Thursday, November 27th - The Taj Mahal

We got up at 5 am and left the hotel, with our “breakfast to go” care package, by 6. Traffic was quiet at that time so we made relatively good time to get out of the city. The Taj Mahal is located in Agra, about 250 km away, but even though the distance doesn’t seem that big, it’s still a 4½ h drive to get there. The drive was interesting, going through the country side, seeing their fields where they grow … something, where they have brick production (by hand), and where they walk to the local market to sell their fruits and veggies. Again, we encountered all sort of traffic on the road, not necessarily in the sense of quantity, but more in the sense of quality. We saw again all the same mode of transportations mentioned in yesterday’s entry, plus we saw pigs walking along the road, as well as monkeys and goats.  The villages and cities that we drove through were all very dirty by our standards. It also looked very poor!

We finally got to Agra at around 10:30, where we met up with our guide (arranged through our driver). We went to the Taj Mahal and were very impressed by what we saw. It is amazing. A mausoleum built by 20,000 men, over a span of 22 years, working 24/7, in the early 1600’s. It is magnificient! We walked around the gardens, went into the mausoleum as such, took many pictures, then headed back to Jaipur. It was probably the one thing we wanted to see in India, and it was worth it!

We got back to the hotel by about 7pm, had dinner and called it a day. So far, this trip is a lot of fun and very interesting, but not too restful. I guess we’ll sleep when we go back to Muscat!

All their trucks are decorated like this - kinda cool!

Most people going straight, except for that little thing trying to cut across

One of the 4 entry gates to the Taj Mahal

The sign says it all!

The Taj Mahal

This is not a photographic backdrop; we are there!

Lady Diana sat on this same bench, years ago.

You cannot walk with shoes inside the mauseleum - so you must wear bootties over your shoes

Entrance to the mauseleum

Street vendors, back in the city of Agra

A carpet salesman explaining how they are made (the carpets, not the salesman!)

Wednesday, November 26th - We're off to Jaipur, India

Here we go: a 4 day weekend! Weleft our apartment late Tuesday night to catch a 1:30 am flight to Jaipur (pop. 4 million), India. The flight is 2½ hour long and the time difference is 1½ hours ahead of us, which meant that we landed at about 5:30 am. We had made arrangements with the hotel to have someone pick us up at the airport. What a relief to see someone holding a little sign with our name on it after spending a sleepless night on a plane. We got to the hotel and checked in at 6:30am! We've checked in many hotels before but never at that time. To our great pleasure and surprise, they had a room ready for us. We slept for about 3 hours then went for a 30 minutes massage, which was included in our hotel package. We had lunch, then went out for our first tour of the weekend. We had booked a driver, who took us all over the place in the 3 days that we were there. Our first stop was the City Palace, located in the Pink City (named after the color of most of its walls). It was built in the early 1700 by the Maharaja and is made up of various palaces, gardens and temples. It was pretty cool to see.

One thing that was amazing on the way there was the traffic, and the people. Their road system isn't as developped as ours, so that there are few street lights at intersections. It's mostly whoever honks the loudest and longest that will go through. So you go from a two or three lane street to about 5 cars (or vehicules) wide as it can include tractors pulling trailers - the real definition of a tractor trailer, motorcycles, scooters, tuk tuks, cyclists, horses pulling carts, elephants pulling carts, camels pulling carts, pedestrians trying to cross the street, and of course, cows! It's a real adventure. You have people going every which way at the same time, plus they drive on the left hand side of the road. There is no way that I would drive there, not a chance! But there are no accidents!

At night, we went out for dinner to a pretty cool place, at the Choki Dhani Resort. It's a five-star resort, build to entertain adults and children. There were various shows, elephant rides, and a real nice Indian buffet for dinner. We walked around a bit, had dinner, walked around a bit more then went back to meet our driver, as fatigue was quickly settling in. It had been a really nice first day in India.

Tomorrow, Agra and the Taj Mahal! Can't wait!

Sunrise on Jaipur, from our hotel room, at about 6:30am

Kids going back home from school - that is your school transportation folks!

