Theatre, diving, comedy? Life's a beach

This weekend gone has been a frenzy of activities. The weather is perfect and as the temperatures hike steadily we may as well make the most of it before it is too hot to even step outside and everything slows down.

We started with a classical concert on Wednesday night at the auditorium of the Al Bustan, a colossal luxury hotel where I always end up getting lost looking for the right lift or the toilets! The Royal Omani Symphony Orchestra (AKA ROSO) composed of young Omanis and directed by a British conductor was good. We enjoyed the cultural evening: the single priced tickets at 10 Rials each (about 18 GBP nowadays) get you the best seat you can manage to find in the house (first come first served) and as usual canapés and drinks during the interval!

This was the second time we were in that auditorium since we moved to Oman a few months ago and I have to say that the experience is always interesting. If in London you need to check your friends' diaries months ahead to make sure you find an evening that everybody can make, here even without meaning to, you know you will surely meet someone you know or spot a known face amongst the “contained” crowd.

The most amusing part however is people watching. Of course everybody is watching! As you mingle around at the interval scouring the crowd for known faces you can spot the seasoned expats from afar. There will always be one or two who having completely lost the sense of measure or the will to fit in, stand out like a sore thumb in their extravagant outfits (which by the way will help you recognise them again at the next social do); you may also have a little scuffle with the grumpy misfits who have obviously spent too long in the country and have been worn down by frustration, yet they never go back to the beautiful perfect lala land their country is because they know that by going back they would break the spell (even if they refuse to accept it).

At first sight you would say that the multicultural backgrounds mesh together and yet differences are so obvious to your eyes. Even my very own background it seems, is slowly screaming itself back out (little episodes like queueing or driving in this country have unleashed my survival instinct). I am finding it all very interesting.

Enough of the Muscat expatriate society! I could write a whole post on this but I want to tell you about our weekend. I guess that if I don't write so frequently my long blurbs are excused (she thinks).

After the ROSO concert of course we could not shun some drinks with friends at the beautiful bar by the beach so we were in bed by 2am and up again at 6:30 for our next appointment in the calendar. Life is hard!

My first dive in Oman was around the Daymaniyat Islands. Beautiful pearls encrusted in the Arabian sea about 45 minutes boat ride from the Global Scuba dive centre.
We had two dives, both very nice (although I was totally annoyed that the people on the other boat encountered a leopard shark and we didn't!). We saw huge morays, coral in beautiful condition, tuna and a few sea snakes on the sea surface as we were riding back. In between the two dives we stopped for lunch on one of the islands.

The photos speak for themselves, this place is paradise!

I was the first to get off the boat (those who were with me on the expedition in Madagascar are probably very familiar with this drill of mine ;-). As I waded towards the beach schools of glass fish started jumping around in a frenzy. I stuck my hand out. It must be true what they say about fish being stupid because they kept on hitting head first into my hand! Now I understand what an easy feat it must be for big fish to feed along the sardine run in South Africa.
We were back home around 3pm and crashed full weight on the bed.

Since having a late night and an early following morning wasn't enough in the evening we were booked for a comedy do. Smartly dressed and trying to look sleek we headed to the “Intercon” at 7pm to join our friends at the table for an evening of laughter over meal and a few drinks. It was a blast, we had lots of fun and of course another late night! I also managed to get a photo with Bobby Davro (if you know who he is).

By the end of the evening it is only half way through the weekend so on Friday morning we pack our car, pick up our friend and join the others who had been camping the night on Assifah beach. We spend another glorious day on the beach under the warm sun, swimming in the blue sea. We also “played” a bit of chase the goat when the uninvited guests turned up lured by the smell of lunch. A classic on this side of the world.

Before moving to Muscat I thought that we would have to give up a lot of things living out here (like classical concerts, comedy dos and stuff like that) but now it feels we are doing more with our time than we did back in London. Maybe because it is less of an effort or maybe because we make more of an effort (seen that the opportunities are limited)... either way we could have not crammed more into our humble weekend!

And this week we are even going paint balling! (FYI it's only just got to Oman).

Maybe you can guess what the next post is going to be about...

Offroad fun!

I have been quoted a 2-hours wait. I've learnt to be creative. So excuse this long post, I have plenty of time today. As I sit here on a bench at the side of the Al Maha car wash, waiting for the mighty 4x4 to be cleared from the caked salty sand under its engine and the dust to be washed away inside and out I'll use this time to tell you about our latest adventure. Ohh I love technology (sometimes).

The alarm went off at 6.10am. The room was still dark and my eyes still stuck together. As I snoozed the annoying thing I figured out that surely with 3 families with small children, even if we took it easy being late was not going to make us the last ones. I was right, in fact we could have taken it even easier. 4 hours later between pee stops and emergency car roof rack repairs we were still making our way out of Muscat. It didn't bother us. This is Oman, if you want to live a good life take it easy and relax. It is up to you how you take the inevitable unexpected diversions: you can have a nervous breakdown on a daily basis or just see the funny side. The latter works better for me.

About two hours or so from Muscat we were reaching Al Wasil. This is where you normally enter the desert but seen that we were nearing lunch time and we were nowhere near half way through to our final destination we decided to stick to the main road. By 1pm we were crossing a sleepy town with more goats around than humans. I liked it. It really felt like we were in a forgotten place that got stuck back in time. I was waiting for a bundle of dry weed to appear tumbling down the road but maybe the goats ate it before it had a chance. We stopped for a quick lunch and a leg stretch by the windy beach and then back on the cars.

