Mom's Visit! Nov 28-Dec 10 (Janelle's mom)

There wasn't any less than 14 hrs from when we were saying goodbye to Wayne and Kathy after a wonderful visit and picking up Mom later that night and welcoming her to Oman!
She arrived Wed night and we took it easy that weekend, allowing the jet lag to work itself out.
We toured Ras Al Hamra during the day, and mom couldn't believe how green it was. I guess she was really picturing us living in a desert, lol.  It also helped that there was 3 days of scattered rain which helped brighten things up. That evening we went out to Slider Station in Al-Shatti which was very good.

Friday we decided on a day trip to As Sifah to check out the seafood restaurant and Jebel Sifah hotel. We hadn't been out that way since January and it was nice to go back. The seafood restaurant was really good, with the fish soup being the highlight as it was loaded with fish and prawns! After that we walked around the hotel and villas and took the water taxi back to Bandar Marina. Definitely worth the 4 RO ea plus our captain let me drive the boat!

Bandar Khiryan - on the way to As Sifah

The seafood restaurant (I can't recall the name), but it's fantastic

The fish soup, so good! (The crustini isn't
burnt, it's tampenade)

View from the Seafood restaurant

I could get used to having a boat!

Mom in the upside down birka, lol

We took the scenic route through Bandar Khiran  and came across Oman Sail Regatta

We took Mom to our regular work week outings, Saturday Hash, Sun Bollywood, Mon Yoga and a beach bbq on Tue. I also took an afternoon off so we could get to ShangriLa and take the scenic route back through Ruwi.

 

 

 

Yoga at PDO gym

Me and Mom at the Hash

Anna and Donna - acrobatic yogis!

The regulars at Bollywood

ShangriLa Hotel

ShangriLa

View of Ruwi

  

 On Wed we were off to Dubai for a girls trip. I booked us in at the Al Manzil Hotel because of its great location for accessing the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall. We took a ladies-only taxi from the airport which is quite the novelty! That evening, there was an appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow at Dubai mall to promote Boss perfume, so we did some shopping and stuck around to see the celebrity appearance. She was every bit the same as onscreen.

The ladies-only taxi service

Al Manzil hotel

The next day we decided to ascend the Burj Khalifa and then check out the LPGA event at the Emirates golf club. This was another novelty - seeing a world class sporting event without crowds, and for free! (the free part was unexpected...). So there we were watching Michelle Wie and the like.  Mom hadn't been to an LPGA tourny before and the last time I went was at the Mayfield in Edmonton. It blows your mind how good the ladies are. We caught up to Canadian Lori Kane and cheered her on during round 2.

Mom had been curious about Sheesha after seeing it everywhere all week. There was a great arabic restaurant, Mezza House out front of our hotel and so we decided to give it a go!

At the top of the World

LPGA event with the Dubai Marina skyline

Our Canadian - Lori Kane

The last day was spent touring the Mall of the Emirates where Ski Dubai is and then to see the Burj Al Arab (another infamous landmark).

The marina at Jumeriah Beach Resort

Burj Al Arab

Mom really enjoyed Muscat and Dubai and was glad she came for a visit. We only scratched the surface of things to do, but it gave her a good idea of how we've been living over the past year. 

Fins Beach

While Wayne and Kathy were visiting we wanted to take them camping and show them what a Wadi is really like. We had already done Wadi Shab and really wanted to go again, so we decided to also add in camping on White Beach by Fins. This was our first time beach camping and first time for my parents in a Wadi so lots to look forward too.

Our camping group started with about 12 people and quickly grew to 20, in no particular order were Matt (USA), Lizzie, Caroline & Becky (England), Rowan & John (Scotland), Way Buff & Abi (India), Pete & Zan (RSA), Mohammed & Azies (Egypt) and Matts friends Heidi, Mary, Rob & Mike (think all from UK?). We carpooled from PDO and set off for Fins, about 1-1/2 hours from Muscat. Somehow we ended up following John and him not really knowing where to turn off we ended up turning off the coastal highway a little early. But the wrong turn turned alright as we ended up seeing a camel chilling next to the road and had a short pitstop to get everyone's fix of pictures. Highlight was Abi feeding it a carrot only to drop the carrot running away claiming the camel "charged" him. You be the judge from the pictures, very dangerous looking these camels.

Friendly neighbourhood camel

Abi cowering in fear of Mrs Camel -To quote Abi "It Charged Me"

We did make it to White Beach and were not disappointed, the sand was amazing, white, fine and very clean. There were already a few camps setup along the bay but with the waves crashing all night we didn't hear anyone else. We setup camp (one novice camper needed help from the ladies to put up their tent), gathered some firewood and went snorkeling. Visibility wasn't the best but there were lots of fish and lots of cool rock features to check out.

