A Respite At An Inviting Pool

‘Alāyah, Oman

A Respite At An Inviting Pool

The weekends here are Friday and Saturdays. This past weekend Stewart and I had no plans. Thursday evening we were walking in the hallway of our apartment building and passed by our neighbor Keith, as he was unlocking his door. We had met a few months ago when we first arrived but had not seen him since. Keith says hello, with his strong British accent and asked if we wanted to come in for a glass of wine. Stewart and I both looked at each other then back at Keith and said, simultaneously, “yes”. We haven’t been drinking much alcohol since our arrival in Oman because it’s not available to purchase here. Although I will have to say the week before we were invited to the American Ambassador’s home where he served wine.

Keith had just come back from New Zealand and had brought back a very nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and poured each of us a glass. Now that was a nice glass of wine, one of the better ones I’ve ever had. He offered to pour another glass and my taste buds said, “yes, please more”….but my common sense said, “just a little”. Not sure how I’d react to 2 glasses of wine at this point.

You should know a little about Keith. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time with him in our last 9 weeks here. He works in the water/sewer business designing large city systems. He has lived in 40 different countries doing this work. He was raised in New Zealand but raised his family in the UK. He plays the oboe and is very active in running, hiking, biking, snorkeling, etc. He has been is Oman for over a year and dates a person from the UK who is a physical trainer and is 10 years younger than his 63 years on him. You’ll see a few photos of him in this entry and will see this man is in good shape with wonderful energy.

We ended up talking politics due to the fact that Keith is dealing with Brexit in the UK and we are dealing with Trump policies. Before we said good bye we were invited to join a group who were going dolphin watching in the morning. The group is called InterNations. This is a great organization. It’s a world wide non-profit organization with their total purpose is to connect people who are living outside of their own country. I went on line and discovered they have something going on almost everyday of the week. Yoga, photography, eating, dancing, hiking, biking etc.

Since we had no plans we said, “sure, we’d love to go”. In the morning, which was another hot beautiful day, (as usual) we met up with Keith and his friends Max and Claudia who had just spent a month in India at a yoga retreat. They are from Germany. That is another story to be told. We took off to the marina and met up with all the others that would be on this cruise. There were 16 people with room for a few more. When we arrived we were told we could snorkel and there was equipment for us to use. I had not brought a swim suit but figured I’d go in anyway. I’m not passing up any opportunity to snorkel.

We did come along to a good size school of dolphins, I tried to count how many but that was not easy to do. I did see around 8 at one point. They stayed around for awhile, about a half hour, so we did get a good opportunity to watch them. I did take a few photos but it was very choppy out there and my timing was frequently off for snapping a good one. Plus I just wanted to watch…. It was very nice to watch them swim about. I’ve never seen that many dolphins together at one time.

Eventually the dolphins swam away and we cruised on through many large rocks protruding out of the water. I suppose they were tops of the mountains that are hugging the shore line.

While cruising along the shoreline I could see snuggled in between the mountains large hotels and resorts. I had driven to a few of them and it seemed to take forever to get there by car. Now I’m seeing them from a different point of view. One of the hotels is called Shangri-La. It went out of business recently and was purchased by an Egyptian for 1/2 the cost. Many of the resorts here are not doing well. They are beautifully designed buildings in wonderful, private locations but far from the city and there’s not enough tourists visiting Muscat to keep all these places up and running.

We came in between some small islands and set the anchor close to this odd looking Dhow boat.

The water was a beautiful turquoise blue. I had my light weight LLbean windbreaker with me and took off my upper clothing and put on the windbreaker tucked it into my tight exercise pants and was ready to go in. Many people chose to relax while watching a few of us snorkel about.

The fish I saw were Butterfly fish, Parrot fish, Tang fish and lots of coral that Stewart said was dead but I couldn’t tell. It was now time to leave, so on to the boat I went, soaking wet and thrilled to have spent some time in the water even though I was to wear these pants for rest of the day. I was glad I had brought the windbreaker so I had a dry top to put on.

When we arrived back to the marina there was a restaurant next to it and a few of us decided to have lunch together. There I met a woman named Monica from Italy. She’s been in Oman for 3 years and loves it. She runs 3 Italian gelato places here. I ordered broiled King Fish, something I’ve only had once since arriving….it was a huge piece with french fries. I loved every single bite. I was full and ready for a shower and to not do anything that evening except for a long walk after the sun went down.

The next morning Stewart and I were eating breakfast with the map spread out on the table deciding what to do for the day. We had plans in the evening to meet up with all the Jewish friends to celebrate the days of Esther who became Queen of Persia in the period between 465 and 486 BC…. a huge historical event happened at this time and is now celebrated in the Jewish community around the world and is called Purim. With Esther’s influencing the king, it shows the power and influence for good that one person had way back then.

