Blogs from Oman, Middle East - page 28

... While leaving Dubai in only 3 weeks, I feel I could have at some point missed out the beauty surrounding the Emirates.... During last year's Ramadan my parents dropped in for a 1 month visit, and begged us to show them around the country.... This was a challenge. My parents are romantic traveler’s, in love with culture, adventure and architectural beauty. They are hippies at soul, thirsty for new discoveries.... Would the Burj or the Royal Mirage stand up to the level of the Pyramids, Thailand, Petra or Matchu Pichu? I had a job to do. I had to find what I though was inexistant in the Emirates.... and found that it couldn't be found, it did not have it. Hence my homework begun. India was relatively cheap for us, we could easily just fly ... read more

Day 8: This was our last day of diving. We woke up and had breakfast as usual, sorted our stuff and got onto the dive boat. We were going in a different direction today, past Mascat to Fahal Island. The journey out was a bit rough and we were all relieved when the boat stopped. We kitted up and jumped into Shallow Reef, a negative entry to two pinnacles the tops of which were at 16m and 18m, so not that ‘Shallow’! We swam around, and Faisal our guide found a seahorse, it was about 10cm big, and was really great to see! We then found a sea snake, or rather it found us. I was taking a photo of it when it decided to swim towards me, it looked huge on my screen and I ... read more

Day 6: We spent the morning walking around looking at Muscat. We saw the sultans palace, some forts by the sea and then went to a small local museum which had some interesting displays and old photos of Oman from the 70’s. We then decided to walk to the souk, it was miles and ended up getting a taxi, we had a large glass of fresh mango juice and then did some shopping before stopping for Falafal for lunch. We headed back to the dive centre and chilled out before our dives. The first dive we did in the afternoon was Mermaid Cove (same as our first dive). More moray eels, nudibrancs, porcupine fish and little rays. Our second dive was a night dive, lion fish, free swimming morays, lots of urchins, a crayfish and some ... read more

Day 4: We had a bit of a lie in before heading off on a tour in our own car. We went to another town called Nizwa we stopped at the big mosque on route in Mascat. It was very beautiful inside, the dome was coloured and the Mihrab was very impressive. We continued on our journey arriving in Nizwa around an hour later at the souk for some shopping where I bought some postcards. The ‘old’ souk was made out of mud and palm leaves and was much nicer than the newer bit, There were several sections, fruit and veg, spices, tourist stuff and fish. We then looked at Nizwa Fort an old Fort which had great views from the top. After further driving we arrived in Barhla, a town famous for pottery and looked ... read more

Day 2: I woke with a start having been poked by my mummy (who surprise, surprise was starving again) she was gagging for a cuppa so went for tea whist I dressed. I was very very sleepy still and felt a bit home sick as forgot were I was at first. I opened the door and walked along the beach to breakfast having pancakes and fruit soon helped revive me. We headed out to the old market and did lots of shopping and haggling (the Omani Rial is more expensive than the pound!), at curry with chippatis (yum yum) and then wondered back through the streets to our taxi. We rested, then went to the dive centre and sorted our stuff out. We headed out for a lovely first dive, nice and shallow to start with ... read more