Epilogue

Almost 3 weeks after leaving Chicago in front of an impending snow storm, and I sit sipping espresso in Zurich, watching the sun rise over the Swiss countryside, my final flight back home only 5 hours away. Arriving here on Swiss airlines, the attendants spoke both English and Swiss/German, alternating passenger by passenger. Most of the time when they saw me, they spoke Swiss. I found this rather warming. I am 25% Swiss. While I have more Irish in me than swiss, My grandmother who helped my mother raise me is 100% Swiss. I never thought of having much Swiss culture in my upbringing, as she as well was born in the US. However, walking through the airport, there was something very familiar to the souvenirs that they have here. Being greeted in Swiss instead of English, furthered a strange ,foreign feeling of "home." I am still dissapointed about not getting out and seeing this country as I'm sure it is quite beautiful as well. Unforutnatley the logistics were just too difficult.

I never set up a counter on my blog, so I have no idea if many are reading it, or the few that have commented and emailed me about it. Even with those, I don't know if anyone reads it or just looks at the pictures. Regardless, it has certainly helped me personally. First I have found that my memory works strangely. I can't seem to remember things, unless I have a catalyst to bring on the memory. Ask me what I did yesterday, and I usually stare blankly. Provide one reference point, and I can talk for hours. This has provided me a way to help solidify my memories. Also, I have found that it is very easy to get lonely when you are away from the people that you know and love for so long, and don't have anyone to converse with regularly. I find myself craving conversations with people on the streets, and at times was close to just picking a person to talk to. I'm reminding myself of strange old men on park benches. Its strange how the human being requires communication.

As I sat and read over my blog, it brought back a lot of the emotions that I experienced each day on this trip. I've heard people say that travelling and seeing provides much better education than any text book. I guarantee you this is true. I feel I've learned more over the past 3 weeks than I did through 15 years of education. I've been able to reach out and break bread with people in culture's and lands that were just a strange shape and name on a map. I've seen the uniformity of the human race, its needs, desires, and interests, but also seen the wide and varying conditions under which we live. A starker contrast could hardly have occurred, from the indian child pointing at her grumbling stomach asking for food for her and her brother, to the arabian housewife shopping the elite stores in Dubai, and several countries at various points between.

In each of these areas, I was amazed at how closely tied we all are. American politics being an odd common thread. And I must say an unfortunate item to be used to be a representation of our country, as our politicians and political process (while I do believe its probably the best in the world) is so ripe with inefficiencies, and silliness. I was a little embarassed that I knew very little about the governments of most of the places I visited, in fact could only name the leader of Oman-none of the other ones. They however are all watching the elections as close, if not closer than the average american. In some cases, as the Iranian I met in the Dubai spice souq, because it may directly effect his home land.

Being as large and as wealthy of a country as we are, I guess it makes sense that more people know us, than we know of them. But it does seem we as a society should be more in tune with what's going on around us. 9/11 showed us that conditions and events in lands that we may never have heard of on the other side of the globe can iimpact us in our very homes and offices.

Communication, whether the internet, or the media has certainly put even the most remote place very accessible. There was something very surreal when Rashid in Al-Hazm, sitting on the desert floor in Oman pulled out his cell phone, and within a few seconds, was calling my American phone. Likewise, when I found that I traversed a market in Delhi, and then found that a random friend on myspace had parents that were artists, and used to often have a stall there. The internet has made the world so accessible its amazing.

The world is a big, beautiful place. I think the world population is up to 5 or 6 billion people. Many of them very wonderful people, each one with years and years of life experience and knowledge to share. I only ran across a handful of them, but this has certainly been life-changing.

I am so gracious for the opportunity to do this. More than anything for Natalie, who forcefully encouraged me to take as much time as possible for this once in a lifetime opportunity. I cannot thank her enough, and truly wish I had her by my side the whole time to experience it as well.

If there is anyone else that has made it through all my memoirs that I have left here on this message board, I thank you for taking the time to share them and read them, and I hoped it provided some benefit to you as well.

But for now, this is Ryan, signing off of my trip. See you back home.

-Ryan

February 16, 2008 2:25am (CST)

A Friday in Dubai

The middle east follows a different weekly schedule than the western world. The work week is generally Saturday through Wednesday, and the weekend is Thursday and Friday. Thursday is actually somewhat of a mix, as some businesses are open to better match the timing of their western partners. Nonetheless, Friday is the holy day in the middle east. In the morning, almost everything is closed until 1:00pm, which is after everyone has gone to the mosque.

While laws are still very Islamic based, prohibiting anything anti-Islam from entering the country, and harsh laws against converting a muslim to another religion, it has become tolerant of other religions and does allow them to practice. Oman is similar in this regard. I imagine Dubai in particular liberalized itself due to its reliance on a huge expat labor force from non-muslim countries.

I thought it would be great to attend a Christian worship service in a non-Christian country on my trip, and in Dubai everything fell into place to do so. I found a 3 different Christian churches-two nondenominational and one Catholic. (No Lutheran churches though….) I attended a service at Holy Trinity in Deira, only a 10 minute drive from my hotel. It was a sizeable church, that seems to have all sorts of things going on. There were probably 400-500 people in the courtyard, but only 200-300 in the service I went into. The style was similar the traditional Lutheran services I grew up in. Liturgical, and organ driven. Attendees were a mix of various ethnicities. I saw Indians, Africans, Anglos, Phillipinos and various other races. It was however, heavier on the Indian side, perhaps 50-60%.

The one thing that truly amazed me, was the volume of the singing. Now perhaps this is due to my Lutheran background, but I’m used to hymns being “sung” where just about all you hear is organ, and the occasional group “ssss” when an s is sung. Not here. Loud. Very loud. It seemed like the congregation was singing with all of their lung power. And its not that the hymns were exceptionally peppy hymns, they weren’t. On top of that, whether it was simply the very poor acoustics, or a poor organist, it seemed liked the music and lyrics weren’t always in sync, but yet the congregation kept the song together on their own. It was a very nice experience worshipping with people of the same faith but living in a vastly different world and environment, especially as it comes to how their religion is viewed once they walk out the church doors.

