B. in the Sultanate of Oman: novembre 2008

26/11/2008

3 days weekend with C. (part 1 : day 1 and day 2)

I took 2 days off from work (Thursday and Saturday) and C. came to visit me. This was the perfect opportunity to travel around a little. The good thing is that you don't have to worry about the weather... It's always blue sky and warm weather.

Day 1 : Muscat

On Wednesday, I picked up C. at the airport at 4:40am. I had not much sleep the night before. Indeed, I looked up the flight status on he web and it was said to be 4 hours late (for the first leg CDG-DOHA). That meant missing the connecting flight to Muscat. I called up Qatar Air, they told me to call back at 3am since they had no update.

However, C. sent me an SMS stating that the flight was not delayed. Therefore, I woke up at 4 and picked her up and we went back to the apartment. Soon after I had to go to work. C. slept through the day and I came back at about 6pm after a difficult day at work mainly due to my short night.

I wanted to bring C. to the Sushi bar (she loves Sushi) but they had a seafood buffet, way overpriced (27RO pp). Therefore, we went to the Turkish house, which was nice and more typical than the previous place. C. had grilled shrimp, I took grilled seafood mix. The shrimp here actually tastes like fresh shrimp. As appetizers, we had mezzes (olives, hommos, eggplant purée,...) with arabic bread.

Day 2 : the coastal road from Muscat to Sur

In the morning, we had bagels and cream cheese. Then we hit the road to Sur, using the coastal highway (there are 2 main ways to get from Muscat to Sur : along the coast or the inner road). The highway is nice (dual carriageway) but is not finished yet. There is a funny sign at the entrance of the highway : "the highway is under construction, motorists use it at their own risk". However, you can drive from Quriyat to Sur with a regular car (no 4WD needed).

The Didab Lake Park Sinkhole

On our way to Sur, we stopped to the sinkhole. It's a really nice place surrounded by a park. It's kind of tricky to find though.

The sinkhole is about 15m deep and 50m wide. There is crystal clear green water at the bottom. it's salty and warm, the perfect spot to take a break on the road.

We met couple of Omani over there, one of them told us he drives everyday on the nearby highway but never got a chance to stop by. He asked us if the water was warm because his son wanted to jump in the water. He also told us the place is known as "the hole of the fallen star", as it is believed that the hole was created after a star fell from the skies. I like this story though geology might not agree with it.

Enough talking, here are the pictures :

Wadi Tiwi

Second stop on our way to Sur : Wadi Tiwi. Once again, we had a hard time finding it and my brave Tiida (that's my car) had to show some SUV abilities to get to the wadi.

After that we reached Sur and Raj Al Sad where we spent the night. I'll tell you more in the part 2.

18/11/2008

Oman National Day

Today (November 18th) is Oman National Day. However, it is NOT a holiday. That means I am writing this article at work.

The national day is linked to the Sultan's Birthday. Every street, hotel, road sign is garlanded with lights, the colors of which reminds the colors of the National Flag. On about 40km of highway (from Muscat to Barka), flags have been put on in the middle of the highway (given there is a flagpole every 100m or so, you do the maths...).

Huge pictures of the Sultan have been put on buildings (there is one on the highway near Al Khuwair on seaside). At Carrefour in Qurum, you can buy flags and Sultan's pictures (there is a national day corner).

I have to say the lights on the highway are really nice, they should think about leaving them on all year long.

The rotating holidays in Oman

As said earlier, the national day is not a holiday by itself. The Sultan decides few days before the national days which day(s) will be granted as days off.

For instance, we have got to know that, for this year only, Nov. 26th and 27th will be off.

Will these holidays have any influence on attendance in my workplace ? I doubt it. We're probably going to come since the project has to move on.

It's tricky for business, I assume, since you only know the holidays date one week in advance. Can you imagine planning a meeting long time in advance and having to cancel at the last minute because of national holiday ? That must be embarrassing when you make people come from abroad. However, I kinda like it since it is very different from western countries where holidays are planned years in advance.

I should get used to it though. Indeed, most holidays, and alike, are rotating from one year to the other. For dates based on the Gregorian calendar, the actual holidays are at Sultan's discretion. For holidays based on moon cycles (for Muslim holidays for instance), it varies every year due to the discrepancy between lunar and solar cycles.

