Natasha and David: OH MAN! We love the Middle East

Upon arrival in Oman, one could not help, but notice the western influence on this country. T.G.I.Fridays, McDonalds, KFC, and Hardees have all staked a huge claim on this place and they were all packed with customers. We arrived at the Shang-Ri-La in the late evening and had some great Tapas style food and then hit the bed. We had an early morning meeting and this time we were told we actually could rent a car. And get this…a 4X4 was recommended. We also were allowed to team up with others for an unlimited amount of scavenges. We teamed up with Two Steps Ahead – James and Jeff. We rented a nice Toyota Four Runner and hit the road to Nakhal Fort. This fort seemed straight out of the movies and could not have been any cooler. It showed how these pioneers did it back in the day.

Mom and Dad - Recognize this?

Then the fun really began. We headed to Bald Sayt, a village located in the middle of nowhere. The map showed a solid red line for the road and then it changed to a dotted gray line. Not sure what that really meant, we were on our way. We were driving on the freeway and then all of a sudden, the pavement ended and gravel road began. And not gravel as in old country road. Gravel as in crushed rocks in the mountains. We traveled for about an hour following another vehicle and Natasha thought we were lost until we ran across a milage marker outside of the town letting us know that we still had a long trip ahead of us. The pictures do not provide justice of just how high we were in the mountains. We found a nice spring along the way so we stopped to explore and stick our feet in. A local there had just killed a snake. People take full advantage of these water sources and have picnics and hikes with the family. We continued on twisting and climbing and eventually stumbled on Bald Sayt. How they got the materials to make this city in the middle of the mountains beats me. The moutain climbed ended up taking much longer than we expected so we called it a night afterwards.

The next day we set out to have some fun. We had all agreed that we wanted to make it to the Wahiba Sand Dunes. We asked around and found out about a village of bedouins who might be able to help us have some fun in the desert. Right as we arrived at the dunes, a guy flagged us down wanting to show us the dunes (for a fee, of course). We agreed and ended up having the time of ours lives.

He first took us through the sand dunes. They are very dangerous and if you don’t make it up the dune (you have to gun it to the top), you run the risk of tumbling over or sinking in the dune. Only after we finished did the guide tell us that he has seen many a tourist tumble in their rental cars attempting to ride the dunes. All three of the guys attempted driving the dunes. Jeff and David were experts….but it was so freaking scary. At one point I wanted to get out and let the boys do their thing, but the sand was so hot that I couldn’t stand it. I had to stay for the ride and closed my eyes and screamed the whole time.