I believe there was a reception somewhere after the service that I really would have liked to attend, but I needed to rush back to my hotel and check out before noon. I requested an extension, but they said they were very busy today and needed the room quickly.

I didn’t take any pictures of the church, as I felt a little awkward doing that, so if your interested in anything more about it their website is http://www.holytrinitychurchdubai.org/.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the rest of my day. I had my free ticket to ride the dhow, which would take up an hour. I figured I’d get something to eat, and perhaps wander the gold souk, and then head over to the wharf.

I wandered the area by my hotel, walking past a restaurant that I walked past once before. The front windows are open, and their grill is right by the window, and it always smelled very good. It was a very local looking restaurant, didn’t at all seem to be trying to attract tourists, (not to mention the section of Deira where my hotel is really didn’t have much of anything for tourists besides the hotel. The street had two types of store fronts: cell phone dealers, and very dingy internet cafes. About 65% cell phones, and 35% internet. And at least 100 total shops between the two types.) The restaurant was Iranian: Layaly Tehran Restaurant. I’ve never had Iranian food, but it smelled darn good, so I went in, and asked if they had English menus. The guy said no problem, and asked me to take a seat. I sat down, and he came over and recited what they had to offer. I chose a chicken curry plate, with white rice.

My Lunch Stop

The meal was introduced with a salad just like the Omani one I had in Nizwa. Some sort of stiff, somewhat bitter lettuce (maybe even more of a cabbage…) carrots, and halves of small limes to use as dressing. The chicken and rice was very good. My only complaint (and this is my issue-not the restaurant) is the chunks of chicken were cooked on the bone, so I had to work around those. I’m sure this complaint is no surprise to those who have eaten with me on a few occasions.

Next I went to the Gold Souk, where supposedly you can get the best prices on gold anywhere. I was honestly shopped out, but thought I had to at least look. Apparently it is also a good place to get knock-off purses, watches, bags, and sunglasses. About every 5 feet, someone would approach and whisper, “Rolex watches, coach purses, designer sunglasses.

Gold Souq

I ignored 10 of them or so, but then I heard one hawker say sunglasses. Now I had just misplaced my new sunglasses (near as I can figure I dropped then in a taxi yesterday night-(perhaps related to the multitude of Valentine’s-Day-By-Yourself shots at Long’s Bar), so my ear’s perked up, and he quickly said follow me. Suddenly, I was out of the crowded souq, and being ushered down an empty alley for a couple blocks. Then it was into an open doorway that led to a dark staircase. My guide apologized for the lights not working. Then we climbed a stair case a couple floors. Then we went down a hallway and rang a doorbell. Someone answered the door. The next thing I remember is a door opening, and behind it were thousands of watches, purses, sunglasses, diesel bags, covering every square inch of every wall, a small couch to sit on, a small desk, and a video monitor showing a picture of the hallway outside. I liked very little of what I saw, except for one pair of sunglasses….that maybe I own now….

Window full of Gold

After the gold souq, I meandered through the spice souq. This was useless to me as I don't cook. One merchant with a traditional long muslim beard tried to pull me into his stall, but I told him as such. We got to talking, and he asked if I was german. I told him I was American, and his face lit up, and he exclaimed how happy he was to meet me. As we talked more, he mentioned that he is from Iran. He told me I should go see his country, I said I'd like to, but I didn't think it was safe for me. He agreed. He said he really looked forward to the day when the US and Iran could be friends again. I agreed.

Spice Souq

After this, I continued on a long walk to the dhow wharf. It was about 4:30, and the next boat was at 5:30. I got their at 5, and they ushered me on and embarked right away (still confused on the timing). Very nice, one hour audio guided tour of Dubai creek. And a little more info on the buildings and boats there. Pleasant surprise, once they left the dock, they began serving beer! Score.

Dhows on Dubai Creek

After this trip, I only had a few hours until I thought I should pick up my bags from the hotel and head to the airport, as I knew it would be mobbed.

There was a creekside café that served a wide selection of tropical (although nonalcoholic of course) drinks. They also had a wide array of sheesha selections. I had yet to try this, but they are all over the place, and my guide book says it is part of the Dubai experience, so what the heck. For those no in the “know” a sheesha is essentially what I grew up knowing in slang as a “bong” (only secondhand of course). They put all sorts of flavored tobacco in it, and you sit there and puff on it for quite a while. The pipes that they bring, look just like the one Sammy Davis Jr. had I the Alice and Wonderland live action movie 20 years ago or so.

I chose Strawberry. Definitely interesting. This is actually the first time I’ve every smoked anything meant to be inhaled (I’ve always smoked cigars though…) So it felt rather naughty.

I think this was the first time in the last 3 weeks that I just sat and did nothing. I watched the boats pass on the creek. I watched the people pass on the sidewalk, and I enjoyed my sheesha. At about 8:00, I decided I better pick up my bags and head to the airport.

Dubai: Build it Bigger

My plan for Dubai, was much less organized than what I had for Oman. The only items I had on my list were to go on a site seeing bus, and to attend a Christian church on Friday. Friday is the holy day in the middle east (Thursday-Friday is generally considered the weekend) and there are a handful of Christian churches.

Anyway, so for today the first thing I did, was get my bus Ticket. There is a British organization called the Big Bus Company. They have 3 such services, one in London, one in Philadelphia, and one in Dubai. Roughly $45, and you get a 24 hour, all day, hop- on-hop-off pass. If you stay on, the entire route is about 4 hours, and is narrated in English. It takes you through all the different parts of Dubai: Bur Dubai, Deira, and Jumeira, and runs every 20-30 minutes. So you can get off at a site you like, walk around, and jump on the next one only a few minutes later, picking up where you left off.

