Funny picture

 

While driving to Fujairah (UAE), I ran into this hilarious passenger.

Camels are extremely respected in Oman. No wonder that the owner put a hat on it and covered it with comforters.

This little guy made my day !

How to check Omani traffic fines online

 

ROP (Royal Oman Police) gives the opportunity to motorists to check their current traffic offenses online.

To do so, you have to connect to the following website :

http://www.rop.gov.om/english/onlineservices_trafficfines.asp

You then have to enter the information regarding the car and the registered driver.

For vehicles with commercial plates (red plates), you need the commercial number of the company. I guess it is given by the rental company or the company leasing/owning the car.

 

If you need information about the parking violations in the Muscat Municipality, you should check this page out :

http://www.mm.gov.om/newweb/ivr/showivr_e.asp?lan=E

It does not give you the info but tells you how to get it through an automatic answering machine.

Oman won the 19th Gulf Cup

 

The gulf cup is a soccer event during which all gulf countries team play a tournament. It takes in a different country every year.

The 19th edition of the cup was held in Oman. After defeating Qatar in semi-final, they were to play against Saudi for final. Every time Oman was playing, the city froze for 90min: almost no car in streets, everybody at home or in cafés in front of TV screen...

Most games were held in Sultan Qaboos Sport Complex. Since I live in Al Khuwair, traffic just gets crazy after games and it took me hours to get back home.

Yesterday was the last game of this year's tournament. Last time, Oman made it to the final but lost.

Since I was working, I could only see the second half. It was a good match, Oman playing better than Saudi. After 90min, the score was still 0-0 and remained so after extra time (players were tired so extra time was poor quality football).

I turned off TV for penalty kicks. I don't like them much. I opened the windows and I could hear the crowd at the nearby stadium. Therefore, I pretty much knew the score of the P. kicks from the scream of the people.

Then, it was 6-5 and Oman won. Within minutes, the road were blocked by cars honking and people dancing in the middle of the street. Most people were wearing a scarf or a hat with Omani colors. It was really crazy but funny. Unfortunately, I had no camera with me at that time.

Some people have put Omani flags on their wipers and have put them on thus it looked like the car was waving the flags...

Other people were playing drum on the side of the road. Motorists stopped and started to dance, leaving their car in the middle of the street, making the traffic even worse.

The game finished at 7:45pm but the streets remained animated till about 1:30am. After the game Sultan Qaboos granted a day off the next day to pubic and private sector. It's kind of a short notice but it's the way holidays I granted here (for another example about the national holiday, please check here).

For what I know, people have been wandering around in their cars all day long, honking to celebrate the first victory of Oman in the Gulf tournament.

How to make Papaya Salad ? (with pictures)

 

After our afternoon "fishing", Panadda and her friend invited me for a Thai lunch/dinner (for we had not had lunch). We went to Al Fair supermarket where you can find food from all over the world (including fresh bagels).

We bought groceries to make papaya salad and Pad Thai. Here is the recipe for the Papaya Salad (which was one of my favorite meal when I visited C. in Bangkok, so good when served with sticky rice) :

First, you have to shred a green papaya

Using a mortar, you mix green and red chili and garlic

One tablespoon of sugar

One small tablespoon of MSD (I have no clue of what is this powder)

A pinch of shrimp paste

Tomato and lime are then added

A splash of fish sauce

Last, the shredded papaya and then you mix everything

Here is the result : a wonderful meal ! If you like cashew nuts, you can top up your salad, it adds a crunchy taste

This recipe is quite easy and so good. It's spicy, sweet and sour at the same time. Actually, it was very spicy (I was with real Thai cooking real Thai food). Hopefully, I'm used to eating very spicy.

If I ever cook Tom Yam with my Thai friends, I will definitely post the recipe the same way.

Comments are welcome.

Picking up shells in Muscat

 

Thursday was off for me since I had worked the previous Friday.

Panadda had planned to go with her boyfriend and another friend to the beach to pick up shells. She asked me to come.

Al Bustan

We went to Al Bustan where there is one of the most luxurious palace in the world. We could not have a look inside since there is a GCC meeting this month and security has been strengthened. Therefore, we went to the nearby beach. It looked like Brittany with dark rocks all over the beach, which is funny because 100m from there you have white sand beaches.

  Al Bustan palace

It was very nice because I got to see many animals I'm not used to see on European beaches. While Panadda and friends were looking for seafood, I was taking pictures of this strange creatures.

Panadda trying to catch fish

It looks like a star fish but it's moving very fast

Urchins

This little guy was eating algae

Camille's friend

View from Al Bustan Beach

Al Gubrah

After one hour, we moved back to another beach to get another kind of shells. It was actually in Al Gubrah, near the Chedi !

This place seems popular for shells since many Asian families were there.

While my friends were searching the sand, I walked on the beach and picked up nice shells (empty ones !).

This hobby is quite surprising (I would not have the idea to pick up shells on Muscat beaches) but seems very popular in the Thai community. They actually do so to get very fresh seafood (compared to Carrefour or LuLu).

I spent a good time at the beach, relaxing and enjoying the nice weather. It also reminds me of the 'good old days' when we used to pick up seafood on Brittany's beaches. 

Thai party at Beach Hotel in Muscat

The Thai community of Muscat was throwing a party on December 5th.

It was actually for the King's Birthday. I got invited through my friend Panadda, it took place at the Beach Hotel pool (next to the Intercontinental) in Qurum.

There were dances, food and Thai people.

It was the first time such a party was organized (through some Thai organization from I understood). Thus, everything was not perfect but for a first time, it was not so bad.

Firstly there were some songs and anthem as well as a welcome speech.

The food was served as a buffet. The line was long before getting the food but it was worth the wait. The food was very good and not too spicy to accommodate westerner palates.  I had some samosas and green curry as well as yellow rice.

After meal, we enjoyed traditional Thai dances :

The dancer on the pictures above is Got, a Panadda's friend.

 

Look at the details of the costume :

After that, they play some disco (Thai) music and people started to chill.

Then, the Intercon had a Thai night so everybody went there. Bernard (who works with me) and I quickly became surrounded by Panadda's friends. Since they are mostly girls (there was a lady-boy though), I can tell you couple of guys out there were very jealous.

However, we took off quickly after because I had worked all day and we had to decline dancing all the time.

Just for fun, a picture with a Christmas tree :

Garbage Cats in Muscat

Today I cooked sardines and rice. Since I had a couple too many, I decided to feed the cats living in the streets.

Basically, in Muscat street cats only eat garbage. Thus, you see them hanging around at night next to garbage containers.

We had already given them cat food. However, this time it's gourmet food : fresh fish. Tuna, mackerel and sardines (not talking about salmon or squid) usually drive cat nuts.

Indeed, the fish was eaten in minutes by the cats.

The food

 

The first one to enjoy

Another cat is interested by the food

It's taking over the other cat's meal

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.

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.

Temperature in Muscat (pics)

Picture taken at night time near the Port of Muscat.

You can read 31°C. I let you think about the temperatures reached during the day...

First steps

Welcome to everybody !

First steps on the blog moon for me. I don't know what it'll look like or if I could update it as often as necessary but I hope it'll be a useful tool to keep in touch and show pictures.

About me : I have just arrived in the Sultanate of Oman and put up this page to relate my "adventures" to friends and family. Perhaps, visitors may find useful information about the life in Oman for a foreigner.

That's it for the first message.

See you soon for more.

B.