Eid al-Adha

This past weekend was a four-day weekend for us here in the UAE.  Other Muslim countries got a week or two but I guess the government doesn't want any slackers here so we only had two days.  Even with only two days, it was a nice break. 

The holiday is called Eid al-Adha and is meant to celebrate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God. If you remember the story, the son was replaced, at the last moment, by a goat and that's what they sacrifice here.  I've seen lots of sad, floppy eared goats being driven around in the backs of trucks in the past week.  Apparently, a lot of families still kill the goats in the home even though it's supposed to be illegal.

I did not kill a goat at home.  I went on a hike in Oman.  It was just across the border and in the mountains.   Going across the border was easy.  We just drove up, showed our passports and drove through....no line up or any questions at all. 

We drove for about twenty minutes and arrived at an old fort in Wadi Madha  (wadi means valley). 

There was a beautiful oasis to walk through with pomegranates, grapes, bananas, mangos and dates. 

We also came upon some workers and you can see that things haven't changed much in the last thousand years for them.  We also walked by their prayer site and found their rugs, beads and hats hanging in the trees.

We also walked through a cemetary.  That was interesting because I learned that they don't care about their dead as they feel that once you die, your body doesn't matter.  The cemetary was just a jumbled pile of rocks.  There was also a small abandoned village from pre 1970s when everyone moved into cities as oil was discovered.  It was very obvious that they were living pretty hard lives.

The one thing that really surprised me was the open water in the wadi...of course, that would have been why people settled there in the first place but everything is so barren that it's easy to forget that there is water here.

A look back as we were leaving.  Sally, who organized the walk for us, designed it so we could finish up with this very picturesque view.

We also stopped at an Omani gas station to fill up because the gas is only $.18 per litre compared with $.24 in the UAE....hehehehehe!!!

I spent the rest of day at a luxurious buffet luncheon stuffing my self with goodies so, a good day all around.