Oman

Oman is a beautiful country –  glad we did not stop in Muscat, because a lot beautiful parts are further south. We were impressed, every day. I don't know what I expected from the Orient, but it is all different in reality.

History and society

Oman today



Oman used to be an important country in the region, and it was even called "empire of Oman". There was a lot of trade with goods and slaves from Africa. Even part of Pakistan used to belong of the empire as well as the island of Zanzibar. After slavery was banned, Oman's economy was severely hit and within few years Oman became the third poorest country worldwide. The population was divide in several tribes in war with each other and the semi-nomadic population lived of sheep and goats farmin in the desert and fishery on the coast. The situation changed dramatically when 60 years ago oil was discovered the country's health rose again. His Maesty Qaboos bin Said Al Said (Up to now Oman is a Sultanate) in power since 1971, drove most of the change. He managed to stop the tribal wars and almost all the society could gain wealth from the oil ectraction. Enough to understand this boost is to know that in 1971 the country there were only 5 km of paved road and 1 hospital… The rapid development is the main reason why here everyone seems to love the sultan. The uprising in the rest of the arabic world seems from here really far away.   

Oman should protect his historical heritage! (or at least the tourists...) 

In regard to the development, the local work force was not sufficient to follow the rapid growth and a lot of workers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were called to build the infrastructure that the boosting economy needed. Although the number of guest worker has decreased, over a population of nearly 3 million, still about one third is not Omani. You can easily recognize it crossing any of the villages in Oman on one of its cities: Almost all the coffee shops and restaurants are run by Indians, the barbers or other shops worker in general are also from there and all the workers in the construction sector are still foreigners. Omanis used to work mostly in the Military (even here the military is an easy method to employ a lot of people and give them a salary: Oman for instance has the biggest military orchestra in the world).  But, due to recent legislation wanted by the sultan, a minimum fixed percentage of Omanis hast to be employed in each sector. Anyway, the sensation to be in a two classes society is strong, with the indians to play the role of the mule and the local Omani having the stick in the hand. Despite of that, the influence and the presence of the whites from europe or USA is much less than in the united emirates and it is quite marginal.   

I was surprised to see even less women then in Iran. Those we saw where covered all in chadors. In the villages women wear very beautiful colorful ones. In the cities the chadors are all black, covering either all the face or leaving only the eyes free. City women believe that this is modern in comparison with the village people. ..well...I'm not sure! At least not only the women dress in a traditional way. Men mostly wear their traditional cloths as well. It is basically a long white kind of dress with different variations of turban covering the head and mostly a thin stick in one hand.

Cycling and nature

Always ride on good paved road is also boring...



Cycling in Oman is easy going. This is to some extend due to the roads which are even better than those in Iran. But it is mostly because Omanis are very polite as well and mostly they are laid back drivers.  There is less honking, and if a car had to overtake us they generally slowed down and let more than enough space between them and the bikes. That is way we got used to cycle mostly in pairs and chat a lot. 



Not all Oman is flat!

 

Sunset tea.



Regarding our lifestyle, we broke our record of camping in a row. Since we left Ben's house (see previous post) in Muscat we camped every night mostly near the sea or in other scenic places in the desert. The really nice temperatures also in the evening and the good company of Tim and Dan and Niel made possible the preparation of really delicious food. We learned that "Two stoves are better than one". 

   

Yes, I love donkeys!

We had the chance to see a lot of different animals like lots of camels in the villages or slowly crossing the street without being impressed by the cars that have to break because of them. In all the villages we have seen, lots and lots of sheep and goats are free to go where they want (until the moment in which they are slaughtered of course, since their meat is a primary source of calories here in the desert…). And between the villages herds of wild donkeys! Actually it was the first time we've seen donkeys in a herd running across the rocky desert. 

 As well there were huge birds, and we suppose they were eagles and vultures. One flew really upon us. The with of the wings was really impressive, we guess even bigger that a Matteo in horizontal position.  The sea is rich as well, stingrays jumped out of it, water turtles came up to breath and a huge snake scared us while we were swimming. But the two highlights were the following:

The first were two sheep running against each other: The male was not happy with the behavior of the female. After the big bang of their heads one of them (the female…) fall down immediately and stayed on the ground having a fit. The strange thing was that nobody cared except us…



Wadi Shab



The second was our visit on turtle beach during the night and seeing how they crawl out of the water, dig massive holes into the sand and lay about 100 eggs into the sand, cover the nest again and return in the water - all this in about four hours. They were really big (about 100-200 kg). And we saw also one small baby-turtle coming out of the sand and crawling into the ocean. If the temperature in the nest was above 28 celsius, it was a female, and it will have the chance to be one of the 3% to return to the same beach in 37 years and do the same as its mother.



Oh Oh, the road is finished...

Ok, we go by foot.

fishing boats on the shore near Barka (north of Muscat)



Nature is surprisingly various, for a desert country. The coast north of Muscat is almost an endless row of fishing villages, palm and banana plantations and other small agricultural activities. The rest of the country that we saw was mountainous, with rocky desert and its strange vegetation, and of course sand desert and its wonderful oasis. Really beautiful are the Wadis (rivers). Most of them are dried out but some still have water and represent a tongue of intense greeen out of the brown landscape. The most beautiful one is maybe Wadi Shab.  There, at first we missed the actual main attraction (the pools and the cave). Despite Ben's advices "You can't miss it." "If you think it's the end - it's not!"  after almost 3 hours of walking and with the river gone, we concluded that we missed it anyway. Like this we ended to do the most important part backwards. We found the last pools, climbed down a waterfall, dived into the cave that was actually full of water and swam out of it through a small crack in which only our head had enough space over the water. It was really great this way as well, maybe even better than upwards. The only disadvantage was that we could not leave our stuff at the beginning of the pools and we had to get completely wet. We try to save saved the camera in a plastic bag. It worked!  

Good jump Tim!


Ok, the first part of our random-riding seems to be finished. Tonight we fly to India!