Caliban - Opinion and Righteous Anger

One of my New Year's resolutions this year (well, OK, it's my only one) is to try to travel more. In a few years' time, Eloïse will be in school and regular travel will be much harder, so it's important to cram in as much as we can now, whilst we still have few commitments to tie us down. With that in mind, the aim is to spend at least a quarter of 2007 exploring this great planet.

With the memories of our lovely, relaxing time in Iceland at the beginning of the year still fresh in our mind, we've been thinking about where to go next. Both Sarah and I felt a desire to be in a warmer climate, so that pretty much ruled out all of Europe at this time of year. We also didn't want to plan a really long trip right now, so that ruled out going to Central or South America, most of Africa or (Austral)Asia. After all, if you're going all that way, you're going to want to see a whole host of nations.

So, after a little thought, we decided it was time to visit a part of the world that I, in particular, have been drawn to for many years: the Middle East. With much of the region not terribly well-disposed towards westerners at the moment (and who can blame them?), we thought it would be prudent to head down to the Arabian Peninsula for this, our first trip to the area.

Specifically, we're going to visit just two countries on this trip, namely the United Arab Emirates (a.k.a. الإمارات العربيّة المتّحدة) and Oman (a.k.a. سلطنة عُمان). In fact, we'll probably visit just two of the emirates of the UAE, Dubai (a.k.a. دب) and Abu Dhabi (a.k.a. أبو ظبي). The bulk of our trip will be to the Sultanate of Oman, as we believe it to be more rugged, more beautiful and less visited, which should hopefully make for more of an authentic adventure experience.

We didn't want to dither, either, because the regional temperature starts to rise rapidly at the end of March, becoming uncomfortably hot very quickly. For that reason, we're flying out to Dubai on the 20th of this month, returning a month later.

All we've really got booked at the moment is the flight to and from Dubai, plus the last couple of nights of our trip at the world-famous, preposterously luxurious, self-proclaimed seven star Burj Al Arab hotel.

To give you an idea of the kind of pampering I'm talking about, each suite (which is at least 170m²: there aren't any simple rooms) in this hotel has its own private butler and check-in takes place in your suite: no more ignominious faffing around at the front desk. Other smile-inducing features are a 13 item pillow menu, a laptop with broadband Internet in every suite, a choice of 300 international newspapers, and the ability to arrange with the chef to have a personalised menu served in your suite. They'll even provide you with a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce or helicopter transfers to and from the helipad on the roof, although I daresay we can live without either (the amusing image of strapping Eloïse 's car seat onto the back seat of a Rolls Royce notwithstanding).

Heck, we could live without any of this, but we've seen and heard so much about the Burj Al Arab over the years, that we just can't pass up the opportunity to check it out while we're in the area.

This is as decadent as we're ever going to get, I swear.

What could be lovelier than sitting on the couch, snuggling up to your 21 month old daughter and watching Mr. Benn?

Eloïse has developed quite a fondness for this timeless children's classic and there's something genuinely heartwarming about seeing her enjoy the same stories that captivated and thrilled me some thirty-odd years ago.

When she tires of Mr. Benn's escapades, we also have The Clangers, Bagpuss and Ivor The Engine waiting in the wings.

One of the cool things about children is that they give you a practical excuse to be a child all over again. My irresistible inclination towards nostalgia thus combines with the joy of seeing Eloïse 's intrigued expression, providing a doubly enjoyable thrill.

The KNMI have issued a weather alert about heavy snowfall expected tomorrow. Five to ten centimetres are expected, which isn't a lot in some parts of the world, but could be enough here to throw a serious spanner into the transport infrastructure. We'll see.

As you might expect, it's been quite cold today. I was glad of my heated driver's seat and steering wheel in the car this morning, as I took Eloïse to play at the Little Gym. She's really starting to love that place now, after a period of some trepidation and timidity. She plays on much of the apparatus, but still doesn't feel much for the group activities. I see much of her father's stubborn individualism in her. Perhaps that will mellow over time.

We booked another hotel in Dubai today, where we'll stay for the first three nights upon our arrival. It's in the Bur Dubai district, close to the Dubai Creek. This is a good location, as we'll have a number of attractions right on our doorstep and can use the abra (water taxi) to visit the Gold Souk, the Spice Market and other things.

The only other hotel we're likely to book prior to our departure is the one for our stay in Muscat, the Omani capital, as accommodation can be scarce in the high season. Outside of the capital, we're trusting that things will be less in demand.

We're still considering our itinerary. We don't have much time to plan and there are a lot of things to do, including desert treks, which allow you to spend the night in the desert, ride camels, etc. You can also go sandboarding down the dunes if you want. It all sounds great to me. Trekking with Eloïse will be lots of fun, I'm sure.

Tomorrow, a sideboard arrives for our sitting-room and some kitchen cupboards will hopefully also be fitted.

We had a new roof laid a couple of weeks ago, too, as we had sprung a couple of leaks on the top floor. Happily, those seem to be remedied now. Slowly but surely, the house is coming together.

We constantly hear stories of people trying to move into this area, but experiencing great difficulty in finding anything for sale, let alone anything actually suitable. We're so glad that we acted decisively and bought our house when we did, or we, too, might now have been stuck trying to get into the neighbourhood.

