You know you've been in the ME for a while when...

This year marks our second anniversary in this country (time really flies!). In fact S’s is just around these days while my second anniversary will be in September. We still love it (and that's why we are still here) but of course such a milestone calls for some reflection... Here we go...

You know you’ve been an expat in the Middle East for a while when:

• You don’t feel there’s a lot to blog about any more as you get used to the daily oddities
  
• You think it’s normal to have goats wandering freely around the outer perimeter of your house (outside your tent or anywhere in fact), cats serenading you when sitting outside at restaurants and dogs chasing you on a fitness run.
  
• You think you are getting the best service in the world if you didn’t have to explain your order at least twice at a restaurant or bar and your waiter delivers exactly what you asked for first time around
  
• You are disdained if there is nobody to pack your shopping at the supermarket till but you re-pack everything from 10 to 1 single carrier bag when they are there to assist
  
• You open the paper & jump straight to the photo pages at the back to see if you or anyone you know is pictured there
  
• You know exactly what a Bebsi is
  
• You are surprised if you call for assistance to fix the AC and only one man turns up with all the required tools; additionally you feel the urge to call one of your friends to boast about it if they actually fix it successfully at the first call.
  
• InshaAllah is your daily mantra
  
• You don’t think much of it when a lorry overtakes you on the motorway and you are travelling at 120 kmph or when you see one just overturned on the side of the road with all its contents scattered around
  
• You get used to brushing your teeth in hot water during the summer
  
• You are completely taken off foot if a service man arrives exactly at the time he stated
  
• You keep a stock of 300 spare light bulbs in the house
  
• You get all your towels ready around the house and tape up windows & doors if the forecast predicts some rain
  
• You get really excited about a new supermarket/shop/bar opening in town: when the “opening or coming soon banner” comes up you normally estimate between a couple of trimesters to a couple of years to the official launch.
  
• You wait for an official public announcement to know if you are going to be off on an expected public holiday and to find out exactly whether it’s going to be in 2 or 3 days’ time & how long for.
  
• You think it’s perfectly normal to be sent home early because it’s a rainy day or to be granted a day off in case of rain forecast

 This could go on indefinitely…..

Littering - when people take no care

In the little time spent here I have learnt that there are a few things that really push my buttons, some in a very explosive way. It takes a lot of self control because in some occasions I can really feel the steam building up and escaping from my ears while the face gets red from the effort I put into restraining myself. Take the scene that I witnessed just a few moments ago just round the corner from home. This is not a first and I know that it is not unique nor unusual & that’s in my view what aggravates the situation.

I am driving back home. A car slows down and strangely drives close to the left side of the road, close to a wall. I stop wondering for a few seconds on the possible reasons. They could be millions; unusual behaviour on the roads is the norm here. It is an unpaved stretch of road; maybe the driver finds the ground smoother on that side is what I think to myself, he is driving a shiny 4x4 after all; you have to be careful. Then the answer becomes clear: a little blue plastic bag puffed up by its unwanted contents and neatly tied into a knot swings lightly into the air and lands on the side of the road. I stand there numbed by the sad scene: there is a bin only 30m away and the idiot doesn’t even have to walk, just drive there and spend the same amount of energy to drop the bag into the bin. I can think of a number of other big bins along the way where he could have dropped his damn rubbish but no, he had to dump it along the road. I have seen this before, in the middle of town too. Now this is not the only country where this happens (littering is a big problem worldwide and sometimes it is also a (mis)cultural thorn: people just think it's not their problem or responsibility) but seeing it happening regularly and knowing the amazing beauty , natural spots and wildlife this country has been blessed with... well, seeing these scenes anywhere really pushes my rage button!

You would think that Muscat is a dirty city: it is immaculately clean. An army of  Indians  in orange uniforms cleans the streets every day; get out of the city on beautiful beaches and it is a completely different story: anywhere where it is too far for the little Indians to reach and where the sea delivers everything back (like for like) you can find a varied collection of rubbish scattered around. People camp and leave the rubbish there, neatly packed as if anyone was going to pick it up (???)…you see it smells in the car better out there. Of course it’s ravaged by animals by the end of the day and the rest is history.

 I always wonder what these idiots feel like after they engage in this kind of careless living, setting the example and making sure that the next generation follows. I remember as a child when my parents would make me pick any bit of rubbish that I dared to drop making me feel small and guilty: once or twice was enough for a lifetime learning; the kind of lesson that I will pass onto my kids one day.

