One of the big attractions of coastal Oman is the availability of water sports and nature. All up and down the coast from us were diving and snorkeling spots, and places where one could go whale and dolphin watching. With time to spare, we decided to spend the day at the beach.

After breakfast, we headed outside, and caught a taxi to the Oman Dive Center, a few kilometers south of the famous Al Bustan Palace, one of the most luxurious and consistently one of the very best hotels in the Middle East. Far too expensive for our taste, we settled for just the view of it in the distance as we passed by.

Oman Dive Center (http://www.diveoman.com.om/) is a nice set up. One can take just about any diving qualification there, from the introduction to SCUBA (like what I did in Bora Bora) to advanced courses like Open Water Instructor. Run by a nice Belgian guy (whom we didn't trust...Belgians have been known to waffle, you know...) and his girlfriend, it would prove to be a nice, relaxing way to spend the day.

After securing our stuff, we first checked out a kayak, and headed out into the sheltered cove to see what was around. Oman Dive Center was located in a quiet bay surrounded by an area of low cliffs. Because of the geography, the water was pretty calm as we set out in the small boat. We picked a 2 seater "sit on top" kayak, and spent most of the time trying not to tump it over. While I wasn't too concerned about getting wet or drowning, I really didn't want to mess up the camera. So, we attempted to be careful.

Once we got past the sheltered part of the bay, the waves did get a bit bigger. Also, we became sport for some of the local touts ferrying people around in their boats, as they'd come by and try to upset us with their wakes. Still, we managed not to upset.

We headed over to the famous hole in the rock, aptly named "hole in the rock" to see what was so famous about it. It was quite the attraction, as numerous boats made the trip through it from the bay out to the open sea. It was noticeably rougher on the other side, as well as enroute through it, so we (probably wisely) decided not to make the attempt. At one point, some of the guys coming through it in one of the motorboats actually waved us off. We took that as a sign not to try it.

Since our hour was about up, we started back, having to change course several times into the wakes of passing motorboats until we reached a point where we had to walk it in.

We turned in the kayak, and rented some snorkeling gear, and then headed back out into the water to swim with the fishes.

The snorkeling was not too bad, but it was pretty cold. Also, having recently been to Tahiti sort of colored my impressions. The water was quite shallow initially, and we had to walk about 200 meters before the water was actually deep enough to swim in, and even then, you could pull yourself along with your hands. Finally, along the walls of the inlet, it got a bit deeper, and there were fish and other things to look at. There were hundreds of sea urchins, so you had to be a bit careful not to run into them. Most of the fish were the standard variety one finds in shallow coastal waters, the black and white striped ones, trumpetfish, and we saw a puffer fish and a couple of sea cucumbers.

After about an hour of swimming around, it started to get a bit cold, and we decided to head back to shore. At about the point where the water was up to our waists, the water was now no deeper than our mid calf, so it was a longer walk back to the beach. Once there, we found a couple of empty beach chairs and sat in the sun warming up.

It was then that we realized that the sea was rapidly receding. With thoughts of the tsunami in Indonesia still fresh in our minds, we looked out there with a little bit of concern. None of the staff, there day in and day out, seemed too worried, so we just watched the normal tidal machinations. It was pretty interesting to see just how fast the water went out.

Mid afternoon, we started to get hungry, and grabbed a beer and some lunch at the resort's restaurant. Catered by the Al Bustan up the coast, it was excellent. I had fresh grilled tuna (probably one we'd have seen at the fish market if we went that morning). Sitting there, we watched the divers coming in from morning dives...a truck drove across what had been water an hour before to unload the tanks... and listened to the myriad accents and languages around us, hearing French, German, British, Australian, Spanish, Italian...oh, and Arabic. I think we were the only Americans though. Just as we left, a Saudi and his wife (Abaya'd up) came and sat down at the table we'd just vacated. I don't know...I just don't think it would be much fun to go to the beach all dressed in black.

After we ate, we wandered over to part of the inlet's walls for a panoramic view of the beach. From the vantage point we saw a couple returning from a sea kayaking experience, and from the looks of it, it wasn't much fun...The lady was out front walking rapidly for the beach, while the guy was left dragging the kayak across the sandbar...It was also a great place to see just how much the water had receded.

Ahmed the taxi driver came back for us at about 3 PM, and with him was his brother and son. As we drove back to town, Ahmed made sure to stop at several sites that he thought would be of interest for us to photograph.

As we drove out, we stopped at the public beach, filled with holidaymakers. We first stopped at an overlook, which had a great view of the coast and another interesting thing, women driving cars. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a picture of that...We also stopped at a waterfall (manmade), and a dhow in the middle of one of the ever present roundabouts. While sometimes infuriating, depending on the traffic, the roundabouts made for great landmarks.

We ended up back at the hotel Al Falaj, hung out there for a little while, and then went back out to Ruwi and wandered around. The night before, we'd found a real movie theater, so we stopped in there to see "Cellular." Not to give away too much of the plot, just in case you've not seen it yet, but it's about a guy who's got a Nokia 6600 phone, and gets a call from a woman in distress...he spends the whole movie embroiled in trying to save her life while trying not to let his phone die. I have the same phone, and can tell you that the charge lasts about a day and a half if you don't use it...much, much less if you do. So, the scene where he has to hold up a mobile phone store to get a car charger because his phone is dying, is definitely accurate. All in all, just the chance to see a movie in a movie theater (because there are none in the Kingdom), and eat popcorn made for a great evening to cap off a great day.

Following the movie, we went back to the hotel and had a pitcher of beer and watched the Alfa Trio do their thing...as energetically as the night before. One sort of strange custom they had was that periodically, one of the waitresses would get a string of Mardi Gras beads and hand them to each of the members of the band. From what we could figure out, customers could "buy" beads for the band for 1 OR apiece. They would then go to adorn the guy and the two ladies for a song or so, before they would return them to the rack for future customers...It was a lot more complicated than just having a tip jar up there. But hey, whatever works...