Muscat to Sur, Wadi Shab and Wadi Tiwi, Oman

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Travis

After Muscat was when the real outdoor adventure that Oman is famous for started, we picked up our Toyota Prado rental, the first time I had driven a true four wheel drive, this was going to be fun, I thought.

After stopping to pick up some supplies from the supermarket, plenty of water and non-perishable food items, we drove east towards Sur. After one hour we reached the tiny town of Yiti, this was where we realised we had driven in the wrong direction, so we backtracked back to Muscat and went south instead.

Wadi Shab

There wasn’t too much to see until we reached the first of the Wadi’s in the afternoon, Wadi Shab. The entrance to the Wadi is marked by the main dual carriageway slung across the entrance, we parked the car and headed into the Wadi. Throughout the Wadi is lush vegetation and turquoise pools of water, at some points shoes need to be removed to cross small streams. After about one hour we reached a large pool of water, continuing past, mostly by swimming we reached the final pool, there was a tiny crack in the rocks with which only our heads could past while remaining above water. Inside the enclosed cave was a beautiful water fall.

This would have been all the more enjoyable if I wasn’t holding the camera and passports in plastic garbage bag all this time.

From there we made our way back to the entrance of Wadi Shab walking in dusklight, we were surprised by the now risen water which we had to wade through.

At nightfall we drove to Wadi Tiwi where after driving a little into the Wadi in pitch black, decided it would be much safer to either turn around or camp for the night. That night we slept in the roomy four wheel drive.

Wadi Tiwi

Roosters woke us up in the morning, and we found ourselves in quite a nice spot, a bit of water and dense palm trees. Also, the first of the hikers passed us by foot, who must have parked at the main road.

We continued following the road into the Wadi, not as beautiful as Wadi Shab, I thought, but it may have been the driving into the Wadi was not the same as walking. We left Wadi Tiwi for Sur.

Sur

Sur was a really nice little town, plenty of small historic forts and castles and a great location on the port with many dhows (Arabic boat). Our arrival that day also corresponded with the start of the Islamic holiday Eid, and many families were slaughtering goats, not just to enjoy the meat during the three day holiday, but also as a tradition where the sacrifice of an animal commemorates the sacrifice of son Ishmael by his father Abraham.

A few of the places we visited in Sur were;

Ayjah Lighthouse
Al Hamoodah Fort
Alayah Watchtowers
Al Sunaysilah Castle
Bilad Sur Castle

From Sur we travelled further east along the coast, past Ras al Hadd (marking the joining of Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea) to our next destination, a camp located somewhere in the vast Wahiba Sands Desert.

Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Sonya

Since we first arrived in the region, Oman had been on our list of places to visit. Only an hour or so flight away from Doha, we’d heard stories about the natural beauty of the country – it boasts amazing desert landscape, lush green wadis, and of course the majestic Hajar mountain ranges.

We planned our visit during the Eid Al Adha festivities, which had provided me with three days off. So along with the weekend, that gave us five days for exploring Oman.

Our night time flight into the country’s capital Muscat was smooth, we pleasantly found out that being a resident of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country, it only had to pay 5 Omani Riyal (OMR) for our visa, equivalent to about 15 USD, as opposed to 20 OMR. A taxi from the airport to our hotel on the Muttrah Corniche was 8 OMR. We were lucky to have gotten a room facing the corniche – allowing us full view of the boats in the harbour, and the bustling activities on the riverside road.

The following day we decided to explore the Muttrah Corniche, with the thought of perhaps visiting the Muscat Fort and then heading to Old Muscat. We stopped for brekky at a local cafe for some kebabs. A further walk along to the fort and we noticed it was not open for entry. We walked a bit further along the corniche but figured it was a bit too hot to walk the full 8 km to Old Muscat. Instead we caught a cab (the driver was a friendly Omani who refused to accept a fare for the short ride – but we paid him anyway!) and explored the outside of Sultan Qaboos’ Palace (Al Alam Palace), the Mirani Fort and the Al Jalali Fort. The current Sultan Qaboos of Oman, who overthrew his father in 1970 during a bloodless coup, is well adored in Oman it seems. He is known to have modernised the country, during an era referred to as the Renaissance. There are posters of him everywhere. Old Muscat was pretty quiet, with only a few tourists wandering around the sites.

