Hey All,
Me again. Well, where do I start? Lessee.
Ok, I know. We are at a “Man
Camp” in a place called Mukhaizna (pronounced “Mook-high-z-na”). It is in the genuine desert. I think I was expecting a place like Pismo
Beach but nooooo. This place apparently
has a rocky clay base and it is full of rocks.
The little airstrip we landed on was dirt and the plane handled it
well. There are a lot of Indians (not
like me but the other kind), Arabs, Omani, Pakistani and Americans.
Most of the Americans
are from either Bakersfield or Texas as we are considered the foremost experts
in the Steam game. Go figure, a bunch of
“Baker-necks” are considered experts. I
have met a few guys I worked with at my previous assignment so it doesn’t seem
so foreign.
I am getting used to the
food, it is pretty healthy as the Indians (not like me) that do the
cooking. I have noticed it is like
Chinese, I am starving after a couple of hours.
They don’t eat much pig but have “pig like” things made of beef or chicken. I figure in about 2 weeks I will be willing
to sell Ed for a hamburger. Honest. They tell me there are only so many
variations on the meals because we are about 100 miles from the nearest town. Maybe I will try the Omani locals cafeteria
for a little variety.
The camp is ok. It is averaging about 116 degrees but
surprisingly, the nights and mornings aren’t so bad. We are about 50 kilometers from the ocean
(look, I am using the metric system) and I guess the breeze travels well over
flat, rocky ground. My room faces the
ocean so I feel it when I go out to smoke.
One thing I noticed was the Omani are used to convenience. They have phones and a drinking hose in the
bathrooms. Talk about fancy-schmancy. I tried one of the drinking fountains but the
water tasted funny. I will stick to
bottled water while I am here.
There are Bedouins still
living out in the desert and they come by the camp. Apparently they are like Tweekers of the
desert because they will take anything not nailed down. At least that’s what they tell me. They live just like they did for thousands of
years, except now they use Toyota trucks and get water delivered to them. I am going to try and meet some to see if
they can steal me a steak. Maybe
not. When I was in Muscat, we took a cab
around the city and I did not see one dog.
Hmmmm.
Hasta,
HJG
No comments:
Post a Comment