Vol 14 Scenery

I thought I’d just show you some beautiful photos. Beautiful views are everywhere. I’m still loving it here. Today was payday so I’m loving it even more! I get to go shopping (after I put a chunk aside for traveling). I have a list of things I need to buy that I should have brought. Like a hair dryer. And a handbag. What was I thinking moving here without a single handbag? It’s like I thought I was going camping. I brought only the bare necessities. It’s the weekend here, so I’ll be putting more miles on my car. I have been introduced to an American woman, named Molly, who is here on a Fulbright scholarship to study Middle Eastern Medieval history. She and I are going to have coffee this weekend to see if we get along. I hope so, ‘cause I could use a girlfriend.

This is Qurum beach, 7 min drive from my office. In the evening, this beach is crowded with locals out strolling. Nicest beach I’ve EVER seen. The beach goes on and on in both directions. Perfect sand, perfect water and ……

….this, a Starbucks, on the beach with covered patios on either side to relax and people watch. And they have wireless. Heavenly.

Not sure what kind of bird this is but very pretty. White crane? Heron?

Picnicers at Riyam Park. And always, the mountains in the background.

Yup, every park needs a pineapple slide.

Giant incense burner at Riyam Park. Decorative only.

These gorgeous flowers grow on.….

…..this gorgeous tree.

A traditional dhow.

An Indian father and daughter walking along a waterfront park.

Old houses in Old Muscat.

Dead end…..

Anyone want to come visit?

Vol 13 Grande Opening

We had our grande opening at the office last week. Big wigs from the Omani government and the American ambassador were there and reps from the newspapers. I wrote the press release and it was published in the Arabic and English newspapers.


This photo I took of the Minister of Health cutting the ribbon was used in the Arabic newspaper, too. So I’m a published author and photographer now. If I had known it was going to be used I would have used a fill-in flash. Oh well.


Staff photo. From left- Ahmed, our Public Relations Officer. Anwar, one of the main directors (ie investors), both from Oman. Firas, my boss, from Syria, Iran and Ohio. Val, the hygienist who got me the job, from Bainbridge Island. Eman, our front desk slave, from Oman. Angela, the office manager from Texas. Yours truly, and Petra, a dental assistant from Germany who works one day a week so I don’t have to work 6 days a week.

Firas with the American ambassador and his assistant.

One of the waiting areas in the office.

Kadeejah and Eman- both total sweeties. Kahdeejah is the assistant manager of the mall the clinic is in and she also owns a clothing store. She doesn’t always wear the abaya. On this day she felt it was more festive to be colorful. Eman has a degree in translating and she’s really funny. She’s starting to get the hang of Eaglesoft, the dental software we run. She was recruited from the Muscat private hospital.


In addition to being our office manager, Angela is the president of the American Women’s Group and has a background in dental hygiene.


Anwar with the new office art, on loan from a local artist.


I may come home with one of her paintings.


Dareen, the initial front desk slave and Kahdeejah.

Why do I keep calling the receptionists front desk slaves? Because I just found out that Eman makes ½ of the salary that I make and she works a ten hour day 6 days a week. It’s just normal for expats to be paid more than locals. I feel weird about it, like I am contributing to discrimination.



Eman took this picture of me.

Vol 12 Car Shopping, Part 4

All righty then. I bought the car- the pink Daihatsu. It’s pinker than these photos show. I like it. Plenty of get up and go, handles well and it has a surprisingly decent stereo. It’s so small I can fit into any parking spot which is handy because Omanis are terrible parkers.

They take up 1½ spots pretty regularly and in some areas parking spots are precious. Now I fit into the ½ spots.

My salesman wanted to make a production out of the purchase. He insisted on taking this photo, (love the big key), and he was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t brought “sweets”, to celebrate. I promised to bring some, assuming I find out what the heck he means by sweets, when I go back to pick up my auto-key-fob thingie.

Some more thoughts on driving in Oman:

They honk a lot. Not in a “Get the hell out of my way” or “Hey, look out you jerk” kind of way. More like joggers when they pass each other “On your left”. Initially I would look around trying to figure out what I’d done wrong.

There are quite a number of speeds bumps. I’ll be driving down a street when suddenly ba-bump. Whoops. They are usually marked with a sign but my eyes aren’t used to seeing the signs yet. Getting better.

Omanis are horrible, horrible tailgaters. This is probably the most dangerous thing about their driving. They do it whether I’m going the limit or not. They come up so fast and get soooooo close. It’s scary. I’ve never seen American drivers get that close. I just get out of the way as quickly and safely as I can.

The traffic lights go amber/yellow before they turn red AND before they turn green.

There are no free right turns at a red light or stop sign.

All gas stations are full serve and no one turns their engine off while they pump. Gas is ridiculously cheap. Not sure how large my tank is, (probably pretty small), but it cost me 4 rials ($10.00 US) to fill it today and I had run it to the empty indicator.

Locals stop and have a picnic wherever they please. They just cop-a-squat at the side of the road.

The roads here are all beautiful. Highways and side streets are all lined with palm trees, grass and flower beds. Lots of petunias and bougainvilleas. An army of Indian men in blue overalls take care of them.

