The Staton family has been having a great time during Alanna’s two week vacation from work. Last weekend we hopped the border and spent 4 wonderful days in Oman. We left early Saturday morning from Al Ain and had no trouble crossing the border. It was so early, that when I went inside the border post to get our exit stamps for our passports, then one guy on duty was asleep on the couch!
We headed into Oman and drove through the mountains, coming out a few hours later along the coast at the city of Sohar. We turned south and headed towards our final destination – the city of Muscat. It took us another two hours to get there, but what a pretty area! The mountains kind of just slam into the ocean, creating coves here and there. Soooo pretty. Gorgeous place. Can’t stress that enough! We drove out of Muscat about 20 minutes south to the Oman Dive Centre. Alanna is a diver and really wanted to try the Gulf waters, so she booked us a stay at this quaint little place. It’s nestled up in the mountains away from everything else. You follow the mountain road around until it drops you off into a cove that is completely surrounded by mountains, complete with your own beach and blue water. The resort has huts that you stay in. The pictures we took don’t do them justice. While they were rustic, they were still very nice. You have a porch, and then enter into a large bedroom, and then in the back is an open air bathroom. It also had power and A/C so we didn’t suffer. It wasn’t the most ideal conditions for Logan, but we made it work. Day 1 – Saturday.
We got there around 11am and had some lunch at the local spot. Alanna wanted to a take a refresher dive course to get reacquainted with her dive skills, so she left Logan and me in the hut and headed to the pool for the course around 2:30. I decided to take Logan for a walk, but when I got the door I found out that Alanna had… locked it. The door locks from the outside and inside by a slide bar. She didn’t want the wind blowing the door open on us, so she closed the slider as she left. Which meant Logan and I were trapped inside the hut. I called out for a little while to see if anyone could hear me. Either no one was around or I was too embarrassed by the situation to be loud enough. My only other option would have been to climb out the top of the open air bathroom. I didn’t want to do this and leave Logan inside, just in case I couldn’t get in the door for some reason. So I decided to just wait until Alanna got back, figuring she wouldn’t be gone more than an hour. 3 HOURS LATER – Alanna returned. Logan was pretty miserable by then and needed to get some space. So did I. Alanna felt really bad. I let her feel bad for awhile just because it sucked to be stuck in a hut for 3 hours.
That night we had dinner at the local spot. Breakfast and dinners were included with our hotel stay, both were buffets, and both were GREAT. They had plenty of excellent food and we stuffed ourselves whenever we went. We also explored the beach and I climbed up a mountain to take some pictures of the resort and the water below. Then we headed back and called it a night.
Day 2 – Sunday.
We got up – well Logan woke us up and we headed over to breakfast. We ate outside every time by the way, with a lovely view of the water. After breakfast, we headed out to the beach to get some rays. It didn’t go so well. Logan was just grumpy. It’s not like we can let him just play in the sand, because he’ll eat it. So Alanna had bought a beach tent, hoping we could sit inside that with him so he could play. Well first of all, setting up a beach tent while the wind was blowing was not a pleasant experience for either of us. Secondly, Logan didn’t even want to get inside it. He was just in a bad mood and really didn’t want to do anything but be held. Alanna and I were both pretty frustrated. She took Logan back inside and I laid out on the beach for awhile, and then took a swim in the water. Even in late January, the water is nice in Oman.
We headed to lunch around noon and then Alanna checked to see about her dive. She really wanted to do a night dive, but no one else had signed up Sat or Sun night, and it takes two people to do a night dive. I’m not a diver. I took a small course on our honeymoon, but we didn’t have a chance to go in the ocean because of the weather. And, honestly, it freaks me out a little. I get claustrophobic underwater and it feels weird and makes me nervous to breathe in and out of my mouth without being able to use my nose. Call me a sissy, I don’t care. I prefer SKYdiving, thanks. Alanna finally settled on a 2 tank dive the following morning.
Since I wasn’t going diving, I decided to try kayaking instead. It had been about 10 years since I’d been in one, and never in the ocean, but I did just fine. I paddled out into the cove and then out into the ocean. The only thing bad about it was that I was alone and that got a little boring. I wish Alanna could have gone with me, but having a baby makes you adjust as needed. I did have a good time though. I paddled right up against the mountain walls beside the ocean. There was even a little cave I paddled through that brought me out into another cove! The marine life was amazing. I could paddle right over some coral reefs and watch hundreds, yes hundreds of fish swimming below me, not to mention all the crabs running along the walls of the rocks to get away from me. When I had got back in, the tide had gone back out, leaving about 200 yards of water up to my ankles. I had to pull the kayak through to get back to the dive centre. Not a problem, until I slammed my foot into a rock that was underwater. I knew I had jammed or broken my second toe as soon as it happened. Being a man though, I walked it off and returned the kayak to the dive center. Turned outs the toe was just bruised I guess. It turned a few dark shades of purple for awhile, but is healing up fine now.
