Day Five

We woke up about 10am and had a breakfast of the cheese and gross bread! So gross!!!! Then went for a stroll out to the beach area to check out the scene. Enquired about snorkeling which was also a rip and far more than suggested by Lonely Planet but decided to do it anyway. Went and checked out of the hotel and then boarded a boat out towards some islands just off the coast. The snorkeling was great, lots of very colourful fish only the water was a little cloudy due to the number of boats that obviously flocked to the area. After two or so hours in the water the boat came back to pick us up and take us back to the main beach. We showered and got ready to make the trip back to Muscat.

The next planned stop was Barka to have a look at the interesting sounding town and try our luck at witnessing the bull fighting, or bull-butting as they call it, which was supposedly starting in November but we hoped there might be a training session or something. The fights move around the country but seeing as this was the area it originated we gave it a go. As we drove up to the ring we could see trucks pulling up and unloading these massive bulls with strange humps on their backs, they are called Brahmin bulls and are specially raised here by local farmers. The local men gestured for us to wind down our windows and invited us to return at 4pm when the entertainment would start.

We dove to the other side of the small town to investigate a fort, yes another one. Getting out of the car we spotted that it was near to the water and so we decided to take a stroll down to the water. We didn’t get far before we started smelling the fish sheds that were near to the beach. Thinking it would pass we continued walking and were hit with a whole batch of it as we kept walking. It got worse and worse and we had to turn back before even making it anywhere near the beach. I practically ran in the other direction as it was probably the worst smell I have ever smelt!!

The next thing on the agenda was lunch. I was not looking forward to this as most of the food we had had in Oman was reasonably disappointing and seeing that we were in a small town I didn’t like my chances of anything gourmet!
I decided on chicken fried rice which was ok, well in light of the breakfast I had had was like eating at the Burj!! HA!! But not too bad, the kind of food that you don’t think about, just eat and know that you are building immunity!!! Heehee

At about 4:30pm we headed back to the bull ring and found it teeming with mostly gentlemen in their national dress, possessing walking sticks that they used to prod the bulls. The fighting machines were the ugliest, largest, smelliest, pooey bumy-ist bulls I had ever seen and we didn’t sit in the front row for fear of the direction that their bottoms were pointing as they were tied to branches in the ground around the outside of the ring. One of the bulls near us had the sneezes and it was the funniest thing I have ever heard!!
The bulls were lead one at a time from each end of the circle into the center of the ring to flight. I’m not really sure how they win or what exactly they were doing but it seemed that if the bull lost it went home as one was taken out of the ring each time and loaded back into trucks. There wasn’t much excitement in the stands, a reasonably quite event aside from Mr. Sneezy and we kind of wondered what the point was as its illegal to bet on the bulls?

From Barka we drove back to Muscat and went in search of a movie theater to fill in some time before going to the airport. The only movies that were on finished too late to reasonably get back to the airport so instead we played some pool and table soccer.
It was then time to go to the airport, return the hire car and check in for our flight back to Doha.

We were so tied and were happy to get onto the plane for our short flight home. Oman is a beautiful country and out of the three Middle Eastern countries I have seen I would defiantly recommend Oman as a must see. It’s very picturesque with its mountains, beautiful lush green palms and desert sands. The beaches are stunning with crystal turquoise water and the locals love camping so there are lots of facilities. The local people are very friendly and love to interact with tourists. It was a fantastic holiday!





Other Memories of the Trip

Piles of hole on the beach – Steph freaking out! Don’t know what the piles were from, crabs or something but they looked like load of piles of doggy dun its. Grody!

Demerit points – for all the wrong things that were said!

Right PK!!

Sneezing in the sun – PK sneezes when ever he comes into the sunlight from a darker place??? Ummmm ok…..

Only Omani taxi drivers – in Oman there are certain professions which only Omani’s are allowed to do such as policemen and taxi drivers.

Every Omani gets a plot of land in the area they are registered in at one stage in their life. They can build a house on it, use it as farm land, what ever they like.

Doors and stairs obsession

Cush – “I want to wash my hands,” Steph “why what’s on them,” Cush – “Oman”
Down and up – tahead, fork! (tTe Arabic translation for the former) With the driver making very naughty suggestions at what the words meant and laughing at us and thinking P.K. lucky with two girls.