Sunday, October 26th - Happy New Year, it's been a nice long weekend

The extra day off was very nice, thanks to the Islamic New Year which is celebrated today. We had a relaxing weekend, spending some time at The Wave, on Friday. It's a new subdivision with small restaurants and a nice marina; we signed up for sailing classes for next weekend. It should be fun! Saturday, we drove around to visit a few "tourist" spots; it was nice. No pictures as I will wait to have my camera as opposed to a phone to put them up on the blog. Sorry! We went to a movie at night; the movie started 25 minutes late. It felt like being in an airport when your plane is late: we couldn't get in the theater before hand. Sunday was part of a work day, doing marking and prep at home. We then skyped with friends and family after dinner, and watched TV a bit, before putting an end to this weekend. The next one is just around the corner; so is November. Time really goes by quickly. Next thing you'll know, we'll be back home for Christmas. In the meantime, Hallowe'en is coming, even though it is not a big thing on the Middle East, we did see a few things in a grocery store. We also saw a store that had a sign of Merry X-mas!!

Thursday, October 23rd - We finally have our car, and a long weekend!

Our week was pretty much uneventful. I had to go to the bank on Monday to collect my cheques. That  means waiting for about one hour to see a personal banker who then takes about 3 minutes with you to give you the cheques. We then went to the car dealer and gave the cheques and the salary certificate that we had gotten from school. I went back to the car dealership on Tuesday to sign other papers, before going out to Quiz night at the Crowne Plaza. We went out with other friends on Wednesday night, and sadly watched CNN when we got back home. What happened in Ottawa is just sickening. That being said, if such an act would have happened in the country that we are in, I'm sure we would have received a bunch of emails and messages telling us to come back to Canada because it would be too dangerous to live here. Just sayin'! On Thursday, We finally picked up our car after work. We are now the owners of a Honda City 2013, white in color (like the majority of cars in Oman). 

All week, the kids at school were talking about the possibility of a long weekend coming up as it is the Islamic New year on Sunday. Nothing was made official until Wednesday afternoon. It makes it hard to plan for a three day weekend when you're not sure if it will be there or not. Our plan is to just stick around, relax and use our car to discover the area a little more.

That's our car!

Saturday, October 18th - A "nothing" weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend. We spent some time by the pool at the Crowne Plaza, did some grocery shopping and Jacqui went shopping with some colleagues on Saturday morning. We went out for dinner with friends on Friday and by ourselves on Saturday. But this time, we had a legit excuse for going out: we don't have any more gas in our tank for our stove. We ran out on Wednesday night, told the maintenance people on Thursday morning but our tank still wasn't filled by Saturday night. So we had to eat out. It was a nice relaxing weekend, which ended with talking to friends and family via Skype. We'll be home for Chritmas in two months; time really does fly by!

Sunset at the Crowne Plaza

They are cooking chicken on an open fire - someone would turn the sticks once in a while!

Thursday, October 16th - Glad the week is over!

Our week at work was OK, but it's always hard to go back after a holiday. The kids aren't motivated (neither are the teachers) and we were pretty tired as we had spent another week of basically being on the go all the time. We skyped with friends on Sunday, then went out to Quiz Night on Tuesday and Wednesday. Quiz Night is like a big game of Trivial Pursuit, where you get points for answering trivial questions. Tuesday night was at the Crowne Plaza. Out of 16 teams, our team of four players placed 16th! We figure we had the right answers but they had the wrong questions! Wednesday was a different story. It was held in a smaller hotel, with only 8 teams, and we had 5 players on our team (different players than on Tuesday night). We finished first, and won 55 OMR in vouchers to spend at their restaurant/bar (that's almost $150); we can do that! So I guess we'll have to go back next week! We also went to the bank on Wednesday to get some cheques to pay for the car that we are buying - pre authorized withdrawal doesn't seem to exist around here; you pay by postdated cheques. Of course, you cannot get them right away. We have to open another account as the one we opened a few weeks ago is a savings account (even though we asked for a current, or checking, account). But in order to open such an account, we need a letter from the employer stipulating our monthly income. We had asked for that letter before the Eid holiday, but knew we wouldn't get it at that time. So we got that letter Wednesday, went to the bank, and were told that we should have the cheques by next Monday. So in the meantime, we keep driving our rental car. We went to dinner at "On the Rocks", at the Golden Tulip Hotel. It was a pretty cool place to see and the food was absolutely delicious. It was a nice evening and a good start to the weekend.

In the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton

Part of the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton

A "little" tabasco with your lunch

Smallest bottle of tabasco we've ever seen - we need to zoom in to see it!

