It takes all kinds

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east or west; people create distinction out of their own minds and then believe them to be true”
-Siddharta Gautama (founder of Buddhism, 563-483BC)


This week we attempted to finally get our tent set up and drive up to the mountains. A really cool older couple upstairs invited us along on a “star-gazing” trip with a group of their friends. Now, Tina and I try not to judge as best as possible but “star gazing” has never been on our “wild weekend” agenda. For the purpose of blog research we heartily agreed. The couple that invited us warned us with a few stories so we were pumped for the ridiculousness of it all.

In a place like Oman you have three distinct sets of people. The local Omani, the Indian and Pakistani workers and the European/Western expats that work in the Oil/Telecom/Education industries. The star-gazing group was made up of middle aged families and elderly gentlemen from the Oil industry. Armed with “The sword of Jedi” (a laser beam pointer that can bloody well touch the stars) and “The 20 inch Obsession” (these are their names not mine.) we headed out. We went up the highest mountain range in Oman and settled at a barren plain along the edge of the ridge.

The location was superb, the stars actually were amazing and the solitude of it all was remarkable. Just when Tina and I thought we were far outclassed by the Astrological wit of our company the main speaker started to wig out over the bugs and began waving the Jedi Sword around, slapping himself, spraying wildly and crashing into things, while another man was patiently explaining that “yes the horizon did change in the southern hemisphere” over and over again to a gentleman that seemed more concerned with the star that the wise men followed to find Jesus. What’s that saying about being "safe as long as you’re faster than the slowest in the herd"? Thanks to this guy we were safe.

We left the next morning and decided to go up and over the range and through the villages below. A steep, windy, dirt path lead us through the various angles of the mountains and through tiny Oasis villages as we splashed through the streams and marvelled at the will of the inhabitants. The total seclusion of these small villages is truly remarkable. They formed generations ago at the site of a water source from the mountains above. At the edges of these steep slot canyons the villagers persevere and continue the only life they’ve ever known. So we held out Coca Cola, showed them images from the Tabloid magazines, downloaded some reality TV shows to show them what they are missing in the West. I don’t think we won over any converts.

I’m sure our invitation to the next star gazing trip has already been lost in the mail so we are really excited about getting out a lot in the next few weeks to camp in the desert and explore more of the uninhabited coastline. The country truly is beautiful (my visitors pitch again) so if you are thinking of coming you really couldn’t be disappointed.

We will write more often as we have just gotten the internet hooked up at home. Our Skype is ready to go!

Talk to you soon. Hope all is well where you are.