Out and About!

I finally have my own transportation! :) Yeaaahhh! Now that I am mobile, I can really get out and around to explore on my own. My car is a sweet little Chevy, and one of the best things about the car is that it's easy to park! Here's a picture of my "ride:"

This is the parking lot in front of our building. Notice the awnings on top of the spaces. Until you have lived in a dessert climate, you just can't truly appreciate "shade." Shade is so important here; the cars would get unbearably hot! I've hear tales of electronics and other devices melting and/or warping if left out in the cars for even a brief time at the height of the mid-summer heat! The other thing that makes the awnings important is that they shield the cars from a little bit of the dust. This morning when I went out to my car, I turned on the windshield wipers just to blow away the film of dust that had collected since yesterday. It left a fine dusting of dark sand like little snowflakes on the sides of the windshield!

I decided that the first trip I took in my car would be to run to the store to pick up a few things. It has not been fun using our evening and weekend time to do all of our grocery shopping, especially since produce needs to be purchased frequently and it usually takes more than one stop to get everything on the list.

The first store I decided to go to is called Lulu's. This store is kind of like a Walmart and a Sam's all inside one store. Below is a picture of the front of it at night time. It has 2 large HD screens outside showing commercials. It is a 2-story store, with grocery items on the ground floor, clothing, furniture, school/office supplies, bedding/bath/accessories on the second floor. It is just huge!

Other than its size, it pretty much has the same stuff as other stores in town, just more of it. I tried to respect the store's and it's patrons, but I wanted to take a few shots inside the store just to give you an idea of what's in it. However, even though the quantities seem big, I must admit that every grocery store  I've been in over here carries a LOT of these products. 

Now, I like yogurt, but these containers are huge! There was more yogurt (in fact, it filled up the entire length of this refrigerator unit) than just this!

Cream cheese #1

Cream cheese #2. I have never seen so many different ways to package cream cheese. And these 2 pictures are only about 1/3 of the selection!

This entire aisle, BOTH SIDES, is rice. Did you know there were that many varieties of rice?
I saw a young Indian man one evening carrying home about a 50-pound bag of rice on his head!

Spices #1: One thing the people like here is their spices. You can't tell from this
picture, but this aisle is as long as the rice aisle, and it was entirely spices.

Spices #2. I jut took this picture because I thought the tamarinds in the package were interesting!

The Doors of Nizwa

I didn't capture nearly all of the interesting doors in Nizwa, but here are a few we did manage to get pictures of! I'll start off with the doors inside the main tower of the fort. The staircase to the top of the tower was a series of winding levels, each level having a door to block entrance to the next section. The staircases were used as part of the defensive weaponry of the tower.

This door is on the ground floor and is used to access a store room.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, there were shafts used to pour hot oil, water, or date syrup down upon their enemies as they tried to gain control of the tower. There were also false floors on either side of a door into which an unsuspecting enemy would fall as he rushed through the door. There were also spikes on the doors--if you wanted to slam a door in your enemy's face, or chest--to cause maximum damage!

This door is at the bottom of the stairs. It is thick and reinforced with bolts.

This door is at the top of the winding staircase. You can still see the elaborate carvings in the door's trim.

Same door as above, just another view!

These are very sharp spikes on the entrance side of the door.

Notice the Arabic script above the door.

The size of this door  at the entrance is deceptive.

This is actually off the side of the fort. It is an entrance to the souk.

Here I am standing next to it!
 

Another entrance door to the souk (or SOUQ, as it is spelled here), decorative
carvings not only on the frame but on the doors themselves and the center post!

And now for a few of the decorative doors found on our trek through, to and around the fort. Hope you enjoyed the trip through the fort!

Driving to....Nizwhat? Part II

When we arrived at the fort, we actually entered through the village area just outside the fort where it is not all been restored. I found this particularly interesting because you can see construction details not visible under the stucco-like exterior and it gives a view into the rooms. Parts of these buildings have been lived in for centuries, and some of them are still occupied today.

I love the decorative detail you can see in this image: the arched doorway, what appears to be a niche next to it, and the scroll-work trim that looks like a balcony.

Note the air conditioning units, the car, and the satellite dish(!), evidence of present occupation.

I loved this winding little street up the back of the fort.

Just outside the main entrance gate to the fort is this Omani Craftsman's House where they continue to make pots, blankets, and tapestries in the traditional ways still today.

When we arrived at the fort, we walked around the inner courtyard.

Here's Don! It looks like they were filming something the day we were there,
but we don't know what! The wall on the left is restored; the surface of the wall behind Don is not.

 We climbed up the stairs to the top of the main defensive tower. The following images are views from the top of that tower.

The courtyard below.

This is Don standing at the top of the stairs at the top of the tower. The size of the people on the "floor" of the tower top  give you a greater perspective as to the size of this fortress tower. Niches all around the perimeter of the tower performed various defensive functions, from viewing the surrounding countryside to pouring hot oil and date syrup on their enemies.

The view through a cannon turret. These were placed at strategic intervals around the entire tower.

This is the mosque (as seen from the top of the tower) that is next
to the fort, recreating the original fort architectural details.

View of the town surrounding the fort.

View overlooking the courtyard and some of the older outlying fort buildings.

I will have one more blog on Nizwa: The Doors of Nizwa. Hope to have it posted soon!

Driving to....Nizwhat? Part I

Nizwa: capital city of the interior region of Oman, setting of an old historic Ottoman fort (built in 1668), nestled within a mountain range. Nizwa was a major stop along old trading routes, formerly the capital of Oman, and a religious and cultural center. Today's road appears to follow the established trade route from old as we could see many old lookout towers strategically placed on higher hills along the road. These towers were used to spot raiding enemies and to provide for safety as people approached the city.

