Oman Susan

Vol 90 India part 5

2008-12-06T22:21:00.022+04:00

Yay!!!!! My internal hard drive is now an external hard drive!!!!! I still have all of my photos and music and my book! Yay!!!!!

Before anything else goes wrong I want to post my Indian wedding photos.

Yes, I do realize there are too many of them. Tough. What's a wedding without too many photos?

When we woke up the house was already full of activity. The bride was in the dining room with one of the young nephews and as every lady would arrive she would smear a little dab of red on his forehead and then hers. The she'd dip a coin into crushed rice crackers and feed it to him and to her. When I asked the significance of this I was told "This is a ceremony. A ritual. I can't remember why we do this".

Here the bride's parents and eldest daughter are doing something or other with a wooden dowel to the bride's hairline. Notice the nephew caught in the act. When I asked the significance of this I was told "This is a ceremony. A ritual. I can't remember why we do this".

The corner of the dining room had been converted into an offering corner.

The relatives kept arriving all day.

The sari's were so beautiful.

The baby got lots of attention.

We headed over to the reception where I was forced to pose with all of the ladies in the beautiful sari's. I felt distinctly underdressed all night. I was sooooo grateful to Priyanka for having this Salwar suit stitched by her tailor in time for the wedding.

There was soooooo much food there. While waiting for the bulk of the guests to arrive I made the rounds of the food tables. This is the chutney/pickle table.

Chat/snacks/appetizers.

Dosa station. If you don't know what dosa is you must hurry out to an Indian restaurant and order it immediately.

Pani puri station. One of my favorites.

Making bread.

The curries.

The waiters all wanted to be in the photo.

The pann station.

The groom arrived on a horse. All of his family and friends arrived with him amid much dancing and singing. There was a band playing along with them.

In order to invite the god Ganesha to the wedding.....

The groom had to brush this image of him with the branch.

The mother of the bride performed a bunch of rites at the entrance. She was seeing if he measured up for her daughter. How did I get this excellent photo? Everyone kept inviting me to the front. They had all been to many Hindu weddings before but they knew it was my first.

Some of the sweet kids at the wedding.

Yes, those are rose petals.

The groom and his family were on one end of a stage.

The bride was at the other.

They each climbed the stairs and met in the middle.

After rings and garlands were exchanged there were rose petal explosions. The air smelt fantastic. Every wedding has it's moment and this was the part where I choked up. It was so beautiful. And again, I was right in front to see it all. I was so grateful.

Close up of the beading and embroidery on the bride's sari. It was truly incredible. She told me later that is weighed a ton.

From the left, the brother of my hostess, the husband of my hostess and the brother-in-law of my hostess.

Demonstrating how I feel about having my photo taken.

My hostess, Priyanka, and I. She insisted on this photo after the face-pulling. Actually, I quite like this photo.

The bride and groom sat in chairs on a stage for the rest of the night, having their photo taken, while the guests enjoyed the food, which was incredible, by the way.

Parents of the bride on the right, groom on the left.

This is pretty much everyone in the house I was staying at. Such a nice family. I smile whenever I see this photo.

Even i had to have my photo taken with them. I was in a group of scragglers at the very end.

Another photo of me that I don't hate! Priyanka was good at bringing out the joy in me.

And another. Thanks for the braces, Mom and Dad!

When we returned to the house everyone changed into another sari including the bride. This was a e ceremony in the dining room. When I asked the significance of this I was told "This is a ceremony. A ritual. I can't remember why we do this".

The we all went outside for the religious wedding ceremony.

It was very complicated. They did a ton of fussy little things.

Each time, when I asked the signifigance of this I was told "This is a ceremony. A ritual. I can't remember why we do this".

I'm not kidding. All day, no matter who I asked, they never knew why they did any of it.

But it sure was eye candy.

Their arms were tied together and they walked around the fire 3 times.

I am told this is the equivalent to "I now pronounce you man and wife".

This was one of the last photos I took. She was moving her toes from coint to coin. When I asked the signifigance of this I was told "This is a ceremony. A ritual. I can't remember why we do this".......

This was the longest wedding ceremony I have ever been to. It began around midnight. I left at 3:45 to catch my plane back to Muscat and it was still going on.

I waved goodbye to the bride and groom, caught a cab to the airport and slept like a baby on the plane.

The next day I had a bit of diahrea so I guess the tap water got me in the end after all :)

The wedding video turned out quite nice I think.

I'll try to post the remainder of my good photos from this year in Oman before I come home for Christmas but I make no promises....

Vol 89 When life sucks, it sucks hard!

2008-11-05T21:35:00.002+04:00

I'll just out with it.

I killed my laptop.

I am in the habit of simply closing the lid when I go to bed. Not taking the extra 20 seconds to shut it down. I awoke last weekend to find that one of my air conditioners had peed all over my desk. Mostly on my laptop. When I opened it there was a puddle in the keyboard. No friendly little green lights. I turned it on it's side and a cup of water poured out.

I panicked for a little bit. Seriously. Then I called Lane on what was left of my calling card. I quickly told him the situation and asked him to quickly tell me if it was ok before my calling call died. "It's dead" he said. "You might recover your hardrive but your laptop is toast".

I started crying, he comforted me.

One of our investors at work owns a computer business so I gave it to him the next day. He has confirmed that it's dead and agrees the hardrive is probably allright. His guys are going to try to turn my internal hardrive into an external hardrive so I can access all my files.

All of my photos from 2008 are on it. The book I've been working on is on it.

Sigh.

So, much as I would like to finish the India blog and show off all the great Hindu wedding photos I got, I cannot.

Back when I can,

Susan

Vol 88 India Part 4

2008-10-13T00:43:00.000+04:00

Hope you like henna.......

Priyanka and I returned to her family's house/hotel in the morning to find that the mendi (henna) artist had arrived and was already at work.

There were women everywhere. In the most beautful sari's.

The living room was always filled with women. The lady in the middle is the henna artist. She was so good!

Here's the first cousin done.

Detail of palm side.

And the back side.

Here I am with the bride and one of her nephews. Her name is Ankita but everyone calls her Sweetie. And she is a sweetie.

Here she is again, with more of the nephews.

It was all little boys in this family until this little angel came along.

Shortly after we arrived breakfast was served. Everyone was always served a plate of food where ever they happened to be at meal time. As I ate, women would come and refill the things I had finished. If you ever have a chance to eat Indian breakfast, take it. Flat rice, jelabi, and a crispy stuffed bread. Wow good.

All day long Aunties and cousins and sisters came and went and each of them got mendhi on their hands in preparation for the wedding the next day.

The henna artist drew the main outlines then Priyanka filled it in with detail work. (Remember, Priya's an artist).

A really good artist. Palm side....

Back side. So pretty.

Priyanka's sister's hands. Palm side.

Back side.

While this was going on family and staff were hard at work on lunch. I was not allowed to help. :(

This and the next one are my favorite photos from the whole trip. Click on them to blow them up. I just loved her and the light.

I just LOVE this photo!

Lunch was incredible again. Rice, dal, aloo ghobi (potato and cauliflower curry), paneer korma (Indian cheese cubes in a creamy tomato curry sauce), roti (Indian flat bread), raita (yogurt salad), raw tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots. Oh my was it good.

After lunch someone went out to a paanwalla and brought home a bunch of paan for everyone. I had never tried it so they insisted.

What is paan? I shall quote Wikipedia"

"Paan, from the word pan in Hindi پان and some other related languages, हिन्दी : पान ), is a South and South East Asian tradition which consists of chewing Betel leaf (Piper betle) combined with the areca nut. There are many regional variations.

Paan is chewed as a palate cleanser and a breath freshener. It is also commonly offered to guests and visitors as a sign of hospitality and as "ice breaker" to start conversation. It also has a symbolic value at ceremonies and cultural events in South and Southeast Asia. Paan makers may use mukhwas or tobacco as an ingredient in their paan fillings. Although most types of paan contain areca nuts as a filling, some do not. Other types include what is called sweet paan, where sugar, candied fruit and fennel seeds are used."

Ok, the paan they bought for me was betel nut, tobacco, ground fennel seed, sugar syrup and rose petals. I bit into it and I swear to God it was like eating an incense stick. The overpowering flavor was rose. It was like a mouthful of sweet rose perfume. Ya know, I pride myself on having an adventurous palate. As long as there is no meat in something I usually like it. I did not like paan. They all watched me as I tried to chew that first bite. Then I stopped and said "I'm sorry, I just don't like it". They all laughed and told me to spit it out. Which I happily did.

More beautiful mendhi. Palm side.

Back side.

And then it was my turn!

After the henna paste is applied you must keep it on for 2 hours. There was a bowl of lemon juice and sugar with a tiny sponge that all the ladies were constantly rewetting their mendhi with. If you keep it moist it doesn't crack and fall off. It's important to keep it on for at least 2 hours to ensure a dark color.

After it is scraped off it looked like this. Vick vapor rub was applied and I was told not to wash my hands for at least 6 hours. Try that sometime. Try using a toilet and then not washing your hands. The longer you go without washing your hands the darker the mendhi will be.

Snacks broke out. Samosa's. Ridiculously good samosa's. Milk sweets, milk tea with ginger and a crispy cardamom, grape sweet that was quite good. Then ice cream. Sigh.

I wrote in my travel journal (thank you again, Leanne) "I think I died and went to vegetarian heaven".

All the "ladies" got mendhi. They explained to me that when you look at your hands in the weeks after the wedding and you see the mendhi, you should think of the bride.

Sweeties turn! That's her best friend sitting to her right.

It took hours to do Sweeties mendhi. She told me she felt blessed to have me at her wedding. Imagine! I was so grateful to be there and she felt blessed? I felt blessed! Not just to be allowed into this family's home but to be welcomed. I could not have felt more blessed and grateful. To be surrounded by so much love made me realize how ready I am to find my own man to love.

The results were stunning. Click on them to see the detail. Palm side

Back side.

The garden of the house/hotel. So pretty.

The porch.

Mother of the bride getting her mendhi.

Palm side.

Back side. It's so pretty!

The bride's feet are also decorated.

Tradition say the darker her mendhi gets the more her husband loves her. So she was being very careful. The mother of the groom would be judging her mendhi at the wedding so it was important not to mess it up.

While her feet were being done her friends were teasing her. That is her fiance's photo. Theirs is a love match, unusual in this family. They met at work.

Finished.

Priyanka was the very last to have hers done. She couldn't do hers until she and the artist had completed everyone else's.

I gave her grief about being shy for a photo so she immediately dropped her shyness with this pose.

Her palms.

Could she be more lovely? And she is. She is truly lovely.

Of all the Aunties running around in the house this was my very favorite. Super sweet.

Once the mendhi was done some napping broke out. I napped.

Then it was off to dinner. One of Priyanka's cousin's was having their 1st wedding anniversary party and even though it was important to stay home to be with her family, it was also important to celebrate with her cousin. She and one of her sisters decided we should go have dinner with the cousin and her husband. A bunch of us piled into 2 cars and went to a really nice Italian restaurant.

The decor was very tasteful and elegant. The food was a set menu for the anniversary party and was scrumptious. Vegetarian again :) An interesting combination of Italian and Indian. Minestrone soup with lemon juice and chili etc. Being a couchsurfer sure takes me to places I would never have experienced otherwise.

We stayed as short a time as we could without being rude, then raced home.

And dancing broke out! Yay!

I was happy to watch from the side lines, hiding behind my camera.

Then they started playing the soundtrack form the Bollywood movie "Om, Shanti, Om". This is my very favorite Bollywood movie as it was the first one I ever saw. My friend Katie and I went to see it at the theater last winter when it first came out. I've seen a bunch of Hindi movies since then but "Om, Shanti, Om" is the best by far.

And it has a really catchy soundtrack. I couldn't help it, I started bouncing and next thing I knew Priya's brother had grabbed the camera from me.....

..... and I was a dancing fool. And I mean fool. I really can't dance to Hindi music so I looked a bit silly.

Her brother tried to take a photo of me and I got shy. Piyanka was standing beside me and said "Unh, uh! If I had to let you take my photo, you have to let him take yours!"

She was right! About this photo she said "Here you can see your beauty, your joy". Smart cookie.

One of the things that struck me was how nice everyone was. Just nice, nice people. I wondered if that is what it is like when a stranger is invited into our family. I think we are all nice, nice people too. That thought made me happy.

Then Priya did a solo dance. Lovely.

Next her cousin took a turn. She is a really good dancer too. Then Priya's sister took a turn.

Then it was a dance party until we were all too tired to dance more.

Everyone slept there that night. some in the hotel rooms and Priya and her kids and some other female relatives slept in the family room.

We were all excited because tomorrow was wedding day!

(I cheated, by the way- I washed my hands.)

Vol 87 India Part 3

2008-09-06T17:09:00.012+04:00

Here I am with Cindy and her sister in the middle and my hostess Anu on the left. After breakfast I called my next couchsurfer and asked her if it was too soon for me to come stay with her. She said "No way! Come on over!" So I said my goodbyes to Sanjay and Anu and my fellow CSers and hopped in an auto rickshaw.

Here's more photos from the auto rickshaw.

Crappy crap everywhere.

I like this one.

Dental office.

Garbage bins.

Here's something I saw a lot of. People living on the sidewalk in makeshift tents. The slightly luckier people get to live in a slum. Sorry no slum photos.

Imagine! Living in a tent on a sidewalk.

This photo has a sidewalk tent and the next thing I want to talk about. How much weight can be hauled on a cart or rickshaw or bike. Look at the size of the load that poor little donkey has to carry!

Bunches of handmade brooms on a scooter.

This was the worst case I saw of hauling too much. These are bicycle rickshaws, 3 of them , and they are each loaded down with God knows what. The guy in front has 5 bundles and the 2 behind him have 4 each. They were struggling to pedal.

One-legged rickshaw driver.

Napping rickshaw driver. By the way, I cannot ride in a bicycle rickshaw because my legs are too long. I simply cannot get into the seat. Funny, huh?

This guy was picking recyclables out of garbage bins.

Women is saris ride side saddle on scooters. I did this with Priyanka, my next CSing host, one day when I was wearing a skirt.

From the back seat of an auto-rickshaw.

