Jacqui and Richard Abroad: Monday, May 22nd

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post. Mind you, not much has happened in the last few weeks. We drove by a Catholic church in Ruwi (a mostly Indian part of the city) on Good Friday; there were thousands of people around the church. Jacqui and I took Easter Sunday off from work; we can't work on Easter Sunday - it just doesn't feel right.

My last day of teaching was May 11th; we start exams on Sunday the 14th. It might have been my last day as a classroom teacher as such. Who knows? Is this how it ends?

Vincent arrived on Friday night (May 12th) and we picked him up at the airport early in the evening and drove home from there. He was a little tired but looked happy to be able to discover another part of the planet! We went for lunch at the Marina on Saturday then let him rest a bit for the rest of the day. We went to see an opera in the evening; we saw "Les pêcheurs de perles"; it was pretty good. Jacqui "fell suddenly ill" on Sunday and Monday, which allowed her and Vince to visit the Grand Mosque and a museum in town, and then to drive the next day to an Jibreen Castle (an old fort dating back to the late 1600), about 150 km away . On Tuesday, Vince took the rental car that we had and drove to the Dive Center, where he did two separate dives in the morning. He was back shortly before 2pm, which is when we finish school these days because of the heat. On Wednesday, it was might turn to be suddenly ill, so Vince and I drove to Wadi Shab in the morning. Like everybody else that we have taken there, he loved it!

We met at the airport on Thursday afternoon, Jacqui and I coming from work, and Vincent coming from our flat with our rental car that had to be returned. We flew to Dubai at the end of the afternoon and were there early evening. We checked in and then went for dinner. After that, Jacqui and I came back to the hotel while Vincent explored the neighbourhood a bit! We went on a desert safari on Friday morning. The dune bashing was OK but not as long as expected. Once we got to the tour company desert camp, Vince went for a 30 minutes ride on a four wheeler in the desert. He really enjoyed it.

After our return to Dubai, we took the metro to go to the Marina area, where we had lunch and went up to the 54th floor of a hotel to look at the view of the Palms, amongst other things. We then visited the Mall of the Emirates, with the ski hill, which Vince found pretty cool, then went to Dubai Mall to look at the water fountain show. It was pretty good. We then went for dinner, then Jacqui and I went back to the hotel while Vince continued his nightly exploration of Dubai. He says he found some pretty good bars on rooftops of various hotels - we wouldn't know!
Saturday morning saw us go up the Burj Khalifa; we have been up a few times but it is always quite impressive. We all thoroughly enjoyed it! Finally, we came back to Muscat on Saturday night, an d prepared for work on Sunday while Vincent was preparing to go back to Canada. I drove him to the airport on Sunday night; it was a really nice visit and we are really glad that he could make it to the Middle East before we left. He really enjoyed his stay and all the things he did.

We will see him in about 3 weeks as we will be back home on June 13th. Until then, we have started to count the days. On this day, May 22nd, we are leaving Oman in exactly 3 weeks, and are arriving in Bangkok in exactly 2 months. Crazy!