Wednesday 10th December Tem 28C

Well back home form Salalah and trying to get all my experiences typed up. Where do I stat? Well on Sunday morning I had a rude awakening from my alarm clock. It was 4.30 in the morning and I had still not finished my packing. Wasn’t taking much but still wanted to make sure I had packed the essentials, swim shorts, sun cream, change of underwear, sunglasses etc. Donald was picking me up at 5.30 to get us to Ruwi in time for the 6am departure. I was looking forward to the bus journey as well as it being cheap I was looking forward to see how the country changed as we travelled the 1023 Km to Salalah.

Saturday 13th December Temp 27c

Well have spent a couple of days sorting out my photos from my trip to Salalah. So I’d better give you the story to go along with them.

We left on time (6am) from Ruwi Bus station. The bus was very comfortable and of course had air conditioning. I managed to get a pair of seats to myself so was able to lounge across both. The first part of the trip was nothing new as I had been along the same roads when I went to Nizwa, so I didn’t bother taking any pictures. When we eventually got on the main road to Salalah it was about 8.30 and the journey proper began. The mountains quickly gave way to flat rocky/sandy plains with few points of interest, one thing did stand out and that was the number of car tracks leading off from the motorway off across the plains. Were these just tracks of people who wanted to drive ’Off road’ for awhile? Well some of them where but I also found out later that some of them where from meteorite collectors! Seemingly, during the full moon people drive out on to the plains to see if they can spot any meteorites lying in the sand. I was told that they sparkled in the moon rays and so where easy to spot.

Anyway I dosed on and off as the desert couldn’t keep my attention for long and we soon arrived at our first stop. We had 3 toilet/rest stops of about 20 mins each so we were able to stretch our legs. This also helped to break up the journey and made it less tiring.

After our last stop we were soon into the foothills before Salalah, they looked like mountains that had been eroded away by wind, sand and time to miniature mountain ranges. Soon though we started to see more greenery. Salalah is in the monsoon belt and so get lots of rain during them months. By this time the bus was full and a young Omani was sitting next to me. He explained that the best time to visit is around late March/April as that is when it is at its greenest.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Lezmcg54/TripToSalalahViewsFromTheBus?feat=directlink

And so into Salalah
We stayed at the Salalah Hotel which was right opposite the bus station. Not a first class hotel but all we needed was somewhere to sleep and a bathroom and for 12 Rials ( about ₤12 per night) we weren’t arguing. We also hired a car from the hotel and that was only 15 Rials per day. That evening we just had a quick look round and went for a meal at a local restaurant. Tried to use the map to find our way around but it was useless, think whoever makes the maps for the car hire companies must be a blind dyslexic who draws with his feet!

Anyway the following morning we headed out of Salalah and keeping the coast on our left headed off to see what we could find. After a while we came to a great beach and got out for a wonder around, had the whole place to ourselves. We carried on and not too far up the road saw a sign for the al Marneef Cave. Their was a nice little café there so we had a drink while we enjoyed the view. We then walked up to the caves which turned out to be more of large overhangs of rocks than caves. This place has had some work done on it and caters for tourist and the views where spectacular. After a while we carried on driving up into the mountains but after stopping to take some photos we decided to make our way back to Salalah and see what there was over to East. We saw quite a few groups of camels just freely grazing by the side of the road and on the road into Salalah one just nonchalantly strolled into the middle of the road, stopped, and then slowly turned his head to look at us as if to say “and What?’ he seemed to be quite content to stand there so I had to carefully drive round him (needless to say I drove round in front of him, didn’t fancy getting the car kicked with the size of them feet!). As we got passed the main port the beaches started and I got out to take some photos as they look so white and stretch for miles!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Lezmcg54/WestSalalah?feat=directlink

We carried on driving out the other side of Salalah and came to Taqah Fort. This had been restored so we went inside to have a look around. Quite interesting and a fantastic view from the top of one of the towers (although it was pretty hairy climbing to the top) and of course a good view of another fort on the hill behind, which we climbed up to when we left the main fort. We continued travelling west but apart from seeing Bin Ali’s tomb we didn’t really see anything else although we did get some good ideas for next day as we had decided to catch the late bus the following evening and travel over night. On the way back to the hotel we found a smashing Arab restaurant and had a great meal, again it was very cheap and the fruit smoothy was excellent.

