There was a blogger's dinner hosted by the Intercon a couple of days back now that two of our contributors headed out to along with a lot of other great bloggers we follow.
We attempted to remain anonymous, which I suppose was hilarious, seeing two fully veiled women in black emerging from Trader Vics at day close. I sincerely hope that the other bloggers felt as comfortable as we eventually did, unable to see our faces and all. Since not every OPNO girl is a full-time niqab (that face veil thing never to be confused with a burqa) wearer, it was odd for us as well just a bit. Staring down at the menu and being, like I really really want soup and lobster right now ect... and icecream for dessert but not wanting to get that stuff on the fabric of our friend's slightly expensive veil fabric... Yeah.
Anyways, we were those really really really annoyingly late locals. We were always going to be late, due to the fact that we had to go baby shower shopping and pick people up from the airport... But we went beyond that due to a Fifa qualifier parade that mystified us from the first.
Driving on the freeway, I saw some dude in a Saudi thobe sitting on the roof of his car (no roof rack by the way) going 120 taking the exit, and it was like, did I just see a dude on the roof of his car????
Of course, around Bareeq Al Shatti, traffic came to a stand still as we saw cars parked blocking the way and men in dishdashas and Guy Fawkes masks belly-dancing in the street. We were like, what the hell, as some dude wearing an Omani flag and a wig started chest salsa-ing into our car windows. at that point our driver turned on the radio, to figure out what the heck was going on. On the other side of the street traffic also seemed to have gone "kalas" as atvs zoomed up the road going the opposite direction of the traffic flow and one car was totally unmanned as the driver climbed out the window onto the roof and people were pulling over to watch. Apparently, Oman beat Iraq? Sadly, Brazil remains to be eliminated.
Arriving at the dinner, everyone had already ordered and were eating their starters and main (which looked fab, especially that lamb). The caesar salad was delish. The Mai Thai cocktail (without alcohol) was as fabulous as I remember from being a teen in Oman)---I had two. Easy to drink with niqab because of the straw;). The little stir stick tiki man was awesome. The coconut icecream was perfect for those who are lactose intolerant and the taste for those who are not. The icecream was incredibly creamey and helped off-set the honey that was drizzled over it. The coconut shavings helped give texture to the creaminess so there was just a bit of a crunch.
We joked about getting some Omani guy to wear niqab and grated pink plastic sunglasses to unveil the fact that HE was actually Dhofari Gucci, aka Nadia, to forever protect his identity, and experiences from blogging. We talked about Oman of course, and experiences with freedom of speech and our blogs. Randomly, the thought came up that this would be a good way to round up people, LOL, sorry Intercon. We talked about our favorite restaurants, where to get real Japanese, about whether or not we should start a blog IN Japanese about Oman... lol, yeah.
Anyways we had a great time. I really enjoyed putting faces to the names of some bloggers. Sorry we just couldn't do exactly the same! To the other bloggers who were invited but didn't feel comfortable coming, I can lend you niqabs at the door next time if you want;) :D.
Thank you to those who invited us, made us feel welcome, and to the Intercon. for the food and private dining room.
AFTERNOTE: The fortune cookies seemed to suit everyone, as fortune cookies are wont to. Mine said "your house will be full of love" and since my house is now populated with a lot of house maids people didn't want, lol, and babies, and guests, I think that holds true. Another OPNO girl, fresh back from studies in lands far and away, and covering the protests in Egypt and rather nonchalant about being tear-gassed, her cookie read: "You will travel to the far-east soon" . Next time, I will try the steak if we are lucky enough to get the opportunity to be invited again.
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