I arrived at my next hosts place and was I ever happy. Priyanka was wonderful. So lovely and kind. Her husband came home with their older boy, Dhruv. Very nice guy. They fed me samosa's and juice then invited me to have a nap.

Here is Priyanka with the younger of her two sons, Arjun. I showed Priya the fabric I had bought and she took me to her tailor nearby to have it stitched into a traditional salwar suit. That's not it.

On our way out we came across this dude in the parking lot. He is re-tinning pots. Wacky. When a pan gets old and thin they re-tin it instead of throwing it away.

We went to Priyanka's family home, which happens to be a hotel. There were quite a few people there when we arrived and more arriving constantly. You see, this was a big week for the family. Their youngest daughter, Priyanka's sister was getting married!

No, I'm not kidding. I got invited to stay with a Hindu family in India the week of their daughters wedding. I was Priyanka's first CouchSurfing guest and I felt so honored to be invited to the wedding. Again, imagine! Would we invite a stranger to stay with us the week of a family wedding? I was nothing but grateful and happy the whole time I was with them.

As an added bonus, this was a vegetarian family. Again, not kidding. I thought I'd died and gone to vegetarian heaven. It was a a giant Indian, veg food fest. And they loved me because I ate and loved everything. A western woman who loves spicy Indian food.

Shortly after we arrived lunch was served. Dal, veg masala (curry) and roti. Unbelievably good. Wow good.

The only down side was I was not allowed to help. They have a staff of older women and young guys who do the cooking, under the supervision of Priyanka (the eldest of the 4 daughters, and so the one with the most family responsibilities) and her mother.

Here is one of the house maids in the tiny kitchen.

And another. This one is rolling roti, an Indian flat bread.

She cooks them over an open flame.

Priyanka is a talented artist. Her paintings were all over the hotel/house. This was my favorite. The hotel was closed to guests as they needed all the rooms for the family arriving from out of Jaipur.

This is Prithy, one of Priyanka's sisters, with her son asleep on her lap. They sit on the floor alot.

After lunch Priyanka and one of her Aunts and I went to do some quick gift shopping. They were looking for baby clothes (the 3d sister had recently had a baby girl) and I was looking for a wedding gift. I asked their advise and they steered me towards blankets so I bought a nice bed set. Sorry, no photos from the shopping excursion.

When we returned home it was time for tea with sweets. Indian milk tea has become a big favorite since I arrived in Oman. It's Lipton tea with condensed milk and sugar. Sweet and creamy and good. Indian sweets are quite different to western sweets and I dare not try to describe them other than to say they are often made with milk and something of an acquired taste. Luckily, I had already acquired the taste for them living here, where the Indian population is so great that we have Indian restaurants on every corner.

Then it was time for dinner. Potato masala, veg masala and roti served with a mango pickle to die for. So good.

Every Hindu house has an altar of sorts. Here's some of the little boys eating dinner while facing the altar room.

Couldn't decide if I liked the photo that showed the room better or the boys better.

After dinner we went outside and the women started singing songs to Sweetie, the bride, to tease her. She's the one in the back with the flower on her sleeve and the green scarf. That's the Mom on the left. She led the singing and played the drum.

The older ladies sat on chairs.

The men watched. That's the Dad in the back.

We headed back to Priya's apartment where I had a chance to talk to her about what her life is like, as a woman, in India. Women are encouraged to educate themselves now and then work, but once they marry they are expected to stop working and take a more traditional role in life. Priya and her 3 sisters were all well educated and successful before marriage. But Priya and her 2 married sisters were frustrated and bored with being "just a housewife". Sweetie's fiance had told her she can continue to work after they're married. Theirs was not an arranged marriage, as is the norm, but a love match. They met at work. An exception was made in allowing them to marry.

Priya and her husband gave up their bedroom for me, sleeping with their sons in the other room. I was able to log into Messenger on their laptop before going to bed so I got to chat with Mom across the world. Gotta love that internet!

The days video. There aren't many family photos of this day as I was trying not to be an obnoxious Westerner in the house. Priya's family had disapproved of her joining CouchSurfing so I had to win them over before I could stick a camera in their faces.

That all changed the next day.....

Vol 86 India Part 2

2008-09-06T17:02:00.001+04:00

When I got up the next morning this happy lady was at the front door. She was selling plastic bags of chat (snack) mix. Anu bought a couple of bags from her and off she went. I went into the bathroom, took a shower and when I came out, Anu's housemaid was sweeping the floor in front of my room. After getting dressed I recounted my money. My wallet was untouched. My money belt was not.

I had purchased 4 bundles of 500 rupees notes from a currency exchange place at the Muscat airport. The bundles come with one bill wrapped around the rest to hold them. One of the bundles in my money belt was missing 2 500 rupee notes and the note wrapping the remaining notes was askew. It was pretty damn obvious.

What to do? Clearly, I had been stolen from. But by whom? Only Anu and the cleaning woman were home. If it was Anu then I should say something. But if it was the cleaner, who could blame her? I had left money unattended in my room while showering in a country full of ridiculously poor people. I had done what every India guide book warns not to do. I did not want to get her in trouble. And 1000 rupees is only about 23 dollars.

But what of the 500 rupees I suspected were taken from my wallet the night before? The cleaning woman was not there at that time. IF that money was taken then it had to have been Anu. But I was not sure. I wanted to talk to Cindy and her sister, the other couchsurfers staying in the house before acting.

While waiting, Sanjay and Anu's daughter came home and walked me to the corner store. Of course I took my camera along.

These little goats were hanging out on the sidewalk just down the street.

India really is as poor as I'd imagined.

Everywhere, there are people just hanging out on the streets and sidewalks.

Or sleeping.

These kids were picking through garbage, pulling out the recyclables. This is a common way to make a little money.

I bought some sodas and returned to the house to wait. Snapped this from the deck. It was weird to be around Anu. Did she take my money?

Wouldn't it be kinda nice if there were still street vendors in North America? Bringing fresh picked vegetables to your neighborhood every day?

Cindy and her sister returned from their walk and we went into their room and discussed what to do. I decided to say nothing about the theft and we decided to avoid Sanjay and Anu for the rest of the day. I had another place to stay but I did not want to impose on them until the following day. More about why in the next post. We told them we wanted to go shopping and off we went.

I have lots of blurry photos taken from auto-rickshaws. This is a tailor on the right and some sort of food on the left.

Another sidewalk scene.

These guys had just finished bathing and were hanging around to dry. Later we saw a naked (gorgeous) man squatting on a busy sidewalk in a market area bathing from a bucket. Not something you see every day in North America. I was so stunned I didn't take a photo even though I was carrying my camera in the "sneaky sneak" position.

This was the one attractive building I saw in Jaipur but it was closed for renovations. I know there are more attractive buildings in Jaipur I just never saw them.

More scenes from the auto-rickshaw.

Now we are approaching the city wall/gates. Jaipur is called the "Pink City" in all it's tourist brochures because a butt-load of years ago some royal person or other was visiting and many of the buildings were painted pink in his honor. I'm guessing that was pretty nice back then but by now all the paint was faded, cracking and peeling.

There's Cindy and her sister in the lower left corner. And there's the city gates. These are kept in nice condition.

Detail of the gate.

We headed into a market area and browsed around a bit.

Crumbling buildings are normal in Jaipur.

Lots of people ride bikes. That thatch hut is a place to get water.

More of the market area. Looks good from a distance.

When you get closer you can see the decay. That's a little bakery specializing in something or other.

Again, cows really can be anywhere they like. Every one just moves around them.

A spice shop.

Some kind of rice/puff/pastry things.

The flower market. I couldn't decide which photo I liked better, this one....

....or this one so I'm including them both.

Don't know why but I love this photo. Perhaps because it was so cool looking in person.

We went to a restaurant that was recommended in our guide books and then headed back to Anu and Sanjay's house.

The day's video. Sorry, pretty crappy stuff from auto-rickshaws. Notice how much honking there is. You can never escape the honking.

Vol 85 India Part 1

2008-08-25T23:38:00.002+04:00

Whew! I finally got my internet back in my apartment. Now I can tell you where I went in April. Drum roll, please........... Jaipur, India!

I didn't have very long but I made the most of the time I had. The ticket was only a couple hundred bucks and I didn't have to pay for hotels because I couchsurfed, so why not go for a quickie?

The couchsurfer I had arranged to stay with for the first couple of days had neglected to give me his phone number before I left. I kept writing to him and asking for it in the days before my flight but he flaked. So I landed in Jaipur with nowhere to go. My plane landed very early so I just lounged around the airport for a couple of hours until I figured things would be opening up. My plan was to find an internet cafe open and check my email, hoping that Sanjay would have finally left his phone number.

The problem with that plan was that NOTHING was open when I got into town. I could not find an internet place open. I could not even find a cafe open. So I walked around with my backpack on my back. I just couldn't believe I was in India with nowhere to go. And it was hot. Really hot. And I had bought new walking shoes that were not quite broken in. So I was sweating like a pig and developing blisters. Is it just me or does everyone have trouble with shoes when they travel?

I snapped a few photos as I walked but I mostly just gawked. Everything you have ever heard about India is true. It is hot. It is dirty. It is smelly. There are billions of people everywhere. They are all poor. There are people living on the sidewalks. There are beggars everywhere.

But there was something I had not anticipated; something I had never heard about.

There are urinals on the sidewalks. Open urinals. As in unenclosed. As in, I'm walking by this guy and he is peeing. Right there. 2 feet from me. No, I'm not kidding.

There are 2 types of street urinals. This kind is found when there is a long cement wall alongside the sidewalk. Sometimes they have a little half-wall around them like this. Most of the time they do not. Again, I am not kidding.

This type is found in market areas. As you walk down a busy street, if you look down an alley you will see a urinal about 6 feet in.

Another type of alley urinal, this one surrounded by construction mess.

I took this photo of a street vendor.

When I got back to Oman and looked at it closely, I realized this dude is peeing on the sidewalk. No urinal, just peeing on the sidewalk.

Ummm.... not sure I've grossed you out sufficiently so I'll just add that you should now also imagine what an Indian, outdoor, sidewalk urinal smells like. In the heat. Ok, got it? Allrighty then, let's move on from that, shall we?

Looking into courtyards, mini-temples are a common site.

As are (sacred) cows. Cows really can go anywhere they feel like. They just plunk themselves down. I came across cows in some pretty odd places. People just go around them.

These are bicycle rickshaws, a common way for people to get around. And just like in so many other countries I've visited, people just cop a squat wherever. I wonder why North Americans don't squat?

The "friendly" Jaipur police. See the sign above the window? "May I help you?" These dudes do not look helpful.

Tons of street vendors. One of the first things I did as I was wondering around was get a somosa from a street vendor. Heavenly.

This photo pretty much shows what the streets in India are like. Crumbling, decaying walls and asphalt with garbage strewn about for decoration.

In amongst the decay there are pockets of pretty, like the paintings on this building.

Apparently you don't necessarily need a shop in Jaipur. This street vendor has taken over the side of the road.

Every time I turned around someone was hauling something on a bicycle. Those are goats, by the way, not dogs.

Another sidewalk pottery shop.

Eventually one of the internet shops opened and I was able to check my email. Finally Sanjay had given me his phone number! I called him and told him I was here and he gave me directions to his house. I caught an auto-rickshaw and I was off. What's an auto-rickshaw?

This is. A 3-wheeled motorcycle with a canopied seat big enough for 2 or 3. They have them in Thailand too, only they call them tuk-tuks there.

This is Sanjay, my host.

And his wife, Anu. As soon as I arrived Anu fed me the Indian version of beans on toast. Simple but yummy. Sanjay left to go back to work and Anu and I chatted a bit.

Their daughter.

The view from their balcony. Yup, India is poor.

I shot this video from their patio.

It was really stinking hot out and I was really tired so I lay down for a nap...... and woke up 3 hours later! Sanjay and Anu were also hosting a couple of sisters from South Africa. They had been out when I arrived but they were home and on their way out when I woke up. As they were leaving and Anu's back was turned, one of them threw a note into my lap. I hid it until I had a chance to read it. It said: "Warning!!! These people will try to scam you!!! Don't let them get a taxi for you. We'll explain later."

How bizarre is that? Anu and I chatted some more and Cindy, the South African couchsurfer, and her sister, Viloshnu, came back. We all chatted until Sanjay got home from work. They took us to a fabric/clothing shop. I cannot buy ready-made clothes because I'm too tall for the pants and skirts and my boobs are too big for the tops. So I bought a fabric set for an Indian pant suit with matching scarf and figured I'd have something stitched back in Oman. It only cost me a couple of bucks so why not? Cindy and Vilo looked at a ton of stuff but bought very little.

We stopped at a curry shop on the way home for take-away, which we ate with rice back home. The curry we bought from this guy was incredibly good. In the same way that Thai food in North America is nothing like Thai food in Thailand, Indian food in India was sooooooo much better than I'd ever had. This guy was cooking up a storm. The guy in the background is pulling bread out of a tandoori oven.

Sanjay and Anu and their daughter went straight to bed after dinner so finally Cindy and Vilo were able to explain their note to me.

They told me that they had been traveling for a few weeks in India. It was Vilo's first time in India and Cindy's 5th time. Cindy is a very active CouchSurfing host back in Durbin, South Africa, but she had never traveled as a CSer before this trip.

They were not having a good time of it. They said that everywhere they went their hosts tried to scam them. Some of them owned shops they would pressure them to shop in. One of them offered to pick up train tickets for them, then wouldn't give them their change when he got back. All of them had taken them to their cousin's, brother's or uncle's shop where the girls were convinced their hosts received a hefty commission if they purchased anything.

Cindy told me that Sanjay had offered to get a taxi for them to take them around for a day, site seeing. He told her it would be 3000 rupees for the day. Cindy and Vilo had only paid 1000 for the same service in another Indian city so they declined and arranged their own cab. Apparently Sanjay had gotten quite upset, telling them they would never be able to get a better deal than he was offering. They ended up paying 900 for the day with the cab they arranged for themselves.

He also took them to his jewelry shop then tried to pressure them into buying. Earlier in the day, while chatting, Sanjay had asked me not what sights I wanted to see, but what items I wanted to buy. Ever the cautious traveler I had told him I was not much of a shopper. When he told me about his shop I told him I don't wear jewelry. He was quite disappointed and actually seemed to lose interest in me after that conversation.

