Daily Diary: Umrah Goodies

For non-Muslim readers: Umrah is pilgrimage to the holy places in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Whenever my friends and family go for Umrah to Mecca they always bring me back something.

My boss' mother got me kohl, my boss got me a prayer mat, my friend got me some good Islamic books, a Saudi girlfriend got me a prayer garment, and my mother in law just came back the other day bearing a whole carload gifts.

I have a big bottle of zam zam water. A new coat and some toys for the baby. Perfume for husband and myself.

And an absolutely deliciously scented supply of bukhoor (incense) and a saudi-style burner for it.

I am usually not a big fan of bukhoor beyond laban (frankincense) but this particulour Oud does not smell like cat pee to me. It smells smoky and tasty and almost sweet but still foresty. Yum.

I can't wait to scent all the clothes in our wardrobe with it. :)

May Allah accept the prayers she made in Mecca, ameen.

The Truth About Shatti's Haunted House, Nizwa's Jinn/Goat and/or Donkey Personage, and Bahla's Witch on the Hill and the Witches' Chained Tree

Living anywhere in Oman, you're bound to hear a story or two. Even in Muscat.

Have you ever passed by the orange-and white villa with big clear windows directly across from Bareeq Al Shatti complex? Well rumour says that it is haunted.

One of my good friend's family villa is built right next door. The true story is that the villa belongs to an Omani man's foriegn wife whose only child died so she usually flies away back home to her home country because she's lonely and sad here. Her house is maintained by its staff. When the cement on the facade falls off, it is repaired ASAP. It is not some magical entity.

What about the tale of the hitchhiking old man who is picked up around Nizwa, when lo and behold, the driver of the vehicle discovers that the man has the legs of a donkey?!

Well, ask around about the driver from the tale, and you'll find out he was a fellow from Jebel Akdhar that all too often sampled his own home grown wine;).

Friends of an old friend (not my friends, lol, let me make that clear) told her that they had a similiar experience in the Interior. They were driving home late one night and were waved down by the most beautiful Omani woman they had ever seen. She was wearing an old style of dress and spoke in an old way and they being guys, immediately stopped to help her inside.

Only after driving a few miles did they realize, she had the legs of a goat.

"Were you drinking?" my friend asked them, eyebrows raised.

"No," they told her.

She thought for a minute. "Were you on drugs then?"

"Well...." they relented, admitting they'd been high on hasheesh. "But it really happened! We really stopped to let this woman in and drove with her a ways! It was a Jinn."

"Uh huh."

"Really, it was a Jinn."

IF THEY REALLY DID stop and pick up the Jinn-Goat Girl, I amuse myself picturing three high-out-of-their-minds Omani guys driving back from Nizwa spotting a helpless "girl" on the side of the road, and cramming a bemused goat into the backseat of their car, and trying to coyly sneak their arms around the cud-chewing kid until the drugs wore off enough that the hooves of the 'jinn girl' began to manifest. A bad 'trip' in more ways than one;XD

What about the Witch-man from Bahla who sits atop the mountain and casts curses and hexes on the travellers that pass through the valley that was once his land? Story goes that the road was built through his property. Many a man and innocent perished under his accursed gaze as they tried to make their way through the valley.

Truth is? That man doesn't OWN any lands. He doesn't know any spells. He's a Shepherd. What he does for a living is accompany sheep and goats while they graze, and the valley is perfect for them to nibble and eat as they must. He found that from the mountain top he can watch his whole flock easily.

What about the deaths?

At the bottom of the valley is a road with a dangerously sharp curve. It is the curve in the road that causes the men driving vehicles that are driving too fast to meet their eventual doom a day or two early, not an old man above keeping his eye on some sheep and a gaggle of goats;)

What about the chained tree in Bahla's souq? I heard a tourist guide telling visitors that the locals built a wall around it because anyone who ventures under it is turned into a cow.

Honestly, when I heard that, I was like, I am going to climb me a wall!

