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Friday, June 21: After my debacle last September in Greece, where I got to Athens but my suitcase didn’t show up for two days, I decided I would never again travel without a carry-on bag. I’m leaving in 6 days for a month in Spain and Portugal, and I determined that I would take only one suitcase. But as I can no longer ignore the need for a carry-on, I wanted to find the perfect combination. I have one medium-sized suitcase and ideally I wanted something that would sit on top of that one when I’m walking from metro or train or bus to my hotel and vice versa.

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In that ideal situation, the small carry-on would also have rollers and a handle, so that when the medium suitcase is checked, I can just pull the carry-on around in the airport or on board the train, or whatever. I looked and looked for something last weekend and couldn’t find what I was envisioning. I would have bought a whole new set if I could find one that was made to fit together, one on top of the other. But, alas, I couldn’t find my dream combination. So last week, I bought a small roller carry-on from Carrefour in Muscat and brought it home, where it sat on my guest bed for a week.

Though it was small, it wasn’t small enough to fit on top of my other one; neither was there a way to attach it to the larger one. During the week, I kept having visions of myself hauling two rolling suitcases through the streets of Barcelona and Toledo and Andalucia and the Algarve and Lisbon, and I didn’t like that vision one bit. I know what a pain it is when you’re traveling and have to lug around too much stuff. I don’t want to do that for a whole month! So this weekend, my dear friend Tahira wants to go to a movie and dinner in Muscat. I tell her I’d love to do that, but I have to deal with this luggage dilemma first.

She says that’ll be fine; whatever I need to do, she’ll come around with me to help sort it out. She even has a number of suggestions as to where we might look for this perfect combo. Tahira and I have been working closely together since January. We’ve both been teaching at the university for nearly two years, but only since January, when we were both teaching Level 2 under a certain coordinator and sitting beside each other in the office, did we develop a friendship. Now I consider her a very dear friend. But honestly, today she goes above and beyond the call of duty to help me with this boring problem.

I don’t even have the patience to sort out this kind of problem when it’s MINE, and I have to say if she, or anyone else, had asked me to spend my time dealing with this if it were THEIR problem, I’m not sure I would have agreed to have anything to do with it! We leave Nizwa at 2:00 in the afternoon and when we get to Muscat, we go first to Sultan Center, a place in Muscat where I have never been.

It’s just like all the big hypermarkets throughout Oman. We sit outside of Costa Coffee in a damp breeze and drink iced coffee. Then we go to Muscat Grand Mall, where the Bollywood movie we want to see, Raanjhanaa, is playing. We go to buy tickets, only to find the movie is sold out for tonight. So now, lucky Tahira and lucky me, we have hours and hours ahead of us to sort out MY luggage dilemma! At one kiosk, we find exactly the combination I am looking for, but the carry-on bag is too small for my computer. And the price is exorbitant!

We look in every shop that carries any bags at all. Finally, at Charles and Keith, I find a large tote bag that will do the trick and I buy it for 32 rials ($83)! I try to return the carry-on bag I bought at Carrefour last weekend, but as I bought it at the City Center Carrefour, they won’t take it.

It seems we have to trek to Muscat City Center in Seeb. On our way driving to Muscat City Center, down what we know to be the only main highway in Muscat, the Sultan Qaboos Highway, Tahira says, “Where are we?” We recognize the same construction detour that we came across the last time we were in Muscat when we got lost and ended up way west of Seeb. “What?” I say. “I have no idea!” Somehow we are on some unrecognizable highway heading toward Seeb with the new airport construction to our left as we head south! This is the second time this has happened to us, and we crack up laughing. I have a theory that it is impossible to get lost in Muscat because there is only one main highway and all roads eventually lead back to that highway.

But for the second time, we are lost in Muscat. Well, not really lost, just thrown off-track temporarily. Because in the end, I’m right, you can’t REALLY get lost in Muscat. We end up arriving from the opposite direction to Muscat City Center. We’re here and we’re not lost, proving my theory correct.

🙂 When we arrive, it seems every resident of Muscat is there. There’s a huge traffic jam going into the mall parking lot, where we sit for what seems like forever. It turns out that every store in City Center is having a sale tonight! There’s a line at the return counter at Carrefour and I stand there trying to return the carry-on for about 20 minutes. Then as we’re walking out of the mall (sweet relief!), Tahira tells me I should check out the Samsonite store because they’re having a sale.

It’s way at the other end of the mall. We trek down there where I find a good duffel bag that will work perfectly (although it has no rollers) and I settle on that for 54 rials ($140) and that’s ON SALE! I now have to run to Charles & Keith at this mall to see if I can return the other bag, and they agree to let me.

