Local News

We’re settling into winter now – the temperatures are getting to the high twenties during the day and as low as 15 overnight. Might have to get our cardies out! We’ve been doing a bit of off-roading, I’ve now been upgraded to a Senior Offroader and Ande is now a Junior Offroader, getting comfortable and confident on the sand. I’m playing touch rugby once a week and keeping fit while Ande is staying in Abu Dhabi around once a week, loving her work and life in general. Matija is really progressing with her reading, she has books to take home and her list of sight words are growing at a rapid rate. She’s enjoying school and has some lovely little friends who she shares playdates with and the occasional sleepover.

Visitors

Mum and Dad Ford came over for three weeks to visit! As it was their first overseas trip it was huge and everyone was excited and a little surprised that they were coming – including them.

They arrived on a Tuesday morning and after a little recovery time we visited the local markets, the mountain behind Al Ain and a mall or two to get adjusted to the place. We went for an early breakfast by the camel race track (camels training this time, not racing) followed by a 4WD trip in the dunes. I was leading a convoy with Dad and Ande was following with Mum, Matija and Ellie, one of Matija's friends. It was a neat trip - Mum handled it far better than Dad expected, although Matija and her friend were both sick - probably from the early breakfast as much as Ande's driving. Hard work for Ande to drive and look after two sickies and that's a pretty good excuse for her one little stuck. The dunes out here are beautiful, the 4WD group are great and it was neat to get Mum and Dad on the sand. Then the fun continued. We’d planned a trip into Oman and we headed out on a Thursday afternoon.

We had planned to spend a night near Bahla then cut through Wadi Bani Awf to the coast but a cyclonic weather pattern had produced flooding in many parts of Oman. There was still water across the road in places – one ute that we passed had been washed into a culvert and we read that there was extensive flooding in Muscat – vehicles were piled on top of each other in places and a dozen people had lost their lives. As wadis are dangerous places if it’s raining we changed our route in the hope we could return via the wadi.

After a few hours driving we found the hotel we’d booked for them at Jibrin – it was like an apartment building looming out of a small town and it took a little while to believe this was it. The place was very OTT Arabic in decoration and it proved quite a cool little hotel. Ande, Kevin, Jenni and Jonathan Dittmer were following and after a bit of searching we located a good campsite 6km out of town. After finding the place again (not so easy in the dark) and setting up tents we enjoyed a lovely meal and a wine around the campfire then dropped Mum and Dad off to the hotel and settled in for the night. The Dittmers had tents while the Fords were in the back of the Xterra’s (we’d taken both for the trip).

The following day we headed to the Nizwa markets. They’re fairly rural – there’s lots of silver work, fruit, veg, pots, souveneirs etc. There are also gun shops and we saw quite a few Omani lads wandering around with their new guns. There’s also a lively livestock market. There were a few goats and sheep but as it was just before Eid there were a few cattle as well, mostly bulls. No ramps and pens here, the animals are tied to posts and led around. When being led they have a rope tied to a front leg and if they try to bolt someone drags on the rope, if that doesn’t slow them down they drag a bit harder and drop them onto their knees. Some would see it as cruel, but it was effective. After a good look around we took some cheap and refreshing Indian style tea – plenty of milk and sugar. Normally I wouldn’t touch the stuff but it was actually refreshing and appropriate in the environment.

We headed past Muscat and up the coast about an hour to the Millennium Mussanah, a new hotel where we’d got a good discount deal on 2bdr apartments. The swimming pool and gym weren’t open yet but the rooms were lovely (split level with balcony) and it proved a very nice choice. We stayed in for a few drinks and a tasty buffet dinner and breakfast and enjoyed some time swimming in their little harbour. There were big fish literally leaping out of the water close to us and it led us to wonder what might be chasing them. During our morning walk down the coast Dad and I helped some fishermen push their boat up the beach and I think we were blessed for our troubles. A very nice 5 star place and great value at the discount we received.

