Blogs from Middle East - page 3

We enjoyed a much needed day off on Thursday, enjoying the luxury of the Alila hotel, with its stunning views over the mountains. It sits on a promontory of rock with deep gorges on either side, and has been built from local stone to blend into the landscape. We did the one hour nature walk but opted not to do the 5km walk in the local area! Friday required a 7am start so we could visit the cattle market at Nizwa. In fact, all the animals being paraded around the small ring were goats, big ones on lengths of green twine and small ones held in the arms of their sellers. There was no auction, interested purchasers simply asked to inspect the animal then offered a price. Once we’d seen enough goats we didn't bother to ... read more

We met our guide Hashim and set off for the Sultan Qaboos Mosque, which for a long time was the largest mosque in the world before a larger one was built in Abu Dhabi. Hashim helped Sara wrap her headscarf in the prescribed manner, and we marvelled at the number of women having to rent long abbayas and headscarves because they’d turned up in strappy T shirts and miniskirts with nothing to cover their bare flesh. Some pointlessly got stroppy with the polite but firm female religious guardians. Many mosques are large but not visually very interesting, but this one is stunning. It’s set in extensive grounds with Islamic gardens featuring water channels, and has not one but five minarets to reflect the five guiding principles of Islam. The outside is polished sandstone and the inside ... read more

Monday was the day from hell. We left the hotel at 7.20am for the 10 minute drive to the airport, ludicrously early for a 9.25 flight but tour companies like to get you there early. We were eventually allowed to check in and were led up to a first floor waiting room. After an hour an official came to tell us the plane was delayed. ‘Inshallah maybe one hour, maybe two, but maybe cancelled’. An oil rig engineer on the same flight was in touch with friends who were supposed to be flying to Khasab from Muscat on the plane we would then take. They had taken off then landed again after the pilot was told the wind was too strong to land in Khasab. It’s a small airport, mostly military, surrounded by mountains, with a ... read more

The Musandam peninsula is strategically important as it dominates the Straits of Hormuz, which at the narrowest point means that Oman and Iran are 21 nautical miles apart. The Musandam peninsula is almost all mountains, and we certainly experienced that today with a 4WD trip up to 1600m at the very north of the peninsula. The day started more pedestrianly, with a visit to Khasab castle. This was built as a fort by the Portuguese in the 17th century, and was subsequently taken over by the British, but it has been completely rebuilt and turned into a museum. It’s small, but interesting enough – or at least, it would have been if we hadn’t experienced a second day of long power outages. It’s hard to see the exhibits in a museum with no windows and no ... read more

Ruins, tombs, ruins, monastery, ruins, a cat and more ruins On this trip my plan was to stay in Larnaca the entire time and explore the island by going on daytrips from there. I could take bus both to Ayia Napa and to Nicosia, so those two places I could easily get to. Since the most remote parts of Cyprus could be reached by car in three hours or so from Larnaca I decided to rent a car for three days. I thought I had an excellent plan until I realised that they drive on the left side of the road. I guess I should have seen that one coming but I didn't. I was actually less afraid of driving on the left side of the road than I was of changing gears with my left ... read more