http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Middle East , Oman en-us Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:12:49 BST Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:12:49 BST Daversquos weekend was such a catalogue of mishaps to be polite that I may as well go through them in chronological orderhelliphellip.. 1 There is now irrefutable proof that the speed cameras in Oman work Driving down from Sohar towards Muscat with the sexy Swedish number Dave spends all his time lavishing attention on Dave triggered a camera at c. 160kmh ahem 2 After the f http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-303245.html ldquo In a departure from usual reporting procedures this last weekendrsquos diving is going to be a bit of an epic split into two blogs one will be full of marine life and eloquence unbounded the other will detail Daversquos dive trip which bore a remarkable similarity to ldquoCoco the Clown gets on a boatrdquo I was in Oman again for a meeting so Dave drove over for the second ti http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-303243.html Chelle had to go to Muscat for work late last week so she managed to convince her lovely boy to drive over on the weekend and come to make some bubbles with her. I flew to Muscat on Monday night and then worked there on Tuesday and Wednesday meeting clients and doing some training. Muscat runs a slightly different weekend system than Dubai. They have their weekends on Thursday and Friday.So I had http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-292817.html In and out of Muscat for a week. Except for the weekend I was slogging at work. Almost all the pics are taken at night post work hours. Omanis are really friendly and its easy to blend in the crown if ur not too flashy or touristy. Very idylic and sometimes boring. Dont go without company. Guess what They have booze http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-291452.html A two hour road trip to Oman was just what I needed to remind me that I am a world away from home. We crossed the border to Oman and found ourselves haggling for antiques in stores with no air conditioning drinking cokes out of bottles that cost about 30 cents from the local coffee shop and eating hummus and cherries for lunch on the top of the only mountain in the entire country. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Buraimi/blog-287139.html 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 ju http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-277675.html Nizwa the interior city.Nizwa Arabic 16061586160816098206 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 70000 people.Set amid a verdant spread of date palms it is strategically located at the crossroads of routes linking the interior with Muscat.N http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Nizwa/blog-275940.html 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 echoe http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Nizwa/blog-275933.html Oman is the land of Forts. Many forts adorn the whole country. We visited a handful ourselves. My favorite Nakhl Fort. Built into the side of the mountain...the building's elevation rises and falls with the topography of the mountain. Great design skill. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-275916.html Sultan Qaboos Grand MosqueThe Mosque is built from 300000 tonnes of Indian sandstone. The total capacity of the mosque interior and courtyard is up to 20000 worshippers.What to do with too much money You hire indentured modernday slave labor from India and flaunt the wealth by building a monument to God....ahem. And the monument happens to have a couple of record breakers Largest Handw http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-275898.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/blog-273473.html 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 eve http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Musandam-Peninsula/blog-271616.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-270218.html I am now in Tashkent Uzbekistan waiting for my flight to St Petersburg and have some ldquofreerdquo time I know this could sound horrible to some and finally found after a long while a viable internet connection.OmanHaving 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 ldquoCle http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/blog-269180.html Some Photos of things I've seen. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-267974.html Had a fantastic couple of days in Dubai visited many places the skidubai centre rocked kind of trippy that it's in the middle of a shopping mall checked out the rest of the City everything is on the largest scale you can imagine an amazing place I could and now have the option to live there being able to Dive or Ski any day of the year is quite appealing did a dunes safari which t http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-267940.html The United Arab Emirates are said to be moving ahead as they are attempting to stand still. That is Dubai in a nutshell. This Las Vegas on steroids has the biggest newest flashiest of everything except for the dancing showgirls. As we approached Port Rashid we could see the tall buildings glowing in the early light of sunrise. The iconic Burj Al Arab which is modeled after the sail of a dho http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-264337.html Driving tips for Oman1 Beware the rotaries. Arabs love rotaries. I don't think I saw a single stop light in Oman outside of Muscat. The only rule in a rotary is if you are in it you have rightofway. But you can change lanes in a rotary at a moment's whim and you can exit from any lane which gets really interesting in a 3 and 4 lane rotary. 