Omani Adventures in the Mountains

                                   Spring break in Oman! 

Despite having a sand storm cancel half my plans, I still managed to pack in a few adventures. On Wednesday on our way up to Jebel Shams (the biggest mountain range in Oman) we stopped in the town of Nizwa to check out the markets. 

I really wanted to buy a clay pot but we had some off roading to do and I knew it wouldn't make it back to Sohar in one piece.

At 9am the next day we met up with our guide and set off to trek the balcony walk of "The Grand Canyon of Oman" and ascend the Via Ferratta. The balcony walk along the side of the mountain took us a couple hours and was full of amazing views. 

The trek itself was fairly easy, and I would definitely do it again! 

About three quarters into the path there is an old village of stone houses built into the mountain. Our guide, Justin from Oman Adventure, told us that the Sap Beni Khamis people used to live there, but moved further down the mountain about 40 years ago, which really isn't that long ago. The path that we were walking was made by them and by the goats. 

The Via Ferratta or "steel cable climbing route" follows a path originally built by the villagers with wood sticks. Most of the sticks had been removed, but there were still a few towards the top of the ascent. 

The Via Ferratta had some challenging sections at the beginning that caused a few "what the hell am I doing moments" but overall it was super exciting and I really enjoyed it! For those of you that read my Facebook status and thought the worst, no, I did not need to be air lifted out by the Omani Air Force. I ascended that Via Ferratta like a mountain goat! 

So after the Via Ferratta we headed back to our bungalows and noticed the one side of the mountain had rain clouds. Well rain is a very rare thing in Oman and we have been told that this year has been particularly dry. When it rains in Oman, everyone goes nuts, there's crazy flash floods and rivers basically flowing across roads. Most people stay home when it rains or avoid driving when it rains. But not us, we decided to become storm chasers and chase the rain. 

We head off on some mountain road towards the direction of the clouds and thunder. We see some donkeys, we take some photos, and we carry on. Then we found the rain. Turns out rain makes dirt roads really slippery :) 

Jorge, the driver, took a hill a little too fast which caused the Land Rover to slide and his wife to yell. He throws it in reverse and we back up and carry on. Then like a minute later, we slide again and start hearing this loud noise like water rushing from a faucet. But it wasn't water, it was air, we had a flat. 

No big deal, flat tires happen all the time. We all get out to survey the damage and it starts to HAIL. But again, I'm from Saskatchewan, flat tires and hail, no problem. Slight problem though, we don't have a jack. So now it's hailing, we're on the side of the mountain with no phone service, we have a flat tire and no jack. Little problem. 

But alas someone is coming! It's the bus driver on his way to pick up kids!!! He speaks very little English, we speak very little Arabic (3 out of 5 us have been taking Arabic lessons for months and we know about 10 words between us), but he tries to help.

Then more help arrives, the Omani Air Force pulls up, in a truck. The young guy speaks some English, he sends the bus driver on his way, and the two air force dudes help us with our tire. 

A short time later the bus driver comes back with a bus full of very curious and very entertained Omani boys! I'm sure we gave them quite a story to tell their friends and family in their village. Bunch of dumb foreigners chasing rain in the mountains without a jack haha. 

After the two men finished changing the tire, we tried to give them some money for their trouble, but they refused to take it. Instead they invited us to come for coffee! So we followed them back to their base camp. At their camp, they let us wash up and invited us in to sit on the carpet and drink coffee and eat halwa with them. 

At the base there were 3 more men and they were all very interested in what we were doing. Only one of the men was in uniform and his English was really good, he was so friendly and had this huge grin on his face the entire time, like he was super excited to be with us. We all had huge grins on our faces too because we were also thrilled to have met these awesome guys. They told us so many interesting things about the area. 

We smelled roses from one of the man's village that is famous for rose water, our main hero (Army shirt dude and the only guy who actually lives at the base camp) showed us pictures on his phone of the frost on the trees that happened earlier this year, and we shared stories about our home countries. It was an unforgettable experience! 