Dubai Big Bus

The closest bus stop to me was about a mile or so away, so I began walking. My hotel is in Deira, which is the east half of Dubai. Deira is separated from the rest of Dubai by the Dubai Creek, which connects to the Persian gulf. This area has some souks and generally has a bit more of a middle eastern urban feel to it. A lot of small store fronts lining the streets.

The first thing I noticed in walking around, is you don’t have the same clear sets of different ethnic groups as you did Oman. In Oman, you had the locals, who all wore the same thing. In Muscat and Muttrah they made up about 60% of the people you saw. Elswhere, they were about 95% of the people you saw. Then you had the expat lower level workers, who also for the most part seemed to wear similar clothes (to each other, not to the Omanis). They all wore single colored jump suits. Then you had the European tourists, that dressed, well, like European tourists. Here, there are dozens of different nationalities, and just as many different languages being spoken. My Arabic isn’t coming in near as handy, as with many of the people I’ve had to talk to for on reason or another, few of them clearly spoke Arabic.

Once I got to the bus stop, I purchased my ticket, and jumped on. They took us along the creek and showed us the loading docs for all the dhows (wooden boats) that do all of the local shipping.

Dhows Along Dubai Creek

(For trips just in and around the persian gulf.) Lining the streets were palettes and crates and piles of goods. Refrigerators, flat screen TVs, spices, etc. These will sit here stockpiled, sometimes for weeks waiting for their trip to their next destination. However, there is virtually no security to prevent it from being stolen, besides the strict laws of the country, and the culture here that prevents it. Amazing. Try that along the Chicago river and see how long all these types of goods would last.

Cargo along Dubai Creek

As we got further along the Dubai Creek, we entered into one of Dubai’s many commercial districts. Tall glass covered sky skyscrapers lined the shores, including the Marriot, which has the worlds longest unsupported walkway between two buildings.

Marriott Hotel and Walkway

Bank of Dubai Building

We crossed the creek leaving Deira for Bur Dubai (which means old Dubai) in the distance, we could see the primary commercial district on the horizon: Sheik Zayed Road. The sky line in this direction (really all directions) is ever changing. However, for the last few years this section has been growing straight up. What is already becoming Dubai’s number one recognized landmark (working quickly to beat out the Burj Al Arab, or the World) is what will be the world’s largest structure, and the world’s largest building. Burj Dubai. (Burj means tower).

Sillhouette of Sheik Zayed Road

This building is currently approaching 160 floors. It has not been released exactly how tall the plans are to make it (to prevent competition from exceeding) and it is being built so that additional floors could be added at a later date in case a competing building dares grow taller. As a comparison, the Sears Tower has 112 floors (give or take a couple). So quite a bit bigger! Intrestingly though, it was designed by Chicago's Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. The same company that built the Sears Tower.

We then approached a stop where I figured I’d find lunch and walk around a bit: Wafi Place. At first glance its your typical shopping mall, until you start to pay attention to the stores. Mont Blanc, Tiffany, Verace, Chanel, Calvin Klein, Bugatti, Pierre Cardin…. 100s of stores, and just about all were at this caliber. I’ve never seen so many stores that I would never step foot in, packed in one single location. No souvenirs to be purchased here.

Wafi Place

While on my way I happened past two Starbucks, and picked up some needed caffeine. I found a separate area that had a bunch of restaurants, however, between the elaborate building, and the obvious caliber of clientele, I was pretty worried what the price would be, so I returned to a small café in the mall, and ate there. I will say they had the best burger I’ve had in some time (even going back to BEFORE India.) They also had some pretty yummy fruit smoothies. What this country doesn’t do with alcohol, they have done a pretty good job of making up for in fruit drinks (although sneaking a little rum in them would make them absolutely fabulous.

After a short amount of time, I jumped back on the bus. From this spot, the bus took us along Jumeirah beach. We rode past the new “World” development. This is where you can purchase your own man-made island for anywhere between $15 million- $60 million. Don’t forget to include the cost of the required helicopter or boat, because there are no roads out to the islands.

We continued onward until we reached the Burj Al Arab. This is the world’s tallest hotel, and the only existing 7 star hotel located on a man made island. It has two helipads on the top. This hotel is a recommended stop even if your not staying there (rooms are $2000/night +), just to see the lobby, and you can have a drink at the bar. Unfortunately, they told us on the bus that you need a reservation 2 days before hand, or they won’t even let you in. Hmmm…cross that off my list…

Burj al Arab (picture is deceiving, it is quite far in the distance)

Next stop, Mall of the Emirates. I believe this is now the world’s largest shopping mall. Connected to it is an indoor ski slope, in case you get the urge to go snow skiing while walking around the desert.

Indoor Ski Slope at Mall of the Emirates

We continued onward, and headed for Sheikh Zayed Road. This is a 16 lane expressway that runs the length of Dubai, and continues to Abu Dhabi. (although I’m pretty sure it is not that wide the whole way.) Driving down this road, on the right you could see a growing figure looming in the distance as we approached the main commercial stretch. Burj Dubai.

Burj Dubai

If you haven’t noticed, there is definitely a theme throughout Dubai. Be the biggest, be the best. Money and materialism seem to be running amuck in this place. The tremendous buildings are amazing, but even more surprising is how many are currently under construction. There have to be at least as many sky scrapers under construction as are fully built.

Several New Highrises Under Construction (Sheik Zayed Road)

Unlike Oman, this city has grown up since the invention of cars, and is very much a planned city. And the plan for the city is to make it huge. While they have planned the roads to handle lots of traffic, there is still quite a bit of congestion. They are currently in development of a rail system to cover the metro area, which may help.

