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Before we moved to Dubai we were living and working in the Sultanate of Oman, which is in Arabia, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, halfway between Africa and India. We were there since 1984. Susan worked in a bank, trading companies, government departments, HSE and the oil industry. I was working in vehicle and equipment dealerships, the oil industry and construction and transport companies.
We lived in a township called Medinat Al Sultan Qaboos, which is within the Muscat Capital Area. Strictly, the old Muscat City is actually within the ancient city walls and is a little more than one square kilometre. |
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Virtually all of the roads and buildings have been completed during the last 27 years since the present Sultan took over. There are many old buildings, particularly on the Corniche which are typical of Arab architecture.
The whole of the modern capital area stretches about 40 kms from Barka to Bustan, but because of the modern road system, the journey trough the middle of the capital area can take less than one hour. The whole of the capital area is built along the coastline, so from any place in the capital you are never more than 5 or 10 minutes from the sea. |
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The pictures show our Great Danes we had while we were in Oman. The black one was Kaiser, he was incredibly confident and nothing troubled him, he was a splendid example of the Great Danes reputation as being the gentle giant of the dog world. The Fawn one was Wooster and he hadn't heard of the Great Danes reputation for tolerance and patience.
| While we were in Oman we had some good opportunities to travel. We have done a few trips to India, some have been business trips to Delhi and Bombay and some have been Holidays. We also visited the Far East and Australia and North America. The picture on the home page was taken in the Tata tea plantations in Munnar in South India in 1997. The car was quite new. It's a 1950s' Morris Oxford - they are still made in India. |  |
| We got a business trip to Reno Nevada which came as a surprise. My boss in Oman wanted to get into Copper Mining and the particular process he was interested in was in use at a mine close to Reno. The only trouble was it was mid February. Susan and I had managed to avoid cold weather for several years. We visited friends in California before we went up to Reno. Reno was desperately cold. We've also had a couple of trips to Canada to B.C. to visit the Western Star Trucks factory. |  |
On our trips to the Far East we visited Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. On one trip to Singapore we drove up the peninsula, across the causeway into Malaysia. We stayed a while in Kuala Lumpur then drove on up to the Cameron Highlands.
The Cameron Highlands is an amazing place. It's real jungle on the way up but then it becomes just like old England, red pillar-boxes and phone boxes, half-timber houses, rose gardens, dry stone walls and thatched cottages.