As I was getting ready for bed, I looked in my wallet to organize it. It looked as though money was missing. The only money I had spent since arriving was for the cab into town, the street samosa, the internet and the auto rickshaw to Sanjay's. Hmmmm..... was there 500 rupees missing? I was not completely sure, but it seemed there was. So I made a very careful count of my money and decided to keep a close watch on it from then on.

Went to bed and slept well considering the lumpy mattress and the heat. Seems I have grown accustomed to air conditioning in Oman.

Vol 84 I Was Kidnapped by a Chinese/Arabian CouchSurfer

2008-08-08T21:44:00.006+04:00

Let me tell you a little story.

I have not had internet at my apartment for about 3 weeks now. Every morning I ask the building guy "Internet?" and every morning he replies in broken English "Whole building. Bukrah inshallah". The literal translation of bukrah inshallah is "tomorrow, god willing" but the actual translation around here is "I have no idea when, maybe never".

This whole no internet thing has really cramped my style. Turns out, I'm addicted to the internet. I was lost without it, which was a bit alarming. I'm not supposed to use the internet at work for anything other than business and I respect that so I stayed away from hotmail, messenger and couchsurfing.

I got bored. I watched movies on my laptop. Then Angie arrived. Angie is a Scottish couchsurfer who lives in Australia. She was the first person I ever hosted, I think, back in November. She's great. Last time she was here we went hiking at wadi bani awf. There's a blog about it if you want to refresh your memory. The DSL line in my apartment was still sort of sometimes working for her first couple of days here. My sister tried to say Hi to me on Messenger one day when I was in the shower and racing for work. Angie told Michele I was not available.

Angie was here about a week and a half. It was pretty great. I took 3 days off and we went on a grand road trip. Perhaps I will write about it later.

Then she left and I was back to being bored. Back to watching movies on my laptop. I wasn't replying to anyone's emails.

Last week my Mom called me. I was at work but I happened to be near my cell phone. She said she hadn't seen me online on Messenger for a while. I told her my internet was down. She said "Oh" and I assumed she'd want to hang up, it being a long distance call to the Middle East and all. I told her I loved her and we said goodbye.

4 days later I got a call from my sister.
"Hello" I said.
"Hi, who's this?" she said.
"It's Susan, who's this?"
"It's Michele"
"Hey Michele, what's up, Buttercup?"
"Susan" she say's, "it's Mom".
Now seriously, with an opening like that I thought she was about to tell me that Mom was dead or in the hospital or something. "What about her?"
"She had a panic attack last night. She thinks you've been kidnapped by a couchsurfer or something".

I'm not shitting you. That's what she said. "What the......."

"She has been worried that she hasn't seen you online and she knows you haven't logged into couchsurfing"
"But I spoke to her a few days ago! She called me!" I said.
"I know, I know" she replied "but she thought it didn't sound like you. She tried calling you again yesterday and she says someone speaking what sounded like Chinese answered".
"Ummmm......ok......"
"Susan, she woke up this morning having a panic attack. She asked me to call you. I'm here with one of my Arabic speaking friends in case whoever answered could only speak Arabic"
"Ummmmm.........ok.........."

Honestly, how could I not laugh? I've been working my ass off at work, wracking up the overtime because we are short staffed right now, spending my nights watching movies on my laptop and they are sitting at home thinking I've been kidnapped by a Chinese/Arabian couchsurfer? Seriously????

"How do you know you're really talking to me now?" I asked her.
"Ha ha" she said. "Because I 'm talking to you. I can hear it's you"
"What if it's not me?"
"What's the name you call me as kids?" she asked.
"Poophead" I replied, knowing that wasn't it.
"Ha ha" she said "Come on, what was it?"
"Pretty sure I called you Poophead" I wanted to see if she seriously doubted it was me.
"You Goof......"
"I don't know, Michbushka, I'm pretty sure I called you Poophead"
I could hear her relax.

We hung up shortly and I sat there thinking "what the hell was that?" My sister has been here, she knows how safe it is. Kidnapped by a couchsurfer?

I got a text message from my Mom about 30 minutes later saying she was glad I was ok, that I am precious to her. I didn't know I could even get a text message from Canada. When I first got my phone here I tried saying Hi to a couple of friends back home and I got no reply so I assumed that meant I couldn't send texts home. I replied to her. And she replied back. Turns out it does work. So why didn't she just do that when she first started to worry about me?

Silly Mommie. Sorry to poke fun at you, but I will be snickering over this one for a while. Kidnapped by a Chinese/Arabian couchsurfer. Seriously.

Vol 83 Michele Day 15

2008-07-03T02:19:00.001+04:00

We have arrived at the last full day my sister had to spend in Oman. Poop. I didn't want her to go. But she was all, like, "I have to go home to my daughter". Like that's a good excuse for leaving me. Whatever. Daughter schmaughter.

We decided to go to one of the "must see" places in my Oman Off-road book. Wadi Ash Shab. A 2 hour drive from Muscat down the coast to Tiwi, then a 1 hour hike up the wadi, then a swim.

Firas very kindly lent me his SUV again as the coastal highway is being expanded and was only partially done. Much of it was still gravel. It changed back and forth between gravel and asphalt about a million times.

At times we had to detour off the highway onto a sketchy gravel road.

Some scenes along the coastal road.

This is the little village of Tiwi. The entrance to Wadi Ash Shab is right before the big hill that leads into town.

We had to drive under this thingie to get to the parking area.

While gathering oue stuff for the hike this Omani man, named Said, approached us and asked if he could walk up with us. I said sure and off we went.

This is the pool at the head of the wadi. It's half salty ocean water and half sweet mountain spring water. There are fish that jump from the water.

The hike starts off with easy gravel for the first 20 minutes. It's more of a trudge than a hike at this point.

In case you have forgotten a wadi is a dry riverbed. A canyon. Most wadi's are dry unless it rains. When it rains they quickly fill and flow down to the ocean. This particular wadi has a mountain spring at the top that keeps it flowing year round.

Every now and then the water would gather into a shallow pool.

After a time the walk got a little trickier as we scrambled over rocks. That's Said and I walking and talking together the whole way. Michele hung back as she was taking about a million photos.

There is one of those falaj irrigation canals that runs partially above ground like this and partially underground. This section is new, it had to be repaired after the hurricane and flooding last June.
I hope these photos capture how amazingly beautiful this place is. Steep cliff on either side and a sprinkling of blue/green pools down the center.

After about an hour we reached this pool. It was a good thing we had Said with us or we would never have known that this is the place to scramble down the rocks and get in the water.

We swam across the first of three pools. The water is unbelievably clean and the temperature is perfect. The pools are too deep to reach the bottom in some places and shallow in other places.

We got out of the water, walked across a short gravel area and into the second pool. Right about now my sister is thinking "Hey! Where'd that photo of Susan come from?" You see, we left her camera at the shore of the first pool with our clothes. So this photo and most of the others for this blog post are not from my day with Michele. I have been back to Wadi Ash Shab 4 times since Michele was here. I have to blend this Michele day with the other days I've been to give a better feel for the place. After the first time with Michele I helped my guests bring their cameras along by triple zip-lock bagging them and holding them over our heads. Wadi Ash Shab has become my favorite place in Oman and I love to share it with my friends and the couchsurfers who come to stay with me.

Like my friend Steve who lives in Dubai and works for a travel guide-book company. He and I went a couple of weeks after Michele and I went.

Steve and I met this guy, Badr, who lives in Tiwi.

Anyhoodle, back to Michele, Said and I. We swam through the second pool, climbed out onto some rocks and .....

.....made our way across this gorgeousness to the third pool.

Each of the three pools is truly amazing. But it just gets better. We swam across the third pool which dead ends at a giant cliff.

Said told us to swim into this crevice.

The opening is quite small at the start- just big enough for your head to be above water and squished on either side by rock. There is a rock ledge to pull yourself along. It's around 15 feet long.

Here is a photo of a couchsurfer named Ankit as he comes out the other side of the crevice. He and another couchsurfer and I went a couple of weeks ago on my fifth trip there. He can't swim so he clung to a piece of Styrofoam and I towed him across all three pools and into the crevice. Why would I convince a non-swimmer to risk his life?

Well, here's the view when you turn around and look back through the crevice after you make it through it.

And here's what's on the other side. An amazing cave. You can see the crevice that we entered through on the rear right of the photo.

This photo was taken the 3d time I went. There were nine of us jammed into one SUV. My friends Mahfoodh, Khaldoun and Yasser and 5 American and Canadian couchsurfing students who are all studying in Istanbul. Yasser and Khaldoun were hosting 2 of them and I was hosting 3 of them. Khaldoun is not in the photo (hey, someone has to take it) but that is Yasser right in front. Mahfoodh is all the way at the back with me.

Pretty amazing, right? Well it gets better!

There is an amazing waterfall in the cave, which you can't see well in this photo. (None of my couchsurfers got a good shot of the waterfall!) That is Ankit sitting halfway up it. The first four times I went, the waterfall was flowing really well, but this last time it had slowed alot. There is another crevice/cave that runs behind the waterfall. You go in one wall and pop out another, right behind the fall. You can get a pretty good shoulder massage by pausing under the waterfall. It's just incredible.

There is a rope to climb up the waterfall.

When you get to the top you can climb the rocks around to the other side. Michele and I could not haul our butts up the rope, which is just as well in my case as I am not keen on heights.

These are the 8 couchsurfers I went with the third time. Why climb up there?

To jump, of course! All eight of them jumped. Twice. Crazy couchsurfers!

This is Kyle, a young guy in the Canadian Navy. He's on a 6 month tour of duty and his ship docked in Muscat for shore leave. All the other sailors stayed in hotels. He surfed my couch and I brought him and Ankit to Wadi Ash Shab. He was pretty psyched.

Here's the five students from Istanbul.

Here's David and Maria, a couch surfing couple from Spain who stayed a week with me. Such a nice couple. I went with them the forth time I went to the wadi. We didn't take a camera with us so here we are with Mahfoodh at a party.

Here's Mahfoodh and I. He doesn't like this photo because he looks so much shorter than I am.

Here I am with a bunch of the local Tiwi guys. This was taken the third time I went. The local guys know me now. The one with his arm around me is Badr. I met him the second time I went. He invited Steve and I to his home in Tiwi after the hike for coffee and dates. And I told Steve I never refuse an invitation.....

This is Badr's Mom and 2 Aunties. They are making the embroidered hats that all Omani men wear.

The third time I went, with the nine couchsurfers, I ran into Badr at the top of the hike and afterwards he invited all nine of us to his home. His Mom and Aunties invited me to sit with them and they taught me to do the embroidery. I love Omani people, they are so friendly and hospitable.

Here's Ankit, Kyle and I a couple of weeks ago. (I'm towing Ankit on his Styrofoam)

So, back to that first time. Michele and I drove back to Muscat and met my friends Katie and Daniel at an Indian restaurant for dinner. Then we went home, Michele packed and I took her to the airport at 5 in the morning.

And she left.

And I miss her.

She's my favorite couchsurfer ever. Even if she does snore.

Vol 82 Michele Day 14

2008-06-09T00:42:00.001+04:00

Another boring day from a blog reader's perspective. Michele and I slept in after our adventure of the day before.

We went to my favorite restaurant, Kargeen, for the lunch buffet.

We wandered around town a bit.

We went to the Muttrah souk where she finished her souvenir and gift shopping. She bought this wall hanging.

I decided we ought to have dinner at a nice restaurant. She snapped this one of me at the dinner buffet at the Raddisson Hotel. Apparently it was buffet day for us.

Her appetizer plate.

Her grilled to order entre plate. Is it odd that she took photos of almost every meal she ate while on vacation? Is it odd that I felt the need to show these photos of her food?

Vol 81 Michele Day 13

2008-05-31T08:58:00.003+04:00

For reasons which will become clear once you've seen it, Vol 81 is located at another site. It's a secret. In order to view it, you must either email me or leave a comment, requesting the address. Of course, I would prefer you to leave a comment. Perhaps you could use it as an opportunity to tell me (and the other readers) how much you love my blog and how great I am etc.

No, this is not a ploy, there really is a very good reason why I have hidden this next blog post. And it is a REALLY good post soooooooooo if you want to see it, let me know.

Vol 80 Michele Day 12

2008-05-24T20:41:00.000+04:00

This is going to be the quickest blog post I write for Michele's trip to Oman.

Here we are in Sharjah, at 6am, waiting to board our plane back to Muscat.

We were dead-dog tired. It was actually difficult to get these photos. We were so tired we kept laughing while we were trying to capture the depth of our exhaustion.

When we got back to my apartment we slept and slept and slept.

We had dinner at Automatic Restaurant, an excellent Lebanese place. Clockwise from the plate on the left- Arugula, carrots, Syrian pickles and olives (comes with all meals in the same way bread does back home), Hummus, fatouche salad, and labneh with garlic. Labneh is like sour cream with a bit of cream cheese mixed in.You eat it and the hummus with Arabic bread which is prettu much the same as pita bread.

Michele had a mixed fresh juice cocktail- mango, strawberry and banana.

She also had grilled lamb kebabs which she tells me were very good.

That's it. That's pretty much all we did that day. Slept and ate dinner.

Vol 79 Michele Day 11

2008-05-23T12:40:00.000+04:00

We landed around 6:30am in Sharjah. Poor Michele. We were sooooo tired. She had asked me when we got on the plane in Luxor if there were any more surprises, if we were sleeping in my bed that night. No, I told her, Yes, I told her. Of course, I was lying.

Honestly, she had done nothing but beg me to take her to Dubai from the moment she had bought her ticket to Oman. Even though I had just taken her to Egypt, which is infinitely more cool than Dubai, I felt like I was a bad sister if I didn't also take her to Dubai. After all, I had tricked her into going to Egypt by telling her we were going to Dubai. So when I bought the Luxor tickets I had them add a 24 hour layover in Sharjah, which is half an hour from Dubai.

Back in November I had CouchSurf hosted a guy named Marlon for 5 nights. He was visiting his sister, Bonita, in Dubai prior to visiting me and she came with him and stayed one night with me as well. They were from the Dutch Antilles Islands and they were really nice. Bonita had invited me to stay with her if I ever visited Dubai so I had contacted her before heading to Egypt and arranged for Michele and I to spend a night with her. Right after I filmed that video of Michele, I called Bonita and asked her for directions to her place so I could tell the cab driver where to go. She reply "You could do that, or you could just come outside. I'm waiting for you". Sweet!

