Up North to Sindbad's Home

 This weekend, a bunch of girls and I rented a car and drove up the coast to Sohar, the home of the mythical sailor Sindbad. Along the way, we detoured to Rustaq. There was a fort, which we never found, and also Ayn al-Kesfa, which we did (after a few wrong turns and directions from a helpful lady who seemed surprised that I could ask her in Arabic).

Ayn al-Kesfa, Rustaq, al Batinah province of Oman

 The water in the spring was incredibly translucent blue-green, and very hot. It was so hot outside that swimming in a hot springs was unthinkable, without even taking into account the constraints of lady-body-coverage. Julia and I have joked about buying burq-inis, but have yet to pony up. I later learned that the temperature was 109 degrees, with 89% humidity. Saunas are fun and good for your health and all, but you're only supposed to stay in them for 15 minutes or so. What to do when the sauna is just...the environment?

 Farther down the road, and after we did the most disgusting thing I've done in a while (eat KFC), we headed off the freeway to Al-Khaboura fort.

 It sits right on the ocean - this coast has a lot of forts, as it overlooks the Gulf of Oman and was an important border to defend against invaders from (now) Pakistan and Iran across the Gulf.

 Our hotel in Sohar was a little hard to find. The map on Booking.com looked pretty simple: the town of Sohar is spread along the coast and the hotel was right off the freeway across from the port...
We drove about 40 kms extra trying to find the place - I knew it was north of the city, all the hotel rooms in the city were either booked or too expensive for us, but I had no idea how far north. And Google let me down (just the once, sorry babe), so I pulled over at the nicest beach resort in Sohar and asked the desk clerk to let me use their internet to try to find better directions to the place. It was far from my finest hour, but it was a good learning experience. I think we're so used to having our phones and GPS, as well as (let's be honest) appropriate freeway signage and offramps at appropriate intervals, that we hadn't thought of having an old-school backup. Next time, a detailed physical map will be in hand, not just the overview of Oman map!
The place in Sohar was lovely - it was also residential apartment style, like our place in Al-Khoud, but SO MUCH NICER. This place was a real apartment. There was a washer (!!!!!!), a toaster, and showers with tubs and curtains. We knew from the website that it had washers, so we brought our laundry...we must have looked like crazy overpackers, each carrying in at least two bags of luggage!

Highlight of my week

This morning, we woke up and got lost again trying to find the Sohar fort. When we finally did, it was open...kind of. It is currently under restoration, but the door into the interior open space of the fort was open. It's not trespassing if the door is ajar, right?

 Sohar's fort is distinctive because it's white - all the other forts I've seen or seen advertised in Oman are brown. The white of the fort under the brilliant sun is stunning, and reminds me of the Mediterranean. Unfortunately I think the restoration will change all of this - the central tower has been completed, and it is beige.

Unrestored interior of fort

View from Sohar Fort to the Gulf of Oman

Afterwards, we drove back south along the coast to Sawadi Beach. We missed the turnoff for that too, but eventually found our way. As I drove through Sawadi, I had to slow down for the speed bumps...and the goats.

 The goats were everywhere! There was even a goat on top of a car (see below). Goats rule the town in Sawadi.

 Sawadi Beach is 12 kms from the main highway, but worth it. There are several beautiful rock formations off the coast, and the beach is strewn with shells. You can hire a boat to take you out, or jetskis.

 The water is so incredibly blue, and it was cool (unlike the water in Muscat, which was just as warm as the air). We combed the beach for shells, and found a couple of neat fossils and coral. I would have stayed there all day, but we had promised to have the car back by 5pm.

Showing some scandalous ankle

Missives from Muscat: The Simple Things

 During a video chat with my best friend recently, I realized I haven't posted any pictures of the interior where I've been living. It's not much to look at, truthfully. The hard part is actually the gadgetry. There are switches to open the flow of electricity (which makes sense and is environmentally savvy), but you have to figure out which one is which. And which one turns on the A/C, or the individual water heater in your bathroom so you have warm water to shower or wash dishes (or your clothes) in.
Above, you can see my A/C remote/control, located on a different wall from the switch that turns on the electricity to the A/C. The middle switch, with the red light, turns on the water heater in the bathroom (this switch is not located in said bathroom). The three switches on the end are the bathroom light and fans.

 On the other side of the door, you have two more switches, the right one opens the electricity for the fan, which is controlled by the knob above it.

 And on a third wall, just inside the room, there is the A/C electricity, and the two lights for the room.  These handy little electricity opener switches are also installed on every outlet, so if you accidentally plug in your phone to charge it overnight, but forget to turn on the flow of electricity...ahem.

And finally, just to clarify, since Berna was confused when I said water went all over the bathroom and got the toilet paper wet. Here's why. As you can see, the bathroom IS the shower (this also happened in Syria and in SE Asia, so I'm not new to this method). In my opinion, it's also very energy efficient, because every time you take a shower, you clean the bathroom. Just make sure you leave the toilet paper, and hang your towel, outside the door (next to the 15 switches).

 Today, at a similar hotel apartment in Sohar, we were treated to this delight (see below), and immediately all five of us each took a refreshing shower just cause we could.

 And the creme de la creme:

I've never been more excited to see a washing machine in my life. The website said the hotel would have one, so we all brought our laundry. Yup. The trunk of our rental car is filled up with clean laundry that we washed ourselves. If nothing else, our trip has been a success for that. Maybe I just need to stay in a hotel flat with a washing machine every two weeks...

More on Sohar, to come.