17/11/2008

The sultanate of what ? Where is Oman ?

Though many people have never heard about Oman, most of them don't dare asking me about where I work.

The Sultanate of Oman is located in the Middle East, South of UAE and East of Saudi Arabia. At the south-eastern part you'll find Yemen.

Before you open a new window to look up where are these countries, here is a map found on google :

I live in Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate.

In the peninsula, it's the second biggest country, just after Saudi Arabia. It's pretty much the size of UK. More than 80% of the country surface is deserts and sand valleys.

Therefore the climate is a bit arid. However, the southern part gets some rainfall and tends to be "greener" as far as aspect is concerned.

I'll be able to tell you more about the geography through the trips I intend to take around the country.

Mots clés Technorati : where is oman,Sultanate of Oman,Geography

08/11/2008

End of Week-end

This is Friday night. That means tomorrow is a new week. Week-ends are 1 day only and it's Friday, as in many Muslim countries. At first, it was difficult to be on week-end on Fridays as all my relatives have "regular" week-ends. I'm getting used to it though.

Yesterday we had a party with coworkers. It was held in our building. It was nice, I spent most of my time playing with the kids. I may post some pics later. After the drinks we went to a grill around the corner and had chicken as take-away. We

Today, I played with the oven and other appliances. It's a gas oven. I have never had any gas appliances. I need to get used to ignite the gas coming from the nozzles.

Then, I went to the LULU supermarket. I needed to buy groceries for the new apartment. It was hell, many people go shopping on Fridays since it's their only day off. There were many Indians and Omanis, so many you could drive your trolley in the alleys ! I bought couple of things but quickly became fed up with the crowd. I spent time in the fruit/vegetables section. It was interesting, there are some fruits I had never seen before, I should write their name down so that I can look up what they are. In the same way, prices for "common" (I mean the ones I'm used to see in French supermarket) fruits is high though some "exotic" fruits are kind of cheap. However there is no general trend on prices. Some stuff are really cheap compared to France and some others so expensive I can't afford to buy them. For instance a Camembert (French cheese) is about 3 RO (6€).

When you buy a coconut here, you can ask to have it "shredded" : you pick up the fruit and they put it in a machine that separates the white part from the brown part. They hand you back a bag with your shredded coconut in it. I should try that next time.

While typing this message, I'm listening to :

Duffy - Stepping stone
Fiesta Elektronica by Alp & Outwork (nice version a bit more electro than the radio edit):

Duffy - Stepping Stone (live)

Alp vs Outwork - Fiesta Elektronica (Radio Edit)
Video
Envoyé par mafiak sur wat.tv

I discovered Duffy's song on the radio here in Oman. There are 2 English-speaking FM Radio stations in Muscat : 95.9MHz and 90.4MHz. I sometimes listen to them on my way to or from work (45min drive when there is no traffic) though their DJ sometimes piss me off with too much talking.

It reminds me of "93.1 Pure Dance Channel" which I use to listen all the time in Florida. ~~Unfortunately, the station doesn't broadcast anymore.~~ (I have just checked, the station seems to be up and running again). You can check it out here.

It's getting late. Time for me to go to bed.

03/11/2008

My new apartment

I have just moved in into my new apartment. I used to stay at the golden tulip seeb hotel.

Here is a quick sketch of the apartment :

It's a new unit in a brand new building. I'm located in Khuwair district, close to the Radison SAS in Muscat.

As you can see it's a 2/2 unit, it's about 80m2, which is huge given the fact I live here all by myself. It's so big that I get lost all the time. When I want to go to the kitchen, I usually enter the living room.

Basic furniture has been put in by my company. However, I'll need to buy some more in order to feel a little more "at home".

My company rents 6 units in the same building. The other 5 units are my colleagues' apartments. It's nice since we have our privacy but are still close enough.

I haven't been hanging around much but the area seems OK. There are plenty of shops and restaurants around the corner. Anyway, we are closer to the city than we were when at the golden tulip.

My old camera doesn't work anymore. It acted weirdly when we were in the US so we have bought a new one, which I left in France. However, I had to buy a new one for my job. I purchased it yesterday night at Carrefour in Muscat city center (which is actually far from the city center !). Therefore, I was able to take pictures of what will be my home for the next couple of month.

Entrance Door