Beach Running

A boring subject you might think and one I wouldn't normally be inspired to write about, but my first trip to the beach for a run this weekend was a memorable one.

I started beside The Chedi (a fancy hotel on the beach front in Muscat) and proceeded to run up towards the airport. I ran for about 25-30 minutes until I reached a ton of people kite surfing. I then sat down for a much needed rest and to watch the kite surfers for a bit. When I set off to run back again I soon realised I had got a bit carried away with myself with the outward bound leg. There was a decent wind that day, hence all the kit surfers, and my return leg was running straight into it. I think I lasted about 10 minutes when my unfit legs, the wind, and the sun had got the better of me. So I started to walk the remaining distance.

After about half an hour I could sense I wasn't too far from where I had parked my car, another 5 minutes or so, when I saw a group of 4 Indian men walking towards me. This isn't unusual in the Middle East. They are usually building site labourers who come to the beach to either perve on any unsuspecting women in bikinis or to swim in their underpants! I noticed one of them was taking everything out of his pockets and giving it to one of the others. I could then see he had started to alter his direction to meet me coming the opposite way. Now, for a split second the thought went through my mind that there was no one else within a good kilometre of me and this guy (backed up by his buddies) was about to deck me for my iPhone. I then remembered I was in a pretty friendly country in the Middle East where there is almost zero crime so his intentions were probably friendly. As he got closer he smiled and held out his hand. He said hello, shook my hand and asked me how I was. His next words were 'Can I have a picture?' I said of course and went to the guy holding the camera to get it from him, thinking that he was asking me to take a picture of the 4 of them. Nope, he wasn't, I had clearly got the wrong end of the stick here. The guy with the camera was waving his hands at me as if to tell me to move back, so I turned to the one who had greeted me and laughed 'of me?' So there I was in between two of them, posing for a picture.

Who knows what use or enjoyment they'll get from a picture with me, but if this happens again.......... I'm asking for a fee.

The kite surfers



Fishing boats on the beach with The Chedi in the distance

The Fish Market

Fish is a massively popular thing here. Obviously that's with it being on the coast, but also the variety of stuff the fishermen can catch in the Gulf of Oman on a daily basis appears to be huge.

I arose at 7am on Thursday, damn early for the weekend (especially after being in the pub until late watching the Champions League) and made my way to Ali's house to pick him up. He's a colleague of mine who I use to work with in Dubai a couple of years ago. He was occasionally a social friend too in Dubai so I can see us becoming quite good friends now we're both in this much smaller town. His wife has just given birth the their first baby though so he's not exactly going to be able to play out all the time. There were two specific reasons for picking Ali up; 1. he knew exactly what to do at the fish market and 2. he was having a barbecue that night so he wanted some stuff himself.

My small old man with big grey beard along with his 'stall'

We parked up close by to the market (which is in a place called Mutrah) and walked up an old dodgy looking road which didn't look like it lead to anything. It did though of course and we were soon under a large metal canopy, full of Omani fisherman with all their catch of the morning laid out on a big tiled plinth in front of them. I was quite shocked that it didn't really smell, but I'm told fresh fish doesn't or shouldn't really have that fishy smell you'd expect. There was all sorts of wild and wonderful fish there that I'd never even seen before, but I did recognise the tuna and the easy things like prawns. Ali found a guy that had the type and size of fish he was looking for. He bought 4 hammour (a type of white fish like a grouper), 3 sherry fish and a kilo of tiger prawns from the guy next to him. I was wandering around on my own at this point, which is generally dangerous when I have money to spend in my pocket! I'd say I was like a kid in a sweet shop, but I think a kid would of had a much better idea of what he was doing. I had my sights set on a tuna; 1. because I knew what they looked like and 2. because I knew it would taste awesome on the barbie later. Most of them must have weighed more than me, but I eventually found a small old man with a big grey beard who had a few barbecue sized ones. He looked like he didn't quite have the strength to catch the larger ones these days. The tuna I chose was the smallest he had and it came to almost 3kg on the scales. I was now just stood waiting for him to tell me the highly inflated price and readying myself to bargain. I was shocked when he said '3 Riyals please'. I did a rough conversion in my head...... £5. For a 3kg tuna I thought I wouldn't argue with that and I just paid him. In reality this probably was inflated and a local would get things at a much cheaper price, but I left a happy man and I'm sure he did too. 