By the time we’d finished with Old Muscat it was only midday. I suggested we go to one of the dive centres for a snorkelling trip (The Gulf of Oman is also famous for its exquisite marine life) and called the Oman Diving Centre located about 20 minutes from Muscat in Qantab. The centre has boats that depart every afternoon on snorkelling trips, based on weather and visibility. We took a cab to the centre and had a swim before the boat departed. The boat trip was basically a crew of young Spaniards who were working in Dubai, and us. The boat took us to a reef about 20 minutes away from the dive centre and we anchored there and jumped into the water – amazing coral and fish, giving us a relaxing afternoon of snorkelling.

Oman Diving Center snorkelling trip

Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2011, Qatar

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Sonya

This year’s DTFF featured the premiere of ‘Black Gold’ a film featuring Freida Pinto (Miral, Slumdog Millionnaire), Antonio Banderas and was partially filmed in the deserts of Mesaieed in Qatar. Unfortunately, tickets sold out as soon as they were on the market however we did manage to catch two films yesterday at Katara Cultural Village.

We purchased tickets online for Comic Con – A Fan’s Hope – not because either of us are particularly huge comic book fans, but it was directed by Morgan Spurlock (director of Super Size Me, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold) who would be present at the screening and post screening he would be on a panel talking about his documentary style films. We had seen a few of his films and was curious to what he had to say. Unlike the supposedly thousands of fans who had turned up a few days earlier to catch a glimpse of Freida and Antonio… Morgan’s red carpet entrance was modest with a couple of journalists from the media interviewing him. Whilst we waited in line for Comic Con – we could hear his responses “I went to the Islamic Museum yesterday, it was great…”.
The panel session afterwards was quite interesting too. Morgan, two of his producers and, Holly, one of the characters from the film were present and interviewed by one of the Tribeca directors.

After Comic Con we walked over to the main strip in Katara. It was setup similar to last year, with lots of kites and coloured lighting. Hungry, we picked up two falafels and waited in line for our next film – An Egyptian Citizen which was screening at the massive open air theatre. Prior to the commencement of the film, there was a circus show – pretty much exactly the same acts as last year! The film itself was entertaining – filmed in 1991, set in 1973 during the October War it featured adored Egyptian filmstar Omar Sharif.

Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, Qatar

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Travis

A few weeks ago we decided to visit the private museum of Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, I made the booking on Thursday and we were all set for a Saturday visit.

Driving up to the museum we were presented with a beautiful fort-style building with towers at each corner. On entrance we signed the guest book and proceeded to the main and largest hall, full or various weapon and armour artefacts. It was a very interesting collection of guns, knives, daggers and plate armour. From the first hall, you could see that Sheikh loved collecting things.

Making a left turn was an eclectic collection of Islamic and Qatari items sprawled on the walls and shelfs with minimal labels. Further on was the Sheikh’s collection of paintings, some of people and many abstract. The last section had a small collection of vintage cars.

On the other side of the museum building were a number of smaller rooms with artefacts belonging to a common theme, rooms included;

Fabrics and Jewellery

An interesting room, consisting of embroidered fabric with Islamic designs and traditional jewellery. What I thought interesting was the large collection of drawings of females, scattered around the room, some quite erotic.

Literature and Manuscripts

A room consisting of very old Arabic writings and books. There were some interesting old maps.

Fossils

One of my favourite rooms, here we found 400 million year old Trilobite fossils from Morocco, plus a large number other plant and animal fossils, including dinosaur bones.

Cars and Trucks

Leaving the main building we drove to a separate building which housed a huge amount of vintage cars and trucks, as well as a Piper PA-34 Seneca twin-engine plane. In some of the side rooms was a religion display, which had Islam, Christianity and even Judaism items in individual rooms. The last room had a collection of scientific equipment and bottles which I think was trying to portray Atheism.

Overall it was a fun visit.