Job Discussion Forums

[KiteBiker]

I second what VS says.

expat men are usually either married or simply off the rails of sanity [or both]. There are more loonies than available bins and that shows all too frequently in the streets and colleges of the Gulf. I liken the Gulf to what a friend of mine said about California a long time back while I was in College in the States , " it's like someone tipped the map of America sideways and all the loose marbles congregated on that one spot..." ditto for the Gulf. You cannot to find a decent mate when all the loose marbles of the educational expat world is rolling around out there. It got to the point where we were becoming quite prejudiced in our outlook to cetain nationalities which was unfortunate and incorrect - but wholly understandable if every holder of a certain kind of passport was certifiably loonie.

As for the weather situation, expect oven-like temps even in the dead of night in Muscat during the summer months. One of my compatriots working in Nizwah stated that the government would by law cancel work days if the temp was above 50C. It never reached that high - allegedly - but I offered to give him a great big happy face thermometer to hang outside his villa and see how high it actually got. It apparently zoomed passed the 50C. on a frequent basis but the government denied it ever got that hot.

Salalah is undoubtedly the best locale weatherwise. It's actually cooler in summertime [26C. ] and warms up in the winter time [35C+]. You may actually get frost on the ground in the mountains around Salalah, Nizwah, and Ibri at night.

[kuberkat]

Very thorough reply there from VeiledSentiments. I agree especially on the skirt issue. I often wear loose trousers, but a skirt does guarantee far more of those precious breezes. Also, "spouse or reasonably facsimile thereof" had me rolling on the floor laughing. Quite.

As to feminine emancipation, women's freedoms in Oman are growing, but there is also another side to this: the women I have come to know certainly do not consider themselves oppressed, and I have found this an interesting parallell reality to toy with in my mind. Especially those who are more deeply religious consider themselves truly free. Islam does mean "submission", after all.

Allone wrote:

[carnac]

The original question was, I believe, something to do with the safety of Oman.
Let me advise potential newcomers that safety is something to always be considered.
First, you have the rabid camels. One bite from these crazed beasts (which roam freely on urban streets) and if you survive the initial attack you will have to undergo months of abdominal injections with a needle the size of a firehose to stave off the hydrophobic symptoms.
Then you have the sand sharks. Here you will be innocently walking along a beautiful beach and one of these fish, usually at least 28 feet long, will dart out of the water and slice off your leg with appropriate accessorial trimmings before thrashing their way back to their saline environs.
Not to mention the sabre-toothed geckoes, crawling about on the walls and ceilings, ready to take a pre-prandial chunk out of your private parts. Not a good start to the day.
Then we come to the savage packs of feral housecats, whose nocturnal screechings have been likened to the Sirens of Homer, attracting unwary newcomers to headfirst excursions into the ubiquitous trash bins where the savage felines wreak havoc on touristic corpi.
This is all not to mention the venomous camel-spiders, the date adders which must bite at least one person for every date they ingest to expel the date fluids to which they are allergic, and the vampire taxi-drivers (whose habits are primarily nocturnal).
But, usually, it's fairly peaceful and safe. If you stay on your guard.

[KiteBiker]

if one is to consider the natural fauna and flora for danger, you must also watch out for these disgusting snot like vermins that wash up on the shores of Oman. They are jellyfish and if it is in any way near the shape of a box or square, be especially vigilant for that one indeed is very poisonous with no antidote readily available.

[dmb]

[veiledsentiments]

And on another more serious note...

There are also plenty of scorpions - that probably won't kill you (only saw a couple of them, but never really searched)... and there are plenty of snakes, and some of them can be fatal. (never saw any of them, but one was caught in a garden in the housing at SQU when I was there, and while a snake handler from the biology department was trying to teach the neighboring children about how to identify it and telling them to be terribly cautious if they see one, it bit him on the finger!! He survived but was very very sick... and very very embarrassed.)

And the adolescent daughter of a fellow teacher was stung by a jellyfish one weekend and they rushed her to the military hospital when she went into convulsions.

None of these dangers are unique to Oman, but good to educate yourself if you are a beach and camping sort...

VS

[KiteBiker]

on a further note concerning scorpions, one must make the distinction between black and "golden" scorpions. The later is quite venomous whereas the black ones are more like a very bad wasp sting with an allergic reaction thrown in for good measure.

[Aliskander]

On a serious note consider this - if a country has police and prisons, there is some level of crime. That is just common sense. You would not wander the streets of Europe as a single woman at night, so why would you do it here? Oman does have murders, rapes, drunk driving, house breaking, thieves, drugs etc etc. No country is perfect and the same applies to Oman (and having lived here for 10 years i have a tiny bit of experience) - however if you are sensible then Oman is safe as any other country.

[veiledsentiments]

Just like anywhere, it depends on your neighborhood and common sense. I felt no fear taking a walk around midnight when it had cooled a bit. But, I wouldn't have done it if I had dark skin... white women have a degree of safety that they don't.

And I know people whose villas were burgled... my car was emptied of its items one night. (someone's remote would often unlock my doors) But all they got was my 'greatest hits of the '70s cassette and my dirty old floormats.

I would say that as far as safety, probably only Japan is safer... Oman was certainly much safer before they opened the country up to tourism. IMHO Modern times brings the bad with the good...

VS

[dmb]

[veiledsentiments]

Not really... I had always hated that they were the wrong color... the car was silver with a silver interior... and beige floor mats!!

I kinda missed the cassette... and odd mix purchased in a super market in the US. A good one for singing along with on those drives to Dubai.

VS