To celebrate the end of Ramadan, everyone gets a few days off work for "Eid al Fitr". We don't think twice about saying Eid Mubarak (Happy Eid) to each other, Muslim or not. My answer to people who want Americans to drop "Merry Christmas" from stores is to move them all to the Middle East for a few years!
Joining the mass exodus out of the country, Gemma and I recruited a work colleague of ours in Mallorca (Oscar) and booked a beachside bungalow for three nights at the Oman Dive Center south of Muscat. It was a long trip, and border posts were swamped beyond I'd ever seen, but we made it to paradise...
The dive center was the most professional I've ever seen, especially for the region. Having taken Friday afternoon to rest, we took 2 dives on Saturday morning. The dive boats were incredible and the scenery was fantastic.
Gemma and me
So many fish and beautiful coral
Lots of Moray eels- I love these guys.
Following our two amazing dives, we came back for an awesome lunch and dinner, and we took plenty of time to relax in the sun and read. Our bungalow was so cool- it was one room with an amazingly powerful air conditioner. It did smell a lot like urine upon arrival but it cleared or I got used to it (but Gemma assured me it "always smells this way"). The bathroom was out the back door and was surrounded by a stone wall with a thatch roof- so cool. There are more pictures in the album link- but I will also upload more of the place so be checking.
This was one of the "neighborhood" cats that we tended to feed.
On Saturday morning, we drove through Muscat to another resort where they take daily boat trips to the Daminyat Islands, one of the premier dive spots in the region. This was my one big goal for the trip- to get to Daminyat- and it was well worth it. The water was amazingly clear, the numbers and size of fish were incredible, and the coral was the most impressive I've seen.
But there was one thing we could have only dreamed we'd spot-
Whale shark!!!
As we completed our first dive, we spotted her. She was about 5m long, and she swam at the surface next to the boat until we left her 20 minutes later. I traded in my scuba gear for snorkel equipment, jumped back in the water, and swam near her as long as i had energy. Whale sharks are filter feeders and are no threat to humans. This was definitely the highlight of the trip.
We had one more dive left, so we snorkled around some more at an amazing, shallow reef before switching back to tanks and heading back down.
Two Cuttlefish! They are cool but so weird...
Diving is a great way to spend your Eid al Fitr! :)
More underwater shots in the album to the right!
4 comments:
I wish I had the courage to dive. What an amazing experience!
I tried to dive in a Florida Spring once. It was a collosal failure! Your photos are amazing! I so enjoy receiving glimpses of your world.
phil you really are the coolest person i know
You HAD to post the picture of the cat! :)
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