First I have to run to the car to get it, way at the other end of the mall, fighting my way through hordes of people. Meanwhile Tahira has taken off to go shopping at all the shops that are having sales!! Finally, though we left Nizwa at 2:00 this afternoon, we make our way to Shang Thai at the Wave’s Almouj Marina for dinner at around 9:00. By this time, we’re famished. A huge Omani family is at center stage, occupying the entire center of the restaurant, seated around a long rectangular table. At one point they all sing “Happy Birthday” in English to one of the young men sitting at the end of the table. It’s quite a scene as, for one, it isn’t usual for Omanis to make a big deal out of birthdays.

And to sing “Happy Birthday” in English is also noteworthy. This is obviously a modern Omani family, dishdashas and abayas notwithstanding.

Stir-fried morning-glory We have a lovely time, even running into our colleague Mac and his wife Latifa outside the restaurant. Even though the earlier part of the day was quite “hectic” (Tahira’s oft-used South African word), the evening turns out to be the perfect grand finale.

I will miss Tahira immensely when I leave Oman. She makes me promise that when I get back to the U.S. And finally get a smart phone, I must download Whatsapp right away so we can chat. By the time we arrive home in Nizwa, it is midnight.

Thank goodness we have the day off Saturday now, with Oman’s revised weekend schedule, so I can sleep in! And now I have my Samsonite carry-on, just waiting for the final packing! Wall of crepe restaurant We end up capturing only a few icons of Muscat because of the extreme heat (42 degrees) and high humidity. Getting in and out of the oven of Mario’s car and walking around blinded by salty sweat dripping into our eyes and down our backs is not a pleasant experience, but Mario keeps reminding me: “What’s the worse that can happen? So what, we’re sweating. That’s the worst, right?” And so we go: starting from the east on the harbor side of Al Alam Palace and working our way west, making a stop at Muscat Gate on the way. Minaret Al Alam Palace is the ceremonial palace of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos.

The palace was built by Imam Sultan bin Ahmed, the 7th direct grandfather of the current Sultan. The existing palace, which has a facade of gold and blue, was rebuilt as a royal residence in 1972. Visitors are not allowed inside the palace, despite the fact that His Majesty normally lives elsewhere in Oman. Al Alam Palace is surrounded by the Mirani and Jalali Forts, built in the 16th century by the Portuguese. The Palace is used for official functions and receiving distinguished visitors and in January 2012, the Sultan received Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands at Al Alam Palace during her state visit to Oman. I’ve visited Al Alam Palace several times while in Oman, but usually we come from the center of Muscaat, which has a long colonnaded approach and is quite picturesque. I have heard there’s a back view, from the harbor, so today we go to the harbor side for pictures.

If you want to see the front view, you can check out this post:. Tuesday, May 28: This afternoon my friend Kathy invites me at the last-minute to go to The Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) to see an amazing show put on by a Lebanese company, Caracalla Dance Theatre.

The show, called Kan Ya Ma Kan, (Once Upon a Time) is filled with music, energetic dancing, and colorful exotic costumes. Sadly, no one is ever allowed to take photos of performances at the Royal Opera House, so I’m unable to show the dazzling and exotic costumes and sets that made this performance so stunning. Kathy had originally planned to go with someone else who cancelled on her. I had made no plans to attend any more shows at the Royal Opera House before I left Oman, so it was a lovely surprise and an amazing farewell to the Arab world.

The Royal Opera House from the garden The first part used Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s music Sheherazade and focused on King Shahryar. Based on One Thousand and One Nights, this orchestral work combines two features typical of Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in the East. It then moved to Maurice Ravel’s music Bolero. The story was about a cunning wizard in an oriental market. This is my favorite part of the performance with its traditional Arab souq as a backdrop and exotic costumes in jewel tones of purple, royal blue, fuchsia, turquoise and pink.

The costumes were stunningly made in mixtures of silks, chiffons, satins and velvets in mixed patterns, giving them a gypsy-like and bohemian feel. The dancing in this part was so amazingly choreographed that I just sat in awe of the colorful extravaganza. Plumeria (aka Frangipani) in front of the Royal Opera House Muscat The third and final part used traditional Arabic Heritage music and explored the cultures of the Arab world, including a tribute to Oman. The guest star singer for this part was Hoda Haddad, sister of the famous and widely respected Lebanese singer Nouhad Wadi Haddad, known as Fairuz. Haddad’s songs, flashes of Oman’s famous landmarks (Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Al Alam Palace, Nakhal Fort, and many others) appeared on the screen behind, bringing enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Royal Opera House Muscat This production was adapted from the original, which premiered last summer in Lebanon, to fit the ROHM and was inspired by the building itself, explained Ivan. “This is like the first opening because the show changed. It’s inspired by the architecture of the opera house.

