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a nomad in the land of nizwa

~ an American English teacher in Oman

a nomad in the land of nizwa

Monthly Archives: November 2012

weekly photo challenge: reflections

30 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Photography Challenges, postaweek2012, Weekly Photo Challenge

≈ 34 Comments

Friday, November 30: The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is Reflections.

This challenge is about using reflections in the composition of a shot. Reflections are all around us, whether they’re in a window, a puddle, a mirror, or another surface. They can dramatically affect the feeling and mood of a shot by creating a surreal sense of duality. Think of a city reflecting in a river, a crowd of people reflecting in the glass pane of a building, or a landscape altered by the placement of a simple glass mirror.

I challenge you to head out and create an image that uses reflections to force the viewer to question and interpret the reality of the shot.

Here are my images of reflections.

reflections in Wadi Muyadin in Oman

reflections in Wadi Muyadin in Oman

a window reflecting blue sky and clouds on Jebel Akhdar

a window reflecting blue sky and clouds on Jebel Akhdar

the sheikh zayed bin sultan al-nahyan mosque in abu dhabi

the sheikh zayed bin sultan al-nahyan mosque in abu dhabi

a carp pond at the Ho Chi Minh complex in Hanoi, Vietnam

a carp pond at the Ho Chi Minh complex in Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam

reflection in a shop window in Carytown, Richmond, Virginia

reflection in a shop window in Carytown, Richmond, Virginia

a shop window in Carytown, Richmond, VA

a shop window in Carytown, Richmond, VA

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blog of the year award 2012

30 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Blog of the Year 2012, Blogger Awards

≈ 50 Comments

Friday, November 30: I started my first blog in March 2010, when I moved to Korea to teach English as a Second Language (catbird in korea).  This was my first time living and working outside the United States and I simply wanted to document my experience living abroad.  In my first year of blogging, I had only 11,000 hits on my blog, which I thought was a lot. Since that time, I have written nine different blogs about all my travels, with a blog for each country.  I have a blog with some short stories (land of make-believe) and a blog about my life in America (catbird in america).  But my current blog about my life as an ESL teacher in Nizwa, Oman, which I began in August, 2011, has had more hits than I ever thought possible, over 90,000!  I never thought I would ever have so many readers click on my blog!  I am thankful to all of you who take the time to join me in my adventures as an expat living in Oman.

http://adinparadise.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/blog-of-year.jpg?w=593I was pleasantly surprised three times in the last three weeks to be nominated by Sylvia, of Another Day in Paradise, for the Blog of the Year 2012 Award.  I think this was probably an accident, but she actually nominated me THREE times for this award (Blog of the Year 2012 – Twinkle twinkle and Tasting stars****** Blog of the Year 2012 Award. and Blog of 2012 Award.), enabling me (at least the way I see it!) to add three stars to my award.  Unlike Sylvia, who received the award numerous times from many DIFFERENT bloggers, I only received it three times from ONE blogger.  I’m thankful that I at least have one fan who thinks my blog is worthy of an award three times over! 🙂

The ‘rules’ for this award are simple:

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3 Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award – http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/our-awards/blog-of-the-year-2012-award/   and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)

4 Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them

5 You can now also join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience

6 As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…http://thethoughtpalette.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/boty-3star.jpg?w=252&h=216

Here are my nominations:

Sylvia of Another Day in Paradise  *** 🙂  Thanks for being one of my biggest fans, as I am one of yours!

Ioanna of LifeportOfolio

Lynne of On the go with Lynne

Frizztext of Flickr Comments

The Wanderlust Gene

Gilly of Lucid Gypsy

Carol of Wanderings of an Elusive Mind

Dallas of Crazy Train to Tinky Town

Elaine of i used to be indecisive

Heather of artist. hippie. cali chic.