I found out at the weekend that we're soon to be offered ten days of free viewing of the Film1 film and sport channels as a promotional stunt. Now, I have no interest in the sport channels, but there could be some good films on the film channels.

Unfortunately, during most of the ten day free period, we'll be in the UAE and Oman. So, how to ensure that we don't miss any good stuff?

Enter the latest version of tv_grab_nl_upc, 0.6.1, which is the grabber I wrote to feed my MythTV system with programme schedule data for UPC's digital television network. This new version is able to look up the IMDB viewer rating for each of the films that it finds. This rating is actually a very good indicator of the true quality of the film in question, as it reflects the opinion of real viewers and, usually, with sufficient quantity that a reliable average results.

The only thing that remains to do is produce a custom recording rule in MythTV; and here it is:

program.stars >= 0.75 AND MONTH(program.starttime) = 2
  AND DAYOFMONTH(program.starttime) >= 16 AND DAYOFMONTH(program.starttime) <= 25
  AND channel.callsign LIKE 'F1%

This says to record any programme that has a star rating equal to or higher than 0.75 (equivalent to a 7.5/10 rating on IMDB), when the start of the broadcast is in February, between the 16th and the 25th of the month, and the broadcast channel is any of the Film1 channels.

Using tv_grab_nl_upc and the above rule, we should have a few decent films to watch when we return from holiday.

Again, I find the above a great example of the power and flexibility of MythTV. No other PVR gives you this level of control.

It's official. According to a study by the UN children's organisation, UNICEF, Dutch children are the happiest and enjoy the greatest well-being.

The study looked at the children of 21 wealthy western countries and The Netherlands came out on top, ahead of predictable Scandinavian stalwarts Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

At the other end of the spectrum, the unhappiest children in the western world can be found in the US, in 20th place, and the UK, right at the bottom of the pile in 21st place.

This BBC article gives some good background to the study with insightful quotes from Dutch teenagers.

According to this USA Today article, the British government has criticised the report, claiming that some of the data used in the study is five years old and therefore does not reflect recent improvements in child well-being in the UK. How reassuring it must be to British parents to know that their government has actually been concerned about their children for some five whole years now. Unsurprisingly, UK politicians in opposition parties believe the findings of the study.

Both the BBC and the USA Today article make for good reading, especially if you're a parent. You can find more using Google.

If you don't have time to read the 52 page full report, you can suffice with this UNICEF press release. The BBC has also put together a list of the key points at a glance.

With The Netherlands continuing to top the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index in 2006, there are currently at least two profoundly good things to feel happy about as a resident of this small, wet country.

With just a couple of days to go before we fly out to the Middle East, we've been making some improvements to the house and setting other things in motion.

A few days ago, our new Arclinea kitchen cabinets were installed. Finally, we have enough storage space for all of our plates and glasses, as well as our food. I thought we would be sacrificing the look of the kitchen for the more practical storage issue, but it turns out that the kitchen actually looks better now -- much more homely -- with the new cabinets installed.

The Lundia bookcase we purchased for my office now has two rows of rails in one of the cupboards to accommodate hanging files, so we can finally clear up and file away all of our old invoices, bank statements, etc.

On Friday, we had a new floor partially laid on the bedroom balcony. The people who came to do it turned up at 08:00, which was pretty rough. None of us are used to getting up at that time of day, especially not I.

Anyway, the work was being done to fix a leak in the ceiling above our dining-room table, where the slanted glass roof attaches to the upstairs balcony. That annoying leak is now hopefully a thing of the past, but the workmen still need to come back on Monday to finish the job.

The sitting-room sideboard arrived a week ago and has really added to the quality of that room. Finally, we have some cupboards and drawers into which we can stuff all of our downstairs items. It also looks great and gives the room a more homely feel.

One of the things I've been looking forward to doing (but procrastinating with) has been getting the house wired for sound. The time has finally come to put in a decent sound system. Given that much of our music collection is already stored as compressed digital files and that the future of music definitely lies in this direction, it was a more or less obvious decision to choose a Sonos-based installation.

We're going to divide the house up into various zones, each of which will be able to stream music from either the server in our cellar (which houses our own collection) or across the Net, for example when we want to listen to Internet radio stations. This is basically what we already do in the living-room, thanks to the MythMusic module of MythTV.

The multiple zones will each be able to serve their own music, so Sarah and I could be listening to different things in living-room and office, for example, whilst friends in the guest bedroom listen to their favourite radio station from back home in the US.

More on all of this when we get back from our trip, at which point all of the equipment should have arrived and be ready for installation. It's going to be cool.

And off we go. In an hour, the taxi will be here to take us to Schiphol to catch our plane to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where we'll spend three nights before driving east towards Oman.

We have our international driving licence, a brand new Maclaren Quest Sport buggy for Eloïse , our guidebooks and lots of enthusiasm.

We'll be sure to take lots of photos and provide travel updates along the way.

Well, where to start?

Our flight was uneventful. I mostly read up on our destination, but there was enough time to take in an episode of Dragon's Den, plus the BORДT film. If you thought Borat was outrageous and had come close to death before, you need to see his latest escapades.

