February beach days

While our friends & families in the U.S. were freezing their tails of in February, we were enjoying warm waters and sunny beaches in Muscat.  (Please excuse my gloating--when your spring finally comes, it will be over 100 degrees here!). 

Our friends invited us on a 1/2 day dolphin-watching and snorkeling trip.  It was really fun to see the coast of Muscat first time.  Oh, and the dolphins were a lot of fun, too!

An international sailing race took place starting at the beach just 10 minutes up the road from our villa.  David sailed with the BYU sailing club and then again when we lived in Olympia, WA, so this was a lot of fun for him.  He got to take a turn sailing on a boat in the harbor. 

 

A man passed by with a monkey on a leash (NOT common in Oman!)

Muslims are not permitted to drink alcohol, but the Omanis sure do love their Red Bull!

Just another day at the beach.  Actually, this is not the beach 1 block from our house (our beach has more trash and less shade).  This is part of the Oman Dive Center where tourists buy diving lessons and other adventure trips.  We had to pay about $8 for the day, but since it's mostly an expat and tourist place, I could wear my swimsuit and not worry about being stared at or offending someone. 

 

Claire prefers reading our Oman guidebook to playing in the sand.  Actually, the real reason Claire enjoys coming to the beach is to discover which snacks I packed!  She is her momma's girl.

Bull! (No, seriously!!!)

I was just beginning to think that Oman had no more surprises for me.  When I drive down the street, I hardly notice the men in white dishdashas and the women in black abayas, the goats, the mosques on every street corner.  I've adjusted to the crazy driving conditions.  Living two blocks from the beach seems perfectly normal.  We can drive to Dubai for a weekend trip whenever we want to.  It's a lot of fun, but it doesn't seem so exotic anymore. 

So just when I thought I'd seen it all...  we drove 30-min north to Barka after church one Friday afternoon, and discovered... Omani bull fighting!  Now, before you start imagining tortured animals and matadors waving red cloth, let me assure you that this is nothing like Spanish bull fighting.  These bulls are hardly provoked by their Omani handlers, and the fighting is more like wrestling, with bulls going head-to-head in a contest of strength.

This was quite a traditional event.  No advertisements, no admission to pay.   Most of the spectators were local Omani men.  About 30 grunting bulls encircling the arena, waiting for their turns.  The Omani judges formed a smaller circle around the two fighting bulls.

 

  Ethan is not intimidated by anyone.  He walks up to strangers all time time and begins conversations in "Arabic" or hands them pretend objects.  Funny little white boy in Omani soccer jersey.

Note the reluctance of the bull on the left.  On the drive home, David asked Ethan, "Which bull would you be?"  Ethan answered, "The one who didn't want to go."  Pacifist or nonconformist?!

 

Friends visiting from Dubai

 

We love Oman!

Dup-dup and Bunny

Shortly after Claire was born, she showed an interest in thumb-sucking.  We encouraged her to take a pacifier instead (easier to take away later than a thumb).  As with Ethan, we have refused to call it a binky or any such cutsie name that might increase it's attractiveness-- we just call it a pacifier.  The result:  Ethan learned to pronounce "pacifio" at a young age, while Claire refers to the beloved object as "Dup-dup."  At age 20 months, she is still quite attached to her Dup-dup.  Whenever we sneak it away, she replaces it with rocks, hair clips, and other choke hazards.  If we take it away during church, no one can hear the talks over Claire's noisy talking and singing.  Now I know why Grandma Porcaro calls a pacifier a "plug!"

 

Claire with her favorites: Dup-dup, Bunny, and book

 

Minus the Dup-dup

Some of you may recall the crisis last spring when Claire's lovey (now referred to as Bunny-Bear 1.0) was tossed to the bobcats at the zoo?  Thanks to Amazon, we were able to replace her cross-dressing, bear-in-bunny-pajamas.  Bunny is the best-- you can use it like a pillow, suck on it's long ears, store a Dup-dup in it's hood... you can even use Bunny's ears to floss between your toes (did I mention Bunny is machine washable?).  Claire does not go anywhere without her little friend.   

 

Bunny floss

 

Bunny pillow

 

Bunny as Dup-dup

Dubai 2

David had a conference in Dubai the first week of February, so we all went along for the trip.  It was a completely different experience from last time we went to Dubai, as we spent most of our time at the Dubai Mall (since that's where the conference was).  The Burj Khalifa had just been renamed and officially opened as world's largest building.  Can you figure out which skyscraper it is in the next photo?  (This photo was taken from the balcony of our friends' condo where we stayed during the trip)

 

Dubai Skyline

 

The real reason we came to Dubai (and the Middle East, for that matter!).  While David attended and presented at the education conference, the kids and I hung out at the mall.  Photos below:  Fashion Avenue (every high-end store I've ever heard of, or not), Armani Junior (I spotted a baby onesie for $60), arab-style manequins, indoor fountain, ice skating rink, aquarium, Gold Souq... all inside the mall.  Plus three stories of more trendy shops.  I just shopped at Osh Kosh and Coldstone Creamery. 

 At 6:00pm each evening, we'd meet up with David at the fancy hotel within the mall, and walk out of world's largest mall to stand at the base of world's tallest building and watch world's tallest fountains.  So very Dubai.

  

Waiting for the fountain show to begin.  

You can see the base of Burj Khalifa in the background. 

The photos do not do justice to the beautiful fountains.  Imagine 4x more fountains than shown here, choreographed to a different international song every 20 minutes.  My favorite was Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman singing "Time to say goodbye."  The show was even more spectacular after sunset with the lights.

    

We told Ethan that he was looking at the tallest building in the world. Probably hard for a 3-year-old to truly appreciate, but he liked it anyhow.

 

We had planned to go up the elevator on tour, but tickets were sold out.  The next week the building was closed to tourists.  Hopefully it will reopen before we move back to the U.S. in June.

  

We could have watched the fountains all night.  Can't wait to go back!

Musandam

David's first semester of teaching ended in January, and we took advantage of our 2-week break with a road trip north to Musandam and then over to Dubai.  Musandam is an exclave of Oman, separated from the rest of the country by the eastern section of UAE (thus, we had to cross two border posts to arrive back on Omani soil).  Musandam has been called the "Norway of Arabia" because of its many fjords.  I've never been to Norway, but the drive in reminded me of the Seward Highway in Anchorage.  Don't you think the name Musandam sounds like some fantastical kingdom from a children's novel?

 

 

We spent the night in Khasab, then went on a morning dhow cruise in the Gulf of Hormuz.  Control of this waterway is shared between Oman and Iran, and is strategically important for transport of 90% of the Gulf region's oil exports.  We could not actually see as far as the coasts of Iran, but we did see plenty of speedboats which smuggle American cigarettes and electronics into Iran in exchange for goats.  (How come they never feature goats in the spy movies?)

  

The kids loved the dhow cruise!  There were only 5 other passengers and 2 crewmen on the boat with us.

Dolphins!

 

David's family (siblings+children) has roughly the same population as this remote village. 

 

On the way out of town, we stopped by an old village to see prehistoric rock carvings:

 

Camels!