Third Excursion – Part One

Our third and final excursion was to the north. We spent the first day driving to four springs in the mountains. Ayn Garziz, Ayn Salanhut, etc. etc. Frankly, we were all a bit ayned out by the end of the day. The second was really beautiful and the 3rd was huge and full of people. But how long does it really take to see a spring? At the last one we didn't even look at the ayn, we stopped and had lunch. Unfortunately, we did not realize at the time that there was an orchard and accompanying bees nearby. I ordered some tea from the little tea stand and as soon as I set it down there were bees on it. Anyone who knows me knows that I get a little freaked out around wasps and bees. And if you've ever been to Louisiana you will understand why. Fortunately, these bees were nosy but passive. I lost my tea to them, but when our lunch arrived I was smart enough not to open my soda. A few girls lost their soda, but we all survived the bees.

We stopped for the night at Thumrait and stayed at the Thumrait Tourist Hotel. When we walked into the lobby, I could hardly see because of the frankincense. The girls were put into 3 rooms: a room of 6, a room of 4, and a room of 2. I was in the room of 4 girls. It was a bit interesting, You walk in the door and there was my bed with a chair and wardrobe. Then another door to a small hall with a bathroom. The hall opened onto a bigger room with one bed and a TV, and there was a doorway outside and a door to another room with two beds (and a glowing lizard). I actually liked my room. I had the bed to myself, I could lock the front door, and I could close the door to the hall, and I had my own AC. Everything went well until Naseem decided she wanted to take a shower. As soon as she turned on the hot water heater, the breaker flipped. We lost power, as did the room with 6 girls and a room with 3 guys. This was when the glowing lizard made its appearance in Naseem & Kaavya's room and freaked them out. I searched, but I couldn't find it. After about 20 minutes management figured things out and turned on the breaker. The hotel is interesting. It's a warren of hallways and rooms strung together. All the windows have metal lacings over them – even the ones on the inside. And, they like to serve tap water. At dinner that night, a guy at my table opened the bottled water only to discover that it was already open. He tried the bottle on the table next to us and discovered the same thing. We all took a sip and it tasted like tap water, so we had sodas instead.