But no folks, that is not true, though there is ACTUALLY a curse to Bahla's chained tree. For real this time.

Way before Islam came to Oman the pagan folk in Bahla used to offer sacrifices under the Bahla souq tree. Some of them were blood sacrifices. The practice continued way after the advent of Islam in Oman, well into the 1960s. Witches (who were later charged as con-men and women by the ROP for blackmailing gullible folk) convinced people that if the tree were killed it would let the evil of some of the bad wishes people had made while giving their sacrifices out so folk would not burn or cut the tree down (as some of them already had tried to do). [It is a dense type of wood and does not burn quickly or easily and is hard to chop] and so it was chained to keep the spirits in.

The more religious (and intelligent Bahla citizens) eventually made a move to stop superstitious people from offering blood sacrifices under the tree, and erected a wall around it, and it exists in that state to this day.

That story IS true about there being a chained and walled wicked tree in Bahla that was once the altar of the willayat's witches. Just not the cow part of the curse.;)

Nadia has written about Salalah citizens throwing gold into the sea for wishes, and the rumour about Sultan Qaboos having a ring that helps him control a Jinn/Genie, on the Dhofari Gucci blog.

Dear readers residing in Oman: what other wondrous tales have you been told or been telling?;)

OPNO's STYLE FILES: "Dreamer"

I LOOOOVE ETSY: Moroccan Stencils

I am a hardcore DIY addict. Which is a somewhat rare and dying personality among the women I have been aquainted with in Oman. Though I did just see a special on OmanTV2 on a school for Omani women where they learn engraving and embossing, and THEIR work looked just incredible. I don't like to spend money if I don't have to when I can make something just as gorgeous for less money with a little effort. Or reuse something I already have a breathe new life into it. So I just discovered these Moroccan Stencils on Etsy. I am sooooo going to use them when I have the time and money to do a makeover. No, I cannot afford inlaid walls and panelled ceilings. But I can fake it with the best of them;XD thanks to this webpage http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=Moroccan+stencil&view_type=gallery&ship_to=OM and the Royale Designs featured there. I know these are Morrocan designs but Omanis have always traditionally painted their ceilings and my ceilings are so ugly right now, and not to mention boring, so inshaAllah, someday soon...

People in Sohar are Soooooo Nice!

People in Sohar are soooooooooooo nice!

Okay, maybe not those folks who burnt down the Lulu and set a gas truck on fire.

But everyone else I've ever met from Sohar are, like, weirdly, otherworldly nice.

They would remind me of that creepy kidnapper who lures a kid to the car with free candy, only, they'd be that man with the candy and you'd follow him to his car and... and they'd just give you the candy and drive away.

Or, more likely, if they were from Sohar, they'd invite you to their house for a meal.

And you'd eat that meal.

And no one would drug and murder you.

Usually I go to Sohar for the Homesense store. They actually have good customer service there. They don't tell me they don't have it in stock so I should check the other Homesense store when, modern entity that they are, they have phones!

THEY ACTUALLY PHONE AND CHECK FOR ME.

But that's not it.

Without me even asking.

Indrawn breath. I know, I know Muscat people, you are shocked.

All you can envision is the smoke from the Lulu as it is being looted, and the hollaring of young men at the Globe Roundabout.

People, do you know how rare that is in Oman? And thinking I am a Sohar resident, they ask me if I want their delivery truck system to bring it to the Sohar location so I don't even have to go to the trouble of going down to Muscat to get it?

I know, I know, it is far out of Muscat to go for what we already have, but it is worth it for the customer service. Plus when the Sohar delivery truck guys are delivering our furniture, oddly enough, no one steals our car out of the driveway or breaks into our house, unlike another oddly suspicious delivery from another Homesense location I shall not name because I do believe they dealth with that issue but....

In fact, evertime I go to the Sohar Homesense a family of local Sohar women approach me. They say they know I am not from Sohar and thus a traveller so they insist I go to their home and eat dinner with them and after that, that we exchange phone numbers, and even though I am horrible at staying in touch with friends by text, they never miss an Eid or event in my life without congratulating and asking if I need anything.

