back in al ain & then off again
saturday was my nephew’s birthday party day and we spent the morning preparing a nice lunch for the party. my mother had made a madeira cake and we made a cave on the top, added dinosaurs and some sprinkles and it was jurassic park all over again. after the party we had a short rest and then headed in to the town square for some early supper.
the town square is a large area bordered by shops and restaurants. it has a large fountain in the middle which lights up and plays music as well as a nice big shade sail. we checked out the windows of some of the arab shops (selling abayat and various other items) as well as a large fabric shop. when we were looking at all the buttons - something i seem to buy a lot of to change out on things and never do - a woman fully covered, including her face, came in the door and asked me if i was a visitor. when i replied that i was, she handed me a handmade bracelet and said ‘welcome!’ before going back out the door again. i was stoked and the bracelet now lives around the neck of my toy camel, akmed. we ate some lovely moroccan food and then headed home. by the time we were leaving (about 9pm) the traffic had really picked up and there was a bit of a jam around the streets - the lateness of it all being something i can’t quite get used to.
sunday morning we left for oman again but this time headed out to the east, through buraimi with my brother, sister-in-law & the kids in convoy. the border crossing this time was different and had a lot of extra paperwork involved which was confusing. the doors didn’t seem to have any signage on them and almost looked like prefab buildings but we eventually figured out what to fill out, where to pay & got the required stamps. once through the border we noticed as usual the change in the scenery - amazing since al ain and buraimi are so close together; if you are just going from al ain into buraimi or vice versa you don’t have to do the whole border crossing palaver.
about an hour’s drive east out on the coast is the town of sohar, home of the legendary sinbad the sailor. the eastern coast of oman is often referred to as the pirate coast (though the north was as well, so i guess it’s all pirate territory). we had a lovely lunch at the sohar beach hotel with the family and then they decided to stay there the night and go back the next morning so we continued on.
as we drove down the coast we noticed how there is very little between the larger centres. everything is pretty empty in the afternoons anyway as people are inside but some of the little places hardly even had a shop in them. one tiny town we stopped in to try and get a coke had a souk and a few shops, including the typical one with a stack of appliances outside (not sure why they do this as they must get so dusty). there was a shell station but the shop itself was empty - there was just a chair and an attendant outside but nothing in the building. this was something we found was common in a lot of the small places in oman - not sure why. i walked around to where we thought might be a shop but there was nothing but the souk and a few arab-style shops with goods in them. i took a few photos and a couple of men asked me to take their photo which was cool. not many tourists stop there i don’t think!
after a few hours drive we arrived in muscat - a beautiful, beautiful place. the mosques are colourful with lots of blue and green domes and crescent shapes on top. the architecture of the buildings quite different to the uae with coloured mirrored glass in the windows of all different colours, a lot of arch shaped windows and heaps of white buildings with the flat roofs. as we drove down towards the corniche/waterfront we wound through some fantastic tiny lanes and found our hotel right on the corniche overlooking the water. it was soooo humid (50+) but we were stoked. we immediately went for a (very sweaty) walk along the waterfront and found the main souk and some dinner.
we had planned that monday would be a full day in muscat, where we would stay again and then head back to al ain early tuesday. we got up early and went to look at the great mosque, the omani national museum, the omani-french museum and had quite a good drive around the city on the way. we saw the palace and quite a few other sights, such as the giant incense burner and various forts/watch towers. it was interesting to see the history of the french and the portugese influence there as well as it is well apparent. we spent the afternoon driving around and also in one of the nice cool malls, before heading back to the waterfront for dinner.