Heading down Sheik Zayed Road is an interesting drive, as once you get into the heart of it, all of the skyscrapers, are set in a perfectly straight line on either side of the road. The façade of each building perfectly even with all the ones next to it. You end up in this long corridor of 16 lane highway, with these monstrous buildings towering over you on either side.

My bus trip ended at the City Center mall. This was more geared towards the average shopper, and was completely mobbed. Most of the locals here, appeared to be dressed in western style clothing. After only a few minutes, I decided to look for an exit and get a taxi back to the hotel. While looking, I saw a line that said taxi queue.

Beginning of Taxi Line

Behind it was a line that streteched as far as the eye could see. It would be quite awhile before I got my taxi. I walked and walked and walked until I got to the end of the line, and got in it. An hour later, I got to the sign I first saw, and the line heads out the door. Well, not quite. There is another section of line that went down the length of a long hallway and back. After another hour of waiting, I finally got my taxi. All in all, the wait was well over 2 hours.

Second Half of Taxi Line

While in line, I had a lot of time to figure out what I wanted to do for dinner. My guidebook strongly recommended a Moroccan restaurant, called Marrakech on Sheik Zayed Road, with live Moroccan music. This sounded fabulous. Due to the location, I was a little worried about my clothes (I was in jeans) but figured I could find a back up if need be. I had the driver drop me off at the Shangri-La hotel, where the restaurant was located, and found my way in. When I got to the podium at the door, the women said they had nothing available. Ughh. All night I asked? She said maybe at 11:30. (It was currently 8:00. She said it was possible something maybe would open up. I asked about the prices and if I was dressed appropriately, and she offered the menu. On top “Valentine’s Day Menu.” Whoops, that’s right. Today’s Valentine’s Day, and I’m trying to get into a very nice restaurant. Not gonna happen. On top of that, the fact that today’s menu only had dinner for two listed, I gave up, and decided to move onward. Now depressed that I’m spending Valentine’s Day alone. At this point, I needed someone to hold my hand, and I thought a good beer would do fine. My guide book also mentioned a bar in the same area called Long’s Bar, so I looked for that. This ended up being much harder than I thought, and I spent quite a bit of time walking up and down the street looking for it. I eventually gave up and decided to pick something else, but then immediately found it. I went in had a beer, a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich, and took advantage of the 2 for 1 Valentine’s Day shots, (the names of which I won’t repeat here)

I then headed back to my hotel and spent a couple hours talking to my Valentine over instant messenger.

I am truly amazed at the amount of development here. We saw an entire skyscraper office park with 20 buildings under construction, each that I think were going to be 60-80 stories high. I can’t imagine that there is that much demand here for commercial and residential space to warrant everything going up. It seems like instead of finding the equilibrium between supply and demand here, they just continue to supply, but yet it continues to create more demand.

On a personal note, I just got an IM from Natalie, that Kalyssa broke her toe yesterday bowling. She dropped the ball on it. She is back home and everything is fine though.

Final Day of Exploring Oman

Tuesday night when I checked into my hotel, I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the lobby and the room looked, as this hotel was less expensive than the one in Ruwi/Muscat. The Ruwi Hotel wasn’t bad, although the carpet could have used some shampooing.

I sat and typed out the text for my blog and went over my plans for the next day, and about 1:00am turned in. I peeled back the cover to do my final check to make sure the bed sheets looked clean. I quickly found a body hair, which led to another, and another, and another. Gross. I decided to pull back the comforter and lay on top of the sheets, but there was a big ball of long hair. Grosser! So I threw back on all my clothes, and slept on top of all the blankets.

Elevator Lobby at Hotel Safari-seemed nice enough

The next morning, I went in the bathroom to get ready, when I turned on the water, only a trickle came out and that quickly diminished to nothing. The water was turned off! I had used it the night before with no problem, but now there was none. Great. I guess I’m not showering today, good thing I was planning on trekking through abandoned villages.

After some time in the local internet café (since my hotel also did not have high speed internet), I hit the Nizwa souk to pick up the obligatory silver Omani Khanjar. Nizwa souk was much smaller than Muttrah, but organized by what you are purchasing. Most of the souk is actually set aside for food. There was a Meat Souk, Fish Souk, Fruits and Vegetables Souk, Goat Market, and Date (the fruit, not the relationship, although that would be neat) Souk. I think these are busier on the weekends, as they were pretty quite today. (The goat souk was empty when I went by.)

Nizwa Souk

The first archeological site I planned to see was the Nizwa fort, which is right in the middle of the city. This fort was very deceptive from the outside. Nestled in the middle of the city with many modern buildings around, it and the souk wrapped right around the bottom of it, its difficult to

Living Room in Nizwa Fort

truly sense the size. Once inside however, upon exploring the various rooms it seemed to go on forever. Each meeting room, lounge, bedroom was much larger than any I had seen in the other forts. I estimated there were 30 rooms in the fort, but on my way out I checked the map and there were actually more than 60! Trekking up and down the stairs from area to area was exhausting, especially the long climb to the top of the main fortress tower.

Tower of Nizwa Fort

Signs on the walls highlighted many of the ingenious defense aspects of the tower, including trapdoors in the stairwell that would be opened in case the enemy breached the tower, that would send them plummeting to their death. Carefully placed “death holes” in the floors of the upper levels, just over doorways in the lower levels, where boiling date honey would be poured on attackers if they made it that far. Many and various interesting ways to kill your attacking enemy!

Hallway in Nizwa Fort

Another amazing aspect about Nizwa fort was the multitude of enormous grasshoppers all over the place. These things were 3-4 inches long. Later while driving, one hit my windshield. It was like hitting a small bird.

