Dubai

Following on from National day, the Omani's had 3 days extra off with which to celebrate their anniversary of the Sultan's reign. We decided to celebrate in the typical Omani fashion, and leave Oman for the bustling and awe-inspiring Dubai.

After getting a letter from the admin staff at the school to ensure our visa's weren't cancelled at the border, we caught the coach from a part of Muscat called Ruwi (filled with tacky shops, neon lights and shwarma places) and prepared for the 4 hour journey ahead:

Ticket- 9 rials return.

SO happy to be going on holiday!

Unfortunately, this journey took 8.5 hours, during which a huge thunderstorm took place (awesome to see) and the bus-not being designed for the unexpected complication of rain-  began to leak. We arrived in Dubai at 11.30pm without a place to stay, a bit damp and with a sense of terror that we would be spending the night on the streets! Every hotel we called was full due to the Omani national holiday, or only took men. Finally a taxi driver found and booked us into a hotel in Sharjah, a neighbouring Emirate about 30mins drive from central Dubai. We expected The Sunrise apartments to be a bit of a hole for the price we paid (400 Dirhams- around 70 quid for the four of us) for the room, but it was actually a clean 2 bedroom apartment with everything we needed for a comfortable nights rest. The only thing was mine and Tom's beds stank of chicken chow mein- weird!!

We woke up refreshed and ready for exploring and thought we would call a friend of ours whom we had met in Tiwi (take two) who lived in Dubai. Purvik offered us a place to stay that night and said he would take us out on the town in the evening to celebrate Tom's birthday. Things were looking up as we grabbed a cab and headed over to Purvik's flat which was also in Sharjah. Purvik is a teacher at a school in Dubai and all the teachers live in the same apartment block. It was pretty plush, there was a swimming pool on the roof as well as a gym and sauna; we agreed we would go for a relaxing swim after our day out.

First we visited the Dubai Mall in order to see the aquarium and the Berg Khalifa (the world's tallest building). It was nice to feel like we were going back to civilisation after sleepy old Muscat, but I could see how easy it would be to get bored with the materialistic lifestyle out there also:

Chilling with the fishies!



Freddie, Tom, Will and Purvik

 The aquarium confirmed my feeling that emirati culture seems to be one of breaking world records; so much so that the aquarium actually had a sign to tell us that the Dubai Mall held the record for the World's largest single sheet of acrylic (BORING). After marvelling at the acrylic we then moved outside to see the Berg Khalifa. It was impressively tall, and we enjoyed having photos in front of it :) However the general consensus was that it was a bit ugly and looked like a spaceship:

Looks like something out of Tron doesn't it?

Next up was the Dubai fountain show, where these fountains move beautifully to music- weirdly it was actually very moving, so we watched it 3 times over our stay!
Here is a link to a video of the fountain:doesn't seem the same but in case you are interested : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6-jgoqC4FQ

After all these new, tall buildings we needed a bit of authenticity so headed on down to the Dubai creek. Not quite as authentic as we had hoped but at least it seemed like people lived there! We grabbed a dhow and headed on a half hour cruise across the creek:

Poser!

Left hand side, the Rolex building; Right hand side, the more traditional part of Dubai.

Little bear thinks that this bit looks like Venice- and it did feel very Venetian!

We alighted at the other side of the creek and went exploring down some alleyways with Market stall, where Freddie broke a picture, Will bought a 'my first camel' toy, and Tom bought spices. I won't reveal what I bought- I don't want to ruin your Christmases! Turns out Tom is a very good haggler and I was becoming his protege, I'm getting better at it! Thirsy for more culture, we stumbled upon a museum which depicted a traditional emirati house:

Joining the exhibit!

Traditional Emirati Bride and Groom

Tom and his new mate!

Hmmm.....

Tom and Purvik enjoying the hospitality

After looking around we were fed Arabic tea and black eyed peas, all for free and once again showing the hospitality of people in the Gulf. We retired to Purviks for some fantastic Lebanese food and a dip in the pool before numerous Gand t's and a night out at Barasti Bar with my friend tequila! Freddie and Will along with Rory ended up going to an Irish Bar called Fibber Mcgee's due to them being under 21.

The pool at Purvik's

Our new Irish friends!

This one is for you Jack!

Tequila!

We met some amazing people at Barasti and I managed to talk a lot of Arabic- maybe it was cause I had a few drinks but I felt really comfortable chatting away in Arabic to some Egyptian guys and girls about their political situation: although they did laugh at me for my accent! We all met up back at the flat later: that advantage of not spending the night together is that there are many stories to tell when you get back. Freddie, after speaking Spanish to a lady in the Irish bar attempted to talk to the taxi driver in Spanish about the plant life in Pakistan - 'muchos muchos greenery'- clearly the driver did not speak Spanish..... maybe you had to be there?

