Welcome to Beachtown

Driving around Muscat Katy says to me... "you know, Muscat is really a beach town."

The way the streets are laid out (either long roads running parallel to the beach or short roads ending in cul-de-sac and lined on either side with shops) is one of the first indicators. But there are others:

*kids here "cruise" the beach circuit-- yes, this is universal... young Omanis are no different in their need to drive around town showing off, flirting, in that endless quest for 'cool' that all of us as teenagers have taken part in. Although, all we had in Halifax was the parking lot of Burger King, but I sure did look cool in mom's 1985 Honda Accord. Katy tells me Ben and Jerry's on Maine St. in Brunswick was "the place to be".

*beach stuff here is expensive-- well at least sunglasses are. I guess being in a place where the sun is out something like 360 days a year has something to do with this as well, but I have yet to see a pair of sunglasses under $75. For someone who normally sits on, forgets or otherwise parts quickly and often with sunglasses, this fact is a bit disconcerting. If you want to spend 300-400 dollars on designer sunglasses, you can do that here. When I walked into one shop and asked the guy for sunglasses that were between 20 and 30 bucks he looked at me like I had two heads.

*the beach is fun-- last night the weather in Muscat was great-- not kidding. At about 5 in the evening, we guessed that the temperature was about 85 degrees (although they use Celsius here, but I'm not so good with it yet, so let's say about 31 degrees Celsius) with a slight breeze. A beautiful night. So, we went to the beach. We had a wonderful time. The water is shallow and clear for hundreds of yards, so we were able to wade out into the Indian ocean (technically the Gulf of Oman). The kids were delighted by the beach life they discovered-- small hermit crabs, tiny schools of fish, ghost crabs, some sort of snail/clam, etc. Nicholas wore his goggles and was amazed at the tiny fish that were swimming right by him. We ended our first beach adventure by making a sand castle with drip sand ornaments.

So... life in beachtown is pretty good. And the weather is only getting better. We have an extra room and Baytna Baytokoom (our house is your house)