It’s tailor-made for Oman,” said Ivan. Royal Opera House Muscat According to the performance details on the ROHM website: Ivan and Alissar maintain the cultural message of the Caracalla Theatre by transforming the Arab Heritage into an international art form with its dominant presence in the world of dance theatre. Alissar is the founder of Studio Caracalla “L’Art de la Danse” and of the “Orientalist Dance Company”. She brings an innovative spirit to the unique Caracalla technique, to become the flame of present and future of the Arabic culture with her creative style in choreography, to amalgam the expression of the east and west in a unique dance style based on the Martha Graham technique. Leaving the Royal Opera House after the performance Much of the performance harkened back to the days of Sultans and harems, and some of the sets made me think of Topkapı Palace, a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign. The performance made me wonder what happened to the exotic and sensual Arabian world of old, which today, at least in Oman and other Gulf countries, has been turned into a cloistered world of white dishdashas and black abayas.

Tuesday, April 16: Marianne of has a monthly photo challenge called the Conejo Blanco Blog Hop, or CBBH for short. Her challenge for this month is: multi-colored. According to: “ Colour is a meaningful constant for sighted people and it’s a powerful psychological tool. By using color psychology, you can send a positive or negative message, encourage sales, calm a crowd, or make an athlete pump iron harder.” Talking of sales, Henry Ford famously declared that the Model-T buyer could choose “ any colour, so long as it’s black.” Thank goodness that these days, consumers are more discerning! Here are some multi-colored photos from my travels around the world. Multi-colored trims for abayas sold at Mutrah Souq, Muscat, Oman.

One blogger I follow and love is Lynn Wohlers of. Lynn blogs about “photography or philosophy, birds or flowers, zen, maps, psychology, travel her mind roams.” She takes stunning pictures of forests, leaves, flowers, and anything else in nature you can think of. When I look at her photos, I want to jump into their magical worlds and stay there for a good long time.Another blogger I love is Roseanne of. Rosie works at an art museum in southern California and shares quirky and funny stories about her encounters at her cash register. She always writes thought-provoking posts and comments. I truly enjoy and appreciate her kindness and her insights. Rosie had the life-altering experience of walking the Camino de Santiago.

I really hope to meet her if I can get to California this Christmas. Related articles. Friday, April 12: We wake up in The Gulf Sand Hotel in Al Musanaah to find we have no water. We are planning to go the The Chedi, one of the most upscale hotels in Muscat, for the Friday breakfast buffet, so this is not acceptable. I run out to the front desk and since the receptionist doesn’t speak English I do all kinds of pantomimes to show him that I have no water in my room. They run around looking for people in the know, and finally a Bangladeshi guy comes, turns a switch and fills up the water tank. Sweet relief!

Wildflowers outside the Chedi We drive to Muscat, which takes us over an hour since we get a little lost and end up driving in the wrong direction past the sprawling new airport that is under construction. When we finally get there, I am struck by the Zen-like atmosphere of the Chedi. It has plenty of simple white arches and waterfall gardens, but it feels more Japanese than Arab. The 5-star boutique hotel fuses together traditional Omani architecture with Zen, Arabic, Japanese and European influences.

Inside the lobby of the Chedi The website for the describes the hotel as follows: “Where the majestic Al Hajar Mountains meet their luminous reflection in the serene waters of the Gulf of Oman, the Chedi Muscat rises amidst an elegantly landscaped twenty-one acre garden oasis with 158 Omani influenced guestrooms and villas. This sublime yet central location equally suits leisure and business travellers while six distinct restaurants, a just opened thirteen-suite Balinese spa, three swimming pools, including the 103-metre Long Pool, 400-square metre health club plus two executive meeting rooms enhance Muscat’s considerable cultural attractions.”. Looking out from the entrance After breakfast, I try to put flyers up for the sale of my car in the Al Fair grocery stores around Muscat that expats frequent, but the bulletin boards are too full and one of them won’t even take my flyer.

They tell me it costs 5 rials to hang it up for a week. I put one up in the Medinat Sultan Qaboos Al Fair, but I guess that 5 rial cost will limit me to putting the flyers in only a few places.

