Bec in Oman

Omani Mountains

Eid Al Adhar (big Eid) for those of you who don't know, is currently being celebrated. This is a very special and important religious occassion for Muslims. Briefly (and with my limited knowledge) it involves the sacrifice and eating of a sheep for each family. The meat is shared with the poor (charity) and it is a time when many people make the once-in-a-lifetime trip to Mecca.

It also means a week off from work, so we decided on a couple of day trips; the first being to Oman.

We can see the Oman border from the front of our complex and conveniently, there is a border crossing about 500m away. We invited Patti (a fellow teacher and friend) to come with us and she bravely agreed.

It was at 7ish when the six of us set off in an impossibly small car whose name I keep forgetting. I would never have dreamt of travelling like this in Oz and still can't work out why I am...I guess everything is just more...relaxed, shall we say. Let me create a picture of the backseat: Finlay, Tyler, Bronte and I are tightly packed across it. I think I will use a little poetic licensing and say that for the duration of the drive and the immigration offices to get a multitude of stamps, the children were impeccably behaved and it all went smoothly. Nah, I'll go with the truth - lucky you!

Border Crossing 1 - This was a two minute drive away and by copying what other cars seem to be doing, we work out that we have to park the car and head into one of two possible buildings, depending on whether you are arriving or departing. We head into what we hope is the right building and wait (sitting of course) as standing up in queue appears to be impolite. 20 minutes later, after which Tyler has befriended a few people, we head to the car, pile in again and drive towards the exit where we hand over a minisure piece of paper and are waved on our way. We then follow a road around the facility and find ourselves in Oman - hooray! Tony comments that it was much easier than the last border crossing he and the kids did at a different location...hmmm, we'll see about that later...)

We follow our noses in the direction that we hope will lead us to Sohar; an old coastal town about 60km away that used to be a major port in Oman. We soon locate signs and are happily on our way.

Sohar Fort

Scenery - the buildings tend to range from ruins through to the ornate, all mingled in together, in a range of beautiful arcitectural types. Soon however, we come to mountain ranges only made of rock. It is almost like being on the moon. No trees or shrubs. In parts of the coast though are palms and lots of gorgeous cobalt blue domed mosques, fields of goats, wild camels, souks etc.

Once we reach Sohar (and this is after another surprise border crossing about 15km from the first one) its initial approach consists of dramatic white mediterranian style buildings (favoured considerably by Tony) and we proceed quickly in the direction of Majees Jetty, which was famed (via travel guide) to be a deserted strip of beach suitable for swimming...I am sure you can guess which three little wild things were very keen for this part of the trip at this time...

The approach to the ocean was down narrow roads with amazing ramshackle buildings crowded close by at either side. These opened up to an expanse of gritty shell-filled sand, with old fishing boats and semi-permanent covered day dwellings; some used for storage and others social gatherings. We drove further up the road to find an area that wouldn't be directly on anyone's doorstep and came to a small stretch of suitable beach. It was pretty windy so we weren't really sure about swimming, but the kids were keen, so in they went. We never did find the promised deserted strip, so Patti, Tony and I made do without swimming as it just wouldn't have been appropriate for us to strip down and dive in. Finlay, Tyler and Bronte on the other hand, had a great time in the water leaping about, falling over and collecting shells etc.

After about an hour, we left and headed a few kms in the direction of the town of Sohar. The entrance was marked with a huge grand arch. We stopped for a little while and walked along the promenade, took in the sights of another beautiful Mosque, then with hunger calling, headed back to the car in search of lunch.

We went to the first restaurant we found, called something like the Yellow Palace - it didn't look too promising from the outside and we weren't even sure it was open. Luckily for us it was as we had the nicest meal (Tony's cooking aside of course) that we have eaten since we've been here. It ended up being an Indian restuarant and the curries were amazing. Mmmm...my tummy's rumbling just at the thought.

After lunch we piled back into the car and headed back home. We pretty much had to follow our nose and outstanding sense of direction, as there weren't any signs pointing to our destination. Just when we were beginning to think we'de missed out turn and were heading too far up the speedy freeway, we found it and took the road back to Al Ain. We went to the Oman crossing and then to a different UAE border crossing first of all, but turned around (in retrospect - WHAT WERE WE THINKING!?!) to head to the one in Hili where we live.

On the way we stopped at a Souk, which is a market. This one sold cushions, carpets, industrial-sized pots, housegoods etc. We didn't buy anything this time, but Bronte charmed her way into: one lollipop, one bottle of sherbet, a pink sparkly headband and a colourful drink bottle - we are not quite sure how she does it and we think the boys are a little puzzled too. She did happily pose for photos and practice her Arabic, so that may have had something to do with it...

There was a cattle souk attached and Tony accidently started haggling over the price of a brown cow - given that he's not taken on the idea of a fish, bird, kitten or puppy, I was a little surprised!

Having left (somewhat later) without a cow, we headed off to the last part of our journey to the Hili Border Crossing. We had no idea whether we had to get out and wander into the building again, but parked to make sure. A security guy pointed to a building with a swarm of people trying to get in the door. Our hearts collectively sank as it was 5:30pm and pretty close to the 'wild things' dinner time. This border crossing was extra....erm....special and really deserves a blog on of its own. You will be relieved to hear however, that I shall summarise and say that two hours later after visiting three different locations and dealing with various different personnel, we left with all the necessary stamps on our passports and papers. The kids I am pleased to say, didn't fall apart, but played games like ring-a-ring-a-roses and rock, paper, scissors, much to the entertainment (I'm hoping) of bored onlookers. Bronte surprised everyone by loudly mimicking the words of one of our custom officials when he called (in Arabic) 'Entry Stamp!', so much that he came back into the room, ruffled her hair and had all the Arabic-speaking people murmuring appreciatively. I asked a lovely Omarni lady, whom we has befriended in our wait for the translation and she told us and said that it was a perfect immitation. We will try and visit her next time we are in Oman at her bakery.

Our day in Oman was fun. We only got to see a snapshot of course, but will definately head back (via a quieter border crossing!) for longer. We hope Patti enjoyed her day too - when questioned on her favourite part, she replied 'All of it.' Bronte liked collecting pink shells, Tyler liked chatting to the nice lady about his new toy laptop at the first border crossing, Finlay liked collecting shells, Tony liked the approach to Sohar (not the rain which I can't believe I forgot to mention that fell on the way back) as I expected he would say, based on the amount of excitement it produced on his part - yes this was our first bit of rain since leaving Oz. And I really liked the cobalt blue and gold trimmed Mosques, with small dwellings dispersed in between and the sight of women casually sitting out the front of these in beautifully bright coloured clothing - a lovely sight.

Stay tuned for a MUCH shorter blog about our trip to Dubai.