This photo of Bonita and I was taken back in November. Bonita is vertically challenged and I have the opposite problem. Makes for a nice contrast, don't you think?

She took us back to her apartment, which is 3 minutes from the Mall of the Emirates, #20 on the world's largest shopping malls list. We slept for a couple of hours then Bonita took us to the Mall where we bought tickets to the Big Bus city tour. We figured hopping on the Big Bus tour would be the fastest way to get an overview of the city. The bus follows a couple or routes and your all day ticket allows you to get on and off where you please.

We had a quick peek at the mall, including Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort with a 400 meter hill.

We hopped on the Big Bus and away we went. It's a double decker bus that's open air on the top. Very windy but the view was better from the top. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating for our day in Dubai. It was cloudy/hazy. Still warm though.

Michele started snapping photos right away.

This is as good a time as any to make a confession. Sometimes I'm grumpy. Here's the thing- I don't like Dubai. It's too big and too traffic congested and too commercial and there is too much construction there. 1/3 of the world's cranes are in Dubai. I'm actually surprised Michele was able to get any photos of the city that did not have construction mess and 3 cranes in them. Anyway, back to the grumpy confession. Because I don't like Dubai, I only took 1 photo that day. And now I feel bad because Michele's photos are pretty crappy, especially her night shots (no offense, Michele). My nice camera stayed in the bag all day while Michele oohed and aahed over the city. I was trying to make the best of it, keep open minded or at the very least, enjoy my sister's company, but I just couldn't work up enough enthusiasm to take a bunch of photos. Sigh.

This is Wafi Mall. The Big Bus has a bunch of malls as potential stops and the Egyptian theme of Wafi Mall was cracking us up, so we got off.

Glass feature near the entrance.

Central pyramid-ceilinged area.

Thorton makes his final video.....

Michele's "Michele Witch Project" character did not find inspiration outside of Egypt.

Back on the Big Bus for more sightseeing.

If memory serves, one of the Sheiks lives behind those walls.

Bundled up on the windy bus.

Views of Dubai harbor.

A Mosque.

Iranian style Mosque.

We got off the Bus at the old souk. It was nice, but I like Mutrah Souk in Muscat better.

The entrance to the gold souk.

Inside the gold souk.

Typical gold jewelry. Most of it is made in India.

This photo is for my Mom- she loves big rings.

Another Mosque.

I had read there was a Spice Souk near the gold souk so we went off in search of it. Turns out it was 4 shops, all pretty much the same. Oh well, we had a nice walk looking for it.

Another of the 4 spice shops.

While looking for the Spice Souk we passed through what Michele dubbed the Plastic Souk. It was basically a bunch of Arabic style dollar stores all clumped together.

Back on the Bus we continued along the harbor.

There was quite a bit of activity on the docks, loading and unloading boxes and crates onto and off of traditional Dhows. Pretty cool to see that they are still using the old boats.

We headed back to Bonita's, had a shower and then went to the Dubai Jazz Festival.

Bonita is an English teacher and one of her colleagues joined us for the evening.

We went to the Radisson SAS Hotel. There was a swedish singer and her band on the patio on the 8th floor. Tickets included a mediocre dinner.

This is the part where I feel guilty about not taking any photos....

Still guilty. After listening to the music for a while Bonita decided we needed to drive around a bit, try to show Michele some of the sights. This crappy photo is the ceiling of a really cool shopping area.

This crappy photo is of an outdoor restaurant in the cool shopping area.

It was late at night but some of the shops were still open.

Bonita's friend, Sherri.

Detail of a beautifully embroidered shawl.

The shops were all very nice but VERY expensive. Dubai is known for it's shopping. If you have money.

Detail of a trunk lid.

Bonita is trying to give us rabbit ears but she's so short we had to hunker down and she still couldn't reach my head! Still feeling guilty about the camera thing...

Yup, guilty, guilty, guilty..... This is the famous Burj Hotel.
So guilty that I downloaded this photo of the Burj from the internet so you can see that it is shaped like a sail boat. 7 star hotel.

I have no idea what this blurry mess is.

We went back to Bonita's apartment where we slept very soundly for a few hours, then we piled our tired asses into a cab and headed to the airport in Sharjah.

Vol 78 Michele Day 10

2008-05-21T01:47:00.002+04:00

Oh Crap! This post is even longer! The problem with cramming so much into our days is that I have to cram it all into a blog post too. These things take too long to make. I need to get a life....

Unbelievable though it may seem, Day 4 was our last day in Egypt. Seems crazy to fly all the way to Egypt for 4 days, right? But it's not. It's not that far, not that expensive and that's all the time I could spare. Michele came to see Oman after all, not Egypt. That was just a bonus. Better to go for 4 days than not at all!

First stop was breakfast. We had walked by a pizza a place the night before, right after we had already eaten, and stopped to read the menu. A very handsome man came out and introduced himself as the owner. We promised to return the next day. (Yes, he was that handsome)

Mr Handsome wasn't there in the morning but the fatiya was. It's like a crispy, layered, stuffed pizza. We also ordered baba ganoush. Best baba ever!

And best fatiya ever. Holy cow was it ever good.

Michele took this while we waited for our fatiya.

We hit the streets again. We decided we needed more street scenes so I employed what Michele has dubbed the sneaky sneak technique. You hold the camera casually at your shoulder as if just resting it there, snapping away. What you get is somewhat sketchy but they are usually alright once they are cropped. So these are all sneaky sneak photos.

This particular street was undergoing a lot of work. They had ripped up the asphalt and sidewalks. Apparently they are trying to widen it. If you click on these photos to open them up larger you can get a pretty good idea of what street life is like in Luxor.

I think these kids are carrying a basket made from an old tire.

The scaffolding is made from bamboo, lashed together. Very safe.

Yes, that is a dude, sleeping on a pile of dirt.

Look, Mom, it's a donkey!

I love this one.

It was gearing up to prayer time as we walked by this mosque. It was already full inside and starting to spill outside, into the street. Like Oman, Egypt is a Muslim country.

Roadwork dudes on break.

Luxor train station.

Herbs.

Hibiscus tea and herbs.

Alrighty then. This is the entrance to the main souk in Luxor. Michele and I had stopped at the souk the night before. Now, as I mentioned, Michele cannot bargain worth beans. I mean, she truly sucks. To be fair, she sucks because she has no experience with it. In North America the only real opportunity we have for bargaining is at garage sales. And she doesn't go to garage sales. I, on the other hand, love garage sales. Plus, I have traveled to so many countries where bargaining is the norm. And now I live in Oman where it is a necessity. Even in a store which appears to have fixed prices, you can often knock off 25% just by asking for a discount, "best price", or "last price".

Michele would walk into a shop and basically say things like "Wow! This is beautiful! This is my first time in Egypt and I don't know anything about these. How much is it?"

We did not have time for her to learn how to bargain and there were quite a few items she was interested in buying. I was trying to do the bargaining for her but the shop owners would figure out that she was green and try to cut me out of the conversation.

So the previous night, after about an hour in the fringe shops of the souk I told her "I forbid you to speak. You're not allowed to speak in the shops any more". It was a bit awkward in the first few shops we went into like that but after she got over her poutiness she warmed up to it and actually started milking it. It became fun. She was somewhat of a tragic figure in the shops. The sweet Canadian woman who couldn't speak who's sister did all the speaking for her. She would pantomine her answers, and when I was too dense to figure out what she was trying to say, she would write it down. We decided that if anyone asked why she couldn't speak I would say something like "She doesn't like to talk about it, but we're praying her voice will return to her".

It is part of Egyptian hospitality that shopkeepers offer refreshments to their customers. You walk in the door and 30 seconds later after Hello and Where are you from? comes Would you like tea, water, soda? This is the guy we bought some silver jewelry from, for Michele and her daughter Chloe. He, like all the other shopkeepers, loved poor mute Michele. Michele got a ring for herself and a necklace for Chloe in the classic cartouche/hieroglyphic style. And we enjoyed a couple of Cokes while we shopped, which he was only too happy to pose with for dumb Michele (sorry Michele, couldn't resist calling you dumb!) He's holding Chloe's necklace.

It was actually a pretty nice souk, but Egyptian shopkeepers are renowned for their pushiness. They are extremely verbal in their attempts to lure you into their shops and in some cases will even try pulling you in. "Hello, where you from? What you are looking for?" Some of them spoke with impeccable British accents "Excuse me, may I show you something" I would quite often ask them to calm down before we would enter their shop.

Holy cow did this guy ever like poor little mute Michele. "She is so sweet" He wanted to marry her. Can't blame him, it's the perfect wife- pretty and sweet and can't talk!

I try to buy a rug from every country I travel to and after looking in a few shops we found this place. We had spent quite a bit of time there the previous night (the picture of the handsome guy that Michele took at the bottom of the previous post is of one of the workers in this shop. He was WAY smitten with poor tragic Michele). The owner had pulled out all the good rugs for me as I don't like the touristy ones. The little round camel one and the small tree ones are touristy ones. I had found one I liked the night before and now we were back to start the real bargaining.

This is the one I had my eye on. Large and highly detailed. One of a kind. But the price the owner named was way out of my reach and I told him so. I told him I had been around the block a few times and there was no way I was paying that. I named an equally ridiculously low price and he scoffed at that. We batted it back and forth for a while, then he asked me to convince him of why I was worthy of getting the rug at such a low price. I told him a bit about my life, with Michele scribbling points to highlight. Wasn't enough apparently because after an hour of haggling his price and my price were still way far apart. You have to be willing to walk away and so we did.

We caught a taxi-van to Karnak, the last monument on our list of must-see's. Hmmmm, maybe if I don't give any details or history for Karnak Michele will do it when she leaves a comment like she did for the last post. If you have not read the comments for the last post I recommend that you do because Michele filled in a lot of details that I had left out.

A few statistics about Karnak-

It's huge! It covers over 2 square kilometers.
It's old! Building started 4700 years ago.
It contains the largest religious structure ever built- the Temple of Amen-Ra, Karnak's principle building.
The Temple of Amen-Ra was the god's home on earth. Around it lay the homes of his wife, Mut and their son, Khonsu.
Archaeological evidence shows that the site was inhabited in prehistoric times.
Each pharaoh added to the site, either by adding a building or improving existing buildings. They often remodeled a predecessor's building.
Over 200 large structures have been found at Karnak
Tourists can only visit a small portion of the site.

The entrance avenue leading to the 1st pylon is lined with criosphinxes (lions with heads of rams).

Details of the Criosphinxes.

The Bubastite Portal leading from the first court to the second pylon.

The portal is flanked on either side with colossal statues of Ramses II.

Inside the shrine of Ramses III.

Mummiform figures of Ramses III as Osiris.

Spare parts.

Reconstruction in progress.

Spare statues.

Up close.

Ditto.

Nice legs.

These people were all walking in circles around....

....this scarab statue.

There was a herd of goats wandering around the ruins.

They stopped at the sacred lake for a drink.

Yup, that's an obelisk.

So's that. And a marble doorway.

Yup, 'nother obelisk.

And a detail of an obelisk.

And another obelisk. Yup.

Next we went to the main attraction of Karnak. The Hypostyle Hall. No part of the temple of Amen-Ra is more famous or more impressive. 134 gigantic columns spaced closely together, intending to symbolize a papyrus swamp, like the thousands that lined the banks of the Nile. 103 meters wide, 53 meters deep. The columns are 15 meters (49 feet) tall and 8.4 meters (7 feet) in circumference.

Artists rendition of how the Hypostyle Hall must have looked. I'm just gonna show you a bunch of photos of it. They don't at all convey the hugeness of it. It's a bit strange, really. There are so many columns and they obscure your sight. You can never get a real feel for it.

Detail of one of the pillars.

We decided not to take a cab back into town, but to walk instead. We had walked everywhere in the last 4 days. You see more that way. We followed the walls surrounding Karnak through a picturesque residential area.

Eventually we came across the south entrance to Karnak.

Detail of the gate.

Michele and one of her "justicpose/justsuppose/juxtapose shots. The avenue of sphinxes runs along the side of this residential road.

And kids play on them and around them. They're thousands of years old and kids are just crawling all over these things!

In Egypt, as in so many countries, in the early evening you will find football (soccer) games all over.

Apparently sphinxes make a nice addition to a football game.

Another sneaky sneak. We walked all the way back to Luxor. Such a nice walk. Culturally rich. I was so happy to share this country with my sweet sister.

My turn at a cheesey sunset photo.

The main video for the day.

We had dinner at a restaurant recommended in the guide book. It was just ok.

We went back to the souk and bought some more souvenirs for Michele. I tried once again to talk the rug guy down in price but he had decided not to like me I think. Was not budging at all. We bought the small round one and the small tree of life one in that upper photo for Lane and Michele. I did not get mine.

We hit a few more rug shops and one of the guys there really tried to find me one like I had been looking at but no luck.

So I ended up not buying any souvenirs from Egypt. I just didn't like anything enough. Aside from that rug. I think about that rug every now and then. I almost regret not buying it, but I couldn't quite afford it so, oh well.

Wait a minute! I did buy a souvenir! Well, not so much a souvenir as a kitchen item but, none the less, I did buy something. It's a small clay tajine. I talked the street vendor down to about 20% of his first price so I was feeling pretty good about it. I asked him for some paper to wrap it in and this is what happened....

We went back to the apartment, packed up, thanked our CSing host, Alaa, immensely and headed out. But we didn't catch a taxi right away. We wheeled our bags down the streets, stopped at Quick Pizza again and bought 2 fatiyas to-go. It's that good. We'd had it for breakfast, we weren't hungry and we bought 2 anyway, to eat at the airport.

The gorgeous, charming owner was there this time and Michele had him explain to her how the fatiya is made. I hung back and admired him and took sneaky sneak pictures of him.

Michele got these great shots of the cook making our fatiya.

Sigh. Either one of us would have been happy to become Mrs Quick Pizza.

Then it was time to catch a cab to the airport. Mr Gorgeous Quick Pizza hailed one for us and negotiated the fee for us. We pigged out on fatiya while waiting for our first flight, to Sharjah, to be called.

Once on the plane we got the sillies again.

