Oman

Oman is a country where a 4x4 is recommended to see it's sites. Since, they run about $100 a day and isolate you from the people, I decided to go it alone - it's expensive enough in this country. And so I've been doing a lot of walking.

I shared a taxi to Bustan Palace Hotel (my lord the luxury!), where the only other foreigners on my flight were going, and then walked ten miles to my hotel across from the fish market in Muscat. The walk was nice enough. Oman is mountains that go into the ocean with a small strip of civilization in between. White-washed mosques and buildings with brown mountains behind. Very pretty. And the Omanis all wear traditional gowns and skull caps all the time with the exception of the Indian workers who dress western. Every moment is picturesque. The people have been friendly, asking who I am and why I would come to their country. The Indians chat me up the most; they all seem lonely and missing home. One Indian even invited me to dinner and so we had vegitable soup and watched TV in his one bedroom apartment.

After seeing a millions forts in Muscat, I hopped a bus to Nizwa. From there, I wanted to go the Jebel Akhdar plateau, but lacked a 4x4. So, I decided to walk the 20 miles. Through a canyon and up a mountain, I walked for nine hours. I passed four terraced villages on the way, each time with people stopping what they were doing and staring. It wasn't just a "there's a foreigner" stare, it was a "what the fuck is he doing?" At the first and third village men came out, took my water bottles from me and refilled them. At the fourth, they invited me in for coffee, oranges and dates. Aparently, I'm Blanch Dubuois. Their kindness was much appreciated. I walked at night for the last three hours of my journey under a star-filled new moon sky. I arrived, hit the shop and had the most glorious dinner of a can of tuna, two Snickers bars and a Seven-Up.

Coming down was easier and I then headed to Sur, a city on the eastern-most point of the Arabian peninsula. Its location is near an important turtle nesting beach, so I broke down, rented a car and went out to see Mario's enemies. With an Italian tour group in the middle of the night, I watched the giant beasts poop out slimy eggs, bury them and make their way back to the ocean. Uterly amazing, but I did feel a little weird like I was interupting some sort of intimate moment as a voyeaur. Maybe it was because I was staring into a turtle's vagina after dark.

Not much time left here in sunny Oman and when I return it'll be off to a cold Afghanistan. Ug, Aghanistan.

Bahrain

A steady stream of visitors to Amman left me exhausted. From the 21st of December to the 10th of January, I had guests and needed to show them Jordan. It was great fun seeing Eliana, Andrew, Teddy, Miss Petra's four friends, Duncan and Bren, but a vacation for me couldn't come soon enough.

So, off to the gulf for some much needed sunshine and...cultural perplexities. Bahrain is beautiful and weird. I first learned details about Bahrain about ten years ago. I met a girl from Bahrain who complained that Americans thought they wore hajabs in Bahrain. A Tunisian was with us and he said "they don't wear hajabs in Bahrain? I didn't know that. Where the fuck is Bahrain?"

I'm not sure if the Bahraini girl was mistaken or if times have changed, but Bahrain definitely has hajabs and abayas. My first impression when getting off the plane was that I had entered Saudi Arabia. Women were scarce and, when seen, they were covered in black. I decided to walk from the airport to my hotel to get a feel for the city. What some people call Saudi's Vegas seemed like Saudi's Saudi.

Then, I crossed the bridge to Manama and entered not Vegas, but Lahore. Pakistanis and Indians dominated the population. Their restaurants and shops everywhere in the alleys beneith the colorful waved skyscrapers. The food is fantastic, by the way. I've missed Indian food (Amman is a little lacking).

But where was this so-called party? There was noise coming from a hotel lobby so I went in to take a look. All of sudden, there were women. Filippinas, Thais and even Arab women in a abayas lined the bar looking for one thing - customers. Within seconds, the lady sharks saw me and swam toward me quickly. I made my way for the door and it suddenly occurred to me why the hotel reception guy was pushing me get a queen sized bed. I wandered some more and came to an Aussie pub called Diggers. A cloaked smoking Arab sat in front.

"What is this?"
"A pub. Go in, have a beer."

And so I went in. On the stage was a rocking Filippino rock band and at least ten Westerners lined the bar, but, alas, the room was also filled with over a hundred prostitutes. At least twenty tried to get my attention and one purposely bumped into me. I made a speedy exit.

"Not for you?" inquired the Arab.
"Not for me. Shukran."
"Welcome"

The following day, I decided to walk to some of the sites of the island. Unfortunately, the sites were spread out over a twenty miles. Nonetheless, I got some sun and exercise and met some interesting characters along the way. Outside of Manama, Bahrain becomes Arab again and they were all very curious what a foreigner was doing walking along the highway. "You want car? Taxi? It is long way." Shia posters for Hussein that looked like a romance novel cover lined the streets. I saw a fort and some ancient burial mounds. And there was the long serpentine bridge to Saudi which stretched out into the mist.

Bahrain was simply a puzzle - a Sunni ruled land of Shia filled with ultra-conservative acting ultra-liberal. Highly classist with Pakistanis and Fillippinos living under Arabs, yet everyone is so friendly and giving. Just weird and fascinating.