No Plans to Enforce Dress-Code

So, referring to the post below on the two frolicking tourists at Mughsayl, a piece in the Times of Oman yesterday addressed the topic of tourists and clothes. You can read it here. The government apparently has 'no plans' for enforcing a dress-code. 

Oh, and a mini-comment on Thursday's major blackout in Dhofar. Those of you in Muscat may not know that Dhofar was out of power (yes, the entire region) for 3-4 hours on Thursday afternoon/evening. It was insane. Truly. I wanted to blog about it, but discovered I needed electricity to blog.

Oh wait! I could blog from my phone!

Woops. Phone battery died. Lemme charge it...

Oh shucks. I need electricity to charge the phone.

Never mind, let me cook.

Oh wait! I need power for that too!

Laundry?

Electricity.

Fine, ironing.

Nope. Still need electricity.

I'll watch a movie!

Nope.

Call someone? 

Phone dead.

Fine, I'll just lay on my back in the middle of the floor and listen to music until the power comes back on.

Oh, wait. I need electricity for that too.

It got darker. I had no power. No phone. I could do nothing but sit. It horrified me that my life revolved around being hooked up to electricity. The traffic was insane (thank you UAE land cruisers) so going out for a drive was not an option. The town isn't ours until at least September. Furthermore, the traffic lights were out of power so traffic was super-crazy.  

So yes. I read for a bit until it got dark. Then I sat on the sofa waiting for an epiphany. Fortunately the electricity came back on at 7 pm. 

The Indecency of it All

2 August 2014 - Times of Oman "Two tourists were summoned by Royal Oman Police, (ROP) on Saturday for allegedly committing acts and indulging in behaviour that are against public morals in Mughsayl area of the wilayat of Salalah"  - read the rest of the article here. 

The moment I saw the video on WhatsApp (merely an hour after the incident occurred), I thought to myself ... "I wonder how long it will take before they're arrested?".... then I thought again "Nah, Omanis are pretty tolerant". 

Then again, to quote the article ... they were indeed 'frolicking' and being pretty stupid to the horror (and entertainment) of the hundreds gathered at Mughsayl blowholes. I wasn't particularly offended by it, but I know a lot of people who were. Nevertheless, it amuses me to see how the video traveled at the speed of light and how worked up people got about it.

Maybe if they followed the depressing world news more often, they wouldn't get so excited about tourists in bikinis at Mughsayl posing erotically. Oh, well.

Salalah is never boring. 

Nadia.  

(PS: I'm hibernating until the mud and UAE population decreases)

ADDED NOTE: Based on the comments below, I'd like to ask all expat readers when/if/how they received information on the dress-code in Oman. Sometimes I think tourists simply don't know.