Nizwa, from on top of the fort

From this fort, I set out to see another fort. The Bahla fort. This is the oldest fort in Oman, and is registered with UNESCO as a world heritage site. My guide book said that in 2006 it was undergoing massive restoration and was closed. That is still the case today. It looks like they have made quite a bit of progress, but still have quite a ways to go on this massive structure. There were workers working on it as I wandered around it. According to my guidebook, this fort was built around 1000 B.C. (I have seen conflicting reports thought that dated it at 1000 years younger though. Nonetheless this thing is old! All I could do is walk around it, and explore some of the ruined homes near by.

Bahla Fort-Oldest Fort in Oman

I do have to mention, while I don’t know anything about fort restoration, and perhaps there isn’t any better option, but I don’t necessarily like they way Oman has restored these. In order to protect and strengthen them, it appears they have encased all the walls in concrete. This gives all the walls a flat concrete look. In the few spots where they have exposed the original walls, they looked like bricks/stones, as you would expect. But on the whole, the forts look like they are only 50 years old, because of the style of the restoration.

Following this I headed out to Wadi Ghul. This is at the foot of a Wadi that has an old ruined Cliffside village, and a new modern village across the wadi. To get to the village required a long drive into a gorge in the jebels. I then needed to turn off the main road onto a gravel road that took me to the bottom of the wadi. And drove on the washed out stones until I got to the point that I was worried about getting stuck. Now I was about 50 feet below the Cliffside villiage and had to find my way up. At the bottom was a lush garden with lots of trees for shade,

Garden in Wadi Ghul

and a running falaj to keep everything moist. The way up to the villiage was actually pretty simple, but my book made it confusing. So I ended up climbing up a steep rock embankment to end on a plateau partly up the cliff, with no where else to go. I found my way back down, and ran into some of the village children selling embroidered key chains. I bought two, on the condition they tell me how to get up to the old village, which they did.

Old Villiage of Ghul

The village itself was quite remarkable. Walls were large pieces of stone, (instead of the mud brick in so many of the other areas. The stone was interesting. It was red and black. And I stepped on a piece, and it shifted, and rang for 5 seconds. I thought there was a piece of metal under it. (The sound was like dropping a crow bar.) I picked it up and looked, but it was the rock that rang out. (Does that make this Iron ore or something like it?) There was a long main street that meandered in between the various houses, and I even found some two story houses. All with quite the view of the wadi far below.

Inside a Home in old Ghul

My last ruin for the day was the village of Tanuf. This one had an interesting story along with it. Forty years ago, Sultan Taimur (the current Sultan’s father, but not nearly as good natured---the current Sultan, Qaboos ousted his father in a pieceful coup, along with some western

Ruined Building in Tanuf (sorry for the camera strap)

assistance, which sparked the beginning of dramatic progress in Oman after centuries of war and oppression.) had some sort of an uprising against him started by someone from the village, so he ordered the city be bombed, which it was quite extensively. Interestingly, while I was there, a bulldozer was clearing a strip right through the middle of the old village apparently for a street to be laid.

Ruins at Tanuf

After another exhausting day, I had to head the almost 200 kilometers back to the Muscat-Seeb airport, and get ready for my flight to Dubai. On the way there though I stopped at a local hypermarket (Think of a cross between a Super Target and a miniature Westfield shopping center.) to do some more souvenir shopping.

My flight was at 12:30 am, which got me into the Dubai airport about 1:45. It was an absolute madhouse!!! Thousands of people everywhere. Eventually I made it out. My hotel was not far, but unfortunately my cab driver hadn’t heard of it and didn’t know exactly where it was, so he had to ask for directions a couple times, and call the hotel to find it.

Decent place. Nice clean sheets which is a definite plus! They even smelled clean. This was the hotel I was worried about as I booked in a pinch, (my first choice was damaged in the extensive flooding that occurred here 1 month ago) and it had mixed reviews. Seems to be catering to Russian tourists for some reason, but it is nice.

Its now Thursday morning in Dubai, and I’m exhausted after only a 4 and a half hours sleep, but am heading out to see the town.

A Culture of Caring

I think this is my longest post to date. So either your in for a treat, or you’ll just pass over this evening’s brain dump and scan the pictures. Either way though I think you’ll be amazed by the beauty of this country.

Today’s planned adventure was through the area of Oman called Al Batinah. This is the northern coastal region that stretches from Muscat to the United Arab Emirates. Before going to bed, I reviewed my itinerary that I had developed for myself and realized I had myself driving close to 1000 kilometers. (not sure exactly what that converts to in miles, but it’s a lot). There was a lot I really wanted to see, but I suddenly realized, this was not feasible. So I struck Sohar from the list, which was the furthest place on my itinerary.

This focused my trip generally on a circular area known as the Rustaq loop. Generally very rural, with several small villages along the way. On my way to the loop, I stoped at the Bait Na’man.

Bait Na'man

Even though my tour book had a map I still had a difficult time finding it. (I think because the book had an error on the map.) Once I got to the general area, and found what looked like it was probably it, and asked some elderly Omanis sitting outside, and they confirmed. Crawling through a 4 foot by 3 foot door inset into the main gate, I entered the courtyard. Two Omanis in their 30s were sitting outside the door to the main building, and I asked them (in Arabic) if they spoke English, which they did. I asked if I had to pay, to which they answered no. I entered and happened upon a group of 6 Europeans of some sort (I think either French or Italian-only a couple of them spoke English) that had just begun a tour of the building with an English speaking Omani guide.

My Guide in Bait Na'man

Side Note: I have found that almost everyone I’ve run into here speaks decent to excellent English. I think there’s only one Omani that I met that didn’t speak English. Many of the Pakistani and Indian expatriates working here however don’t seem to speak English. It is interesting that on this country, where as in the US, it is Hispanic immigrants that fill many of the service jobs, such as hotel cleaning crew, landscaping, etc, in Oman, there is a similar phenomenon with the Indian and Pakistanis. (Haven’t seen anyone Hispanic yet…although oddly enough Ruwi Hotel was having a Tex Mex night in the restaurant. I was really curious as to how Omani interpretation of border area Mexican food would taste.

