Nizwa is located about 2 hours west of Muscat. Due to our delay out of Khasab, we arrived on a Thursday, which also happened to be my birthday. We arrived at our hotel, The Golden Tulip around noon, and our rooms weren't ready. It wasn't a big deal, we just headed into town and went to find the Souk. The Lonely Planet Guidebook led us to believe that the Souk was the place to visit in Nizwa. We parked in the Souk parking lot and decided that we should get something to eat first and walked across the street to Bin Ateeq, a chain restaurant in Oman, but said to serve some of the most authentic Omani food in the country.
Bin Ateeq was definitely a different experience. We were led to a small empty room, except for the pillows along the walls to sit on. We left our shoes off at the door and an man offered us some menus. The menu had a 5 OMR, 7 OMR, and 10 OMR prefix menu with a list of foods offered and there were also a la carte items. We decide we'd try the 7 OMR menu, which had a number of fish items, mutton, rice, and hummus. Dan asked if it was 7 OMR per person or just 7 OMR. The man said just 7 OMR (we thought that was pretty cheap), but when we got the bill, it was for 21 OMR, so I guess it was per person. The food was good and it was a really interesting dining experience. They served us lemon mint drinks, cokes, water, and Omani coffee with dates before, during and at the end of the meal. At first Chris and I really liked the idea of the simple empty rooms with nothing in them, great for containing Jake, but when our food arrived, it wasn't as great of an idea when we had to try and keep him from walking all over our food. He did okay and we all enjoyed our lunch experience. I was hoping for birthday cake, but by the time we were finished, we were ready to get out into the town.
We headed for the souk, but much like the rest of our time in Oman over the holidays, many shops were closed. There was pottery out in front of a few of the shops and I enjoyed taking pictures.
We got a good look at some of the traditional Omani Khanjars. Nizwa is known for it's silver and metalwork. The khanjars had ornate, beautiful silver work. An authentic khanjar would cost around 180 OMR ($467) or more.
Jake wasn't having much fun in the shops because he couldn't touch anything, so we headed to Nizwa Fort and Castle.
We learned that these jugs were left unglazed and hung up so they would sweat and keep the water cool in the sun.
Chris, Jake and Dan
This isn't a great picture, but the doorways at Nizwa castle have an opening above them. It's about a 1 foot by 2 foot space between the walls and the doors and if you look up, you can see the light from the top of the castle. This is so when an enemy tries to invade the castle walls, they would spill boiling hot date syrup down the gap in the wall and it would scald the people trying to invade the castle. The sign is pointing to the holes above the doors. Thought it was interesting.
After we visited Nizwa Fort and Castle, we went back to the Golden Tulip Hotel for the night. We took Jake for a swim to cool him down in the 113 degree heat.
The next day we got up and went for a drive to Jebel Shams or "Mountain of the Sun," Oman's highest peak and to get a glimpse of Oman's Grand Canyon. First we drove through the town of Bahla because the Lovely Planet said Bahla was the place to go to find ceramics and pottery. Our GPS, James, led us on some interesting back streets to get to Bahla. Once we arrived, we drove through Bahla's traditional souk, which was all closed up because it was a Friday. We drove past Bahla Fort, which is huge, and then tried to find the pottery, which was supposed to be located right down the road from Bahla Fort on the way toward Jebel Shams. Again, Lonely Planet seemed to be misleading. We found one place that indicated ceramics and pottery. It was also closed on a Friday. It appeared to be large store and would probably produce a lot of pottery. We were a little confused because the guidebook implied that there would be multiple pottery shops and they would be hard to miss. Since that was kind of a bust, we kept on driving up to Jebel Shams.
We left town with about a half a tank of gas and drove up, and up, and up. Chris did the driving across the hairpin turns and up the road. There were signs part of the way up, but as we got closer, the signed were not clearly marked. There were kids at one of the forks in the road and they traded directions for chocolate. But about a 1/4 mile further, there was another fork in the road and we went left. The road kept going and going, but there wasn't a clear indication of "The Grand Canyon." The drive was beautiful, the mountains were tall and there was a big ravine between the mountains. We eventually got down to a quarter tank of gas and decided, we'd better just take a look where we were and start heading back down. We ended up in a small village and decided to park our car and get out for a look. Chris and Dan did the talking and we got a great view of the Grand Canyon. The kids in the village were fascinated with us, but I don't think the adults cared for the intrusion. We didn't want to overstay our welcome and got back in the car to head back down the mountain.
This is the ghost town "Village of Ghul" which is also along the road we traveled. Sugar cane and date trees below.
It was a fun adventure. We went back down through Bahla and tried to find a place that would be open to get some dinner, but everything was closed on Friday. So we headed back to the hotel for dinner.
The next morning (Saturday), we checked out of our hotel and we decided to try our luck at Bahla again with the pottery. The shop we had seen the day before was still closed. But Bahla Fort was open and we wanted to check it out too. We took a quick tour and then headed to Jabrin Castle since we'd be passing by on our way back to Muscat. Jabrin Castle was a very quick stop and Jake slept through the whole thing. It was hot and we were ready to get on the road.
Bahla Fort
We headed back to Muscat and checked in at the Grand Hyatt again. Beautiful hotel. We took Jake for a swim. Then we took Jake to play with Sabrina and Virgina while Chris, Dan and I went to dinner at Ubhar Restaurant. It was delicious and it was so nice to have an uninterrupted meal.
Watching Frozen
The next day, Chris, Dan, and Vance went to visit the Sultan's Armed Forces Museum while Jake and I spent the day with Carla, Sabrina and Virgina. Then later in the evening, we went to Vance and Carla's for dinner.
Chris, Vance and Dan
Carla and I
Our last full day in Oman, Chris and Dan had meetings at the Embassy. Jake and I meet Carla and the girls at one of the malls that has a play land. We stayed through lunch and then headed back to the hotel.
Sabrina, Virginia, and Jake
That evening, Chris, Dan, Jake and I went to Mutrah Souk and found all sorts of fun things. I found a silver necklace and an Omani brass coffee pot. Chris found and old map of the Gulf Countries.
At Mutrah Souk
Fort by the SoukWe had a great time in Oman. Jake and I headed back to Amman while Chris and Dan headed to Saudi Arabia for some more Embassy briefings. Jake and I happened to be on the same plane as Vance, Carla and the girls, who were headed for a trip to Jordan.
At the airport. This is after the 5 minute long tantrum he threw in the customs line getting back in to Amman. Otherwise, we had good travels.
Chris spent 3 days in Saudi Arabia with Dan.
Gas in Oman. 0.12 OMR = $0.31 USD per liter.
We are all home in Amman together. Jake spent a couple of days playing with Sabrina and Virginia while they were in Amman. I went with the Morgan's to Madaba the other day. And we went to the airport to pick up Chris. And we went to the park a couple of times this week too.
Today, Jake and I went to the Embassy and he got an MMR shot and Hep A shot. Then I further tortured him by trying to get him a haircut. He got half a haircut before we had to stop causing a scene. Everyone in the building kept peeking into the barber shop to see what all the screaming was about. Poor little boy. I promise not to torture him with such things tomorrow.
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