Anyway, we arrived in Dubai yesterday evening, just before midnight. I've never seen an airport so busy that late at night. It was absolute bedlam, with people swarming all over the place.

Somehow, we managed to find the man holding a board with our name for the transfer to our hotel in the Bur Dubai neighbourhood. A quarter of an hour later, we were there.

A fast and efficient check-in awaited us, with a couple of complimentary glasses of pineapple juice to refresh us. A nice touch, I thought.

Eloïse was well past her bedtime, but behaving very well. We wanted to make the most of the next day, so we quickly got ready for bed and hit the sack.

This morning, we were woken by the alarm clock and went to breakfast in the hotel. It was fine, but it was standard western fare, and who wants to eat the food they're already familiar with when travelling abroad? My mind turned to all of the Lebanese and Iranian delicacies we might discover in the course of the day.

After getting some money from a local cash dispenser, we took an abra over to the Deira side of town. From there, we walked through a number of souqs: the Spice Souq, the Gold Souq, the Covered Souq and the Naif Souq. The Spice Souq was the most fun, with its pungent odours and abundance of frankincense. Everywhere we went, people stopped to touch Eloïse 's red hair and remark on how beautiful she is. We know, we know!

There aren't many places to eat around the souqs, so we headed back along the wharf and eventually found an Iranian eatery (we didn't know it was Iranian at the time, as neither of us can tell Farsi from Arabic). It was packed inside, so we were forced to sit outside, but that's no hardship in this weather. It was a balmy 25°C or so.

Ordering food proved a challenge, but another customer sidled up next to us and helped out. He turned out to be an Iraqi who also speaks Farsi and now lives in London. Once we'd got the food ordering out of the way, we got chatting and he told us his tales of torture at the hands of his Iraqi commanders during the Gulf War of 1990. He had been repeatedly stabbed all over his body with the bayonet of an AK47. Ugh.

Eventually, he was captured by the coalition forces and offered the chance to take up residence in one of a number of countries. He picked the UK and is now a British citizen. He is in Dubai to visit the rest of his family, who have since fled to Iran from the city of Basra.

Anyway, the conversation really added to our meal, which was pretty good in its own right: chicken with lots of salad, a cucumber and yoghurt dip, mango juice and something vegetarian for Sarah. Eloïse loved it, too.

After the meal, we took the abra back to Bur Dubai, relaxed for a few minutes at the hotel, then headed out again in a taxi to the Bur Juman Centre, an extremely upmarket mall about a ten minute drive from the hotel.

We shopped till we dropped, which for us takes only a few minutes. My only interest in the mall was the Breguet boutique, as I love that make of watches. It was fun to look at an official brand shop and scrutinise some of the watches.

As the Bur Juman is quite upscale, we were able to get dinner at one of the many decent restaurants there. There was none of the fast food and MSG rubbish you associate with American malls.

After dinner, we carried our purchases (which was easy, as we had bought nothing) to the exit and queued for a taxi, which turned out to be a long wait. Public transport here is virtually non-existent, so people take taxis for even the shortest journey, as they're very cheap.

I noticed that the taxi we stepped into didn't have a taxi sign on top, but thought no more of it until we got to our hotel and were asked to pay an exorbitant fare. I don't bow to this very easily, so I stood up to the taxi driver, which became something of an altercation. Eventually, it was resolved (to my satisfaction, anyway) with our having paid only the fare we considered reasonable.

Now I'm relaxing in the executive lounge of our hotel, typing this to a cup of coffee as Sarah puts the small one to bed. Eloïse , by the way, behaved fantastically today. I can't believe how far she walked and how much she put up with, with scarcely a whinge or a groan all day.

In the morning, we're off bright and early to visit the Jumeirah Mosque. In the afternoon, we'll probably head over to the over-the-top Mall of The Emirates, just to see it, as the malls of Dubai are famous and worth experiencing, even if one doesn't plan to buy anything.

That pretty much describes the first day. Dubai is incredibly cosmopolitan and more tolerant of cultural and religious differences than any city that I can think of. Only 10% of the population is native Emirati, with the other 90% being made up of immigrants from all over the world. The atmosphere is amazing.

Anyway, this lounge is closing now, so I will, too.

The alarm woke us again today, as we had to have breakfast and get all the way over to Jumeirah for our visit to the Jumeirah Mosque, the only mosque in the United Arab Emirates that is open to non-Muslims. There turned out to be little traffic, however, so we arrived with plenty of time to spare.

When we got there, we saw a sign, which read 'Strictly no admission to children under 5', but the man selling the tickets was kind and allowed us to queue for admission after purchasing tickets. We were warned, however, that the slightest amount of crying would see us ejected from the mosque.

Our guide was a traditionally-dressed Emirati fellow, who spoke good English and cracked a few jokes to loosen up the crowd (which was surprisingly large). He proceeded to show us how Muslims perform their pre-prayer ablutions.

It was then time to go inside, so Sarah covered her hair with a scarf and we headed up the steps, doffed our shoes and went inside. The mosque itself was attractive, but not stunning. More interesting was the explanation of the five pillars of Islam and what it means to be a Muslim.

