The Chedi

I absolutely LOVE The Chedi. Its like stepping into a magical oasis of calm and beautiful architectural style. Its one of Muscats luxury hotels, located along the beach near Al Ghubrah / Al Khuwair, and really is worth a visit. The bar offers interesting fruity mocktails. I tried a refreshing one made with soda water, lime, lychees and blueberries. I've not eaten there or managed to use the gym/pool/spa but have wondered down to the private beach and walked around all the small turquoise pools/water features which just add to the zen-like sense of relaxation. The only down side of the hotel is the lack of air con in the bar (the fans aren't really enough when its 45 degrees outside) and walking around the water pools is potentially hazardous if you don't watch where you were going!

(http://www.ghmhotels.com/)

xXx

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Lulu Hypermarket

Such an experience shopping in Lulu's is that I feel it deserves its own post. Not the only food shop in Muscat, but definitely one of the largest. The store is HUGE. It is something akin to a large warehouse with a higgledy piggledy (spelling?!) car park; bright signage that lights up like a casino come the evening; and is full of all the food you could possibly want plus tonnes of non-food stuff. The fruit selection is amazing. The store was busy when we went and full of a diversity of people from all, it seems, the different ethnic groups within Muscat; shopping becomes a cultural experience unto itself.

xXx

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Muttrah

As promised here are some photos from Muttrah to Old Muscat...

This is a view of the Sultan's Palace. Shame it's not open to visitors!

This is the entrance to Muttrah Souk.

xXx

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The Dive Centre

Yesterday we spent a few hours down at the Oman Dive Centre, located about half an hour away from the centre of Muscat between Qantab and Barr Al Jissah. The centre is specifically designed for diving, snorkling, dolphin cruises and the like. We went just to use the beach and restaurant but are definitely going to hire some snorkeling equipment next time we go. The centre is a sited within a cove where the water stays shallow for a long way out. Its full of all sorts of marine life. We even saw a turtle!

There is also a restaurant (The Odyssey Restaurant) and beach side bar and for those wanting to stay longer than a day the centre offers accommodation in the form of Barasti huts (traditional Omani huts; Barasti refers to the material they are made from).

xXx

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Heating up

How annoying...I spent ages the other day redesigning my blog and writing another entry only to go back onto blogger today and find its all vanished!! Stupid computers. Anyway I shall attempt at remembering what I wrote.

Temperatures are really starting to heat up here, the car has been registering 46C! The locals have been saying how its a lot hotter for this time of year than usual, even for Oman, but I don't expect it'll ever go much above 49/50 degrees (thank goodness!). Its really funny living somewhere where its constantly hot and even going for walks late in the evening is a challenge, quite like walking in a sauna. Occasionally there's a nice breeze but even the wind is hot! The ocean water is lovely and warm and it feels like your'e swimming in a warm (though rather salty) bath. The sun has heated all the water pipes, a little annoying as things like brushing your teeth become a little unpleasant! Also the cars have slightly different tires so they don't skid on the warm roads and forgetting to put the sun screen up in the car window is a mistake not to be made! I can quite imagine how visiting England will be a refreshing break (though I'm not quite sick of the endless sunshine just yet :-p).

You would have thought that with the rising temperatures insects and bugs would be far and few between here by now. However, as my legs found out the other evening, mosquitoes are still annoyingly abundant! Also cockroaches like to find their way into the bathroom in the middle of the night (not a pleasant sight when you wake at 3am...). Apparently all the drains get sprayed with something to kill off all the bugs soon, yay! I haven't seen any spiders (yet) though Oli had to remove one from the bathroom the other evening...there was no way I was going in there until it had gone! There are also a few funny looking wasps and ants are a little irritating but generally insects are not too different to England.

xXx

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Sultan Qaboos' boat

This is Sultan Qaboos' main boat docked at Muttrah Port.

xXx

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Women in Oman

I thought it may be interesting to post an entry on what it is like to be a women out here (from a westerners point of view).

• As a western women the main issue is the attention you get from the local and Asian male population. They tend to stare and although it is not in a horrid way, it can be rather annoying. The best thing to do is to ignore and not wear clothes that are too revealing and to be honest you begin to not notice. 
• Local women don't appear to have as much freedom as western ladies do. Additionally, Omani men tend to socialise without their wives and I hear they can be very flirtatious. In fact I am considering wearing a ring!  
• There are ladies only gyms and clubs (which I actually quite like); ladies only checkouts; ladies only benches; and ladies only salon's and shops. 
• Dressing out here isn't difficult. I expect that no-one would say anything if I walked around in inappropriate clothing, it would just be very disrespectful. In terms of Omani clothing, the women wear abaya's (the head to toe black dresses) and in the evenings they all seem to emerge from their houses accessorised with pretty heels and bags. It's as though they are in competition with each other! In the UK, abaya's are something we are not familiar with but out here you get used to them and in fact the detailing around the hems is very pretty. They wear their abaya's everywhere, even the sea! The only time I have seen Omani ladies not in their abaya's is in the gym (and in a Zumba class I went to last week...absolutely hilarious, and tiring, dance class!).
• Women are advised not to get into white and orange taxi's alone. Not a problem...I don't like using taxi's in the UK alone!

Other than that, being a women out here is safe and easy enough.

xXx

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Mingling

The last couple of days have been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster. I was feeling quite homesick on Saturday and poor Oli had to put up with me and my tearfulness all day long. However, I had to pull myself together Saturday evening for an Art Exhibition I went to with Jane. We were invited along by a lady who has been in Oman for around 20 years; she is one of those people who seems to know everyone. The art on exhibition was that of Kathryn Wilson, a young Dubai based artist whose work is inspired by the geography of Oman and the UAE. Her work is very abstract and brightly coloured and although I wouldn't necessarily place it on my living room wall I did quite like it > http://www.kathrynwilsonme.com/. Aside from the art, I was also introduced to the owner of a local art gallery (Al Madina Art Gallery), a friendly English man, and the owner of a beautiful Jewellery shop. The store was very pretty and upmarket; in the private viewing room we were shown a handmade diamond encrusted khanja not too dissimilar to this one:

(http://www.turtlesoman.com/index.php?page=product&catID=3&subCat=22)

and a gorgeous eagle made from ruby...it was so pretty! There were also two fairly large leopard cubs made from china with diamonds in their mouths and a collection of historic traditional Omani jewellery (it must all be worth a fortune!) For those of you who know me best you'd be right in thinking that I was actually quite excited about seeing all this (and all feelings of homesickness subsided somewhat)...to this day I still half regret not doing art at uni! 

Yesterday evening was a little scary! Oli, Jane, Kevin and I went to the British Business Forum at the British Embassy which takes place once a month. It is basically a networking event for British business people with canapés and drinks. The evening usually has a small presentation, this time by a lady from a Cypriot company called Aphrodite Sun Properties who was trying to tempt people to invest in property out there, but the rest of the time is spent chatting. It was slightly intimidating at first, especially when the average age was about 30 years older than Oli and myself, but eventually I felt more settled (the wine helped with that!) and it was actually a pleasant evening and we met some interesting people from a wide variety of industries. 

I am still getting used to everything out here and seem to be learning something new about the country everyday. I can't wait to explore Oman and the Middle East further and fly down to Salalah in the south, and up north to the UAE. 

xXx

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