Here's Michele's final "Michele Witch Project" video.

Here's my video, with the character we had dubbed Thorton.

Vol 77 Michele Day 9

2008-05-12T22:15:00.001+04:00

All right all you whiners- here's the long awaited post for day 3 of our Egypt trip. I have had non-stop couchsurfing guests so I've been busy being a good host. The last 3 have gone back to their student lives in Singapore so I'm back to writing at night instead of dining in cafes with travelers.

I have forgotten to tell you how Egypt IS. It's noisy, it's dirty, it's exciting, it's..... it's..... it's amazing!

You know I'm a sucker for old stuff. Well Egypt is full of old stuff. It's the Cradle of Civilization. And though time has taken it's tole, it's incredible how much history is left standing.

Our third day in Egypt Michele and I went back to the West Bank, this time to explore some of the temples. Reggae, the CouchSurfer who worked at the hostel that we had dinner with the night before arranged for a taxi to take us around the sights for a super cheap price. Something like $5 US for the day. I am only sharing our best photos of the day and still there are a ton. Happy to report that many of these photos are Michele's. Her camera (and her great eye) did her proud on this day.

First up was the temple complex of Medinat Habu.

Starts off tame enough but we quickly realized it's huge. It goes on and on.

Gate near the entrance.

Detail of pillar near the gate near the entrance.

Statue of Sekhmet near the pillar near the gate near the entrance........

Detail of wall near the....... never mind.

Black granite offering table. The channel at the top is for blood to run....

This is the first pylon of the memorial temple of Ramses III.

Detail of the pylon showing Ramses III smiting his enemies. He's holding a handful of heads.

More wall detail.

The south colonnade of the First Court.

Statue in the north colonnade of the First Court.

Ceiling detail passing from First to Second Court.

Second Court walls.

Second Court columns.

Second Court wall.

Passing from Second Court to Hypostyle Hall.

More wall detail. Amazing that the paint is still there!

More wall detail.

The Great Hypostyle Hall is not in very good shape but the 52 rooms off of it are.

Sweet light moment in one of those rooms.

Temple guard.

Wall with rooms.

After Madinat Habu we headed to the village of Dayr al Madinat or the Worker's Village.

It's behind the modern village.

It's a well planned and neatly constructed village of mud and stone where the men responsible for cutting and decorating the tombs of Egypt's New Kingdom pharaohs lived with their families.

Of course Puddles came along with us.

While in the village we also toured 3 of the tombs open to the public. These tombs were for the more important of the artists responsible for decorating the pharaohs tombs.

Entrance to the Tomb of Sennedjem. We were not able to take photos inside these tombs as they are just too tiny and there is always a guard right there, watching.

I did however find these 2 photos on the internet. It is amazing that these tombs are in such good shape after thousands of years.

I didn't bother Googleing the other 2 tombs we saw. It's late, I'm tired.

At the top left of this photo you can see the mud brick enclosure walls of a Ptolemaic Temple, which is where we ended up when we walked through the village.

Ceiling detail of the temple with thousands of stars.

Love this shot.

Love this one even more.

Wall detail.

More wall detail.

Detail of detail.

Next stop was a look at an alabaster shop. All cabs drivers will try to take you to a shop, where they receive a commission if you buy. Our driver, hired by Reggae asked if we'd like to stop, we said sure. This super-friendly guy is demonstrating how alabaster is cut by hand to make a vase. We went in to get an education on alabaster but we did not buy anything. It's best to buy on your own- the prices are lower when you aren't paying someones commission.

Some of the tourist tat for sale in the shop.

The alabaster vases. They glow when light is shone through them. I discovered I don't like alabaster so it was easy for me not to buy.

From there we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut, which Michele called "Hot Chicken Soup". She cracks me up.

This temple is carved into and out of the mountain face. The approach is spectacular.

What kind of tourists would we be if we didn't get other tourists to take our photo? We are wearing matching shirts. I brought extra long-sleeved, function over fashion shirts to share with Michele because I knew she was packing all pretty things, thinking that we were going to Dubai. She and I both wore those same pants everyday we were in Egypt. In my hand you can see that damn hat which I was actually forced to wear on the later half of this day as I had a wicked sunburn on my nose and forehead from my previous hatless days. Stupid useful hat. Michele was sweetly unsmug. The weather was strange. If I was in the sun I was fine, but as soon as I moved out of the sun I was cold. Everyone else seemed fine, perhaps I'm too acclimated to Oman heat.

I'm too tired to comment on these photos. What am I going to say? It's a wall. A cow. It's old. Blah, blah, blah.

View of the Temple Of Seti I from Hatsheput temple.

Roman graffiti scratched into the temple walls.

This guard asked Michele to take his photo. Then asked for baksheesh. Oh brother.

Spare parts.

And now, a sad story. Michele had Puddles in her pocket this day while we toured the various monuments. Before we entered Hatshepsut's Temple, we had to walk past a bunch of booths selling tourist crap. We hadn't bought anything yet so we shopped ever so briefly at these booths. I bought her a carved scarab paper weight and that was about it. We continued on our way and wandered around the temple for quite a while.

As we were leaving the temple complex, just getting into our waiting taxi, having just walked past all those tourist crap booths again, she realized Puddles was no longer in her pocket. She remembered him being there as we exited the temple gates but he was definitely missing now.

I can't begin to tell you how upset she was. She walked up and down the whole area, asking all the booth salesmen if they'd seen him. But no luck. he was gone.

I took this photo in the taxi as we were leaving. That's Michele in the backseat, trying desparately not to cry. Chloe, her daughter, had entrusted Puddles to Michele and she felt she had betrayed that trust. She consoled herself with the theory that he fell out of her pocket and some Egyptian child picked him up and has given him a good home. Perhaps a child who otherwise could not have afforded a sweet little stuffie like Puddles.

And now a happy story. As we were leaving the temple, ready to head back to the East Bank, Reggae, the CouchSurfer who worked at the hostel and had fed us the previous night, called and invited us for a ride on his friends felucca on the Nile. Do I refuse invitations? Of course we said yes!

A felucca is a small sail boat and sailing the Nile in one is one of the things my guide book says everyone must do.

A Brazilian CouchSurfer staying at the hostel joined us. That's Reggae in the middle.

I love this photo of the captain of the boat. There were 6 of us- the captain, his deckhand, Reggae, the Brazilian CouchSurfer whose name I've forgotten, Michele and I.

The deckhand, Moustafa.

Camels on the riverbank.

Here's a bummer of a photo moment. Michele was taking this damn near perfect photo, which I have effectively ruined by being in it because I was taking.....

....this no where near as good photo. Poop.

It was soooooo pretty on the water. To be honest I had not been too gung ho on the whole felucca thing when I had read about it in the guide book. It just seemed boring and I was worried I would be cold. I was so wrong. It was relaxing and social and gorgeous. They made us hibiscus tea and Reggae sang to us.

He also flirted with Michele.

And with the boat! He was a really funny guy and so hospitable.

My smiley-faced sister!

Lowering the sail.

Michele's perfect, cheesey sunset-on-the-Nile shot.

I found this guy in her photos. Hmmmm, I wonder why she took this photo? Could it be she thought he was a teensey bit handsome? We did a little shopping on the way home but Michele can't dicker worth beans so we didn't buy anything. She sucked so bad at it in fact that I actually forbid her to speak inside the shops. She had to pretend to be mute. More about this in the next post.

And I'll admit it- I missed Puddles at bedtime. It was strange not having him there. He had been such a part of our days since Michele had arrived in Oman. Michele was still sad about losing him.

The day's video.

Vol 76 Michele Day 8

2008-04-27T23:26:00.005+04:00

***WARNING!!! THIS POST IS WAY TOO DAMN LONG!!!***

OK, I'm back from my most recent vacation in _____. Wait, where's the fun if I tell you? I need to finish yacking about Egypt and the rest of Michele's visit so I can tell you about the new country. Ooooh! Suspense!

Day 2 in Luxor and Michele and I hit the streets. Almost immediately we came upon an old dude with a wooden cart. On the cart was an aluminum pot and a pile of course, pita-like bread. I approached him as I was pretty sure what was in the pot and I was pretty excited. "Foul?" I asked. "Foul" he nodded. I quickly explained to Michele that foul (pronounced fool) is boiled fava beans served rolled up in bread. A very tradition Egyptian breakfast that I have enjoyed many times in Oman. Michele declined. Something about eating food from a grungy old pot on a rickety old cart from a guy who looked like he may not have washed his hands this week was somehow unappealing to her. Go figure. I held up my finger for one and off we went. And, of course, it was delicious. Best foul I've ever had.

We came across this doorway and I have to say this- this is why I travel. There is quirky shit all over the world and I love finding it.

Right after I took this photo, the lady in the background held out her hand and said "Baksheesh". Which basically translates to "tip me". Egyptians are famous for their constant plees for baksheesh. If a child says hello to you and you say hello back, they will hold out their hand and say "baksheesh".

We walked towards the Nile. The plan was to catch the ferry to the West Bank, rent some bicycles and pedal to the Valley of the Kings.

But first we had to find Princess Michele some breakfast fit to eat. After rejecting most everything, she agreed to eating a cheese and preserved lemon sandwich made by a sweet little old lady. (Who probably hadn't washed her hands in a week).

Some dude offered to "help" us find our way to the ferry. We declined his help, but he followed us, asking occasionally if we needed a guide for the day. We just kept firmly telling him no. And he just kept following us.

When we got to the ferry we thought he would finally leave us alone but no. After we bought our tickets he spoke to the ticket seller and then followed us onto the boat, sitting a couple of seats down from us. Then another dude came and sat beside us and asked if we needed a guide for the day. Again we declined. Again he offered. Again we declined. As the boat started to pull away, both the new guy and the first guy jumped off, walking away together. Seems they were working together, trying to get us to agree to their services.

Our host, Alaa, had told us the day before where to rent bikes so we went there. These were old fashioned bikes, no gears, but it's pretty flat so we figured we'd be ok. The dude renting the bikes to us asked us to please bring them back, not just ditch them somewhere. I assured him we were not the kind of women that could ditch. I told him Canadians don't do that.

Such a scenic bike ride.

A short way along we came across these. Colossi of Memnonwere built around 1360BC and are almost all that are left of what was once the largest temple in Luxor. Situated in the Nile flodd plain, the rest of the temple has simply washed away over the centuries.

There's an archaeological dig going on behind the colossi.

More riding and we made it to the Worker's Village. This is the area where the tombs of the workers and artists who created the tombs for the Kings lived and were buried. The more important among them had tombs of their own. But we didn't stop there, we continued on up the road.

This guy had a little bit of everything on that cart. Like a peddler from the Old West.

Typical house and yard as we pedaled along. At this point it was starting to get hot and we had been pedaling about an hour.

Still pedaling. Still getting hotter. And it is no longer mostly flat. Now it just feels like work. On a crappy bike.

When Michele snapped this shot I was about ready to flag down a truck and offer them all kinds of money to drive us the rest of the way. I was secretly plotting to abandon the bikes and get a cab back. Screw the rental guy- I was hot and tired and my legs were starting to hurt. What were we thinking? We're in our 40's for crying out loud!

And then, when all hope was lost, we were there. We stopped in at the information center. This diorama (there's a word you don't get to use often) shows the map of the tombs from above....

....and below. In all, some 62 tombs have been excavated, though not all belonged to pharaohs. Only about 20 are open to the public. The tombs are dug into the mountains with long, narrow corridors which open up into chambers.

Puddles, at the entrance to one of the tombs. When you pay your entrance fee it only allows you to see 3 tombs. And there are a bunch, so we relied on my guidebook to help us choose. While it is true that King Tut's tomb is available to view, we did not view it. My book says it is not that great a tomb. What made it so great was that it was the only tomb that was never looted so when it was discovered it was full to the gills with good stuff. But then they took all the good stuff out and sent it away on tour and now it's all in museums. Apparently the empty tomb is just so-so, so we didn't go in it.

There is a very strict rule about no photography inside the tombs. They state quite clearly that they will confiscate your camera if you are caught. So..... I snuck some photos. No flash though as I know the flash damages the paint. I'm sneaky, but not destructive.

This is the long corridor leading down to one of the chambers. It's carved with hieroglyphics.

Looking down the hallway into a chamber.

The 3500 year old tomb of Thutmes III was the most elaborately hidden.

To get to it you have to climb up these stairs.

Then down these stairs.

Then across a ravine over which this bridge has been built.

And voila! The first chamber. Couldn't get more photos 'cause there was a guard dude down there. There was also a sarcophagus down there. No mummy, just the big quartzite sarcophagus's. The guard shined a flashlight into it so we and some other tourists could see the carvings on the inside. Than he asked for baksheesh. Michele and I had wandered away quickly to be spared the baksheesh plee. We were wily the whole time we were in Egypt, to avoid having to pay any baksheesh.

Then it was back out into the sunshine with my beautiful, smiley sister.

Back down the stairs and onto out last tomb where I was able to sneak some more photos.

The 3d corridor, lined with various deities. Not bad for no flash, heh? I love my new camera! This is the tomb of Tausert and Setnakht. I not gonna bother giving you any of the history for them because I'm tired.

The ram-headed sun god is depicted on the wall, stretching out his wings to emerge from the darkness of the underworld. What gets me is that the paint in these tombs is in such great shape. This tomb is 3200 years old!

Of course we didn't abandon the bikes- we're Canadian! And you know what? It was downhill almost the whole way back to town. Turns out it only looks flat. We had been pedaling up a slight incline almost the whole way to the Valley of the Kings! 40 something rocks! We kicked that roads ass on our crappy bikes!

We stopped at lunch at this somewhat ok restaurant.

What made this lunch remarkable was that a boy who was maybe 13 took our order, prepared our food and served it to us. No child labor laws in Egypt. It's trying to be a cheese sandwich and salad.

My totally rockin', bad-ass sister on her way cool ride. Yes, that's Puddles in the basket. I forgot to mention that by this time I had a serious hate-on for that hat. See, I was in charge of carrying our bag and that damn hat was in it half the time, taking up WAY too much room. Stupid hat.

Back in the town near the ferry terminal on the West Bank, returning the bikes, some young Egyptian dudes toodled by on their camels. Doodle-Dee-Doo. Just going for a ride on my camel. Wacky Doodle World!

