First impressions of Muscat

Things to get used to...

There is a difference in timing of the weekdays compared to Europe. In Oman Sunday is the first day of the week. Weekends  start on Thursday evening until Saturday. 

Timing isn't the hardest thing one has to get used to... The thing we take the most for granted in Europe is the fact one can drink alcohol just about anywhere: in a bar, in a restaurant, at home, on the streets,... Seems like Europeans are alcoholics compared to people from the Middle-East.

Since leaving the plane we both haven't had a drop of alcohol. Not that we were alcoholics ;-)...

As soon as we have all our documents (work permit, Omani ID-card etc.,...) Wim will receive a 'liquor license' which gives us the opportunity of buying alcohol in a liquor store. One can spend up to 10% of his salary for buying alcohol. But when receiving a liquor licence one has to choose a maximum amount one will spend on alcohol and is then obliged to spend the whole amount each month. We haven't a clue how much alcohol costs, but we suppose it's not cheap. 

Even in restaurant's there is no alcohol available except in hotel restaurants, which we haven't visited so far.

Friday, the first day of the weekend

Wim went to the office each day and is getting used to working during office hours. Meanwhile I tutor the children and enjoy QT with them and they seem to enjoy it too. As school starts on wednesday 15th January at 7.30 a.m. we are trying to adapt to life here by waking up early and going to bed early too. (without the alcohol that isn't really a big problem ;-))

On Friday it was weekend! Hooray! We took the car to a Wadi nearby, not knowing what to expect. I must admit I expected a beautiful oasis with tropical blue water, but what we got in return gave us great pleasure too. We saw a river bedding and a lot of Omani's with high powered 4x4-jeeps driving in them, just for fun. As we had a high powered Pajero, we decided to go for it too. The kids enjoyed this as much as going on a roller coaster and I guess the biggest kid of the family enjoyed it the most! 

After this trip we decided to go to a nearby beach and headed for The Wave, an exclusive residential project near the sea (I believe it would be Oman's alternative to a Palm tree-project (Dubai)) in the hope we could have a decent (non Indian) meal. (I admit I was hoping for a glass of wine to make it a picture perfect, but that didn't happen ;-)

The Wave is a beautiful area in which we hoped to find a house before we came to Oman. However we would have loved living there we are even more so euphoric with our house which fits our needs so much better.

After lunch we drove to our compound as we were meeting up with our next door neighbour who is selling his car and we might be interested in buying it. Andy is a very friendly Englishman and welcomed us with open arms. Nearly all people in the compound are expats and the hilarious thing is, they all seem to have three children! The compound is built in a triangle around the garden and swimming pool. All terraces are adjacent to the garden and all children (between ages of 2 years to about 14 years old) know eachother and play together. The neighbours we've had the chance to meet are very friendly and helpful.

Saturday

On saturday we first went to the old city of Muscat where we wished to visit the Souq (a local market for gold, silver, textile,...), but first Max needed a haircut. We took him to a petite barbershop where he had his hair cut for a mere 1,5 euros! I think it must have been the barber's first blonde cut ever ;-)

The souq was not really what we expected to find, but is was a nice experience. After a quick lunch, we drove off heading for Al Sifah, a beach at 40 km of driving through the mountains. We must have passed the Sultan's palace as everything was so beautiful, exclusive and clean. Al Sifah, is an amazing clean beach with nice white sand, palm trees and nice blue water. 

I'd score it 9/10 (and my beach criteria are high ;-)). The fun part for Wim was being allowed to drive the 4x4 through the dunes... (I officially have a fourth child now ;-))

Omani

If people would ask me what to expect of the people I'd say, based on our first impressions, that there are three kinds of people: the Omani, the immigrants and the expats.

The Omani are very friendly and helpful, which is even reflected on their driving. This is something I haven't seen in a long time. In Belgium there often is a lot of indifference and mistrust between people. I even dare to say I feel much safer here.

As most Omani work for the government or the police or have high positioned jobs, they need people to build the houses and the roads. For that they have attracted Indians, Filipino's, Pakistani,... 

Then there are the expats, who are very lucky to be living in Oman.

To be continued...