We then headed down to Muscat and settled into a basic hotel, the Naseem, in Mutrah the port area of Muscat. There were a few signs of flooding back in the town and when we visited the souq they told us that waist high water had been running through the souq a few days earlier. There was a bit of a sewage odour, but otherwise it was fine. It’s a great little Omani souq here and after a few hours of shopping we had a good shwarma meal on the waterfront and watched the people. The following day was the Eid holiday so there wasn’t too much happening. We went for a drive down the coast, saw a big new hotel development and paid a bit of money to spend the day at the Oman Dive Centre. A few guys were stringing up their Eid sacrificial sheep just around the corner – they must have slept in as it was a bit late in the day. The Dive Centre was a nice spot to swim and laze around, it was a bit rocky close in but there was a big jetty out to a nice area for a swim, there was a fresh water pool and a restaurant (although that was busy and took 40mins to get an ice-cream). A very relaxed Eid break indeed. We got back for a bit of late souq shopping. Matija had 5 Omai Ryals to spend and settled on a call-to-prayer alarm clock and some jewellery. She’d had the previous afternoon to see what was available for her ryals and she was stoked to make the purchase – luckily it didn’t have batteries yet.

We followed that up with a cheap Indian curry dinner at a local restaurant. It was pretty up-market as they supplied knives and forks. Jonathan and Jenni were amazed that the chicken with rice and the barbecue chicken were the same thing – half a bbq chicken on a large bed of rice. It was cheap and cheerful and a real local experience, although the waiter just shook his head every time he wrote down someone’s order.

The next day we hoped to head back up Wadi Bani Awf, although we weren’t sure if it was open. We drove up around Rustaq and were pleased to hear from the service station guys that the wadi was open again. They’re building a big new road at the bottom end of the wadi and the guys had plenty of machinery to clear it up after the floods. The bottom end is basically riverbed and they’d just pushed a fresh track over the stones. It was slow bumpy going and we had to negotiate plenty of water, fording the stream frequently. It’s amazing how fast floodwaters recede here, after only a couple of days there was only a small clear stream washing out the wadi where there must have been a torrent just days before. It’s basically all rock so it hardly holds the water at all, it just rushes off. In parts of Oman there are dams to capture that runoff and hold it so that it seeps into the water table rather than just running away.

The drive was great fun and the scenery was breathtaking with massive sheer walls rising out of the floor. There are little villages strung along the sides of the wadi with strips of date palms watered by falaj systems that run along the walls. Beautiful. We found a lovely spot for coffee and lunch (apart from being chased by wasps) then really got into the serious driving. The road got steeper and steeper and we started to hit more traffic coming the other way, it was a tiny dirt road and it usually meant creeping right to the edge to give the other guy room to get past. We visited Little Snake Canyon then stopped above the beautiful village of Balad Sayt for some photos. Not much further along we followed another Xterra up to Snake Canyon. This is a large canyon with pools and people from Muscat come here canyoning, rock climbing and using aerial ropeways that are set up between the walls. A number of people were there, making the most of it after the recent rain and it was quite a beautiful sight.

Just after Balad Sayt we had to pull over to let a convoy of 11 4WD vehicles through. Our guess is that it was a 4WD tour company that hadn’t been able to get through the wadi for a week or so and they were taking all the backed up traffic through together.

This was followed by a huge climb out of the Wadi. This is the only track to cross the Hajars and it climbs from just above sea level to 2000m at the top. The track is single lane and bouldery and it makes the drive through the old Motu road in Gisborne look like a 4 lane highway. Very impressive.

We finally made it to the top then headed for Bahla and the main road as the Dittmers had to get back for work. Unfortunately it was getting dark and there were no sign posts. We missed the turnoff, hit a dead-end village, went back, picked up an Indian hitchhiker who said he knew the way and immediately led us back to the dead-end village. We finally found our way out (kidnapping the Indian hitchhiker on the way) and said goodbye to Jenni, Kevin and Jonathan. The Fords were pretty tired by this point so we joined Mum and Dad at the luxurious Jibreen Hotel for an international buffet and a good nights sleep.