Five times a day, the call to prayer emanates from mosque speakers all over the city. It's unmistakeable and penetrates every corner of the city. To a westerner, it's rather incongruous to be walking around a shopping mall full of multinational boutiques selling western brands, when suddenly the mall's speakers, give voice to the takbir (i.e. the phrase Allāhu Akbar or الله أك), beckoning the faithful to come to the mall's mosque to pray. I'm more used to hearing nauseating piped muzak coming through the speakers, so a call to Muslim prayer is a welcome change.

So, the call to prayer was explained to us, along with numerous other aspects of the Muslim faith. It was clear from even this short introduction that, much as one might expect, this religion is much misunderstood in the west.

Unfortunately, Eloïse tripped whilst running around in the mosque and started to wail. Sarah quickly took her outside and that was the end of her tour. I stayed until the end, however, and found the experience quite interesting.

After the mosque, we jumped in a taxi and headed further out down Sheikh Zayed Rd to the Mall of The Emirates. We could see the impressive structure of the Burj Al Arab hotel in the distance.

Whilst not as swish as yesterday's Bur Juman Centre, the Mall of The Emirates boasts an indoor ski slope on real snow. I know this sounds pretty pathetic -- an indoor ski slope in the middle of a desert town that reaches 52°C in the summer -- but the scale of the thing has to be seen to be believed.

Ski Dubai is the name of the place and it's such a strange sight, there behind glass, tacked onto a huge (and I do mean huge) shopping mall. It's expensive, too; a situation no doubt partially caused by the unimaginable quantities of electricity that must be needed to cool the place and produce the snow.

The oddest sight of the day must surely have been that of the Arab women, clad in traditional abaya, hurtling down the toboggan run on a plastic slide mat, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to do. And that's just the point: here, it is!

Eloïse once again proved the star attraction for the other mall-goers. Arab and Indian women are quite taken with her. Everyone loves to touch her and run their fingers through her red hair. She continues to be a great ice-breaker for us!

Once again, we ultimately left the mall empty-handed and jumped into a taxi back to the hotel. I tried to make reservations at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant, Verre, but it was fully booked. Perhaps we'll still get to go at the other end of our trip, just before we return home.

After a quick rest, we went wandering through the Bastakia Quarter, where restored Iranian merchants' houses, replete with windtowers, suggest the atmosphere of bygone days and make one long to journey to Iran to see the real thing. That's a trip for the future, however.

Dinner was in the courtyard of the charming and friendly Bastakiah Nights. The food and service were both very good.

And so ends our second full day in Dubai. Tomorrow -- all too soon -- we must leave again.

After picking up our hire car, we'll drive east towards the border with Oman, which we'll cross before driving on to the coastal town of Sohar (صحار), where we'll spend the night.

I'm excited about Oman, but sad to be leaving both the city and emirate of Dubai, not to mention the home country of the UAE.

My curiosity is now aroused and I'd like to see Abu Dhabi and the other emirates, but that's going to have to wait until we head back this way from Oman. If we're lucky, we'll get to see Abu Dhabi, but that's probably the only other emirate we have a chance of visiting this time around. There's just too much ground to cover and we're only here for four weeks. Still, we're guaranteed to have a couple more days in Dubai, at least, at the end of our trip.

So, from here it's onward to the Sultanate of Oman!

Today was a rather chaotic day and quite tiring.

It started with breakfast at the hotel, followed by a walk along the Bur Dubai waterfront. We were inclined to rent a boat for an hour or so's cruise up and down Dubai Creek, but Eloïse was intent on walking, so that scuppered that plan.

We had to check out by noon, so we headed back to the hotel and grabbed a drink in the downstairs café. I read a copy of Gulf News while we relaxed.

After checking out, we took a taxi to the airport, but it was impossible to explain to our driver -- who came from a part of Pakistan close to the border with Afghanistan -- that we didn't want to fly anywhere; merely go to the car rental area to rent a car.

Eventually, we enlisted the help of a third party, who told our driver to take us down to the arrivals area, where we already suspected we needed to be.

Once there, however, locating the Thrifty desk proved awkward. It turned out that it was in the secure, one-way only area for arriving passengers. Undeterred, we pushed our trolley full of luggage the wrong way into the terminal and soon found the Thrifty desk.

We were due to get a Nissan Pathfinder, but they didn't have one, so we were upgraded to a Mitsubishi Pajero. (I wonder, do car rental companies ever actually supply the car that you booked?)

The next surprise, slightly less pleasant, was that Thrifty allows its cars to be taken into Oman via only one border crossing. "Don't use the Muscat crossing; please use only the Hatta crossing", we were told. Sarah and I looked at each other and wondered how on earth we might use the Muscat crossing, since Muscat is nowhere near the border with the UAE!

The woman assistant then confessed that she had never been to Oman, so we pulled out a map of the UAE and Oman and showed her where Muscat was. There was little more she could say, other than that this was the information she had been given and that she couldn't tell us any more than that.