Robin of Life in the Bogs

Marco of RESISTANCE IS CHARACTER FORMING

Jo of restlessjo ~ roaming, at home and abroad

Julie of Julie Dawn Fox in Portugal

Dave and Aly of Algarve Blog

Marianne of East of Málaga

Tahira of tahira’s shenanigans

Lisa of Zeebra Designs & Destinations ~ An Artist’s Eyes Never Rest

Elisa of Eat, travel, photograph

If I didn’t get to everyone, I’m sure I will get to you next time around ~ if there is a next time. 🙂

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share your world: cee’s life questions (week #48)

30 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Share Your World

≈ 8 Comments

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share your world

Friday, November 30: Here are Cee’s Life Questions for this week:http://ceeslifephotographyblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/share-your-world2.jpeg?w=201&h=153&h=153

What feeds your enthusiasm for life? 

Travel & adventure.  Photography.  Writing my blog.  Laughter.  As Freya Stark, my heroine, says: “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” 🙂

If someone made a movie of your life would it be a drama, a comedy, a romantic-comedy, action film, or science fiction?

I would like it to be a romantic comedy, but since I don’t have any romance in my life now, I guess it would just be a comedy.  I love laughing and my favorite types of movies are romantic comedies.  My life does seem to be a comedy of errors.

If you were to perform in the circus, what would you do?

I think I would be the two-headed lady in the freak show. 🙂

You are given $500 and the chance to exchange it for one of two envelopes. One envelope contains $5,000 and one contains $50. Do you make the trade? Why or why not?

I would definitely make the trade.  It wouldn’t kill me to lose the $500, nor can I do very much with $500, so I would take the gamble that I’d get the $5,000.  That would mean a great trip somewhere in the world.  That’s what I live for.

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an afternoon stroll through misfat al abriyyen: an oasis of green

29 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Al-Dakhiliyah Region, misfat al abriyyin, Oman

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Oman, Travel

Thursday, November 29: This afternoon, my friend Tony and I go for a walk through Misfat Al Abriyyen.  This small village bursting with gardens, about a 40-minute drive from Nizwa, is a lovely place to walk and get my greenery fix.  The falaj is dry today, as is the reservoir of water used to irrigate all the gardens.  Banana trees, date palms, green banana bunches, emerald-green grass, beautiful sweeping views over the valley and village of al Hamra ~ these are a few of the things we encounter in this place.  Signs translated using an internet translation program, always funny and indecipherable, welcome us to the village.  Houses that should be ruins are fully inhabited behind colorful, but tightly closed, metal doors with peeling paint.   Yakoob Al-Abri and his uncle treat us to tea and dates on the patio of the Misfat Al-Abryeen Guest House.  As we are leaving, we encounter three elderly Omani villagers, who, when I ask if I can take their picture, answer, with a twinkle in their eyes, “maybe.”

Click on any of the images below for a full-sized slide show.

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an accidental day in sur

28 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Oman, Sharqiya Region, Sur

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Oman, Travel

Wednesday, November 28:  Our plan didn’t include visiting Sur, on the east coast of Oman, but here we are.  Due to the unexpected debacle at the Masirah Island Ferry dock yesterday, we end up deposited here, in a town known for its attractive corniche, excellent beaches and its long history of dhow-building.

Sur was formerly a bustling port and trading center, shipping goods to and from India and East Africa.  A series of reverses in the 19th century led to a reduction in the town’s fortunes, including the arrival of European steamships in the Indian Ocean, the British prohibition of slavery, the split with Zanzibar and the rise of the port of Muscat. The town has revived in recent years due to the opening of the massive OLNG natural gas plant up the coast (The Rough Guide to Oman).

The old part of town sits on a peaceful lagoon with views of blue water and white buildings in every direction.  We climb to the tallest hill in town, topped by a watchtower, for some sweeping views of the city and bridge.

