Oman day 3...The Wadi Shab!

Day three in Oman saw us awake bright and early to catch our tour to the Wadi Shab. We scarfed down a quick breakfast and then met our guide, Mohammed, in the lobby to start the tour. Its an hour and a half car ride to the Wadi, so we headed out early to beat the crowds.

So, along with these gorgeous mountains in Oman, its also home to a few Wadi's, which is a valley, channel, or ravine. The Wadi's in Oman are nestled in amongst the mountains and create this amazing network of valleys and caves and pools of water. During the rainy season the wadi's fill up and all over Muscat we could see empty river beds that fill with water and in the Wadi Shab area you could see the lines on the rocks where the water comes up to.

Wadi Shab translates to "the gorge between cliffs" which is the perfect name for it!

We drove through the mountains again and saw a lot more of the country side of Oman. It really is gorgeous. The road we were on was flanked part of the time by the sea, so we each way we looked was gorgeous. We arrived at the Wadi and got into a small boat to head across the little waterway to the other side to start our journey.

Our guide told us that his family was from the area and we even passed by his grandfathers garden. He pointed out all the plants and fruits that were growing and spoke about his adventures through the wadi when he was young. It absolutely added an element to the tour that I wasn't expecting!

In the past decade there have been two huge storms blow through the area and the last one absolutely destroyed a lot of the plant life and they've had to really rebuild a lot from the damage.

We hiked for about forty five minutes, while Mohammed pointed out interesting caves and structures throughout and told us stories and anecdotes about the area. The ground itself was uneven and sometimes challenging, but it was beautiful and so much fun! All along the hike we could see the water system they had built to bring water to the village-it was a simple idea but effective and fascinating to see.

We came to a large pool and took our shoes off and tucked our belongings into a little part of the mountain before getting into the cool, clear water. Although it wasn't terribly hot out, the hike had us warm and ready to cool off so the water was a welcome reprieve!  We didn't take our phones or the big camera with us, but we did have the GoPro, so we do have a few shots. I wish we had more, but I'm also glad that we just enjoyed it instead of seeing everything through a lens. 

This is a shot under the water. It was SO clear!!!

One part of the swim brought us to an edge we had to climb over to get back into the water. We all jumped in off this cliff! (That's Christopher diving in!) I'm not a great judge of height, but if I had to guess I'd say we were maybe 20 feet in the air? Stella was nervous so I might have chucked her in to her Daddy's arms, but hey, she did it!

We swam some more, taking turns helping Stella out 

But she also swam quite a bit by herself! 

After a little while we made it to a cave and had to squeeze in through this small passage to get into the cave! It was absolutely incredible and I have no good pictures of it, but it was incredible! It was a tight fit but it opened up into something out of a book. While its obviously no secret, it felt like one! There was a waterfall and places carved out along the wall to climb up or hold on to. 

That little opening on the bottom--sort of left of center where that person is, is the entrance to the cave!

Christopher climbed up the waterfall and our guide took him back and around and to the top of the highest cliff point in the cave. It was maybe... 30 or 40 feet in the air? He totally jumped off while Stella and I cheered him on!

Meanwhile, Stella climbed up the walls and kept jumping in the water-- her own little version of cliff diving! She had a blast!

After the guys jumped and swam back to us, Mohammed led us over to the waterfall and showed us a tiny little opening and we all swam through it and ended up behind the water fall! It was as magical as it sounds! Totally one of those "pinch me" moments... well, the whole Wadi experience was pretty much a pinch me moment, if I'm being honest! 

We splashed around a bit more and then headed back out of the cave to swim our way back to the hike. Things got a little... dramatic with stella once some vegetation brushed her leg and then a dragonfly had the audacity to fly in her vicinity, so we sort of half swam, half drug a screaming child most of the way back. Not exactly a post card moment, but hey, its real life.

Seriously. These mountains are just amazing! 

After we went back through the hike and got to the car, we changed clothes and headed into the village right by the Wadi for some lunch. Its a small village named Tiwi and it was quaint and also like something out of a book. We parked and walked up to this small cafe where they asked us if we wanted chicken, beef, or fish and then headed to the kitchen to prepare our meal. While we were waiting a herd of goats walked past us with their goatherd and we just sort of looked at each other wondering if this was real life (in a good way, of course!).

Tiwi and the Arabian Sea

They brought out our meal and just kept bringing plates! Homemade bread, a giant plate of fragrant rice (not pictured), vegetables, tandoori grilled chicken, a savory, spiced beef dish, and fresh salad. It was all delicious! I have no clue what some of it was, but it was all quite good. Some of the best meals we've ever had have been like this...we just show up and don't see a menu and they bring a spread of food. Its such an awesome experience to eat like that without expectation.

