Omani tea

B and I went to Oman for the weekend towards the end of February with the intention of resetting my visa clock (With a tourist visa, I'm supposed to leave the country and re-enter every 30 days... or so I thought).  However, once we got to the border, we found out that a recent change to the tourist visa schedule/policies meant that I was actually there illegally and should have visited Oman mucccch sooner. Luckily, the penalty was just a fine (although it wasn't cheap!) and everything was fixed pretty easily.  Once we were in Oman, we traveled to the Khasab area (actually at the top of the UAE, surrounded by the UAE and separated from the rest of Oman). It's known as the Norway of the Middle East because of its fjords. We decided to go there to check out some dive shops because we'd heard the diving was good in the area. Since we only stayed for about a day and a half, we didn't go diving, we just scoped everything out and went to a museum of an old fort/castle (which actually has some interesting historical exhibits inside), drove around the small city, and then went to the beach.  Once at the beach, a group of Omani guys who were camping at the beach invited us to sit down for what I thought was a typical Omani tea -- complete with a nice rug, a beachside fire to heat up the tea, etc.  However, in another unexpected twist, we were instead offered vodka and OJ... and hilarity ensued.

Also -- I forgot to post some pictures of our apartment/neighborhood so you can see what it looks like since many have asked.  We decided on the downtown area so we'd be closer to the Corniche (the boardwalk/beach area) and to the restaurants/activities of downtown.  After many trips to Ikea/the mall, one makeshift moving company (with men in sandals with no tools, no trolley, and no official moving truck), lots of phone conversations with appliance store delivery and internet provider guys, we finally got everything settled into our apartment at the end of February.  Our neighborhood has pretty much everything we need -- There is a nice little fruit/vegetable stand next to our apartment, a laundromat, a really fantastic Lebanese/shawarma place, a knafeh/middle eastern dessert place, and a baskin robbins. What more could you want?

Now, I am headed to Morocco for March/April to meet/visit B's family and B is in Serbia and probably Jordan for work.  At the end of April, B's immediate family and I will meet B in Malaysia for a little reunion/vacation at the end of April.  Let's hope no one gets lost on this trip ;)

Here are some pictures from Khasab castle (and no, the lifesize dolls in the displays were not creepy at all):

 

 

 


Some pictures from around town in Khasab, Oman:

 

 







Some pictures from the beach in Khasab:

Omani hospitality 

Pictures from our drive back from Khasab, Oman to Abu Dhabi, UAE:

desert highway 

glimpse of dubai (with the tallest bldg being the Burj khalifa) from highway 

And some pictures from Abu Dhabi/our apartment:

Arabian nights!  (view from apt. at night)

Arabian days (view during day)

B's building - leaning tower of Abu

Canada in Abu dhabi 

dessert from bakery across the street from apt.

our apt. building (right)

bedroom 

kitchen

living room

That's all for now.  :)