On the way back from Muscat, I stop to show another Omani my car and he makes an offer which I still feel is too low. Oh well, I still have time, so I’m not going to panic. Thursday, February 21: This morning at 8:30, Mario and I begin a road trip to explore Oman’s east coast. We only have a plan to do two things, visit Wadi Dayqah Dam and have the Thursday night sushi buffet at Qurum Resort in Muscat.

However, our journey branches off into a myriad of unexpected, and pleasantly surprising, detours. By the time all is said and done, we drive 600 km, explore six different areas, eat sushi accompanied by a bottle of Chianti, and return home at midnight. A new mosque under construction that looks like it’s being built on a sand dune??? We continue on, not planning to stop again until we reach Wadi Dayqah Dam.

However, when I decide I to stop for coffee at a certain petrol station in Al Amerat that is inconveniently lacking a convenience store, this stop slows us down enough to notice some wetlands full of ornamental grasses under a long, relatively new bridge. We both say, almost simultaneously (as everyone does when they see green in Oman): “Look at those grasses!” We pull off at the next exit, park the car, and get out to explore. Some fuzzy little numbers It’s pretty darn hot and humid out in this wetland, and it’s only about 10:30 a.m. I whine to Mario, “Oh no!!! It’s already starting to get hot!” Here it is, only the end of February, and it feels like “winter” is already coming to an end.

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Of course, Oman doesn’t really have a “winter” as I know it, or as most people in the world know it, but it has been cool enough since late November to actually take walks outside during daylight hours. It feels today like that might soon be coming to an end. Thursday, May 31: Today I was trying to kill time while waiting to meet a friend for lunch at Bareeq Al Shatti Mall’s Ubhar Restaurant.

I hadn’t had a pedicure in some time, so I popped in to Dr. Fish to let the fish nibble away the dead skin from my heels. I have seen these kinds of things in Cambodia and Vietnam and Korea, where the fish therapy is cheaper than in Oman. I paid 3 rials (nearly $8) for a 15 minute session with the little fish, who nibbled away to their hearts’ content.

I found that 15 minutes is not nearly long enough to get rid of all my dead skin. They were just skimming the surface. If I had done the 30 minutes for 5 rials, they would have had the feast of a lifetime! Monday, May 28: Today, I have my flat exterminated for bed bugs! I actually only saw one, I think, and haven’t really suffered bites, I don’t think (I’m actually kind of oblivious to this kind of thing). However, my upstairs neighbor David has them and because we’ve heard these pests can multiply and occupy entire apartment buildings, I opt to have my flat treated too.

The exterminator is scheduled to arrive at 8:30 a.m., at which time we will need to vacate our flats and stay out for about 8 hours. I figure that will work out well as I can just go to work all day.

A bit of paradise in the desert By the time they finish, there is really no point in going back to work. What will I do out of my flat for 8 hours?? It’s too hot to be outdoors exploring and walking around in 108 degree heat. There must be something to do! Mario and I decide to take a little trip to Muscat, with the plan of stopping to explore Bidbid and Fanja on the way, and ending up at one of the nice hotels in Muscat to have a drink.

One of my goals while in Oman is to visit each of the fancy hotels for a drink (I can’t eat at these hotels because they are too darn expensive!). We opt to aim for the Crowne Plaza at Qurum Beach. A happy Bangladeshi in the field Sometimes getting lost leads you to surprising little treasures. We come across some farms, planted with various crops including some kind of fodder for goats, lime and lemon trees, eggplant, corn, and sorghum, among other things. There are several Bangladeshis working diligently in the fields, cutting the goat fodder plants, which have lovely purple flowers on them.

These include collecting diamonds, flipping switches, opening trapdoors, leaping onto moving ledges, and more!

It’s quite idyllic and lovely. The Bangladeshi workers seem quite pleased to see some foreigners wander into their fields with cameras in hand. Fields of dreams The farms are laid out nicely in grids, with square patches of the delicate purple flowers against a backdrop of date palms and brown mountains. I love finding these little paradise-like places in Oman.

There is so much brown and desert here, that when I find an area of greenery, I want to drink it up like a bee does nectar. Despite the temperature being about 43 degrees Celsius (110 F), we walk around in the fields, stopping to admire the hard work of the Bangladeshis and to take their pictures. For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver. Martin Luther One Bangladeshi boy beckons us to follow him. He keeps saying “I farm!” and he waves us.

