Weekend Recap: We're Going to Sinaw, We're going to Sinaw

On the weekend, OPNO and friends drove to Sinaw from the road in Bid Bid. And we only took one wrong turn, which was the fault of some old Omani dude in a petrol station we asked directions from. He said to turn at the next petrol station. He meaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant, the next petrol station AFTER the next petrol station.

Thank you nice Sharqiyah family who drove as all the way to the real road!

All the way there, Princess and OPNO were chanting, "We're going to Sinaw, we're going to sinaw" and MOP was singing Dhofari traditional songs, about pearls, "Da da dana" or something, and not-so-traditional songs from Salalah, about a young Dhofari lad at the Univeristy begging the security guard to let him in to see a girl, because he was a changed man, although not related to the girl.

Radio does not work once you hit the mountains.

Well, it was a nice trip, lots of driving. We left late though, so really, it is better to leave at 6 or 7 am from Muscat on the Nizwa road to get to the traditional souq in Sinaw if you want to see it for what it is. 9 am until 11 am is the best time to see Souq Sinaw.

Thankfully, we still checked out the going price on camels for meat and for riding. (We are poor folks, and racing camels, we do not need).

Though MOP told us a funny story about "racing camels" from back in the days when he worked with the Beduoin.

We mainly went to check out the Beduoin culture, and to see some real knives and khanjars. We also checked the prices on some antique rifles, cuz MOP wants one. OPNO REEEEAAALLLY wanted to buy some Sharqiyah traditional dresses but we came to late for that.

We did buy a decent box of tomatoes though, for only 1 rial, lol, and checked out a Mandoos tv cabinet which was totally cool for one of the rooms in one the OPNO girl's places.

After the Souq sinaw closed, and the most sensitive OPNO had petted her fair share of camels and goats, getting excited everytime she saw a Toyato pick up with two camels haunched in the back yelling at them "Hi sweeties!!!!!!" to the chagrin of MOP, the group headed to Nizwa by way of Adam, haunted by sign advertised Adam's horse racetrack, where they explored the Niwa souq there and had lunch in a grand coffee shop. (The red one) acroos from the mountain that kind of looks like a dragon sleeping or a stegasaurus (sorry, my directions SUCK without pictures). Perfect meal, for only three rials et al. Yummy.

For all ya'll who have never seen the most famous fort (I don't know why, I don't love it all that much though it has some great cannons) (maybe cuz there are ALWAYS busloads of tourists here so shopping for a decent price is hard): Nizwa fort, open Saturday to Thursday, from 9 am until 4pm, and Fridays, 8:00 am until 11:00 am.

They also explored an Islamic book shop, looking for a book explaining Ibadhi fiqh, and bought some Salat lecture cassette tapes in the Ibadhi madhab. This is a religious thing. If you're not Islamically inclined, ignore.

After that, they THOUGHT of driving through Izki, but decided to save that for another day, and headed back to Muscat on the Nizwa road way.

OPNOs practiced their reading of Arabic under the tutelage of MOP who was aghast that the girls could not read "Fanja" since they knew all the letters, and at home they watched four movies, two of which were terrible, picked by MOP, and one that was okay, picked by Princess, and one that was excellent, of course, picked by OPNO. ;p take THAT MOP.