Sigh. Michele insisted on checking her email. She was really wanting a letter from Chloe. And according to Michele, so did Puddles. Honestly, I was starting to worry about Michele. She would actually say things like "Puddles wants his photo taken checking his email". Mmm hmm. Puddles went wherever we went, riding in either our shared bag or Michele's pocket.

If you think we were done for the day, think again. Dusk was approaching as we made our way back to the East Bank on the ferry. And dusk is the recommended time to visit Luxor Temple.

From the ticket office we walked along a path that was part of the Avenue of Spinxes which in ancient times ran all the way to the temples at Karnak, 3km to the north. Luxor Temple is located just off the banks of the Nile and modern city of Luxor has surrounded it with traffic, shops, hotels and restaurants, all catering to the thriving tourist trade.

Upon entering the first thing we saw was the enormous First Pylon, raised by Ramses II and decorated with his military exploits. In front of the 24m high wall are some giant stutues of Ramses II and a pink granite obelisk. There were oringinally 6 statues and 2 obelisks. The 2d obelisk now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. We learned that much of the treasures of Egypt have been carried away to museums in other countries. Actually, I am constantly reading in the guide books for all of the countries I've visited that such and such awesome treasure is now in the British Museum in London. So I'm thinking I need to visit the British Museum- see the best of each countries goodies.

I'm afraid the Michele Witch Project visited Luxor Temple as well.

As the sun sets lights are switched on making the carved reliefs easier to see.

Oh ho! Now you see why it's best viewed at night!

Dare I say again that I love my new camera?

These guards asked me to take their photo then asked for baksheesh. Seriously.

Oh yes, night time is a very nice time for photos at Luxor Temple.

My gorgeous sister again. Trying futilely to get a good shot. Time to mention yet again how much I love my new camera.

Is it gloating if I mention that I didn't use any of Michele's photos of the Temple for this post? Her camera just couldn't cope with the dim lighting.

To be fair, this is Michele's photo. (But she took it on my camera)

After we finished poking around the Luxor Temple we decided to really go crazy and pay a visit to the Luxor Museum, which is open late. I have no photos of it, but it was cool. They had lots of smaller statues and everyday items found in the various sites of Luxor. There were even a couple of mummies.

We called Reggae, another CouchSurfer in Luxor after leaving the Temple to see if he wanted to get together. He was the backup CSer that I had planned on staying with if the first one fell through. He had also given me a bad phone number originally which is why we weren't able to reach him that first night. He felt bad, so he invited us to dinner at the hostel he works at.

Really cool, funky place. And Reggae was a really great host. Fun and funny and very hospitable.

He served us what ended up being our best meal in Egypt. Rice, vegetable/potato tajine, lamb tajine, salad, grilled chicken and bread. 'Course, I didn't eat the lamb or the chicken but Michele at every bite. She said it was awesome. I can attest that the veggie tajine (casserole) was awesome.

Back to the apartment we went. Our host, Alaa, came over with his daughter and we told him all about our day.

We collapsed into bed after pretty much a perfect vacation day with my goofy sister. And Puddles. And that damn hat.

Update

2008-04-13T22:52:00.003+04:00

Yes, yes, I know. I've been home since Saturday and I still haven't posted. The next post is really long. I'm working on it. I promise!

(Ok, there will be no new posts for 6 days now- I'm off to another crazy country..... Back on Friday......)

Vol 75 Michele Day 7

2008-04-12T02:45:00.004+04:00

We awoke on our first day in Luxor, Egypt to a rythmic, metalic, clanging coming from the street. It was these guys- propane salesman. They bang on the cylinders to let peolpe in the neighborhood know they are there.

These photos were taken from our hotel window. As you can see, Egypt is a poor country. Most of the city looks like this- run down. The areas around the high end hotels are slightly better but not much.

Breakfast on the roof terrace was included in the price of the room. This was definitely the nicest area of the hotel.

My coffee-snob sister refused to drink the "coffee" they brought her. I tried pointing out that when it comes out of a little packet like that it really is the freshest instant coffee possible. I have no idea what was in our water glasses. It was slightly frothy, slightly salty, slightly sweet and slightly limey. Neither altogether pleasant nor unpleasant. The white rectangle is cheese.

Next they brought crepes and toast with butter and jam and a small fruit salad in yogurt.

We checked out of the hotel after sending an email to our Couchsurfing host explaining our phone problem. We assumed that we would be able to meet-up with him eventually, at least by email if we were still unable to sort out the phone number thing.

We hit the streets with our little, wheeled, carry-on suitcases and headed towards a central location. We stumbled upon a street market where vendors were selling all sorts of things off donkey carts or, as in most cases, right off the street itself.

Onions and greens.

Oranges, apples, bananas, strawberries and dates.

Garlic.

I don't know why we don't just hang meat on the street in North America?

I love this photo.

These are loufa gourd sponges.

People were somewhat bundled up. Though it was sunny, there was a chill in the air. Which is why I had Amira encourage Michele to bring a light jacket. We started and ended each day wearing our jackets.

Potatoes.

Live pigeons. Roasted, stuffed or grilled pigeon is on many menus.

Fish.

Lemons.

This is a spice shop. Most of those baskets in front are full of karkaday (hibiscus tea). We quickly learned that hibiscus tea is a very popular beverage in Egypt. While browsing in any kind of store, the shopkeeper will offer either black tea, hibiscus tea or soda. I've found this shopkeeper hospitality in so many countries now and it's really nice. Why don't we do it at home?

After shooting a billion photos in out first half hour we decided to have a cup of tea at this cafe.

While we drank our tea, my phone announced I had a text message. It was our host, Alaa! And now that I had his correct number I discovered that I could send text messages from my phone; I just couldn't make calls. He came to the cafe and escorted us back to his place, which turned out to be about 2 blocks from our hotel.

This was a bit of a strange Couchsurf. Alla and his wife owned 2 apartments in their building and they gave us our own apartment. Which was nice on the one hand as it was very private but we hardly ever saw them so it more more like we had scored a free hotel than a couchsurfing host.

That first day he was great to us though, as he had some time free from work. He oriented us to the neighborhood and the city and gave us maps. Then he invited us to come see a villa he had recently built with a partner to use as a tourist rental. You know me and invitations.....

We walked to the banks of the Nile river to wait for a small, local ferry to take us to the West Bank. Luxor is divided by the Nile. The East Bank is the modern section where most people live. The West Bank is where most of the archaeological sites are.

While waiting for the ferry I got playing with the zoom on my new camera. I bought the top of the line Canon compact. It is distinctly less compact than most digital cameras because it has a 12X zoom. So I wanted to see if it was worth the money I'd spent on it and the extra bulk i was going to have to lug around. The photo above was taken with no zoom.

This photo was taken with about 10x zoom.

And this one was taken with the full 12x zoom. It shows the villa Alaa was taking us to.

So, yah, I liked my new zoom.

This sheep was hanging out where we were waiting for the ferry.

Yup, this little boat turned out to be the ferry.

People take their bikes on board.

This piece of abandoned furniture was on the dock when we landed.

We walked a pretty path along the shore.

Where we encountered this funny little donkey who looked for all the world like it's daddy had been an English Sheep Dog.

The villa was very impressive indeed. I'm trying to remember if it had 6 bedrooms or more. I'm pretty sure it slept 12 comfortably. And it is affordably priced. I think it was about $1000 US per week so if you had 10 people, that's only $100 bucks to rent a killer place.

One of the sitting rooms.

The dining room.

The stairwell.

View of the Nile.

View of the adjoining farmland. Historically, the Nile would flood it's banks every year, bringing a new layer of silt each time so this is some of the best farmland in the world.

The houseboy (what do you call a male housemaid?) brought the three of us tea on the beautiful rooftop terrace.

The above photos are all views from the roof.

Showing off my zoom again. Without......

............with.

I hadn't expected Egypt to be so gorgeous. We left the villa and walked into the village near it. We were the only tourists there.

Next Alaa hired a truck-taxi to take us towards the archaeological sites. He told us where we should go the next day, showed us where to buy tickets, where to rent bikes and what we should expect to pay. Very helpful.

We took the larger ferry back to the East Bank

While waiting for the boat I introduced Michele to an Arabic specialty, kannafa, a sweet which has custard and tons on tiny rice noodles.It's yummier than it sounds.

View of the East Bank in the late afternoon sun.

As we headed back towards his place Alaa said he'd like to buy us dinner to apologize for giving me the wrong phone number. He asked what we'd like and I said kushari. It's an Egyptian specialty. I'd had it in Oman (and so had Michele at one of the festivals) but I wanted to try it in Egypt. Granted, it looks gross, but believe me, it's yummy. The base is rice, broken spaghetti and macaroni. It's topped with chick peas, lentils and caramelized onions. The tomato sauce you pour over it is rich and a little spicy. I LOVE kushari.

They also made falafel, which is different in Egypt. It's made with fava beans instead of chick peas. And it's yummy.

Alaa left us to wander around the city. On our way back to the apartment we stopped at a bakery to try some more Egyptian sweets. Puddles quite liked them.

By the way, the jasmine has started blooming here in Muscat. The whole city smells wonderful!

Vol 74 Michele Day 6

2008-04-10T01:03:00.002+04:00

Michele had been bugging me ever since she bought her ticket to Oman, trying to convince me to drive up to the UAE with her so she could see Dubai. I had steadfastly refused, stating that I do not like Dubai. Which is true.

On the morning of Day 6 I had our Mom reveal to Michele that my friend Mahfoodh and I were taking her to Dubai and Abu Dhabi for 4 days. Mom told her that I had planned to take her all along. She was pretty happy, though she did think I was a bit cheeky, having lied to her all along about not wanting to take her.

I took her to the Mutrah Souk in the late morning for a couple of hours of shopping recognizance. It was to be our first trip to the souk, meant just to give her an idea of what was available.

Like beaded slippers from India.

And all kinds of jewelry and silver and brass wares.

We stopped in at my favorite jewelry store where Puddles tried on a giant ring.

Next we drove to Lu Lu Center (one of the giant hypermarkets) to look at cameras. The day before we had looked at Carrefore, the other large hypermarket, at their camera selection. I was just looking for the best price.

Turned out Carrefore had the best camera for me so I told Michele I wanted to head out there to get it. She seemed only slightly put out that my errand was interfering with her vacation. But I had something up my sleeve and I really needed a camera to replace my broken one.

On the way there we stopped in at my office where our receptionist Amira told Michele she knew along along I was taking her to the UAE. She told Michele to pack a couple of warm things as it is a little colder there at night. Michele questioned that, saying it didn't make any sense as the UAE is just a few hours from Oman. Amira told her she'd lived there for a few years and that she should trust her- take a light jacket.

We raced home and packed our bags quickly as Mahfoodh was coming to fetch us. He had told her he wanted to leave in the evening so we could stop at his Mom's house on the way, perhaps even sleep there.

Mahfoodh picked us up in his Audi TT. For those of you not into cars, TT's are sports cars. So there was Michele, crammed into the itsy bitsy back seat with her suitcase beside her and her legs splayed open and jammed up against the backs of our seats. He asked if she was comfy and even though there was no way she was comfy, she didn't complain. She was just so psyched to be driving to Dubai. This photo of Mahfoodh is the 1st photo I took on my new camera. I was desperately unpacking the box and getting all the accessories squared away in it's travel case while he drove.

Here's Michele in the tiny back seat.

As we approached the airport Mahfood announced that he needed to stop to pay his phone bill. He explained that there is an Oman Mobile desk open late at the airport. He pulled into departures and told us to get out. He unloaded our suitcases while Michele stood there all confused. I handed him my camera box, he hugged her goodbye and drove off.

"Surprise!" I said, "We're flying to Dubai!" Well, Sharjah actually, which is like a suburb of Dubai.

Now she was really psyched, though she was bummed that Mahfoodh would not be joining us.

Puddles, with Michele's ticket to Sharjah.

Puddles, Michele's suitcase and what I later came to call "that damn hat".

While waiting to board I took a ton of photos of Michele. For fun.

I tried to make this video ever so much cooler by adding a camera shutter sound effect for each photo but every time I tried my movie making program crashed! Argh! So, after much trying, I gave up. Better a lame video than holding up the blog....

Once we arrived in Sharjah, Michele started heading to the customs/arrivals hall but I headed to a transfer desk where I picked up 2 new plane tickets.

Now she was really confused. I asked her "Do you know what's was going on?" She said "No." I told her, "It's ok if you know where we're going, if I didn't keep the secret." She said she had no idea what the hell was going on.

Sweet. All my super secret scheming had paid off!

Of course I videoed the "reveal"

I swear, I could watch that video a thousand times and still laugh. I love my sister.

Once on the plane we both started playing with our cameras. I was trying to learn all the features of mine in a hurry.

I started playing with the black and white video settings. I told Michele it was like filming the movie "The Blair Witch Project". Which gave us an idea.....

Michele's Blair Witch video.

Next we played with the sepia tone settings which I said reminded me of "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"

And Thorton, a character much like the "Oh Brother" characters, was born, ie a character who could barely be understood. Now I love "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" but I had to watch it with the English subtitles on to understand a word they were saying.

When we arrived in Luxor it was 2:30am. We stepped into the arrivals hall where I discovered that my phone did not work in Egypt. No problem, we'll use the pay phone. But the pay phones in Egypt all take cards that you have to buy. And there was nowhere to buy one. No problem, a nice Air Arabia worker let us use his phone to call the CouchSurfer we were supposed to be staying with. The number was wrong. No problem, he let us try calling the other CouchSurfer I had lined up in case the first one didn't work out. That number was wrong too. No problem, he started calling budget hotels out of my guide book. The third one answered and we had a winner. Happyland Hotel. We jumped into a cab and we were off.

There was a dude waiting for us when we arrived, he told us how much our room would be and up we went. 3 twin beds and a shared bathroom down the hall. Not the nicest budget hotel I've stayed in but not the worse either. Definitely better than the Urine Hotel in Casablanca.

We put our scarves over the pillows, kept our clothes on and went to bed. Puddles slept with me.

We're in Egypt, Baby!

Vol 73.5 Michele Day 5

2008-04-09T09:30:00.001+04:00

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!