I farm!” Of course it’s not his farm; it would have to be an Omani’s farm and he is the laborer. He tends the farm. He leads us back to his part of the farm, punctuated with lime trees and eggplant and sorghum. Further back he has some goats and sheep and chickens in a pen. He loves letting us take his picture. It’s obvious he’s proud of his little corner of the world, a world he tends with utmost care. Village children in Bidbid Now, here’s what The Rough Guide to Oman says about Bidbid Fort: “This is one of the prettiest small castles in the country: a rustic little structure, built with mudbrick walls on a stone base, with windows and rifle-slits cut lopsidedly out of the adobe, half-hearted little rounded battlements above and a large watchtower perched on a small rock outcrop beside.

Unusually, the walls have been left unplastered following restoration, so you can see the pebbles and bits of straw mixed in to strengthen the mudbrick, adding to its rather homespun charm. A swiftly flowing falaj, in which villagers are wont to do their washing, runs around one side of the fort.”. The fabulous Bidbid Castle Sounds lovely, right? It COULD be lovely, but it isn’t because of the horrible surroundings. There is so much trash and squalor surrounding the fort, that I find it simply disgusting. I don’t understand why, if Oman is serious about tourism, the government doesn’t clean up these tourist sites. Education is key, but apparently there isn’t a will behind it.

Everywhere I go in Oman, trash is strewn everywhere. Especially in the wadis, where people go on picnics and leave all their rubbish behind them, marking their trail like Hansel and Gretel. It’s only when I get way off the beaten path, deep into the wadis where the Omanis won’t venture on picnics, that you can find a pristine environment. Bidbid Fort, it was hard to take a picture without rubbish in it I don’t know why the government doesn’t create a huge campaign to stop littering. I remember we had this problem back in the USA in the 1970s. The government went on a huge anti-litter campaign, creating and enforcing laws.

Public service announcements were rampant. As idealistic high school students, we jumped on the anti-litter bandwagon and never considered leaving a piece of garbage anywhere.

I remember my friend Rosie was really determined to stop the litter problem. Many times as we drove down the roads in Virginia, we would see someone toss a piece of trash out his window. Rosie got so angry she would insist on following the person and yelling at them to stop littering!! I had to admire her enthusiasm and dedication to solving the problem. Dates drying in the sun Of course there are plenty of uneducated rednecks in the USA who still litter and live their lives surrounded by rubbish.

It infuriates me to see this anywhere in the world. Oman is actually cleaner than most, though, so I do have to give the country some credit. Actually the countries I have found with the biggest rubbish problems are India, Vietnam and Egypt, in that order. But since Oman is trying to establish an upscale tourism infrastructure, it would behoove them to get this trash problem resolved.

Friday, June 21: After my debacle last September in Greece, where I got to Athens but my suitcase didn’t show up for two days, I decided I would never again travel without a carry-on bag. I’m leaving in 6 days for a month in Spain and Portugal, and I determined that I would take only one suitcase. But as I can no longer ignore the need for a carry-on, I wanted to find the perfect combination. I have one medium-sized suitcase and ideally I wanted something that would sit on top of that one when I’m walking from metro or train or bus to my hotel and vice versa. In that ideal situation, the small carry-on would also have rollers and a handle, so that when the medium suitcase is checked, I can just pull the carry-on around in the airport or on board the train, or whatever.

I looked and looked for something last weekend and couldn’t find what I was envisioning. I would have bought a whole new set if I could find one that was made to fit together, one on top of the other. But, alas, I couldn’t find my dream combination. So last week, I bought a small roller carry-on from Carrefour in Muscat and brought it home, where it sat on my guest bed for a week. Though it was small, it wasn’t small enough to fit on top of my other one; neither was there a way to attach it to the larger one. During the week, I kept having visions of myself hauling two rolling suitcases through the streets of Barcelona and Toledo and Andalucia and the Algarve and Lisbon, and I didn’t like that vision one bit.

I know what a pain it is when you’re traveling and have to lug around too much stuff. I don’t want to do that for a whole month! So this weekend, my dear friend Tahira wants to go to a movie and dinner in Muscat.

I tell her I’d love to do that, but I have to deal with this luggage dilemma first. She says that’ll be fine; whatever I need to do, she’ll come around with me to help sort it out. She even has a number of suggestions as to where we might look for this perfect combo. Tahira and I have been working closely together since January. We’ve both been teaching at the university for nearly two years, but only since January, when we were both teaching Level 2 under a certain coordinator and sitting beside each other in the office, did we develop a friendship. Now I consider her a very dear friend.