2 Beware the goats and camels. Goats seem http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Nizwa/blog-264273.html Day 2 Wednesday April 2 2008Immersion suits are fun. If they had a sheepskin outer covering Irsquod bring one home for Bob knowing Aberdonians would find that completely irresistible. They look like the kind of blowup girlfriend hersquos always fancied except in preinflation mode and much betterlooking than his usual live selections. The difference with an immersion suit is that itrs http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-262907.html Salalah OmanSultanate Oman is located northeast of Yemen and south of Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. Its shores are on the Arabian Sea and go north toward the Persian Gulf but end before the Straits of Hormuz at the U.A.E. border. Evidence shows settlement back 5000 years but until merchants began to sell frankincense it was a relatively isolated country. Frankincense was thought to have divine http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/blog-258813.html When you cross the border into Oman from Dubai the scenery changes from smooth orangey dunes to dusty rocky moonscapes where the odd hint of wildlife is a goat up a tree or a wandering camel amazing that these animals seem to roam for miles with no 'shepherd' when they're worth tens of thousands of pounds to the owners... We had a few days in a resort hotel that was strangely empty but it meant http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-255473.html We've got some work over in Oman and I needed to see the client on site as well as our agent in Muscat so I had a bit of a road trip on my hands.It's only about 210km from Abu Dhabi to the Oman border just past Al Ain and then head south east another 130 to the town of Ibri. Once there you have to head West for another 130km to the Safah Oil Field.Due to security reasons you are not allowed to ta http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/blog-246167.html The Sultanate of Omanis in my opinionthe jewel of Arabia and a perfect tonic to escape the cold wet European winter for a while. I found this beautiful country to be a fivestar experience in a region sadly dominated for so long by violence and intolerance. It has been ruled by the same family for over 250 years and is a glimpse into an old kingdom as it once was before the wider region discover http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-243641.html Well Oman this time around. About four hours drive with a lot of stops for photos. Hotel was good and so were the people. Did a dhow tour lil bit of trekking and getting wet in the rain. Saw lots of dolphins swimmin around birds walkin around and people fooling around. It was freezing cold though and it was raining cats and dogs. We were waiting with our cameras for a bit of sunshine to get some http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Musandam-Peninsula/Khasab/blog-239571.html Muscat Oman is right out of ldquo1001 Arabian Nightsrdquo with its walled old town forts and the oldest souq or marketplace in Oman. Set in amongst jagged mountains next to the port the mystery of this city remains because it is virtually unknown to Westerners. We chose to take a sunset cruise on an ancient Dhow boat used for centuries in this part of the world. We glided along the coast an http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/blog-238062.html This had to be one of our most boring days on the road so far. We set off from Sur early in the morning again after a lovely complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Mum and dad spied some packed lunches being made and decided that it would be a great idea to get some of those for the trip as we werenrsquot so sure how long we would be on the road today. However I declined the honour of one of the http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Nizwa/blog-231860.html Well today was a HUGE day. We got started really early as we couldnrsquot wait to get out of the horrible hotel that we were staying in. I have to say that it was probably the worst hotel that I have ever stayed in and I have stayed in plenty in terms of the overall impression of the place. So if you are ever in Muscat STAY AWAY from the Majan Continental Hotel. Go somewhere else. So we were http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-231025.html Today we hopped back into the car to visit some of the beaches near to Muscat. In particular we were heading towards Yiti and As Sifah. The route we needed to take took us very close to Muttrah where we were yesterday. After navigating our way through the Muscat road system we found ourselves at the start of the route. For some reason I had thought that the start of the route would be a peaceful l http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-230748.html The shopping day Today was officially dubbed the shopping day by mother before the day had even began. After the events of yesterday the elder Adersquos had mutinied and decided that they were not getting in the car today and that they wanted to spend the day walking around Muscat. Little did we realise that Muscat is rather spread out and that you canrsquot really walk around it in the sens http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-230746.html Well the day began as many a Christmas day has begun in the Ade family with a walk along the beach. Except this time the beach was in Sohar Oman. A little different to little old Eastern Beach or Ohope Beach. Following the beach walk we settled down to the serious business at hand. That of opening up the enormous stack of presents that had accumulated. I must admit that I felt more than a little http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Oman/Muscat/blog-230269.html