Expats, Mosques, Palaces & Souks in Muscat Blog #5

Expats, Mosques, Palaces & Souks in Muscat Bog #5

Entering Muscat

Muscat, the capital of Oman, is an incredibly modern, clean and cared for city with beautiful, simple, elegant architecture. It is not spoiled by billboards or MacDonalds or garbage strewn about but instead is sprinkled with gorgeous gardens, palm trees, neat golf course-like manicured grassed areas and enfolded in a horse shoe of camel colored mountains around the harbor with bluish-green ocean filling the middle against an unrelenting blue sky. This is the 6thday of blue sky and I marvel at its lack of clouds as I think of Seattle and its seemly never-ending grey backdrop. We pass Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi expats in sky blue coveralls and white helmets working on roadways and buildings under construction or cleaning buildings and planting gardens. The city stretches out 60 kilometers in length and has a population of 734,000 people. 

Laundromat 

We start the day by taking John's laundry into a local Laundromat. In a small room no bigger that 400 square feet there are 5 men from India washing and ironing. They are intrigued by John with his 6 jockey underpants and 3 pairs of socks and are delighted when I ask them for a picture. I tell them they should not pose for the picture - they keep ironing using old-fashioned irons like my mother used. I think I have never seen John iron and wonder if these men will iron his underwear?

This makes me think about the expatriates, which represent 27% of the population in Oman. There are over 500,000 expats here from India as well as others from Pakistan, Bagladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines and China in that order (as well as Brits 

and some Americans in the oil fields). They come here because they can make more money and can send it home to help their families. They are willing to do the lower level jobs, which the Omanians apparently don't want to do.  99% of the construction workers building the amazing mosques, government buildings and roadways we have seen are expats. I ask Don what the Omanians do for work and he laughs telling me 50% of them are employed in the government sector. While the Sultan is encouraging them to work in the private sector, Don tells us they are resistant to do this because they want their weekends off to be with their families. They work 7:30 to 2:30 and have half day Wednesday to Saturday free. Of the expats, 44% of them are doing labor work and 60% professional work. For those doing the construction work they get paid approximately $300-500 a month whereas the minimum wage for Omanians is $1000 a month. 

Most of the shops are operated by Indians even the fish, vegetable and meat souks but in order to operate them they must have an Omanian sponsor and renew their visa each year. They aren't allowed to buy their own place. But their lives are better than in the in the countries they came from so they seem content with this arrangement. This makes me think of the illegal Hispanics in the US who provide cheaper labor, which Americans shun but risk deportation. Surely there is a better way - have the Omanians found it?

Museum 

Mosques

Mosques with minarets are ubiquitous - even in shopping malls and gas stations. John is impressed with the minarets with electrically powered speakers so that the prayer calls are mechanized. We pass an amazing Opera house built by the Sultan with his "own personal" money as a gift to the people as he is a music lover. He also has his own private symphony that plays for him twice a week. John likes this idea.  

We head for the Grand Mosque - again built by the Sultan with his "own" money and donated to the people. I wonder about the concept of the Sultan having personal money versus government money -doesn't he have it all? Because it largely comes from oil and land, isn't it the people's money? I have trouble with the idea of royalty and monarchies. But he is doing good things with the money, which makes it all right compared to some other countries with monarchies, or democracies that don't want to use the money for health care or education. Perhaps the US needs a sultan with integrity?  There are some downsides--the Sultan does not take insulting.  Criticizing the Sultan is not kosher, and has landed several people (young and innocent) in jail recently due in part to postings on social media.  

We arrive at the Grand Mosque, which took 6 years to build and opened in 2001. It had a team of international architects from around the world and mainly Indian craftsmen. Sandstone from India was carved on the outside and the inside walls are of the finest marble from Italy. It had the biggest chandelier in the world using the finest Swarovski crystal but now is in 2nd place because Abu Dhabi built a bigger one--- the UAE wanted the biggest of everything in the world. In contrast to Dubai, Muscat is not allowed to have high rises; the 950 meter minaret at the mosque is the highest minaret and highest structure in Oman. The mosque is 416,000 square meters and the men's prayer room can hold 6,600 men for prayer while the women's hall holds 750 women.  It has 5 minarets to represent the 5 principles of Islam. Marbled washing areas are available separately for men's and women's ablutions before prayer.  The prayer halls have video and speakers installed so people can view everywhere.  We go into the library where special rooms for men and for women with computers are available for them to study Islam. The priests, known as Imams, in Oman can marry and have families and are highly educated.  I am overcome with the simple beauty of this mosque and glad to have been allowed to see it. In other mosques in Oman you must be Muslim to enter. Undoubtedly they are different than this one. The beauty of the Grand Mosque reminds me of the Taj Mahal, which was also built by a Muslim, although for the love of his 3rd wife, not the love of a God (but John says they may be one and the same). John disagrees with me about this comparison to the Taj Mahal, which he thinks is one of the wonders of the world. Although from the outside this may be a valid comment, even as a non-religious person I found the interior of the men’s prayer hall to be superior to the Taj and awe-inspiring with its stained glass windows, 35 chandeliers and Persian rugs.  The Persian carpet in the main hall weighs 21tons and was made in Iran by 600 female weavers for 4 years. I try not to think of the plight of these women to make this masterpiece.

Sultan's boat

Fish Market 

We leave the Grand Mosque and go into town to the souk. Don pays for parking via his cell phone.. no waits for stickers to place on our car window. Knowing that John hates shopping and my indecisiveness about buying I am worried about this shopping event together. 

But it is 20 minutes until shops close at 1 pm so he is saved and this knowledge relaxes him into action. He barters with confidence and allows a vendor to wrap a turban around his head so I can take a picture. Even with a turban professionally wrapped on his head this doesn’t help him masquerade as a Muslim.  Even after Don had said non-Muslims were not allowed in the other mosques, John eager to see other “authentic” mosques asked, “How would they know I wasn’t a Muslim?”

We ended the day with Don eating Indian food and talking about religious beliefs in Oman and Sri Lanka. I think Don could turn me into a Buddhist, except for their slaughters of the Muslims in Burma.

Carolyn