Back to breakfast and what to do with our day. The door bell rings and it’s Keith! He is all dressed for a hike. He invites us to come along with him and his friends from Germany to hike a wadi. We immediately said, “yes”. We took 2 4 wheel drive vehicles and drove 2 hours into the Hajar Mountains below Jabal Akhdar, where we had hiked a few weeks ago.

I decided to ride with Max and Claudia. The day before I learned that it was Claudia who was in India studying Yoga and I wanted to learn more about her and the month long class. The class was 7 hrs a day and each hour they did something different. It was very interesting to hear what she learned about the techniques they taught and what she got out of it. She also told me about this Chinese medicine doctor she sees in Germany. This doctor also practices psychology and is her therapist. The practice goes way, way back and has been taught within the family for many generations. I love how Claudia approaches her whole well being, it all makes sense to me.
Does anyone know of anyone in Maine or Florida that may do this type of work?

We drove off road into the wadi for a few kilometers through spongy, large stones. At some points it felt like we were out of control like when driving through heavy snow. We finally stopped the car and parked it. Then we all get in one car and head back out of the wadi. Drive onto a highway about 30 miles and turn into a small village and back into the mountains. We take a sharp turn into the same wadi but miles away. And now drive through this wadi with the same feeling of driving through snow but the sound of the rocks hitting the frame of the car tells us differently. We park the car and all put on our hiking boots. It’s now around 12:30 pm. We know we have to be back to Muscat by 7:00 for Stewart and I to get to this event by 8:00.

Now about the wadi. Wadi Al Abyad (وادي الأبـ&#16 10;ـض) in the South Al Batinah region The name of the wadi is in reference to the white color of its water pools, which is likely due to carbonate rocks in the region. What I really liked about this hike is that the wadi was nestled between the mountains. I found it intriguing to be walking on stones of all colors and then look up to the chocolate brown mountains on either side of the wadi. It was hot this day but there was a nice breeze that made in fine for me to trek along. On both sides of the wadi there was vegetation of palm trees and ornamental native grasses of many varieties.

We walked past and sometimes into small, short streams that were not easily passable and little pools of different interest. After 2 hours of hiking we stopped at this big white rock and on the other side of the rock there was this most beautiful blue small pool of water. The rock was a carbonate rock. What made the water such a special blue was the white powdery calcite in the water.

Once again I did not bring my swim suit but did have a change of T shirt. So I went behind a huge ornamental grass removed my bra and T shirt ready for another water experience. To get into the water it was slippery due to the calcite so we sat down on the rock and slid into the water. It was a prefect temperature not to cold not to hot. The pool was not big enough to swim in but easily a floating place for each of us. If we hadn’t been with strangers or I could say new found friends, I would have gone skinny dipping in it. When looking down into the water it was screaming at me skinny dip…maybe the next time.

We had our lunch and Stewart had found the perfect place to relax next to this pool. We ate and dried off, changed clothes and kept hiking to the car that was parked waiting for us. Just before the hike was to come to an end we came up to a few Muslim men that had set up an open tent and were relaxing. I asked them if they were the coffee shop. They laughed and insisted we take these Omani puddings that were individually wrapped and in a cold cooler. We graciously accepted and had to keep going due to our evening engagement. We said our good byes to now our friends from Germany and headed back to Muscat just in enough time to wash up and get to the next and last part of the evening.

Murray and Esther were hosting this party and we have now been to their home a couple of times. They are from Australia and they have been working here in Muscat. They are lovely gracious hosts. They have been in Muscat for a little over a year and are renting a grand house that is very new and modern. Big rooms and the kitchen is out doors next to a large patio.

When we arrived they had already begun the reading of Esther. Shira had told me about the story of Esther one afternoon and I was looking forward to hearing the reading to hear more about it. Well, little did I know that the story would be sung in Hebrew all 13 pages. They were nice enough to hand each of us a copy of the story written in English and Hebrew. I did not bring my glasses so I couldn’t read it. I relaxed and listened to the reading in Hebrew and imagined what they were saying. When they were finished I thanked them for inviting us and asked if I could take a copy of this story of Esther home with me. And of course they said I could. We had a nice visit with everyone and had healthy snacks. Not being Jewish this was another opportunity for me to learn about another faith. Go figure, I have to come to Oman to learn about the Jewish faith.

About the book of Esther, I have not yet read the whole story but I understand it is in the Old Testament.

This coming weekend is a full one for us. We are going to a farm a 45 minutes drive out of Muscat on Friday for lunch with a friend and her family. Then come back to Muscat and go Salsa Dancing. Saturday evening Stewart’s daughter Jessy is flying in for a week. We are taking her to the desert camp, Old Castle museum and the wadis out that direction. It’ll be interesting to see what it’s like a second time around.