Adventures in Oman, Part 1

The title, of course, implies there will be a part 2. Implies. Does not promise. If you read The Other Georgia, you know that sometimes...ok, most of the time, I post sporadically. I also promise to post things and then, well, I forget. So, I'm hoping there will be a part 2. Even a part 3 or 4 or 5. But I'm not promising such updates. Just so we are clear before we start.

Thursday night* David and I left the kids with a babysitter and headed down through Ruwi, out to Mutrah Harbor and from there up to the Shangri-La resort. After driving around the Shangri-La and checking it out, we headed back down to Mutrah to the Souk to check it out. After wandering around the souk for a little while, we stopped and had dinner before heading home. So, here are some photo highlights of the trip. The whole set can be found on flickr.

This first shot is of the "gates" to the harbor city of Mutrah (or Muttrah - there are many different spellings). I have been told they are replicas, but I still think they are pretty cool.

This next shot is a man-made waterfall with mosaic that is in one of the cliffs between Mutrah and the Shangri-La resort.

In the distance you can see the Shangri-La resort. I think we were 10 minutes or so from actually arriving there because of the way the road twists and turns. The road, by the way, is completely deserted. There is a turn off along the way for the dive center, but other than that, there is nothing out there until you hit the resort.

This is a dhow in a traffic circle outside of Mutrah. This dhow has an interesting history - it sailed from Muscat to China in 1980, a journey of some 8 months, to try to replicate the story of Sinbad the Sailor, whom many claim came from Oman. You can find the whole story of the boat and the journey here. It's quite fascinating. The boat was made without a single nail.

I just thought this was a pretty shot of the water and the sunset. This was on the road between Mutrah and Shangri-La, as we were heading back to Mutrah and the souk.

And this is the most important picture of all. This is LuLu Hypermarket. This is the one in Ruwi, I usually shop at the one in Muscat. I will have to get a picture of the one in Muscat, as it has even more neon and flashing lights and is a bit larger. The picture doesn't give you a really good idea of how large the store is. Take your average Super Wal-Mart, and add a second story as well as a few thousand extra sq. feet. That's LuLu.

I don't have any pictures of the souk because it was dark by the time we got there and Omanis are also not keen on having their picture taken. The souk was nice, but we didn't really explore much as we were both starving and were looking forward to having dinner without having to corral 2 kids. I'm sure I will go back to the souk again, and I bet if I ask nicely, I will be able to take some pictures of the shops, if not the people. And maybe I will post them. You never know, it could happen.

*Thursday night is the same as a Saturday night in the US. Our weekend here is on Thursday and Friday. The work week starts on Saturday. It takes a little getting used to.