Once we looked for Hatta on the map, we saw to our relief that it was the crossing that we intended to take, anyway. It seems that Thrifty will no longer sell you insurance for Oman and that you have to purchase it at the border instead. Apparently, only the border stop at Hatta allows this.

We were driven to the site of our car, where I loaded the bags and Sarah installed Eloïse 's car seat. After asking for directions to Oman, we were on our way. The question's not as silly as it sounds, as there aren't so many roads out here. After two right turns, it was more or less a straight line eastwards for the next couple of hours.

Eloïse soon nodded off, so we turned on the radio and found some groovy Arabic music. After about fifteen minutes of driving, the urban sprawl thinned out, replaced by scrub bushes and sand.

Dunes rose up on either side of us and camels appeared at the side of the road; an altogether more Arabian allure engulfed us.

After a little more than 100 km, we reached the border with Oman. No-one was stopping us on the UAE side, so we drove on into the first couple of kilometres of Oman and stopped first at the car inspection point, then at passport control there. As expected, we were told we would need to park our car and come inside the building to purchase visas for Oman.

Once inside, we were relieved to see a cash dispenser and an insurance company. We had a little more than AED 150 (dirhams) on us, but this had not been enough to purchase the three weeks of insurance that we needed at the last two roadside insurance companies we had seen as we had approached the border. We had been told there was a cash dispenser at the border, however, so we hadn't been overly concerned.

Things then took a turn for the worse.

Firstly, we couldn't get our Omani visas, because we had not received an exit visa from the UAE. We would have to go back, explaining to the Omani exit station and the Emirati entry station on the way that we actually wanted to be going the other way.

Worse, however, was that the cash dispenser would accept only Visa credit cards. It wasn't much of a cash dispenser at all, really.

Worse yet, however, was that this insurance company, like the two before it, would not accept credit cards, so we didn't have enough money to insure it for the three weeks we'll be in Oman. The only option that remained, was to purchase just a week's worth of insurance and then get the car reinsured when it lapses.

Even that option, however, didn't leave enough money to purchase our visas, but the border official kindly offered to waive the fee.

So, we got back in the car and drove back to the UAE to get an exit stamp. At the entry station, we explained our predicament to the official and he told us there was a cash dispenser at a bank in Hatta, so we drove the ten or so kilometres to find it.

Sure enough, there was a cash dispenser inside the bank, so we took out 500 dirhams and headed back to Oman, stopping for a UAE exit stamp on the way. Back on the Omani side, our car was reinspected, our insurance was purchased, the border official was true to his word and gave us free visas, and that was pretty much that. Just one checkpoint remained, where we handed in the form to say that our car had been inspected and we were then free to speed on across Oman.

To be fair to all of the border officials, everyone was very understanding and let us pass through very quickly, even when we were reentering the UAE without ever having been stamped out of the UAE or into Oman.

Incidentally, we met an Irishman at the border control post who had found himself in the same predicament a few hours earlier. Unfortunately for him, he had not found out about the cash dispenser in Hatta and thus had had to drive back the entire way to Dubai to withdraw cash! Until we found out about the bank in Hatta, we depressingly envisioned ourselves having to make the same journey.

So, that little escapade cost us close to a couple of hours of our day. On the other hand, we were consoled by the knowledge that it could have turned out a lot worse. Our ill-advised crossing to Ukraine from Slovakia last year, for example, could have been a lot messier. Still, we also learned to keep plenty of ready cash on us when crossing a non-EU border. No two are the same and you just can't predict what might happen to you.

The Pajero, by the way, drives well enough, but it has an exceedingly annoying chime that sounds when the car is taken over the 120 kmh mark. It's there to keep your speed within legal bounds, but all it does is irritate one. I can't believe anyone would voluntarily purchase a car with such a device.

The drive on the Omani side wasn't terribly interesting, I have to say. It was completely flat, the road was straight and in good condition, and there was hardly any other traffic.

Houses and occasional shops lined the dead straight road, which never actually blossomed into a town. It reminded be of strip-mall lined America, and I almost expected a tall neon McDonald's sign to loom up at the end of each row of buildings.

Finally, just after 18:00 and just before sunset, we pulled into Sohar, our stop for the night, and soon located the Sohar Beach Hotel.

It's lush here, and there's a nice-looking beach right behind the hotel. It's quite humid as well, so the overall impression prompts us to think of Hawaii.

We were all very tired after the rigours of the day, so we stayed at the hotel for dinner. I had a very tasty traditional Omani fish curry, featuring a local fish, the hamour.

Tomorrow, we hope to be up early enough to catch the town's fish market.

Oman brings Eloïse 's total number of countries visited to fourteen, which isn't bad for a girl who's not yet turned two.

It was hotter today, at about 29°C.

We got up early today, at about 07:20. We seem to be going to bed earlier and earlier, which causes us to rise earlier and earlier with each passing day.

We took advantage of the early hour and grabbed some breakfast before heading down into the town of Sohar to see the fish market. It turned out to be a mostly indoor market and Sarah felt nervous at the idea of going inside, as there were no tourists to be seen anywhere and seemingly only men were involved in the busy trade.

