Vol 35 Fanja

Today I was supposed to go to Dubai to buy furniture at IKEA but the office PRO dropped the ball on getting me a road permit so that trip is delayed. Non Gulf country residents need a permit to drive from country to country. I told Ahmed, our PRO, 4 weeks ago that I wanted to go. Aaaargh! Getting anything done is soooooo frustrating sometimes. Now I have to wait 2 weeks before I will have another 2 day weekend. With Petra still gone I am still working a half day every other Thursday. (Remember, Thursday is our Saturday). So I will continue to come home to an empty apt for another couple of weeks.

Since my brain was geared up for a road trip I got in my car and drove out of the city in search of cool stuff. And cool stuff I found! About an hour from Muscat I stopped to use a bathroom and stumbled upon a town called Fanja, a town seemingly like any other. I was just driving through the streets, wandering aimlessly when I came upon this:

I kept going because I could see a couple of old look-out towers on the hill above the town. I thought I’d see if I could figure out how to get up there. I figured I could get some good photos of the town from up there.

I crossed a bridge over a wadi and stopped to take these pictures. This is looking from one side of the bridge.

And this is from the other side.

I started going up little back streets, which got more and more narrow as I went.

I passed some incredible houses with beautiful entrances.

And still the road got more narrow as it went up, up, up. At the top there was an old mosque set into the palm trees. A few men and young boys were going in to pray. Just past this mosque and around a little corner the road abruptly turned into a footpath too narrow for my car. Those of you who know me well know I am not a skillful driver and I am not fond of reversing. I am especially not fond of reversing down a crazy narrow street. I got stuck at the little corner. Couldn’t get around it in reverse, it was just sooooo tight. Fortunately a man came along and started giving me directions. Turn you wheel to the left, straight, straight, now right a bit, and so forth. Eventually he figured out that I am somewhat inept and he offered to get in and do it himself to get me out of there. He got me back to the Mosque and turned around. Yay! I wanted so much to stop and take photos of the mosque and the ridiculously narrow streets and the general gorgeousness of it all but I was embarrassed and I chickened out. But as I came back down the road I saw this:

So I parked and got snoopy and went exploring.

Through this entrance. And found this:

So cool. I had one of those tingly, tearing up moments.

It was so beautiful. So old.

And it is right up next to a new neighborhood. There is a date palm grove that runs all along the wadi.

And there are two newer houses in the middle of it being lived in. Wacky, huh? See the satellite dish? And the dates drying on a large piece of metal on the ground?

Here’s one of the towers I saw from below that led me there.

And here's the other. Seems this was some kind of fort. When I got home I looked up Fanja in my guide book. It mentions it very briefly. It mentions a tower on the hill and the view but there is no mention of these ruins. In other parts of the book it talks about mud-brick buildings so I'm thinking that's what these are.

And yes, I got a good photo of the town using the photo stitching feature on my camera. Who needs a trip to Dubai? Today was better than new furniture.