OMAN and Dubai

Crossed over into Oman yesterday, went to the Hatta Mountains, which i think are made of iron, so hardly any vegetation. the temp was 44deg and it's nice to be in the aircon! The wadis (riverbeds) are dry as a bone, but it doesn't take much rain to cause flash floods).

Last night had a dinner cruise on a dhow boat on the Dubai Creek, tons of other boats around, good Indian dinner and even...a BEER!!! (The choice last night was Heinkenen, Heineken, or Heineken, different from dinner the other night where the choice was Fosters, Fosters or Fosters!! - i came all the way from Australia to Dubai to drink an Australian beer that Aussies don't even drink !!)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news....but petrol here is about 25cents per LITRE!!!! the heat is so intense that people don't walk anywhere, they drive. And if that's all they pay for petrol, no wonder!

The border crossing into Oman was quite funny...lots of gates, barriers and guard huts, but only 3 guards working (\friday is their weekend). It was apparently too hot for them to leave their air conditioned hut and check our passports so they just waved us through!

Today i planned to do a chopper flight and see the gold souk. unfortunately not much is open due to it being a weekend (??) and the heat is a little too intense for helicopters....so i went (along with the other billion residents of Dubai) to one of the few open air conditioned shopping malls and bought some gold!