An Omani Fisherman about to butcher my tuna

I didn't know I had to do this next bit, but now it was time to take our fish to the far end of the market where there was a whole bunch of guys sat in little concrete bays, each armed with a huge knife and a blood soaked apron.  Their job of course was to chop all the guts out of your fish, clean it, then cut it as you liked. I asked the guy Ali had picked to do our business with if he could fillet my tuna. To my surprise he easily understood what I had asked and was done in about two minutes, all while nattering away in Arabic to his fellow fish choppers sat next to him. I was briefly splattered in the face by something while he was flinging my tuna around with all it's guts hanging out, but I just wiped it off while trying not to think about what it was. 

That night the barbecued tuna was the best I've ever tasted! Ali's prawns were immense too. I can see myself down the fish market quite often then, but for now, I've still got 1.5kg of tuna in my freezer to get through!!

Someone had bought a whopper!

Property Hunting

Property hunting takes far too much time and effort (unless you get lucky!). This is generally because most real estate agents in the Middle East like to show you things that are way over your budget or have been on their books since the dawn of time, i.e. they're a pile of sh*te. I wasn't shocked to discover that most agents in Muscat are the same then. Despite me being very specific on the phone (3 to 4 bed villa, walking distance to the beach, fairly modern and not too far from work) the first two agents I met took me to see the dregs of what was on their books. A 6 (yes, 6!!!) bed villa that was very old and a good 10 minute drive to the beach. A 5 bed villa which looked like it dated back to the stone age, but it was close to the beach so he got that right. Next was a 2 bed apartment. This was the point that I told the agent he was wasting my time and to call me if he actually had something that fit my very small list of requirements. Since that experience I've learnt to get details of the places they want to show me before they actual take me.

Some of you might be thinking '4 bed villa? on the beach? just for him? posh tw@t, rich b@stard' etc, etc. Please allow me to explain though before you judge. Firstly, rented accommodation here is CHEAP! Maybe not that cheap compared to the UK, but compared to Dubai it's brilliant. A 4 bed villa, by the beach (some even have a pool!) costs roughly the same as a 2 bed apartment in a nice area of Dubai. Secondly, I am planning to rent at least one of the rooms out to someone. No idea who yet, but possibly someone at work (there are new guys starting all the time). I found this works quite well judging on my experience in Dubai (yes Dom, that's a compliment, don't get a boner). I'm also expecting a few visitors. Mum and Dad haven't booked a date in yet, but I'm sure they will soon. All friends are welcome to book a visit of course to take advantage of the free digs and to explore a new city/country. Same condition as before though for the couples: no loud bedroom 'holiday activity' late at night if I have work the next day. So that's at least 3 bedrooms I need. The fourth could just be used for something else, a study, a gym, or just a Scalextric room!?! The reasons for being by the beach are: because it'll be cool and because I can.

Ignoring the pain of the first agent I have met some nice ones who have been very honest and up front with me. So far there are two villas I like. One is a 4 bed (tick), with a 500m walk to the beach (measured on Google Earth - tick), but is a bit lacking on the modern side when it comes to the bathrooms and kitchen, so I'd have to compromise there. The second place is a 5 bed (bit big, but tick), with a 1000m walk to the beach (semi-tick), a shared swimming pool with 5 other villas (not an initial requirement, but big tick)  and fairly modern throughout (tick). There's one big cross against the second place though, which I am going to have to go and explore at a certain time of day. Roughly 50m away is a small mosque. For those of you that haven't lived in the Middle East, this is by no means a good thing. Most notable is the call to prayer at around 4:30am every morning! Even though the current tenant told me it doesn't bother him I'll have to go back at one of the 5 prayer times throughout the day to see just how loud it is for myself.

For now, my search continues. I already have a couple of places to see tomorrow (luckily my boss has been very accommodating so far and is letting me check out all these places during work time!). So the next time I mention accommodation will probably be when the decision is made and I've moved in. When this happens I'll make sure to post a few pictures to tempt all you potential visitors!