A Sur-prisingly Good Trip

Painting Sur Red; A night out by the Omani Coast

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Over the previous three months, I had battled my way through a tough half-semester’s teaching at a university in Northern Oman. And, over the previous three hours I had traversed the mountains of Eastern Oman as my friends and I drove to the coastal town of Sur. As a consequence of work, I was in desperate need of a break. Hence driving to Sur. And, as a consequence of the long drive, I was in need of a few glasses of cold beer. Thankfully, for a small seaside town in Oman, Sur has a surprising amount of watering holes. As with most towns in Oman, the bar options are largely restricted to major hotels. In Sur, these are the Sur Beach Hotel, the Sur Plaza Hotel and the Crowne Plaza Hotel. T...Read More

Over the previous three months, I had battled my way through a tough half-semester’s teaching at a university in Northern Oman. And, over the previous three hours I had traversed the mountains of Eastern Oman as my friends and I drove to the coastal town of Sur. As a consequence of work, I was in desperate need of a break. Hence driving to Sur. And, as a consequence of the long drive, I was in need of a few glasses of cold beer. Thankfully, for a small seaside town in Oman, Sur has a surprising amount of watering holes.

As with most towns in Oman, the bar options are largely restricted to major hotels. In Sur, these are the Sur Beach Hotel, the Sur Plaza Hotel and the Crowne Plaza Hotel. These two are by far the classier options. The bars are much nicer, the entertainment options are better – the Sur Plaza has several small bars with bands and dancing from different countries – and the views out to sea are also much better. They do, unfortunately, have their drawbacks. The Sur Plaza is away from the main part of the city and is a little isolated. This is fine earlier in the evening when you are on your way out as taxis are plentiful and easy to flag down. However, later in the evening, they become far more difficult to find, which means late-night revelers can often find themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere. The Crowne Plaza does not suffer from this problem as it is centrally located. Unfortunately, though, the prices there are very high – over 3.5O.R for a beer.

For the reasons cited above, my friends and I decided to confine our night on the tiles to the Sur Beach hotel – where we were staying – and the surrounding areas. We started out in Cheers Bar inside the hotel, which proved top be something of a shock to the system for a couple of reasons. The first was the fact that an entrance fee was required. The bartender asked for 1O.R before she would serve us a can of beer. This astounded me as nowhere in Oman, not even in the most expensive bars in Muscat, does this happen. The second was the volume of the music. There were two Fillipino girls on stage singing – or quite possibly miming to a recorded track – Arabic pop songs at frightening decibels.

Despite the blaring music, we found Cheers Bar rather welcoming because the prices were extremely reasonable. Cans of Amstel and Heineken were just 1.8O.R and bottles of Tiger were 1.6O.R. So, we stuck our fingers in our eyes, spoke to each other at elevated volumes and started to sink a few cold ones. For a hotel bar in a small Omani seaside town, Cheers was surprisingly busy. At first, the clientele was mainly Omani men, who all sat there remarkably quietly listening to the music and enjoying a beer. As alcohol is a bit of a taboo in the Gulf, they all seemed to be keen on not drawing too much attention to themselves. However, later in the evening, several Indians came in and things got a lot more rowdy. They were keen to dsnce along to the music – very badly – and pass requests to the singers for some famous Indian numbers. This was fine for a while, but the Indian pop songs and the sight of several Indian men gyrating close to our table was enough to convince us it was time to split.

We moved downstairs to the hotel’s lobby bar. Again, the prices were very reasonable. And, it had the added bonus of being equipped with two pool tables. However, there was no music, the tables and chairs were all plastic and it was empty. This gave it the impression of being more like a school common room than a bustling night-spot. So, after one beer and two games of pool we decided to move out of the hotel and to a dance bar down the street. This proved to be a bizarre experience. When I saw words ‘dance bar’ I assumed we would enter a bar in which we could also dance. How wrong I was. Instead, we entered a place in which four Indian girls were dancing on stage behind a glass screen.

