Day Four

Woke up at 6:30am and went down for a lovely breakfast at the guest house then it was out to explore Nizwa. Again because of the Eid holidays most of the markets were closed but we did manage to visit a lovely old fort that had been partly restored and was amazing. There were hundreds of rooms and it was fascinating to see how they had set up the home relating to the times. The wadi water system would have streamed into the fort providing water, toilets and showers through out. There were also kitchens, bedrooms and lounges that we could make out. There were stairs everywhere also on the roof and the view across the city was magnificent. We would have spent an hour or more walking up and down the stairs and exploring every inch of the fort. On the roof, stair cases led up to look out points and we had races up the side stairs. Brought souvenirs from the shop at very reasonable prices and then went to find the animal market. It was almost over but there were a number of trucks left housing some noisy little calves. People had come to purchase them and were poking and prodding the poor things trying to choose a fine specimen. They were making a lot of noise, especially one that was chosen, pulled out the back of the truck, tied up, dragged along the ground and thrown into the boot of someone’s car! I hope the cow did a nice big poo in the boot!!! They are only 2-3 months old, people buy them young and keep them for a couple of years before eating them. Almost went off beef.

We then drove out to Tanuf to see an ancient falaj or aqueduct built into the cliffs. Much of Oman’s bottled water comes from this small village. The channels, cut into the mountain sides, running across miniature aqueducts and double-deckering through tunnels, are responsible for most of the oases in Oman. The precious water is diverted firstly into drinking wells, then into mosque washing areas and at length to plantations, where it is siphoned proportionately among the village farms. There are over 4000 of these channels in Oman, some of which were built over 1,500 years ago. We climbed the channel and walked a fair way along it before turning back as the drop would have been over 100 meters and the walls were not that thick to walk on. Managed to get the car bogged in the stones even after we had laughed at another car that had been bogged and thought up a new route to insure we didn’t do the same thing. Of course PK was driving and not using his brain as usual. There was a lot of wheel spinning and some terrible smells coming from the tyres which we later realized was more break pads as PK had forgotten to remove the hand break.

The next destination was Bahla to visit another fort and a local pottery factory. On the way we stopped to explore some amazing ruins. You could see shelving and walls within the mud and straw moulds.
Bahla had a fort which was being renovated and we couldn’t find the pottery factory which was most likely closed anyway as was the souqs and all the shops in the area due to Eid. P.K. did provide some entertainment which his lack of driving and listening ability and getting lost in the maze of back streets. Upon asking why they were so skinny and it was stupid as you could get your car through. Steph gently reminded him that it was not likely that cars had been invented when when these houses were built!! Ha ha ha

We drove back to Muscat, asking and answering Steph’s questions along the way. We dropped Steph off at the airport and tried to book a room at the Salwadi Beach Resort for that night so that we could do some snorkeling the next day. We set out for the 1 ½ hour drive north to the Resort. There were not many sign posts and the map was not great. When we hadn’t seen a sign for a while we turned down this very dodgy road with no street lights! Got out to ask for directions at a small dairy shop. One gentleman offered for us to follow him but in the end with little help in direction we decided to keep driving. After about 20 mins we started seeing signs directing us to the right place.

Upon requesting a room we were told that they were full. Then they said someone had just cancelled and we could take the room. We had found out about the place in the Lonely Planet and the suggested rate for the room was 20-23 Omani Riyals ($85 AUD). Seemed like they were a little out of date as the best price we were given was $50 OR ($185 AUD) what a rip! But P.K was over driving and there was nothing else in the area so we decided to stay. Then the clincher came, there was only one bed! Ha I tried to tell the nice hotel man that we were brother and sister and could not share the same bed but he just laughed at me! GREAT!

There were heaps of people walking around and a large crowd at dinner watching a band on stage. Entertainment was arranged for a number of tour groups who where there for the Eid holidays. Dinner was out of our budget so we drove up the road in search of some kind of sustenance. Unfortunately the only things we could find were some dodgy “chicken” burgers, some gross stale sweet bread, processed triangle cheese and shitty looking packets of scary unsanitary chips. We took our feast back to the hotel room and ate, some of it. I opted for a melted muesli bar in place of the chicken burger! We headed out for a walk around and to check out the “entertainment” the band was pretty terrible and the dancing was extremely cheesy. Lots of older American and English people spinning around on the dance floor!
We booked in a session of shisa and sat there taking it all in.