Buy my camel! (Oman 7/7)

Last but not least, the last article about Oman (for now...!). There's just so much to see in Oman, on our way back to UAE we felt we had to try and visit as much as we could! That's how we ended up paying a night visit to the old town of Mudayrib, on our way to Sinaw. Wandering in the old, partly deserted village of Mudayrib by night was an interesting, almost mystical experience, even though the villagers tended to look at us quite weirdly... they probably thought we'd got lost!

And then we arrived in the town of Sinaw by night. The idea was to spend the night there and get up early the next day to go to the souq. Sinaw's souq is one of the most lively and interesting in the region since the Bedouins traditionally go there to trade their livestock for modern commodities.

Wandering around the market at 7.30am the next morning, we'd already forgotten the night we'd spent in a creepy dirty Indian hotel! It was actually totally worth it! On the market, we obviously drew some attention since we were the only tourists, but on the whole people were very nice and courteous. As we were having a look at traditional daggers that some old men were trying to sell, and were surprised at the price (200 Omani Rials), a lovely old Omani showed us his own, 2,000 OR worth dagger! He also explained us a couple of things about the market, starting with the camels on sale, which were actually sold for their meat (around 300-600 OR) whereas racing camels cost at least 15,000 OR!

Al-Mudayrib

Old fort in Al-Mudayrib

Deserted houses in Al-Mudayrib

Dinner at an Omani restaurant

Sinaw souq

Camels ready to be auctioned

Dried fish

Bedouin family bringing goats to sell

Beautiful Bedouin woman wearing the traditional peak-mask and a shiny sea-through abeya

Omani wearing a khanjar (Omani dagger) at his belt

Khanjars for sale at the souq

Camel in the middle of a dual carriageway on the way to U.A.E.

So that's for the report on our trip to Oman. If the pictures or my words didn't speak for themselves, I highly recommend discovering this beautiful country!

Have a good weekend everyone!