Click on any of the images below for a full-sized slide show.

climbing to the watchtower
climbing to the watchtower
the lagoon and old town
the lagoon and old town
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the new bridge
the new bridge
dhow and dhow-building
dhow and dhow-building
dhow
dhow
the lagoon and the old town
the lagoon and the old town
watchtower over the harbor
watchtower over the harbor
Mario atop the watchtower
Mario atop the watchtower
dhow and dhow-building site
dhow and dhow-building site
close up view of the harbor
close up view of the harbor
Omani couple walking down from the watchtower
Omani couple walking down from the watchtower
interesting underwater designs
interesting underwater designs
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from the marshland looking toward the bridge
from the marshland looking toward the bridge
a heron
a heron
herons in the marsh
herons in the marsh
marshland
marshland
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fisherman
fisherman
a partly sunk dhow?
a partly sunk dhow?
this little goat went galloping past me
this little goat went galloping past me
colorful fishing boats in Sur, Oman
colorful fishing boats in Sur, Oman
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an old building
an old building
mountains near Sharqiya Sands
mountains near Sharqiya Sands
sunset near Izki
sunset near Izki
mountains near Izki
mountains near Izki
the moon rises about the same time the sun sets
the moon rises about the same time the sun sets

We drive further into a larger lagoon where we find herons and plovers in a marshy area at low tide.  After, we head to the Old Harbour where we see colorful fishing boats in the lagoon.

Since Mario used to teach at the Sur University College, he knows some people here.  We meet some of his old friends for lunch at the Sur Plaza Hotel, after which we drive back home, exhausted from our 14-hour grueling trip yesterday.

We stop a couple of times for photos of luminous clouds casting shadows on mountains, a bright coral sunset and a nearly simultaneous moonrise near Izki.

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where utter chaos reigns: the masirah island ferry dock

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Mahut, Masirah Island, Oman, Shana, Sharqiya Region

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Oman, Travel

Tuesday, November 27:

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
“Relax, ” said the night man,
“We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! “

~ “Hotel California” by the Eagles

This morning at 9:30 a.m., Mario and I, excited about our adventure ahead, take off for the 5-hour drive (about 380km) to the harbor of Shana, where car ferries depart for Masirah Island.

We stop along the way in Barr al-Hickman, on the route from Mahut, near the harbor, to take some pictures of the desolate salt flats, covered in red algae.

the salt flats of Barr al Hickman

salt flats

more of the salt flats

When we arrive at the two-lane bridge leading to the dock at Shana, we are flabbergasted by what we encounter.  There is a line of cars waiting patiently on the bridge, but aggressive Omanis in big bully vehicles are bypassing the cars sitting in the right-lane queue by getting in the left lane and shoving their way to the front.  On the rectangular concrete pier, there are about 3-4 lanes of cars lined up lengthwise within the rectangle. The pushy Omanis add themselves to the lines on the pier, leaving those of us waiting patiently in line further and further behind.

There are only several policemen at the dock, way too few to control a crowd of such magnitude and lack of principles. There are literally hundreds of cars. Most are Omanis heading to Masirah Island for the National Day holiday, which begins today.

There is absolutely no system in place.  The policemen seem to be wandering around aimlessly.  At one point, they direct a huge semi-truck to block off the people coming onto the dock.  This doesn’t stop the aggressive Omanis from shoving their way around the ends of the truck.

The small ferries, which carry anywhere from 15-25 cars, arrive at various points along the pier at random, unpredictable times.  When a new ferry arrives, everyone on the dock jockeys around, pushing and shoving, to get in position for the new ferry.  When it’s evident where the ferry will land, everyone rushes to that spot, bumper to bumper, like water trying to go through a funnel, blocking others from making their way forward.  Unfortunately, if you are in a position away from the random landing, you miss out on that ferry and then have to go through the entire rigmarole again.

When a ferry lands, and everyone jockeys into place at the correct spot, crowds of Omanis jump out of their cars and surround the police. Of course they are upset, because some people who have been waiting for hours are at the back of the line, once again.  The police seem to have no teeth.  The way of Omani culture is to be friendly and accommodating, especially to other Omanis.  Honestly, the police don’t care about the questions and concerns of the Westerners.  For one, none of the police on the dock today can speak English.  So, of course, they have no information to offer. They basically ignore the Westerners, although they seem to kowtow to their fellow Omanis. They seem to be incapable of making any decisions whatsoever.