The museum was an old summer home of an Imam. (A leader in Oman prior to it becoming a Sultanate.) The house also served as a fortress, due to its resident’s high stature. Our guide took us through several rooms, all which were fully furnished with the type of items that would have originally been in it. A library with books, the entry way showcased some weapons, lounging rooms had the mat carpets and pillows for sitting, and the bedroom had a small bed. (Big enough for a man to sleep in though. Our guide demonstrated. It allowed for about half an inch of space above his head and below his feet.) It also housed a women’s prison, which was about 75 feet, with a little bit of light and a normal door. Then there was the mens prison, which was hole in a floor that dropped down about 15-20 feet to a pit in one of the towers. The guide explained that when the building was built (late 1600s) that laws were very tough on women, and men often jailed them for small infractions. (Today in Oman society there is basically gender equality, although I think that may stop when you enter a mosque)

Ladies Meeting Room in Bait Na'man

My next stop was Al-Hazm fort which was on the Rustaq loop. Again I had a bit of trouble with this and had to ask a group of Omani’s on the street. I put my Arabic vocabulary to good use here by saying “Where is Al-Hazm Fort” as “Wayn al-Hazm fort?” Yep, couldn’t have gotten by with out that one…. I got to the fort, and walked up to the gate to notice a sign on the door saying it was closed for rehabilitation.

Al Hazm Fort

Side Note: It seems that many of the attractions here frequently close for rehab work. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of communication or warning about it (that I know of) and many of these attractions only get a dozen or two visitors a day on week days (although much more on weekends).

I poked my head in to confirm with an Omani man inside the complex gate. He said yes it was closed, but I could look at the entry way if I wished. I went in and looked at it, and turned to leave. Internally I was quite disappointed as I really wanted to see this attraction. As I walked towards the gate, the Omani called to me and said “Will you have some coffee?” I have read that this is an offer that you cannot refuse, without causing offense. So I obliged. He invited me over to mat under a tree, where he and another Omani (this one a few years younger than me, but didn’t speak English-so I didn’t have much to say to him beyond “Hello-do you speak English.” Had I spilled on him I knew how to apologize, but I decided it wasn’t worth that just to further the conversation) were sharing coffee and fresh(?) dates. (They were dripping with date honey, but I’ve never had fresh dates, so I don’t know how/if they are prepared.) He opened up a Tupperware type container and shooed away a flock of a couple dozen flies, and picked up a date and put it in my hand. So I ate it. Then he gave me another, then 3 more at once. Faster than I could stuff them in my mouth he was stacking them up in my hand. At one point I went to put some in my left hand and remembered that is also a no-no. I sat for about 45 minutes talking with this gentleman named Rashid. We discussed Oman, politics, terrorism, Islam, plus a smattering of other topics. I noticed with him, as well as Thamir from the plan ride, that they take a lot of pride in their country. I told Rashid that I found it to be stunningly beautiful, and he thanked me with such graciousness you would think I paid him a personal compliment. Rashid spent some time, (as Thamir did) railing against the terrorist that have twisted Islam into something it should not be, and denounced them for the thousands of innocent lives of all races that they kill mercilessly. You could see the disgust and anger in his face.

Eating Dates and Drinking Arabian Coffee (Rashid not show-He is taking the picture)

He asked me what most American’s think of Oman. I told him that honestly, many Americans unfortunately don’t even know where it is, and when they do, think it is a dangerous place because it is in the middle east. He then directed me to tell them what a peaceful place it is. “All Omanis is peaceful. Everywhere, everytown, every place. We are peaceful people. No Americans should ever be afraid to come to my country. They are very welcome here. America is good friend of Oman.” Before I left, he made me give him my cell phone number, and he provided me his, and traded phone calls to ensure that we had them. He said to tell my friends to come to Oman, and if they need anything call him, as he will help. Even if its not right away, even if it’s a few weeks. After pigging out on 20 dates or so, he poured me some authentic Arabic coffee (served in a coffee cup a little less than an ounce in size. A little different tasting than normal coffee, and served black. I believe it is made with cardamom as well, although I read that….I have no idea what cardamom is, but I’m guessing most of my readers do.) I graciously thanked him for the hospitality and conversation, but told him I had many more sites I hoped to visit today. I left the courtyard of Al-Hazm fort much more fulfilled than I had expected to.

After this point, I noticed the culture of friendliness that seemed to exude from all the residents here. On streets, as I passed by, they would smile and wave as I drove by. If I was walking, they would tap the horn and smile and wave as they drove by. And people on the street would go out of their way to make small talk, young and old alike. Something I’ve seen and experienced only on occasion in the US…not continuously as here.

My next stop was Rustaq fort. This is one of the oldest in Oman. It was estimated to have been built about 400 years before Islam came to Oman, which would place its age at roungly 1800 years old. This fort is huge. Coincidentally, while this fort is about 100 kilometers (sorry everyone, that’s the local unit of measure, and since nothing is stated in miles, I’m not trying to figure out the conversion for your benefit) from Bait Na’man, and it was now 2-3 hours later, I happened to walk in with the same group that I was with at Na’man.

Rustaq Fort

We had a guide for this museum as well, however, he seemed to be in a hurry and kept disappearing, so we ended up doing more wandering on our own. Interesting comparison of a site such as this in a land untouched by tort litigation. Every section of the fort was open: A wooden ladder up to one of the highest towers, our guide said go ahead and climb it.

Corridor in Rustaq Fort

One of the other group challenged him thinking he was kidding, but he insisted we could. He then chickened out, so I tried it, and climbed the 18 feet or so up to the tower (although there was nothing exciting up there---the walls were high enough you could only see out of the small windows.) Some areas had staircases with no railings that went up 15 feet to the lookout which was a catwalk between 8 and 3 feet wide, that you could walk around to your liking. I took 4 steps on to the narrow part, and then my acrophobia kicked in and I grabbed the wall and shuffled back. Amazing piece of history this fort was.