I can only think that people like these are completely oblivious; dirty, careless and also a bit stupid or maybe just unlucky because nobody has ever taught them differently. Now who knows if there’s a way to report this here? Because I have the shiny car model, the colour and the number plate.

Want to do your bit? 

• Do not throw rubbish from your car or anywhere (including cigarette butts & chewing gum!)
• Take your own rubbish with you and dispose of it appropriately at the nearest facility
• Burn your used toilet paper when camping (or take it in a small bag with you: less gross to leave it there for someone else to find or to fly around freely)
• If you camp try to use washable plastic cutlery, plates and cups (so that you can re-use them instead of throwing more plastic away). If you can, wash them back at home.
• If you have to use soaps when camping make sure they are non-toxic, biodegradable, phosphate-free (there are some brands available in supermarkets). Use as little as possible and as far away from sea and wadis as possible.
• Google “green camping” for other ideas
• Ever found yourself picking up someone else's rubbish? Be proud.

Other reads on this topic: 

http://muscatconfidential.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-do-people-in-oman-keeping-driving.html
A related article from The Week

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Borneo dream

So we are back from another beautiful holiday. Borneo had always been on my wish list so very glad we did it. We've just visited Malaysian Borneo and more exactly Sabah. It is a beautiful corner of the world with a lot to see so it seems a lot to squeeze in for two weeks but it worked out well (of course I would have loved to stay longer). This was our itinerary (in case you are after some inspiration): 

Day 1 – Land in Kuala Lumpur and connect with a flight to Kota Kinabalu AKA KK (the capital of Sabah). We spent the evening sampling street food at the local Philippino market where there are tons of food on display: from fresh fish to meat stretched along counters under humid and hot air and no ice on sight. The fish was very fresh though so no toilet mishaps. Our “hut” in KK was Le Meridien: it is very central and offers great service (as one would expect). We stayed there 2 nights: the first when we arrived and then on our return from the climb from Kota Kinabalu. The best thing is that both nights we were upgraded to a suite (lavish! hehe the holiday started well): the first time I think because of some “complaint” that we made at the time we reserved and the second night because when we checked-in rain was leaking dramatically over the otherwise immaculate bed. Lots of apologies and a lavish suite later we were more than satisfied although I always wonder why anyone would need such a huge place to spend one night in bed. How sweet.

Day 2 - 3 Mount Kinabalu (my nightmare). Although some may be surprised to read this it was never in my master plan for the holiday. Despite my adrenaline junkie spirit I was never planning to break myself climbing a giant all the way to +4000m above the sea level. I am more comfortable in the sea you see… But S. thought one could not visit Sabah without doing this. In retrospective, forgetting the hours of agony through a total of 17km (8.5 up and then back down) of steep and interminable steps and uneven ground sunrise at the summit admittedly did look good. Also if one does not count the sore knee ligament (me) and the twisted ankle (S.) that slowed our descent to a torturous 5 hours we were relatively lucky with the weather as it did not rain until the very last hour of our ordeal. It took us about 6 hours to get to the summit: the last 700-500m of which took me about one hour (small step after small step and long pause to breathe oxygen starved air) while nausea battled and inexplicably lost against my will power.

Day 4 – At leisure in KK (lots of rest!).

The following 5 to 6 days we could be both seen struggling with sore muscles wandering about the dive resort looking like an old couple in a retirement home.

Day 5-9 Sipadan Kapalai Diving Resort. A water bungalow resort on a shallow sand bank (no beach, no land) from where we based all our diving activities. This is the closest resort to Sipadan (one of the top diving destinations in the world) which is now a protected island and can only be dived with a permit. It is also very close to the island of Mabul (which can be seen from the resort). Because of the permit restrictions on a 4 night stay we were only guaranteed 1 day diving in Sipadan which gave us 4 lovely dives there. Diving Sipadan is like throwing yourself into a fish soup. I lost count of the turtles, sharks, barracudas and all the rest of amazing creatures the reef was teeming with. The rest of the dives were around Kapalai and Mabul. The dives in Kapalai were also very good with lots of good macro life. Both S. and I preferred the dives around Kapalai to Mabul. The dive operation is good if one excludes the fact that they insist on preparing and handling the equipment for you. Not a bad thing per se (although I prefer setting up my own gear and hate when people stick their hands in the way while I am working at it: I don’t even do it to my students!). Nonetheless I allowed it very reluctantly with the result that they flooded my regs on the very first day. I will not provide any details on the scene that followed. After that I made a point of detaching the first stage from the tank myself at the end of the diving day to make sure that the dust cap was on while letting them do the rest of the hard work.