Nevertheless, I led us into the building and we were greeted by the sight of fish of every shape and size. Traders were bustling back and forth, many of them holding a bunch of fish on a cord in each hand. Other traders cut slices of large fish for eager buyers, whilst others headed outside and down to the simple boats at the water's edge to fetch more wares.

Outside, other traders were selling fish from the back of their vehicles. The prices must have been good, because people were clamouring to get a piece of the action.

After watching some crabs scuttling across the rocks down by the boat launch, we left and went to the Sohar Fort Museum, where we learned something about the history of the town.

Our final stop in Sohar was at the handicraft market, where we purchased some incense and charcoal.

After that, we grabbed a spot of lunch (shawarma for me; hummus for Sarah) and then headed off in the direction of the Omani capital, Muscat. There were some beautiful mosques along the route, but it was otherwise a boring drive. The road is almost completely straight and totally flat. It was absolutely made for cruise control, but our hire car unfortunately lacks this feature.

It was about 250 km to Muscat. Eloïse slept for the entire journey, which was great, but we'd timed our departure with this in mind.

Just outside of Muscat, I stopped to put petrol in the car. Looking at the receipt, I see that I put in 65 litres at a cost of OMR 7.800 (rials). At today's exchange rate, that cost us €15.39. Back in The Netherlands, the same amount of petrol would have cost us around €95 - 100.

Both petrol and vehicles are very cheap in this part of the world. Given the abundance of oil in the region, that's hardly surprising, I suppose, but it still seems bizarre when one is confronted with it in person. Cars have virtually no tax on them in the UAE and it's probably the same situation in Oman. It's a driver's paradise, if you don't mind the congestion (in Dubai, that is; Oman doesn't seem to suffer from the same problems [yet]).

Our next stop was Muscat, where we visited the local LuLu hypermarket to stock up on nuts, water, chocolate (for Sarah) and fruit. What a great supermarket that is, by the way. I was sorely tempted to purchase large quantities of dates, but managed to restrain myself.

We then drove to our hotel, the Muscat Intercontinental, which is a beautiful place (on the inside, at least; the outside isn't very impressive). We didn't have enough time to go and explore Muscat this afternoon, so we went down to the swimming pool and paddled around with Eloïse , who had a great time walking up and down the steps of the pool and splashing around in the water.

Dinner, too, was taken at the hotel. We'll go out and explore Muscat properly tomorrow. We're scheduled to be here for four nights, so that ought to give us ample time to get through the things that interest us.

Let me start by saying that the breakfast at this hotel is absolutely top notch. About 20 types of bread and pastry, omelettes made for you while you wait, freshly-squeezed juices, lots of fresh fruit, etc., etc.: a real feast with which to start the day.

Muscat Souq was the main port of call today, located along the corniche. Locating it in the car was a bit hit-or-miss, but we located it and fed the parking meter with baisas (1000 of which form a rial, by the way. Incidentally, it's odd to be dealing with prices in rials, since they require three decimal places for the baisas. All the other currencies I've ever dealt with divide the main unit into 100ths, not 1000ths).

The souq was very impressive. We bought some frankincense and some incense burners. The myrrh and gold was left on the shelf, although both could have been purchased here, too.

After a quick lunch, preceded by Eloïse 's afternoon nap, we headed off to the old walled town of Muscat. Yes, we're already in Muscat, but Muscat these days generally refers to the municipality, not the actual town. The actual town is a tiny dot on the map, but greater Muscat is more than 50 km long and includes the areas of Mutrah and Ruwi.

The old walled town is very impressive, with ancient forts looking down from ominous looking escarpments. The forts are still in use by the military, so you can't visit them.

The Sultan's palace is here, too. It's nice, but not outrageous. Donald Trump's real estate looks decidedly tackier. The Sultan's palace is quite tasteful.

Eloïse ticked off one of the guards by running across one of the Sultan's beautifully landscaped lawns. Oops. The Sultan must love flowers, because his gardens are ablaze with flowers of every imaginable variety. Not only that, but the roundabouts and dual carriageways here are also festooned with dazzling displays of floral colour. It really brings the place to life and helps suggest a much less arid climate.

After this, we drove up to the viewing point at Bandar Jissah for some lovely views out over the hills, down to Muscat.

Dinner was at the hotel again, after a failed 45 minute attempt to find a restaurant we wanted to dine at.

We're not normally so hopeless with our directions, so we should explain that most of Muscat's roads have no name. That's right, no name at all. We don't mean only an Arabic name, no. We mean no name at all. Most residents therefore use a PO box to receive their post; they have to, because they don't know their own address.

Think about that for a minute. It makes getting from A to B quite a challenge if you don't know the city (and we don't). Directions to any given destination are usually given by describing proximity to one of the city's many roundabouts, which mostly seem to bear a sculpture of some kind to help make them more memorable. One has a gigantic incense burner, for example, while another has vases, complete with pouring water.

Anyway, the concierge explained how to get to this restaurant once we had got back to the hotel, so we'll make another attempt at finding it tomorrow.

So, we ended up eating mediocre Mexican food. Thanks to globalisation, one can eat Mexican food in the Middle East, whilst listening to two (fake?) Mexicans, strumming Mexican arrangements of Beatles and Carpenters songs on their acoustic guitars. Hmm.

