More from Muscat

The past two days were lovely and relaxing ones. The girls were up at 7am Christmas morning and delighted to find Santa had left their stockings full at the end of their beds. Opened those and got up for a breakfast with the gang before opening the remaining gifts under the tree. In the afternoon we drove to nearby Qurm beach for a walk. There were many local families out enjoying the sunny day and we spent a good hour "shelling" there before heading home. The number of sea shells along this shoreline was phenomenal. Tons of tiny little pink shells as well as numerous others. We ended up filling a bucket.  Christmas dinner was delicious - wonderful turkey with all the trimmings and trifle for dessert. Skyped with family back home before calling it a day.

Boxing Day brought more sun but a strong wind and big waves so we spent the day at the beach boogie boarding and body surfing in between eating various leftovers at the house. Edward managed to embed three sea urchin spines in his big toe - ouch - but had a good time nonetheless! Tonight we have picked up our rental 4x4 in preparation for our road trip tomorrow. The plan is to drive south along the coast to a town called Sur where we will stop for lunch and see the dhow building yard. From there we will drive inland to the Wahiba sands for an overnight desert camping trip that is to include a visit to a small bedouin village, camel rides, and sand skiing... Next morning we will drive out of the desrt via the dunes, visit an old village, and possibly take in the fort at Nizwa before heading home. We will post on these travels sometime Tuesday. In the interim some photos from the past couple of days....

Merry Christmas from Muscat

Today was a real R&R day for all of us.  Headed down to the PDO beach after a late breakfast and spent much of the day there playing in the sand and surf.  The girls were barely out of the water for more than a few minutes at a time and alternated between boogie boarding, snorkeling, swimming, and kayaking.  Laurel made her first foray into the Indian Ocean today however we discovered the waterproof camera was missing its memory card so alas, no pictures...

Christmas Eve dinner was a lovely meal of Ham (a big treat here in Muscat), scalloped potatoes, veges, bread, etc.  We also had a Scottish treat for dessert: meringues with whip cream and chocolate sauce.  Edward's sister Diana continues to spoil us with wonderful meals and treats.  We plan to hang stockings shortly and get the girls to bed so Santa can make his visit.  We have been tracking him on the norad web site and he is getting close to the middle east.

We wish each of you a wonderful Christmas day and will be thinking of everyone as we celebrate in the lands of those early shepards and kings.

Scenes from Muscat

Spent the morning along the corniche in Muscat checking out the fish market, walking along the harbour front and revisiting the souk for another look. The fish market was wonderful - full of local fisherman selling their mornings bounty from the sea. Saw some fish we recognized and some we did not. Also made a second trip to the souk - there are so many alley ways, stalls, wares to look at it was almost overwhelming the first time so we had a second look today and still found it overwhelming! You can buy every textile imagineable, old and new silver jewelry, incense burners, clothing, spices, carvings, gold, khunjar, purses, baskets, and on and on....

Our afternoon was spent pool and beach side relaxing and snoozing. Our nephews were in a sailing competition today and did quite well.  The girls enjoyed a good swim and some hiking along the bluffs around the bay.  They have been finding some marvelous sea shells here.  More R and R is on the agenda for the next few days as we prepare for the arrival of Santa in Muscat.

The Grand Mosque

The morning brought sun today so we were up and out the door early to visit the Grand Mosque during non-Muslim visiting hours.  Our previous reading about this in no way prepared us for the absolute magnificence of this building and its grounds. It is the second largest mosque in the world and was built by the current sultan six years ago.  After the girls recovered from their fits of giggles when being outfitted with "tickly" head scarves our first stop was the main prayer hall, the floor of this being covered by the largest hand woven persian rug in the world with 1,700,000,000 knots and weighing 21 tonnes! The centre of this hall also rises 50 metres and provides a focal point for the 14 metre chandelier that a worker must literally climb into to clean from the inside.  I could also go on about the stained glass windows, tile mosaics, marble walls and floors....  It was truly an amazing experience to be there and like nothing we have ever seen before.

After the mosque we enjoyed a nice lunch on the patio at the house and went down to the PDO beach for some swimming and snorkeling.  Cousin Katie took the girls out for a kayak ride which they both enjoyed. There are green parrots nesting in a cove around the corner from the beach we were at today that we hope to check out more closely tomorrow.  They are beautiful to watch flying through the air and make quite a racket.  

Dune Bashing in a Toyota Echo ?!?!

Had planned to go to the Grand Mosque first thing this morning (being open to non-Muslims only between 8-11am) but a torrential downpour squashed that so we went shopping instead. Visited another small souk near the house and came home laden with gifts and goodies. Also went for shwarma lunch with our nephews and visited an Indian "Hypermarket" 15 minutes away. Fascinating foods there, inluding goat parts we'd never eat....

Later in the day Edward went with the rest of the "boys" to go "dune bashing". When it rains here the sand on the dunes near town becomes quite hard and easy to drive on so the locals have a habit of going up and driving around all over the top of them in all manner of crazy. They took the old land rover and the toyota echo and roared around for a while... The land rover normally attracts some attention because it is an old British SAS ambulance and a very handsome car, however, the Echo is not something normally seen dune bashing and was the object of numerous comments and honks. So off they took, roaring around climbing and decending the sand hills, swerving around erratically, and generally bounding all about. Much fun for those inclinded in this way I was told. The grins on their faces when they came in said it all....
 

Shopping and Sailing

Were up a little earlier today to make a morning trip to the Muttrah Souk. Got to the area of the souk to find loads of policemen and military personnel preparing the area for a visiting dignitary later today. Took a small walk around the harbor area before visiting the souk and saw some traditional wooden dows anchored next to the sultans yacht. The souk was an amazing array of alleyways and narrow lanes filled with wares and materials of all kinds, local Omanis, and the wafting aroma of frankincense being warmed by burning coals underneath incense burners. It was a feast for the senses. Purchased a few wares with plans to return for more another day and were taken on a driving tour around the city.

Saw one of the many palaces built for the current Sultan Qaboos (who has been in power since 1971 and truly moved Oman into the modern area), relics of old forts on the hilltops and buildings of all kinds. Returned to the house for lunch and a cool down as it was a toasty 30 C today. Went sailing on hobie cats in the afternoon - Edward managed to capsize his boat once and get himself thrown in the drink a second time much to the amusement of his co-sailors! The girls loved the experience and racing through the water. Enjoyed a marvelous Christmas tea and tree decorating in the evening.