So, as much as I would have liked to have updated the blog recently I have at least got some fairly creative excuses as to why it has been on hold. First, my laptop managed to contract a pretty nasty virus about a week and a half ago which kept it for the most part completely dysfunctional.

Then, once I finally got that straightened out I was sitting in a restaurant in Dahab going through my photos when a waiter decided it would be a good idea to spill mango juice on my laptop's keyboard. Needless to say that didn't go over all that well and now the computer works fine minus the "A", "F", "G", "L" and "2" keys. So, now I am going to be forced to write updates missing all of those letters (which might be more interesting than past updates...) or do the whole thing from Internet Cafe's which will definitely cut back on my flexibility.

In either case, I promise in the next couple of days to write something to update everyone on my recent travels to Oman, UAE, Egypt and my current locale of Lebanon.

Steven

About halfway through my trip to Dubai I decided to take a brief detour and spend a week touring around Oman. I started out in the capital city of Muscat spending the better part of two days just walking around the city and enjoying the relaxed pace of life in this beautiful capital built directly into the mountains along the coast.




The only slight snafu in Muscat occurred when I tried to get some cash at a local ATM machine and the machine just ate my card without even giving me the opportunity to enter my PIN code. Prior to this my plan was to spend the next 4 days traveling around the south of the country but due to my ATM card having been eaten I wanted to make sure I was back in Muscat on a work-day to see if I could get it back which meant I could only spend two days down south. Because of this abridged timeline I signed-up for a two day pre-packaged tour of the south. When I called to book the trip I was told it would be no problem at all because four “western girls” had signed up for the same trip leaving on the same day and the Land Cruiser could seat five without any problems, so I was certainly not going to complain about that.

Unfortunately, when the car came to pick me up the next morning it became readily apparent that the tour-company didn’t account for luggage when they said five people would be no-problem, so I ended up having to squeeze in the back of the Land-Cruiser with five people’s stuff. After a significant amount of rearranging everyone's stuff I was able to make a big-enough space for me to sit during the five hour drive. One other up-side to the company was two of the girls were Swedes who were visiting Oman on vacation so I actually had the chance to practice my horrendously rusty Swedish.


On the first day of the trip we made a couple of stops at some old and abandoned towns as well as at two wadis which are riverbeds that have been carved into the surrounding mountains by the force of the water over thousands of years. The wadis where we stopped were particularly picturesque as the river was surrounded by date-palms all surrounded by giant red-cliffs on both sides. An additional bonus about one of these wadi’s was that we were able to take advantage of the beautiful weather on the Arabian Peninsula and had the chance to go swimming and relax in the sun for several hours before moving on to our next stop.




From the Wadis we headed into the desert where we were planning to stay at a “Bedouin-style” camp and where we could also take-part in some desert activities. When we got to the camp I realized that “Bedouin-style” was being used in a definitely generous manner since the accommodations were made out of concrete, each had its own bathroom with running water and they were all attached into fairly sizeable C shaped buildings. So much for camping…

Once we had checked into the “camp” we spent the next hour or so four-wheeling through the sand-dunes before stopping to watch the sunset and then eating a “traditional” Bedouin dinner at the campsite.




The next morning I decided to wake up at 5:30am so I could hike up to the top of a gigantic sand-dune near the camp to try and catch sunrise. A thick layer of fog prevented the sun from actually showing itself until around 8:00am but in the meantime I was able to take a number of really cool photos of the dunes.





The second day of the trip started off with breakfast with a mostly authentic Bedouin family and another hour or so of off-roading on the Sand-Dunes. After that we went on a tour of Sur, a port-city in the south of the country and then we convinced the driver to stop by another Wadi on our way back for some more time in the sun before our return to Muscat.




When I got back to Muscat I spent the next day killing time as the bank told me that they wouldn’t be able to get my card until after 3:30pm. Fortunately, it worked out and they were able to actually get me my card back which saved me some significant hassles. Finally, on my last day in Oman I snuck into the Intercontinental hotel and hung out at the pool taking it easy until I had to go catch my flight back to Dubai

After almost a month in Tunisia it was time to move on to my next destination of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Rather than a destination where I was planning to see a bunch of sites my only goal in Dubai was to relax, hang out with some friends, enjoy the beach and take it easy. In fact, during the five days I was there I only took my camera out once when I toured the old part of the city.