Blog - foXnoMad

Al Alam Palace In Muscat, Oman

by Anil Polat | Mar 4, 2011 | Pictures and Video | 6

al alam palace muscat oman

Al Alam Palace is a home of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, who has been in power since 1970. (He overthrew his father after being under a de facto house arrest for 5 years prior.) Oman is an absolute monarchy and Sultan Qaboos is still fairly popular in the country despite recent protests against unemployment and corruption. (By chance, just like in Bahrain, I left right before the demonstrations began.) Many quality of life indexes have improved significantly over the approximately 40 year reign of the Sultan – which have done well to protect his personal reputation, especially of late.

The area around the palace is full of wide open spaces and the Al Jalali and Al Mirani forts situated on nearby cliffs. You can’t go inside the Al Alam Palace itself, which is said to be incredibly luxurious inside. The entire area, aside from a few construction workers, gardeners, and the occasional tourist was almost deserted. Muscat, and the rest of Oman in general, feels like a place you have all to yourself; there are often so few people around even the most popular spots in the country.

Oman is one of the most visually impressive places I’ve ever seen. In a week or two I’ll share more sights and sounds from the beaches, mountains, and people who live in the oldest independent Arab state.

The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011: First Round

by Anil Polat | Mar 4, 2011 | Contests, Polls | 27

The preliminary round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011 ended yesterday and your votes helped to rank these 64 cities from number 1 all the way down. Those ranks are what I used to determine the match ups for this first round – and there are some intriguing ones to vote for down below. There’s the battle of the Canadas (Montreal versus Toronto), Olympics past and present (London vs. Beijing), and last year’s champ Zermatt up against New Orleans.

best city to visit 2011 first round

Cast your votes below before Monday, March 7th at 9am US EST – today there are 64 cities but once all is said and done in 3 days, there will be only 32. Your votes decide who moves on – good luck to all of the cities and contestants! (Email and RSS subscribers will need to click through to this page to vote.)

best city 2011 first round 1

best city 2011 first round 2

You can view the entire tournament bracket in full size or click the image to view in wide-screen.

I will act as the tie-breaker in the event that any two cities end up with the same number of votes in this round. The second round of The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011 will continue next Tuesday, March 8th.

Don’t worry if you missed this contest, I run several throughout the year. You can be the first to find out about the next one by signing up for my email updates, RSS feed, or bi-monthly newsletter.

The Best Comments Of The Month (With Prizes!): February 2011

by Anil Polat | Mar 3, 2011 | Contests, Discussion | 6

It’s hard for me to pick the best comments of the month in general because so many of you leave wonderfully engaging, informative, and entertaining thoughts below each of my posts. Limiting myself to only 5 from February was even more difficult – so many more could have made it this month. As I promised last time, these folks will receive a small $10 Amazon.com gift card for their comments.

pug in turkey

At the beginning of February Shane was in Dahab, Egypt and gives a glimpse of what the revolution looked like from that town.

Do the underground subways systems of the world reflect their counterparts on the surface? Mark H gives a different look at public transportation you might not have seen before.

Wondering what will happen to your Continental OnePass frequent flyer miles now that they’ve merged with United – Stephen does some digging for the answer.

I love this suggestion (as did Akila and Jeremy) by Priyank for the Best City To Visit Travel Tournament – I plan on using it for next year’s contest.

Amy does an excellent job of weighing travel, work, and getting the scales right.

I’ll be sending out your Amazon.com gift cards sometime over the weekend directly to your email in-boxes. Thank you to everyone who left a comment this past month – next Friday I’ll give all of you several more opportunities to win one of five $100 gift cards at the Apple store. A good present to help you chip off a bit on the cost of a Macbook, or new iPad 2 perhaps 😉

A Taste Of Morocco In Qatar: Lentil Soup At Tagine In Souk Waqif, Doha

by Anil Polat | Mar 1, 2011 | Food, Pictures and Video, Travel Journal | 19

tagine restaurant souq waqif doha qatar

Tajine is a very popular restaurant in the modern Souk Waqif – one of the beating hearts of Doha, Qatar. It seems like all roads lead to the souk (luckily for me since I got lost quite a few times) and has an obvious Arab market flair. That is, despite most of the buildings set up like a decorated strip mall. Souk Waqif has a variety of shops selling clothes and jewelry but what you really want to do here is eat.