Vol 73 Michele Day 5

2008-04-04T14:57:00.001+04:00

This post is being withheld until my dear, sweet, dentally phobic sister, Michele, keeps her promise to make an appointment to have her teeth cleaned in Vancouver. She promised our hygienist here in Muscat that she would do it in April and as it is now April, it is time.

The Day 5 blog post is completed, I have but to hit post and it will be there for you all to read.

I do this, because I love her and I know that sometimes she needs a little help to do the things that are best for her.

I'll start Day 6 in the meantime. Hope she doesn't keep you all waiting too long.....

Vol 72 Michele Day 4

2008-03-25T23:31:00.003+04:00

One thing I have I haven't mentioned is that when my sister arrived on the 13th of February, her suitcases didn't. Every day she would call the airport and every day they would say maybe today. She was wearing all my clothes for the first 4 days. I was eager for her bags to arrive too because my Mom had sent homemade pecan squares with her and I wanted them!

Her bags finally arrived on day 4. Sheesh! Quick transfer my ass!

I took Michele on our first day trip. We only had half a day after we waited for her bags so I drove us up the coast to Al Sawadi Resort. We passed these gates on the way and Michele made me turn around and go back for a photo; they amused her so much. Yes, thoses are giant Omani coffee pots.

Right after I mentioned it was odd we hadn't seen any camels yet these guys showed up. Again I had to turn the car around.

I was happy to do it. Camel still give me a thrill as well.

We passed a little fishing village.

This is where they process and sell the daily catch. All closed up for the day.

Michele's first mud brick ruins.

Nice shots, Michele!

We parked at the public section aof the beach then walked in the sand to the private resort.

We walked in like we owned the place. I met a guy who is a member here last year so I was prepared to say we were meeting him for lunch if they questioned us. But there was no problem. We had lunch by the pool. Probably the most mediocre meal we had while Michele was in Oman but the view was nice and it was so peaceful. Everyday Michele would comment on how peaceful it is in Muscat.

Then we walked back down the beach, passing a couple of Omani families playing in the water.

There were a couple of dudes taking horseback riding lessons.

This guy dropped his cell phone on the beach and when I passed it back to him his horse got a little frisky so I beat a hasty retreat.

Another nice shot, Michele.

I can't remember where we had dinner that night but apparently my friend Mahfoodh joined us. As did Puddles.

Admitedly, this video is pretty lame.

Vol 71 Michele Day 3

2008-03-24T22:55:00.010+04:00

On the 3d day of Michele's visit we enjoyed a well deserved sleep-in. We had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Turkish House. It's not really Turkish food, it's just owned and operated by Turkish people. The menu is very Middle Eastern.

We had their appetizer plate. From the top of the plate we have humous, chili salad, olive salad, baba ganouj, taboula and moutabel. So delicious. The salad at the top of the photo is called jarjeer. It's arugula with a pomegranate dressing and it is awesome. The bread they serve at Turkish House is the best flat bread in the city, hands down.

I ordered the grilled hammour for Michele because it's one of the dishes my friends always have. She declared it yummy. She picked it almost clean. That's fresh mango juice and strawberry juice in our glasses. Fresh juices are cheap here so I get to drink them all the time. My favorites are watermelon and lemon-mint.

I believe I have mentioned before that Oman has a large population of Indian laborers. Well, Ruwi is where most of them live. Every time I mention I want to go to India someone jokes that all you have to do is go to Ruwi High Street on a Friday night. Friday is the one day off that most Indian workers have together so Ruwi really comes alive on a Friday night.

Naturally I took Michele there on a Friday night.

For fun I showed her a grocery store.

It all seemed fairly normal until we reached this section.

I don't know what the hell happened here but no one seemed in any hurry to clean it up. It seemed as though this crap had been lying around like this for quite some time. In the middle of the grocery store. Nice.

Michele got a kick out of the name of this very popular processed cheese product.

We bought a bottle of rose milk for Michele to try.

Next stop was the shopping center I buy most of my fabric at. 2 floors of fabric shops selling beautiful silks, rayons and cottons at stupid cheap prices. These pieces are for fancy dresses. Michele was trying to get me to buy this heavily sequined, beaded and embroidered blue fabric to make a new dress to wear to weddings and balls. "You can't keep wearing the same dress" she said. Granted, this fabric was gorgeous but I've only worn my dress twice. I didn't buy the fabric.

The thing about the Indian population in Oman is that it's mostly men. Their wives are back in India. So you're wandering around at night in a crowd of Indian men. They're all happy and laughing.

Every now and then we would see a few women. Michele asked these ladies for a photo while shopping for Indian bangles for Chloe.

There are so many jewelry stores in Ruwi selling outrageously beautiful stuff.

This set is gold and enamel.

We ate at Pizza Hut that night. I know, I know! I'm supposed to take my guests to places they can't go to at home but Pizza Hut had put up signs all over town advertising their new cheesey-bite fondue pizza and I had to have it.

Nanuk and Puddles slept together that night. I slept as best I could beside my snoring sister.

Vol 70 Michele Day 2

2008-03-18T23:37:00.007+04:00

I am a bad sister. I'm sure Michele would agree. I started the 2d day of her vacation (and the 1st day of mine) with a lie. I told her I had to go into the office for a hour or so to see one patient. I promised to be as quick as I could. She requested to stay in bed. I told her that to come back to my apartment to fetch her would be counter-productive, that we were heading in the opposite direction after I finished at the office. I assured her it would be better if she came along.

So my sweet, trusting sister came along to the office and settled into the red leather sofa to wait for me. She didn't have to wait long. After setting up my room for a full series of x-rays, I went back into the reception area. "Michele Honey, my patient is you".

Her poor, sweet, trusting face fell. She had a look of equal parts disbelief and betrayal. She stammered. She tried to smile. She looked scared. My dear, sweet, trusting sister is a dental phobic and I betrayed her on her 2d day of vacation by forcing a dental appointment on her. I am a bad sister.

I have worked in dentistry for 8 years now and for 8 years I have encouraged her to go to a dentist for a check-up and a cleaning. And for 8 years she has found all kinds of reasons not to go. So I tricked her into going.

I am a bad sister. But only because I love her. The way I see it, I had told her I would take care of her once she got here. So, I took care of her.

I took her x-rays, processed them into the computer and then led her into our hygienist, Angela's room. Angela is from Texas. She is gentle and friendly. She soothed Michele. And she cleaned her teeth. And Michele mostly didn't cry. She was a brave soldier. And she has beautiful teeth. She promised Angela she would go to a dentist in Vancouver in April. And I will make her keep that promise because I, am a bad sister.

Her reward for enduring a dental appointment was coffee at the Hyatt Hotel. The Hyatt is a little over-the-top on sumptuousness.

We drank coffee and ate chocolate desserts. I hoped it made up for the morning.

Then it was off to the mall. I just think the mall is kind of culturally interesting. There's all the same stores as in a mall anywhere (designer clothing, assecories, jewelery stoes etc) but the shoppers are different. The mall is full of Omani men in dishdashas, Omani women in abayas and head scarves, Indian women in beautiful saris and westerners in, well, westerner clothes.

We wandered around a bit then had lunch at Hamburger Nation, an Australian based chain. We passed on the blubbery cheese cake.

My GAP manager sister had a chuckle at the GAP branch here. "Oh my God, they still have their winter posters up!" Plus it's the smallest GAP ever.

Next stop was a different venue of the Muscat Festival. This one is in AlZaiba and it focuses on food and shopping.

We shopped and shopped, buying little things here and there. And she snuck photos.

There are all kinds of food booths featuring cuisine from all over the world. We ate at the Indian booth, where I introduced her to the joy of pani puri. I discovered pani puri at an Indian restaurant a few months ago and it's one of my favorite foods now. Seek it out.

Puddles enjoyed a fresh juice cocktail.

And a ride on the giant rubber duckie bouncie thingie.

Michele was quite amused at how Omanis will park anywhere.

All is fair when parking in Oman. Side of the highway. Middle of the highway. Off the highway in the sand dunes.

Another great day with my sister.

And another video.

Vol 69 Michele Day 1

2008-03-12T09:26:00.003+04:00

Alrighty then. My sister, Michele, came to see me here in Oman. Yay!!!!!! My first non-CouchSurfer visitor! Airfare to Muscat is stupid expensive so I had told her all she had to do was get here; I would gladly pay for everything else. Incidentally, I extend this offer to all my loved ones. She scheduled her trip to coincide with Firas' trip to Chicago for a dental conference so that I was off too. She arrived in the morning on my last day before vacation reasoning she would have the day to rest before we hit the ground running. Mahfoodh picked her up at the airport for me. I have to say it just about killed me to think that her first impressions of Muscat were formed without me.

As I mentioned in the last blog post, my camera was no more, so everyday I downloaded all the photos from Michele's camera onto my laptop. It is her photos you will be seeing in the coming posts. She took a butt-load of pictures. I will attempt to choose the best ones as I've always done with my photos but I also want to show quite a lot of her photos as I figure if these were the things she found interesting, you will too.

Our photo journey starts with this little duck. This is Puddles. Puddles belongs to my sister's 9 year old daughter, Chloe. Chloe reasoned that since she was not able to come along on vacation with Mommie, Puddles ought to come instead. So here is Puddles in London, at Heathrow Airport.

Here's Dubai from the air. She had a quick layover there before continuing on to Muscat.

Here's Muscat from the air. It shows very well how the city is wedged between the mountains and the sea.

As soon as I was finished work Michele and I headed out to the Muscat Festival. It's an annual, month long event focusing on cultural heritage and shopping and there were only 3 days left.

The event takes place at a number of venues. I took her to the venue which focuses on the traditional culture of Oman and other countries. We headed to the other countries section first, pausing along the way to watch some dancers from Mahfoodh's village.

I spotted this guy shortly after we arrived. He's pouring Moroccan tea. Yummy! I hadn't had real Moroccan tea since returning from Morocco.

I was excited to discover that he was also selling coconut cookies just like Hassan's sister Rabha had made in the cave. Bliss. My friend Emie from work came along with us as she had not been to the festival yet. I think we thought this was a "Who can be the least pretty" contest. We sipped our tea and pigged out on pastries while watching a Moroccan band.

While my back was briefly turned my ultra-friendly Canadian sister started chatting with this guy. She took a video of him in which he extended an offer of friendship and help. He states over and over "I like Canadians too, too much". I think she met her match in Oman for friendliness.

Later we returned for more tea and little doughnuts thingies. Yummy!

We toured through the stalls for various countries. This one was in the Iran section.

Michele insisted on taking a photo of this giant hubbly-bubbly (aka water pipe, aka bong) for Chloe. Seems Chloe has a fascination for hubbly-bubblies. Seems Michele doesn't mind feeding this fascination even though it will surely lead to her started smoking at an early age which will surely lead to her getting hooked on drugs, getting pregnant at 13, dropping out of school and working the streets for tobacco money. But who am I to judge?

Also in this section was an Iranian artist whose work I quite liked. I bought this painting from her.

When we were leaving the section featuring various countries we were approached by these guys. They asked if any of us were tourists. Michele confessed. They asked if she would mind taking a short survey about the Festival. Would she? A chance to talk to real live Omani guys? You bet! Much laughing ensued.

Michele made Emie stand and pose so she could get a photo of some Omani women. It's not cool to take photos of Muslim woman so she took one of Emie instead..... See how that works? We talked about a couple of other sneaky photo-taking tricks I have picked up along the way. My best two tricks are holding the camera casually at my shoulder, snapping away or having the camera completely ready to go at all times so that when you see something good you just quickly bring it up and snap, even if they see you doing it. The theory behind this one is that sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.

We stopped to eat. I was delighted to introduce her to Koushari, an Egyptian dish consisting of rice, macaroni and broken spaghetti topped with lentils, chick peas, tomato sauce and crispy caramelized onions. Vegetarian and oh so good.

While we were eating Michele snuck over and took this picture of some Omani men hanging out, waiting for their food. She employed the "easier to ask forgiveness than permission" technique. This photo shows how Omani's will just cop-a-squat anywhere, anytime.

She wasn't completely thrilled with the results so she went back over again and this times asked if she could take a photo. This one makes up for it's loss of candidness with the smiles on their faces.

After eating we headed over to the traditional Omani side of the festival.

These guys are engaged in some sort of black magic/evil spirit chasing/removing ceremony. We were the only women watching.

These guys are making Halwa, Oman's most traditional sweet. I call it glop.

Sugar and ghee are cooked in a copper pot until a good, gloppy consistency is reached. Then rose water, saffron, cardamon and sometimes nuts are added. It's poured into a bowl to congeal. It's surprisingly good.

Puddles really wanted a camel ride. People thought we might be crazy.

We ended the evening with an eggie/crepie thing from this lady. She has a flour dough in her hand which she smears across the griddle.

Then she cracks an egg on top and smears that around. When it is mostly set she folds it and it's ready to eat. And it's surprisingly good too.

We headed back to my apartment. Such a fun evening and it was so nice having Michele in Oman, though I must admit I was somewhat dismayed that night when I discovered that my dear, sweet, beautiful, ladylike sister snores like a chainsaw. Sorry Michele, I'm a journalist, I have to tell the truth.

And now for a little video:

Vol 68 What I've Been Up to Since Turkey & Morocco

2008-03-09T00:18:00.008+04:00

Ok, Ok! Stop complaining everyone! I'll get back to blogging. Sheesh. Take a couple of months off and you get so much grumbling....

I'm going to do a quick run down of what I've been up to since I got back from Turkey and Morocco. Mostly with photos. Gotta make it quick- I have new adventures to report on.

Mid-October 2007

Mahfoodh and I drove down to Quoriat. Not much to see in the town but there was a really pretty beach.

Mahfoodh goofing around.

Quoriat is FULL of goats, just wandering the streets.

And the beaches. Go figure.

November 2007

My first chance to host a CouchSurfer came at the tail end of November. Angie hails from Scotland but she lives in Australia. She was a great guest! We had a blast. So much so she's coming back in April.

We borrowed an SUV and went wadi-bashing. What's wadi-bashing? Well, a wadi is a dry river bed (though it doesn't stay dry when it rains). People take their SUV's and drive up the river bed, which has been somewhat graded.

Along the way the scenery is spectacular. At times the going is pretty good. Like a regular gravel road. At other times the road narrows to a track barely wide enough for your tires then hairpins around a corner on a ridiculously steep slant. It is usually at this point we would meet a car coming the other way. Yikes! I started off driving but in no time figured out I was too big a chicken for the job. Angie happily took over and I happily let her.

