More OMAN

This is the Dubai version of the chocolate on the pillow.
Quite a nice sentiment actually. Hope little J can read it, but I'm sure I'll have to explain the "sign with the flower".
I'm in the last 24 hours of this never ending trip having got back to Dubai from Qatar last night. Nothing much to report(or pics) from Qatar other than I had a little blast from my past as I visited the "College of the North Atlantic", which is a branch of a Canadian maritime technical college.
What struck me was how opulent the campus was.
This is a remarkable contrast to the original.
Quite odd to find such a place in the middle of the desert.
Qatar is also home to Al Jazeera, the Arab's world answer to CNN. If you haven't seen it before ( I always watch it when I'm here), its a rather graphic and Arab centric take on world events.
It's graphic in that they don't censor images of dead bodies and general war carnage.
Their "compound " is more like a military base than a TV station.
Interesting place.
Back to Oman.
I spent 1 day in Muscat and the 2nd travelling back and forth between Nizwa. The 160 kms is over rugged and arid terrain.
Beautiful and hot.
How the hell did people live here before the modern world of air con and running water?
Along the way I kept noticing stone towers like the one below.
I have no idea what they're used for. If anyone knows, shoot me a comment.

Back to Muscat.

I visited the Sultan Qaboos University.

Its a huge marble campus complete with its own Mosque.

My favorite feature of the place is the long hallways, open to the outside flanked by columns.
This layout yielded some interesting pictures in my opinion.
The last picture was taken inside the library and may perhaps herald a counter point to the ones immediately preceeding it. As you can no doubt see Oman is much more traditional than racy Dubai. For the most part women are covered and men dress in traditional garb. An interesting observation ( to me anyway) is that the women officers at immigration had on the most pancake makeup ( and lipstick and eyeshadow) that I've ever seen.

Oman is also unique in the gulf in that you see locals working in the hotels and in everyday jobs (except anything to do with booze) This is in marked contrast to the rest of the region which import huge numbers of Pakistanis and Indians to do the bulk of the work.

Oman is also shockingly expensive.

Different to most countries the Riel is worth more than the pound or dollar.

This means its multiple pounds and dollars to the local currency. Given that I'm used to the opposite it takes a little while to work out that the 2 coffees and 1 small mineral water just cost $62.

God I'm too tired to post anymore.

Home in 24 hours.

Just one more business dinner to go......

Love to all

T