Spilled Juice and Desert Roads

(For photos, see www.wattskidsinaction.shutterfly.com)

I should have known if we tell people we're driving to another middle-eastern country with our children in the back seat, that we'd have people worried and waiting for us to make it home safe. Sorry for this. We are home. We are safe. We had an excellent time. And if this travel sounds exotic and adventurous, just remember that kids will spill juice boxes and spouses will bicker about the map and that gas station toilets basically stink no matter where on the planet you are. So the actual drive was pretty much like driving from Chicago to St. Louis, only without the corn fields.

A Safe Trip?
Oman has been a peaceful place for a very long time, as has the UAE, and the whole pointed peninsula is safe for travelling around by car. The only questionable aspect is the 4 hour stretch of desert between Dubai and the mountains of Muscat, but there are gas stations every 80-100 kilometers and the Omanis do in fact speak some English.

Desert and Rocky Peaks
Dubai and Sharjah are mostly a developed coastal desert, and as you drive out of town towards Oman, the landscape is gentle rolling dunes with scrub. As you get further inland the dunes flatten to a more gravelly looking dismal gray. But as you near the Omani coast, you pass through the striking jutting rocky mountains of Oman, which are grey, pointy and jagged. These mountains press the city of Muscat into the Gulf of Oman, and the actual cityscape has been built atop and between the jutty peaks of rock. The gulf water is stunning, blue and warm.

Chamois Guy, Dolphins and Forts
We chose a resort called Shangri-la, a few miles down the coast from the capital, for their multiple pools, beach access, and a raved-about breakfast buffet. It was more D-luxe than we imagined, especially the chamois-guy, whose only apparent job was to wander about the pool and beach and offer to clean your shades, all done with a brilliant southeast Asian smile. With the variety of restaurants and pools, (and other doting melon-pushing staff) we could have spent the entire six days on resort.

But the tourist attractions were beckoning, and after just a day and a half of R&R, we embarked on a tour of the sites. These included dolphin watching, tiny mountaintop forts, old enlarged European sketches of the city, and an excellent souk where you could buy anything from traditional costumes to incense burners to henna powder for tatoos and giant shiny swords. My favorite thing though, is the public art of Muscat. The traffic circles and many of the overpasses offer sculptures (traditional coffee pots and boats) and tiled art (scenes of fishing and sword battles). Just imagine Billy driving around the traffic circles, window down, and me invading his driver-seat lap trying to get a good shot with my camera, with locals lined up in their cars behind us, beeping and annoyed. (photos at linkbelow).

Mutton and Fruit
The food in Oman is influenced by the Indians and Lebanese who for a long time were the primary immigrants, so we ate lots of lamb, eggplant and grape leaves. The kids enjoyed watermelon and mango juices every day for breakfast and we ate numerous shwarma (something akin to a gyro sandwich) and mutton-kebob.

The Road Home
After six days of chamois-guys, dolphins and Omani heritage, we were ready to get back to life. The road home was just the same as the road there, with its juiceboxes, gameboys and desert toilets, but we had a whole new geographical vocab to work with. Just ask Liam and you're bound to hear 'Omani, Muscat, Wadi, Henna and Shwarma'. Mission accomplished.

For photos and slideshow go to:
http://wattskidsinaction.shutterfly.com/