Caroline exploring the bay

Looking back at White Beach from the bay

A few of the campers (LtoR: Mohammed, John, Aziss, Abi, Zan, Vaibav, Janelle, Wayne, Kathy)

Rowan & John found some cliff jumping in the bay

Being so close to the equator we lose light quickly and by 6 it was getting dark. We did manage to fit in a new Indian game called 7 stones. Simply put it's a variation on dodge ball, 2 teams and a stack of 7 stones. One team knocks the stones over with a tennis ball and then has to set them up. The catch being that the other team is then trying to hit them with the tennis ball before they get the stones set-up, if you're hit you're out. It turned out to be a lot of fun and definitely something we'll take home.

Playing 7 stones

BBQ is just a hole in the sand filled with charcoal

The theme for the evening was make your own cocktail so everyone brought along their own special mix and distributed to the campers for judging. This turned out to be great idea with Lizzie bringing an entire bar. By the end of the night no one remembered to pick a winner but they were all enjoyed.

Abi's 22nd birthday = cake in the face

Camping in Oman and just about anywhere hot usually means waking up with the sun. So sun up at 7 meant that most of the campers were also up. After a short breakfast, one lost frisbee (note to not let John throw your frisbee near a body of water), we packed up and headed to Wadi Shab. This has been our favourite Wadi so far, it begins with a cool boat trip across the headwater and then a 30-40 minute hike up really nice trails to a fresh water swimming pool that connects to an underground cave and waterfall. As well, a few months earlier Red Bull hosted the World Championship Cliff diving from Wadi Shab. So we had to stop and do some cliff jumping ourselves. The Red Bull divers were about 28m up, but we jumped from a lot lower. John took some great pics with his GoPro (except for the one of me...) and we all had a great time.

Zan demonstrating her inner gymnast

John with the GoPro

My "face"

Nothing else to be said here

Wayne and Kathy Visit !! Nov 8-28 (aka Adam's parents)

2nuksabroad became 4 as Wayne and Kathy came across from Regina, Saskatchewan. They arrived Thu evening after a 30 hr trip (Regina-Toronto-Dubai-Muscat) for 3 weeks of adventure in the middle east. This was their first time in the Middle East, let alone Oman and neither of them had ever seen a camel. We had an ambitious schedule for them including bbqs on the beach, Dubai, Hashing, camping, swimming, Wadi trekking, a Muscat city tour, golfing, Arabic and Indian restaurants, boating and a trip to the ballet.

What better way to start the week off than by going for a walk and downing some beers. It happened to be Guy Fawkes day, and so there was a bonfire too!

Hashers through and through!

Nice down-down

Guy Fawkes bonfire, yes we burned some people (cardboard that is)

Sunday is our Bollywood night and Wayne and Kathy were up for trying some Indian food... brave soul's from SK! They did extremely well with the heat, Kathy even ate a pepper with the meal and did just fine. Adam not to be out done by his mom, also ate a chili with his meal, although his lip swelled up pretty good an hour later.

The green chili's are there somewhere

The Royal Opera house was showing the Stravinsky Ballet that week, and it happened to be a group from Montreal - Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. We were sure this time to check our attire before going. On our first visit, Adam had the shoes, jacket, shirt, but the jeans were sub-par. Luckily they let him in anyway. So this time we did all our checks before leaving the house, although when we arrived, Wayne's collared shirt was short sleeved! They were really nice about it and offered to lend him a jacket, but he just borrowed Adam's.  Pete and Zan joined us for the evening followed by dinner and drinks at Trader Vics.

Unfortunately Janelle and I had to work during the week so we arranged for a city tour one morning taking in all the main attractions, Grand Mosque, Mutrah & both souks there, the palace and old town.

Fish souk (in case the fish didn't give it away)

Dad using the gents foot wash at Grand Mosque

Outside Al Alam Palace

We ended the week with a trip to Dubai for 2 nights. Being that Canadians need tourist visas to enter the UAE, we had our hotel the Radisson Blu Downtown sponsor them. It turned out to be a better (cheaper and quicker) option than going through the Canadian Embassy. The hotel sends you a form to fill out and you provide them with scanned copies of the form, passport pic, passport copy, and credit card verification. All of this was done via email and took 7 business days to arrange. The visa 500 ($143 cdn)dirham each plus a 5000 dirham deposit which is refunded when you send a scanned copy of the passport exit stamp.

Fun with bendy lights

Finally a camel! (we did find a real one later in the trip)

 

 

Somehow I managed to look in the wrong direction

Brunch at The Social House in Dubai Mall, amazing!

Dubai Marina

 

The rest of their time was filled up with quality snorkeling, relaxing at PDO beach and some more touring around town. Our friends Tom and Donna also took us out on their new boat to end the week. We fit in a camping trip to Fins Beach and Wadi Shab in between but look for that in the next blog.

My dad was thrilled to have pressed coffee

Much better than snow

Heading through the hole by Shangri-la

Tom, Donna, Wayne and Kathy after boating

Overlooking Ruwi on the walkway to nowhere in the middle of nowhere

A good last day on the beach (PPE & Skittles in the background)