Click on any images below for a full-sized slide show.

Mario and I have some wine to get through the Masirah Ferry debacle
Mario and I have some wine to get through the Masirah Ferry debacle
Cars line up for the ferry at one end of the dock
Cars line up for the ferry at one end of the dock
More jockeying into position
More jockeying into position
the semi-truck the police move to block the cars.
the semi-truck the police move to block the cars.
more chaos.
more chaos.
Omanis surround the police
Omanis surround the police
Omanis surround the police to protest the situation
Omanis surround the police to protest the situation
yet another ferry we miss...
yet another ferry we miss…
the new ferry arrival and cars lining up.
the new ferry arrival and cars lining up.
trying to leave the port
trying to leave the port
"you can never leave..."
“you can never leave…”

What a disaster!  For a while, we are foolishly hopeful.  We see the futility of the situation, yet we still think we will eventually get on a ferry.  This goes on for over four hours!  During this four-hour period, we come up with too many solutions to count for this utter chaos: 1)  Someone should be selling ferry tickets at the entrance to the bridge.  The tickets should have a number on them, and only enough tickets should be sold for the number of spots available on the ferries. 2) The police should set up cones to keep people in ONE lane on the bridge.  There should be a gate at the end of the bridge nearest the pier, and it should be opened only when a ferry arrives.  Only those who will fit on the ferry should be allowed through the gate.  HELLO?? How difficult is it to put a logical system in place?

When we miss yet another ferry at around 6:00 (we arrived here at 2:00!), we decide we’ve had enough.  We figure that if this is the situation getting TO Masirah, who knows what we will encounter coming back.

We decide to leave.

This is a joke.  We CANNOT leave! It’s like an episode from The Twilight Zone.  We finally are able to jockey the car around and head toward the bridge, but both lanes of the bridge are blocked, now by two police cars at the front of the lines.  Behind the police cars, both lanes, incoming and outgoing, are blocked by Omanis trying to push their way to the front.  Deadlocked!

This situation could be easily solved if the police removed their cars from the bridge and funneled the cars from both lanes onto the pier.  But, as usual, they do absolutely NOTHING.  They seem to be totally incompetent.  Unable to make any decisions at all.  So we sit.  And sit.  And sit.  For at least an hour, we sit, making no headway at all, staring at a line of headlights shining in our eyes.

Finally, it is the ordinary citizens that take action.  Omanis standing around on the bridge start directing the people in the left lane to move over to the right as far as possible to allow us to pass off the bridge. It is touch and go, and slow going, because there is literally nowhere for the people on the bridge to move, since the police don’t take any action to move people off the bridge. The other option could be for the police to direct everyone in the left lane to back up all the way to the end of the line.  But of course, they don’t do any such thing.

We finally escape, at which time we fill up the car with petrol.  We have wasted a lot of gas sitting on the pier because we kept our car, and air conditioner, running because of the heat!  Feeling a sudden burst of freedom, we decide that we will drive to Al Ashkara, a supposedly beautiful beach north up the coast toward Sur, and set up our tent. We stop for dinner at some small town Pakistani restaurant and then continue up the coast.

We are out in the middle of nowhere!  We drove 5 hours this morning to get to Shana, and now we are driving four hours north toward Sur.  There is absolutely NOTHING here along the east coast of Oman.  The night is black as ink.  We can barely see the beach along the way, and we simply cannot make out a place to set up our tent.

By the time we reach Al Ashkara, about 2 1/2 hours north of Shana, it is getting cold outside and the whole idea of setting up a tent is looking very unappealing.  We start calling every hotel in Sur; most of them are fully booked for the holiday.  We want to shoot ourselves!  Finally we find we can share a room at the Sur Beach Hotel, which has a room, for 55 rials ($143), 27.50 rials ($71) each.  We tell them we will take it and will be there around 11:00.