After spending a few hours on a graded track and later racing against the lowering sun we decided to stop and camp for the night. I am not too sure exactly where we were. There were tradintional fishing villages dotted around and sadly a lot of rubbish as a reminder that despite the seemengly remote location in fact we were not too far from civilization and its plastic. After a while spent trying to find a clean spot on the beach we headed slightly inland towards the desert sand where we set camp on a lovely stretch of clean, soft sand.

The following morning it was our turn to make breakfast. As I wished I could sleep a bit longer for the second day in a row I dragged myself out of the tent at sun rise and dug my feet in the cold sand. It wasn't long before we were all packed and back in our cars. A full morning and early afternoon of technical offroad driving through difficult terrains and lots of excitement. It was a fun packed day which ended in a remote corner of paradise.

We headed straight into the desert and tackled huge dunes, the heart racing when our car span to the side as we descended the first one. Simon was driving, it was his first go at high dunes. I was literally shitting myself. The bottom of the dune looked so far below, with the car out of line the heavy back was dragging us to one side (mine). I kept on leaning towards Simon (as if it was goin to make any difference) an instinctive reflex more than an effective solution. At one point I was seriously considering opening the door and jumping out of the car, then I thought better of it, ok high centre of gravity makes these machines more prone to rolling over, but we were sliding slowly and surely these monsters were built for this (with a skilled driver at the wheel).

Yet the idea of the car rolling upside down the dune with all our heavy cargo of cooler boxes, pots and pans and other necessary junk loose on the inside was making me extremely uncomfortable. As we reached the bottom of the dune my muscles unclenched and I started breathing again.

It is hard to convey the excitement of the day in words. The desert was absolutely beautiful and as we crossed it in our convoy of 6 cars, sometimes stopping for photos, sometimes to get unstuck, others just to wait for each other, I kept on looking around at this immense open space and I felt so free, so small, so part of it and so excited. You may think of the desert as one samey boring landscape but it changes a lot as you drive through it. Sometimes you find a solitary tree standing proudly under the blinding sun, giving shelter to local birds (or us passing nomads), to remind you that there is water under that sand after all and that even such a harsh landscape harbours life.

Sometimes you have hardened sand scuplted by the wind, others lots of little bushes on top of sand mounds and at times you encounter some other unfamiliar vegetation.
As we neared the road towards the sea and we climbed the last dune the landscape opened up to an immense flat of hardened sand. We lined up, pushed down the accelerators and raced a few kilometers at the top of our speed towards the paved road at the far end.

We pumped up the tires up to get on the tarmac only to bleed them again a few kilometers down the road. We enetered the longest and most difficult terrain in our offroad itinerary.

As we headed towards the sea we had to contend with the vast salt flats, a layered ground of crusty sand surface covering soft wet sand and salty water bottom. As the crust broke under the tyres, the car would sink in the slushy sand underneath creating a lot of resistance. Sometimes the bottom would harden and sharp salt crystals and rocks would protrude so we had to adjust the speed and drive around them carefully to avoid a flat tyre. At some point we stopped, J. Had to check a leak under her car. We kept on sniffing it thinking it was petrol.

We were miles from any basic road and the thought of breaking down out there was daunting. I didn't think we could even dream of towing that far, let alone in that terrain. Luckily we soon established that it was condensation from the AC and we kept going.

The last part of the drive was long and tiring but still a lot of fun.

Finally the landscape opened up to blinding white sand and turquiouse blue sea framed by emeral green lagoons with pink flamingos that struggled into the air as we drove past, perturbed by our arrival.

We had reached our final destination, Barr Al Hickman. Mouth wide open I was awed by the beauty of this place, miles of white beach so remote and wild. It was a corner of paradise.
We drove a litte bit longer along the beach and found a spot to set camp.

It was hard to leave at 3pm the following day! But then we have other adventures to look forward to. That was just one way of spending a long weekend in Oman.

Oh the car is almost done and my laptop battery is dying, I hope it was a good read. I'll post some photos soon.

Climate derangements

Dear all,


I have read the news and looked at all the photos on Facebook with interest..
Lots of unusual snow? That is so yesterday! ;)


While you are all snowed in by the greatest snowfall in England in 18 years, the temperatures here are already set on a constant hike towards the other end of 30c and while you play snowfights in the parks, grateful to old dear tfl for enabling you to skive off work, we are planning our next weekend adventure crossing the Sharqiyah Sands.


OK we had to plan this one because we were jelaous of all the fun you are having over there with the white powder... ;)


We have now turned the page on our winter: alas a couple of days of freakishly heavy rain and scarcely a week of inconsistent cloud cover and temperatures hovering around 20c by day and a "freezing" 14c at night.


The thing is, you may not believe it but you are not the first in hosting a freaky snow show.


I know, I know probably this sounds just so minor in the hype of the current weather craze in England but the world is not the same any more. We must have crossed the line with pollution a while back because the weather has become so unpredictable that it now even snows in the desert (yes that's right).


Could this be a sign that we are finally heading towards the so much speculated apocalypse? ;)


It happened just over a week ago, we had snow in some parts of Oman and in the UAE. Luckily nowhere near us but it's enough to spark some confusion and of course, fuel some new crazy ideas...


http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/01/25/64949.html


Yes this is the Gulf for you, it always manages to take you by surprise! You see, if they are not making it bigger then they'll make sure they get it first, including some freak snow event in January.


Anyway, climate derangements apart, I have to say that the thought of London turned into alpine village overnight is quite exciting. Judging by the photos on Facebook it looks rather pretty under the thick blanket of snow.

Have fun for us too, won't you?