February 5th, 2020 Oman pt 1

Hey there,

It's been awhile.  Will have to get on the couch and figure out why the long sabbatical another day cause we have been on some trips lately and need to document those for the permanent record.  To recap, we all went to Germany over the X-mas break, I visited my mom in SF for 10 days, and the girls and I just got back from the Chinese New Year holiday in Oman.  Think I will go in reverse chronological order cause Oman is fresh in mind and it was really cool, but before digging into that, have to say a couple of words about the coronavirus.

Not sure how freaked out those in the States are about it, especially as the list of freak out topics is long with y'all these days, but you can probably guess that with the proximity to Wuhan and the large exchange of people from the mainland that the locals are on high alert.  All of the schools here, including Babydoll's, have delayed re-opening from the CNY break.  At first, it was going to be through this Thursday, but the Taiwan government declared them all closed until at least February 26th.  With the amount of overachieving students at our school, reports of anxiety from Babydoll's friends are many.  They are going to work on some on-line options, but for B-dolls class, the second semester of Junior year is a critical one for college apps, especially with those taking AP exams at the end of the semester.  For yours truly, today was supposed to be the kickoff for baseball season and it was going to be a short season anyway.  It is any one's guess if it will happen at all at this point.  The town is eerily quiet...businesses are all open, but the streets feel empty and traffic is non-existent.  Weird.

You all are probably seeing stuff on line about the rush to buy face masks so won't bother you too much with that, only that a Taiwanese company has devised a way to deter mainlanders from coming to the island and swooping up all of Taiwan's supply by printing the Taiwanese flag on them.  You can click on this link to see those and 30 other ingenious solutions people have devised to make their own home made versions.  A bra, water bottles, and panty liners are just a few of the brilliant ways they have done so.  Deadly serious and laugh out loud funny.  I have never worn a mask cause science says they don't offer any protection, but am gonna keep one with me at all times going forward should I have to go into a store or something.  Went to the Costco yesterday without one and I was the only person in the store that didn't have one.  Am used to getting side glances from the locals for my appearance, but could see fear in their eyes yesterday that I was maskless.

One more thing...am distraught over the reports that Chinese are being bashed in the States over this.  You know I am no stranger on criticizing the Chinese, but this is not the time to lash out against them in society.  One can totally criticize the mainland's government for following the communist playbook and hiding the problem as it would show weakness until it blew up in their faces.  Exhibit A in why that system of government blows in fact.  I also think them shutting Taiwan out of the World Health Organization (and a bunch of others) shows just how petty that crew are.  Taiwan called them vile but that they would risk safety at this point due to their own insecurity is a perfect example as to while this regime will ultimately fail.  I say petty but I really mean fucking assholes.  I feel bad that the rank and file over there have been brainwashed/cowed into submission, but they aren't the first and certainly won't be the last to do so.  But getting on them for their cultural choices in food is not what this is about so let's save the judgement on their lifestyle for another time..  I had a couple (OK, have many) flippant comments about it, but this shit is serious and will keep them to myself for now.

OK...Oman.

A question we received from our friends before going, and one we received at least a dozen times by the people there was, "Why did you pick Oman for a vacation?"  To be honest, I am not entirely sure myself.  It popped out of Betty's head sometime back and we have friends that went and another that taught there for many years, so not sure which came first.

I fancy myself well versed in history and geography, but knew little about it going in.  I knew that they were the viewed as being friends of everyone as they were the facilitators during the meetings between Iran and the US during the nuclear deal and that they have friendly relations not only with Iran, but Israel and Saudi Arabia too.  They are 20 miles from Iran and share a border with Yemen.  In a far too shallow internet search before going, read that the current Sultan had been in power since 1970 and that before he took over (from his father in a bloodless coup), that the country had only 17 miles of paved road.

Our flight there went through Bangkok (3.5 to Bangkok and 6 more to Oman) and that Oman shares the same latitude as Taiwan as the Tropic of Cancer runs through both.  Our first day, arranged a tour to go from the capitol of Muscat to Nizwa and Jebel Shams.  This was a long ass day as Nizwa is a couple hours away and Jebel Shams an hour further.

Nizwa was the ancient capitol of Oman and our guide took us to the famous souk (market).  Having experienced souks in Morocco and Turkey, was expecting a wild scene, but this place was clean and serene.  Boring if you ask me.  We were underwhelmed by their wares with the exception of the date souk.  They had all the kinds and we left with a bag.  Wish we had gotten more cause we did not see another market with such a wide variety.

I ate a ton of dates this week.  I love them and do not get enough and will make sure to introduce them more in my diet cause they are rich in fiber.  I know this cause not only were the BM's smooth as glass, but I farted non-stop and in epic fashion all week long.

The Nizwa fort, which is on the back side of the souk, is said to be a major site in town, but the long serving Sultan died on January 10th and the country mourns for 40 days, so it was closed for us.  Forts are a big deal in Oman but we heard that if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Other than the souk and fort, the third site to see in Nizwa according to the guides is the Falaj Daris.  A falaj is basically an irrigation channel and this one is a UNESCO site.  From wikipedia...

Falaj Daris (a World Heritage Site) is the largest falaj in Oman and is the life maintainer of Nizwa. It provides the surrounding countryside with much needed water for the plantations. Al Ghantuq and Dhoot are two other important falajs in Nizwa. Farming is widely practiced and the town's immense palm farms stretches for eight kilometers along the course of two wadis (Kalbouh and Al Abiadh). Also in practice are red sugar processing and hide tanning.