The fort has been restored, but there are still remnants of ruins around and inside the fort area. In a nearby community is where a lot of Omani pottery is made. While not used today like it once was, they have revived the old processes of making the pottery (with probably a few modern conveniences!). You will see this pottery throughout the fort and in my pictures.

On the way to Nizwa we drove through mountainous scenery. The mountains here are all rock and sand. Some of the rocks are thrust upward somewhat like you see in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma:

The scrub brush greener at the base of the mountains is non-existent or old brown and dead-looking like tumbleweeds in the summer time. It seems to turn green overnight as the temperature cools down. We are much higher in elevation here than at the coast even though it doesn't really feel like it.

Perhaps this gives you a better perspective of the height of the mountains since the tops are in the clouds!

On the way to the fort, we passed many date plantations and green houses. You can identify them by the large number of date palm trees. Dates have been a staple of the Omani people for centuries.

This is actually a small community, as evidenced by the presence of a
mosque, with the palm trees clustered in the center.

This is a really large plantation but it is somewhat hard to tell. See
how the green tree tops stretch almost the entire length of the image?

Finally, we arrived at Nizwa!

This part of the fort has been restored. I'm wearing the floppy hat to protect myself
from the sun--a year-round job here! If you look closely, you can see the
cannons placed in the square view openings around the top of the center of the fort.

See part 2 of Nizwa on my next post!

How many Aggies does it take to......?

This posting today is dedicated to all you Texas Aggie fans out there--hence the maroon text color! If you are not from Texas, then you possibly don't know what an "Aggie" is. An Aggie is a graduate and/or fan of Texas A&M University. We have many dear friends who are Texas Aggie fans, among them Bart and Susan (note all the maroon Aggie t-shirts they are wearing in the photo below). We were video conferencing over the Internet this morning, and their microphone wasn't working. They brought their daughter in to help, but to no avail. I found a help video online and was playing it for them to see if we could figure out the problem (they could hear me, I just couldn't hear them. As we were trying to figure out the problem, it suddenly dawned on me that I had THREE Aggies trying to fix the  sound problem. I took a screen shot (below) as I made the joke. We had a GREAT laugh about it, finally figured out that it was a microphone setting in the Internet Tools options, and went on with our conference. Now, if you aren't familiar with Aggie jokes, this posting may seem a little weird to you, but it is just another interesting facet of life and the use of international Internet--always unpredictable here in Oman!

In other breaking news, I feel like a 16-year old kid with a new driver's license. I finally, finally got my Omani driver's license about two weeks ago. Don still hasn't been letting me drive anywhere, but I made a new friend--Wanda (you can check out her blog as well at http://wandainoman.blogspot.com) who has wheels and is not afraid to try them out! I hope Wanda isn't offended she's on the Aggie posting today because she is a huge UT fan--I'm sure she'll forgive me! Anyway, last week she came to get me and we went to the Souk--the old market to pick up some jewelry. The vendor was so appreciative of the business that he bought us cokes and left us to enjoy the beautiful view from the sidewalk cafe. Can I say that the weather was just perfect?

Well, I guess my shot doesn't show the ocean very well, but FYI the big boat in
 the port behind me (behind the orange and white taxi) is the Royal Yacht.

Now, Don is on a business trip this week, and he had to leave me the car. Talk about being a nervous wreck. I've seen that look on his face three other times in his life--Taylor, Rusty and Caitlyn's first outings in the family car. You'd think he'd at least have the grace to show more faith in his wife than in his 3 teenagers! I dropped him off at the office at 6 a.m. He came around to the driver's side to tell me goodbye. His last words to me were, "Call me when you get back to the apartment. And it's a rental car, so if you have a wreck or anything goes wrong, call the numbers I gave you and call me and we'll get it taken care of." Whoa--can you believe he has so little faith in me? And you know what I was thinking as I "peeled" out of the parking lot? FREEEEDOM! Yeah, baby--mama's gonna have some fun shopping!

P.S. I made it home without incident. I made it to church for the women's fellowship without incident. I made it to the mall closest to our house without incident (and as a side note, didn't spend too much money). However, the 2 young Indian men who wanted to wash my car for me did have to help me pull into the smallest parking space in the world. (Can I say all parking spaces are compact size over here and I was in a very big SUV trying to park between a huge concrete column and another car.) They got a nice tip from me because they helped me into the space and out of the space without me hitting anything! I think they were laughing at me behind my back, but who cares. To quote Evelyn from the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes", "I'm older and I've got insurance" or in my case I've got time, wheels to drive, and tracks to make! Don is so in trouble now that I've had a taste of freedom..........

Happy Anniversary, Don!

I’m a little late on this, but I want to wish Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband of 35 years! He’s been a great husband, friend, and father. We have been through thick and thin, and he’s always come through. I am very thankful to God for the wonderful husband He has given me.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we met some friends at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here in Muscat. They served a great seafood buffet, and we all stuffed ourselves until we couldn’t hold any more! Never in a million years did Don and I ever think we would be sitting in a restaurant on the beach on the Gulf of Oman half way around the world. Just goes to show you never know where life is leading you!

Joining us in our celebration were our good friends, Andy and Che (Andy being the famed “Andy-in-Oman”!) People around these parts are always impressed when they find out we are friends with Andy--we are blessed to have him and his wife as friends. They provide friendship, warmth, and a connection here in Oman that has helped ease our transition a great deal. Not only that, they are lots of fun to be with!

Now for the pictures of the hotel and patio. The night was gorgeous, the setting was opulent, great food and great company! Enjoy the pictures!