Today was another alarm clock day. 08:15, this time.

The reason, once again, was to visit a mosque before closing time at 11:00. This time, it was the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. This time, we checked ahead of time to find out whether children were allowed and were told by our hotel concierge that this wouldn't be a problem.

After breakfast, we drove across Muscat to the mosque and were alarmed to discover that no children under 10 are allowed inside. But not to worry, a bit of politeness goes a long way here, and so after asking the guard nicely, we were admitted inside, Eloïse and all.

I could describe the mosque to you, but I'd really be wasting your time and mine. Tasteful, opulent and grandiose are adjectives that come to mind; breathtaking is another. The central chandelier is extraordinary and reminded me of the mothership from the film Close Encounters of The Third Kind.

The grandeur of the building left one in awe; I was quite gobsmacked. That single experience this morning made my entire day.

We decided to hit a couple of the local shopping centres afterwards, namely the Sabco Centre and the Al Araimi. We checked out the "most valuable perfume in the world", Amouage, not to be confused with the most expensive perfume in the world, which would mean something else entirely.

After a coffee at Barista, we went back to the hotel and spent the afternoon in the swimming pool, splashing around and playing with Eloïse . That was a really great family activity and lots of fun.

Dinner this evening was at Kargeen Café, the restaurant we didn't manage to find yesterday evening. It was tricky this evening, too, but we eventually located it. The dinner, thankfully, was well worth it and the ambience was fantastic. We sat outside on comfortable one-person benches, with frankincense burning all around us and the occasional restaurant cat sauntering by. Simply lovely.

We're going to have to get some chocolate-covered dates before we leave here. We checked out Bateel before dinner; the only branch in Oman is within walking distance of our hotel.

Speaking of our hotel, I love this place and would recommend it to anyone who's considering coming to Muscat; especially in 2007, as the Al Bustan Palace is closed for a year for renovations.

When we came back to our room from dinner, a gigantic birthday cake was waiting for us on our table. The staff had noticed it was my birthday and had brought in a lovely cake for us. How's that for attentive?

It has to be said, by the way, that the people here are the kindest and friendliest people we've encountered since our honeymoon to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in 2002. They drive courteously, they love children, they are pleased to help you with directions and questions; they're always willing to go to a little bit of trouble for you. Common courtesy, you know? If you give it, you'll receive it, too. You don't see that so much in the west any more.

It just keeps getting hotter, by the way. It was about 31 or 32°C today. Do you know what they call this kind of heat here? Their name for it is: winter. The coldest winter days here average around 25°C. That would have been a great summer's day back in The Netherlands before mankind ruined the climate. I just don't know how people cope here in the summer, when the temperature can rise up above 50°C.

We returned to the Mutrah Souq today to purchase a couple of shirts, then put the car in 4WD mode and headed out to Wadi Mayh, in search of date palms, feral donkeys, straying goats and tiny villages. Getting off the tarmac onto a dusty gravel track was good practice for the major trek ahead of us tomorrow, as we leave Muscat behind us and head down the coastal road to Sur.

We could take the inland road and be there much more quickly, but the coastal road is reputedly stunning, so we're opting for that instead. We've been told that a 4x4 vehicle is essential for this trip, so I'm curious to see what the terrain will be like.

Anyway, we stopped at a village on the way back from Wadi Mayh and introduced Eloïse to some little girls who were playing at the side of the dusty road. From the reception we received, it was clear that no tourists ever drive into this village.

I've said it before, but I feel the need to say it again: the reaction from people when they see a lily-white, red-headed baby is extraordinary. It must be an even rarer sight than I imagined it would be.

Today, for example, in the Souq, a trio of Arabic women asked if they could take Eloïse 's picture, and we always oblige such requests. They whipped camera phones from their abayas and proceeded to snap away, touching her red hair and pale skin as they did so. "Beautiful, beautiful!" they enthused.

It's hard to approach a Muslim woman in traditional clothing, so Eloïse forms an effective ice-breaker between us and a section of the population we'd otherwise likely find no way to interact with.

We returned from the wadi in time for some swimming pool fun before dinner. This time, we dined at the authentically Omani Bin Atiq restaurant.

As in the UAE, there are so many immigrants in Oman that finding a restaurant that serves true Omani cuisine (rather than Lebanese, Indian, etc.) is something of a challenge. Bin Atiq thankfully rises to the occasion.

It's a bit of an unusual place. Rather than one large dining room or a couple of smaller ones, the place is divided into many small rooms, each with its own door. As such, it feels more like a small motel than a restaurant.

You leave your shoes at the door to your room and enter inside. The room has a carpet and several cushions. There is no furniture, but there is an ancient air-conditioning unit and an equally ancient television set, which you can watch while you eat. The door is closed behind you, opened only when your waiter enters to take your order and serve your food.

As you might imagine, traditional restaurant ambience is totally absent here. People-watching is impossible. On the other hand, you get the privacy of your own room, your small baby can go ballistic without anyone else being annoyed or even noticing, the room is totally smoke free, you can breastfeed without offending anyone, etc., etc. And it's yours for as long as you want it, so it's great for a real family get-together.

