Salalah

It's raining in Muscat this morning! This reminded me that I have yet to post about our 3 day trip a few weeks ago to Salalah in the South of Oman, bordering Yemen and Saudi Arabia. 

Each summer between mid June-September Salalah, Oman's second city, catches the tail end of the Indian monsoons bringing with it mist and rain. Al khareef as it is known locally, turns the area into a beautiful green oasis and people flock in their 1000s from all over the Middle East to escape the stifling heat of the summer elsewhere in the region. We didn't quite make it for the khareef but travelled during half term at the beginning of October when the crowds had quietened down but the greenery had not. 

Salalah is over 1000 km from Muscat, a very, very long car journey with two impatient kids so we made it easy for ourselves and took a flight with Oman Air, arriving in Salalah 11/2 hours after leaving Muscat. We picked up a car up at the airport and drove to the relatively new Juweira (not to be confused with Jumeira) Boutique Hotel which is situated in the new marina area. Construction is still taking place to build a Club Med resort as well as another high end hotel but this was very unobtrusive and we barely noticed the diggers, lorries and piles of sand in the distance. The hotel is contemporary and small and seemed very quiet compared to our experience of Muscat hotels, in fact we pretty much had the pool to ourselves during the day time. 

                                     

On our first afternoon we ventured out to Wadi Dharbat, an estuary that joins the Khour Rouri and during the rainy season waterfalls can be seen spilling over the cliff face. Unfortnately we missed these and as you are unable to swim in the wadi due to potential bilharzia bacteria this made our trip slightly disappointing (not to mention the mini pedalos, rubbish and popcorn sellers). It was however great to experience the greenery but at the same time it seemed strange to see a field full of camels! 

King of the Castle! Looking at the views from on the way down form Wadi Dharbat

On day 2, after a lazy morning around the pool, we visited Mughsayl beach, about 45 km from Salalah. This is a beautiful and rugged beach where during rough seas water shoots up through blow holes caused by the water having eroding the rock and formed caverns. The natural rock face of the cliffs are also covered in part by different coloured seaweeds, forming a layered effect which is quite dramatic. The seas here however can be quite unpredictable though and during the week we were visiting 2 people had gone missing after swimming in this stretch of water so we contented ourselves with walking along the long sandy beach and stone skimming.

On the way back to the airport we stopped off for some local small and sweet bananas, coconuts and coconut water, drunk straight from the coconut through a straw. I loved this part of Salalah, with it's banana plantations and coconut palms and streets lined with stalls all selling exactly the same things. The colours and atmosphere reminded me of Sri Lanka. 

Our trip to Salalah was long enough to enjoy but not so long that the kids grew bored of sight seeing and of this small, quiet but beautiful part of Oman. 

Eid al Adha Break

Half term was early for us here in Oman so that it coincided with a 9 day public holiday for Eid al Adha. Eid al Adha is the Muslim celebration which marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). 

As newbies in Muscat we are still getting to know people so we were delighted when one of our neighbours invited us on a 2 night surfing trip to the East of Oman. We had already booked a trip to Salalah 1100 km from Muscat in the South of Oman for part of the week (post to follow) but not wanting to miss out, we decided to go along for one night and were so glad we did. 

The Arabian Sea Motel near As Siwayh was the location, a  low rise, basic but clean hotel situated in a huge bay. The surfing was provided by a company from Dubai (http://www.surfshopdubai.com) who regularly visit this spot to provide water sports facilities including surfing, kite boarding and stand up paddle boarding.

We drove 3.5 hours from Muscat to get there in convoy with a few other families, through some very dramatic mountain scenery, past wadis we would like to visit, through the fishing town of Sur and past the turtle reserve at Ras al Jinz.

The first surfing lessons and boards had been pre-booked for the kids, once again thanks to our lovely neighbour, and the first lesson took place on the afternoon of our arrival. There were 13 kids with mixed abilities but this was a new experience for my girls and I thought my little miss sporty (the youngest) would find it easier than her less active big sister but it seems that this is not always the case with surfing and our teenager in the making was every bit as capable as her little sister, a great confidence booster.

The surfing guys were excellent with the kids and really encouraged all of them to have a go and by day two had pretty much all of them standing up. This was all being watched from the beach by the gang of parents, whilst also admiring the skills of the kite boarders and an amazingly cool stand up paddle boarder who made the whole thing look sooo easy and even made me want to get up and have a go myself. 

The hotel served up a good breakfast but breakfast is the only meal that is offered so we had all arrived with cars full of BBQs, camping chairs and cool boxes full of food to share. The evening was spent BBQ-ing, marsh mellow toasting (kids), beer drinking (adults) and chatting to the group of great people we had met, most of them for the first time that day. The kids all had a ball and exhausted from the days activities and went to bed without any complaints at all. :-) 

Unfortunately we had to leave before the mum's surfing lesson took place on the afternoon of the 2nd day, which was such a shame as I would have really liked to have given it a go and have since heard that it was a lot of fun! 

We did however somehow manage to bring home an extra guest homw with us though...Ahhhh!!!

Some people have lived here for years and never seen a scorpion so how we managed to find one and bring it home goodness knows. I think it was a bit shell shocked from all the screaming but we managed to catch it and deliver it safely back to the desert .

Birthday Bliss

As usual my family gave me some very thoughtful and lovely cards and presents on my birthday. This card from my eldest daughter made me laugh as I have never really considered myself much of a shopper but she clearly does! So probably just as well the options are limited in Oman.

But this one from my husband  is spot on...I generally have to ask my children to show me how to do most things involving laptops, ipads, phones and even how to turn the TV on...

A present to help transform my frizz! I love the fact that this Nuxe dry oil is made from over 98% natural ingredients, it is multi-purpose as I can also use it on my skin and it smells gorgeous too.

Goodbye Hotel Chocolat and Hello Patchi! Beautifully wrapped and extremely moreish, uh oh I have discovered the delights of Lebanese chocolate brand Patchi...

I am not sure what my husband was thinking when he bought me this but I love it anyway!

Happy days!