Closure of the visitor season

Before Oman would turn into a heat oven, with summer approaching, some brave people still visited us in March and April. This also marked the closure of the visitor season. We have had visitors for 10 weeks spread out over 5 months. Who will visit us next season to beat this record? Mi casa es su casa!

Our dear friends Liesbeth and Stef and little Yorick came to Oman in March.

The weather was still lovely, although on our trip to the desert we were all suprised by the heat, to say the least. We spent much time together in the garden, on the beach and at the swimming pool. Matilda and Yorick seemed to enjoy each other's company very much:

The desert was stunning as always. On the journey we had lunch alongside the road:

We spent the night in the palm leafed huts of the Nomadic Desert Camp, and enjoyed a wonderful sunset:

Two weeks later, Aline and Sophie took the journey to Muscat. And couldn’t return due to the volcanic ash clouds that paralised much of Europe’s air traffic. Consequently, we had the luck to have them stay with us for another five days! The time was spent sightseeing in Muscat, dune bashing, motor crossing, snorkeling, exploring forts and wadis and many visits with friends, friends of friends, and more friends. We also went on a day trip to the Jebel Akhdar (see our post of last October when we visited the mountain as well), where we hiked on the “village walk” and pick nicked in style in a brand new gazebo.

 

Now, it is quiet without our visitors, the house is empty, will routine life finally start for us here in Oman? We will wait and see. And in the meantime, we can only hope to welcome more visitors in the next season!

Matilda Mania

Here is a brief update of little Matilda, who is turning 10 months in a week. What does life look like?

Eating forms a considerable part of her daily routine. There is always room for rice cakes in her stomach!

Playing is of course another major activity - whether 'behind bars' or with books!

Crawling is getting better every day, she is challenging herself to cross some difficult boundaries...

...and even more challenging ones!

At times she will encounter a smurf on her journeys...

Or she will just be charming to the max:

And the latest addition in this list is that she started to climb over objects, including daddy:

Of course, there are numerous other Matilda activities, including riding the stroller, playing in the garden, and sleeping. But that wasn't caught by the cameras! 

A stroll on the beach

Matilda has encountered her first cold, and yesterday she was in desperate need of some salty ocean breeze to clear her nose. So we went for a stroll on the beach. It was a Thursday afternoon, which is the weekend here, and it was one of those days that Omani and expatriates alike walk, picknick and play alongside the ocean. The sunset and the afternoon light were so special that we’d like to share some pictures with you.

Matilda getting her spa treatment on the seaside

Sunset on Shatti beach

A view of Qurum Heights, our area of residence.

Football everywhere

We finished our walk in a nice cafe where we drank something we have recently discovered in Oman: Zatar tea, or thyme tea. Delicious! All of this was to pursue the glorious healing of Matilda's cold, of course!

Happy New Year!

The picture above shows how we entered the 2010. With good friends, we 'jumpstarted' the new year! Erik and Marija came for a one week visit. They spent a long time preparing the trip and had a very busy program. Their experiences may inspire other readers to come and spend some time in Oman.

On December 31st, we all left for the desert to camp and celebrate new year.

With two cars we went into the desert, the Jeep was having some trouble getting through the sand....

........But the Pajero loved it!

Matilda does not really care about cars

Our camp in the desert, trying out the roof tent!

The next day, we visited Wadi Bani Khaled, and took a swim in the pools.

The second night, we stayed in Misfah, in a bed and breakfast. The accommodation is unique but quite basic.

The B&B has a lovely roof terrace where we spent the morning lazing.

The castle of Misfah.

A walk through Wadi Ghull.

A visit to Bahla Castle, the oldest and one of the largest forts in Oman.

And a visit to Jabreen Castle before heading home. This castle is not the oldest, nor the largest, but certainly one of the most beautiful!

  

After our trip, Erik and Marija spent 5 more days in Muscat. Our guest car was in repairs, so transport was  by taxi. Erik showed his true globetrotter skills and negotiated diplomatically with the drivers to get the price down from 6 to 2 Rials!

The Oman Dive Centre is a good place to do a day on the beach.

A visit to the fish souk.

Marija with Matilda in our garden.

And a visit to the hot springs of Nahal.

A Middle Eastern wisdom: "don't make fun of the rosewater guy or you may get more than you asked for!"

What a great week, Erik and Marija thanks for the great company!

A parental visit part two

The visitors’ season has started in Oman for ‘expats’ like us. You can tell by the number of expat grandparents you encounter in the supermarket or at the PDO Club. Now that the European winter has set in while the Omani weather is now tipped to the more pleasant side of the scale, relatives and friends flock to this part of the world to visit, explore the country and celebrate the holidays together. Marike’s parents kicked off our visitors’ season, which will hopefully continue until February or March with a number of planned visits already lined up! And visiting, exploring and celebrating is exactly what we did together these last two weeks.

Visit: we only spent about 10 days in our new home before Marike’s parents arrived, and we were still dealing with unpacking the remaining boxes and hanging our pictures and paintings on the wall. So it was nice to spend time together in our new house and garden, and the feeling of ‘home’ grew day by day. We set up our Christmas tree – the first artificial tree we have ever had! – and spent much time playing with Matilda of course.

Explore: In Muscat we visited some highlights including the Fish Souq and the Grand Mosque. The Grand Mosque, which is absolutely splendid and impressive, is open to non-Muslims although visitors are required to dress according to Islamic customs. And so we did, here is a picture:

Also, we went on a three day round trip in Oman, covering basically all that the country has to offer: wadis (canyons), ocean, desert and mountains (do we sound like a tourist guide now?). According to the books, if there is one wadi that one should visit in Oman, it is Wadi Shab. Our visit to this wadi took place some days after heavy rains, so the water level was much higher than average. It made the wadi more beautiful but also largely inaccessible. We took a small boat to cross the river and hiked up a short distance into the wadi:

We then continued to the Wahiba sands, which met much of our imagination of what a typical sand desert should look like. We rode a camel, visited a Bedouin family, did some ‘dune bashing’ (crossing the sand dunes by car which is fun (Gideon, dad) and scary (Marike, mom) at the same time. We went down slopes of over 45 degrees!), and spent the night in a ‘desert camp’ with charming palm leave huts, open air bathrooms and a very tasty supper.

We rounded off our tour in Nizwa, and also visited the mountain village of Misfat, which dates back to medieval times. Marike has named this village her favourite place in Oman so far, because of its oasis-like character and the stunning views.

And finally, celebrate: it was a joy to spend the Christmas days together! Although it is difficult to get ‘That Christmas Feeling’ in a muslim country, where the 25th of December is a day like any other, we managed to create our own little Christmas bubble, aided by Christmas CDs, Christmas decorations, home-baked Christmas cookies and the like.

Thanks Hans and Rietje for your visit and we look forward to the rest of the season of visiting, exploring and celebrating! Happy new year everyone!