A building in the Pink City

Cowa by the gate to the City Palace

Inside the City Palace

A travelling food stand

People everywhere!

Entering Choki Dhani

I got "dotted"!

Jacqui too!

Sitting on an elephant

Our mode of transportation, for a very short ride!

India trip details coming soon

No time to write yet, details about the India trip soon. Sorry!! Too much work!

Monday, November 24th - Our weekend and our visit to the opera house

We had another beautiful weekend. Like Jacqui says, our Fridays are perfect! We get up, tidy up a bit before the cleaning lady comes in (for 6 OMR - less than $ 18 CAD) and we go to the gym - our routine for the last two weeks! Then we go for a long walk on the beach; it feels like when most of you take that one week to Mexico in March, except it's all the time, every week! Then we go for lunch at a beachside restaurant, before going back to the Crowne Plaza to spend the rest of the afternoon by the pool. And we think about Buffalo with their 10 feet of snow, and don't really miss it that much!!
Saturday morning was our Christmas shopping time. We went to the Mutrah souk (the old souk in Muscat) and bought a few things for Christmas. It was very nice. We walked around quite a bit, not knowing where we were or were going for most of the time! But we eventually found our way out! The rest of the day was a business day. I worked on exams and Jacqui went shopping for most of the afternoon. All of our exams have to be approved by the Ministry of Education; can you imagine such a task in Ontario? It would be nuts! But that is the way it is in Oman, so our exams have to be ready way before they are administered to students.
Sunday was back to work, the start of a three day week! In the evening, we went to the Opera House to see a show about flamenco dancing. It was pretty cool, but the place is so amazing, it's worth going just to see it, We got upgraded from the 3rd balcony to the main floor, which was kind of nice, We had a very nice evening!
Monday was just an ordinary day at work. It is so weird to think that we will have done more than "half" of our work week and most of you will not have started yours! Then it's one more sleep (Monday night) and we're off to India, as we are leaving early Wednesday morning (2 am) - it seems that all the flights that we take from the Middle East leave in the middle of the night! We are really looking forward to this trip. Seeing the Taj Mahal will surely be a highlight of it.

Putting on a massar (muzzar?)

Final product, with my new friend!

Going into the Opera House - it is a marble floor and it shines like an ice rink!

The side entrances to the "shops" at the Royal Opera House Muscat

Inside the ROHM

The first, second and third balcony, where we were supposed to sit.

We were there!

Thursday, November 20th - A full week

This week was parent-teacher interview week. Jacqui met the parents of her students on Sunday while I met the parents of my students on Monday (3 to 6 pm both days). We both had OK days; parents everywhere are the same. They want their kids to do well, and there are even some parents that think that their kids are little angels when we know that in fact, they are not!
Tuesday was National Day; it was the 44th anniversary of Oman. We had activities at school for most of the day; it was pretty well done (despite the fact that we did not understand a word of what they said as it was all in arabic!) We went out for a walk at night, as driving in our neighbourhood was out of the question - way too much traffic. Everyone seems to come to Qurum. It was interesting to see people celebrate. Basically, they drive around, hanging out the window or through the sunroof, sometimes sitting on the hood, but that's it. No fireworks, no concert in the park, no kids activities - or if there were some, we sure didn't see them. It was still nice to see the pride that the Omanis have for their country.
On Wednesday, the decision about the holiday was finally made public. We are getting next Wednesday and Thursday off for the National holiday. That gives us a four day weekend, and we are off to India. We are flying to Jaipur and will take a one day tour to Agrah, to visit the Taj Mahal. Yes, there will be pictures posted on this blog when we get back.
Thursday was an OK day, which ended at the pool at the Crowne Plaza; we even had a toast to Buffalo, which is getting buried in mega piles of snow. We hope that none of you have to deal with that mess.

Jacqui and Ms Hanan, the arabic teacher

Jacqui's boys!

Pass those flags out!

We love Oman!

Car decorated with a picture of the Sultan

Car decorated with colours of the country and image of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said