The ‘Dance Bar’ was a strange experience. The ‘dancing’ girls did not actually do too much dancing. Instead they simply stood on stage and shimmied around a little. The clientele of the bar was made up almost entirely of Indian and Pakistani workers, and it was rowdy. As the girls danced there was plenty of whooping and shouting. Sadly, this eventually boiled over as two Indians came to blows and began to throw beer cans at each other. At this point, we decided enough was enough and to return to our hotel. On the way out, we discovered that the ‘dance bar’ was actually in two sections. There was an Indian section and an Omani section. IN both bars, girls were dancing, but in the Omani side, all the customers were locals.
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Sur Dow Shipyard

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Attraction | "Down to the 'Shipyards'"

Sur Shipyards Photo - Sur Dow Shipyard, Sur, Oman

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I have always been of a somewhat maritime persuasion. I love messing around with boats. Therefore, when my friends and I visited Sur, I was keen to see some dows – the traditional Omani vessels that operate in the Arabian Gulf and, occasionally beyond. I was especially excited when the receptionist in our hotel gave us a map of the town and I saw the term ‘Sur Dow Shipyards. This description proved to be a little over-zealous, but seeing the downs was, nevertheless, a fantastic experience. The term shipyard evokes images of large cranes and the huge skeletons of ships under construction. It is the sort of term I would associate with cities like Glasgow or Gdansk. The Sur version was, unsurprisingly, n...Read More

I have always been of a somewhat maritime persuasion. I love messing around with boats. Therefore, when my friends and I visited Sur, I was keen to see some dows – the traditional Omani vessels that operate in the Arabian Gulf and, occasionally beyond. I was especially excited when the receptionist in our hotel gave us a map of the town and I saw the term ‘Sur Dow Shipyards. This description proved to be a little over-zealous, but seeing the downs was, nevertheless, a fantastic experience. The term shipyard evokes images of large cranes and the huge skeletons of ships under construction. It is the sort of term I would associate with cities like Glasgow or Gdansk. The Sur version was, unsurprisingly, not quite the same. In fact, the Sur ‘shipyards’ amounted to little more than a beach on the local estuary where Dow captains repaired their vessels after an arduous voyage. Regardless of the scale, though, they were fascinating.

The ‘shipyard’ sits in the shadow of the main bridge that spans the Sur estuary. When we visited, there were two dows undergoing repairs on the beach and two or three others anchored in the estuary. The two on the beach had been hauled out almost fully so that their entire hull was on the beach. The boats were beautiful wooden creations. The hulls of the two that were hauled out were freshly painted, which made them look modern and sleek. However, everything that we could see above the waterline on all of the dows spoke of tradition and antiquity. The sides of the boats were made from rough dark woods that seemed to have had very little treatment or decoration. The deckhouses were square and boxy creations that seemed to care nothing for elegance and aerodynamics, boasting strong, chunky right-angles and sat proudly on the stern. The dows seemed to be built to a blueprint that had no changed for hundreds of years

As I approached the first dow, which was coincidentally the largest on show, the captain wandered out to say "hello". He was tremendously friendly and very keen to show us his boat. He pointed us around the hull showing us one of his deck hands painting the wooden beams and slapping the side with his open palm to signify the strength and seaworthiness of his vessel. Sadly he didn’t speak too much English, so I could not pepper him with questions as I would have liked.

The majority of pictures I had seen of downs featured vessels with two fore and aft sails – sails that run from the bow of the boat to the stern, as you might see on a yacht. We had also passed several dows on show on dry land around Sur. For example, there was a model dow sat atop one of the main roundabouts in the centre of town and there was a large replica of a traditional dow sat on a large stone frame on the outskirts of the city. These all came rigged with sweeping for and aft sales, one running from the bow to the center of the boat and the other from the center to the stern. These sails were cut in such a way as to make them look like swallows sweeping across the deck of the boat. I was keen to find out if this was the traditional way of building dows and if the same style was still used today.

I made every possible attempt to communicate my question about sails to the captain, but my conversational Arabic did not stretch to "fore and aft rig" or "square rig" (sails that run across the boat – from side to side) and, sadly, neither did his English. Therefore, I had no choice but to resort to drawing pictures in the sand. At first, these seemed to baffle him, but as I made things a little more specific, he seemed to understand. He then began to swirl his finger round in a circular motion. Unfortunately, at first, I found this as confusing as he had found my drawings. But, then, the penny dropped. He was trying to explain that they were motorized.

