Oh, man! Checking out the neighboring country

Jason had some vacation time he needed to use and so as soon as the big kids finished their finals and we finished tennis lessons, we took off for a little family vacay in Oman. It's just a 2 hour drive to the border post outside of Al Ain, but a 90 minute trial trying to get through it. Why does it take over an hour and cost 200 dirham to get an exit stamp from a country we have residency in? The Omai visa was a breeze in comparison. But eventually we broke through the bureaucracy and each had another stamp in our passports. We drove to Al Hamra with Google maps not working, but we ended up

finding the guest house ok. It was three rooms built on the back of a villa. There were three beds with very firm mattresses and room on the floor for the little pads that the owner provided with sleeping bags. Our kids are too big to share beds now! Dinner (included with the guest house) was at a restaurant named Al Hud Hud: Turkish, Chinese, Indian, Arabic, American, pizza, and all so good. Kids are getting pretty adventurous. There was only one chicken burger ordered, otherwise lots of schwarma, and Chinese and Indian seem to be pretty popular in the Kautz family.

Our first full day in Oman was spent hiking. We did the "Balcony Hike" which is through the "Grand Canyon" of Oman. It was about an hour drive up the mountain and on the way we picked up an old shepherd hitchhiking which freaked out Eliza and Henry in the back seat. It's too bad we don't know Arabic, it would have been a more interesting trip to the trail head in the village of Al Khitaym if we could have talked with him.

The hike was about 2 hours long each way along the canyon side. There wasn't much change in elevation. Just a lot of rocks -- sandstone mostly. Eliza rock-hounded the whole hike. There were also a few goats on the trail, so cute - but with scary weird eyes. For the whole hike we were just following a narrow trail on the side of the gorge, with drop offs just off the side of the trail, and except for a little 15-foot section  near the trail head, there were no guard rails. When we were almost to the wadi at the end of the trail we came to ruins of a village: Al Sab. It was so fascinating to see these stone houses with their palm branch roofs. And they're just open and accessible to anyone on the trail so we got to climb around and explore in them.

Shortly after the ruins we came to the trail end: wadi Ghul, a little pond of water in a canyon, fed by tiny streams coming from the rocks. We spent a few hours climbing on the rocks and feeding goats and eating snacks ourselves. Then we climbed through another village ruin to the cliff above and found another, even bigger wadi with a cave cut into the cliff and with toads in the pools.

Another 2 hours hike back and we were the last ones off the trail for the day. Got a wave and a smile from our truck buddy as we left Al Khitaym, and said goodbye to the tiny, adorable baby goats.

December 21st we spent on the most difficult hike we've ever done. Jebel Shams ("Sun Mountain") is the highest point on the Arabian peninsula, about 3000m. We decided to hike to the top. It was advertised as a 5 1/2 hour hike each way, approximately 12 miles with a half mile of elevation climb. We finally found the trail head and got going just before 10 am, and we made it back to our truck just after 5 pm. So we accomplished the whole thing in well under 10 hours.

But this was no easy walk. The trail itself is no real trail, that is, there isn't a clear path. The whole side of the mountain is just loose rocks and boulders and you have to watch your footing at each step. Every 50 yards or so there is a red/white/yellow flag painted on a rock and you just follow those flags the whole way. Occasionally we couldn't see the next flag, so we'd have to spread out and "flag spot",

searching for color among all the dusty tan, or for little man-made piles of rocks that some previous hikers helpfully piled up near the flags. The first one to spot the flag got to take a little water break while waiting for everyone to regroup. The trail was deceptively long. We could see the peak from where we parked, but the trail wound around the canyon edge and through several ravines and was very hard going. As we neared the peak, we kept thinking we were almost there, but the trail kept winding around the mountain and not up it. We realized the trail was heading to a neighboring peak, since there is an army installation at the actual summit of Jebel Shams. Boy was that discouraging. So we said, forget that, and left the trail and climbed the rocks and cliff faces as high as we could. Jason kept encouraging us all:  "It's just right there!" "Just one more ridge!" "Just over this crest!" until the kids locked onto a new word: Masochist.

We finally came to a big fence surrounding the army installation and could go no further. We made it. Henry said he was never so glad to see a sign as one that told his dad he can't go any farther.

It was as physically difficult a hike as those we did in Nepal. We all had super sore legs by the time we finished. But hanging feet off the cliff edge of the "Grand Canyon", finding hollow rocks where the sandstone has eroded away,

the high iron content making the rocks sound metallic when tapped together, and the SNOW we got to play in as we approached the highest summit made it memorable. Still, we only saw one other person on the trail up and only one group of 4 guys that passed us on the hike down. It isn't a very popular hike. None of the Omanis we talked with had ever done it.

The next day, we hobbled through an old fort in the town of Nizwa.

It was really cool to see their defenses: "murder-holes" above spiked doors through which boiling water or oil or date syrup would be poured on invaders. Missing steps in pitch-black stairways which were over deep pits. And a lot of cannons complete with a collection on cannon balls. Unfortunately it was Friday and we got to the fort just 10 minutes before they closed the gates for Friday prayers. So we did not get to see many of the people demonstrating sewing or wood carving or halwa (candy) making or any of the other Omani traditions. One thing we did catch was two women making some kind of very bright yellow paste in a morter and pestle. It smelled like cinnamon. The girls were invited to try some. Greta, thinking it was a snack, tasted a bit before she was stopped and showed it was to be spread on the forehead. 

