After bad luck and bad timing in Goa, Kaia and Skye were able to finish their Junior Open Water Scuba Certification in Oman! We got an SSI referral from Gabor in Goa showing they had done their academic work and passed their written test ( both scored in the 90s). In Goa they got to do a few confined water dives in pretty crap visibility but they did not count for the Referral so they were some free experience dives. So in Oman they had to do two confined water dives and two open water dives….and these were done inthe …
Author: Doug
Muscat, Oman
Muscat, the capitol of Oman is an awesome city in which I could easily live. The food is great, the roads are excellent and the people are very friendly. It’s hot, damn hot, but a dry heat not the humidity of Hong Kong. It has great history and the Sultan seems pretty cool. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscat Although we only had 5 days in Oman and 2 days were spent diving, we tried to pack in the sights as best we could. Muscat did not disappoint. We checked out our local Qurm Beach, the Old town, the Oil and gas museum and …
Highway To Muscat, Oman
Leaving Abu Dhabi on the top notch highway to Muscat, Oman, we pulled over for the call of nature. The down side is we pulled into desert sand and sank axle deep…. I have spent a lot of time in deserts and learned that one must help each other in the desert or things go wrong quick. We had just gotten nicely stuck when locals started pulling up, most in peristome white dishdashes. Within 5 minutes, out of nowhere a huge truck shows up with a giant strap. They wrap the strap around the front axle and voila – we …
Abu Dhabi
From India our route was to go to South Africa, so now we are in Abu Dhabi. Again, the best laid plans of mice and men…. When investigating flights to Johannesburg from Bombay there were minimal direct options. We also knew we wanted to get some diving in for the older two while it was all fresh in their minds. One great option was to fly to the Seychelles and then on to Joburg. So now we are in Abu Dhabi…. Marie-Christine has a few great friends in Abu Dhabi. Her university friend Tonya has been after her …
The best laid plans…
To paraphrase Robbie Burns – the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…. Due to the older 2 girls doing their Junior Open Water Scuba course, we decided to leave our beloved Cavelossim Beach and head down to Palolem Beach so they would be closer to the pool for their pool dives. It would also be closer for their mandatory 2 shore dives (confined water dives). Also we were going to go dive at Netrani Island for their 2 Open Water dives and departure from Palolem was 5 am, so departure from Cavelossim was going to be …
Open Water Junior Dive Course
While we had the time the older two girls thought it would be good to do the Open Water Junior Dive Course. In our area of southern Goa there was only one dive shop. I also contacted the 2 Dive shops in northern Goa but they showed minimal interest. Shanti Divers in Canacona replied with an extensive response and showed lots of interest. So we met with Gabor and the girls began their course thru Scuba Schools International (SSI). MC is a PADI Rescue Diver and I am a PADI Divemaster so SSI was pretty new to us…and we were …
Goa!
As this is a family trip, we all realised that too many temples/forts/historical sights equals not much fun, and we suspected the beaches of Goa did equal fun We did not leave the hectic life of HK to replace it with alarm clocks elsewhere. We had promised ourselves to find nice places to chill and hang out. So it was off to the famous beaches of Goa! Due to visa issues, impossible flight routes and 20+ hours of flight time, my choices of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were shelved. As we have both travelled for a year or more solo, …
Jaisalmer – The Golden City
Jaisamler is the Golden City because everything is made of sandstone and the desert sun makes it shine Golden. We are in the Thar desert which is the 18th largest desert in the world, 9th largest subtropical desert. It is the most populated desert in the world and the least populated part of India – funny! 40% of the Rajasthan population live here. It makes a natural border between The nuclear armed enemies of India and Pakistan. Everywhere was military bases and personnel. India has twice the military size of Pakistan but nukes even it up as both have between …
Jodhpur – The Blue City
Jodhpur is known as the Blue City….and I had just thought it was named after funny looking trousers. It was also beginning g to seem that every city in Rajasthan was “The City of……”. It wasn’t until we got up above the city in the fort ( yes kids we are off to see another fort/palace..), that we saw why…. While in Jodhpur we saw the Jaswant Thada – a memorial to a whole bunch of maharajahs. Our guide was great – he pointed out that almost all the faces were painted the same they just changed the crazy Rajasthani mustaches …
Udaipur – The City Of Lakes
After one easy day/night in Pushkar, it was off to Udaipur, the city of lakes, founded by Udai Singh in the 1500s. Oh yeah – the lakes are man made as the Thar desert isn’t far away….That being said, the lakes are beautiful and our hotel was lit ( this is my 13 y.o word for ‘cool’). There was a corporate event there that night and we ‘shazamed’ some very ‘interesting’ Indian dance music – look out the next t8 e you see me…. The City Palace Started in the 1500s by Udai when Udaipur was the capital city of …