arabian nites

am back from my middle eastern holiday, accompanied by a golden tan and a ghastly cold. snif.

on 8 feb 2006, i went back in time. 4 hours to be exact. arrived late at nite and proceeded straight to the resort. muscat, the capital city of oman, is more developed than i had expected. very clean. very sparse. the country currently has a population of approx. 2.3 mil spread over a land area that is larger than msia. the reigning sultan has decreed that any expansion is to be done horizontally to preserve their landscape and avoid "unsightly" skyscrapers; hence the tallest building is a mere 14 stories.

the buildings in the city are rather nondescript with the main and most popular decorative item being neon lights! these arabs do love their neon lights and ermm...gold. the main gates of their national bank is 24k gold plated. yes, kitschy designs are popular in this part of the world. reminded me of the folks along edgware road that i used to gawk at. esp the men who wore their trousers high above their swollen bellies; held perilously close to the chest by some designer belt with a buckle that shouts "look at me!" and paired with some cheesecloth-like checked shirt. no such gawking in muscat tho. men are dressed simply in white and women in black. to signify egalitarianism. i.e. within the respective gender groups since after all it is still very much a separated society.

it's sposed to be winter now in oman, although that could easily be construed as a misnomer given the blistering sun and clear blue skies during the day. gorgeous but bloody hot. can get pretty chilly at night though, as is typical of the desert temperatures that can vary wildly.

resort was nice. they have a dive centre, which unfortunately is not operational yet like many other facilities at this very new resort. apparently got really nice dive spots so to bookmark, after i try sipadan, phuket, mauritius, maldives...

the next few days were a whirlwind of forts, forts and more forts. ok, we went to one castle. but it kinda looked like a fort so am a bit confused. ;P it was interesting tho, learning and soaking in a bit of history. we also visited a fishing village and a fish market, which put me off fish for the next 5 days. hehe. oh, and coincidentally the muscat festival was ending just as we got there. it's a festival where all the different tribes from all over the country gather for a cultural display. wanted to snap some pixs of the bedouin women with their batman masks but 1) camera ran out of batt and 2) all the women shook their heads vehemently in protest.( it's apparently rude to take pixs of the women in the middle east without their expressed permission.)

quite a short trip since i spent two out of five days travelling. wished i had more time to experience the desert safari and to sail along the bay for dolphin-watching. wot i found really refreshing also were stories from the new friends i made there: a crime journalist; a travel writer; a german former-high-flying exec who gave it all up to "live for today"; and a bulgarian hotelier who's lived in the middle east for 9 years and is "dying to get into saudi" but can't cos she's "female, single and christian". served to remind me how diff our worlds are and how sheltered we are to have wot we have.