The food, which almost becomes secondary to the experience, was very good. I was grateful for the opportunity to eat some real Omani food.

Tomorrow, we leave Muscat for Sur. We'd really like to stay overnight somewhere along the way, but all sources agree that there is no accommodation along the entire route. Camping, then, is the only option, but we have no gear with us. So, it's onward all the way to Sur, whether we like it or not.

I've no idea when we'll next have Internet access, so this may be our last update for a while.

It took rather longer than expected to leave the hotel today, and not because of how much we had enjoyed the stay in our beautiful room with sea view, the friendly and efficient staff, the fully stocked club lounge that one can dip into at any time for free juices (including pineapple - yum!) snacks and free wireless Internet access, the great swimming pools, the fabulous breakfast, etc.

No, it's just because we had unpacked quite a bit in the course of our four day stay, so it took a lot of time to get packed up again. We also had to arrange a trip into the desert on Thursday with Desert Discovery, which required a phone call. Last but not least, we didn't bother setting an alarm, so we weren't down to breakfast as early as we might have been.

Eloïse has been such a fantastic travel partner since we got here. In fact, she has always been great at travel. The least we can do in return is let her go to sleep and wake up as and when she pleases. Consequently, we rise (and occasionally crash) when she does.

Anyway, we finally made it onto the road by noon and were heading towards Quriyat, the town where the unsurfaced coastal road to Sur begins. 84 km later, we arrrived in Qurayyat. We made sure the car was full of petrol, cleaned the windscreeen and popped into a local eatery for some food.

One of the surprising things about Oman is that there are a lot of fast food type restaurants that, from the outside, look very unappealing. Sometimes, they remind one of the crud served in similar-looking establishments in the West; sometimes they just look drab and unappealing.

In Oman, however, one is constantly surprised by the quality of the food on offer inside such places. It's not necessarily going to impress Gordon Ramsey, but it's decent, filling and cheap. And when I say cheap, I mean really cheap. A filling meal can be had at many places for as little as rial or less.

And that reminds me: I have to mention the fabulous fruit drinks that can be had all over Oman. Wherever you go, small hole-in-the-wall shops, juice bars and restaurants conjure up large fruit drinks, smoothies, shakes, or any combination thereof. You can get everything from avocado shakes to fresh lime juice. Beware, however, of the surfeit of sugar that will invariably be deposited in your drink unless you instruct otherwise.

Anyway, after lunch, we hit the rocky road and began winding our way to Sur, a plume of dust being kicked up in our wake. I'm not an experienced driver on unsurfaced roads (in spite of years of driving up and down US 101 in California), but at no point during the trip did I start to become uncomfortable. There were a few steep gradients and some incredibly bone-jarring washboard patches, but nothing that made me wonder how I was going to navigate through it.

At just after 15:00, we reached Wadi Shab, immediately before the small town of Tiwi and just after an incredibly steep descent. There had been precious little to see on the way, save for a few other 4x4 vehicles carrying tourists, the occasional bird overhead, feral donkeys, straying goats and a dead camel at the side of the road.

If Eloïse weren't in tow, this wadi would have been good for a day hike, but as it is, we walked for only an hour before turning back.

The wadi is lush and beautiful. Tall palms rise up on either side of the water, themselves dwarved by the towering cliff walls. Local girls beat tree branches with long sticks to make their berries fall, which they then collect. I'm not sure if they are eaten as is or used for cooking.

Alas, we could stay no longer, because we wanted to reach Sur by sunset. We could have spent a pleasant day wandering through the wadi.

We got back on the road and finally found our way back onto tarmac some 20 km or so outside of Sur. The road felt like velvet from that point forward, and the soles of my feet were tingling from all of the day's unsurfaced jostling.

We overshot Sur and had to backtrack 5 km. Once we'd realised our mistake, we quickly located our hotel and checked in. We were given a room facing the sea. As I write this, I'm watching the waves break on the beach and listening to the roar of the ocean through our balcony doorway. The easternmost point of the Arabian peninsula lies just a few kilometres from here, at Ras al-Jinz, an important turtle-breeding site; sadly, we're here out of turtle season.

There was just enough time before sunset to enjoy a walk on the beach. We found a partially decomposed turtle, a washed up blowfish and a dehydrated cuttlefish. Eloïse darted around in the sand, while Sarah collected rocks and shells.

It was now time for dinner. We opted for the hotel's restaurant, as our guidebooks seemed to suggest there weren't very many options in town. Once again, we were in for a surprise, as our totally unassuming hotel restaurant turned out to serve excellent food.

We plumped for the buffet and weren't disappointed. There was even a choice of dessert, amongst other things fruit triffle (sic) and strewberry gareaux (sic). They tasted better than they were spelt.

Tomorrow morning, we'll look around Sur. In the afternoon, we're off to a desert camp somewhere in Wahiba Sands. I can't wait!

Tonight's hotel, by the way, is the Sur Beach Hotel. Its folder boasts that it is a world class hotel with "all amenities". Presumably, this includes the undersized sink plug lagged with toilet-paper to make it fit, which was brought to our room when we complained that there was no way to make the water stay in the basin! Credit where credit's due, though: the solution worked.