From that point on, the conversation began take off. He explained – slowly and in very broken English – that the dows still could sail, but rarely did – engines were clearly more useful apparently. He explained that, in the past, they sailed all the time, but that now motors were more useful. Each boat, though, still had a long pole running from the bow to the stern that could be elevated and used to set sails if the situation required, or, if the captain was overcome with a burst of nostalgia.

Despite the communication shortfall, my trip to the ‘shipyards’ were very interesting and the views were wonderful. The boats themselves were very beautiful and had a distinctly traditional feel. It is rumored that the legend of Sinbad the Sailor gre up in Sur, and, from, the traditional style of the dows, it was easy to evoke such images of pirates on the tropical seas. The ‘shipyards’ are completely free and are right next to the main bridge that spans the Sur estuary. It is easy to either drive there or you can walk from most of the major hotels in the town.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on November 21, 2010

Sur Dow Shipyard

Sur, Oman

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Ras Al Hadd

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Attraction | "Heroes in a Half-Shell - Seeing Turtles Close Up"

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Our trip to see Ras Al Hadd and the giant sea turtles did not get off to the most auspicious of starts. In fact, until we actually got onto the beach, it was a catalogue of mistakes, mishaps and chaos. It began very badly. After driving well over 20o0km from Muscat, we arrived at our hotel keen to get organize a trip to Ras Al Hadd. However, an American guest was quick to tell us that the tickets for that evening were all sold out on account of the Eid Al Haj holiday. It was only through some less than ethical dealing with the hotel Concierge – that involved a little palm greasing - that we managed to secure some tickets. Where he had procured them from, we decided, was best left unknown.T...Read More

Our trip to see Ras Al Hadd and the giant sea turtles did not get off to the most auspicious of starts. In fact, until we actually got onto the beach, it was a catalogue of mistakes, mishaps and chaos. It began very badly. After driving well over 20o0km from Muscat, we arrived at our hotel keen to get organize a trip to Ras Al Hadd. However, an American guest was quick to tell us that the tickets for that evening were all sold out on account of the Eid Al Haj holiday. It was only through some less than ethical dealing with the hotel Concierge – that involved a little palm greasing - that we managed to secure some tickets. Where he had procured them from, we decided, was best left unknown.

The trip from Sur is roughly 55km. As we had no idea of the way, we followed the concierge who was at the head of a convoy of cars made up of guests in the hotel – to the majority of whom we presumed he had also sold tickets. The journey took 45 of the most frightening minutes of my life. The Concierge drove through the darkened desert at break-neck speed. I had to hit the accelerator hard – much harder than I felt comfortable with – just to keep up. On two or three occasions, he flew round blind bends at well over 100kph, leaving me grimacing and praying nothing was coming in the opposite direction. Thankfully, we arrived in one piece, just.

We had been expecting to arrive at a deserted beach with a few sparse huts. However, we were surprised to find a large, modern research and visitor center. As we entered we scanned the barcodes of our tickets and moved into the lobby where there was a DVD explaining the breeding habits of sea turtles playing in Arabic and English. It was all very impressive. Unfortunately, within minutes, the whole scene descended into chaos. As it was Eid, there were hundreds of tourists and soon the lobby was crammed to bursting. Sadly the Omani staff seemed unused to such crowds and had no idea how to cope. Therefore, the whole scenes descended into a mass of pushing and shoving. After over an hour of waiting and jostling for position, we were tempted to leave. And, it was only by following the concierge who barged his way to the front that we actually got out onto the sands.

I am so unbelievably glad that we followed in the Concierge’s tracks, as the hour that followed was one of the most awe-inspiring of my life. It was a 2km walk through the darkness across the beach before we reached the beach. The closer we got to the turtles’ habitat the quieter everyone in the party became. As we neared the beach, everyone was speaking in a whisper. This actually provided my friends and I with quite a bit of mirth. I asked the guide whether turtles could actually hear anything, he replied:

"No, they cannot hear sounds. They can detect vibrations, but we will create far more vibration by walking along the beach than by talking."

"So, it makes no difference if we talk quietly or not?"

"No, but I like to whisper for effect. The tour seems much more interesting and mysterious if everyone is very quiet."

This certainly made us all chuckle. However, our guide was correct. The whispering gave the impression of being in a David Attenborough documentary and really grabbed our attention.