View from the Top of Rustaq Fort

Next I took a quick trip to the Nakhal springs. Located behind the village of Nakhal, you have to navigate through some of the village streets to get there. Village streets are very interesting here. Almost every house has a wall or gate around it that is 5-6 feet high. So the streets are winding corridors in and around all the houses. Some are wide enough for 2 cars to barely squeeze by, some you have to crawl through and watch both your mirrors to make sure they don’t scrape. I have ended up down some that went on for a couple miles, where I wasn’t sure if I’d ever find my way out.

Nakhal Springs

Side Note: I recently watched a video about one of the US military units that was sabotaged in Iraq. I suddenly understood the immense fear and unease of having to navigate the streets of Iraq, which are very similarly setup. Except in some areas of Iraq, the locals are not waving in smiling, as they do everywhere here. There they are glaring and waving guns. I could only imagine being in that situation, heading down a road that you hope will open up on to a main road, and after a mile or two, it narrows down to the point that it is impassible to vehicles. Now the worst part is, that every individual in town that you drove past, have now gone back to their houses, and got their weapons, and are waiting for you, and in the meantime have blocked the road, because they knew you couldn’t get out. I can not even imagine.

Once I got to my destination, I suddenly found water running over the street, and a small falaj along the side of the road with water running through it. There was a place to park, and several picnic tables with umbrellas set up, and several tiny falajs leading from the rocks with water rushing out. Towards the back of this area was a large pool that had been formed with natural spring water pouring into it from out of the rocks. I dipped my hand in, and it was hot! (OK, I’ve never been to a hot spring, so if you have, I guess your not surprised by this.) Probalby about 105-110 degrees. There were several boys in their teens and twenties bathing in the water, and one repeatedly invited me to join, and as tough as it was, I declined, as I still wanted to see more Oman. But it really looked nice….

Right down the road was my final archaeological site that I wanted to see for the day. The village of Muslimat.

Old Muslimat

The small village itself is not spectacular, but within the city of new brick and mortar homes, are the ruins of some old mud homes. I have many such sites on my itinerary for Wednesday, but this is the first one I got to look at. The sun was quickly setting, so I got out of my car, and began briskly walking in, around, and through the remains of theses old houses. Amazing.

Doorway from home in Muslimat

I have never seen anything like this, it was utterly surreal, and I don’t know how else to explain it. These homes are not that old, my guide book says they are only a few decades old. Because they were made of mud, they don’t hold up long term against heavy rains. One building which had half collapsed, now had exposed the shelves in the upstairs room, and the yellow and red paint on the walls. Looking at the picture now, there is something sitting on the shelf. I don’t remember seeing that, but now I wish I had looked closer.

Ruined Home in Muslimat

Many of these I was afraid to look too closely, as they looked to be potentially very unstable, and didn’t want to become a news story about an American trapped under a ton of mud in Muslimat. At this point I had a 2 and a half hour drive in front of me to get to Nizwa where I am staying Tuesday night.

The scenery throughout the hundreds of kilometers of driving around the Rustaq loop was absolutely breathtaking. The road snaked around all the jebels, so that many times,every direction you looked there were huge rock formations scraping at the sky, so that it looked like there was no possible way out. Also interesting, that there were dozens of wadis (valleys where the runoff water flows) that crossed the road, and you could see the erosion of the pavement where water periodically runs over this. They say that rain in the mountains may not even be seen down on the ground, but that a flash flood can suddenly occur in the wadis. The thought of suddenly being stuck behind all these mountains was more than a little disconcerting….

My final stop for the evening was dinner at bin Ateeq restaurant in Nizwa. This is a restaurant chain in Oman (6 throughout the country) that serves dinner in a traditional family style. Which let me say that going to any kind of a family style restaurant by yourself really makes you feel like a big dork. Not to mention, it amplified my feeling of homsickness sitting down to such a nice family dinner without my family. It certainly would have been great to have experienced it with them. But I couldn’t leave Oman with out it. They lead you to a private room, split off from the hall by a sliding door, and the neighboring room by a 5 foot wall. You remove your shoes before entering. There is a round carpet on the floor, and pillows leaning against the wall. Dinner had quite a few options. I requested the Lobster Biryani, but they were unfortunately out of lobster, so I settled for the same meal with prawns. It was a large mound of rice similar to what I had in India with prawns mixed in and a variety spices mixed in.

My Dinner at Bin Ateeq

It also came with a salad, and I ordered a fruit smoothie to drink. The meal was of course closed with to staples of Omani dining: Arabic coffee and more dates. All this for 4.80 Rials, which is about $12. It was quite good.

More Dates and Coffee

Looking back at the day in summary, I am truly amazed at the hospitality and friendliness that all of the locals seem to be brimming with here. When you look at areas like Afghanistan, Iran, and Palestine, and see how poverty, instability, and power struggles have resulted in an innate aggression and violence in the people that live there, it is amazing to me that a country such as Oman, which from what I understand has gone through much of the same. Oman turned a huge corner in 1970 when His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said staged a peaceful coup against his father, and took over the country at the age of 30. Yet, from corner to corner, it seems to be filled with compassionate, friendly people. Truly an amazing place. I also find it interesting that all the sites I have gone to, most are free, and at most, I’ve paid $2.50 to enter. Some of the forts are government owned, but even the ones that are held by individuals. They are offering the tours for free, without even a donation box. It is just another sign of the tremendous pride they have in their country, and how much they want to share it with others.

Muscat, Oman

Since my time is limited in Oman, I chose three areas of the country to spend time in. The first area was the Muscat vicinity. Muscat is currently the capital of Oman (although it has changed many times throughout its history. Muscat itself doesn’t appear to be that large. It is when you add in the neighboring areas of Muttrah, Ruwi, Qurum, and the other neighborhoods, that it gets more populous.

