weekend in Muscat

We just returned from an all-too brief summer vacation to Muscat, Oman. It was a perfect long weekend: a four hour drive to a gorgeous seaside town, a nice hotel, great food, and some relaxing pool time. In contrast to Dubai, Muscat has building height restrictions, a sleepy atmosphere, and lots of focus on the sea. The city is nestled in the rocks on the Indian ocean, with networks of coves all along bustling with life. I especially loved Matrah, with its seawall, ferry boats, and busy sidewalk shops. Our meandering drive out of town took us to a stunning new hotel development perched above turquoise bays, to tiny villages with house walls crumbling from repeated wash-outs, and down a narrow 20-mile road of hairpin turns to find a small city crammed into another rocky cove.

Yesterday's drive home was a bit longer, but today's sore backs are worth it...we drove from dramatic rocky mountains to dust-devils in the plains, with surprise oases dotting the landscape. The lush farms are filled with date palms heavy with nearly ripe fruit, the low walls protecting them from the miles of sand all around.

Sultan's Grand Mosque

yeah, it was hot out

date vendor

shopping in the souk, we lasted about 30 mins in the heat & humidity

Oman ferry & traditional fishing boat

Matrah shopping street

the causeway's a nice spot for a Starbucks

fishing boats

surprise town at the end of the road

village goats

rocky drive home

Nepal Day 6 - Sunrise in Pokhara

grass hut in the hills

misty valley

Jim woke feeling much better, thank goodness. The morning trip was fascinating, not least for the other tourists on the tiny peak for the sunrise. It was still quite cloudy, and the Annapurna peaks and others were only teasing us with little views (peeks at the peaks), but the view from the Sagarkhot lookout were fantastic nonetheless. We could see the whole valley, with the town, river, lake, hills, farms…we heard the monks greeting the dawn with their mountain horns (and tried not to compare them to the World Cup's vuvuzela horns). When we arrived, there was an asian couple with a tripod set up, and about a dozen others in small gouts, huddled and waiting for the sun to rise. As we waited more arrived, including a loud foursome of Indian girls from the UK in matching custom-embroidered shirts and then busloads of Korean and Taiwanese tourists. In a matter of 20 minutes, the hilltop, about the size of our living room, was crowded with at least a hundred people, talking and taking pictures. The sunrise was not so dramatic, but the peaks did sneak through and we took lots of photos. The UK girls were mobbed with young asians asking to take their photos with them, which they, and I, found absolutely hilarious. They spent about 15 minutes posing with a series of young Korean ladies.

shopping at dawn

There were the inevitable souvenir vendors, shops open at 4:30am to catch the sunrise tourists. We got a bag for Charlotte before heading back down. We'd waited for the clouds to clear, hanging around on the hilltop for ages without success, but when we descended into the valley afterwards, the clouds finally parted and we could see the whole range, Annapurna I - V, and the rocky peak in the middle. We snapped some photos from the car, but the best views came once we were back at the hotel for breakfast. It was absolutely breathtaking to see the range up close from our lakeside, and I think I took a few hundred photos. The Korean and Taiwanese contingents from the mountaintop turned out to be staying at the same hotel, so we ate breakfast quickly to dodge the crowds, and took our tea and coffee back to the viewpoint by our room.

We were on a plane back to Kathmandu by 10am, very grateful that our tour company talked us into spending the night or we would never have seen the mountains in the morning!

the clouds parted

Annapurna