Muscat
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Can’t believe we’ve been in Muscat three weeks already. Life here is just wonderful and I feel like every day is a vacation (ok so it has been for me and the kids!!)
There is plenty to tell you about how we’re settling in and the differences we’ve encountered between life in NZ (and the UK) and Oman. I’ve decided to cover a different topic each post, so you’ll have to excuse me if I jump backwards and forward chronologically :-)
When we arrived at the bus stop in Muscat, Mark was there to greet us looking tanned, happy and relaxed. He was really starting to miss the hustle and bustle of having the family around (so he says :-) ), although he also told us that it was great to have been able to put some long hours into his new job and get up to speed with his projects whilst he was ‘batching’ it. We eagerly piled into the 4WD he had hired to cart us all around in and headed off to see our new home. Mark had not long been in the house and was only occupying a few of the rooms, and not only did the 5 of us rock up to ruin his peace that day, but the 15 cartons also arrived from London, it was complete bedlam with packing and suitcases everywhere. The children were thrilled to see that Mark had been shopping and kitted out the lounge with essentials like a 29inch television and satellite tv (something I was NEVER allowed to have in NZ I might add!)
The next day we went out for the ‘Mole Muscat’ tour. The city is just stunning, wedged between a mountain range and the coastline, in some places the mountains go right down into the sea. Mum and I were amused when Mark told us there had been an unusually large amount of rain recently and that the mountains were quite ‘green’?? I suppose if you squinted really hard into the sun they did take on a green tinge…:-)
View of Old Muscat
Tour master Mole
In a U2 video a sign flashes up saying ‘everything you know is wrong’ this described perfectly how I felt getting into a left hand drive car! My right hand was clumsy changing gear, going anti-clockwise around round-abouts seemed suicidal, and every time I got into the driver’s seat I reached over the wrong shoulder for my seatbelt. Even though the clutch, brake and accelerator are in exactly the same order as a right hand drive car, my poor confused brain wasn’t even sure about them anymore and when looking in the rear vision mirror I had no idea what I was checking for!
One day we pulled up at home and Mum, forgetting she was the passenger, changed gear and put on the handbrake by accident, in the meantime I had been fumbling on the wrong side of me trying to find them :-) I sincerely hope it will be easy enough to swap back to right hand drive when we visit NZ, better watch out for me…I’ll be one confused driver :-)
Three weeks on, I now have the hang of it, am accident free to date, and have learnt to keep an eye out for pedestrians who just step out onto the road and public taxis that lurch from lane to lane on the motorway. To be fair I don’t think the drivers here quite deserve their bad reputation, we experienced a lot worse last year in Vietnam and Cambodia.
After several days at home just relaxing and making good use of the pool we went out to see a few local sights. Our first visit was to the Grand Mosque, in fact we went there two days in a row, the first day Mum was advised not to go in, her skirt wasn’t long enough and her ankles were visible. We later relayed this story to Dad who asked that she wear her ‘mini skirt’ home on the plane :-)
The Grand Mosque was spectacular, certainly living up to its ‘grand’ name. We were all speechless at the vastness of the courtyards and the detail of the interior. Six years in the making I don’t think any expense was spared, it was interesting that no-one protested about photography inside the mosque, definitely a big no-no inside the cathedrals and abbeys in the UK.
School children at the Grand Mosque
Some typical tourists...
Another day we visited the markets in the old city, an interesting rabbit warren of alleyways, full of stalls all trying to sell shawls, silverware, and perfumes and other souvenirs. Petra was busy lapping up the attention again, as in Asia. She turned to me at Dubai airport when someone tickled her under the chin and said ‘Mum, I’m cute again’!!
White Kid for Sale
Our last excursion before Mum and Tyler left us was to take the 4WD out for what it was designed for. Oman is well known for off road exploring and it had been recommended to Mark to visit Wadi Al Abyad, a wadi (river bed) about 1.5 hours out of Muscat. Memories of the dune bashing we did in Dubai (and my whiplash) were close to hand, but Mark was very careful as he drove through and around the rocks so no injuries to report! We passed Omani families camped up at various sites along the wadi, a number of them even beckoned us to come and join them, but we found our own nice shady spot under some date palms. The children were immediately into the water whilst the adults got the picnic underway. Some goats stopped by to see what was on offer, obviously used to seeing campers, and judging by the shape of an old camp fire and goat hide nearby often on the menu themselves :-)
Cool clear wadi water
More posing with Mum
Explorer Bran
Fattening up lunch
That’s all for the moment folks! Still no home internet…can’t quite get to the bottom of the hold up, so I’m writing this up at home on the laptop, saving to memory stick and then taking to an internet café to post! What a hassle :-(
Kids start school Sunday, they can’t wait (and neither can I)
Please let us know if there’s anything specific you’d like to know about. Be good.
Ma salama
Hayls
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Luv Ron & Pat