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.

Thanksgiving in Oman

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving in Oman.  For those of you not familiar with American Thanksgiving, it was first celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621.  They were celebrating the first harvest in the New World.  It is a day to spend with family and friends, give thanks for what we have, eat lots of traditional foods, and these days, watch football on tv.

 

This is the day before Thanksgiving.  I spent most of the day baking.  These are the crescent rolls I make every year.  They are such a Holmes family tradition that now my daughter and son in the US make them for their Thanksgiving.

I always double the recipe and make 48.  It is really never enough, but like I told Austin, I only have one oven!

This is the adult table.  We invited two families to spend the day with us.  Several of these friends had never experienced an American Thanksgiving, so Austin wrote a little paper to explain it to them. 

The kid table.  It is very traditional to decorate with pumpkins.  I brought several with me from the US.  I did find real pumpkins at Al Fair in Muscat, but I was not going to pay $25 for one pumpkin!

The dessert table.  I made a carrot cake and two chocolate pecan pies.  We also had the traditional pumpkin pie.

We set up the food buffet in the kitchen.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli and peas, dressing, fruit, and the crescent rolls.  We bought the turkey already cooked, since I have a very small oven.  I can't believe I didn't get more pictures of the actual food, but I was very busy making sure everything was ready.  I was able to get just about everything to make our meal.  A friend brought us some mini marshmallows from the US for the sweet potatoes.  The only thing we lacked was cranberries.

We all took a walk on the beach before dessert.  I am holding a pumpkin.  Don't know why I felt we needed a prop, but I just did.  :)  It is very difficult to tell the time of year on a beach.

Our whole group

Well, there was not any American football on TV.  Joe had to make do with rugby.

Oh, I mentioned in my blog post about National Day that today is a national holiday in Oman.  That is how our British friends were able to attend.  So, thanks, Sultan Qaboos!  And Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!

For the past year, all my trips have taken me west.  Last week, I went east, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!  It was a six hour direct flight from Muscat.  I love direct flights!

I really need to brush up on my world geography.  I wasn't sure where Malaysia was.  This map is a little small, but it gives you an idea of Malaysia's location, close to the equator.

Joe and I stayed at the Shangri La Hotel.  I just love their resort in Muscat and this hotel did not disappoint.  Actually, I just tagged along on Joe's business meeting.  This was not one of our normal cram-as-much-as-you-can-see-in-four-days vacation.  Much more relaxed.

The view of KL from the 21st floor of the hotel.

It is very interesting to see what one finds on breakfast buffets around the world.  One of my favorite foreign breakfast buffet staple is Nutella!  :)  In Oman, you can find hummus and other Arabic food, along with baked beans and mushrooms for the British.  In Malaysia, there is Chinese food!  And sushi.  For breakfast.  Really.  :)

I went for a walk while Joe was still at meetings (after my massage.)  I have to say, I really enjoyed seeing the Christmas trees and Christmas decorations!  But don't let the Christmas decorations fool you.  The temperatures were in the low 90's, with plenty of humidity.

It was a short walk to the Petronas Twin Towers.  These towers were the tallest buildings in the world, for about five years.  I think they are currently #6.

This is not the best picture, as I was too close.  You can see the Skybridge connecting the two towers.

Retail therapy at the mall at the base of the towers.  I did hear my first Christmas music of the year.  It sounded great!  So, Malaysia and Oman are both Muslim, but you won't hear Christmas music in Oman (except for the Christmas section of Sultan Center.)

Ducks (or maybe chickens) in the food court.

I just LOVE the dancing fountains at the Dubai Mall and The Bellagio in Las Vegas.  KL has its own version, on a smaller scale.

The next day, we went up the Petronas towers, to the skybridge on the 41st floor.

Views of KL

Here is a model of the twin towers

After the Skybridge, we went up to the 86th floor.  A cool picture of the other tower.

Good thing I am not afraid of heights!



The dancing fountains way down there.

And later, up close.

Here we are, waiting at a crosswalk, on our way back to the hotel.  There are lots and lots of these motorcycles on the highways and roads in KL.  They weave in and out of traffic, and are quite dangerous.

Malaysia is officially a Muslim country.  Here is a mosque, but they are not near as prevalent as they are in Oman.

A beautiful sunset on our way back to the airport.  It was a very interesting few days in Malaysia.  Lots more to see and do.  Next time!