Totally weird, and oh so nice.

Three families! Three different trips, each time another family.

I thought Sohar is big? Why does it seem that everyone knows everyone well enough to know that one isn't from around there then?

One random Dr. from Sohar offered to deliver my baby free of charge at a private institution if I couldn't go to a government hospital when it was made known I was in a bit of a fix. I knew her, what, only 40 minutes when she decided to make an offer that might risk her job position to help me out.

Another time I had been heading up to UAE to renew my visa, and it was Ramadan, so my husband and I stopped to break our fast on the side of the road just past Sohar. This Sohar man stopped in his car and insisted my husband follow him to his house for a meal that consisted of a dozen courses, I swear.

My first experience with Omanis from Sohar though was when I'd been in a bit of an incident and someone had accused me of beating a girl up who had been my roomate {the boyfriend of the girl was the one accusing me and HE'D ACTUALLY been the one to beat the girl and I'd just been arguing with her that she should leave him for that and she wanted to kick me out of our flat for that WITHOUT giving me the ADVANCE RENT I HAD PAID} and so we'd all ended up in the police station. I hadn't had much luck with telling my personal troubles to Omani men in the past as they usually use that information to take advantage of one and to try to get into her pants, even ROP guys in the station, but the 2 guys handling our case were from Sohar.

When they heard both sides of the story, and realized how thick the finger mark bruising was on my ex-roomie's body they realized I was telling truth (my fingers couldn't make marks like those) they said I could stay as long as I wanted in the flat, and neither she or her boyfriend were allowed to speak to me anymore, but if I didn't want to live there, they could get me another place to live.

2 days later one of their sisters rang me up. She'd found me an inexpensive flat in a family villa and a better paying job so I could move out and move on with my life.

The two guys from the police station never phoned me again after that, or texted me, trying to make any kind of relationship.

In Muscat, I can't even phone the Bank Muscat help line to get my messed up wire transfers fixed without the dude 'helping me' texting me at midnight asking me stupid personal questions, and same with his other friend who works at Oman International Bank who he gave my number to.

People from Sohar, at least in my experience, are really, really, really, really nice. And the niceness seems genuine, and not tied to anything else.

DAILY DIARY: Walk Along the Seeb Corniche and Beach

Because of the full moon these days, I have been heading out to the beach alot. It is nice to walk and so beautiful, but freeeeeeeeziiiiiing for Oman.

Afterwards it was so nice to grab a stick of mishakeek to warm up.

My Own Photos: The Hotel in Misfah Al Abriyan

I know I've already written about the restored traditional house in Misfah Al Abriyan run by a local family as a bed and breakfast, but I haven't posted my photos of the place.Called "Bayt Safil" by locals and simply "Al Abri B&B" or "guesthouse" by travellers, the hotel is located in the old section of Misfah among the stone and mud brick houses and green terraced hills. I like to come here especially in the summer when the heat in Muscat gets unbearable, as the mountains, and especially Misfah, get alot cooler. In the summer it cost 12 rials a night, but right now, in the peak of tourist season, I believe it is 25 rials per person. Which comes with a traditional Omani lunch and breakfast. Reservations can be made by calling (968) 92800120The hotel features this nice little lounge area with a great veiw of the banana, date, and lemon trees that terrace the Misfah's hills. Fully restored, there is electricty, modern showers and sinks, and air conditioning should you wish to turn it on.All the bedrooms feature a clean and comfy bed simply outfitted with white sheets and pillows and warmer blankets, beamed ceilings, and traditional style and materials. A few objects of Omani life decorate the rooms. Traditional village life was quite simple, and the simplicity of the rooms stays in that theme.Possibly my favourite place in the hotel is the outside dining/lounge area, which offers amazing veiws of the green farms of Misfah and some of the older, unrestored traditional houses of the Al Abri tribe. The sunlight streaming in here is so lovely.