A little side note here... the beef dish was delicious. Absolutely incredible spices and flavors and just... mouthwatering. The beef itself wasn't amazing... some pieces were very tender and some were a bit chewy. Come to find out? It was goat beef. Yeah... goat beef.  Like the cute, funny little herd of goats that we had seen crossing the street maybe ten minutes before. Goat. I'll admit, it was a lot more  difficult to swallow after I found that out. But then again, I straddle the fence on eating meat as it is. Christopher had no qualms devouring it.

After we finished lunch we climbed back into the car with full bellies and sleepy eyes and headed to the sink hole nearby. 

Legend has it that a shooting star fell from the sky and created the sink hole... some scientists have come and disputed this, but, like the older people from the surrounding villages, I'd like to stick to the fallen star story. 

The water thats filled the sink hole is from the Arabian sea and it is as clear as any water you've ever seen! They've sent divers down to try and see how deep, but they made it just past 100 meters and decided that was deep enough for them and so they have no clue how deep it truly is. 

There are steps leading down into the sinkhole, which people use as a swimming hole, so we walked down the steps and stuck our feet into the water! We'd already changed clothes so we didn't swim (and we saw a water snake, so that kept my butt firmly out of the water, to be honest!) but we sat down there a few minutes and just watched the swimmers and relaxed a few minutes (it was prayer time and Mohammed had opted out of trekking down the stairs and was taking that time to pray). 

We climbed back out of the sink hole and headed back to the car, but not before stopping by a swing so Stella could swing. Never mind the beautiful sights and the view of the Arabian Sea... that girl had eyes for the swing only!

We started the trek back to our hotel and a few minutes before we arrived, Mohammed stopped and got us some Omani bread and tea and coffee to try! The bread was sort of like a crepe and it was filled with a creamy cheese and honey. It was absolutely divine!!! Christopher had coffee with milk and spices and I had tea with spices and saffron and it was, like my souk tea, incredible! The Omani's can definitely do tea!

The view of the mountains on the drive back. The highest peaks actually get snow in the winter!

Oman... Day 2!

Day two in Oman was our relaxing day. We had things planned for the rest of our time there and wanted to be sure and actually vacation instead of just going, going, going the whole time we were there.

So we lounged around the hotel and swam in the pool and in the evening we headed to Qurum National Park to get some fresh air and let Stella play.

Something else you should know about Oman is that its incredibly lush. There's grass and plants and loads of palm trees and it just feels like an oasis in the middle of the desert. I realize we haven't been in the middle east for very long, but we do miss grass very much-- especially the two incredibly outdoorsy people I live with.

We walked into the park and were just surrounded by all that bright, verdant lushness. We walked around for a few minutes and then found an awesome park for Stella to play at so we copped a squat on the grass and let her run and play. 

We stayed until the sun went down and even after that before we walked back to our hotel. Staying where we did in Muscat afforded us the opportunity to walk to quite a few places and gave us a different vantage point to the city. We always try to walk a city if we can-- its truly the best way to get a true feel for the it and its people.

We continued our easy, relaxing day with a movie and some food delivered to our room and called it an early night to rest up for the next days' adventures!

Oman...day 1!

When we got orders to Bahrain we quickly realized that an entire part of the world was opened up to us for travel. Obviously we could travel to the middle east before this, if we'd chosen to, but now were here and its easy and relatively inexpensive to see this part of the world. We've made lists of things we want to see and places we want to go and this past week we started to make a dent in that list.

Oman is located at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf and shares land borders with Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Its officially called the Sultanate of Oman since its ruled by a Sultan-- who happens to be one of the longest reigning monarchs in the world and the longest serving current ruler in the Middle East.

This is the sultan-- his picture is all over Oman like this. (And the Bahrain kings picture is all over Bahrain as well)

We took a morning flight on Thanksgiving morning and arrived in Oman by lunch. It was a quick hour and a half flight and we flew over some gorgeous sights! I think sometimes we get so focused on the destination that we forget to look out the window and over the wing sometimes. I've been lucky enough in my life to fly over some crazy amazing things and the Middle East is no different.  From our vantage point we could see the Palm Islands of Dubai, the vast desert, and the Arabian gulf. It was absolutely incredible.

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After landing we headed to our hotel and wove our way through the amazingly gorgeous mountains that tower over the city of Muscat. They were giant and craggy and so, very different from the mountains we grew up around, but beautiful in their own right.

We got into our hotel and went out for a bite of lunch and then headed to the Souk. Only a few shops were open so we went back to the hotel and rested a bit and headed back out there in the evening. It was a completely different place once the sun had set. All the stalls were open and it was bustling with people. We stopped and grabbed some drinks and I had one of the best cups of chai I've ever had! It was sweet and creamy and spicy.

The entrance and ceiling to the souk-- gorgeous!