It is also a place where the locals go to cool off.

We didn't bring our swimming togs and probably wouldn't have jumped in this day as it was mid-70's.  In fact, it was mid-70's every day we were there and cannot imagine it being any more perfect for us.

Our guide this day (Yassar) was OK.  Betty liked his information on the country, but I found his take on Oman a bit disjointed.  Maybe that is because he missed the turn off to Jebel Shams, thought he could find the back road to it but after 40 minutes in the wrong direction, pulled a u-turn and went back, which increased a long day by an hour and a half.

Jebel Shams is billed as the Grand Canyon of the Middle East.  It is best viewed up a road that is slow going and requires a 4WD.

It was not nearly as spectacular as the Grand Canyon, but it was stunning.

Let's talk about goats for a minute.  Goats were to be found everywhere we went.  We did not see a single dog until the last day of our trip and that was only at the end of a leash being held by a Western person.  Seems that goats are the dogs of Oman.  Another day we were on a boat and saw some on a cliff side when a speed boat carrying some local fishermen returned to the village.  As soon as they heard the boat, the goats recognized it to be that of their owners and they all started running down the hill to meet them at the dock.  Cute.  At Jebel Shams, the goats were hanging out and we got personal with them.  We named this one Fred.

 If you blow that up, you can see their eye are really weird, almost demonic looking.  They were adorable so we fetched one of our fig bars out of the car to feed them.  They were gentle when taking the food out of our hand

But Fred got a bit aggressive towards the end of the bar.

My interaction with goats in life has been limited and the only other time I recall being around them was on a field trip to the LA Zoo in the 4th grade.  We went to the petting area that had goats and one of them jumped on me just like the above photo and ate my name tag.  Had not thought about that apparently traumatic moment since then until now.

Bought a nice goat hair bracelet for myself from these shy girls at the stand by the canyon.

Probably should have scheduled this day trip later as we were a bit beat from the previous days flights, and having things closed due to the mourning period didn't help, but I would recommend this excursion to fellow travelers.

Next day was budgeted to see the capitol city of Muscat and we hired a driver (Faisal) for a 4 hour morning tour.  He was OK too and felt him a bit light on information.  He took us to the Sultan Qaboos Mosque and it was truly gorgeous.  Pictures do not do it justice, but here are a few.

I think the girls looked good with the head coverings.  I of course look great with or without head wear.  In an anteroom off to the side of the mosque are a couple of rooms where visitors are welcome and there are people there to talk to you about the mosque and answer any questions one has on Islam.  They invite you to sit down and enjoy some Omani coffee and dates.  The lady that talked to us was perhaps the most lovely and ebullient woman I have ever met.  Her name was Naima and she almost had me converting.

A few words about the Sultan Qaboos and Oman history.  Mentioned earlier that he became Sultan in 1970 and the country had few roads and zero infrastructure.  In the 16th century, Oman had an empire that vied with the Portuguese and at its height, controlled parts of Pakistan (Karachi is a 2 hour flight), Iran (20 miles away) and much of eastern Africa.  It held its positions for 200 years until they waned and British became an "ally".  It had little in resources during that time but regained significance in the 20th century due to it having oil reserves.  The previous Sultans kept all of the oil money up until Sultan Qaboos took over in 1970.  He used that oil money to build modern Oman.  Before 1970, transportation around the country was on camels and donkeys but now, roads (good ones) are everywhere.  There were three schools in Oman before Qaboos and he brought back ex patriots to start schools there and now education is free and available to all.  Basically, everything in this country was built since 1970 and it was not built on the cheap.  The mosque, airport, opera house and virtually everything you see is built smart, and by that I mean that they used all the new techniques and did not spare expenses.  Not only built well, but built with aesthetic touches that made them appealing to the eye.

Not only did we not hear a single person say a bad word about the Sultan Qaboos. but they all spoke of him with a reverence that I cannot equate to another leader anywhere.  Lincoln perhaps, but some people still talk shit about Lincoln.  It was truly extraordinary.  After reigning for 50 years, he died without children.  He once married a cousin but they divorced shortly thereafter and he never remarried (even though one can have 4 wives in Oman).  No one said it, or would ever dare suggest it, but the dude was likely gay.  The succession plan in Oman is like no other I had ever heard.  The Sultan writes the name of his preferred successor on a piece of paper and puts it in a sealed box.  The royal family has three days to choose a new Sultan and if after that time they cannot agree on one, the box is opened and the person the Sultan selected becomes the new Sultan.  In this instance, the royal family did not want to have any sign of controversy and they went right to the box to select the new leader.  As we were in the mourning period, there was little talk of the new guy and when we asked about him the people would say he will be good because Qaboos chose him.  Fascinating.

Muscat is a weird city logistically as it is broken up by a bunch of mountains and there really isn't a downtown per se.  We were shown the fish market, which again was clean as my kitchen and felt weird cause fish markets are typically smelly and dirty.  We also went to the Mattrah souk which was older and bigger than the one we saw in Nizwa, but was remarkably clean.

Our last stop in town this day was in front of the Sultan's palace.  They said it was old, but it looked very 70's to me.  The grounds were well manicured and the whole vibe mellow.

We spent more time later in Muscat but think I'm gonna cut it here and make it a two parter.  Don't want to lose momentum and need to be diligent on contributing to this space.  Plus, I don't hear too many critiques, but one I have heard a couple of times is that the posts are too long sometimes and wouldn't want to offend any limited attention spans.

Stay hydrated.