Every now and then we saw a little village tucked in.

Angie and I chose Wadi Bani Auf because it has a couple of great hikes in it. This photo is of Snake Gorge. No Mom, it's not because there are snakes there. It's because the crevice you hike through snakes through the canyon. Occasionally you are forced to swim if you want to continue the hike. This is as far as we got due to our improper footwear.

Angie snapped this one of me working hard on the hike.

We also passed small farms.

At the top of the wadi there is a really great hike through a gorge that pops out at this sweet village. 2 teenage boys guided us through the gorge into the village, practicing their English along the way.

Once into the village they gave us water from their home that tasted soooo good. Must have been mountain spring water.

Angie snapped this photo of me in the village. These little boys had been following us around. This is one of my favorite photos from Oman. As I said, it was my first time wadi-bashing but it sure won't be my last!

I was invited to the American Marine ball. Katie and I had our dresses made for super-cheap. I LOVE this dress. It flows like water when I walk.

We were feeling too pretty- had to mess it up.....

I hosted my second CouchSurfer, Marlon for 5 nights.

The first night his beautiful sister, Bonita (shown here lounging in the lobby of the Chedi Hotel), stayed as well. She lives in Dubai and invited me to come visit anytime. Marlon and Bonita are from the Dutch Antilles Islands in the Caribbean so they have beautiful accents. Super nice people.

We went out to lunch with Mahfoodh and I got this quintessential photo of him. He really ought to just tape his phone to his head, he's on it so much.

December 2007

I went home for Christmas. Spent half my time in WA State and the other half in BC with my family. In early December I dropped my camera one too many times and it went on the fritz. It still worked but only kind of. It changed the colors of everything. Sigh. So I'm borrowing my Sister-in-law, my sister and my Mom's photos from Christmas.

Here's a nice photo my sister-in-law, Leanne, took of her and my brother, Russ' kids.

Lane came home with me for the first time since our divorce. It was really great having him there after a 5 or 6 year absence. He brought an Xbox game with him- Rock Band. We combined it with the extra guitar my brother's kids had for Guitar Hero and soon we were rocking the house. All the kids got involved. Plus the adults. I know I look grumpy in this photo but they kept playing songs that were way too hard for me and I was concentrating like crazy. An obsessively fun time.

Christmas morning we awoke to this silly sight. My sister had swapped out my regular stocking and replaced it with this jumbo one.

Yay!!!!! All for me!!!!!

I gave my nieces Jessie and Chloe and my sister, Michele an Omani style hair clip. In Oman, the bigger the better when it comes to hair accessories.

I wouldn't normally bore you with a "what I got for Christmas" story but for this one thing I must tell. First a bit of info. I sleep with a stuffed animal and I'm not embarrassed about it. I have since I was a kid. My hand has grown accustomed to having something to hold onto when I sleep. The men in my life have provided the stuffies. But, as you all know, I have no man in my life so I've just continued sleeping with the puppy that Buck gave me when we were together.

Before I moved to Oman my sister, her daughter, Chloe and I were in a mall and I looked briefly for a stuffie I could buy myself to replace Puppy but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't buy my own stuffie.

In our family we all buy gifts for the children but they are not supposed to buy for us. This Christmas I was presented with a gift from Chloe. A rather large gift. "Hmmmm......" I said, "this is odd...."

My sister snapped this photo at the moment I realized what it was. This moment was immediately followed by......

....this moment. I hadn't even opened it yet and I was already tearing up a little.

It was a Build-a-Bear, which if you don't know, is a stuffed animal that the kids help to make. They pick out the body, put a heart in it, help to stuff it, then bathe it and pick out an outfit for it.

The kids in my family are big on Build-a-Bears, as you can see. Mine is a polar bear named Nanuk, to remind me of Canada. Chloe saved her allowance for 3 months to pay for him. She even paid extra to put a little sound box in him. When I squeeze his paw I hear her voice saying "We love you Auntie Susan".

Puppy has been retired and Nanuk and I are best friends.

January 2008

Next CouchSurfers to visit were David, from the US and his wife Syy, from Thailand. They were tons of fun too.

They rented a Hummer and we went wadi-bashing at Wadi Tiwi.

When we reached the top we walked to a tiny village and started chatting with some guys who could barely speak English. They brought us Omani coffee and dates to snack on. The guy on the left with a t-shirt on his head invited me into his home. It was very similar to the cave homes in Morocco. It was partially dug into the mountain and plastered over. It was spotlessly clean and soooooo cool. These photos all look a little funky because of my dropped camera. I repaired them as best I could with my photo software. You should have seen them before!

After David and Syy 2 ladies from Las Vegas came. Deborah and Loretta. They both work in the airline industry so they get super-cheap tickets all over the place. They were about my age and a total kick in the pants! They only stayed 2 days but we packed a lot in. They were so nice and so much fun I was sad to see them go. I have no photos of them as my camera was just to crappy to use.

February 2008

This is Yonas, a German CouchSurfer who came to our first Muscat CouchSurfer meeting and since he had no host I took him in. He was really nice too. He emailed me this photo he took when I dropped him at the airport.

Things keep toodleing along at work. Katie, our office manager took a job at the American Embassy that is more in line with what she studied for. I'm happy for her and I miss her at work. Especially since I'm doing a lot of her job now in addition to mine, including recruiting a new receptionist, a new general dentist and a new assistant.

That about wraps up the update through early February. My sister came to visit me in mid-Feb for 2 1/2 weeks, which I had off. Stay tuned for those stories......

Vol 67 A New Year

2008-01-19T22:20:00.000+04:00

Hello 2008! I have plans for you. Big plans. Small plans. And I plan to be open to unanticipated adventures too. I’ve kept my refuse no (safe) invitation policy, which has once again led to good things.

Last week a woman came into the clinic to whiten her teeth. She’s in her early 50’s and had a big beautiful, but yellow, smile. By the time she left she had a big, beautiful, white smile and I had a new friend. She invited me to dinner after learning that I love Indian food. And of course I accepted.

Lata and her banker husband are from Bombay and have lived in Oman for 23 years. Their home is filled with photos and memorabilia of their happy family. I had asked her if I could help cook and she had refused but she allowed me to watch. She had all of the ingredients prepared when I got there.

Wow, can this woman cook. She made rice with onion and peas. Fried potatoes seasoned with onion, garlic, ginger, mustard seed, cumin seed, dry mango powder (which I ran out and bought after- is it ever good) black sea salt and lime juice. Chana (chick pea) masala seasoned with onion, garlic, ginger, cumin seed, coriander, turmeric, fresh pureed tomatoes and fresh coriander leaf. While she was cooking she made pakora for me to snack on. The trick, I learned, with pakora, it to fry them twice. It makes them crispier. Incidentally, this is the trick with fresh French fries as well. You fry them half way, let them cool, then fry them again. She served the pakora with a coriander leaf (cilantro) chutney that was out of this world. When everything was ready she fried fresh puris. The dough is made from whole wheat flour, salt and water. A little dough is rolled into a little, then rolled into a thin circle and fried in hot oil. If the oil is just the right temperature they puff way up. Too cool. She served the meal with a potato and corn raita and a plate of carrots, cucumbers and daikon radish cut into sticks and splashed with lime juice.

I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Everything was so delicious and Lata and her husband are so nice. Towards the end of the evening they busted out some photos and video of a wedding they had gone to in Bombay in November. Now I want to go to an Indian wedding. Beautiful clothes and crazy, happy dancing.

Truly, it was a wonderful night. Right up until the end of the night when I hit a dog on my way home. Or I should say the dog hit me. He came out of nowhere on the rainy highway (Yes, I said rainy. It rained here for the first time since June) and ran right into my tire. He must have gotten caught in the tire because the wheel well lining was ripped out and made a monstrous noise as it scraped on the highway. An altogether unpleasant and quite frightening experience.

How was the dog? I don’t know. By the time I had found a safe place to pull over on the busy highway, get the noisy wheel well lining thingie ripped out all the way, made my way to the next exit then double back, the dog was gone. There had been a man at the side of the road when it happened. I think it was his dog and I think he carried him away. There is little chance the dog could have survived a hit like that.

The whole event caught me by surprise. I realized I have come to expect only good things to happen to me. I read a book called "The Best Year of Your Life" a couple of years ago and I now realize that much of what I had said I wanted, I got last year. 2007 really was the best year of my life. Which is nice, but that dog really threw me. Fear not, I’m back in my stride now and ready for all the year (and life in general) has to offer.

This year, may we all have the best year of our lives. What would yours look like?

Vol 66 Day 18/19 Fes/Casablanca

2007-12-17T02:54:00.000+04:00

We slept in as long as we could the after the previous night’s silliness. Hassan translated while Rabha gave me some recipes for the dishes I had enjoyed while staying there. Including her divine coconut cookies and her version of the almond cookies I had bought at the bakery in Casablanca. I packed my stuff while munching bread for breakfast. I was catching an evening train back to Casablanca as my flight to Oman was the following morning. Hassan and I were heading into Fes for some shopping. Mark decided to stay home with Rabha to learn how to make her delicious bread. I said my sad goodbyes to everyone, and gave Hassan the rug I had bought for him. We headed out for a final walk through the village.

The neighbors kids. After I took this photo, their Mom beckoned me into her home. Hassan told me she was inviting me to see her cave home and that I should go because she has a really nice one.

Her sitting room.

Her kitchen.

I was going to post some video I had taken of walking through the village over the past few days but I am lazy now.

Donkey parking lot.

Market in Sefrou.

Hassan and I made our way to Fez where he took me back to the train staion to see if they had a “Left Luggage” service. They did not so he took me to the bus staion where they did. We ditched my bags then headed to the old Medina so I could do some shopping before catching the train. It was already getting to be late afternoon so I tried to be efficient.

I bought a morocco cookbook and a kiss (the scrubby mitt thing the women were using in the hammam).

We stumbled upon the perfect store that sold both pottery and rugs. I had been looking at these items throughout the trip so I had a pretty good idea about price and quality. This store had both good quality and good prices. And I found the perfect rug. I had been despairing that I would find a rug I liked enough to part with my money for.

Surprise, Mom! I bought myself 2 rugs on this trip. It’s an old tribal carpet and I love it.

Before leaving the house I had Hassan ask Rabha and Itto if there was some kitchen item that they would like but possibly not buy for themselves. They were too polite and would not name anything. Finally I asked if they would like one of the traditional pottery Harira tureens with matching bowls and they admitted that yes, that would be nice.

Since this store had such nice pottery I bought the harira set there as well. Tureen and 6 bowls. I wish I could have brought home a set for myself but it was just way to fragile and bulky and I was already loaded down with rugs!

Hassan sent me this photo taken by his next couchsurfer of his family using the set. I was so grateful for the warm, welcome and wonderful time Hassan and his family gave me I was happy to give them this gift.

We burned more CD’s of the photos and videos I had taken in the last couple of days then headed back to the bus station to pick up my bags. Then we headed to the train station and said our goodbyes.

Hassan was such a great host. I cannot praise this young man enough. He took such good care of me the whole time I was there, he showed me a Morocco I would never have seen on my own and we had so much fun doing it. We have kept in contact now that I’m home. You can look at his new blog by clicking on the link on the right of this page. One thousand thank you’s Hassan.

I sat on a bench on the platform at the train station and waited for the train. I was the only woman waiting. There was a long row of Moroccan men on the benches and as dusk neared they all pulled out plastic containers of food and sat with them on their laps. Waiting. They were waiting for the siren that signals the end of the day’s Ramadam fast. I pulled out the pastry I had bought earlier that was to be my Iftar (the Ramadam breakfast eaten at dusk) and waited along with them.

There was a handsome man sitting next to me and when the siren went off he told me he had forgotten to bring a fork. I ate my pastry and realized it was not going to fill me. I asked the man if he could please watch my bags and I wandered over to the nearby café. I ordered the Iftar special. Dates, hot milk, hard boiled egg, harira and a honey soaked squiggly pastry/cookie. As I left I asked for an extra plastic spoon which I took back to the forkless man.

We chatted a bit, his name was Fouad and he’s a teacher. Very nice man. When the train arrived he helped me with all of my bags. I had left Oman with one carry-on bag and now had three. We sat in the same compartment but did not chat much during the trip. I slept much of the way as it was too dark to see outside.

Once we arrived in Casablanca Fouad helped me with my bags once again. When we reached the street he asked where I was heading. I told him I was flying frst thing in the morning so was just going to head to the airport and sleep there. He was distressed to hear this. He told me it was not safe to sleep at the airport, that I should get a hotel or he offered for me to stay at his place. I politely told him I did not stay at strange men’s houses. He laughed and agreed that was wise as well. He told me his friends were coming to pick him up and he would ask if they would take me to the airport to save me the high taxi fee. There is a train that goes to the airport but it departs from a different station across town. His friends arrived and were nice and they invited me to tea. You know me and invitations…..

We went to a café and drank Moroccan tea. Fouad’s friends were teachers too. 3 of them shared an apartment. They insisted on feeding me so I had a cheese sandwich. After we finished our tea they beseeched me not to sleep at the airport. They said they would take me if that is what I wanted but they would prefer I sleep at their apartment and Fouad promised to take me to the train station first thing in the morning so I could get to the airport in time for my plane.

Call me crazy, but I trusted them. Off we went. It was so funny. When we arrived at the apartment they had me sit in a chair and wait while they scurried around, frantically cleaning their bachelor pad. One of them gave up his room and he shared a room with Fouad. They wished me goodnight, I set my alarm, kept my clothes on and fell asleep. Safe and sound.

As promised, Fouad woke me early, and escorted me to the train station, carrying my bags one final time.

I snapped this photo of him as we said goodbye.

Remember all of the unkind strangers I met on my arrival in Casablanca? These guys undid all of that.

I let a porter carry my bags for me as I got off the train, and tipped him well. I caught my plane to Dohar in Qatar. Waited there for 4 hours then caught my final plane to Muscat where Mahfoodth met me at the airport. I had not had a shower in days and he told me “you’re my friend but you smell bad”. It was true, I did smell bad and I enjoyed my shower that night ever so much.

Pretty awesome vacation, huh?