 I asked if we could get a group shot with the 2 men that fixed our tire, they agreed but went to change into traditional Omani dishdashas for the photo. We took the photo outside and then the older dude, who spoke very little English, proceeded to point out everything and teach us the Arabic words for it. At that point the donkeys had wandered by and they told us the name for "donkey" was "hemaar." I pointed to Jorge, the driver and said "hemaar."  All 5 Omani men broke into serious gut-retching belly laughs, I don't think I have ever made a group of people laugh harder than those men at my joke! I guess "donkey" in Arabic also means "jack-ass" like in the English language??  Or the Arabic meaning of "donkey" is something much worse?? I have no idea, but they all asked me if I was married after my comment and wished me luck in finding my husband and even suggested I try and find an Omani husband (ha ha!). I know I said this already, but it was an incredibly amazing day. 

I'm sure you've all been in a similar situation and have experienced the kindness of strangers. If you're from rural Saskatchewan, this kind of thing has probably happened to you a hundred times. Our experience with the Omani people was a perfect example of how it doesn't matter what language, religion or culture you are from, it's human nature to want to help each other. Awesome people are everywhere in the world, even the Middle East ;) 

Secret Tunnels, Bats & The Murder Room - A look inside an Omani fort

Oman is full of forts, they are literally everywhere. In an attempt to boost tourism, many of these forts have recently opened up to the public and many are currently still undergoing restoration and will be open in the future. About a month ago a few of us went on a day trip to explore one of these forts. I don't actually remember the name of the fort, but I think it may have been Al Hazm Fort. When we arrived at the fort, the first thing we did was have a picnic lunch under the date trees while dipping our feet in the falaj. My Lonely Planet tells me that a falaj is an ancient irrigation system. Water comes from the mountains and flows through over 4000 channels in Oman. 

The Falaj - Ancient irrigation system 

The Fort
After lunch we went inside to explore the fort. Entrance fee was about $1.50 Canadian and included a tour guide. He told us some pretty interesting things about the fort. One of the things he said was that there were 2 secret tunnels constructed throughout the entire fort. One tunnel is designed for easy escape and access to all parts, and the other tunnel is the death tunnel or "murder" tunnel as he called it, and that tunnel was designed for intruders obviously. 

Al Hazm Fort

Bats in the Mosque
One part of the fort seemed to just never stop, we just kept going further and further down to some dudes personal mosque. We had to crawl through a small door and jump down into these smaller rooms and steps just kept leading us further down where it got dustier and hotter as we went. And then there were bats. After the bats we decided we'd gone far enough and climbed back up to the main parts. 

Down, down, down to the bats.

Some dead dudes.

The Escape Tunnel & The Murder Room
At the end of the tour we had the option to go through part of the escape tunnel and pass through the murder room, which I decided, sure why not. Only 2 people at a time could go through the tunnel as it was pretty small, and our tour guide led us through it. I'm not sure this tunnel should be open to the public. It was kinda scary lol. I went first, followed by a co-worker. I first had to lower myself down into a hole, a black hole, with no light. Then in pitch black, literally no light, I was told to keep my back flat against the wall and not let go of his hand, or the other girls hand. We went down about 6 steps together, and then with our backs against the wall we had to creep across a ledge. He told us that below the bottom dropped out so intruders would take the steps down and then fall to their death. We were on the 'secret' ledge where guys would hide and push the intruders off if they happened to have made it to the ledge. I'm not sure how much of it was real, and how much of it was for entertainment purposes, because I don't really think they would have something like this open to the public if it was actually that dangerous, but who knows? I don't really believe there was an actual death pit below me. Although one of my co-workers went after me with his 7 year old daughter and at one point they turned on their flashlight because she was scared and he said there was a drop off and a pit below. But I'm not really sure I believe him either. The tour is designed to scare you, like a haunted house kinda thing. 

This is where we came out of. I took a photo of the hole I had to lower myself into but it was just black. 

The Prison
The prison is a circular room, which apparently is supposed to drive prisoners crazy by walking in circles. It reminded me of the circular prison from the Disney movie Robin Hood, except their were no windows and no rooster playing guitar. There were tons of prisoners though, still all wrapped in newspaper. As soon as we all got in the prison, he shut the door on us and turned off the lights lol, and then all the kids started crying and parents started screaming. It was pretty funny. He clearly should have known to not do that when small children are present lol. But as I said before, I'm pretty sure the idea behind the fort is to scare people for entertainment purposes. They are still in the process of adding electrical and lots of buttons said "push here" for scary things to happen. 

Isn't this creepy? Bodies wrapped in newspaper, covered in a layer of sand. 

None of these buttons were working yet.

The cannon tower, lots of Spanish and British cannons.