We walked around for a little bit, getting lost in the winding streets of the market, sucked in by the lights, the bright colors, and the smells of exotic spices. Stella even picked out some fancy Omani shoes to take home with her.

One thing we noticed about Oman right off the bat is how different the dress is from Bahrain. Here in Bahrain the thobes that men wear are white and unadorned and they wear a red and white Ghutra (the scarf) on their heads. The women are in black abaya's; some decorated but mostly plain black and there are a lot of women who are fully veiled.  In Oman, the men wear thobes with tassels and two different types of head coverings-- a kuma, which is a small, embroidered cap, and a massar, which is an embroidered, wool turban. Both of these are brightly colored and patterned and I don't think we saw the same one twice! The women were in more colorful abayas or at least more embroidered abayas and we saw very few women who wore veils. Everything about the people in Oman just seemed vibrant and colorful!

Some kumas for sale in a shop 

Another difference in Oman is that everyone seemed more welcoming. Not that the Bahraini's aren't welcoming, they are, but it was different in Oman. In Bahrain the Muslim men won't hardly make eye contact with me and they always address Christopher instead of me. In Oman, they spoke to me and made eye contact and I felt a lot more seen and not as ignored or looked over. Maybe it's all the color or maybe the fact that there's grass instead of just sand and dirt, but the omani's just seemed a much more jovial people!  

Cooking class

So, most everyone knows how important food is to me... sharing a meal with friends and family, pouring over cookbooks, scouring new cities for decadent cuisine I've never tasted before, spending time in the kitchen creating and discovering... I love it all. So when an opportunity came to take a cooking class at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, Cut, here in Bahrain, I jumped at the chance! 

We were greeted and welcomed into the kitchen with a glass of champagne and introductions to the kitchen staff. We worked with the executive chef, Chef Brian , the head Pastry chef, Chef Pierre, and the head soux chef, Felipe. We donned aprons and started out on the pastry side of things. 

Chef Pierre walked us through a simple Chinese donut dough. We mixed and kneaded, and kneaded and mixed our dough and set it aside to rise and moved on to the savory side of the house. 

We moved on to our next station and prepped our beef for the beef tataki. We seasoned our filets and let them rest while we mixed together a ponzu dipping sauce. 

Next we moved over to the giant stove and seared our beef. And oh, how I've missed cooking on gas! 

 

We seared our filets and let them rest while we moved on to pot stickers. The chef mixed the pot sticker mixture up for us, demonstrating what to do when we got home to recreate what we learned. It was a mix of wagyu beef, garlic, ginger, scallion, and a few other things. Once the mixture was prepped, through the miracle of a professional kitchen, we were handed some pre-made balls of mixture that they'd prepped for us beforehand. They'd also made the wrappers (rice and tapioca flour) and had cut them into rounds for us. The chef showed us how to fold them and create our dumplings and we got to work. It was harder than it looked, but mine turned out okay, I think! 

After we finished our potstickers we headed back over to pastry and finished our donuts. Chef Pierre shows us how to roll out our dough and taught us that, traditionally, in China, instead of spreading flour out on the board to keep dough from sticking, they use oil. So that's what we did and damn if it didn't work! I've made pie crusts from scratch for over a decade now and I can't imagine dough not sticking without using flour (obviously this was an entirely different dough, but still) so that was a really cool thing to learn hands on. He taught us how to cut the donuts in traditional star shapes and we got to work. (I forgot to take a picture of my dough all cut out, but it wasn't amazing so that's okay... haha!) once we were finished cutting them out and shaping them we got to go to the deep fryer and fry up a couple to test them out!  After frying they got tossed in cinnamon sugar and yes, they were AMAZING!!! They labeled each of our trays and fried the rest while we ate later. 

Once we finished with our donuts they sat us in the restaurant and served us fresh made bread and pretzels while they finished our dishes for us. The beef tataki was brought out first and it was delicious! Just seared and rare in the middle, dressed with cucumber, scallions, and chile and served with ponzu... it was light and melt in your mouth delicious! 

Next up were our dumplings and seriously? The best dumplings I've ever had. They were perfectly seasoned and full of flavor! I don't know how many I ate, but each and every morsel was just divine! 

After stuffing our faces with all the delicious savory food, they cleared the table and then presented our Chinese donuts! Fried to golden brown and coated in cinnamon sugar, these bites of heaven were amazing. Chef Pierre brought out a decadent chocolate sauce to serve on the side, but, and I can't believe I'm saying this, it wasn't necessary. They were decadent and incredible all on their own! 

It was such an awesome day and I'm definitely on the hunt for more cooking classes on the island. It felt good to be in a kitchen, learning from professionals and creating something amazing. 

A couple of behind the scenes shots for all my culinary geeks