O-man, Day 5: The Anthony Bourdain Episode

Had breakfast as usual, had a good devotional with the team, and then headed out to his old town that was destroyed years ago. It was an inhabited city that somehow posed a threat so the Omani government gave the UK the okay to bomb it hundreds of years ago. The city is in ruins, although some houses are still pretty much in tact, although deserted. It really was something to witness. Although deserted and in ruins, a stream of water still flows throughout the town. A little ways down the stream gets much bigger, with waterfalls and all, and is a popular spot among locals to go swim. We went to a particulat spot of the stream, but we had to drive through the stream to get to it. I felt like I was on the Oregon Trail and we chose the option to ford the river. It was pretty fun wondering if the van was going to get stuck in the middle of this big stream. We made it obviously, and we walked through the streams a bit and talked to some locals. The local guys were as fascinated with us as we were with them. They invited us to their village later on, but unfortunately we were not able to make it. They really embraced us and I am thankful for that.

We also visited an amazing old fort that still is up today, where we, yet again almost died. The roads are very narrow and the van was a mere inches (yes, inches!) from scraping the sides of the wall on both sides as we drove through. I love the history here. We then filled up for gas, and then out of nowhere, it started to rain! Talk about crazy! We then decided to visit the "city hidden upon a hill", which is pretty much a citty hidden on a hill (more of a mountain actually). It is a very small village that is very private and usually not too thrilled about visitors, but they allowed us to walk through. As we were walking through I couldn't help but think of the biblical times, as I imagined villages and towns very similar to this one. As we walked through the tiny village, soon we were on the other side of the mountain not visible from the roads, and were amazed at what we saw.

It was so beautiful... I could imagine Anthony Bourdain doing a show out here. It was so green with palm trees, date trees, plantain trees, streams, frogs, geckos, waterfalls, etc. I think the best way to describe it is that it made me think of the new land that Little Foot and Petrie found at the end of "The Land Before Time" (for you old folks like me). I think that is a worthy comparison, minus the dinosaurs. That hike around the town was about 2 hours long, so by the end it was dinner time and we were starving. We chowed down at this place that served amazing chicken tikka masala. The drive home was about 2 hours, and most were exhausted, and by then it was about 10:30 anyways, so bedtime! It was so humbling and crazy to see how some people live. Parts of Oman are very westernized, but the city hidden on a hill was very old school.

So many of us are slaves to our schedules, are ruled by time, or even by work. Then there are those who may not have the high paying jobs, fancy cars, or even a cell phone. Yet they are slaves to nothing, and live life not by what needs to be done, but simply enjoy living. In some ways, and on some days, I am envious of the latter.