Transport

Some form of transport is necessary in Oman. The distance from the theatre to the bar and cafe is about a 5 minute walk and this is as far as you can walk without getting uncomfortable.

When we arrived Jon & Mike picked us up from the airport and - along with Jurgen - have done a lot of ferrying about since. This is very nice & convenient but a bit unfair on them.

Taxis need to be bartered, before getting into the taxi. The drivers see us as cash cows with unlimited oil money. You need to know how much the journey should cost so you have a base to barter from - rather difficult when you have just arrived.

Anna & I got a taxi from Lulu's (a massive supermarket here) and got chatting to the driver, a lovely Omani man called Ahmed. He gave me a USB stick for me to put some 'European music' on, and his phone number so we could contact him. Basically we now have our own driver now who refuses to accept money for the lifts he gives us.

Today we hired a car - it costs 150 OR (£240) a month including insurance, but at about 5 OR a day it is the cost of two short taxi rides a day. When we picked it up it was completely empty of fuel, so we filled it up for 4 OR (£6.40).
The car is automatic, I haven't driven an automatic for 30 years. Driving in Oman is an interesting experience, Omani drivers don't drive like UK divers, Omani roadsigns (although in both Arabic and Roman alphabets) are not positioned the same as UK roadsigns and Omani road markings are not the same as UK road markings. We managed not to have a crash today.