5 May 2006

Trip to Oman

It has been a long time since i have blogged about anything. Mainly becuase I have been busy with work and have nothing really interesting to blog about. Also, can't really blog about my work since i am suspect it might be breaking some laws (who knows?). But recently I have been Oman for business trip and at least THAT is something to blog about. I have photos to show too :)

The temperature there was an insane 40+ degrees .. kinda like melbourne in summer only somehow it was much worse. Prob due to the fact that i was mostly in work clothes (jacket, shirt and pants) or jeans. I thought that i would be quite inappropriate for me to wear shorts and T-shirt around. The surprising thing is that there are SO MANY South Asians and Filippinos and Oman working - South Asians in the hard labour areas or menial tasks; Filippinos more in the service sectors, like waitering or sales.

It was really funny that our host was so nice that it became more like a holiday rather than a business trip. After the first day of meeting, we were offered the car and driver to go sightseeing. And then the host had a dinner for us. After the second day of meeting, we were picked up by our host and (get this) brought to his house, like guests, to meet his family. So Amazing!! This is not a normal business trip now is it. .. After meeting his family, WE (us, host, and WIFE AND KIDS) went to the mall to have dinner. After that, the goodbyes became more like one of friends departing rather than one of business colleagues. VERY STRAnGE but nice :)

Anyway, the only thing i can complain about is that there was a HUGE wait in the Bahrain airport for the transit flight. We had to while away 5 hours in the airport and so i ended up changing all my Oman Rials to Bahrain Dinars and I spent all of the Dinars at the duty free shop. I bought some wine (french chardonnay). Don't ask me what is the name... i have no idea. I just bought it cos the wine cost the exact amount I had in Dinars.

All out, it was a very interesting experience. ... and Now on the pix.

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