Vol 11 Shopping

Shopping. I’ve been shopping. In malls, in hypermarkets, in hole-in-the-wall stores and, the biggie, the Mutrah souq. I know my girlfriends are all wondering how the shopping is here and the answer is ‘very good indeed’.

The malls are strangely similar and wackily different from the malls at home. Structurally they are similar. Food court at one end, grocery store at the other, bunch of shops in between. They even have some familiar shops: Claire, Monsoon, Starbucks. The food courts at the biggest malls, (which are not really big by our standards), have amusement park rides and games for children. Most of the stores are different. Perfume is huge here. I went into one of the hoity toity perfume shops and bought some jasmine oil. The packaging on my tiny purchase was amazing. Lots of shoe stores and clothing stores. These women are fabulously fashionable under their abayas. I had no idea! Now that I’ve been here a while and I’ve seen some of the women that don’t wear the abaya or that wear one that is open in the front, I’ve seen how good they all look. When you get a peek of a women’s clothes under her abaya they are always beautiful. Silky and patterned or beaded and embroidered. I talked to Eman, our receptionist, who is native Omani, and she confirmed: women here are clothes-horses. And they are all experts at makeup. I’m telling you these women are gorgeous. I’m starting to feel like an island-girl slob and I’ve bought a couple pieces of clothing already. I’m going to have to try to resist spending my paychecks on clothes, which are easy to find in my size, (unlike the shoes), and are sooooo beautiful. I want to save my money while I’m here so I can travel around to the neighboring countries.

The hole-in-the-wall shops are everywhere!

A hypermarket is a giant supermarket that has everything (like Fred Myer or Superstore). They’re cool. Lot’s of variety in the grocery and the other stuff is all cheap. Good place for me to outfit my room and eventually my apartment.

The hole-in-the-wall stores are plentiful and sometimes shabby. Hardware, electronics, plumbing, fabric, car parts. Specialty items that cannot be found at the hypermarkets.

I spent an afternoon at the Mutrah souq and it was pretty awesome. A souq is a marketplace and Mutrah souq is one of the oldest in the world and it’s big. First off, the suburb it’s in, Mutrah, is one of the prettiest cities I’ve ever seen.

A narrow strip of a city, tucked between the mountains and the sea.

Even the sidewalks are pretty. The walls and bench are granite and the sidewalk is all inlaid with some composite material. It’s probably too small to see but there is a fish scene carved into the granite of the wall.

These domed seating areas are spaced along the waterfront.

A fort is perched on the rocks at one end of the harbor.

These forts are a fairly common sight due to Oman’s strategic location on shipping routes.

The entrance to the Mutrah souq.

Inside there are 4 main passageways……

.....and many tiny side streets.

Here is a sampling of what is available here.

Pashmina scarves are one of the most popular items at the souks. Very affordable.

Indian wall hangings.....

.....and linens.

Perfume everywhere you turn. Essential oils, imported perfumes, local perfumes and beautiful bottles to put them in.

Shops that sell abayas.....

..…and the scarves they wear with them.

Henna.

Cheap, heavily adorned skirts.

Frankincense and incense burners. Oman is home to the frankincense tree which grows only in Dhofar, (in the south of Oman), Yemen and Somalia. They collect the resin by making incisions in the bark. For hundreds of years frankincense was more valuable than gold and Dhofar frankincense was said to be the finest and purest in the world.

There is a whole section of the souq for gold.

These are worn on the forehead.

Beautiful ready made clothing……

……or buy the fabric super cheap and have a tailor make you something that fits just right.

This 3 piece Indian sari is 250 rials or about $650 US, one of the more expensive things I saw. The photo doesn’t do it justice- it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Gorgeous lanterns.

These are silver wrapped stones.

Silver wrapped jade bowls.

A traditional Omani coffee pot.

Bins of silver. You could spend hours sifting through it all, looking for treasure.

Necklaces and earrings from India.

Carved jewelry boxes.

Rugs from the surrounding countries. This one is from Iran, a combination of knotted and kilim. Unfortnately for me, the rugs are not cheap but Eric just told me the other day that he heard about a 6 night airfare/hotel package to Iran for $200 US. I may have to pop up there for a long weekend to go rug shopping. Not to the scary cities to the west, of course, just the part right above us.

So, if any of you has seen something in these photos that you just can’t do without, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. I can also e-mail you larger versions of these photos if you'd like. Not all of what is offered at the souq is affordable but most of it is. Some things are downright cheap. Scarves, Pashminas, clothes, fabric- all cheap. The silver and gold- affordable but not cheap. Because Oman is so close to India and there are sooooo many Indian workers here there are a lot of imported Indian goods. All cheap. I must try to get to India (no Michele, I won’t take a ferry). If goods are this cheap here I can only imagine how cheap they must be there.

There are other souks to explore as well. Val tells me there are great fabric deals to be had at the Seeb souk. Indian tailors are everywhere so I may have some clothes made if I can find a good one. I’ll ask Eman to tell me who she goes to; her clothes look well made.