After our grueling 14 hour day, we arrive at the Sur Beach Hotel, an oasis in the middle of nowhere.  We have never been so happy to see two twin beds!  We celebrate the survival of our horrendous day by breaking out some wine.  Mario has some Scotch.  We sit up talking until 2 a.m., relieved to finally have escaped the nightmare of the Masirah Ferry Dock.

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daydream saturdays & connect the dots: tibet

24 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Daydream Saturdays, Tibet

≈ 19 Comments

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Daydream Saturdays, Tibet

Saturday, November 24:  Inspired by Heather of artist. hippie. cali chic. …a hopeless case of wanderlust and by WordPress: Daily Prompt: Connect the Dots, I have decided I’m going to start doing “Daydream Saturdays.”  Fellow blogger Heather created what she calls “daydream days” on Mondays because “I have found that I tend to let my mind wander to far off lands quite a bit more on Mondays than pretty much any other day of the week…not that this isn’t something I do every day of the week, but it is a bit heavier on Mondays.”

Since here in Oman, our weekends are Thursdays and Fridays, and our Saturdays are equivalent to Mondays in the West, I’m going to call mine Daydream Saturdays.  Because Saturdays have that rainy day Monday feel and I need something to cheer me up, something to get me past the Saturday doldrums, something to dream about.

To get me started on my first post in this series, I am using the daily prompt from WordPress, which is this: Open your nearest book to page 82. Take the third full sentence on the page, and work it into a post somehow.

I have a whole shelf of books within reach, but the first one that catches my eye is Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East by Pico Iyer, which I haven’t yet read.  I pick this book up frankly because it has a bright green band across the center, a lime green that I adore.  It also mentions Kathmandu, and it just so happens that, a couple of days ago, my colleague Francois asked me where I was going for Oman’s National Holiday, which will be this Tuesday-Friday (November 27-30).  I said I didn’t yet know, and he said, “What about Nepal?” Surprising.  I would have never thought of Nepal.

The last enticement for me to pick up this book is that I read another book by Pico Iyer in December 2010, The Lady and the Monk, that inspired me to go to Kyoto in February, 2011.  I fell in love with Kyoto, of course because of my experience there, but partly because of Iyer’s book, which added a whole extra dimension to the amazing city.

So, on page 82, here’s the third full sentence on the page.

I almost imagined myself back in Tibet.

I would love to go to Tibet.  But sadly, I can’t afford to go anywhere on this 4-day National Holiday.  Believe me, I have thought of everything, every possible scenario. For one, four days is not enough time, when flights take 10+ hours each way. And, as I just spent about $1,000 to go to Ethiopia in early November, and another $500 to go to Abu Dhabi in mid-November, I am clean out of money.  Sure, I could use a credit card, which is just what I did when I went to Japan that long-ago February.  But, finally, at my late age, I’m trying to be responsible with my money.  It really is time that I grow up.  Bummer.

I can barely write anything about Tibet, because I don’t know much.  But I do know this.  It’s a plateau region in Asia, east of the Himalayas, and is the highest region on earth at 4,900 meters. Tibet is ruled by China.  Just today someone in Tibet set himself on fire to protest Beijing’s rule. Tibetan Buddhism is extremely vital to its people.  During China’s Cultural Revolution, nearly all of the country’s monasteries were destroyed.  Now some have been rebuilt and more religious freedoms have been granted, but practice of the religion is still limited.

When I came back to Oman from Virginia in August, I brought with me The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche, which supposedly provides “a lucid and inspiring introduction to the practice of meditation, to the nature of mind, to karma and rebirth, to compassionate love and care for the dying, and to the trials and rewards of the spiritual path.”  Though I haven’t yet read the book, it is obviously calling out to me.  Serendipity.  Maybe magically it will happen that I will head to Tibet sometime soon.