Hole where they would pour hot honey on intruders. Nicely labeled as the "Murder Hole"

View from the top of the fort. 

Border Run to the UAE

Two weeks ago, on a Thursday, I jumped in a van with a Spaniard, an Australian, an American, a Brit and two Omani men to make the 2 hour trek to the United Arab Emirates border. In order for the Omani government to start the work visa process, I needed to first exit the country and cancel my current visitor visa.  It takes 2-4 hours (Omani time) for a work visa to be processed at the border so the plan was for us to just hangout in Dubai (the emirate, not the city) until we got the call to come back. The drive to the UAE was actually pretty nice. Rolling sand dunes, rock mountains, and a few camel ranches.  I was pretty excited when I thought I was going to Dubai city, but as it turns out, the entire emirate (state or province) is known as Dubai. So we never actually made it to Dubai city but were taken to a huge mall called Dragon Mart.  As soon as we pulled up to Dragon Mart I felt an immediate rush of familiarity because Dragon Mart is an Asian market.  

Dragon Mart "The Great Mall of China"

Dragon Mart
"Where you can find one in a million or a million in one"

 How ironic that my first big shopping experience in the Middle East would be at an Asian market decorated with Chinese lanterns and full of shops with China made products. The shopping in this mall was extremely disappointing as I was expecting some big flashy mall that seems to be typical of Dubai. I did manage to snap a few pictures of some interesting items and landscapes, so it wasn’t a total loss. 

After waiting in line for an hour at the border, we finally all got our work visas stamped in our passports and given the green light to return to Oman.  The whole process took about 8 hours and we arrived back at work just in time to make it to our staff party at 7pm.  Hopefully my next trip to Dubai will be a little more exciting!

Mountains in the UAE

UAE Flag painted on the mountain top.

Thought this was hilarious! Can't decide if it's a mis-translation and should say "pure" soap or if it's to wash away your sins & restore virginity.

Sand dunes in the UAE.

Second Impressions of Sohar - I found all the people

 My first impressions of Sohar, as it turns out, weren’t entirely accurate. Due to jet lag, my sleeping patterns were all mixed up and I wasn’t really making it out of the house during peak hours. All the shops that I thought were deserted are actually up and running, they just close from 1-4pm when it’s really hot out! Smart hey?! I obviously was driving around between 1 and 4 when all the people in Oman are inside to escape the heat. Now that I’ve officially started my 8am to 4pm workweek, I have a better feel for the hum of the city.  Traffic during morning and evening hours almost triples, it’s still nothing near Taiwan traffic but it’s similar to traffic at home.  The round-a-bouts during rush hour traffic are super congested, which is why there's tons of construction going on as they are building fly overs to help ease the traffic. I tried to take a few photos of the city, but it's hard to do when you're in a car. Oh and for my Taiwan friends that are reading, Sohar is hot, but mild humidity, which means I think it’s more tolerable than Kaohsiung heat! I can actually stand outside for 10 minutes without sweating, which I could never do in the summer in Kaohsiung! But it’s still hot hot here, like so hot that when I get into my car after work my jewelry heats up instantly and burns my skin. 

Just a random herd of goats in the city. 

The roundabout known as "R2D2"

Typical scenery when you leave the main road. Nice houses, houses being built and dirt. The main road boulevards have grass and other landscaping, but people's houses don't. Kinda makes sense, it's the desert. 

Camel Crossing! 

Ok so it's not open yet, but I'm very excited Sohar has a Quiznos!
(Haha Kaohsiung)

Cultural Sensitivity & Laws in Oman

Today our staff meeting was all about what we can and cannot do in Oman, and what we should and shouldn't do at school. Here's what I learned today.

1) Women should be respectful of the culture here and have our shoulders and knees covered when in public places.  Shorts are ok at the beach.

2) Offensive hand gestures are illegal and if I get caught giving someone the finger, I can be arrested. Same with swearing.

3) If needing customer service some place or wanting to get something done quickly, send a woman to ask, not a man. This is the complete opposite of what I was expecting, but it's apparently true. Women get stuff done in this country!

4) I can get a ticket if my car is dirty.

5) I need a liquor license to purchase alcohol from the store to consume at home, but don't need one to drink at the few bars here.

6) Apparently bands can't have more than 3 members, and live music isn't allowed in hotels that are 3 Stars or less due to some seedy things happening with "dancing girls." I'm not really sure about this one, could just be rumours.

