Yes, another visa run has us spending the night in Muscat, Oman with the decision made to play tourist and enjoy the sites. It was a bit of a surprise to find after we returned home that this particular weekend was the point in time that the Omani people decided that Tunisia and Egypt were getting too much world press and to start protesting against their own government.

We saw nothing at all the entire two days to suggest that even one local citizen was unhappy as everyone in Muscat was friendly with smiling faces – probably at the prospect of separating us of our money since B had her shopping face on the entire time. Apparently there were anti government protests in some of the rural areas of the country which to me seems somewhat of marketing blunder as there aren’t many people out there in the middle of the desert. If you ask me how to get attention, go to the big city and throw rocks at the Presidential Palace.

Nary a rock thrower in sight at the Sultan's Palace.

Perhaps the Omani citizens are merely shaking their proverbial sticks in the air and scowling in front of the cameras to see what goodies the Sultan will give them, seeing how some great reforms have been granted in some of the other neighboring countries for the same kinds of actions.  Sure enough, The Sultan was spooked enough to announce a few days later that the minimum wage had been doubled, a few of his cousins had been thrown out…uh…replaced in high government positions and a dialogue would be opened up with the people, a popular promise in this part of the world over the past few months.

Fun at the Muscat Festival

We attended the last night of the Muscat Festival, a kind of Fatacil (for my Algarvian friends) and felt very comfortable walking among everyone. We were even interviewed by a local radio station – typical questions. How do you like the festival? Where are you from?  So thank you to the dozens of our American friends who expressed their concern that we might have been beheaded during the weekend but we are fine, rested and ready to explore again during the next visa run, probably to Qatar next.

It seems these visa runs come more frequently the longer I live here.  A series of SNAFU’s, bureaucratic red tape and a very laid back management at the company I work for still have me in limbo between the category of a tourist and a worker here. Therefore I am taking these visa runs as an opportunity to see other countries as a tourist rather than just an airport to jet in and out of.

We took an overnight trip into the Musandam region of Oman and stayed at the Golden Tulip hotel just out of Khasab. What a beautiful part of the world with arid mountains directly on the coastline and an undulating coastline that is nicknamed “The Fjords of Oman”. Khasab is a small port town with fishing and tourism as its main reason for existence. I also hear stories that it is a main artery for illegal smuggling of goods, mainly electronics from Iran in exchange for what I don’t know. But don’t quote me on that.

I’ll let my pictures tell the story in this post so enjoy.

Approaching Oman

You know you are getting close to Oman when you see the mountains suddenly jut out of the landscape.

Omani Coastline

The road to Khasab skirts the thin line of land between the mountains and the sea.

Caution, cattle crossing - literally

Livestock abounds, both in Oman and the border towns of the UAE as you approach Oman.

Everyone has a few goats in Khasab

You can’t go anywhere in Khasab without seeing goats everywhere.

A local resident lets us take a photo with him.

This local resident let us take a photo with him at the Marina.

Catch of the Day in Khasab port.

Fishing is a way of life in Khasab.

Sunrise in Oman

I awoke early the next day to catch this photo.

Vacant beaches in Oman

Wide open beaches with plenty of room to spread out.

Local Khasab family

A small family sits ouside their house.

High and Dry Dhow

Someone forgot where their marina slip was.

Khasab Mosque

This mosque was located near the marina. Nice view of the mountains in the background.

Golden Tulip Hotel

The hotel where we stayed.

Khasab Marina

The marina at Khasab, Oman.

Hope they has the car waxed.

As I said, goats are everywhere.

Beachfront View

Just a short walk from the hotel.

Seaside village in Oman

This can be seen from the hotel.

Larry, Moe and Curly

Camel Beauty Contest

Nearly 20,000 camels from the UAE and other Gulf Arab countries have converged on Abu Dhabi’s western region for one of the world’s biggest camel beauty contests involving prizes worth nearly Dh35 million ($9.5 million).

The camels have been brought from various parts of the UAE as well as neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and other Gulf nations for the week-long beauty competition in the western town of Dhafra.

The contest, which started on Thursday, will stretch until next Friday and officials described it as one of the largest camel beauty pageant in the world in terms of the value of prizes and number of camels.

More than 800 camel owners from the UAE and other regional nations are participating in the event, which is sponsored by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces. It is organised by the Culture and Heritage Authority.

Although I was not able to make it to this year’s pagent, this is something I am putting on my “to-do” list for 2011.

Blind Justice?

This is a follow up to my previous post .

A Saudi court is trying to persuade a man paralyzed in a fight to drop his demand to inflict a similar injury on his attacker by having his spinal cord surgically damaged, a judiciary spokesman said Monday.The court has determined that such a procedure could result in the attacker’s death and is appealing to the victim to accept financial compensation instead, the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity under judiciary rules.

After consulting with Saudi hospitals, the judge ruled that such a procedure could be fatal and that blood money would be a fair deal.