But honestly, today she goes above and beyond the call of duty to help me with this boring problem. I don’t even have the patience to sort out this kind of problem when it’s MINE, and I have to say if she, or anyone else, had asked me to spend my time dealing with this if it were THEIR problem, I’m not sure I would have agreed to have anything to do with it! We leave Nizwa at 2:00 in the afternoon and when we get to Muscat, we go first to Sultan Center, a place in Muscat where I have never been. It’s just like all the big hypermarkets throughout Oman.

We sit outside of Costa Coffee in a damp breeze and drink iced coffee. Then we go to Muscat Grand Mall, where the Bollywood movie we want to see, Raanjhanaa, is playing. We go to buy tickets, only to find the movie is sold out for tonight. So now, lucky Tahira and lucky me, we have hours and hours ahead of us to sort out MY luggage dilemma! At one kiosk, we find exactly the combination I am looking for, but the carry-on bag is too small for my computer. And the price is exorbitant! We look in every shop that carries any bags at all.

Finally, at Charles and Keith, I find a large tote bag that will do the trick and I buy it for 32 rials ($83)! I try to return the carry-on bag I bought at Carrefour last weekend, but as I bought it at the City Center Carrefour, they won’t take it. It seems we have to trek to Muscat City Center in Seeb.

On our way driving to Muscat City Center, down what we know to be the only main highway in Muscat, the Sultan Qaboos Highway, Tahira says, “Where are we?” We recognize the same construction detour that we came across the last time we were in Muscat when we got lost and ended up way west of Seeb. “What?” I say.

“I have no idea!” Somehow we are on some unrecognizable highway heading toward Seeb with the new airport construction to our left as we head south! This is the second time this has happened to us, and we crack up laughing. I have a theory that it is impossible to get lost in Muscat because there is only one main highway and all roads eventually lead back to that highway.

But for the second time, we are lost in Muscat. Well, not really lost, just thrown off-track temporarily. Because in the end, I’m right, you can’t REALLY get lost in Muscat. We end up arriving from the opposite direction to Muscat City Center. We’re here and we’re not lost, proving my theory correct. 🙂 When we arrive, it seems every resident of Muscat is there.

There’s a huge traffic jam going into the mall parking lot, where we sit for what seems like forever. It turns out that every store in City Center is having a sale tonight! There’s a line at the return counter at Carrefour and I stand there trying to return the carry-on for about 20 minutes. Then as we’re walking out of the mall (sweet relief!), Tahira tells me I should check out the Samsonite store because they’re having a sale. It’s way at the other end of the mall. We trek down there where I find a good duffel bag that will work perfectly (although it has no rollers) and I settle on that for 54 rials ($140) and that’s ON SALE! I now have to run to Charles & Keith at this mall to see if I can return the other bag, and they agree to let me.

First I have to run to the car to get it, way at the other end of the mall, fighting my way through hordes of people. Meanwhile Tahira has taken off to go shopping at all the shops that are having sales!! Finally, though we left Nizwa at 2:00 this afternoon, we make our way to Shang Thai at the Wave’s Almouj Marina for dinner at around 9:00. By this time, we’re famished. A huge Omani family is at center stage, occupying the entire center of the restaurant, seated around a long rectangular table. At one point they all sing “Happy Birthday” in English to one of the young men sitting at the end of the table. It’s quite a scene as, for one, it isn’t usual for Omanis to make a big deal out of birthdays.

And to sing “Happy Birthday” in English is also noteworthy. This is obviously a modern Omani family, dishdashas and abayas notwithstanding.

Stir-fried morning-glory We have a lovely time, even running into our colleague Mac and his wife Latifa outside the restaurant. Even though the earlier part of the day was quite “hectic” (Tahira’s oft-used South African word), the evening turns out to be the perfect grand finale. I will miss Tahira immensely when I leave Oman. She makes me promise that when I get back to the U.S.

And finally get a smart phone, I must download Whatsapp right away so we can chat. By the time we arrive home in Nizwa, it is midnight. Thank goodness we have the day off Saturday now, with Oman’s revised weekend schedule, so I can sleep in! And now I have my Samsonite carry-on, just waiting for the final packing! Wall of crepe restaurant We end up capturing only a few icons of Muscat because of the extreme heat (42 degrees) and high humidity. Getting in and out of the oven of Mario’s car and walking around blinded by salty sweat dripping into our eyes and down our backs is not a pleasant experience, but Mario keeps reminding me: “What’s the worse that can happen? So what, we’re sweating.