The spread of select international cuisine is impressive. Aside from Qatari food, there are restaurants from places like Iraq, Yemen, and Nepal – many of which are open 24 hours. You’ll find many people simply lounging into the late night hours, drinking coffee and puffing on shisha, with the occasional sounds of Qatari folk music in the background.

You can see more of Souk Waqif and the rest of Doha, Qatar in my album here.

The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011: Preliminary Round Voting

by Anil Polat | Mar 1, 2011 | Contests, Polls | 12

The field of contestants for this year’s The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament has been rounded out to 64 cities nominated by you! This first vote will help sort out the cities and determine the match-ups for the first round robin vote this Friday, March 4th.

best city to visit 2011 prelim round

You can vote for your favorite 5 cities below; voting ends this Thursday at 9am US EST. Those of you reading through email and RSS will have to click-through to this page to vote.

In theory, the cities with the most votes in this round of voting should have an easier path to the final. Based on last year’s preliminary round, the cities with the most votes to start generally did advance farther overall. You can vote once, selecting 5 of your favorite cities.

best city 2011 prelim 1

best city 2011 prelim 2

This Friday these 64 cities will be paired in head-to-head match ups for the first round of elimination on the road to $150 for the winner.

Don’t worry if you missed this contest, I run several throughout the year. You can be the first to find out about the next one by signing up for my email updates, RSS feed, or bi-monthly newsletter.

The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011: Your Chance To Win $150 In March

by Anil Polat | Feb 25, 2011 | Contests | 64

Nominate your favorite city to travel to and at the end of March you could win $150 cash in The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011.

tournament bracket

In 2009 it was Sydney, Australia; last year it was Zermatt, Switzerland; all you have to do to enter this year’s contest is leave your city nomination in the comments below before this Sunday, February 27th at 1800 US EST.

Any City In The World Is Yours – Except These

You can select one city per email address provided someone hasn’t already picked it in the comments. As always, newsletter subscribers got a head start so the following places aren’t available.

Zermatt, Switzerland – (Jen)
Valletta, Malta – (Mike)
Curitiba, Brazil – (Anna Luiza)
Guilin, China – (Marijus)
Kyoto, Japan – (Todd)
Paris, France – (Amy)
Istanbul, Turkey – (Natalie)
Bangkok, Thailand – (JW)
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico – (Sergio)
New York City, USA – (Michaela)
Sao Paulo, Brazil – (Tamara)
Toulouse, France – (Deniz)
London, England – (Erica)
Porto, Portugal – (Stephen)
Mexico City, Mexico – (Lynn)
Reykjavik, Iceland – (Dave)
Vancouver, Canada – (Scott)
Singapore – (Paul)
Jerusalem – (Judy)
Stockholm, Sweden – (Alan)
Beijing, China – (Paul)

Don’t fret if your favorite is one the list, surely you must have a second!

How The Tournament Works And Important Dates

The Best City To Visit Travel Tournament 2011 is a single-elimination bracket tournament. Every Tuesday in March, readers will vote on the head-to-head match-ups until 128 cities are narrowed down to a single winner.

Deadline To Enter: Sunday February 27th, 2011 1800 US EST.
Preliminary Round Kicks Off The Tournament: Tuesday March 1rst, 2011.
Contest Championship: Friday April 1rst, 2011.
Winner Announced: Tuesday, April 5th 2011.

The winner will receive $150 in cash via Paypal by April 30th. Plus, if you sign up now for my RSS feed or daily email updates during the entire tournament month of March and win, I’ll add $50 to your prize.

boston panorama

I’ll take the first 128 cities entered into the contest to kick things off next Tuesday March 1rst.

A Photo With Your Contest Every Tuesday

One of my goals in 2011 for foXnoMad has been to make the site more visual, with more of my personal photography and larger images. Since there will be quite a few tournament posts this upcoming month, I’ll continue the travel variety with a focus and collection of photos along personal stories after each one. Part of posting more photos means taking more pictures and I’ve got quite a backlog from the countries I’ve visited recently.

Even More Prizes Coming This Month

It’s a big contest month on foXnoMad, with an opportunity to win $50 next Thursday as well as several $100 Apple gift cards beginning the following week. Start your chances off right by nominating your best city to visit – big or small, both have won – by mentioning it in the comments below. Good luck!

[photos by: v3rnondotcom (tournament bracket), DavidMartynHunt (Zermatt Switzerland), Werner Kunz (Boston panorama)]