It’s a fairly well known fact that I am not fond of driving. More specifically, I am not fond of car dependency, which creates traffic, stifles public transit, and makes getting around in general very annoying. I was rather looking forward to not having to drive for awhile. Alas, we chose to come to Oman. A combination of large distances between cities, cheap gas, and good roads have created very car-centric communities in the Middle East. Public transportation is, ahem, neglected when everyone has a car. Since taxis are absurdly expensive, we had no choice but to rent a car. One final taxi ride took us to the airport, again with no meter and again with wildly fluctuating prices. But finally, at the airport, we got our car and were off the taxi leash.

Driving back to Muscat, a few Omani philosophies quickly became apparent:

1. Driving > everything;
2. Why stop when you can pass?
3. Why signal when you can go?
4. Speed limits are just silly little numbers on the side of the road.

That last one is no joke. In order to discourage fast driving, the Omani government (and UAE for that matter) has resorted to erecting scarecrows on the side of the road. Like, there are stuffed dolls in the shape of humans, dressed to look like construction workers, “standing” on the road shoulder. In UAE, some of them were even robotic and waved their arms around. This is the driving culture of the Middle East, where real humans are too scared to try and slow traffic.

Our destination was a beach, which we reached in a matter of seconds thanks to the persistent urging of all other drivers. Qurum beach was a pretty little spot with some western cafes and a long stretch of sand (above). Families were picnicking but, it being broad daylight, considerably fewer people were out and about. Mainly expats and tourists visited the cafes and were lounging around on the beach.

We took a hint from the locals and headed inside for the rest of the day. Farooq came back from his daytime (inside) activities around 4 PM and we headed to a nearby Indian snack shop for tea and chat. Sabby from the previous evening was there with her family, and we also met Abbas. Farooq and Abbas took us to a Pakistani chain for dinner. The specialty was grilled meat, which we happily devoured.

Meat

Cindy likes meat

We ended our evening with chit chatting and shisha. My theory is that every culture developed a way to gather people in a circle and create conversation. For some reason humans don’t feel comfortable sitting down solely for the purpose of talking. We need to meet over coffee, tea, kava, or even a baseball game. For Arabs and their cultural relatives, it’s shisha. Very soon, it will probably be just driving.