That’s the worst, right?” And so we go: starting from the east on the harbor side of Al Alam Palace and working our way west, making a stop at Muscat Gate on the way. Minaret Al Alam Palace is the ceremonial palace of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. The palace was built by Imam Sultan bin Ahmed, the 7th direct grandfather of the current Sultan. The existing palace, which has a facade of gold and blue, was rebuilt as a royal residence in 1972. Visitors are not allowed inside the palace, despite the fact that His Majesty normally lives elsewhere in Oman.

Al Alam Palace is surrounded by the Mirani and Jalali Forts, built in the 16th century by the Portuguese. The Palace is used for official functions and receiving distinguished visitors and in January 2012, the Sultan received Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands at Al Alam Palace during her state visit to Oman. I’ve visited Al Alam Palace several times while in Oman, but usually we come from the center of Muscaat, which has a long colonnaded approach and is quite picturesque.

I have heard there’s a back view, from the harbor, so today we go to the harbor side for pictures. If you want to see the front view, you can check out this post:. Tuesday, May 28: This afternoon my friend Kathy invites me at the last-minute to go to The Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) to see an amazing show put on by a Lebanese company, Caracalla Dance Theatre.

The show, called Kan Ya Ma Kan, (Once Upon a Time) is filled with music, energetic dancing, and colorful exotic costumes. Sadly, no one is ever allowed to take photos of performances at the Royal Opera House, so I’m unable to show the dazzling and exotic costumes and sets that made this performance so stunning. Kathy had originally planned to go with someone else who cancelled on her. I had made no plans to attend any more shows at the Royal Opera House before I left Oman, so it was a lovely surprise and an amazing farewell to the Arab world. The Royal Opera House from the garden The first part used Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s music Sheherazade and focused on King Shahryar. Based on One Thousand and One Nights, this orchestral work combines two features typical of Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in the East.

It then moved to Maurice Ravel’s music Bolero. The story was about a cunning wizard in an oriental market. This is my favorite part of the performance with its traditional Arab souq as a backdrop and exotic costumes in jewel tones of purple, royal blue, fuchsia, turquoise and pink. The costumes were stunningly made in mixtures of silks, chiffons, satins and velvets in mixed patterns, giving them a gypsy-like and bohemian feel. The dancing in this part was so amazingly choreographed that I just sat in awe of the colorful extravaganza. Plumeria (aka Frangipani) in front of the Royal Opera House Muscat The third and final part used traditional Arabic Heritage music and explored the cultures of the Arab world, including a tribute to Oman.

The guest star singer for this part was Hoda Haddad, sister of the famous and widely respected Lebanese singer Nouhad Wadi Haddad, known as Fairuz. Haddad’s songs, flashes of Oman’s famous landmarks (Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Al Alam Palace, Nakhal Fort, and many others) appeared on the screen behind, bringing enthusiastic applause from the audience. Royal Opera House Muscat This production was adapted from the original, which premiered last summer in Lebanon, to fit the ROHM and was inspired by the building itself, explained Ivan. “This is like the first opening because the show changed. It’s inspired by the architecture of the opera house. It’s tailor-made for Oman,” said Ivan.

Royal Opera House Muscat According to the performance details on the ROHM website: Ivan and Alissar maintain the cultural message of the Caracalla Theatre by transforming the Arab Heritage into an international art form with its dominant presence in the world of dance theatre. Alissar is the founder of Studio Caracalla “L’Art de la Danse” and of the “Orientalist Dance Company”. She brings an innovative spirit to the unique Caracalla technique, to become the flame of present and future of the Arabic culture with her creative style in choreography, to amalgam the expression of the east and west in a unique dance style based on the Martha Graham technique. Leaving the Royal Opera House after the performance Much of the performance harkened back to the days of Sultans and harems, and some of the sets made me think of Topkapı Palace, a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign.

The performance made me wonder what happened to the exotic and sensual Arabian world of old, which today, at least in Oman and other Gulf countries, has been turned into a cloistered world of white dishdashas and black abayas. Friday, Mary 24: I will carry to America hundreds of wonderful memories of my time here in the Sultanate of Oman. There are too many to put into one blog post, as I have written over 475 posts during my 20+ months here.

As part of my fond farewell to Oman, here are my top 10 happy memories. On April 19, 2012, Mario, his Omani friend Sultan and I went on a mis-adventure to Wadi Damm. It was shortly after a big rainfall and we had to cross about 10 fast-flowing wadis.

It was a foolish exploit, because many people get killed every year in flooding wadis; it rains so rarely here that most of the time the wadis are bone dry and people don’t realize how dangerous they are. For us on this day, it was a grand & somewhat dangerous adventure. We laughed a lot and then ended up at my house drinking wine and enjoying the night away high jinks all around. One of the raging wadis on the way to Ibri 2.