Then next morning we visited the Hoota Caves, not far from Bahla. They’re quite impressive, you get a train into the hillside itself, then walk for around forty minutes checking out caverns with amazing stalactites and stalagmites and an underground pool with little blind fish swimming around. You half expected to meet Gollum chewing on a fish tail down there. Well worth the trip. We then made the three hour drive back to Al Ain. It took about an hour to get through the border post. They were handing out slips of paper with numbers to determine your place in the queue. I think there were three 14’s and two 17’s. It took a long time and since we had the camping gear I made teas and coffees for our group and handed some spare wine gums and aeroplanes around the waiting room. One woman there was walking out to her car and a ute carrying a camel bumped into her. She wasn’t seriously hurt, but stood there dumbstruck as the ute drove off again.

After a day or two to recover we headed down to Abu Dhabi to have a look. We went to Emirates Palace (the most expensive hotel in the world) for a walk around and a look at the plans for Saadiyat Island, a new development on an island just off Abu Dhabi that will feature some of the world’s great museums. We dropped Mum with Ande then Dad and I went to the Formula One. Jenni and Kevin had some spare tickets they couldn’t sell so they gave them to Dad and I. The whole course and facilities are mind-blowing and the F1 cars were truly deafening as they shot around the track. We had flash grandstand seats with food and drink supplied and we had an awesome spot to view the whole thing from. Vettel blew a tyre on turn one and Hamilton went on to win the thing. Unfortunately no big crashes in front of us but amazing to see those big cars going so fast – the acceleration and deceleration was incredible. Dad spent half an hour trying to explain it to mum when we got back. Mum, Matija and Ande had been checking out Marina Mall, although Mum got a little lost and it took some time to find her way back to the girls.

I dropped Dad off, picked up Ande and returned to the Paul McCartney concert next to the track. He spent 3 hours performing, his voice was incredible and his energy was great – all at 69 years old. It was an awesome concert, we knew nearly all the songs and we were privileged to be there.

The following day we visited the Grand Mosque, I’ve mentioned before that it is one of the great buildings of the world and Deb will be able to back me up when I say that the tour guides are gorgeous too. I didn’t have to don a dishdash this time and we enjoyed the free tour. We checked out the Corniche in Abu Dhabi, drove through Saadiyat Island then spent a few hours checking out Ikea on Yas Island.

After a couple more days in Al Ain we headed to Dubai. We’d booked a 2bdr apartment and I headed down with Mum and Dad for a bus tour around the city centre attractions. We got a good look along Dubai Creek, checking out the museums, doing an hour-long dhow tour then walking through the gold souq, the textile souq and the adjacent streets. The guys were determined to sell me a watch or mum a pashmina. Dad didn’t get hassled too much, although they were all calling him ‘John’.

Dubai Creek is a waterway near the old souqs and dhows from India, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Yemen etc. still tie up, load and unload cargo right next to the old city centre. It also splits part of Dubai and heaps of city workers take the little water taxis called abras from one side to the other for around a dirham (30cents). It’s very lively and atmospheric and a ‘must see’ if you’re in Dubai. We finished up at the fish and vegetable markets, which were still bustling at 7pm and saw a vast array of fresh fish and vegetables from all over the gulf. We finally caught a taxi back to the Wafi mall, had a look around and grabbed a food hall dinner. Ande and Matija caught us up in the morning and we headed out along Jumeirah beach, stopping at the Mall of the Emirates where we had a coffee overlooking the indoor ski field. Dad wandered into a suit shop with a big sale on and I nearly bought a very flash suit, only we discovered at the last minute that it had a mark on the lapel and they couldn’t get a replacement. It obviously wasn’t meant to be.

We moved on to the Ibn Battuta mall for a look – it’s a massive mall with whole sections built in the style of Persian, India, China etc. After a good look around we grabbed some lunch at the Lime Tree (a kiwi style café) before Mum, Dad and Ande caught the monorail to the Burj Khalifa. I took the car and met them there. We had tickets for the viewing platform on floor 124 of the Burj Khalifa and despite a few nerves we shot up the lift (10 metres/second - thank Allah you can’t see out as you go up!) and had a stunning view over Dubai right on sunset. It doesn’t actually feel that high when you’re up there but everything on the ground is pretty small. We waited around to see the dancing fountains at 6pm, but they never happened. When we got down we went out the front of Dubai mall and got great seats at a little café where we watched the amazing fountains. It was on at 7pm, not 6 as advertised.

