Qantab, Salalah and Indian food!

I finally got to visit qantab beach.  It shares coastlines with the bar al jissah resort of shang-rila.  We were supposed to drop by there too just for coffee but they don’t allow guests without reservations, especially on weekends. Guess some other time then.  With cream-beige sands, blue waters and rocky outcrops, qantab is kinda different from the tropical beaches I’m accustomed to.  But it’s still good smelling sea air and seeing sun, sky and sand in a totally different setting…

Driving there was amazing. It felt like I was slicing through towering mountains of rocks of hundred varieties! With the very smooth roads and the hilly climbs then the steep downhillls, with the wide and hairpin curves, and glimpses of the glistening gulf of oman, it definitely felt I wasn’t in davao anymore…   

It’s kinda funny now sometimes that when I pray or just think about it, I can actually imagine the desert place where jesus, mary and joseph probably wandered around in centuries ago.  even one of the three kings, supposedly came from salalah, a southern city in oman where the frankincense tree is abundant and reportedly the only place in the whole middle east region where it grows!  The prophet job’s tomb is also enshrined there…

 The environment in salalah is a complete turnaround from the hot and dry climate prevalent here.  The scene there is more like rolling, verdant hills and mountains with numerous leafy trees, bubbling streams and lakes much more alike with the irish countryside but with tropical forests, if that even is possible…  I have got to visit that place somehow… For now though, I’m looking forward to my trip to dubai at the end of this week.   I’ll make sure it’ll be a blast even though I’m going there with officemates for a training of sorts.  And I’m surely gonna schedule time to be with friends living and working there… =) 

So we hung around qantab beach until dusk settled and the moon was starting to shine brightly in the breezy night.  Ooooh, for a state-of-the art, high-def camera!

Deciding now to have dinner, my companions wanted me to try authentic, Indian fast food.  We headed to this joint in ruwi besides  a gas station, patronized by a lot of locals.  I was expecting lots of curry with some rice dishes.  But what was served were these…

 

vegetables with some sort of bread appetizers called ti pura and ma bida? I’m pretty sure I messed up the names, sorry! But, there you go…my one-day recreation for the whole week… =)

nationalities & languages

at any one meeting or discussion here, there will be  omanis, indians and yours truly, lone representative of our humble country…

among the indians, onewould probably have a different dialect from his countryman which reflects one of the some hundred or so dialects spoken throughouth north, south, and west india…

among omanis, i have met, befriended and worked with people from so many exotic places which i used to read only in enclopedias or hear in movies.  a lady friend of mine is from zanzibar, a couple of old-timers here are from sudan. then there are these two young best friends from tanzania and pakistan.  another veteran designer here is from lebanon who speaks french… 

it can’t get any mulit-cultural than that. or maybe it can coz of my coming and working here…hehehe… so we all communicate in english. or try to anyway. from my end, there would always be a lot of sorrys, i beg your pardon, or come again please.  at least its better to have everything cleared and understood than just nod and smile stupidly hoping its the right response.   pero usahay dili gyud nako masabtan ilang gina-ingon,labaw na mga local na naga-english. mao mu-barok na lang pud akong inistoryahan…dah, nakabisaya na gyud ko! im also learning arabic, or trying to anyway. its actually not that easy to master. oh well.  do whatever to get your points and thoughts across, as firmly but politely as possible… =) 

3 months!

this day marks my 3rd month here in muscat, can you believe it?  sometimes i feel it has been the longest 3 months of my life and at times i feel like time just flew by..

without question, i had a lot of new experiences and met so many new people.  bad and good.  but i guess anywhere in the world, they always come together.  in a foreign place such as here, being strong on your own matters a lot.  it will help of course if you have friends, but in the end, you only have yourself to rely on and surrender everything else to Him. 

im excited for the next months as i think a lot more new things will happen.  im just praying now that it wont come hand in hand with a new batch of negative drama…

 all i want is to do my work here  in relative peace, enjoy the place and the people who were so gracious and wonderful to me… =)

the white thing….

=)

shisha

finally got to try the arabic version of yosi! as you can see, it’s kinda big to be dangling between two fingers… hehehe..

so just to prepare myself, as i’ve been warned that it can get you drunk,  i ate a lot, together with farah…

we had a big bowl of ceaser salad with chicken, pizza and grilled chicken with pita…

so, i  think i  was a happy camper during the recent two-day weekend. i just wish we can have holidays every week…

omigad

it’s either i did the most foolish thing in the world or i just realized one of the (babaw!)reasons i came out here to work!  blowing  more than a month’s salary for a single-item purchase, albeit a very state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line, drool-worthy techy gadget, will probably see me holed in the flat for the next month, living on crackers and water…

but thinking bout it now…. AYOS PA DIN! =)