Hello March!
March is going to be a very
exciting month for us here – as we will be traveling! More on that later J
After a month in Oman, I have
learnt many things about how things work here or don’t. For example: everyone
answers yes to everything and you are lead to believe that people understand
exactly what you saying and it is truly a great feeling to be understood. Until
of course you go back on your achieved ‘Yes” only to find out the answer could
never have been yes in the first place. This has come to play when buying
clothes and asking if they can be exchanged. “Yes!” they say. Only to get the
response “No, no change” a few days later because something is too big or too
small.
Following on from the wonderfully
positive attitude of yes to everything, locals park anywhere. And I mean
anywhere. They can happily leave their cars parked anywhere they feel there is
space and sit there for ages. Or better yet, they leave their cars running so
the air con stays at full capacity as the heat grows here, with summer
approaching and disappear into the shopping mall.
Air con is everywhere here and so
most times the heat is bearable because it is disguised by the wonderful
coolness of the air con. With everyone having air con everywhere (shopping
malls, homes, gyms, street cafes, etc.) there are many maintenance issues. And
just like the internet maintenance crew, the air con maintenance crew is equally
difficult to get hold of. While you wait, you can live with anything from
waterfalls out of your wall (makes for a lovely water feature) or warm air
flooding your house instead of cold. Both unbearable after a time. After many
phone calls, the maintenance crew arrives. Not in a panel van or bakkie a.k.a.
pick-up, but in a fancy 4-door car, with no tools! Fortunately, my dad has an
extensive tool collection which they happily used to fix the air con. I wonder
how other households manage! Oh the life in Oman! Never a dull day J
A normal shopping experience is
the same as anywhere else, with a few differences. Every single trolley goes
every direction, but forward. So if you don’t want to go to gym, never fear! Go
to a shopping mall and walk up and down with a trolley. You shall be doing
sideways lunges and reverse steps and if you really want to give yourself a
good workout, try pushing two at the same time for a complete arm workout. In
addition to that, girls try use the bathroom at home or at the malls. Don’t stop
at a garage. Because you will think the toilets have been stolen as there is
only a hole in the ground. Yes, only a very fancy hole in the ground. I shall
let you imagine how difficult it is to go through with the entire performance.
If that is not bad enough, there is never toilet paper, only a mini shower
object. Enough said.
Aside from those challenges,
which keep us laughing when retelling the stories, there are some amazing
restaurants here. We have been introduced to some delicious Indian food as well
as some restaurants which although not Omani, give us insight into what other
places in the world offer. I have never been to America but I know that some of
the food there is incredible. Service in a restaurant can also be entertaining,
purely because in most places there is no service to speak of. You are
wonderfully invited into the restaurant and thereafter it becomes a game of who
can display themselves the best to get the attention of the waiters. To onlookers on the outside,
seeing people stand up and wave their arms could be seen as awkward displays of
dance to an unknown rhythm.
The pictures below are from our
trips to the restaurants: the mini burgers are from a place called Slider
Station. Amazing little burgers of all flavours and you can choose which you
like! A Passage to India is a hidden gem here and is well worth the visit. The
plate in the picture is what they bring to you after your meal. I don’t know
about the little herbs and candy-coated herbs but I tucked into the sugar
crystals.
We had the privilege of hosting
Ed Sheeran here in Muscat. In Oman, we rarely get artists visiting so any time
you can, you make sure you get tickets. The concert was incredible. Any chance
you get, do yourself a favour and go and see him perform. Truly a musical
artist and no doubt some awesome music still to come. I shall be learning some
of his music on guitar! We arrived at the concert with the radio host saying
that it would rain that evening. Now, living near the desert (Oman is very mountainous
compared to other Middle Eastern countries) we thought the radio host was telling
stories. But, not 10 minutes after arriving and just before the concert began,
the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down! In a few minutes hundreds of
people were absolutely drenched. It was
a short-lived storm but it left its mark. After the rain, fortunately the
concert continued without a hitch and we danced and sang the night away. We also
got the privilege of seeing the opening act Ryan Keen play. He was very good! Below
is a picture of my sister and I at the gig! Some more pictures from the concert
follow.
This weekend there is a huge party, the biggest of the year
it has been said, called the Canadian Stampede. Everyone dresses up as a cowboy
or cowgirl and there is line dancing to add to the whole experience. My sister
and I have a love for anything country and so we have been looking forward to
this since we bought the tickets (all 300 tickets sold out in 5 hours). I will
be updating you with pictures in the next blog post! Have a wonderful March
