OMAN for CHRISTMAS!!

Thursday, December 24th

Christmas Eve!! Directly after school I came home and did some last minute packing. Amanda, Jon, Brad and I flew KLM direct to Oman. When we arrived in Oman we took a taxi to our hotel which we had booked online Hala Hotel Apartments. It looked pretty new. When we got inside they did not have our reservation which was for 4 beds in the apartment…they didn’t have rooms like that only 2 beds. No problem we took the room with 2 beds. Our beds were hudge…infact you could fit probably 5 people in 1 bed. It was awesome. We opened our booze that we had bought at duty free and sat and watched Christmas porn on our tv…guess that’s what you watch when you travel with 2 boys. Haha. We went to sleep and hoped Santa would find us in Oman.

Friday, December 25th

Amanda and I woke up and ran into the boys room and jumped into their bed and told them Santa had came. They were not too pleased that we woke them up at 11am. We ended up falling asleep in their bed until 3pm..guess we were still pretty tired too. We finally got up and saw what Santa brought us. I got a Slow Cooker Recipe book to go with the slow cooker Amanda and Jon had bought me…and I also got a set of coffee travel mugs. All were excellent gifts. We went down to the hotel for lunch and Brad and I shared a mixed grill…which is the traditional Lebanese meal that Arabs eat. It was pretty delicious. Then we all decided it was time to leave the hotel and go to Mutrah Souq. Moutrah Souq is an Arab market that sells antiques, Indian and Omani artifacts. As it got later we decided we needed to have something to eat. So we picked a restaurant just outside of the Souq. I wasn’t very hungry so I decided to have chicken shwarma. The boys had Mutin Shwarma. It was pretty good. We called a taxi to pick us up and as we waited a couple from Winnipeg stopped and asked us if we knew a good place where they could eat a nice Christmas Dinner. Haha we had shwarma for Christmas dinner..oops.

We went back to the hotel to book our 4x4 vehicle for the next few days. Then our taxi took us to a bar called Safari where we could drink $12.00 Corona and dance our hearts out. It was lots of fun. Back at the apartments I fell asleep on the couch until 6am…and then found my way back to the comfy bed with Amanda.

Saturday, December 26th

Our vehicle that we rented arrived at noon. When we went to sign the papers they informed us that the breaks pads were wearing and it was hard to break. They were worried that we would be driving up in the mountains the next day so we agreed that we would drive to Niswa in that vehicle and they would bring us a new one that night because at the time they had none available until late in the evening. We finally left for Nizwa which is about a 2 hour drive. Nizwa lies on a plain surrounded by palm tree oasis’s and some of Oman’s highest mountains. The landscape is beautiful in Oman. Mountains surround you and the people are very nice. When we got there we found a hotel and then headed off in hopes to make the Al-Hoota Cave. Unfortunately the last tour started 15 minutes before we got there. So we drove back and had milkshakes and waited for our brand new Land cruiser to arrive. Whoop Whoop. So we went back to the hotel and decided to go to bed early because we had to get up early the next morning.

Sunday, December 27th

We woke up early and went directly to the Al-Hoota Caves. The caves were pretty cool but the guide could’ve given a better tour. Afterwards we wanted to go to Jebel Shams. The roads are not clearly marked in Oman and we got lost quite a few times. I don’t think the boys appreciated the back seat talk and saying that they should stop and ask for directions. Needless to say we made it to Jabel Shams and the boys only got lost a million times and didn’t ask for directions once. Surprise, surprise.
Jebel Shams is Oman’s highest mountain. It means Mountain of the Sun. The view is amazing because you looked into a Grand Canyon.





We went for a short hike and ate a snack on Jebel Shams and decided it was time to head off towards Ras Al-Hadd because it was going to be a long drive especially with the roads not being marked properly.
We got lost…but did make it to Sur for supper. It wasn’t the best meal we had had…but it was the most expensive. We arrived at the hotel near the turtle spot outside of Ras Al-Hadd. When we got there they told us the night tour for the turtles was booked. Amanda was crushed. But the manager called his friend who was a guide and gave us a private tour on a different beach…we thought it was a bit illegal but we didn’t care because we wanted to see the turtle. We saw the female turtle after she had laid the eggs and covered them with sand. We also saw 2 baby turtles that had hatched and were finding their way back to the water. The stars were beautiful out too. It was a nice night.

Then at 4am Amanda wanted to get up again to see the turtles at sunrise. We ended up sleeping in until 6 and we missed the female turtle laying the eggs..but we saw her covering them with sand and returning to the water. It was still really beautiful out. The sunrise was gorgeous and we could see all of the tracks from the turtles that had nested that night that had returned to the water. A bit of information for you….Ras-Al Jinz is a turtle nesting site for endangered green turtles. Over 20,000 females return annually to the beach where they hatched in order to lay eggs.



Monday, December 28th

We left at 9am in hopes to go to Wadi Tiwi and Wadi Shab. However, with all the road construction there was no sign or turn off that we could’ve taken to get there so we missed them and had to stop at another Wadi. A wadi is the remains of a dried up old river. It was situated in a beautiful palm oasis right in the mountains. Then we drove around Muscat in our Land Cruiser checking out Old Muscat, the Corniche, Qurm.




We ate at D’Arcy’s Kitchen. The food here was absolutely delicious. Mmmm. We went to a pub and had some beers because our flight didn’t leave until later that night.
I loved Oman. It was a beautiful country.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I wish I could’ve been in Saskatoon and enjoyed all of the Ukrainian food and visiting. Miss you all. All the best to you and your family in 2009. xoxo