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

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

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

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?