Mukhaizna

The driver taking us back to the airport didn't speak much English, but he did laugh and say "Same, Same" as I repeatedly pointed my camera out the window at the empty desert. He looked around for something worth taking a picture of the entire drive and eventually gave up, pulled off to the side of the road, jumped out and stood behind a tree. Mus and Vincent in the back had no idea what he was doing, but I figured he was giving me a photo op so I jumped out of the car, camera clicking, in the hope that he wasn't going for a pee.

Finally satisfied that I'd got the shot I wanted, or resigned to the fact he was never going to get any privacy to take care of his bodily functions, he got back in the car and drove on. Mukhaizna airstrip, next left:

The departure lounge at Mukhaizna is a happening place. For once, Mus made it through security without incident:

All being well, I'm out of here tomorrow and back in Houston Friday. Can't wait:

Same Crap, Different City

A Trip

Ooh look, we're on a plane:

Dirty window though. Can hardly see a thing. Let's stop somewhere.

That's better. Gosh, that runway looks like it's just hard packed sand, doesn't it? Where the flipping heck are we?

Mukhaizna? Do you think there's a Starbucks in the yellow terminal building there? No, okay then, let's go for a drive.

Yay! It's the desert. Keep your eyes peeled for camels.

Muscat

I arrived in Muscat on Friday night, though it was after midnight by the time I got out of the airport. My bags decided to stay in Dubai. Mustafa, who I was travelling with, re-routed to Karachi, as the folks in London wouldn't let him go to Oman with less than 6 months on his passport, despite the fact he already a visa issued by the Oman government. Anyway, those of you bored enough to follow my Where's Ian thing hopefully got an idea of the epic scale of my journey.

Muscat itself is a beautiful city. I love Arabic architecture. It's all curves and domes, not so many right angles.

Here's the view from my hotel room:

And here's my hotel from the beach below:

Sunset from the beach:

The ocean:

Ooh La La Indeed

I don't speak French, but I'm pretty sure these guys are saying something along the lines of "How did we lose twice to this shower in 11 months?"

For Jen and Thomas

None of the rest of you will get this. Some of you will probably try to get it, but won't, unless you've played BioShock. The link is to a comic that is, at the best of times rude and that not only contains, in this particular instance, two sweary words, but, since you haven't played BioShock, it may seem even more offensive than it is, so don't click on this:

Funniest. Thing. Ever.

Now, I realise that's cruel. It's like a big red button that has no other explanation than a huge sign saying "Do Not Press". So, you've clicked on it, you've read it and you didn't get it. You may even be offended. You're probably annoyed at me for not warning you or something.

Anyway, passing off someone else's work, that I didn't even pay for, as a present is pretty cheap, but I don't think Jen and Thomas would have found it on their own, because they're not nerds like me, and today's their anniversary and it will make them laugh, so it's worth it. Happy Anniversary guys.

Now You're Stalking

Announcing an exciting new feature on the Ian and Nikki blog: "Where's Ian?"

If you look to the right, and scroll down past the newly patched together widget that clunkily works around the fact that blogger's comment feed is no longer compliant with their feed page element, you'll see it. If it works as designed, I can text updates from anywhere in the world, that let you know where I am and what I'm doing.

The service is called Twitter and, if you're interested in receiving a text on your phone, whenever I send a text to twitter from my phone, you can set your phone to follow me, or something. I didn't really read that bit because it seems a little stupid. Who on Earth would want to know where I am and what I'm doing at all times. (Hi Mum! Shame they didn't have this 18 years ago, eh?)

It all seems a little bit pointless really, but since I'm off on my travels next Thursday and probably not going to be able to blog very much, I thought I'd give it a go and see how well it works.

Just The Two of Us

Last Thursday was one of the Astros few day games this season. Always a great excuse to play hooky, Nikki and were both invited to the game through our work. We had slightly different seats, though I've managed to include them both in this picture:My seat was pretty much where I'm standing and Nikki's seat was pretty much where the red circle is. Nikki did do better on one score though, since they had a St. Arnold's beer cart near where she was sitting and I had to make do with Shiner.

I Think I Got My Jugular