Oman weekend

Cathy and Stan my long time friends from NZ are visiting Dubai. They've had a week in Jordan which they thoroughly enjoyed and are now back in Dubai. Colin and I and C&S left Dubai after work and headed to the Mezyad border. After the irritation (to Colin) of Kiwis crossing over to Oman for free while he has to pay, we were over without too much trouble. As a reality check however, one the other women in the group is Algerian and the Omani border guards refused to let her over the border because she, as a married woman, was travelling without a letter of permission from her husband. In the end she phoned her husband who had to drive all the way down to the border from Dubai (2 hours)to show his passport and write the necessary letter of permission, and only then was she permitted to cross the border.

Next stop was an overnight stay at the Ibri Hotel. Strangely for a hotel in the back blocks of Oman, the Ibri Hotel makes some of the finest chips in the world. Next day we went out to the pre-historic tombs at Bat, then to Al Ayn where the 5,000year old tombs are far better preserved. Next we went to Al Hoota Cave at the foot of Jabal Shams. The cave system is 5kms long though only about 1/10th of it is currently available to view. The path through the cave passes lots of stalagmites and stalagtites. There were other amazing rock formations formed by the movement of the water through the caves over the centuries. The water flow still continues sometimes to extremes as the cave system was closed to visitors for 7 months due to a total flood of the cave system after heavy rain.Al Hoota only reopened recently. Next to Misfat al Abreyeen an mountainside village which has an ancient but still functioning irrigation system of water channels which carry water to all parts of the village and into the cliff side fields where dates and other small crops are grown.

Next stop Nizwa and the Golden Tulip Hotel. It was the end of a long day so after checking in, being given the wrong room and having to go back to reception to change rooms, we went to the Al Wasit Bar in the hotel which is a faux English pub style bar. We ordered 3 beers and a bottle of water for the 4 of us. The prices for nuts, light snacks are on display on the bar but nowhere is the price for alcohol displayed and, in a large hotel, I wouldn't expect to have to work the bill out myself anyway. I ordered the drinks, the waitress told me the price and I paid it. Later, while we sat at the table I ordered another 3 beers and another member of the foursome paid the amount the waitress asked for. As we left the bar, a waiter ran after us and asked me to pay for two more beers. We'd paid everything they'd asked for so I told him there must be a mistake. Later while we sat at dinner the waitress approached me and asked me to pay for three more beers. I told her "no", that I ordered the drinks, had paid what she asked and that was that. She told me (a) she had mistaken the price, then (b) that she had confused my order with another customer (Ha! In the whole time we were in the bar only one other couple came in) then (c) that she had not realised that I was paying for the whole round (Come on! In an international hotel the concept of paying for 'rounds' would not be foreign to her!). I then had to get up from dinner with my partner and friends and go back to the bar where, to the total horror of the staff, I asked to see the till receipts but oh what a surprise, there were none as she'd "forgotten" to put it through the till. She then proceeded to get out a piece of paper and cover it with figures and arrows which supposedly showed that I still had to pay for three drinks. I asked to see the manager and his reaction was to shrug his shoulders. My partner asked the waitress to explain again and there was more paper with more figures, lines and arrows. In the end, as my evening had been completely spoilt, I paid the 6 Riyals for the beers which supposedly had cost 5.701 and I was handed change for the 6 Riyals I paid. The change was wrapped in a till receipt. I left the bar without checking the change and went to reception, complained to the manager and got more shrugging of shoulders which seems to be a Golden Tulip Nizwa specialty. I found later to my great amusement that the waitress in a final act of customer alienation had shortchanged me and had only given me 200 baisa change instead of 300. However, she had managed to put the money into the till this time and give me a printed receipt for the 6 Riyals at least.

Next day we wandered round the Nizwa market then the Nizwa Fort, over to the Bahla pottery and the walls of Bahla fort which we couldn't get into as it is still being restored. In the afternoon we went over to Jabreen Castle and finished the weekend with a visit to the deserted village at Al Salaif. The residents of Al Sulaif moved out 30 years ago and the place has been deserted since then. Its like a ghost town, the mosque had ceiling fans still hanging in place from the rafters. The photos are here.