Day 10 – long bus journey from Semporna to Sandakan (6 hours yawn) and night in Sandakan; an old colonial town that was destroyed during the world war and rebuilt to what today looks like a decaying concrete jungle. Had a nice tea in the gardens of a colonial tea house on top of a hill and visited the reconstructed Agnes Newton Keith's house which was possibly the only nice place in town: http://www.sabahtourism.com/sabah-malaysian-borneo/en/destination/92-agnes-keith-house/
Also had a peep at one of the water villages, where people live with no proper toilets and mounds of floating plastic (the sea takes it all and it all comes back to us into the food chain, nice!).

Day 11-13: delve into the jungle. As our guide drove us through the region to reach a corner of the last 45% of rain forest left, extensive plantations of oil palm stretching as far as the eye can see were a clear mark of how unsustainable the growing human species is. Palm oil is a precious commodity dubbed “green” gold in the region. It is exported worldwide and it has a multitude of uses: from alimentary (think Nutella and kit-kat just for a quick example but it is also used for cooking) to cosmetic and bio-fuels.

On the way we stopped at the Gomantong Caves famous for the swiftlet nests; a delicacy on Chinese menus (what isn’t?) that carry heavy price tags on the market and which of course (money is almost always the driver) explains why humans are ready to make incredible acrobatics and put their lives at risk to fetch. As the government now regulates nest collections we did not witness any collectors yet the visit to the cave was interesting: it is full of bats, swifts, hairy millipedes and humongous cockroaches (my nightmare). The opening is huge and you walk over a boardwalk that protects your feet from the deep dung, the roaches and the other creeps (apparently also scorpions) but it’s impossible to escape the sharp stench. Not recommended for asthma sufferers.

We spent the first two nights in Mayne Resort on Kinabatangan River having a wonderful time on river cruises in search of wildlife: we saw lots of beautiful birds, a croc, monkeys (proboscis, silver leaf an long tail), a wild boar and Borneo Pygmy Elephants; lots of them. The last day in the region we transferred to Sepilok Nature Reserve: a beautiful bungalow resort 2 minutes from the Orang-Utan rehabilitation centre set on the edge of a protected patch of rain forest. Orang-utans are amazing creatures and coming so close to

them is an experience that is hard to describe. They look like children so similar to us and at times so mischievous. When we arrived at the centre for a stroll we witnessed a girl reporting being bitten by one of them while the ranger told us that one earlier stole the camera from one of the tourists and broke it. To me all these stories sounded extremely funny especially when faced by their funny expressions and expressive beady eyes. We kept our respectful distance while interacting with them and we had no issues. We also did a 2-hour guided night walk during which I saw my first huge scorpion in the wild as well as a viper and an owl. I love the forest and the amazing sounds that progressively become louder as night falls. I also saw my first monitor lizard swimming in the resort’s main pond: basically an oversized reptile that must have been at last 1.5m long judging by the huge head.

Day 14-15: back to KK for a ferry across to Gaya Island. An island part of a National Park very close to the coast where we decided to splash out on a lavish resort: Bunga Raya. Beautiful island with white beach backed by a jungle, a big and luxurious bungalow surrounded by wild vegetation, Royal treatment and a SPA: just bliss.

 

Day 16-17: 2 nights (1 full day) in Kuala Lumpur ended with a lavish dinner at Frangipani. Probably the best dinner and service we have had for a while; reminiscent of London's top restaurants.
 
The following day flight back home on one of Oman Air new Airbus A330: really nice aircraft and great in-flight entertainment system. The flight went really fast. By the way The Invention of Lying (by Ricky Gervais) and Shutter Island (by Martin Scorsese) are two really great movies!

 

The climate while we were in Sabah  was mostly humid and it rained virtually every day (even if for just an hour). We had some dramatic storms but the rain never hampered any aspect of our holiday. In fact most of the time it seemed to come with perfect timing apart for the last night in KL when we had to buy a couple of umbrellas at the shopping mall to get back to the hotel. The actual temperatures were not too high (high 20s, low 30s c) but the dampness of the air made it feel much hotter and at times (especially during walks in the forest) it was particularly muggy and unpleasant. If you are planning a holiday there prepare to sweat! All in all a varied and really exciting holiday. Beautiful places and lovely people.

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