First things first....HERE is a picture of the toilet-less potty...UNBELIEVABLE but, from what I hear, better than a hole in the ground! :-)
February 17 - 19, 2011
Thanks to Prophet Mohammed's birthday we got a long weekend and decided to head to Oman. After working with Avis to purchase Omani insurance and make sure Chad was listed as a driver on the car AND the special insurance, we felt like we were as ready as we would ever be for our next adventure! We left our apartment around 8:30 AM on Thursday, February 17th and, thanks to my co-worker's GPS, we felt comfortable we could get to our hotel about 480 kilometers from our house in Dubai without any crazy detours! In order to get to Oman, we needed to drive through the desert in Dubai. We saw roaming camels, people 4-wheeling in the hills of the desert, some people who had set up camp in the desert and a WHOLE LOT of SAND!!! The border crossing between the UAE and Oman is in the mountains so the views were spectacular!
When we arrived at the UAE border crossing area there were no signs telling us where to go or what to do. Most everyone seemed to be pulling off on the side of the road and going up to this mobile home looking building. After much debating, we figured it best to follow the crowd so we headed to what appeared to be the customs building. We waited in a short line and, sure enough, we were in the right place, our passports were stamped and we were free to leave the UAE.
Next we arrived at Omani import customs...again, no signs but a lot of parking and a big building so we parked and headed in. After asking a few questions, we got in line and WAITED...and WAITED...AND WAITED!!! During our wait, I made a visit to the "ladies room" and wished I was back in LuLu's!!!! ENOUGH SAID! The men's room was so bad that Mitchell walked in and turned around and walked right out saying "mom, there are only holes in the floor!" Yikes! After our wait, we finally made it to the window and handed over our passports. A few questions, lots of stamping and 600 dirams later (About $165 USD), we were back on the road after about an hour wait with only 5 people in front of us in line! Have I mentioned before that patience is KEY in this part of the world as nothing works like it "should" and things aren't efficient by any stretch of the imagination!
All but about 30 minutes of the drive in Oman was along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. We couldn't see the water but it was very GREEN. It was mostly a 4 lane road (two lanes in each direction) and in every town there was a roundabout. I think the cities must have had competitions as to which could create the most beautiful roundabout. Most had statues or beautiful archways and they ALL had tons of flowers! Even the medians of the roads were decorated with flowers and manicured trees and bushes. Also, the scenery was much different than Dubai with its miraculous skyscrapers. The towns in Oman were old with a lot of character and history. There were a lot of adobe buildings and tons of Mosques from the basic to the very ornate.
We arrived at our hotel at around 3PM. When checking in they asked us if we wanted one king bed or two "queen" beds. We asked for two beds. The first room they gave us had a king bed so we headed back down and got keys to another room. The second room did have two beds but they were DEFINITELY not queen size beds!! They were somewhere in between a twin and a full sized bed! This would be interesting! Our Hotel was basically on the top of a cliff overlooking the Gulf of Oman. The view was spectacular, especially at night! After dropping off our suitcases, we caught a cab and headed to the Matrah Souk (the local market). The Souk was right on the port and there were a couple cruise ships in port. The Souk closed between 1 - 4 PM so we were a little early. We sat down for a snack at an outdoor restaurant. Mitchell and Chad braved the burgers, I just had fries. They really liked the burgers and Mitchell liked the company...a stray cat that was hanging out by our table begging for scraps and attention. The port was nestled between some enormous cliffs. There was one ship in the port that looked like a cruise ship but was smaller, but not small by any means, and we found out it belonged to the Sultan!
Once the Souks opened we started shopping! The Souk was like a large "building" under cover but open air with cobblestone walkways and a lot of stores one after the other. They sold beautiful scarves from $3 to upwards of $200 per scarf, blankets, incense, perfume, silver, jewelry, fabric, historical nautical memorabilia (most likely because of the port) and souvenirs of every shape and size. I bought a few scarves, a couple thin long sleeved cotton shirts to wear in the summer and I couldn't resist buying the "Sultan Pepper" shakers. The salt shaker is "The Sultan" in his white robe, white "hat/scarf thingy" with the black band around his head to hold the "hat" on and the pepper shaker is his wife wearing a black abaya with only her eyes showing. CLASSIC! I also bought the Sultan nesting dolls (similar to the more popular Russian version) where the Sultan is the outside doll, then his wife, son, daughter AND camel are inside! ADORABLE! Mitchell ended up with a traditional Omani hat, then one store sold us one of the red and white checked scarves the Emiratis wear and the shop owner tied it over his hat just like they wear them. Everyone at the souks thought he looked adorable! Mitchell also got a brass collapsible telescope. Chad and Mitchell both got little wooden boxes to store their "treasures" in! We LOVED the souks. It was such a neat environment with many cultures and the smell of different types of incense floating though the air (better than the BO of some natives.
