Turtle beach

Turtle beach is a marvelous place located 30 minutes away eastward from Sur. The place is supervised by the authorities, and you can only access after recorded at the point of control.

The turtles come here all year long, to lay during the night and they leave just before the rising of the sun. in early morning you can see baby turtles fighting to reach the sea.

You can sleep at the turtle beach resort that we recommend, or go to the Ras al Hadd resort which is just on the turtle beach itself.

Note : Avoid going there during Eid holidays because there is too many people and the authorities just don't know how to handle the crowd.

Blue city

- edit : according to latest comment : Blue City officially closed down the project end March 2011. -

"Blue city" is an $20 billion project which the aim is to build a new luxurious 35km² city, 1 hour away to the west of Muscat. It reflects very well the transformation in progress in Oman and the ambitions of the sultanate for the future.


This project is so huge that it has been divided in 10 phases. The phase1 (only 5,5km²) should be finished only in 2013


Some people already consider the purpose of "Blue city" is to become the new capital of Oman... I think I will come back in Oman in 20 years just to see how the country has evolved and if Muscat is still the capital ;)


more info : official website, wikipedia...

The sultanate of Oman, a revolution in trompe-l'oeil

It does no harm just this once, I will speak about a new french book, named "Le sultanat d'Oman, une révolution en trompe-l'oeil". I wish I could have read this book at the beginning of my expatriation, it would have help me to better understand the country where I've lived for almost a year now.

In this book, the author (a french researcher, Marc Valeri) describes the history of the country (including the war of the Dhofar, 1965-1975), with a great freedom of speech, and then explains how the Sultan Qaboos since 1970 has succeeded in unifying the country by putting in place a welfare state (thanks to the petrol incomes) and by creating an Omani identity. It explains also very well the different categories of population that composed Oman, their relations, and the possible tension between them... At the end, the author gives us his view of the young Omanis mentality, and the futur issues the sultanate will have to face after Sultan Qaboos era.

This is a very exhaustive book, full of details about the Omani society. I give you below a few things that struck my mind :

• The life expectancy was 40 years old in 1940, and is now 74,5
• Their is a guaranteed minimum wage for the Omani : 140 OMR
• in dec. 2006, 52,6% of the Omani working population was in the public sector
• 38,9% of the Omani are less than 15 years old, 53,7% less than 20 years old, and only 3% over 60 years old.
• Officially, 35% of the marriage are between cousins. But if you take into account larger blood relations, it can be 55%.
• 6,3% of Omani live with several wifes (16% in the Dhofar).
• 80% of the Omani think that censoring the local or foreign television programs is good.
• For those who wonder who will succeed the sultan, it has been reported that the Sultan has declared having identified 2 possible successors, and has put their names in sealed envelopes hidden in two different regions of Oman. Note also that the Sultan has been married in 1976, but he has divorced in 1980.
• some rare cases of excision have been reported in rural area of the country.
  

Wadi Shab

Wadi Shab is located just next to Wadi Tiwi. You have to park at the entrance of the Wadi and continue by foot. The path and goes inside the gorge and is very lovely, even if Gonu has destroyed a lot of palm trees...

on the path you will find several small natural pools where you can swim. But the big fun is at the end of the wadi (after 1hour walking) : you can access a little cave by swimming, and then you can climb the rocks and make enormous jumps in the water !

NOTE : Too many people are going to Wadi shab and wadi Tiwi during Eid Mubarak holidays. You should definitely avoid this period to visit these places.