On April 26, 2012, two of my friends, Kathy and Tom, and I ventured across the Hajar Mountains in Oman. We drove over a treacherous dirt road along the edges of steep mountains through Wadi Bani Awf toward an idyllic little village called Balad Sayt. In order to get to this beautiful village, we had to clamber through a pool-filled canyon to emerge on the other side in an open bowl surrounded by mountains. The village with all its lush green plantations sits in the middle of this bowl. Kathy made the mistake of abandoning her shoes beside one of the pools in the canyon. When she came out on the Balad Sayt side, she struggled mightily to walk over the burning gravelly path up to the village.

She devised several methods to protect her feet, using discarded pieces of rotten wood which she tossed ahead of her one step at a time; this painstaking method didn’t work too well. She finally tied some flexible bark around her feet with old twine. I know it wasn’t too funny for Kathy, but Tom and I never laughed so hard in our lives! Kathy and her bark and twine makeshift shoes at Balad Sayt, Oman 3. On March 28, 2013, Mario and I went up to Jebel Akhdar to see the roses. The year before, we had tried to see the roses but had come too late. This time, we were able to breathe in the sweet fragrance and take lovely photos of the pink blossoms.

We had a lovely time walking through the rose gardens and then having wine and dinner at the Sahab Hotel after. We repeated similar amazing experiences on Jebel Akhdar so many other times, I can’t even count them all. Sandy & Malcolm on a cold night on Jebel Akhdar 4) On May 11, 2012, Mario and I went hiking on Jebel Akhdar in search of the roses, but we were too late to see them. However, we had one of many great conversations throughout the course of our friendship. After our hike, he invited me to come over and share lime-flavored white corn TOSTITOS® tortilla chips (a rare find in Oman), apricot & almond cheese, cheddar cheese and a bottle of wine. We sat in his air-conditioned living room and talked about the tribal society of Oman and the confining rules under which a tribe must live, a conversation I call “escaping the tribe.” Sometimes I think I should write a book titled “ Conversations with Mario.”.

Yorktown Beach with the York River Bridge in the background. This is my hometown. In general, I prefer deserted, quiet, peaceful and unpopulated beaches, NOT beaches packed with people and umbrellas and chairs and tents and inner tubes like Guryongpo Beach near Pohang, South Korea or Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand. Most beaches in South Korea are crowded, as Korea is a tiny country with a huge population of 48 million people. Haeundae Beach in Busan is nice enough in early April, when this picture was taken, but it’s usually quite crowded. Friday, April 12: We wake up in The Gulf Sand Hotel in Al Musanaah to find we have no water.

We are planning to go the The Chedi, one of the most upscale hotels in Muscat, for the Friday breakfast buffet, so this is not acceptable. I run out to the front desk and since the receptionist doesn’t speak English I do all kinds of pantomimes to show him that I have no water in my room. They run around looking for people in the know, and finally a Bangladeshi guy comes, turns a switch and fills up the water tank. Sweet relief! Wildflowers outside the Chedi We drive to Muscat, which takes us over an hour since we get a little lost and end up driving in the wrong direction past the sprawling new airport that is under construction.

When we finally get there, I am struck by the Zen-like atmosphere of the Chedi. It has plenty of simple white arches and waterfall gardens, but it feels more Japanese than Arab. The 5-star boutique hotel fuses together traditional Omani architecture with Zen, Arabic, Japanese and European influences. Inside the lobby of the Chedi The website for the describes the hotel as follows: “Where the majestic Al Hajar Mountains meet their luminous reflection in the serene waters of the Gulf of Oman, the Chedi Muscat rises amidst an elegantly landscaped twenty-one acre garden oasis with 158 Omani influenced guestrooms and villas. This sublime yet central location equally suits leisure and business travellers while six distinct restaurants, a just opened thirteen-suite Balinese spa, three swimming pools, including the 103-metre Long Pool, 400-square metre health club plus two executive meeting rooms enhance Muscat’s considerable cultural attractions.”. Looking out from the entrance After breakfast, I try to put flyers up for the sale of my car in the Al Fair grocery stores around Muscat that expats frequent, but the bulletin boards are too full and one of them won’t even take my flyer.

They tell me it costs 5 rials to hang it up for a week. I put one up in the Medinat Sultan Qaboos Al Fair, but I guess that 5 rial cost will limit me to putting the flyers in only a few places. On the way back from Muscat, I stop to show another Omani my car and he makes an offer which I still feel is too low.

Oh well, I still have time, so I’m not going to panic.