 Anyway the next day was relatively uneventful, filled with malls again and smoking shisha at the creek before another hotel stay. I excitedly told my mum about the cash point where you could buy gold in the Mall of the Emirates to which she replied 'well they have one of those in Westfields' - You heard it here first!

Discoveries of the week- Omani buses run to their own schedule, not yours!
                                     - There are a lot of Irish, Egyptian and Lebanese people in Dubai
                                     -Sometimes unplanned travel doesn't work!

Next time- Camping in the Wahiba Sands and the Sultan's toilet!

Oh-man, It's national holidays!

Shortly after the Eid Al Adha holidays came the 41st anniversary of the sultan's reign after deposing his father in 1970. This meant less than a week of work in school, then a 'national day' for the kids and 3 extra days off- hoorah for the Sultan! The official National day was the 18th of November, but as this fell on a Friday (the equivalent of a Sunday here) the school decided to have theirs a little earlier...

National day in the school is a big deal, the kids all come in their national dress which includes:

For the boys; Dish Dasha and Kumma/Moussa for Boys with Khanja(ceremonial dagger) strapped around their waist( older boys were allowed to accompany theirs with a traditional walking stick).

Al-Mohannad - one of the boarding boys and a year 1 boy in a Dish Dasha in National colours!!

Year 5 boys

 For the girls; either a combination of trousers and long decorative top, or a long dress, can be accompanied by a traditional bedouin face mask (shown below)or a silk face covering.

One of the girls from my Year 10 drama class wearing a traditional Bedouin mask



Me and the girls from my year 5 Arabic class



Year 2 doing National Day activities!

My year 5 Arabic class

The kids playing in their finery

The boarder's brass band- nervously waiting to play the National anthem to the whole school  

After a whole school assembly in which the kids sand the national anthem and a song called 'Omani Flag' (to the tune of waving flag by k-naan'), the primary kids had activities and a half day, and the sixth formers arranged their own party over lunch in the tent below. One of the guys carved a goat and served amazing food as they all chatted and danced to drums, it was fantastic to see, and definitely not a sight you would see in a British school!

Goat with head and tongue intact!

 It was an amazing day, we learned a lot about the history of Oman and different types of dress; and the boys and I really enjoyed getting involved and dressing up:

After this we had the weekend- and never wanting to be idle I took a trip to the Muttrah souq with some of the ladies from the school, arranged by my surrogate Mum out here Semantha:

Semantha in Ali Baba's, the most wonderful shop crammed with bits and bobs (including a claw of some creature hanging in the right hand top corner!)

Usual shop decoration- Alligator head!

The ladies perusing the items for sale!

Sorry Semantha, I had to do it!

It was wonderful to spend some time with ladies instead of the boys all the time, and also to browse in my own time and haggle for x-mas prezzies for you lot.

We spent the next day visiting Al Hoota caves near Nizwa on my brother Jack's recommendation, and it was fascinating! the cave is 25km long with underground lakes and strange wildlife. The tourist centre there also has the only train in Oman, which travels around 200m to take you from the centre to the entrance of the cave. We were given a tour by an Omani guy who told us that the cave was discovered when a goat fell down a hole into it, interesting info! He was very informative, but very strict on the no photos policy- luckily I

hung out at the back and managed to take these snaps:

Lion roaring!!

Oman's first and only train!

Surprise of the week: Children bringing daggers into school!

Discovery of the week: cigarettes cost around 1.20GBP for a pack of 20- don't worry Mum, I'm not smoking!  

Signing off, expect another post quite quickly, I have a lot to tell!

Tiwi take two

I fear it has been a very long time since my last post, so I am writing two posts to make up for it- sorry in advance, once again it will be a very long post. Hopefully the pictures will keep you entertained!
Its seems this trip has turned into half work and half time off due to the copious Omani holidays between October and December: I'm not complaining! The break I will be describing in this post is Eid AlAdha, for which we had a full week of holiday. Freddie, Wil, Tom and I chose to spend some of the time given back at Tiwi and Wadi Shab exploring. Were kindly invited to join some of the younger teachers and their group of friends which was a really good laugh. 
We smoked shisha on the beach....

Played on inflatables.......

Swatted hornets......

And got very sunburned......

(we are now 2 weeks later and I am still shedding skin-eeeew!)

