Another passport stamp

There is no shortage of unusual things about Dubai to keep me amused. Security is not a problem, cars are often left open with valuables inside. Crime is pretty much non-existant due to the harsh penalities — i.e. chopping off your hands. Skyscrapers in the desert as I already mentioned. There appears to be no order to the place, it is each man for himself. Even if you have been queueing for an hour to get somewhere, there will be plenty of people willing to jump in front. Going to the toilet in public is definitely a no no. Then there is the weekend: it occurs on a Thursday and Friday.

This happened to be of some benefit to Nic and I as we are due to fly home (for him England, and for me Thailand) on Saturday morning. So on Wednesday afternoon, we packed a spare set of clothes and a sun hat (more on my new hat later), jumped in the car, and Nic's Mum and Andy took us out of the city! A couple of hours later and we were filling in visa forms at the border to enter Oman. After a bit of a wait we were cleared to cross the border, got our passports stamped, and headed up into the mountains. There is a completely different feel in Oman, the terrain is sandy rocky mountains which is quite different to anything I have ever seen before. It is dry and baron, there are no people for miles around, but it has a beauty about it that you cannot find anywhere else. For me, the fact that you are away from the city and completely on your own is an attraction. We drove along the quiet coast road which wound up and down with some great views of the sea. After another hour we arrived out the Golden Tulip Hotel, in the area of Khasab, which would be our shelter for the night. As you would expect, I checked out the swimming pool immediately and lazed around in that warm bath as the sun was setting over the rocky mountains.

I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the people of Oman, they were much more welcoming and talkative compared to the Emirati (who you rarely encounter) in Dubai. We left the hotel early the next morning and went for a day trip on a dhow — a type of 'old-fashioned' boat — around a 16 km fjord (I thought these were only found in Sweden but apparently not). The boat was laid out with carpet and cushions for us to relax on all day, all to ourselves. We set off about 10am and within an hour we had seen a group of around 20 dolphins. I don't know what it is about these animals but they seem so peaceful. Swimming alongside our dhow, I am sure that the dolphins know something that we are not aware of.

We swam, we ate lunch, we caught a huge fish (although I didn't partake in the poor fish's demise), and we passed some amazing scenery. The most impressive place of the day was telegraph island. During the 19th century, the British attempted to connect a telegraph cable between Britain and India to speed up communication. They didn't get that far, but they did run a 1250 mile underwater cable from India to Basra which passed through the fjords of Oman. Telegraph island is the place where the British manned the telegraph and relayed messages. The island is tiny, less than 50 metres in length, and there is nothing there except the remains of some huts that a few brave Brits must have lived in. It must have felt like the loneliest place in the world! I wonder how many of them knew about the benefits of meditation.

At the end of the boat trip late in the afternoon, we were all fully relaxed and ready to head back to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. By early evening we had returned — with another stamp in our passports!