When in Muscat….

One of, if not the biggest, motivation Bree and I had for taking this assignment was our love of travel. As you may recall, we actually mortgaged another month of travel in Indonesia for 6 months of working here. Part of the thought process was that living in another country would provide a different experience than simply visiting it. And how…

Its a strange cocktail when you mix the excitement of traveling along with the menial tasks of day-to-day life. Sometimes, its hard to maintain a spirit of adventure when you are stuck in a Muscat traffic jam. Its hard to take in new surroundings when you’ve just missed your exit on the highway, thereby adding 30 minutes to your trip due to the ridiculous (lack of) design of the highway here. Or the novelty of exotic foods is stifled by the reality that you can’t find a single italian restaurant that you really, really like. Such are the realities of committing to living on the other side of the world.

Feeling a little downtrodden by some of these realities, I felt the need to get out a little, to experience the culture, carpe the diem, maybe add a local twist to some of the menial tasks…

What could be more local that heading for the local souk?(note: I did not have the camera so representative pictures stolen from the google)

In the souk near our house, there are an abundance of tailors (and knock-off luggage, and fake watches, and chinese electronics of questionable quality). Finding myself in need of clothes, I set out to get some made by these fine craftsmen.

With all these tailors, getting someone to make clothes for you is not as straightforward as you might think. Not many of the tailors of Seeb speak english it turns out. Even fewer make western clothes (“Sorry sir, only dishdasha”). I criss-crossed the souk about a dozen times, with nothing but vague waves of the hand and pointing to guide me to what I was looking for.

After half an hour of this, I learned I must first obtain fabric (who knew?)… Back across the souk… and I arrived at a fabric store. I found a fabric merchant and broke the first rule of the souk by not even trying to haggle – he gave me a sad look and a 10% discount without me even asking. He then told me where to find a good tailor. I paraphrase: “Look for the dark, dirty stairs behind the guy selling counterfeit watches on the sidewalk across from the other guy selling watches.” He saw the befuddled look on my face and told his assistant to take me there.

To make a long story medium length… I found the tailor. I dropped off my fabric, told him what I wanted, and was assured he could make a near-replica of my favorite pants. Fabric = 6 rials (I think i over-paid), labor = 3 rials. Total bill: 9 rials (~$25). If this actually comes to fruition, I may start drastically cutting back on trips to the mall in favor of trips to the souk.

Maybe not for electronics though…