Muttrah

I've decided that I will spell the town of Muttrah this way (as opposed to Mutrah or Matrah or any other iteration).  The problem being that vowels are fluid and imprecise in Arabic and translating from Arabic sounds to our alphabet letters is subjective.  I believe that the "a/u" sound at the beginning of the word is a bit muddled and is probably closest to the "u" in the word "mutt", meaning that I will spell Muttrah with two t's.

Anyways, Muttrah is a great place to visit when you are in Muscat.  It is an older area and where the port is located.  If you were to travel by boat to visit us, then you would dock here.  In Muttrah, there is the old souq, a produce and fish market, many mosques, forts, and a nearby hike.  It is a popular place to take visitors to get a "middle east feel."  It should, however, be avoided when cruise ships are in port.  It can just get a little congested then.

Foodie Friday: Kung Fu

I am part of the Admin Leadership Team for Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) here in Oman.  One Sunday, our team met up at Kung Fu for a hot pot lunch.  Yum!

Our Admin Team at Kung Fu (missing Angela).

I had never been to Kung Fu before.  I hadn't even heard about it or hot pot, but I was excited to try.  It was good that I went with pros that knew what to order.  Kung Fu is located inside Fun Zone in Qurum.  It is a small location, and their Facebook page is obviously not very active.  

Ruwi Bike Trail

In the mountains above Ruwi (or maybe Wadi Kabir to be more precise), there is a paved walking path.  It is beautiful, paver, wide path.  There is a paved parking lot for using this walking path.  There is no paved road to the parking lot.  In fact, to get to the parking lot, you will need a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle and steel nerves.

Panoramic view from the top

Our fearless hiking leader found it because there are mountain biking trails up in this area.  Her family enjoys going mountain biking.  Meanwhile, neither of my boys has shown enough interest in biking long enough to learn to ride without training wheels.  Back to the trails... She said that her husband has only encountered other bikers up there once when there was apparently some sort of competition going on.  You can see these bike paths off the paved path as they are dirt trails.