Wow what a contrast!!! South East Asia to the Middle East.
Today we arrived in Muscat, Oman. Oman is situated at the end of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yeman, and just across a narrow strait from Iran. Although Oman is a fairly large country, it is mostly mountains and desert, and has only a population of 2.8 million. Muscat is the capital with a population of 800,000.
Oman is not a democracy, but a kingdom. It is ruled by a Sultan, who has been in power since 1970. He must be a benevolent dictator, however, as the country is thriving. As far as we can tell the citizens (the Omanis) get pretty much everything free; free health care, free education, free housing, and I think a free living allowance. Moreover, they pay no taxes. How is this possible, you ask. One word, OIL. It seems they have lots of oil and gas. They use the gas domestically, export the crude oil, refine a small percentage of the oil for petrol for their cars, and live off the revenues. Gas for cars costs the equivalent of 40 cents per litre. Not surprisingly the city is full of car dealerships for everything from Toyotas to Ferraris, and the streets are full of shiny new cars. In juxtaposition to the price of gas at 40 cents per litre, however, drinking water costs 10 times as much, $4.00 per litre.
In 1970, this place was a desert, and nobody lived here. Since then, with all the oil money, they have built a modern, clean, beautiful city. All the buildings are white, or very pastel yellow. ( An HGTV delight). The roads, bridges, etc. are all new and in great shape. There are construction cranes everywhere. Government buildings for all the different ministries are all works of art. The Omani men all walk around in their white long caftans (women wear black ones) looking like they have nothing to do. For most of them that seems to be true. The work is all done by foreigners, many from India, who do have to pay taxes and do not enjoy all the free benefits of citizenship. Interesting culture. Everyone is happy living here.
The citizens are mostly Muslim Arabs. Today we visited their Grand Mosque, considered one of the most beautiful Mosques in the world. It is. The ladies had to be fully covered, including a head scarf. Here are some pictures of the Mosque. Can you find Waldo, I mean Peggy?
Right. There's Waldo. And in the Men's Prayer Room too. What's she doing there? It is a good thing she is in disquise.
The carpet in the Men's Prayer Room is a single carpet 4,000 square feet in size, containing 1,600 million knots. It was woven by hand by a group of young women and took them four years to complete. The pattern is beautiful. See below for a small bit of the pattern. No 2 flowers are the same.
Oops, here's Waldo again. In the Grand Bazaar, which they call a Souq, doing what she does best.
The weather here is hot, but not so humid, so easier to take.
Omani men are allowed to have up to four wives. Many don't do this as they consider one wife quite enough thank you. Those that do, have to ask the permission of wife number 1, before marrying wife number 2. Then, he has to provide everything equally, even housing. So, he must build a house for wife number 2 that is exactly the same as the house for wife number 1. Here is a fellow who has two wifes. See the two identical houses.
And here is some unforunate fellow who has three wives. See how the three identical houses are smaller. I guess. What is this guy thinking?
OK, enough for now. I think I will go and check on my one wife, who keeps me plenty busy enough.
Cheers, George & Waldo
Today we arrived in Muscat, Oman. Oman is situated at the end of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yeman, and just across a narrow strait from Iran. Although Oman is a fairly large country, it is mostly mountains and desert, and has only a population of 2.8 million. Muscat is the capital with a population of 800,000.
Oman is not a democracy, but a kingdom. It is ruled by a Sultan, who has been in power since 1970. He must be a benevolent dictator, however, as the country is thriving. As far as we can tell the citizens (the Omanis) get pretty much everything free; free health care, free education, free housing, and I think a free living allowance. Moreover, they pay no taxes. How is this possible, you ask. One word, OIL. It seems they have lots of oil and gas. They use the gas domestically, export the crude oil, refine a small percentage of the oil for petrol for their cars, and live off the revenues. Gas for cars costs the equivalent of 40 cents per litre. Not surprisingly the city is full of car dealerships for everything from Toyotas to Ferraris, and the streets are full of shiny new cars. In juxtaposition to the price of gas at 40 cents per litre, however, drinking water costs 10 times as much, $4.00 per litre.
In 1970, this place was a desert, and nobody lived here. Since then, with all the oil money, they have built a modern, clean, beautiful city. All the buildings are white, or very pastel yellow. ( An HGTV delight). The roads, bridges, etc. are all new and in great shape. There are construction cranes everywhere. Government buildings for all the different ministries are all works of art. The Omani men all walk around in their white long caftans (women wear black ones) looking like they have nothing to do. For most of them that seems to be true. The work is all done by foreigners, many from India, who do have to pay taxes and do not enjoy all the free benefits of citizenship. Interesting culture. Everyone is happy living here.
The citizens are mostly Muslim Arabs. Today we visited their Grand Mosque, considered one of the most beautiful Mosques in the world. It is. The ladies had to be fully covered, including a head scarf. Here are some pictures of the Mosque. Can you find Waldo, I mean Peggy?
Right. There's Waldo. And in the Men's Prayer Room too. What's she doing there? It is a good thing she is in disquise.
The carpet in the Men's Prayer Room is a single carpet 4,000 square feet in size, containing 1,600 million knots. It was woven by hand by a group of young women and took them four years to complete. The pattern is beautiful. See below for a small bit of the pattern. No 2 flowers are the same.
Oops, here's Waldo again. In the Grand Bazaar, which they call a Souq, doing what she does best.
The weather here is hot, but not so humid, so easier to take.
Omani men are allowed to have up to four wives. Many don't do this as they consider one wife quite enough thank you. Those that do, have to ask the permission of wife number 1, before marrying wife number 2. Then, he has to provide everything equally, even housing. So, he must build a house for wife number 2 that is exactly the same as the house for wife number 1. Here is a fellow who has two wifes. See the two identical houses.
And here is some unforunate fellow who has three wives. See how the three identical houses are smaller. I guess. What is this guy thinking?
OK, enough for now. I think I will go and check on my one wife, who keeps me plenty busy enough.
Cheers, George & Waldo
hey this is almost like a chat line! Got this new "post of the day" just as I posted my last comment! These pics are amazing!
ReplyDeleteNice to see the men have to take care of all their wives. I wonder who's the boss?
Do they have clouds over in that part of the world?? Seems to me I haven't seen anything but blue skies in every picture you've posted so far!!
ReplyDeleteWoke up this morning to drive to Waterdown to do an early run and had to spend 5 minutes scraping the ice off my windshield!!!!! But this weekend the forecast is sunny and 19 degrees!! Vroom vroom!!! (picture little blue BMW convertible speeding down a road)
Jan