We had a good nights sleep and took Ande to Dubai creek where we took the abras across to have a look around the spice souk and Mum picked up a couple of things at a great little toy shop. We returned to see a couple of things at the Dubai Mall before heading out to see a market near the Jumeirah Residences. Ande had an appointment in Dubai so we dropped her back at her car and headed back to Al Ain. We’d never spent much time in Dubai but got a really good look at it, managed to find our way around most of the time and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We’ll definitely head down there again – it’s a great city.

Mum and Dad had one more day to pack up and get organised in Al Ain before I took them out to the airport the next day. It had been a wonderful three weeks and we’d all had a ball. It was certainly eventful and Mum and Dad definitely got a good taste of the Middle East. Dad had been a little worried he’d run out of stuff to do in three weeks but that wasn’t a problem at all. After a few years away it was great to spend that amount of time with everyone and to strengthen those relationships – great too for Matija to have such quality time with Grandma and Grandad. Maybe we’ll have to meet in Thailand or somewhere next Eid or Christmas!

Eid in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

We had a ten day holiday in Sri Lanka back in Eid. We’d originally planned a week at a beach on Sri Lanka’s West Coast, but Eid was extended so we changed flights and had some time exploring Colombo and up through the high country first.

We arrived to muggy days in the 20’s in Colombo. It’s a bustling city full of three-wheelers (tuktuks), crazy traffic and little houses and shops amidst big old buildings. It’s also a mix of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim, which was a nice change for us. We stayed at the Galle Face Hotel, which is the oldest hotel in the capital. Parts of it are fading, but it had a very cool terrace overlooking the sea where we could chill out drinking very cheap beer and cocktails. It also had a nice pool and a cool verandah restaurant. There was one security guard with a slingshot assigned to chasing off the crows when they came too close to the tables and a squirrel that Matija was determined to catch.

We were right beside the Galle Face Green, which was a grassy space overlooking the sea and was packed with locals on the weekend, relaxing, flying kites and buying cheap snacks from vendors stalls along the waterfront. There were very few Westerners here and Matija proved to be a bit of a tourist attraction, particularly when she got a pony ride along the promenade. We arrived after the monsoon, but it threatened rain a few times and there was a strong westerly wind which chopped up the sea and made swimming unsafe along the entire West Coast.

After a couple of days of exploring, chancing across some great vege and meat markets and getting three-wheeler tours to a selection of parks and temples, we caught an early train up to Kandy. It was an old diesel clickety-clack kind of train where the doors and windows are open and you get to hang out them and see local life. It was a fantastic trip past little shanty towns, through coconut plantations, rice fields and forest into the interior hills. Matija and I hung out in one of the doors and enjoyed the tunnels and waving to other passengers as we rounded curves. We arrived in Kandy to meet our driver, who would take us up to Sigirya. Kandy is up in the tea area of the highlands and is famous for its elephant festival. It’s cool and green and quite different to anywhere we’d been for a while – there are buddhas on the hills behind just about every village and a mix of Sri Lankans and Tamils from South India, who came to tend the tea.

We headed up the road, instead of the UAE’s max speed limit of 140km/h this was more like 60km/h with cars, trucks and three-wheelers chopping in and out of the windy, bumpy roads. We passed an area of spice gardens. We called into one, but it was so obviously a tourist trap, with gardens of trees and herbs and its own doctor to meet you and prescribe some potion for your ailments that we were glad Matija was grouchy and tired and we bailed out very quickly. We did stop on the road by a pepper plantation and the driver pulled sprouts of green peppercorns from the vine for us to taste. We stopped to see some reclining buddhas at Dambulla and also saw some thieving monkeys jump on a guys shoulder trying to pinch something he was eating.

As we travelled North we departed the lush forest and soon got into dry brush country. We arrived at a guesthouse in Sigirya, close to a huge rock that used to be the seat of power for the area. It was an ancient city and monastery and a real tourist magnet and as we arrived at Eid there were many local families travelling to check it out along with the tourists.

