Camping in the sands to a restful day @ house
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2010
1
17
35
Trip End
Jul 17, 2010
Ḩassās, Oman
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
We ended up about 40 km deep in the sands. The drive out was easy as we could really see where everything was. We did have to take a 45 degree angle down one dune which was fun, but if you don't know how to drive in the sands you can easily flip over. In the town next to the sands Pooja and I took a little coffee and juice break. Then off on the 150 km trip home.
Hilal had a lot of stuff on his mind (from his many jobs in Oman) so he drove fast. By 9:30 we were home. For most of the rest of the day Pooja and I just rested and took a long afternoon nap. The internet did not work all morning so I did not get too upload too much. After these three days I had a ton of pictures and videos to put of the travel blog. I might have to do nothing for several days to get it done.
Late in the afternoon, Pooja, Hamid (Hilal’s oldest son), and I took a small walk around Hilal’s neighborhood. The houses and property lines are all discombobulated with no planning at all – just buy a plot of land and plop a house there. That is the way it is in the entire valley here – house here, empty plot there, and so forth. We also walked through a date tree plantation which made us hungry. Since I have been here I have really started to like dates fresh from the tree. Hamid actually crawled most of the way up a date tree but could not get at them.
Back at home Hilal took me to hang out with the guys at the Omani version of a sports bar. Here most people smoke the Shisha, play backgammon, and watch TV while talking to all their friends. Since they did not make any juice I had a Mountain Dew which is very popular here in Oman. We reached their at halftime of the Paraguay Japan World Cup match. It was tied 0-0. When it got darker in the 2nd half the entire place emptied out to the courtyard where they had the match on a large screen via LCD projector. Everyone, except for me, was pulling for Japan. The game was exciting as it ended 0-0, but since there had to be a winner it went into overtime. After 30 min. of overtime it was still tied so they went to the shoot-out which Paraguay won. I was the only excited person in the entire place. During my World Cup time Pooja spent time with Kamla and had a great time.
After out World Cup match we went to Hilal’s brother-in-laws place for dinner. At the house I waited with Pooja for about 30 min. as the dinner was being cooked. Here, the guys ate in a different room than the girls (Omani tradition). The room for the guys was like a palace – elaborate trim, pained ceiling, lush carpet, and fancy frames. There were 4 adults and 4 kids eating. We sat down on the floor with a plastic mat. The boys brought all the food in and it took the 4 kids 2 trips to bring it all. I was faced with another Omani feast – so much for losing weight on the trip. Some of the food included pakoras, fries, fried onion, chicken, beef kabobs, pita bread, nann, cake covered in honey, grape juice, Coca-Cola in a bottle, & salad. Holy cow, the food was so good I could not stop eating. My belly was all rounded after that session. The company was great too as all we did was joke about everything. Another traditional thing at these dinners was the fact that the boys stayed very quiet during the dinner only asking each other for the food. If only we could do that in America. After dinner Hilal dropped me back to his house. We wanted me to watch the next World Cup match but I was too tired. I did some computer work for an hour before turning in.