Sometimes I wonder why I am pulled in certain directions.  For instance, for years, since September 11, 2001, I have been pulled to understand the Middle East.  I have read too many books to count about the Muslim world.  I went to George Mason University and earned a Master’s degree in International Commerce & Policy.  Every project I did was related to Middle East issues.  I was drawn to work and live in Egypt or Turkey, Jordan or Oman. I needed to understand a world that seemed to have gone haywire on a beautiful September day in the country I love.

A good friend of mine told me recently that he thinks I am searching for something.  I believe he’s right, though I don’t know exactly what it is I’m searching for.  I am drawn to ideas of pilgrimage.  In Japan and Korea and Vietnam, I was drawn to Buddhist temples. I am still drawn to Buddhist practice.  I am also drawn to churches in Lalibela and the idea of walking the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.  I dream of spending three months in Japan at a Buddhist monastery or spending months at an ashram in Rishikesh, India.  I am drawn to all these things, yet I don’t do them.  Why?  Am I afraid of what I will find?  About myself?

Here is what Pico Iyer says in the sentences before the above quote, about an experience he is having is Nepal: “…I began to lose myself in wistful reverie.  The strange smells, the hypnotic repetitions, the flutter of candles transported me.  I felt myself carried away to distant lamaseries, whisked off to snowy mountain passes.  I almost imagined myself back in Tibet.”

There is something that appeals to me about the contemplative life.  I used to have a dream of myself walking down a street.  When I looked down at my feet, I saw my feet taking steps, one by one, from under a black robe, the robe of a monk.  Not a nun, a monk. Strange.

In the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Rinpoche says: “Our true nature could be compared to the sky, and the confusion of the ordinary mind to clouds.  Some days the sky is completely obscured by clouds.  When we are down on the ground, looking up, it is very difficult to believe there is anything else up there but clouds.  Yet we only have to fly in a plane to discover up above a limitless expanse of clear blue sky.”

Here is my Saturday daydream: Tibet.

I hope one day I can go there.

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weekly photo challenge: thankful

23 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Jebel Akhdar, Oman, postaweek2012, Sahab Hotel, Saiq Plateau, Weekly Photo Challenge

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Oman, postaweek2012, weekly photo challenge

Friday, November 23: The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge for this week is Thankful. In the United States, yesterday was Thanksgiving, a holiday where people spend time with family and friends and remember the things they’re thankful for. I think the idea of being thankful and reflecting back on good things in your life is something that naturally happens towards the end of a calendar year.

As I already wrote a post on Thanksgiving Day about what I’m thankful for, I will add this photo of a sunset, taken on Jebel Akdhar, from the Sahab Hotel, on Thanksgiving night.  I am, quite simply, thankful for another day.

“Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under!”
― C. Joybell C.

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”
― Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

  “How strange this fear of death is.  We are never frightened at a sunset.”  ~ George MacDonald

To see all the things I am thankful for, please see: happy thanksgiving to the u.s.a.!

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travel theme: liquid

23 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Abu Dhabi, Africa, Ethiopia, Greece, Lake Langano, Liquid, Ohiopyle, Oia, Oman, Pennsylvania, Santorini, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan Mosque, Travel Theme Photo Challenge, United Arab Emirates, United States of America

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

postaweek2012, Travel, travel theme

Friday, November 23:  Ailsa of Where’s my backpack? has given us a challenge for this week: Liquid.

Let the rain kiss you.  Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.  Let the rain sing you a lullaby.  ~ Langston Hughes

Sadly, I don’t have any rain pictures, as where I live, it never seems to rain.  However, here are some liquid photos for Ailsa’s challenge.