As we got close to the beach, the guide explained the details of the turtles’ breeding patterns. He told us that the turtles came out of the water and crawled up the beach. They would then dig two holes. One they would lay around 50 golf ball sized eggs in; the other was there as a decoy to fool predators such as foxes that would look to dig up the eggs for food. Apparently, the gender of the baby turtles depended on the position of the eggs. The higher up the beach, the warmer the sand would be and the likelier it was that the eggs would produce male turtles. The talk was fascinating, but we were all keen to move on and see for ourselves.

At last we could move down the beach and soon saw a female turtle using her flippers to cover a hole into which she had just laid her eggs. The sight was captivating. Our small group formed a semi-circle around her and stared in amazement. She then turned and began to make her way slowly to the sea. The moonlight illuminated the beach nicely and we could easily see as she inched her way down. Our guide told us to follow her quietly and slowly. We too inched our way down the beach until she flopped into the water and swam away. Our guide then explained that her role with the babies was finished. When they hatched, they were on their own – there was no interaction between parent and child.

The turtles were a truly wonderful sight. Everything about them was so slow and so gentle. It had certainly been worth the not so slow journey and the less than gentle jostling to get onto the beach.

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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on November 20, 2010

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An English Seaside Town

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When I was a child, my parents often took me on vacation and on day-trips to sea-side towns in the north of England. I spent countless afternoons in towns such as Scarborough, Bridlington and Blackpool. These towns were characterized by a few common traits. The sea was dark, deep and blue. It was often rough and the waves were almost always white-capped. The promenades were long, wind-swept and sparsely populated. Only during the very warmest days of the summer would anyone actually consider going for a swim. The majority of the time the cold, dark waves were left alone to crash onto the sands. I can vividly recall sitting with my parents drinking hot tea or coffee on the promenade huddled together to...Read More

When I was a child, my parents often took me on vacation and on day-trips to sea-side towns in the north of England. I spent countless afternoons in towns such as Scarborough, Bridlington and Blackpool. These towns were characterized by a few common traits. The sea was dark, deep and blue. It was often rough and the waves were almost always white-capped. The promenades were long, wind-swept and sparsely populated. Only during the very warmest days of the summer would anyone actually consider going for a swim. The majority of the time the cold, dark waves were left alone to crash onto the sands. I can vividly recall sitting with my parents drinking hot tea or coffee on the promenade huddled together to stave off some rather biting winds that were whipping in across the North Sea from Scandinavia.

In Oman, the majority of coastal towns bear no resemblance to those in my home country. The sea tends to be much calmer and a much brighter shade of blue. The promenades are lined with palm trees and the sands are wonderfully golden. When I visited places like Sawadi beach near the town of Barka or As Suwaiq - between Rustaq and Sohar – the waters seemed warm and inviting and the beaches were sweeping and golden. In both places, I saw children swimming and fishermen happy wade into the water up to their wastes. Whenever I take a trip to the coast, the hot tea is replaced with iced fruit juice and I spend far more time sun-bathing than huddling. The two places really do feel a million miles apart.

When my friends and I made the journey to Sur, I was expecting the view and the ambience to follow the Omani style of seaside town. Everything I had read in my guide-book told me that Sur was one of Oman's most popular beach resorts. Therefore, I was expecting palm trees, golden sands and balmy waters. However, I was surprised to find that it had just a little bit of the English feel about it too.

We drove there along the coastal highway from Muscat. For the majority of the journey, the sky was clear and the ocean was a dazzling shade of blue. However, as we drew closer to Sur, the wind began to pick up and the clouds began to converge. Suddenly, I began to feel much closer to home. The cloud and winds certainly gave Sur more of an English feel than I had been expecting. However, once I had parked my car and we set off on a stroll along the sea-front, the deja-vu became even stronger.

The first thing I noticed was the promenade, instead of palm trees it was lined with small concrete shelters that were clearly designed to keep out the wind. Inside these, we saw Omani families huddled together drinking tea and trying to stay warm. The wind made things pretty cold by Omani standards. It was below 20 degrees, which for me was great, but was a little too much for some of the locals – temperatures in Sur often top well over 40 degrees in summer months. The sea was also quintessentially English. It was a deep dark blue and the waves were crashing into the beach with great force. None of the locals seemed remotely keen on going anywhere near it. The whole scenario really made me chuckle. Scores of childhood memories came flooding back.

