Vol 73.5 Michele Day 5

On Day 5 we went to Nizwa and Bahla. The plan was to get an early start.....but you know how that goes when you're on vacation......

I know you've already seen photos of the road to Nizwa but these are Michele's photos and they're quite nice sooooooo.......



By the time we got to Nizwa we were hungry. We drove around searching for somewhere to eat but it was siesta time and not much was open. Near a school which had just let the students out we found 3 shwarma stands. One had a bunch of kids at it so we went there.

Michele and the boys started talking a bit, but their English was pretty limited.

Could this guy be any cuter?

Michele pretty much took a photo of everything she ate on her vacation, including this falafel sandwich.

In the area outside the Nizwa Fort there is a souk. Most of it was closed for siesta but this pottery place was still open.

Yes, I realize these 2 photos are pretty much the same but I couldn't decide which one to use so here they both are. It's late.....I'm tired....

In case you were wondering, Puddles came on the road trip to Nizwa.....

I've already written about the Fort in Vol 38, so I'll just show you a couple of Michele's photos.


We found a museum-like section of the fort that I had missed on my first visit. This is a traditional Omani woman's outfit, complete with the giant silver jewelry Oman is famous for.

This is a date storage room. Now I've seen date storage rooms in use in Oman and though this one is authentic in that it really is a date storage room, it has no where near the number of bags of dates I've seen in other rooms. Usually the room is jammed full with bags. The jars on the floor are under little troughs that collect date syrup. Dates can be stored for a year or more in these rooms.

View of the Nizwa Mosque minaret from Nizwa Fort.

Next we drove to Bahla to see the Bahla Fort. But here's the thing about getting a late start- the fort had already closed by the time we got there. Oh well. We wandered around it's perimeter. They built this fort on a rocky ledge which makes parts of it look like it's coming out of the rock.

This fort is still being restored.

Bahla was once a walled city, for protection from the Portuguese, and much of it's walls are still intact.

Beside the fort was this walled building. The door was ajar so we got nosy. Inside was an old school. The renovation there was already completed.

View from the school back towards the fort.

I remember hearing years ago, when I lived in Victoria, BC, about Asian families who would fill one of the bedrooms of their apartment with soil so they could grow vegetables. Inevitably they would be discovered when the apartment below would complain of water damage.

The houses below this school in Bahla had various things on their roofs. Laundry. Cisterns. Goats. Sheep.

Even though it was after hours, this old Omani man showed us around the school. Michele spent much of her time sneaking photos and videos of him.

After we had left she zoomed in and snuck this one.

Next we explored the mud-brick village below the Bahla Fort and school.

Such an interesting place to wander. Great photo opportunities around every corner.


What was most striking was that there were people living here. We could hear TV's playing from behind some of the doors. We'd see a scene like this.....

.... and next door would be an empty, crumbling house like this.

Muscat is such a wealthy city that I forget sometimes that not all Omanis are living that way.

This is a well in the middle of the village.

Not sure what these were for but they make a great photo.

The sun was setting over one of the mosques as we were heading home. Another stellar day!



And another so-so video!