Beans???

Would you eat these????

The Grande Mosque

Today we went to the Grande Mosque here in Muscat.

It was the biggest mosque in the world until other Arab states decided to play one up man ship. The carpet inside is in one peice and took years to weave.

The whole place is paved in polished marble and there must literally be acres of it. The only word that describes it is spectacular.

Grande Mosque Chandelier

The chandelier is made from swarovski crystals and appears to be about ten metres tall. It was once the biggest chandelier in the world.

Met this local chick at the secret doors in the mosque.

Tanuf

As you may have noticed, the entries in this blog appear in order of last entry is top of the page. As a result the sequence is best viewed from the last article first for each date.
I can't write backwards until I learn arabic.

Tanuf is a small village these days but legend has it that back in the seventies it was a centre for the insurgents waging war on the sultanate.
When the current sultan deposed his father, rumour has it that a leaflet drop occurred at Tanuf advising all to leave the village before dawn the next day or die.
At dawn, rumour has it that British bombers levelled the village. War over.
It is not something that is talked about over here.
Nice place to visit though.

Bahla

Bahla fort is the oldest in Oman, reputedly built in between 1090 and 1200. We couldn't get in to see it because it is being refurbished. It is huge compared to Jabrin and looks as if it will be fantastic to visit when it opens. It sits very high on a hill so the views would be spectacular. From Bahla we drove to the Al Hoota cave. It is supposed to be the biggest cave in the world so we were really looking forward to seeing it.
When we arrived, the receptionist was less than impressed when we didn't have a reservation. After telling us that the train into the cave was broken and we would have to walk and that the next visit would be in an hour and three quarters, she finally sold us two tickets. Then 25 minutes before our tour, a guide came over and told us to go to the cashier and get a refund because there was rain in the hills so the cave was closed. Next stop Tanuf.

Jabrin Castle

Our next stop was to be Jabrin Castle, not too far from Nizwa provided you take the correct road. So after we found that road, we found Jabrin and the castle. It originated in 1692 and was restored a few years ago into magnificent order. It was the summer house of the Sultan of the time and was designed to be a fort too. There are rifle slots in the walls and turrets as well as cannon ball stores. They processed dates on the ground floor and the area still has a faint aroma of dates. Pictured is a stairway whose roof is decorated with writing from the Quran and painted designs.

The rooms inside have been restored beautifully.

And the rooftop views were pretty good too.

Nizwa

Friday we left the hotel at 0745 and drove to Nizwa, about 190km inland to check out the goat market and various souks (markets). We made a detour due to wrong directions so by the time we arrived it was almost over. We did see the kids being auctioned though,and it was a very different way of selling to what we know. The sellers walk their merchandise around a raised circular platform while prospective buyers stop them to examine the product and negotiate. If the negotiation is not successful the seller moves on.

These tasty little items were commonly for sale in the "craft Souk".

Sometimes the arabic bit of the blog takes over and re arranges the photos.
The first is a type of shelter which is common along the corniche at the port of Muttrah.
You can see a fountain in the background and a dolphin sculpture in the foreground. The port is directly behind. The second pic is a fort on top of the hill in Muttrah near the souk. Sandra and I debated whether it is fair dinkum or just a facade because from behind it doesn't appear to have depth.

Week Two

This is an incense burner on steroids on top of a hill in Muttrah, the port town for Muscat.



The expanded view of the incense burner with a very nice roundabout ornament in the foreground.

This is the foyer of the Intercontinental Hotel

The English Pub bar is just off the foyer and they serve typically stodgy food like bangers and mash. The foyer itself is quite impressive.

On her birthday, Sandra chose to walk down to the shops to check out the restaurants for birthday food. Almost every shop and restaurant is closed until 6pm so we had champagne and pre dinner snacks in our suite before venturing out. She chose Al Tarboosh, an Arabic restaurant, where we ordered take away and then it was back upstairs to our bottle of Chilean Merlot. We had a mixed grill of Arabic meats, a couple of dips, chicken from the grill and salad with plenty of pita bread. As you can see it was a lot of food for $16 so we had leftovers the next night. Please take note of the especially fine wine glasses. They do hold a lot!

Mysteriously, this blog site has returned to English.
It is certainly a lot easier that way.

We went to a shopping centre the other day, one that we hadn't been to before, and took a few pics for publication. There were quite a few gold shops as well as a Marks and Spencer.

This is a view of the ceiling in the mall.

The mall itself.

And the entrance. We actually had to search for the entrance because it wasn't obvious from the car park.

Last night we went to a farewell dinner at the Officer's Mess at the Lansab RAFO base.
This morning we were a little slow after enjoying French champagne and NZ Sav Blanc.
The food was great and we had a very enjoyable evening but we nearly didn't get into the base. There had been a guard change just before we arrived. Those who arrived before us were told to drive straight in. We were asked for our ID cards and when we couldn't produce them we were denied access. A sergeant was called who could read the visitors log and he proceeded to tick off our names. Andrew was on the list and Geoffrey and eventually Robert James but no Sandra. Andrew suggested to the Sergeant that we should go in and leave Sandra outside. That seemed to tickle his funny bone and he decided to tick a name that started with S. In we went but we were a little worried that Suhdra, one of the guests of honour, had been ticked off and that he might not get in. Happily he was already in.

This is the new Opera House which began construction the last time we were here. It is enormous.

Today we went for a drive to see the things that might have changed while we were away. Along the way we saw vast changes to the suburbs but some things like this gateway museum were unchanged.

Just another decoration to the freeway.

By the way, we had Aussie steak for dinner tonight with an Aussie red.

Fat old bloke watching TV.
We have many english language channels on the tv including Fox Movies. There are four news channels from around the world, including Al Jazeera, which are keeping us up to date with the QLD floods and unfortunately the cricket.

This is our "spare room".

And the main bedroom.

We have three Phillipino ladies clean the rooms each day from top to bottom.

When we leave a sign on the beds to say not to change them, they take them apart, dust the sheets and remake them.

The above pic is the terminal at Abu Dhabi airport with cute dome shaped ends on each finger. The windows are all pointed arabic style.

For the aviation buffs I am told that this is the new control tower at Abu Dhabi.

Makes the new one at Melbourne look pretty shabby and dated.

We wre driving past the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque when the lights were on.

These are some pics taken from our hotel room. The one below is a school which is served by a lot of school buses. Check out the school bus pic below. The kids must be tough, and this is the girl's bus.

Typical outlook on an area which is yet to be developed.

Read the signs very carefully. You can expand the pics if your eyes are as bad as mine.