Don's Trip to Wadi Al Arbeen

When I first started traveling to the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region, I was very unfamiliar with the local culture.  What little I thought I knew was based on media reports that didn’t paint an accurate picture of the people of Oman.  The past seven years have opened my eyes to many new ideas on local culture that is based more on personal experience and less on media bias.  One such point is that I have found the people of Oman to be very warm and friendly.  A good illustration of this is a recent trip to Wadi Al Arbeen (وادي العربيين).

We began our adventure at 7am at the Oxy Muscat office and traveled by a caravan of 4 wheel drive SUV’s and pickups to the favorite petrol station to gas up.  Next our group stopped in a small village to purchase lunch.

As you can see from the illustration, lunch was an Omani goat and sheep purchased from a relative of one of our group.  The task or choosing the right animals was interesting and amusing as our group took turns trying to figure out how to get the goat in and secured to the bed of a pickup.  By the way, locally grown goat and sheep are a delicacy and the goat and sheep pictured cost around 210 OMR (Omani Rial) or about $550.

From the village to Wadi Al Arbeen was about a 2.5 hour trip from Muscat.  We passed several tour groups in 4 wheel drive vehicles who believed they were seeing a taste of real Oman, but  none got to experience the culture as I did.  Our group left the main road and soon were headed down a treacherous dirt road with beautiful views.

Toward the end of our journey to the wadi, we arrived by driving through a low point of the water to arrive at a small, but deep pool of water with a water fall.  When I was a kid, this would have been what I described as an oasis.  The water was cold, clear, and deep.  While lunch was being prepared several in our group took advantage of a cool swim, while others setup tents and mat floors.  We also enjoyed a typical Omani breakfast of fruit (mostly locally grown bananas) Arabic bread and white processed cheese.  Btw, in the local culture each morning at 9am, Omani men and women (in shifts, but sharing the same eating area) will combine bread, processed white cheese, potato chips, and hot sauce for a breakfast sandwich.  It seemed a little odd to someone who grew up eating bacon and 

eggs, but US breakfast food seems just as odd to them as theirs does to us.  I do on occasion eat breakfast at work and have learned to enjoy both the cheese sandwiches and the company.  There is also a bean soup dish called ‘foul’ that is pretty good.

My hosts watched my reaction as they prepared the main course for the meal.  Having fresh meat meant we had to butcher the meat and get it ready for cooking.  As my grandfather was the butcher in a small grocery store in rural Oklahoma, I was familiar with most of the event, yet it was interesting to see how the guys took turns preparing our meal.  In addition to cutting the meat, some worked on preparing massive amounts of tomato, onion and garlic.

When it came time to cook the meat, it was placed in a very large covered pot and then set on top of a portable cook stove.  Those familiar with cooking crawfish and turkey outdoors on a portable Cajun stove would have felt right at home.  I was told that by adding one goat and one sheep, the amount of fat content was just right to cook the meat without adding water.  Instead, they cook the meat for about 30 minutes and then add the veggies before cooking another hour.

We had cooked the meat just long enough to add vegetables when it began to rain.  The leaders of our group panicked as they realized that the entire area we were in could soon be under water.  In a coordinated effort, the group broke camp, placed the meat pot in the back of a pickup and the entire group started back across the deepening water of the wadi.  From the wadi we traveled 20-30 minutes through small villages and wadi roads to the ocean.  Along the way, we came across one of the few (perhaps only) Frankincense trees in northern Oman.

Once we arrived at our ocean destination, we setup the fire again and laid out the mats along the beach.  The skies were cloudy and eerily beautiful, so no tents were needed.  As we looked back to the mountains, you could see that large water falls were forming and flowing through the mountain tops toward the wadis, so we did leave at just the right time.

While on the coast we had some special guests – wild donkeys.  They wander about the country without being bothered and seem to thrive in the Omani wilderness along with several other types of local wildlife.

Once the meat was ready, we stretched out long plastic sheets for the meal, which was served on large disposable trays.  Each tray was set before a group of 4-6 hungry participants.  Beside the meat, there was also fresh Omani bread.  The bread resembles a French crepe, but is larger and thinner.  My hosts showed me how to dip the  bread into the rich broth.  I found the meat, bread, and broth to be very delicious and similar in taste to beef.  (In fact, the tender goat tasted more like US roast beef than the New Zealand beef they sell at the expat stores in Muscat.)   Once the meat was finished, the empty trays and soiled plastic were wrapped up and placed in trash bags.  Then more plastic came out for the desert – water melon, dew melon, and pomegranate, followed by Omani coffee.  Omani coffee and tea would be special local blends of coffee and tea boiled together with milk, sugar, and cardamom powder.  It is all quite tasty, but more like Turkish coffee than what you find at Starbucks.

After lunch, some guys took a short nap, sat in circles to visit, said their prayers, or took walks along the beach.  We broke camp in time to get back to Muscat  before dark.

It is difficult to relay all the small events and conversations that make up an adventure like some of mine in the region, but adventures like mine to Wadi Al Arbeen have formed many positive memories and strengthened relationships with some good men.