The comparisons between Sur and England were pretty temporary. The next morning, the sun was back out, the water was invitingly warm and the Omani families were strolling barefoot in the sands rather than escaping the wind. However, after asking a few locals we did find out that during the winter months (we visited in November) Sur can get quite windy and, when it does, the beach is not the most inviting place on the planet. It really did make me feel at home, at least a little bit. Read Less

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The Road To Sur

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With the Eid Al Haj holiday approaching, my friends and I decided to take a road trip from our base in Rustaq in the North of Oman, down the coast to the beach city of Sur, and then, out into the desert. The first leg of this trip provided some of the most spectacular scenery in the Gulf region as well as some of the most exciting driving I have ever experienced, taking in winding mountain passes, desert plains and stunning coastal views. Even though our whole group agreed that the drive was a fantastic experience, it actually caused me plenty of headaches in the preparation stages. For those unfamiliar with the Gulf, I should explain that the road system in Oman is relatively new and unde...Read More

With the Eid Al Haj holiday approaching, my friends and I decided to take a road trip from our base in Rustaq in the North of Oman, down the coast to the beach city of Sur, and then, out into the desert. The first leg of this trip provided some of the most spectacular scenery in the Gulf region as well as some of the most exciting driving I have ever experienced, taking in winding mountain passes, desert plains and stunning coastal views.

Even though our whole group agreed that the drive was a fantastic experience, it actually caused me plenty of headaches in the preparation stages. For those unfamiliar with the Gulf, I should explain that the road system in Oman is relatively new and under constant development, and, that information on it can be quite scarce – there are no full-scale modern maps of the country and the development of new roads has rendered the majority of guide-books on the country out-dated – I had an Oman Explorer guide published in 2009 that was useless as it did not include half of the new roads in the country. Therefore, prior to the trip, I was unsure what we would encounter on the way. It was not a case of being unsure of which road I should take. Rather, I did not even know if there was a road at all. The coastal road to Sur was only built at the start of 2010. Before then, the journey followed a winding inland route of over 300km. Sadly, it took me quite some time to amass this information as my guide-book had no trace of any coastal road and several sources on the internet were adamant that the only route was inland.

The first leg of the journey runs from Ruwi in Muscat to the town of Quriyat on the shores of the Arabian Gulf. The journey is roughly 80km and is spectacular. The first 50 km or so are a driver's dream – if you have a need for speed that is. They wind gently through desert plains and are almost completely deserted. As well as this, there are no speed cameras. Therefore, it is easy to hit top speed as some very pleasant countryside whizzes by. The final few kilometres, on the other hand, are far less conducive to pretending you are an F1 champion. As the road approaches Quriyat, it steepens to such an extent that drivers are forced into low gear as they inch their way up some impressive peaks. Then, as we reached the highest point of the mountain range, a stunning panorama opened out before us. The mountains fell sharply to a narrow plain of green land that melted into the deep blue seas of the Gulf. There are several spots on the way down for drivers to stop and snap the wonderful view.

Once we reached the bottom of the hill, we turned into the Quriyat and then sped onto the coastal highway. For the following 100km, we drove less than 100m from the crashing waves and golden beaches. I continuously found myself switching into the left-hand lane, regardless of the traffic situation, (The Fast Lane) as it gave the best view of the sea. Around half-way to Sur, though, things changed. The sea remained constant on our left, but we began to find several wadis (large valleys) to our right that emptied into straight into the Gulf. These proved to be something of a hazard as they were so eye-catching that I could not help but take my eyes off the road to gawp at the scenery – I imagine I was not the only one.

The most impressive of these is Wadi Bani Said, a 200m deep gorge full of wonderfully turquoise water that gently blends into the deep blue of the Gulf. Even though I was doing a steady 150kph – the benefit of there being no speed cameras – it was easy to spot as hundreds of SUVs were parked by the side of the road and scores of tourists were taking pictures. The wadi was truly beautiful. The sides of the valley were covered with deep rich vegetation and the bottom was made up of palm trees and golden sands that melted into the water. However, it did seem slightly sad that the mouth of such a beautiful natural phenomenon had been covered by a giant highway bridge.

It took just over two hours to drive from Muscat to Sur. It was a genuinely enjoyable drive, which gave us a chance to see some fantastic scenery. Read Less

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