One the major building you may find in Muscat is the Grand Mosque. It is devoted to the spirituality of the Oman people. Whether you pass by night or day, it is a architectural wonder made in the Middle East style of Mosques.
As it is a place of worship, non-Muslims may not enter as they will. However, guided tour are offered everyday from 8am to 11am.
One of the gate with the golden globe
I'm sure my mom would love having such lights
Next week is the Muscat semi-marathon. It takes place on the beach road (18th November St.) behind Seeb International Airport on February 6th.
There are actually 3 races going on : 21km, 10km and 3km. The latest is open to families and kids as well as wheelchairs. It starts at 7:00am for the two longest loops and 9h30 for the 3km one.
The entrance fee is 3.5/2.5/1.5 RO depending on which race you want to run.
Map from muscatmarathon.org
I think I'm going to go for the 10km loop. It'll be a nice experience to participate to a Muscat held sport event. One can register at Sultan Qaboos Sport Complex, at SQU sport department or at the following Omanoil gas stations:
- CBD (Near Sheraton)
- MQ (Near British Council)
- Ghubra (North)
- Bowsher (Near Lulu)
- Ghala (Near Royal Hospital)
- Ghala (Industrial Area)
- Al Hail
- Wadi Al Bahals (seeb)
- Mabella (North)
- Mabella (After the over bridge towards Muscat)
- Mabella (South)
- Al Khoudh (Village)
- Wadi Al Khoud
You can find all the useful information about this event by clicking here.
I'll keep you updated about the race.
I went back to France for the new year holiday. I was not lucky because it was really freezing due to a cold wave over Europe. The temperatures were about -10°C !
Amiens Cathedral lightings for the Holiday season
Street lighting in Amiens
Christmas market in Lille
The car after the first day of snow
Amiens Library under the snow
Thais playing in the snow (she did not like it very much actually)
Chocolate waffle in Amiens
Frozen water fountain in Salouel (near Amiens)
Funny picture in a flower shop in Lille (Soleil means "Sun" in French).
On my way back, over the Alps
The following post has nothing to do with Oman. However, I have run into a video I think worth sharing with you.
It's a Ukulele version of "Smells like teen spirit" by Nirvana. It is performed by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain which seems to enjoy playing music hits "ukulele style"... You can find more video from them on youtube.
The gulf cup is a soccer event during which all gulf countries team play a tournament. It takes in a different country every year.
The 19th edition of the cup was held in Oman. After defeating Qatar in semi-final, they were to play against Saudi for final. Every time Oman was playing, the city froze for 90min: almost no car in streets, everybody at home or in cafés in front of TV screen...
Most games were held in Sultan Qaboos Sport Complex. Since I live in Al Khuwair, traffic just gets crazy after games and it took me hours to get back home.
Yesterday was the last game of this year's tournament. Last time, Oman made it to the final but lost.
Since I was working, I could only see the second half. It was a good match, Oman playing better than Saudi. After 90min, the score was still 0-0 and remained so after extra time (players were tired so extra time was poor quality football).
I turned off TV for penalty kicks. I don't like them much. I opened the windows and I could hear the crowd at the nearby stadium. Therefore, I pretty much knew the score of the P. kicks from the scream of the people.
Then, it was 6-5 and Oman won. Within minutes, the road were blocked by cars honking and people dancing in the middle of the street. Most people were wearing a scarf or a hat with Omani colors. It was really crazy but funny. Unfortunately, I had no camera with me at that time.
Some people have put Omani flags on their wipers and have put them on thus it looked like the car was waving the flags...
Other people were playing drum on the side of the road. Motorists stopped and started to dance, leaving their car in the middle of the street, making the traffic even worse.
The game finished at 7:45pm but the streets remained animated till about 1:30am. After the game Sultan Qaboos granted a day off the next day to pubic and private sector. It's kind of a short notice but it's the way holidays I granted here (for another example about the national holiday, please check here).
For what I know, people have been wandering around in their cars all day long, honking to celebrate the first victory of Oman in the Gulf tournament.
Since I put up a message regarding the funny road sign in Oman, one of my friends who used to work in Doha (Qatar) sent me this quite interesting picture.
Thank you Fabien for sharing this one.
Driving in Oman is straightforward (it is actually straight forward since most roads go straight through desert areas). However, on major highways, you may run into roundabouts (I know it seems strange to slow down for roundabout while driving at 120km/h). They are important benchmarks when asking for directions. In Muscat for instance, everybody uses Ruwi or Al Gubrah roundabout as useful starting point to give detailed directions.
They all have a name, I mean an official one, like "Barka roundabout". However, they are also widely known through they nickname : the "clocktower R/A" in A'Seeb or the "coffee pot R/A" in Fujairah (UAE). The nickname usually comes from the symbol erected in the center of the roundabout.
Some roundabouts are simply gorgeous. Here are few examples, these pictures were taken on the road from Barka to the border post with Sharjah (UAE):
In Europe, we are used to seeing warning signs about cow or deer crossing the roads.
Here, it's quite different since you are more likely to run into a camel or a half-goat. Given the value of one camel, you should take this warning sign very seriously.
And couple of kilometers later, on the same road :
One of the most surprising thing while driving in Oman is the number of pedestrians you may find running to cross the highway.
However, pedestrians are not the only hazard you may encounter on the road. So far, I have seen : civil works vehicles, bicycles driving on the right hand lane, ambulance taking the emergency lane the wrong way, different kinds of animals (camel, half-goat,...).
For information, the speed limit on the highway is 120km/h, thus crossing it on foot is quite dangerous.
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