A new (way of) life in Muscat

Flighing high
On January 3rd we left for the airport fully packed with 10 suitcases! For the children it was the first time on a plane. Flight BRU-ZUR/ZUR-DUB/DUB-MSK and to their relief they could experience multiple take-offs and landings. I won't brag about the seats in the plane, let's just say that I hope the kids enjoyed it as much as we did :-).
Touching ground
Landing in Muscat, local time was 11p.m.. First Wim went to arrange his working permit, as I stood behind him (as a real Omani should ;-)) then we settled the visa's for the children and me. Then we were picked up by a company driver in a 'pimped up, chromed out' minivan with royal curtains and a mirror on the ceiling! Most cars here have heavy motors as gas prices are hilariously cheap (try 0,4 euro/l). It was about 20° Celcius, a great contrast to Belgian winter weather... He drove us to our guesthouse where we will be staying until the container arrives with all our furniture. At the door two Indians (not to be confused with the feathered type :-)) welcomed us. They will be taking care of us during our stay (cleaning, cooking, washing, etc.) => very handy!
First family outing in Muscat
Leaving the guesthouse was not easy as roads don't really have names (nearly every road is called Way and the numbers aren't always logic). The GPS didn't really help us out either... We did manage to find the beach, where you can find millions of shells. In Oman the Sultan Qaboos doesn't approve of tall buildings, which makes the city with the white houses 'cozier' than a city like Dubai. 
Wim's first day at the office & my trip with the kids
In the morning Wim was picked up to go to the office. His superior is still in Belgium, so he was left to visit the premises and meet all the colleagues.
Meanwhile I took the car out for a drive. Driving is like in Belgium, and you can do everything except for three things, which have huge consequenses: driving past a red light, crossing full yellow lines or slipping (leaving tyre marks on the road). The punishment for either one of these actions: 48 hours imprisonment...
I went to search for our house. It was beautiful - even better than in the pictures we saw. Our house is the most right one with the empty terrace (In my enthusiasm of finding it, I took a picture of the wrong one... Maybe blog 'blondes in Muscat' would have been a more appropriate title ;-))

Afterwards we visited the local playground.

Visiting the school and the mall
The school is a very big and well organised. Max will need a uniform. Both children will be in classes of approximately 20 students and will have two teachers. Max is lucky as he is not the only child in his class starting on 14th of January. A girl from Holland (not speaking any English) will be joining his class too. And the cherry on top of the cake is that they will have extra class with Mrs Nancy (a Belgian too!) who will help the children with English. How great is that?
There is one more week of school holiday left, so each morning I give some private tutoring to Max so he attains some basic knowledge.
The mall was a small adventure. There are several Malls in Muscat, but I visited the largest and most European one. I needed an Oman cellnumber. I was wearing a blouse and linnen pants, trying to cover up as much as possible as to not offend any Omani man or woman. I'm still not very certain of the dress code, so tried to be as careful as possible. Walking back to the car, I noticed most of the buttons of my blouse stood open and a clear viewing of my red bra was to be seen. How embarassing! There goes my discretion ;-) 

Ending a chapter in Belgium

It's been a while since my last blog. I know... Life has been very turbulent the last few weeks, but nothing we couldn't handle, but I admit it, we were at our limit... 

Here a short (I'll try) resume of the latest events:

1. Risky business - On November 25th we were euphoric when finding a renter for our house. It was very soon, but the couple seemed reliable and produced all relevant copies of income, payments of previous lease, ...  It took a while for the guarantee of the bank and the first month of rent to be paid, but we weren't suspicious yet. On the 27th of December an expert was in Zoersel in order to make an inventory of the premises. The expert was supposed to be paid in cash by both parties. Our renter didn't have any money on him but promised to bring the money later that afternoon but never did. The renter also hoped to posses the keys so he could move in that same weekend. He told us he had paid the first month rent and that it probably was because of the bank holidays that the money was not yet on our account. As for the bank guarantee, some kind of extra paperwork needed to be done. He did offer to pay all this in cash so he could receive the keys of the house. FORTUNATELY Wim reacted very appropriatly by saying he wanted the money by the means foreseen in the lease contract. No money ever appeared in our account. We never heard from the renters after that... As they never answered any calls, there was no option left but to contact an attorney to end the lease asap. By contacting the owner of the house they still occupied, I found out these people never paid rent and were convicted to leave their house before December 31st or they would be forced to leave. We even found out most documents they had produced were forged! At the moment we are still waiting for termination of the lease, but we hope this will be over soon so we can take another chance at finding a reliable renter.
2. Taking a Cat Scan - Suffering from severe aches of the stomach-area. I went to the doctor who put me on antibiotics and ordered a CT-scan asap. Conclusion of the radiologists: a swollen uterus and oh, by the way, we can't exclude cancer of the uterus or the bowels... GREAT! In the days/short weeks left I spent time visiting a bunch of specialists who wished to operate anyway just to be sure. Let's say I've had some maintenance done and I'm cleared for hitting the road at full speed again.
3. Cat AWOL - Meanwhile in Zoersel... Louis (our cat) went for a stroll and decided to not come back. He never went very far, so we thought maybe he entered someone's house/shed and got locked in. We called on all our neighbours but couldn't find him. After a week we still hoped for a happy ending, but started to worry . I thought maybe he might have gotten caught in an animal trap. Wim checked the woods in front of our house and found more than 20 (fortunately empty) traps... He immediately called the police. After they came and confronted the neighbour who put the traps there, Louis came running home uninjured. Very weird timing, it could only mean one thing: Louis was trapped by the neighbour who decided to keep him. In some countries one would consider this catnapping ;-).

Between all these activities, we still managed to organise small farewell parties/dinners, enjoy the holidays, sell both cars, prepare the house for the big move,... Days seemed hours. Nights were short. 

Looking at the children I sometimes wished I was as ignorant as them, enjoying the holidays and playing like no change was to come. But it was... but for the good!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!