day 2 - Abu Dhabi - UAE [View Full Entry]

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It took us five days to get to the United Arab Emirates cruising on one engine at about 12 knots. We had plenty to do on board. The ship’s staff came up with a number of interesting parties and events such as an Indian Ocean sundowner party, the officer talent show and the annual Jimbo’s truck stop café dinner. We had a party for our group on the aft deck on a beautiful evening with warm breezes and calm seas. The Captain made an announcement that the two week cruise from Singapore to Dubai was going to be refunded in full [View Full Entry]

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Not far from Dubai lies Oman, and in Dubai lives my sister with her family and for this reason I find myself writing about a little camping trip that she took me on. Six Arabian nights we spend under the moon of Oman, and in doing so I discovered what beauty is hidden away in the folds of the Hajar Mountains of this country. Now camping with a family is of course different than camping with friends, but my nephew Teagan of five and my niece Zara of three behaved very well considering the amount of driving and hiking they were [View Full Entry]

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Muscat, Oman. 29th march We had a later start to our day off ship so decided to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and natter with some friends. We thought that there was no rush to get off as there did not seem much to do at this port. It was a lovely sail in though, pretty and moody. It was a very hot day-32ish degrees. Murdo had bought me a fold-up Vietnamese straw hat which worked a treat, even if I did look like I was entering an Easter bonnet parade!! We had a shuttle bus that dropped us outside the souk [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunately the photos for this entry have been lost due to a technical glitch at Travelblog. I will get around to reloading them soon! We left Muscat behind and battled the traffic until we got past Seeb International Airport. Then it was plain sailing and we continued on towards Nizwa with very few other cars on the road. There wasn't much to see on the way and the one thing we tried to, we couldn't find! Therefore we found ourselves in a seemingly deserted Nizwa in time for lunch. We ate in a cheap biriyani restaurant where the food was good, [View Full Entry]

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We decided not to take the 10 hour bus journey from Salalah to Muscat. Instead we flew with Oman Air saving ourselves an awful lot of time and discomfort. On arrival at Seeb International Airport we took a taxi to the Muttrah Corniche area of the city. Now Muscat isn't really a city as such, it is more of a collection of towns squeezed between a small mountain range and the coast with fairly large distances between each of them. Finding budget accommodation was impossible. We ended up at the Al-Fanar Hotel tucked away at one end of the corniche. It [View Full Entry]

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Oman, the land of Frankincense, or is that Yemen?! Well, the two countries probably share the moniker. We were happy just to be in a land of rugged coastlines, beautiful beaches and hot sunshine! Salalah is located in the South of Oman, not too far from the Yemeni border. We stayed for a few days with Peta who we had met during summer school in Damascus last year. It was wonderful to catch up with her and her friends, and to learn all about life as an ex-pat teacher in Salalah. It's now high on our list of future possibilities!!! Peta [View Full Entry]

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...da sind wir wieder... Diesmal mit einem kleinen Bericht zu unserem 2. Ausflug in den Oman. Ursprünglich hatten wir geplant mehrere Tage in den Oman zu fahren. Daraus wurde leider nichts, weil ich kurzfristig für den nächsten Tag ein Vorstellungsgespräch bekommen habe. Also wurde aus Plan A wie so oft im Leben Plan B und aus 3 Tage - ein Tag. Plan A: Wir hatten eigentlich geplant an der Küste entlag bis nach Muscat (= Hauptstadt) zu fahren, dort zu übernachten und uns am nächsten Tag Muscat anzusehen und dann ins Western Hajar Gebirge zu fahren und dort zu wandern... Plan [View Full Entry]

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Christmas 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. [View Full Entry]

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...and yes, I simply love sand dunes After we left Sur and the coast our first stop was Wadi Bani Khaled. Oman is a dry land. One of the few places where fresh water can be found is in the valleys, the so called Wadis. Since there is water in the wadis that is also a place where you can find some vegetation and where you can have a swim. A swim in fresh water is a rare thing in a country where well over 90% of the land is desert so it is quite understandable that the wadis are popular [View Full Entry]

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