That evening we went to a local festival. It was at a park close to our hotel and shuttle service was provided. When we got there we needed to buy admission tickets and there were separate lines for men and women. Chad bought all of our tickets and we headed in. The park was HUGE! It was as large or larger than the area of Reliant Stadium including all the parking lots and buildings. There were shops, food, shows and rides. We found a food area first and had dinner. Chad had local food and Mitchell and I had Kentucky Fried Chicken...REALLY! They're everywhere! After that we headed to the carnival. Can I just say that I don't think ride safety standards even existed there! All the rides looked about 100 years old and rickety but as the saying goes, "When in Rome" (or should I say Oman!) Mitchell and I braved one rollercoaster that basically just went around in a circle...FAST. Then, it went around in a circle backwards...FAST! We loved it! Next to that was a ride with a bunch of Muslim women riding it. It was again, a ride that went around in a circle and bumped up and down...FAST (are you seeing a trend here?!?!?). There was a huge crowd of men watching. I believe the object was to bounce them around until their head scarves fell off....No Joke! Another strange thing was that many of the roller coasters were blasting American music like the Black Eyed Peas and Eminem...UN-EDITED!!! There were 4 letter words FLYING!!! We couldn't believe that in a country so conservative that you can't hold hands or kiss in public they felt THAT was acceptable music for a family event! I'm sure they just didn't know. We rode a few more rides, walked around, ate carnival food (popcorn for Mitchell and "candy floss" AKA cotton candy for me) and watched all the different faces and outfits. The bus picked us up to take us back to the hotel around 9:45PM. Although we were only about 2 miles from the hotel, due to all the cars and crowds from the festival, we didn't get back to the hotel until about 11PM!
The next morning we had scheduled a dolphin cruise. We took a cab to the marina and found the guide and waited for the cruise to begin. Again, the marina was situated in an inlet surrounded by jagged cliffs. About 15 of us boarded the boat and headed out to sea in search of dolphins. We sped along the water for about 45 minutes and we were all feeling beat up by the pounding of the boat in the water we saw a handful of other dolphin boats and we all circled and watched at the dolphins played, jumped and splashed. Mitchell was making good use of his new telescope although the dolphins were so close he didn't really need it. After about ½ hour of dolphin chasing/watching, we headed back to the marina.
After our dolphin cruise we headed back to the hotel and spent the afternoon playing in the gulf and the swimming pool. When we were at the beach, I found a hermit crab and gave it to Mitchell. He headed directly over to a group of kids that were also playing at the beach to show them. He's so outgoing! We had a very fun and relaxing afternoon.
That evening the hotel had arranged for a babysitter to come to our room to watch Mitchell while we had a romantic dinner for two in the hotel's Italian restaurant. We ordered room service for Mitchell before we left and he was in heaven eating his dinner out on the balcony overlooking the Gulf. We set Mitchell up to watch a movie right at the hotel manager arrived with the babysitter. She was a middle-aged Middle Eastern woman (not sure of her nationality). She didn't say much but we figured she would keep Mitchell from getting into any trouble. When we returned about 2 ½ hours later we found that she had let him order a black forest cake from room service to the tune of about $13. Needless to say, we were NOT happy. That almost doubled our babysitting fee and the whole point of having her was to keep him out of trouble. Luckily we were able to work that out with the manager the next morning.
Saturday morning we got up and headed back to the Souks for one last look to make sure there was nothing else we couldn't live without. (Of course we bought more!) One man tried to sell me camel bells but I held firm and told him I had no need for camel bells since I didn't own a camel! We finally headed back to Dubai around 10am. In lieu of the "Alphabet game" that we normally play while on road trips, we decided to play "the Mosque Game" where we were going to try to find and count as many Mosques as possible between Muscat and Dubai. Amazingly enough in a 5 hour drive we found...381!!!! We figured if we saw that many there were probably at least 3 - 4 times that many that we couldn't see hidden in stores, gas stations and homes!
We had an amazing (but EXPENSIVE) trip! I'm sure we'll go back again and explore other parts of Oman.
When we got home, I decided to head downstairs to get a mani-pedi. The place I found on the Marina Walk had just opened and weren't set up for mani-pedi's yet but they did have a hair salon. I was in desperate need of a haircut so I decided to try it out. The woman cut on my hair for about an HOUR!!! I don't have THAT much hair but she found a way to cut and thin and thin and cut some more! I was PETRIFIED and looked ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE when I left the place. I was almost in tears. Chad and Mitchell were meeting me for dinner and the FIRST thing out of Mitchell's mouth was "What happened to your hair?!?!?" I REALLY about lost it then. After we got home, I washed and dried it and made it look halfway presentable. I do know that I'll never set foot in that place again!
So goes another week in Dubai. Next week business trip to Brussels, Belgium! Off to another adventure!
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