One of the pools, at the Ritz-Carlton

Having dinner at "On the Rocks"

Cheers, from Muscat

Friday, October 10th - Ma'salama Salalah

Unfortunately, we had to leave Salalah this morning. It has been a very nice stay and a great trip. Our flight back was quiet. We went grocery shopping after we got back - not as exciting as touring like we did the last few days. On Saturday, we went to the souq and then went for lunch at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. It was very, very nice. We spent a very nice afternoon, and then just relaxed later at night, trying to get psyched up for going back to work on Sunday. The week went by quickly, but it was very much appreciated.

Crowne Plaza - Salalah - in the background 

The grounds, with the beach in front

Half hour to go before leaving

Enjoying a final walk around the place

Pools, with the pool bar on the left hand side

We didn't use it!

On the beach, a final time.

Road leading up to the airport

The sign says it all!

On our way back to Muscat

Thursday, Oct 9th – West of Salalah, and Frankincense trees

We left again around 9am but this time, we headed west of the city. We drove off road for a while as our driver was trying to find a sinkhole that he hadn’t been too for 38 years. He did find it and was really happy about it. We enjoyed the drive there as we were practically going straight up the mountain at times. He also took us to see frankincense trees, which basically grow sparsely here and there in the desert. He cut the bark, and the sap started pouring, which when it hardens a bit, is the frankincense that people use for medicinal purposes and to burn as incense (yes, it smells like church!). We also saw some plants of aloe vera, growing in the wild, buy frankincense trees. After that, we got back on the main road and drove for a while until we got to a place where we could see blowholes. A blowhole is a hole in the ground, close to the coast, where water spurts from because of the waves hitting the shore. It is pretty cool to see. We then drove up a mountain before driving all the way down to the beach. We went down at least 3000 feet basically driving all the way along a cliff. Twenty-eight hairpin turns latter, we were at a beautiful beach, with a bunch of fishing boats that were just coming in from their daily expedition. It was quite interesting to see them sort out the fish, put it in big coolers and then get ready to drive the day’s catch to the Salalah market. Our guide then took us back the same road we had come down from and we headed back to our hotel. That was the end of our three half-day expeditions, which were all very different but all the same very interesting. In late afternoon, we visited the frankincense museum, and then went for dinner. It was another very interesting day!

The white stuff is Frankincense

Sap coming out of a fresh cut of the bark of a frankincense tree

A Frankincense tree

An aloe vera plant

A cave up in the rocks

Anyone see a road leading up there? We didn't either, but still went!

A sinkhole, normally not visited by tourists (our guide hadn't been there in 38 years)

Our guide and I taking pictures of this sink hole - it's pretty deep!

Jacqui, at the Marneef cave

Near Mugsail

A blowhole

A selfie!

Follow the road, and don't fall down

Getting close to the bottom

Beach and fishermen

Nets used to catch fish and seafood

Fisherman with a Hamour - popular fish in the middle east

Not sure what kind this one is!!

Wednesday, Oct 8th – East of Salalah

We got picked up at the hotel shortly before 9 am by our driver, who had already picked up our friends at another hotel. We drove east of Salalah, sometimes on roads, sometimes off road. We saw a sinkhole created by a meteor many years ago. It was pretty impressive. We saw another falaj, a piece of human engineering which allows the capture and use of the water flowing from the mountain. The water was nice and clear, but not very cold to drink, understandably (it ain't the Rockies!). We went to see a river, which at home would be no big deal, but here, there aren’t too many of those. It is a big deal. People were taking pictures on the dock, taking boat rides and using paddle boats. The river was maybe 30 meters wide. Jacqui and I were thinking that if we stopped our car at every river we see in Canada when travelling, we would never get to destination. But here, it’s different. We saw some Bedouins taking care of a herd of camels and finally ended up on a cliff, by the water. From there, we could see a sea turtle swimming in the water, and a gorgeous beach in front of a town called Taqah. We visited an old Fort in that town, and then drove back to our hotel to enjoy the rest of the afternoon by the pool and the beach. It was a very nice day.

It's green, as we are heading up a mountain

Doesn't look very desertish, does it?

Flowers found in trees up the mountain

A falaj (collecting and directing water to be used for consumption and irrigation)

Having a natural drink!

Road construction - it's universal!!!

The valley, seen from the mountain

A sinkhole, create by a fallen meteor

A natural port, used by Queen Sheba for exporting frankincense and other goods

Herd of camels

The river

The beach, at Taqah

Getting in the old Fort at Tawah

Inside the old Fort

The new Fort

Household items used by the people living in the Fort

Sulaih, our guide

Sunset on the beach by our hotel in Salalah