Taking the Kids to Dubai!

While Austin and Savannah were at home taking finals, the rest of us went to Dubai!  We debated on flying vs driving, but decided to drive.  It took us just under five hours to drive from Muscat.  We also wanted our kids to see a bit of the Oman countryside and mountains.

Border crossing into the United Arab Emirates.  Don't always know how long it will take in here, but there was no line.  You must have your passport stamped when you leave and when you come back.  It is not very clear.  We learned this the hard way.

Arriving in Dubai!  The Burj Khalifa towers over the skyline.  We stayed at the Al Murooj Rotana, right across the highway from The Dubai Mall.  We checked into our apartment (but they also have rooms) and walked over to the mall.  There are safe, convenient crosswalks.

We had lunch at Texas Roadhouse, as usual, and walked outside to take a look at the Burj Khalifa.

The Christmas tree in Bloomingdale

The 3-story aquarium

Although I have been to this mall several times, I don't remember seeing this section of it.  Always something new to see.

The main Christmas display in the mall

We are creatures of habit.  This is the patio at Urbano's, an Italian restaurant right across the bridge from the mall.  We always sit for dinner right before 6 pm.  The fountain shows, my favorite thing in Dubai, occur every 30 minutes.  This lets us enjoys 3 or 4 shows during our meal!  The food is fine, but we don't come here for the food.

The 6:30 show (us girls were doing a little shopping and got to our table a wee late.)

7:30

We had dessert at Garret popcorn.  Just as good as in Chicago!

Dubai is known for its nightlife.  I am sorry that I can't really tell you much about that.  Some of us shopped some more (malls stay open till 10pm), and some of us headed back to the pub at the hotel.



We had bought tickets the night before to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa the next morning.  You can buy them online for about $30 a person, in advance.

Very light crowds at 8:30.

That is actually our hotel at the bottom of the picture. It is more of a complex.  After going to the top, we ate breakfast at mOre cafe, close to the Burj Khalifa exit.  Then it was off for a little tour of Dubai and heading to the Mall of the Emirates.

We drove around, and went down Jumeira Beach road. This is the best shot we could get of the Burj al Arab.  We had been on a beach with much better views the last time we were in Dubai, but couldn't seem to find it this time.

The beautiful atrium and ceiling ornaments in the Mall of the Emirates

Their Christmas display.  I never saw Santa.



The first time I had heard of the Mall of the Emirates, was in a TV special.  One of those shows about great engineering feats.  It was talking about the challenges of building a ski slope in the desert.  I never dreamed I would ever see it in person.  Here it is!  Seth went skiing and Jared and Amanda went to play in the snow.



It was a winter wonderland inside.  A very cold wonderland.  The temps were below 30 degrees F. Joe and I were shopping and drinking coffee, so these pictures were taken by my kids.



Amanda and Jared.  The price to play is about $50.  This gives you the clothing and two hours of skiing.  Or unlimited time playing in the snow.

There were inner tubes to slide down on.

And giant balls to roll around in!

Amanda and Jared both had a ball!  In the ball.  (I couldn't resist.)

After a couple of hours of snow fun, we went in search of lunch.  Amanda was amazed to see a Shake Shack in Dubai!  I have never heard of them, but they are a big deal in New York City.  The one by Seth's office actually has a Shake-cam, to let you see how long the line is!!  It was a very good hamburger and delicious frozen custard.

So ended our 26ish hours in Dubai!

Wadi Shab-- Not to be missed!

My older kids came to spend Christmas with us and stayed for 10 days.  We tried to cram in as much as we could in those 10 days.  The highlight of their trip??  Wadi Shab!

Wadi Shab is right by the village of Tiwi.  It took us about and hour and 45 minutes from Muscat.  From Muscat, go to Amarat, then Quriyat, and on to Tiwi. When you get to the coast, the drive is breathtaking!  You will need to drive through the village of Tiwi to get to Wadi Shab.  You will know you are there when you see the parking lot with the highway bridge over it.  You will park there and take a boat across the wadi to the start of the path.  FYI, there is a nice restroom by this parking lot.

We ate our picnic lunch in the parking lot.  We were hungry and decided it was easier than carrying it.  :)  What are Seth and Savannah holding?  Noodles!  You know, swimming noodles.  Cut in half.  Because Austin needed a target for his arrows.  :/  I made him disassemble his target so we could take them swimming.  Which is why I bought them!

This was our boat guy, and he took us across the wadi for 200 baizas (52 cents) each.  Your 52 cents buys you a round trip.

As with most things I do for the first time in Oman, I didn't really know what to expect.  I had heard of Wadi Shab since I first moved to Oman, but didn't know what it was all about. Here is the deal:  you park your car, boat across the wadi, hike for a good hour (it took us longer because I take lots of pictures), come to some pools, swim a ways, and end up in an amazing secret cave.  Then you must hike back.  For an hour.

Two things that surprised me:

#1.  Wadi Shab is much more beautiful than I thought it was going to be.