7) Kissing & sex scenes are highly inappropriate and you won't find any such content here. The Wolf of Wall Street was playing in the local cinema and 55 minutes of it was cut out lol. Guess I won't be going to the movies here. The plus side to this censorship is that I don't need to monitor what my students search for on the internet, because the Sultan does it for me!

8) Muslims don't eat pork and find pigs highly offensive. Books about pigs are not recommended reading material. We can discuss that these books exist and discuss differences in cultures and beliefs, but for the sake of being culturally sensitive, we are asked to not read books about pigs.  Chicken Little was always my favourite book anyway.

9) Atheism is a concept that Omanis cannot comprehend. Again we can discuss the concept in class, (not something I'm obviously going to be doing in Grade 2) but we as teachers cannot claim that we are atheists or we could get deported. All expats must claim a religion to gain a work visa. Oh and all religions are accepted here by the Omani people.

There were a few other topics that we need to approach in class carefully, but they don't really apply to me and they aren't really for a public blog. If you really want to know, send me a message and I'll tell you the rest.

In general, the Omani people are extremely nice and very forgiving of us more "liberal" Westerners. But Islam is a conservative way of life and as foreigners in their country, we should be culturally sensitive and respectful.

First Impressions - The City of Sohar

Today is Day 3 of living in Oman and I have WiFi access at my apartment now so I think it's time for me to share my first impressions of the city of Sohar. Ok so first, it's not really a city. The best way that I can describe Sohar is that it's a bunch of random buildings in the desert connected by lots of really nicely paved roads. On my first day I asked where "downtown" was and I was told that Safeer Mall is probably the closest to a "downtown" I was going to get as it's the busiest place because Carrefour is located in it. This mall is where I got my Sim card on my first day and there was maybe 15 people in it, and the other teacher I was with, knew half of them. Sohar is small. I'm literally living in a small desert town. And everything is spaced out, tons of extra space everywhere. Taiwanese would go crazy with all this extra space, they'd easily fit a million people in the space between my apartment and my school (a 20 minute drive). Yes I have another long-ish commute to work, however the traffic here is much much different than in Taiwan. There is a main road that runs through Sohar and I think goes all the way to Dubai one way and to Muscat the other way. The speed limit on this road is 120km, and everybody drives 120 or faster. My car actually has a warning beeper that goes off if I exceed 120. I first discovered this warning beeper my first night in Oman when the school had a driver pick me up at the Muscat airport and drive me the 2 hours to Sohar. I was trying to sleep in the backseat but every few seconds a super annoying little beeper went off, I was literally about to loose my mind. I've only actually made my car beep twice. As of now I'm driving in the slow lane, trying to find my way around the city. The road ways are very unique, and I've never been to a city that's had roads designed like this before. As mentioned earlier, all roads are very nicely paved, I haven't seen a single pot hole yet. To get on to the main road you need to find a round-a-bout, and to switch directions you also need to wait until you reach a round-a-bout. I end up driving much farther than needed simply because I can't get off the main road until I reach a round-a-bout. There are service roads that run beside the main road, and you just need to know when to take the service roads or when to take the main road as they only connect at the round-a-bouts. Because of these round-a-bouts, there are no traffic lights. I haven't seen a single traffic light yet, all intersections are round-a-bouts. The speed limit on the service roads is 80 I think, but it's more like 100. The roads are designed to drive fast and drive further than necessary, it's like the designer had "gas guzzling" in mind. I'm going to see if I can lease a hybrid. Obviously.

Other than Sohar being a small desert town with crazy fast roads, there's also TONS of construction going on. Sohar looks like The Desert of Dreams,  "if you build it, they will come." Who? I have no idea, because there's very few people here, but massive development going on. Major road construction, major apartment block and building construction, yet so much open desert. There's tons of shops and restaurants that run alongside the service roads almost like strip malls, but everything looks closed or in process of being built. It's a strange little city, very modern, but so very much in the random desert. As far as the people go, there are so many foreigners here, way more than in Kaohsiung. And everybody is really really nice. And EVERYBODY speaks English, I can't really understand what they are saying (yet), but it's English! More first impressions and photos to come later. I'm off to the Sohar Beach Resort (apparently THE place to be) to meet up with some co-workers and check out the beach. Oh one last thing, I saw a camel today :)