Rights group Amnesty International has urged Saudi authorities not to deliberately paralyze the attacker, saying that doing so would constitute torture. Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic law and occasionally doles out punishments based on the ancient legal code of an eye-for-an-eye.

According to Amnesty, convicts have had teeth pulled by dentists in retribution for knocking people’s teeth out in fights and others have been sentenced to be blinded after causing people to go blind.

Blind Justice?

A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals if they are willing to surgically damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment for a cleaver attack that left a 22 year old man patralyzed. The victim became paalyzed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than 2 years ago.

The attacker was sentenced to 14 months in jail but released after only serving 7 months.  The family of the victim is upset about the early release of the attacker and is asking for an appeal and their “legal right under Islamic law”.  According to the family of the victim, “There is no better word than God’s word – an eye foe an eye.”

The judge has since asked several hospitals if medical paralysis was possible and would they perform the surgery. It is reported that one hospital in the capital city of Riyadh had declined, saying it could not inflict such harm.

Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic law and occasionally hands out punishments based on ancient legal code. It is hard to follow details of the Saudi justice system as people are sentenced in closed trials with no access to the public and no lawyers.

Amnesty International has expressed concerns over the reports and said it was contacting Saudi authorities for details.

Mountains of Oman

My fourth trip into the desert with my friend Richard and his Nissan Patrol turned out to be a jaw dropping experience for me. Our intended destination was a wadi (riverbed) he had been to before that is known to have running water year round and a spectacular waterfall. Not knowing the Arabic name for the area he referred to this spot as “Waterfall Wadi”. We entered the little finger of Oman that politely sticks up between Dubai and Hatta. This is not a serious border crossing and all the guard asks you is if you have car insurance that covers you in Oman. I have a feeling that the guard hadn’t had much traffic this morning as he was unusually chatty and I think a bit lonely. After exchanging life stories with the border guard we traveled south about 45 minutes before taking a small but paved road north. A few minutes later we turned off onto a dirt road that immediately turned into an intimidating passage for even the most experienced off-roader. Good thing too, as it turns out the waterfall we were going to was just five minutes down this road. Nothing destroys these centuries old natural wonders quicker like listing in the tourist guides and easy access by Sunday drives in their rental cars. Fortunately this road was not passable except by the most experienced four wheel drive vehicle and I base this declaration on the fact that we did not see another human being the entire day off the pavement.

Waterfall not falling.

The water wasn’t falling, and although the area supposedly never dries up, the trickle of moisture that produced the occasional dripping sound into the small pool at the bottom of the drop off was really stretching the definition of “year round” water. Parts of the overhanging rock wall that created the waterfall were covered in calcite (calcuim carbonate) and had formed a stalagmite. It looked like white mud had spilled over the edge and had frozen in time, but we all know it took centuries of water seeping through the limestone to create these geological works of art. Many of the rocks and stones that littered the riverbed were interlaced with the white lines of this calcite.

We spent the rest of the day driving and then hiking up the river bed towards the source of the “waterfall”, exploring the occasional pools of water and surveying the terrain. We came upon ancient terraces, still in good condition, where hundreds of years ago, the local inhabitants made an attempt as farming.

Ancient Aqueduct

Obviously, years ago the area was less arid and more fertile as evidenced by ruins of aqueducts, man made irrigation pools, and even building foundations. I can’t help but think how much human effort went into the attempt to tame this rugged terrain, just to grow a handful of crops in order to survive.

What impressed me the most of all the day’s discoveries was the extreme geologic variety in such a small area of the country. Around every corner of the road were rocks of different colors and consistancy. Standing in a washed out riverbed looking up at the base of a mountain a thousand feet high can be very intimidating.

Mountains of Oman

Mountain ranges that appear to shoot out of the flat plains rise to incredible heights in front of your eyes, leaving a jagged, saw toothed silhouette against the blue sky. The dry river beds have been carved out from centuries of flash floods leaving a terrain not unlike the Grand Canyon. Where the occasional but violent flow of water passes over solid bedrock, narrow and deep channels have been polished into the stone, which house perpetual deep pools of water protected by the shade the deep crevasses create. Fish, frogs, snakes and water bugs abound in these small cool micro-climates while the temperature above radiates above 100 degrees. In fact, the temperature in the shade this day peaked at 117 degrees according to the thermometer in the Patrol.

Calcite Hill

A particularly interesting series of hills caught our eye. Rising a few hundred feet off the floor of the valley and surrounded by the jagged peaks of once ancient sea beds whose layered sediments had been thrust into almost a vertical position, were small mountains that looked to be made completely of calcite. These hills had been formed by the slow and constant dripping from above of water through limestone. This several hundred foot high calcuim phosphate hill was essentially one huge stalagmite. I can’t begin to comprehend how many thousands of years it took to create this geologic wonder and how far underground this structure once stood.

The photographs I included in this post don’t do the beauty of the area justice and I plan to get back out into this region of the world as often as my friend Richard invites me.

Hot Buns Cafe

Spotted near the Oman / UAE border checkpoint near Hatta.