#2.  The hike was more challenging than I thought it would be.  Not that I couldn't handle it, but just saying. Here, you hiked toward a general direction.  No clear path, and sometimes you were simply going from one big boulder to another!  That is where being six feet tall would have come in handy.  Luckily I was hiking with four such men.

Seth exploring his inner monkey.

We came here on a Saturday.  I had read about large crowds. There were not that many people.  I guess we lucked out.

There were lots of natural caves and overhangs along the way.

And several clear green pools of water.

It was very windy that day, so I was glad to be wearing my glasses instead of contacts. Actually, we were supposed to go boating that day, but the trip was cancelled due to rough seas and high winds.  Wadi Shab was our alternate choice.  So glad we came.

Our 'path' up ahead.

We got to these pools, not sure if this was the end of the hike or not.  We had seen pools earlier.  Well, when you can hike no further, you are at the right pools.  My gang decided to just jump in.  The temperature was in the 70's, and so the water was chilly.  Jared went first.

Then Austin.

And Savannah.

I did not swim.  I was fighting a bad cold.  I sat by the water and watched everyone's clothes and electronics. You would be fine leaving your dry clothes by the water.  No one should bother them.  I have friends who bring ziplock bags for their electronics, to take with them.

My guys swimming up to the next pools. 

Here they are, walking back.  There are rocks between the pools and you really want to wear some sort of shoe.  Preferably not the same ones you have to hike back in.

Relaxing in the water before hiking back.  Note: several people changed into dry clothes before hiking back.  They just held up towels and changed.  I did get a glimpse of bare bottom, but I turned my head, after a second or two.  Just kidding.  :) 

My gang really enjoyed the final secret cave and pool.  That is what the noodles were for.  There is no place to hold on to and rest. So you are treading water the whole time.  The noodles let you float and enjoy the beauty.

I am posting a link to my friend Andy's video of the cave.  It is amazing and well worth a look.  By the way, I started reading Andy's blog even before I moved to Oman.  The name of his blog? Andy in Oman.  http://andyinoman.com/ Check it out for just about anything you want to know about Oman!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eko_3xdnOxk

More posts on my family's visit coming soon!

Off to the Camel Races!

I am not going to be blogging in chronological order.  That would be too logical, right?  :)  I will start with the camel races!  Or, rather, race.  I have been wanting to go to a camel race ever since I moved to Oman.  Our friend, Mark, told us of a race in Barka, on December 19th.  I was excited!  He had a copy of a race schedule with the place and dates, but no times.  He was not sure if the races started at 6 am or 8 am, so a caravan of cars met in Muscat at 6:30 am and we then headed to Barka.  It took less than 45 minutes on the Muscat Expressway.  When we got to the Barka roundabout, we went through and then starting following signs to the racecourse.  Side note:  you might find directions to this racetrack online, but it will say horse racecourse.  It is also for camels.

The sign in front of the racecourse.

I honestly didn't know what to expect.  I was actually thinking it would be more of a very basic racecourse.  I was not expecting such beautiful facilities.  We parked and went in.  We quickly realized we were just about the only spectators there.  

Joe, Amanda, Jared, Seth, and Austin.  Amanda, Jared, and Seth came to spend an early Christmas with us.  We were so excited to have them here!!!

We were handed these very nice brochures.

With pictures like this inside.  This is what I was expecting.

This is what we got...  It turns out that we had missed the first two races.  One more was scheduled, but no one was sure of the time.  Then, that race was cancelled.  Evidently, not enough camels showed up.  But the group in this picture graciously volunteered to stage an unofficial race just for our group!  We were very appreciative.

The camels were being moved from their pens to the starting line.

Waiting for the race to start.

And they're off!

Like I said, this was an unofficial race.  The jockeys were these boys.  I am not sure what the boy on the left was trying to do.  Maybe avoid a camel collision?  I had a friend ask me if we placed bets on the camels.  Muslims don't believe in gambling, so we couldn't have placed a bet anyways.

We were allowed in the camel enclosures after the race.  Everyone was very nice to us (we were a group of about 16 Americans).

This camel was the winner.  I am assuming it was from an earlier race, not the one we saw.  The man on the left was taking a blood sample from the camel, to test for drugs.  Camel racing is serious business.  Oman has the reputation for the best racing camels and winners can fetch up to 200,000 Omani Rials, or $520,000!!!  So who is paying half a million dollars for these camels?  The sheiks of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar.

If you want to see a camel race of your own, here is the schedule found on the internet.  Or maybe you would like to see the Camel Beauty Competition in February.  Hope you have better success than we did.  But we still had a great time!  :)

Merry Christmas from the Holmes Family!

Merry Christmas, y'all!  The Holmes family was all together in Oman, having a great couple of weeks and celebrating Christmas a little early.

I know I have not blogged in a while.  A lot has been going on since Thanksgiving!  A holiday Luncheon, Holiday Bazaar, trip to Hong Kong, all my kids being here in Oman, sightseeing in Dubai, a camel race, and lots of other fun stuff!  I will be busy blogging the next week, internet permitting.