Dubai Update #11 – Nizwa, Al Ain and home to Dubai

It was the morning of Friday the 18th of January when we headed for Nizwa, the Old Capital of Oman, situated at the western end of the Hajar mountains.

We arrived fairly early in the day and could not check in to our hotel so we set off for the town centre.  It was very fortunate that we did as it was Friday, the day of prayer and rest, and after an initial foray of trade in the souq the town shuts down and the afternoon is filled with prayer and socialising. On future excursions to this part of the world we are going to have to plan around Fridays and use them as a chill out day of rest around the pool at our hotel (if it has one), as it is almost a complete waste of time to visit any tourist attractions as they are all closed. Some places after 11 am and in many cases all day.

Nizwa has a population of around 70,000 and is a trading centre linking the interior of the country with Muscat. Nizwa was the capital of Oman in the 6th and 7th centuries and is one of the oldest cities in Oman. It was once a center of trade, religion, education and art. Its Jama (grand mosque) was formerly a center for Islamic learning. Nizwa is a center for date growing and is the market place for the Ad Dakhiliyah Region.

Wandering around the town centre it soon became apparent that there were no women about. It appeared as if women did not exist. There were no women at all in the town except for a few tourists. In the town centre there were literally hoards of men socialising, meandering about, and attending prayer in the Grand Mosque. It was not until late afternoon that we happened to spot a couple of local women. It seems that the religious day of Friday is a male thing and the women must be left to pray at home. There could not possibly have been any men left at home as they were all out on the street.

We had lunch at a “restaurant” in the centre of town then set off to explore the old part of town.  As the mud walls of the buildings erode and start to collapse, the homes are either abandoned or the walls are replace with concrete blocks and render, so the old part of town is a mish mash of decay and renovation. We got into a particularly old and run down part of the town and some forced smiles started to turn in to long glares so we quietly moved back to the more welcoming areas.

That night we had a meal at our hotel and the next day we headed for Al Ain just inside the UAE border via the back road so that we could visit some of the villages on the way that were a little off the beaten track.

It was once again a fabulous drive.  Not far out of Nizwa we called into the village of Tanuf and checked out a fort that had been bombed in 1950 by the British at the request of the Sultan to help route out a bunch of rebels.  Here we ran into a Belgian couple who were camped on the side of the nearby wadi (creek bed). We chatted to them for some time, and learned the ins and outs of camping in Oman. It is impossible to hire any vehicles that are set up for camping, or camper trailers or indeed camping gear. They were forced to hire a standard 4WD and buy the camping gear they required including a tent. They had done some camping in the Australian outback so we had a lot in common to chat about. During their camping trip in Australia they managed to roll there 4WD and completely write it off in the process. The wife, who was driving at the time, having to be flown to hospital by the Flying Doctor.

In Oman you can camp wherever you can fit your tent and the locals are always obliging, friendly, and keen to make sure you are OK.

After Tanuf we continued on to Bahla hoping to have a look at the huge Bahla Castle, but as luck would have it once again, it was closed to tourists. We are not sure why, the guy at the gate was unable to communicate the reason we were not allowed to enter but we are fairly sure they were doing some major maintenance inside and visiting hours were restricted to 2 days a week.

Most (in fact all) of the historic buildings are made from mud straw and pebbles and need constant repair work from the weathering that has eaten away the walls over the centuries. We seem to be continually foiled by either religious days are renovation work whenever we want to check out some historic buildings, but now with some local knowledge we hope for a better success rate when we next visit the area.  In fact we will spend a lot more time in Nizwa and check out some of the canyons and gorges that apparently abound in the area. On this trip we were on a fairly tight time schedule so could not meander about too much.

Tourist information is really hard to find out in any of these places. In Australia of course we are use to the hotels having a plethora of tourist information but not so in Oman or the UAE. Mostly the staff don’t even know what is in the town that they live in for tourists to go and see.  We were not really expecting to go to Oman before we arrived in the UAE and had not done enough research. But next time will be a different story.

From Bahla we headed to Ibri then on to the border crossing and into Al Ain and our hotel.

We had snagged a great deal in a 5 star hotel for a late booking on the internet while we were in Muscat for 350Dhs ($85).  With a population of over 500,000, Al Ain is a bustling energetic city with a few up market hotels, but unlike Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, there are no multi story modern buildings, which for us was a positive.  We spent the afternoon wandering into the town centre and doing some window shopping.  Found a restaurant in the city for dinner then caught a cab back to the Hotel.

The next day we slept in and after a fabulous breakfast we headed to Dubai and home to the family.  We were missing the grand kids and keen to see them again. We only have a week left in the UAE so we need to make the most of the last part of our stay.

This completed a great 6 day tour of Oman, with both of us vowing that we will return when next we visit the family.