That night we decided to go for a pint and went to the Hilton Hotel.

The following morning saw us again heading east out of Salaha, we had learned or lesson of the previous day and where just using the road signs to the various tourist sites as a rough guide as they never seemed to be in the right place.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Lezmcg54/TouringEastSalalah?feat=directlink

Here is some information on the places we visited (in no particular order) from the tourist brochure:

Wadi Darbat: a natural park with majestic views of waterfalls (dry season whilst we where there so no waterfalls), lakes, mountains, wildlife and lush vegetation.

Tawi Attair: The ‘Well of Birds’: This is a natural sinkhole over 100 metres wide and 211 metres deep and one of the deepest in the world. As the name suggests, Tawi Attair is home to many species of birds that can be seen swooping in and out of the sinkhole during the monsoon season.
Khor Rori Samhuram: Excavations have revealed a walled rectangular shaped town. Five stone inscriptions were discovered written in Arabic southern alphabet describing the establishment of the town, form which it is evident that the town was built to ascertain the domination of frankincense trade.

Al Balid : the city (located of the outskirts of modern day Salalah) was establishedin the 4th centuray AH. – 10th century AD. Archaeological findings revealed remains of a great rectangular shaped mosque surrounded by balconies form all sides. Excavations have revealed Islamic pottery, Chinese porcelain and several bronze coins some of them dating back to the Islamic period, and other coins dating back to Chinese civilisation.

Jarzeez Springs: is one of the most beautiful springs in the Dhofar region. It is located in Ateen about 14km from Salalah. There is caves to explore and shaded areas for relaxing.
I have included a lot of photos taken by Donald for you took look at as well as the ones I took.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/N2gPXj7GNza2b8iz3c22Lw?feat=directlink

Well after we arrived back in Muscat the next couple of weeks was spent preparing for the end of term tests so apart from visiting Marjan beach to catch a few rays nothing happened until Christmas day.

Almost forgot on the run up to Christmas it was quite a busy time for the choir. We had several concerts in local church for carol services but also in 3 of the top hotels in Muscat, The Al Bustan, TheCrown Plaza and the Shangri La, all 5 stars or more! The concerts where great and the nibbles and drinks afterwards were brill!

I decided to have a few people round for lunch and then to have an open house after for people to call in and have a drink or 2! It was a great day finishing about 9.30 that night. The only downside to the day is that my camera went missing and still hasn’t turned up, so have had to rely on my friends for all the pictures.

New Year we seen in at the local Rugby Club and as you can see by the pictures we sort of let our hair down, so much so that I phoned round the following morning to see what I had got upto and if I had behaved myself!...everybody said it was a great night and nobody has got out of line………..hmmmm see photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Lezmcg54/ChristmasAndNewYearOooooopps?feat=directlink

Of course after Christmas and New Year it was back to school and looking forward to our 2 week break when most of us would be returning to or homes.

Although it was nice to be home and see everybody I was freezing and of course ended up with a horrible cold! If I didn’t get to see you all last time will try to make p for it when I return home in June for 2 months, so don’t forget to keep in touch. If you haven’t got my email address you can email me from this blog or alternatively find me on Facebook.

Since we got back from England we haven’t been up to much, as again we are coming towards the end of the teaching year we are trying to get our syllabuses completed and prepare the students for the tests. Lind and Brian had a couple of friends out for a visit Karl and Anne and we had a really pleasant evening with them at a licensed restaurant (yes there are some, not many but we are finding them).

We’ve had a couple of days out with the students at a resort at Al Sawadi and will get the photos on as soon as possible and also been practicing with the choir again for St David’s Day. I have had to learn the Welsh national anthem in welsh! As well as a couple of other songs.
St David’s day concerts was at the British Ambassadors Residence and again was a great success, hoping I might get some pictures of the concert and also we could be in the local paper, if so I’ll try to add it here.

One more thing a couple of days ago we went to the Crown Plaza for a drink and to watch the sun set and also to the French/Oman art museum for a new exhibition, again free nibbles but only fruit juices this time!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Lezmcg54/VariousFeb09?authkey=Gv1sRgCJjU-pjehOzJfQ&feat=directlink

Ok so basically up to date, hope to add more pictures and will most probably add more stories as they occur to me but will really try to update at least once a week.