By this time we’d got into the local cuisine. Curry and rice is a staple with many tiny restaurants serving buffets where you have six or seven curries (some vegetable, some fish and some chicken) with rice as an accompaniment. They have wonderful tropical fruit and vegetables, spices and coconuts and they’re not shy of adding a bit of chilli. Luckily most places had one or two dishes that were kept cool for the visitors and Matija was able to eat too. Their little sweet bananas were delicious and there was always pineapple, mango and papaya to finish. It was also extremely cheap, which suited us down to the ground.

We visited the rock and Sigiriya and had a local tour with a three-wheeler driver who took us to temples, a local dam for a swim, and showed us the tree-huts the locals use to spot elephants and chase them away from their crops. One evening we went on an elephant safari at one of the tanks – ancient dams built around a thousand years ago. As the tank dries the elephants come out of the forest in the evening to graze on the grass and drink. We were on the back of a Mitsubishi Jeep and got to drive around groups of elephants. There must have been at least 250 of them and we got right up close to groups of cows and calves. It was an amazing experience at a reasonable price!

After that we had to get to our beach spot. We eventually booked a big local three-wheeler for the trip. It took a long time, was hot and dusty and was a lot of fun as we got to really taste and smell the sights on the way. The driver took us to Anaradhapura on the way, which was another ancient capital with several amazing Buddhist sites including the oldest recorded Bodhi tree in the world. He would take us nearly to the gate, look after Matija while we walked around then pick us up - a great way to go. Unfortunately we came across 40 kilometres of roadworks after Anaradhapura, which were very slow and bumpy on the three-wheeler and the local buses absolutely flew past us – we got out of the way or got run down. No kidding.

We eventually arrived at Khumba House, our guest house on the West Coast. It was on the coast beside the Puttalam Lagoon at Alankhuda beach, about 2 1/2 hours north of Colombo. It was a beautiful architecturally designed2 bedroom beach house with open verandahs. There were no windows or a/c, just shutters all round, fans and mosquito nets draped over the huge four poster beds. Bathrooms were open to the sky, which was fabulous, except for the frog which jumped into the toilet one night and gave Ande a fright. The house came complete with Andriani and Sisera who looked after the place. The web site mentioned Andriani would cook meals if asked. We found out that that meant she cooked all of the meals and cleaned up while we lay around and relaxed. We just paid for the shopping, beer and whatever else we wanted and it turned up. I think we paid around $200 for fabulous food and beer for the whole week. She was a fabulous cook and introduced us to everything from crepes with coconut and treacle to amazing spicy fried crab. There was fresh fruit with every meal, amazing lemon cordial and little shaped rice-flour pancakes called hoppers – the breakfast ones have an egg broken and cooked inside them - yum. We had a cooked breakfast, ate our curry and rice buffet at lunch then chilled with fresh fruit, treacle and toast for tea. What a life!

The beach was about 50m away, through a little grove of pines and there was a pond where Matija could feed the fish. We had a very relaxed time there, chilling out most of the time. There were three ‘resorts’ along that part of the beach, about all that was there other than fishing villagers and a power station about 5km away. The resorts were collections of 6 or so beach bungalows but they had swimming pools which we were welcome to use as the beach was unswimmable. We spend a lot of time lying around at the pool or at our house reading, although we did take a trip onto the lagoon, visiting a fishing village, drinking fresh coconut milk and watching locals netting prawns. They relied on fishing to survive and the fish were all busily drying on covered racks beside the beach. We also chugged up some of the island waterways and saw monkeys in the forest, birds and a small ammunition factory (it’s not very long since the Tamil Tigers were conducting a small civil war here).

On the last day we got an invite for lunch at the neighbouring ‘resort’. The owner, Glen Terry was a Jamaican Indian whose wife was Australian. He was a blues singer and musician and just loved entertaining. His cook prepared a feast which we ate as we sat around his awesome pool drinking wine and arak and listening to him singing the blues. It would be a great place for a three or four day party with the right people. Anyone interested?

After a very chilled out time we caught a van back to Colombo and hit the plane home. Sri Lanka was colourful, varied and very poor in places but the people were brilliant and far more smiley and outgoing than you tend to see in the Emirates. It was also very cheap – we loved it. Apparently the beaches to the South are a lot more commercial, more tourists, beggars etc.

A great place for a holiday and somewhere we would happily return to.