That afternoon we drove into Old Muscat and a few of the other local tourist areas about 10 minutes north of the dive centre. It was a very historical area, populated since the 1600s by the Omanis, who took it back from the evil Portuguese. There are large towers along the coast which housed cannons to protect the area, built 100s of years ago. We climbed to the top of one and took pictures. We explored a little more and decided we’d come back the next day after Alanna’s dive to visit the local Souq. Dinner was amazing again back at the centre. Then Alanna watched a movie on the laptop and I read a book on the porch for a few hours before turning in for the night.
Day 3 – Monday
Alanna’s dive began at 8:00am, so we got up early, had some breakfast, then Logan and I watched her off as she headed out into the boat with the other brave souls. Logan and I hopped in the car and headed back into town just to kill some time. We walked along the corniche area and just took in the sounds of the harbor in front of us for awhile. A group of female Omani students approached us after a bit and asked us some questions about tourism, how we liked the area, etc. This was surprising because most Muslim women don’t/won’t even talk to men they don’t know. But these teenagers were very nice, spoke great English, and even let me take a picture with them. Over all, it seems like the Omani people are much more welcoming to outsiders than the Emiratis.
Alanna’s dive didn’t go so well. I’m sure you can read about it more detail on her blog (she’s writing it right now), but let’s just say she got a little seasick and tossed her cookies – twice. She was supposed to go on two different dives. The first one went fine, and then between the first and the second she got sick, so she spent the second dive sitting on a little island trying to recover. She got back to the Dive Centre around 1pm, so we ate lunch and then headed back in town to explore the Souq.
Since it was only 3 or 4pm when we got there, the Souq was pretty dead, only half the shops were even open. It was still fun to walk through the area though. Pretty much every single store owner tried to sell us something. We didn’t buy anything though. Then we once again headed back to the dive centre for a wonderful dinner and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing, reading, watching movies.
Day 4 – Tuesday
Tuesday was check out day. We got up and took advantage of the free breakfast, then headed back, packed everything and headed out. We stopped at a local museum on the way out that was closed before. It was pretty boring, but free, so we stopped in for 5 minutes or so. There’s a guard there that stands around… guarding… the place with an M-16. He politely refused my request to take a picture of/with him. The rest of the morning we spent driving home to the UAE. I have to admit that I loved Oman. I found the landscape much more to my liking compared to the UAE, and as I’ve already mentioned, the people were much friendlier. I really wouldn’t mind going back again before we head out for the summer.
Here’s a link to all the photographs from Oman – (You don’t have to be on Facebook to see them.)
On Wednesday, we didn’t do much. The maid came that morning and then cleaned our messy house while we went out for lunch. Then I headed to the House of the Arts to teach my drama classes that night. When I got home that night, we watched the season premiere of LOST. Alanna and I are both addicted to the show. We had to download it online, and we had no idea there was a second hour. So we watched the first and thought that was it. Alanna’s Dad started talking about stuff we hadn’t heard of when we Skyped with him the next day, so we figured out our problem and watched the second half on Thursday night. Great show! Also on Thursday we visited the Al Ain Oasis. It’s really the only reason there’s a city here. A BIG source of water in the middle of a dry desert is a perfect spot to build a city around. The oasis is a huge walled in enclosure with thousands and palm trees and ancient irrigation techniques that tap into the water underground. The actual area was just ok. Nothing special to go through, but a must see if you’re coming through Al Ain.
Today we got up early and headed back to the Al Ain zoo, which we first visited in the fall. They have a white lion exhibit and we were excited to go see it. In the fall, we went at night. It was WAY too crowded, and because it was dark, all the animals were hard to see or asleep. Today was perfect though. It was a little overcast, had a nice breeze, and practically no one was there when we arrived at 11am. We got lots of nice pictures of the animals and got a chance to talk to a zoologist from the San Diego zoo. She was sitting in front of the white lion enclosure. She was nice enough to answer all our questions. We found out that the white lions are not albino, but are exactly like normal lions. They have a recessive gene that makes them white. There really aren’t any in the wild, but she did say they were trying to work them back in by breeding them. All in all, a much better visit than last time.
Alanna has one more week off before she returns to work, so I’m sure we’ll have more adventures next week. Oh, and we might spend a little bit of time in London before we head back to the States this summer. SWEET.
