I felt at home in the Bedouin tent. We should have had one of these for the past few months. It would have made all our comings and goings much more convenient.
inside the tent the walls were made from beautiful and heavy woven rugs that were pieced together and draped over a wooden post in the middle of the room and one at each corner. The door at the back of the tent led to our bathroom.
Completely enclosed on all sides, but open to the sky. Camping with hot private showers? Heavenly. No trudging down to the public bathroom to wash our feet in the sandy shower stalls on this trip (Hicks family vacation reference).
There were some mesh “windows” in the sides of the tent to provide airflow. The temperature in the tent wasn’t too bad in the middle of the day, but when it cooled down outside in the evening, it was still really hot in the tent which made falling asleep difficult. It would be unbearably hot in the middle of summer. It has been 90 degrees here every day and really humid. Like Indiana humid. I would say “Florida humid,” but I’ve never been to Florida in the summer. I have been to Indiana though and it felt like I was breathing in hot, wet air. It’s not that bad in Oman, but it’s close.
More woven rugs covered the floors. We had two beds and 2 pallets on the floor for the boys. Everyone slept really well except I was woken up around 3am when this pesky mosquito kept buzzing in my ear. I couldn’t see a thing in the pitch blackness, but I could hear the little sucker getting closer and farther away and then really close . . . until he landed on my hand and all was silent. I grabbed at him and I’m assuming I caught him because I didn’t hear any high pitched “zeeeeeeee!” in my ear after that. Just call me “Mr. Miagi.”
These boys were obviously not bothered by any bugs. They slept like rocks. Especially since the tent kept things cool and dark in the morning after the sun came up.
We had dinner and breakfast in this beautiful open-air restaurant. One section had traditional-style dining with pillows on the floor and the other section had couches with pillows at regular table height. The food was delicious: lamb that had been roasted over coals in a pit in the ground (we watched them dig it up), BBQ chicken, cucumber salad, flatbread, rice, vegetable bisque with cilantro and lemon . . . mmm.
I really hope we’re able to go again when camping season starts again in October (it’s too hot between now and then and most camps shut down). My verdict is that it’s worth the drive. That’s saying a lot coming from me!