Oman

I have been in Muscat for almost ten days now. Despite the oppressive temperatures I really love it! The country is beautiful, civilised, clean, almost everybody speaks English, people are nice and friendly. The city is mountainous (actually the whole country seems to be like that) and the contrast ocean – mountains is quite breathtaking.

The hotel is absolutely fantastic, we have been very spoilt here – and yes, I do see the ocean from my room’s window!

On a different, sad note, it has been a difficult period, in which my morale was not that great (maybe too much back to back travel?). Consequently, I have maxed out my credit card buying more clothes and several pairs of shoes :-( right before leaving Brussels for Muscat and have had difficulties to get decent sleep. But the situation has improved quite a lot lately.

The work has also been good. Our team here is made up mostly of Indians and even the Finance Manager is Indian. He is a nice guy and I have learnt lots of interesting things about India during my stay here. He has been trying to convince me to go and visit India – we don’t really need too much convincing as India is among the places we do intend to travel to in the near future.

The weekend here is Thursday and Friday, Saturday and Sunday are working days. Some Muslim countries have already shifted the weekend to Friday and Saturday, to align themselves to the rest of the world. It’s not the case here which makes the business communication with the rest of the world quite tedious.

On the weekend, we went to the city centre and visited one of the souks (I just bought a silver bracelet which I am already tired of) and we made a desert trip. Actually, we drove approximately 500 km, on a trip outside Muscat last Friday. This contained a desert adventure (with a Nissan Patrol – good, lasting car!), coffee with a Bedouin family in the desert and a visit to some oasis. Everything was enjoyed and considered a great experience.

Tomorrow night I fly back to Brussels. Even though Oman is fantastic, I am actually glad to be back home in my flat. I can hardly wait!

PS I am posting some pictures taken by M. Mine have to wait to be downloaded on the laptop at home.