It was really refreshing to hang out with people my own age, and to meet some people who came down from Dubai to camp and talk about their experiences of being expats in Dubai. We also spent a day at Wadi shab; and during the journey there we saw the remains of the Eid celebration- piles of dead goats- urgh!Wadi Shab was excellent, I hope to add some photos later as our friend James brought a water proof camera. I will try my best to describe the amazing scenery! A wadi is normally a dry river bed, but if you walk far enough into one you will find deep pools of water as well as narrow openings in the rocks leading to cavernous places where  you can climb up waterfalls and jump into the deep water below. After our previous visit to the Wadi I really wanted to try and climb the waterfall and make the 20ft jump over the ledge and into the water from the top. After Tom helped me climb up, all the guys jumped off, and I was left shaking and terrified peering over the edge. Wil had to come up and lead me down to a smaller jump, so it turns out and I am massive weener when it comes to heights- I must take after Mum. Anyhow, after a few hours swimming through the wadi, and the huge anticlimax of my chickening out, we decided to head back to the beach. Because there had been rainfall a few days before, the felaj (a man-made channel to bring fresh water from the wadi down to the town) was flowing beautifully so we decided to try and ride it back. This was unsuccessful and ended with a muddy bum, but still it was fun to follow the channel and see where it led.

Later we returned to camp to find the road (a very loose term) to the camping spot only passable by 4X4 and so rather than park and walk, Tom and I decided to try and drive around and come at it from the other direction. Not the best idea given that Tom doesn't have a driving licence and I only had prescription sunglasses with me! When night began to fall and we were driving around the wilderness, I was squinting through the sunglasses to try and see any immediate and deathly drops while also trying to find our way back. Note to self- always carry glasses! Anyhow, eventually we turned back and after around an hour ended up back where we started- with Tom driving the last section due to the vision situation- phew! We spent the rest of the evening happy to be alive, eating kebabs off the campfire/BBQ, and drinking copious amounts of GandT.

I spent the rest of the holiday recuperating and wondering around Old Muscat, as well as preparing for Mum and Ed's visit....

Ominous photo of dusk at the Sultan's Palace

The boys outside the mosque in Muscat

Lights over the gate into old Muscat for the 41st Omani National day!

Mum and Ed arrived at 9AM on the 11th of November, and it was so good to see them! There were forecasts for rain but it seems they brought the sunshine with them :). We did a whole variety of things but I think one of the most unusual was going to the World Cup qualifier between Oman and Australia. Having seen the Australian team at mum and Ed's hotel earlier in the day, we decided to support the Aussies. The tickets were free (having been bought up by the phone network Nawras) and it seems that Omani's don't like free stuff as there were only 2 sections of the stadium full- one of expats and families and one for Men. The video and pictures below show how empty the stands were. It turned out to be a very bizarre evening, especially for my visitors who had had little sleep on their overnight flight. When we arrived Mum and I spend the best part for an hour searching for ladies loos only to discover (after endlessly being pointed to different ends of the Sultan Qaboos Stadium) that there were none. Eventually a lady commandeered a guard to stand outside the men's loos while we ladies went in, needless to say it was a close call! The game included an absurd amount of time wasting and some wonderful theatrics from the Omani side- including a player being brought off the pitch on a golf buggy writhing in pain, only to run back on as soon as the buggy left the pitch!! I couldn't believe how many times they brought a golf buggy on the pitch for the most minor thing!

The famous golf buggy....

 

Lisa, our loud and proud Aussie friend!

Oman had a surprise win of 1-0 and the fans went mental. From the turnout at the stadium I thought that none of the kids at the school  would have seen the game, but in fact they all saw us in the stands on TV and told us the next day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bA4q687BAc 1-0!!!!!!!!

For the rest of  Mum and Ed's short trip, we spent time in old Muscat, Muttrah Souq (see below for Ed's traditional Omani Dish Dasha) and the school itself. It was great to show them where I live and introduce them to some of the kids and staff who I am fond of. It was also nice to have a break from chicken and rice in the cafeteria every night, and we ate at some nice places- my favourite was the Marina hotel in Muttrah, on a terrace overlooking the port and serving the most delicious kingfish straight from the sea! Ed was happy because they also served beer. Their hotel was lovely, and included a novelty which Ed was used to but I was fascinated with- a bar IN the pool that you swim up to! Ed had a rum punch and I had a pimms whilst Ed told me about his favourite holidays- it was a very enjoyable evening and one I will remember for a long time.

Omani Ed!

Mum and Ed in Old Muscat, behind them is the Jelali Fort.

Ed in a traditional Omani palm frond house.

I was really sad to see them go, but so happy that I could share my experience with them and show them all the places I love going to. Mum strategically planned the airport drop off so that neither of us would have time to get tearful, a very shrewd move!

Surprise of the Week: the sudden increase in mozzies as the weather has cooled a bit.

Discovery of the Week: One application of suncream is not enough for the whole day!

Next Blog- Dressing up for National day and Al Hoota cave!