Al Nahda Resort and Spa = Epic Awesomeness!

I planned to wake up late today but failed. I woke up at 8:30 after my sister bashed into my room waking me up so we can leave to Al Nahda Resort early. I was ready in five minutes (as usual) but for some weird reason, we left home at around 11:30am. Don't ask me why, all I can say is that I was with three women! Dad did not come with us as he had work to do.

Al Nahda Resort and Spa is located in the city of Barka, around 45 minutes by car from Muscat. We reached the Resort at around 12:30. In short, if you ever visited Oman and did not come to this place, then you did not see everything in this country. This place is epically amazing! The prices are not so bad compared to the services you get.

We started the day off chilling in the pool for about an hour or two. Here are some pictures of the pool to give you a better idea.

After the pool, all of us went to the jacuzzi. Now I have been to several jacuzzi's around Doha, but I never had the same relaxation as I had in this one. The temperature of the water, the water bursts, everything was perfect. I really had the time of my life!

After the jacuzzi, we took a bike ride around the place. Given my current physical status (completely unfit!), I was not able to bike much. After 15 minutes, I was done! Here is a picture I took while biking around the resort. The place is paradise on earth. It was 4:30 pm by than and we had to leave since the place closes down at 5 for visitors.

We packed our bags and headed back to Muscat. On the way back, we stopped at KFC for lunch and did some shopping at lulu. We got back home and the sisters went to bed while I spent the rest of the evening facebooking, tweeting, and checking out ways to make my blog look cooler. If you haven't noticed, I added my twitter feed to the blog.

Tomorrow's plan is to go out with my friend's from Doha and show them around Muscat. I am sure tomorrow there will be loads of pictures of the city and its beautiful night life. Stay tuned!

It's always good to be back home!

Today started off pretty late as we had nothing planned for the morning. Parents are coming latter today in the evening so me and my sisters planned to kill the afternoon doing something eid-ish ( stuff people do during the eid days).

Nothing came to our minds since my mom is the one who always plans trips and things to do. So being the not so mature people we are, we decided to go watch a movie ( if you don't remember, that is exactly what we did yesterday evening too! ). My sisters said they wanted to go watch an Indian movie this time.

We looked up the timings and saw that "dabaang" was in Al Nast cinema at 2pm. It was 12pm at that time. To kill time, my elder sister went to shop for some things and me and my other sister wasted time on the internet. Productively enough, I typed my blog post that was due yesterday night. 1:30pm came and we were off to the movies.

We confidently parked the car and went in thinking we would find seats easily. The entire cinema was sold out for the whole day! OWNED! Then we decided to check out the other cinemas. We ended up going to Al bahja cinema which is a good 30 mins drive from where we were. We watched the expendables which is one of the best action filled movie I have watched this year. It's insane! You have to go watch it. Here is the trailer to get you excited about it.

After the movie, we got a message from dad saying that they would be arriving in 30 minutes. We had more time to kill so we decided to go to City Center which is another mall close to Al Bahja. We chilled there for a while and checked out the electronic store and had a light lunch. We didn't realize that time was running out until we got another message from dad saying that they had landed and will be coming out in five minutes. We were lucky that the airport was very close to the mall.

We were there in no time and picked the parents up. Its good that they weren't waiting for long. On the way back, they told us all about Dubai and their trip. I was just happy that they were back.

We headed home and I felt that there wasn't going to be much going out since they were tired and didn't feel like doing anything. However, we did plan on what we were going to do tomorrow, ( I told you, my mom is the best trips planner!).

When I thought that I was going to end my day in a not so fun manner, my mom told me to go get some stuff from the grocery store. Over there, I met my very close neighborhood friend Nasser. I was actually planning on meeting him tonight but his phone wasn't working. So it was my fate to meet him there. We talked for about an hour before my mom called and asked where I was. I told him I will drop the stuff back home and then we would meet up. He came in his car after few minutes and we went to chill.

Nasser is a guy that I really don't get bored talking with him. We chilled on the beach near my home and talked about life and other random stuff for hours. Its 1:20am right now and I just got back home to type this up. I must say, this guy is awesome! I really love being back home to hang out with him.

As for tomorrow's plans, we are going inshallah to the Al-Nahda Resort. If you are a CMU Qatar freshmen or sophomore, you know what I am talking about. This resort is the one that CMU Qatar takes its freshmen class every year for their first year experience program. I haven't been there before but I hope it will be a good experience. We are planning to spend the day there so hopefully there will be a lot of pictures and fun stories since my little crazy cousin, Ahmed, ( the one from yesterday's post) will be there as well.

Until then, this is me signing off and hoping that you all are enjoying these posts so far because I know I am!

