In the beginning...
"A good word is like a good tree whose root is firmly fixed and whose top is in the sky."
Strangely, I'm not sure what to say. I arrived in Muscat last night after eventless flights and a slightly eventful six hours in Bangkok. Since I had six hours to kill, I went into town and wandered around a bit - bought a fruit smoothie thingy from a street vendor but threw it away without trying it after panicking about tap-water in the sugar syrup that they used... yeah, probably paranoid... then I had lunch at some ramshackle setup where I took two mouthfuls of the stew and again panicked about malaria (even though that's from mosquitoes and what's in the water is something else, and I thought I was educated)... but I'm fine. When I got back to the airport, I realised that I had neglected to bring my boarding pass with me (though I had ticket + passport), and so ensued an excruciating half an hour or so of senior security looking at a computer about whether or not I really had permission to take that flight and be in the airport, etc. So after the stress of that little episode, I decided to let myself be ripped off by the hotel's "Authentic Thai Massage" service, as I was feeling a bit frazzled. Well, it's rather unlike Chinese massage, it's more about pressure points. It was pretty good, and I was chuckling to myself at the level of familiarity the masseur takes with the client, which would be totally unprofessional in Australia.
Anyway, evidently all I have to do is start typing and it just flows out. Actually, on my second-last flight I met Mohammed Abdullah, a salesman for a company that makes scales. You know, for weighing things. Industrial scales for big things, microscales for laboratories, etc. Anyway, he was interesting and philosophical, so we exchanged email addresses.
My Muscat experience so far has been a very... comfortable one. Turns out that Sophie's apartment is in the Toorak of Muscat, can you believe it? And her work is in the building next door. At which, I have met a number of people, all of whom have been hearing all about me and my imminent arrival for the past month or so... it's a flattering feeling, walking into an atmosphere of anticipation. We unintentionally went for a scenic drive to an older part of town, proper Muscat, I think, and there were some pretty sights of old buildings nestled amongst rocky hills on the water. Sophie reminded me that the Muscat of today is really only about 35 years old; before that the Omanis were still living as bedouins, etc (apparently). But after the coup by the current Sultan Qaboos, it's grown Vegas-style supermarkets and a Mercedes Benz around every corner. Funny stuff.
Anyway, as you might already know, I can be very verbose, so you'll have to skim the waffle to find what's interesting.
Queueing at Melbourne airport was a rather unpleasant experience. So many... people, and so much... suburbanism, consumerism, conservatism. Gross. Anyway, blah blah blah... I'm starting to bore myself... oh, our tour of Egypt, Jordan + UAE starts on the 8th July.
Strangely, I'm not sure what to say. I arrived in Muscat last night after eventless flights and a slightly eventful six hours in Bangkok. Since I had six hours to kill, I went into town and wandered around a bit - bought a fruit smoothie thingy from a street vendor but threw it away without trying it after panicking about tap-water in the sugar syrup that they used... yeah, probably paranoid... then I had lunch at some ramshackle setup where I took two mouthfuls of the stew and again panicked about malaria (even though that's from mosquitoes and what's in the water is something else, and I thought I was educated)... but I'm fine. When I got back to the airport, I realised that I had neglected to bring my boarding pass with me (though I had ticket + passport), and so ensued an excruciating half an hour or so of senior security looking at a computer about whether or not I really had permission to take that flight and be in the airport, etc. So after the stress of that little episode, I decided to let myself be ripped off by the hotel's "Authentic Thai Massage" service, as I was feeling a bit frazzled. Well, it's rather unlike Chinese massage, it's more about pressure points. It was pretty good, and I was chuckling to myself at the level of familiarity the masseur takes with the client, which would be totally unprofessional in Australia.
Anyway, evidently all I have to do is start typing and it just flows out. Actually, on my second-last flight I met Mohammed Abdullah, a salesman for a company that makes scales. You know, for weighing things. Industrial scales for big things, microscales for laboratories, etc. Anyway, he was interesting and philosophical, so we exchanged email addresses.
My Muscat experience so far has been a very... comfortable one. Turns out that Sophie's apartment is in the Toorak of Muscat, can you believe it? And her work is in the building next door. At which, I have met a number of people, all of whom have been hearing all about me and my imminent arrival for the past month or so... it's a flattering feeling, walking into an atmosphere of anticipation. We unintentionally went for a scenic drive to an older part of town, proper Muscat, I think, and there were some pretty sights of old buildings nestled amongst rocky hills on the water. Sophie reminded me that the Muscat of today is really only about 35 years old; before that the Omanis were still living as bedouins, etc (apparently). But after the coup by the current Sultan Qaboos, it's grown Vegas-style supermarkets and a Mercedes Benz around every corner. Funny stuff.
Anyway, as you might already know, I can be very verbose, so you'll have to skim the waffle to find what's interesting.
Queueing at Melbourne airport was a rather unpleasant experience. So many... people, and so much... suburbanism, consumerism, conservatism. Gross. Anyway, blah blah blah... I'm starting to bore myself... oh, our tour of Egypt, Jordan + UAE starts on the 8th July.
posted by Jeremy | 9:32 am
1 Comments:
The man in the suit store had extremely slicked hair. He was well dressed, and pretty handsome too, but it was his hair that I almost couldn't take my eyes off. And his sinuous movements were luring, I thought I was going to ask to try the suit on even though I hadn't intended to. Anyway. I didn't. It was too expensive. Sorry. :)
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