Click on any of the images below for a full-sized slide show.

a river in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania
a river in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania
marsh at Lake Langano, Ethiopia
marsh at Lake Langano, Ethiopia
a pool at the Franciscan Monastery, Washington, D.C.
a pool at the Franciscan Monastery, Washington, D.C.
the reflecting pool at the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
the reflecting pool at the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
a pool at Wadi Damm near Ibri, Oman
a pool at Wadi Damm near Ibri, Oman
the Mediterranean off of Santorini, Greece
the Mediterranean off of Santorini, Greece
wadi floods in Oman
wadi floods in Oman

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thanksgiving night: sunset at the sahab

22 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by nomad, interrupted in Jebel Akhdar, Oman, Sahab Hotel, Saiq Plateau

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Oman, Travel

Thursday, November 22:  After our two long hikes, we arrive at the Sahab Hotel way too early for the 6:30 buffet.  We have brought our own bottle of wine, which this wonderful hotel allows any of its patrons to do.  We sit outside near the infinity pool and have a few glasses.  Mario and I have found a favorite wine that we always seem to gravitate to: Atrium Torres Merlot.  The bottle describes it as such: “Since 1989, to open a bottle of Atrium is to enjoy a symphony of aromas.  The notes of ripe cherry and raspberry jam form a vibrant chord with the sweet tannins, thus composing a magical score.”

Indeed, we enjoy a delightful symphony of aromas, along with stunning views over Jebel Akhdar as the sun sets in a blanket of coral and purple-tinged clouds.

Click on any picture to see a full-sized slide show.

Mario & Mohammed
Mario & Mohammed
me at the Sahab
me at the Sahab
Mohammed, Mario and Atrium Torres Merlot at the Sahab Hotel, Jebel Akhdar, Oman
Mohammed, Mario and Atrium Torres Merlot at the Sahab Hotel, Jebel Akhdar, Oman
the fabulous Sahab Hotel on Jebel Akhdar
the fabulous Sahab Hotel on Jebel Akhdar
cactus at Sahab
cactus at Sahab
yellow aloe vera flowers at the Sahab
yellow aloe vera flowers at the Sahab
sunset at the sahab
sunset at the sahab
sunset on Jebel Akhdar
sunset on Jebel Akhdar
sunset on Jebel Akhdar
sunset on Jebel Akhdar
red aloe vera
red aloe vera
aloe vera
aloe vera

The only drawback tonight is that it’s downright cold!  Mario and Mohammed each have a heavy sweater on.  I’m wearing a lightweight fleece jacket, over which I’m wearing another lightweight corduroy jacket.  Too lights don’t make a heavy tonight, however, and I’m shivering while I sip.  At 6:30, we move up close to the hotel and grab a table beside a fire burning in a kind of cauldron on legs.  Here it is only slightly warmer.

The buffet is 8 rials each and includes tuna or beef or chicken skewers; they cook our choices for us on a grill.  There is also vegetable cream soup, steamed vegetables, hummus and bread, coleslaw and salad.  For dessert: fresh fruit and chocolate cake.

A perfect ending to a perfect day.

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~ wander.essence ~

where travel meets art

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snowtoseas

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Slovenian Girl Abroad

A blog about travel adventures written by an Slovenian girl living in Switzerland

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Fairfax County Emergency Information

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~ wander.essence ~

where travel meets art

Living in Paradise...

SterVens' Tales

~~~In Case You Didn't Know, I Talk 2 Myself~~~

PIRAN CAFÉ

Word Wabbit

Wrestless Word Wrestler

Cardinal Guzman

Encyclopedia Miscellaneous - 'quality' blogging since August 2011

Pit's Fritztown News

A German Expat's Life in Fredericksburg/Texas

Fumbling Through Italy

Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

snowtoseas

Cornwall in Colours

inspired by the colours of the land, sea and sky of Cornwall

Slovenian Girl Abroad

A blog about travel adventures written by an Slovenian girl living in Switzerland

Let Me Bite That

Can I have a bite?

Running Stories by Jerry Lewis

Personal blog about running adventures

Finding NYC

exploring New York City one adventure at a time

The World according to Dina

Notes on Seeing, Reading & Writing, Living & Loving in The North

Cornwall Photographic

snippetsandsnaps

Potato Point and beyond

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