Family + Food + Friends = Amazing Eid!

This blog post is coming a day late because yesterday was a really busy day. I got back home and slept straight away. However, let me try and remember as much as possible.

The day started off really early at around 5:30am when I got up to go pray the Eid Prayer. I didn't know what time it was at so I guessed that they would pray at 6. Good guess since they prayed at 6:20. The Eid prayer, for those of you who know what I am talking about,

is one of the best parts I love about Eid in general. I feel that all muslims around the world come and pray and greet each other "Eid Mubarak". Its a really good feeling. I met some of my neighborhood friends that I havent seen for a long time. This is a picture of the sun rising as I was going to the mosque.

After prayers, I got back home and wished my sisters "Eid Mubarak" as well. The plan was to go to my uncle's house and see the rest of the family. However, we were a bit confused since every year, my uncle calls the night before Eid and invites us to his place. However, this year, and since my parents are not at home, he did not call. We called dad and mom in Dubai and wished them Eid Mubarak and told them our plans. While my sisters were debating the idea of going to my uncle's place, I remembered that I had some friends coming over from Doha to visit Oman. I decided to go pick them up from the airport since I wasn't being of much use at home.

The friends are three american exchange students from College Station who are doing a semester abroad in Doha and one Germany friend who is studying with me in Qatar. I picked them up from the airport and dropped them at the bus station since they were going to go to Sohar for the first few days before they come back to visit Muscat. I will update you guys about them more once they arrive here.

Going back to the story, I went back home and saw that my sisters had decided that we were going to visit the family even if they didn't invite us, after all, they are family!. My sisters got ready (which took forever!!) and after a long photo taking session, we headed off.

Seeing the big family has always been a joy and source of great happiness. I chill with my uncle and aunts and cousins all day. However, this year was a bit different since Dad and Mom were not there. Its always them that make the whole atmosphere lively and crazy!

We started the feast with the traditional harees.

If you don't know what this is, I really don't know how to explain it. Here is a picture in case you are confused.

After that, fruits and coffee came in. Then some guests came to visit and more fruits and coffee came it. This kept on going until it was Friday prayers time.

It was really weird to see that most of the people during the sermon were so sleepy and you could tell that they had eaten a lot at home. The sermon itself was extremely short!

After Friday prayers, me and the sisters headed back home because we were very sleepy and had a movie to watch at 5. It was 1 when we left. We got back home and slept until it was movie time.

We watched the Egyptian movie " Al-talata Yashtaghlonaha (The Three Pranksters)". It was epically funny and I really advise everyone to go watch it.

After the movie, I left my sisters and went to go see my old neighborhood friend, Ahmed. My sisters went to see their friends. I chilled with Ahmed for about two hours and chatted about life and other random things. Its always good to be back and meet this guy. I got back home at around 10. My sisters were back already.

This in short was my first day of Eid. I met family, ate food, and met my old friends. What more can a guy ask for!

Here is a picture of my crazy cousin who wanted me to take a picture of him. His name is Ahmed and he is 7.I simply asked him to smile for the picture and this is what i got! I love this guy.

Updates, and my Oman Travels!

Lets keep this post short and simple. I am sorry I didnt update the blog for a while but a lot has been happening. First of all, I did not end up going for Umrah since I had other plans. As much as I am sad that I didnt go, I really appreciate the things I did instead.

Right after international orientation got over, an amazing idea came to my mind. I wanted to host the largest charity iftar event in Education city. The purpose was to raise funds for the victims of the recent Floods in Pakistan. I was debating whether to go for Umrah or stay in Doha and plan for this event. I decided the latter as I hoped Allah would reward me with this good cause.

In short, the event happened two weeks latter and it was a huge success. Check out the event page on facebook here and I will try to upload some pictures as soon as possible. I really want to thank everyone who helped out in making this event a huge success. We finally managed to raise 74,000 QAR (20,325 USD) which made us all proud. I really felt happy that we, the students of Education city, were able to make a difference.

Moving on, other updates about me, hmm, I started my senior year and its amazing. I am enjoying ever bit of it. As for travel plans, I doubt there will be much this semester since it is fully packed and busy.

Right now, I am in Oman with family on the Eid-ul-Fitr break. Its the Eid right after the month of Ramadan. I will be here for a week and I hope to spend it chilling at home and meeting friends and family. Since I am back home, I don't really consider this as a travel plan. However, for my readers, I will try to post a blog post everyday and tell you about my awesome country. For once, I will try to be a tourist in my own country.

Expect to see loads of pictures as I will try to give you a good idea of how Oman is beautiful and different from the other countries in the Gulf Region. Hopefully, I will try to convince my family to travel to some places inside Oman and explore this country's beauty.