Pulling out my schedule, one of the first things listed was the Bait al Zubair museum. I had noted that they offer a tour through a traditional home at 11:30 and 5:30. By the time I got myself organized, and out of the hotel, it was about 11:00. It appeared as if it was close by, so I meandered out. I quickly learned that Muscat is no easier to navigate during the day than it is at night. So much of the land is large jutting rock masses, that residential areas and streets meander through the rocky outcrops. My guide book to Oman has some maps in it, however, each neighborhood is on a different page peppered throughout the book, so driving more than half a mile requires you to try and flip 20 pages to find the right map. The book actually says there are no good road maps available of Oman. (although I haven’t checked for myself) Adding to the confusion, many streets and areas have multiple English spellings. For example in some places I saw Azaiba, and others I saw Athaiba.

The best point of reference when driving are the roundabouts. Many of them have different statues in them, which aids in remembering where you are going. Unfortunately, where I am staying in Ruwi, there are dozens of meandering streets and several roundabouts. Every time I


Typical Roundabout





thought I knew where I was on my map, there would be a major intersection, a fort, or a roundabout that didn’t match. At about 12:00 noon, I had wandered to the coast, and saw a few forts, and decided to give up on the museum for now, and get out and walk. At this point I was in Muttrah. The coast was absolutely stunning. The road runs along the Muttrah bay. And on the other side are rocky “mountains” (ok, not quite, but they are extremely high.) that jut up into the sky. Many of the taller ones have either a fortress, or a tower on the top. Most of these were built by the Portuguese 500 years ago. I was surprised to find A LOT of western tourists walking about. I would say about 15-25% of the people I saw were of the sort. In line with what Thamir told me on the airplane, they did all seem to be European, and not American.

Muttrah Bay (looking West)/Muttrah



Muttrah Bay looking east towards "The Incense Burner"

After taking a long walk on the coast, I jumped back in my car, and drove towards Muscat Old town (which is less than a 5 minute drive.) I happened across Merani Fort, one of my planned destinations, and again found a spot to drop the car, and take a walk.

Merani Fort

Next to Merani Fort is the Al Alam Palace, palace of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. (sometimes shortened as H.M. Sultan Qaboos bin said) The palace and grounds around it were immaculate. Each gate entering into the palace complex held the Omani insignia of two swords behind a khanjar dagger. At one

Al Alam Palace

point I sat down to rest in front of the palace, and plan out the next steps of my day, and a cab driver dressed in the traditional Omani dishdasha and cap (About 80-90% of the local men on the streets wear these. The dishdasha is basically a white floor length shirt, sometimes with some decoration along the button line. ) approached me. He paused for a second before saying anything, so I initiated with a “Marhaba” which means hello. He then responded a little more in Arabic, (I believe he asked if I was French) and I responded in Arabic that I speak English. He then asked if I wanted a cab ride for which I declined. He talked to me for several more minutes, and asked if I was muslim. I said no, and he said he thought I was because of my beard. We continued small talk for a few minutes and he then returned to his cab. I have noticed there is a much slower pace of life here. All the locals walk very slowly, and even those that are working, seem not at all bothered to stop and talk for a few minutes.

Muscat (newer section)

After a little more wandering in the car, I finally found the museum I had been looking for. It wasn’t the right time to get the tour of the home, but I could see the museum nonetheless. I got out of the car and realized there was mass exodus from the building. On the way in I checked the sign which said the hours were 9:00-1:00 and 4:00-7:00. (Many of the business take a several hour break early afternoon here.) I checked my watch, and sure enough, 1:25pm. Back to the car.

After Muscat, I traveled westward, and landed on the beach at Qurum. The Arabian sea looked absolutely fantastic, so I found a place I could pull over and go take a look. To my pleasant surprise, the place that I stopped happened to be right next to a Starbucks! Score!!! I bounded up the stairs to get a nice big Frappuccino to cool me off—and the door was covered on the inside with packing paper. Hmmm, I went around to the other side. Locked up. Ughh what a downer.

Qurum Beach


I continued to trek west along side streets, and admired some of the beautiful houses. Probably belonging more to the upper class, as they were pretty near the coast.

Homes near Qurum Beach

My next site to the west was the Grand Mosque. I found it without too much trouble. I knew that it was too late to visit, as its only open early in the morning for non-muslims, but I circled it trying to find a good spot to take a picture. Unfortunately, the grand Mosque is too grand. I couldn’t find a good spot where I could actually fit the entire building into the picture and get a good angle. So I settled for a rear view, obstructed by power lines.

Grand Mosque




On the way back, I carefully made my way to the museum (3rd attempt). I found it, and it was open!!! No pictures allowed though, so sorry. It focused on Omani clothing and weaponry, and a little bit on the history of some of the forts. I did however miss the 5:30 tour by 15 minutes. Oh well. At one point, I stopped in the bathroom, and as I was washing my hands, was unpleasantly shocked by how sunburned I was. I didn’t spend much more time outside today than the past week, however since I am now taking Cipro for my stomach issue, one of the side effects is it causes you to be more prone to sunburn. And I forgot my suntan lotion at the hotel. Uggh.

Muttrah at Night

My last stop for the day was the Muttrah souq (or market). Entering into this market you head down a series of narrowing corridors. At first it is about 20 feet wide. Each side lined with small store fronts or simple stalls. As you progress in, you find that it is a labyrinth of every narrowing corridors at some point getting down to a mere 4 foot wide walkway, with stalls on your left and

Muttrah Souk

your right. After wandering for about a half hour, I found an exit, and was amazed to find that I was about a block away from where I entered at. Absolutely huge. While in the souq, I picked up some of the obligatory Frankincense and Myrrh for which Oman is very well known.

My sunburn