Blogs from Oman, Middle East - page 10

so got back from 27 days at sea for 2 days in Muskat, was able to catchup on a few things, spent yesterday checking out Nizwa , the fort and the souk , then headed into the mountains to visit a small village, live is very different in Oman and the history of this place is facinating, to many photo's to upload for now, but will update the blog again when I return from sea (mid june). The Taxi's just arrived to take us to the wharf, so best be off to do some more fishing!!!! ... read more

After 4 days at sea, we pulled into Salalah. We had been escorted by the Dutch Frigate, HnLms Evertsen since leaving Mombasa and were sorry to see it leave. It's main Mission was to protect Emergency Food supplies that were being delivered to Somalia but we were very happy to have her company and protection as well. Salalah is a pretty bleak looking place from the water and it did not get much better once we went ashore. We had booked a Shore Excursion to Mughsayl Beach, Frankincense Trees and The Tomb of The Prophet Job. The beach was actually beautiful but there was not a single soul on it! Swimming is not part of the Omani Culture so no one goes to the beach. The big highlight of our first stop was the blow holes ... read more

The last couple of days have seen us trawl up more marine life to analyse, quite a few technical problems, with a bit of gear, so have been kept busy with a few more challenging problems - the heat and humidy play funny games with electronics. Photos are of samples caught, lots of electric rays, sardines, various tropical fish , a few sea eels. The sunsets and sunrises are unlike anything I've ever seen before, as for getting sunburnt over here - it just doesn't happen with the haze in the air (from dust and sand) still very warm (32-35 degress C). ... read more

Nizwa - the interior city. Nizwa (Arabic: نزوى‎) is the largest city in the Ad Dakhiliyah Region in Oman and was the capital of Oman proper. Nizwa is about 140 km (1.5 hours) from Muscat. The population is estimated at around 70,000 people. Set amid a verdant spread of date palms, it is strategically located at the crossroads of routes linking the interior with Muscat. Nizwa is a center for date growing. Dates from Nizwa (including Khalas and are known to be the best dates in the world). The main tourist attractions in the city are Nizwa Fort and the traditional Souq. The main bulk of the fort, built in the 1650's took about 12 years to complete and was built above an underground stream. The main part of the fort is its enormous drum-like tower ... read more

Wadi Shab 'Wadi' means 'dry river bed' (Wadi Shab is actually a wet river bed, a beautiful emerald green oasis in the desert). Wadi Shab is wadi in Oman and located between the capital Muscat and the town Sur, Oman. It has at least seven pools of emerald green water and is studded with boulders. One of the pools is in a cave where light streams in dramatically from above and there are fantastic echoes heard when one swims in it. Eventhough all guidebooks say you need a 4WD to get there...you can easily reach it in a regular car...thanks to the backbreaking road-construction (courtesy of practically free labor from India/Pakistan/Afghanistan). These workers situation is so bad, and the government does not do anything to alleviate the situation. Most of these workers flock from the subcontinent ... read more

So have almost been at sea a week, completed a number of trawls , a huge range of exciting marine life to sample and sort, as we get closer to the Yemem boarder, more and more unlit fishing boats appear on the radar - so far no fishing boats have thrown rocks at us or opened fire on us - the closest has been a bunch shaking there fists and screening some arabic at the top of there lungs. The crew are all great to work with - nothings a problem, all the routines on the trawl deck , foredeck go like clockwork, which makes life so much easier, it's a little cooler at sea, a mild 29 degress most nights and on the clear days upto 38 degrees , quite cloudy today, but can see ... read more

I am now in Tashkent, Uzbekistan waiting for my flight to St Petersburg and have some “free” time (I know this could sound horrible to some) and finally found, after a long while, a viable internet connection. Oman Having traveled for a month in the Middle East, I arrived in Oman and was immediately struck by two things: (i) Oman is very clean (the country has won the prize of “Cleanest Country in the Middle East” ever since such a competition was first organized a couple of years ago) and (ii) there is almost no hassling/bargaining which was a (very) welcomed change. I hadn’t really prepared my stay in Oman and didn’t know what to expect - Oman is very beautiful with its coastline extending over several hundreds of kilometers and spectacular mountainous interior with some ... read more