Oops, darn language barrier. She said it smelled great but tasted plasticy. But her cough went away immediately!

After our self-guided tour we got back in the truck and drove to Muscat. Checked into our hotel with time to spare, aka check out the rooftop pool. Muscat is lovely, very mountainous right up to the sea, with flowers blooming all over. The sultan decreed that no building can be over 7 stories tall so that they cannot attempt to overshadow the mountains looming close by. It makes Muscat very unassuming and accessible, if widely spread out. 

That evening we went to the Royal Opera House. We saw a modern interpretation of Cinderella, set in a doll house, and while it followed the basic plot of the story, there were a few things that caught us off guard. It was a formal event. Gents: suit coats or dinner jackets, Ladies: dresses covering the shoulders, below the knees. No jeans, cargo pants, t-shirts, or tennis shoes permitted. So basically, the entire Kautz Klan went clothes shopping. Eventually though, we were all dolled up, and ready to roll.

Family photo at our Muscat hotel

When we got to the Opera house, we walked around the lobby, looking at the displays for some famous opera singer, then we were shown to our seats. Listening to the orchestra warm up, we looked around the grandiose theater and dreamed up expectations for the performance.

Then the performance started. Enter wicked sisters and dad. The ballet begins with a scene where the sisters bully Cinderella, then the father hands out gifts to them. He hands Cinderella a huge luggage case to stow away, and he and the sisters leave. That night, Cinderella opens her father's case and lo and behold, the fairy god- ... father (lazer sword and light up costume included) is inside a figure not unlike a tall, gangling ET. He tears the chrysalis creature apart and proceeds to turn Cinderella into something more worthy of the prince's ball, while robot noises and flashy lights keep the orchestra quiet. The rest of the story pretty much progresses as it does in the Disney movie, excluding the parts where the sound of many babies and toddlers crying and laughing apparently indicates communication between various characters, and the fairy-soldier-godfather makes loud and quite frankly obnoxious robot noises. Que happily ever after (complete with giant lolly-pops) and the ballet is done. While I thought the story line and sound effects were codswallop, the dancers were really impressive and fun to watch as they performed. One other thing, every character in the performance wore a giant baby head, dog head, clown head, or some other head as their role called for. It was definitely a memorable experience.

The next day, we ate breakfast, then hopped on a boat to have some vacation-in-vacation. We spent the day on a boat with a guide named Al Sansool. On the trip out, the algae in our wake turned our wake green. 

 Once we arrived at our first deep sea fishing spot we tried to catch some fish but no fish were biting. We went to a couple more fishing spots, but then our guide got a call: Dolphins! So we drove over to the spot and stopped the boat and watched dolphins fling themselves in the air, chase sardines, and swim in really cool patterns.

 Ben said they are his second favorite animal, tied with kitties, and after turtles and tortoises. 

We decided to stop trying to catch big fishies that might also be eating the sardines and just go do some normal deep sea fishing. We put out lines with 4 or 5 hooks on each line. Ben was able to go first on the electric fishing pole (yes, there is an electric fishing pole because it goes down 70 or so meters to get the fishies and that's a lot of reeling. When we were trying to catch big fishies it went down to 400.) And Ben caught the first fish: a red snapper. 

Greta got to go next and she caught the next fish. Dad and Eliza were not as successful with the non-electric rod and without the pro guide ... for the first bit. But eventually we all caught fish, and ended up with 26 snappers of various kinds. Also Henry caught a "chicken fish" and was usually reeling in three at a time on his line, he ended up catching 11 fish alone.

 At the very last cast, Dad reeled in two baby black-tipped reef sharks. 

Ben loved swinging from the boat roof when it wasn't his turn to fish

Speaking of reefs, the next thing we did was snorkeling while our guide cooked our fish. We were at a coral reef in a cove where most of us saw at least two sea turtles. They had a brown shell with green flippers and swam very quickly and gracefully. We would follow them until they went out too deep and the green algae made it hard to see them or they swam too fast for us to keep up.

Eliza and Ben also went beach combing and got some really cool treasures like a big red shell, a purple shell, a barnacle shell, and a sand dollar. After that we ate the most delicious fish Ben has ever had in his life. 

On the way home it was getting dark and the algae glowed, turning our wake electric blue. The kids all immediately knew what was going on: bioluminescent phytoplankton! and they enjoyed schooling Mom and Dad. Ben, Greta, and Henry leaned over the side of the boat, put their fingers in the water and their fingers started glowing from the algae. They flung the water, spraying out the glow and Henry shouted, "I feel like a wizard!" It was so cool.

The kids all said the boat trip was the best part of Oman. So the next day we decided to forego our next scheduled ride on a dhow at the tip of the peninsula. This part of Oman, called Khasab, is completely surrounded by the UAE and the sea, and so would have required crossing the border twice more and then just once again on the way home. We really didn't want to deal with this hassle and we knew our planned tour boat ride just couldn't compare with the day full of fun we had just experienced. So we cut our trip short. Instead of heading to Khasab we took in the Museum of Illusions in a Muscat mall. That was an hour of fun and a chance to buy some of that delicious Omani candy: Halwa.

 Oman was fun and beautiful. Driving through the desert to suddenly see mountains and flowers was refreshing. Adventures with the family makes for tons of fun memories!