A Little Bit About Muscat

Ok, so now a little bit about Muscat, which is the capital of Oman and my home for the next year-ish.  As you can see from the map below, Muscat is a long city that's bordered by the ocean on one side and a huge mountain range on the other.  Theoretically the mountain range shields us from the worst of the heat in the desert, but it's hard for me to imagine it could possibly be any hotter (the heat index today is 120* F).  It also makes for some pretty spectacular scenery while you're driving around.

The view on my drive home from work

Though most expats live in the area north of Bausher on the map below, I live in the Seeb area.  I live up in the hills and have a spectacular view of the mountains, though it takes me about 25-30 minutes to drive down to the areas where we socialize (like Shatti al Qurum and Madinat Al Qaboos).  But since I'm only 10 minutes from work and 13 minutes from the best mall in town (which also holds the grocery/everything store), I'm pretty happy with my location. 

Physical 3D Map of Muscat

Certain parts of Muscat also have a really beachy feel, which helps make you feel like you're on permanent vacation (as long as you stay indoors and just look at the pretty outdoors and don't actually walk out into the sauna).  But with the ocean comes humidity -- whoever said that it's a dry heat over here was so so so wrong.  It's like the worst of the humidity from Florida mixed with sticking your head in the oven.  It's too hot to even use the pool!  But at least it's pretty...