Oman or Bust?

As some, or most of you are probably aware, in mid June 2007 I, Craig Iapozzuto, of sound mind and body, left my family and friends, my job of the past 11 years and my beloved home in Torquay, Australia to move to Muscat, Oman, on the eastern edge of the Arabian peninsula.


However before leaving I threw a gowing away/Birthday party for myself at the Torquay sports bar - otherwise known as my garage.

After saying my goodbyes to family and friends I boarded my Emirates flight to Dubai, then Muscat, and settled into a 15 hour plane flight in 'cattle class'.


I arrived in Muscat early morning of July 22nd along with Chris McCarthy a fellow Air Traffic Controller from Melbourne who also took up a contract with DGCAM (Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Meteorology). We were greeted at the arrivals gate by two representatives of DGCAM, who spoke little English, then proceeded to grunt at us, race us through Seeb 'International', airport and then took us to our hotel where we were to spend the next 2 weeks while we got ourselves organised.

The task of getting organised was to prove both long and frustrating! The beauracracy in Oman is something to experience to believe. Every official act such as drivers licence, resident card, medicals x2, road pass to Dubai, liquor licence, bank account, hire car, house rental etc, etc, has to be accompanied by numerous official forms. These forms have to be stamped, in specific order, by various organisations throughout Muscat, then signed by the various departments, again in order, a couple of passport photos each, (Red or Blue background depending on the purpose), then a fee paid at our expense.



The task was to prove more difficult due to the lack of hire cars all over the city due to cyclone Gonu which hit here 2 weeks before we arrived. Numerous cars were washed away from everywhere including homes, car yards and hire car agencies. The hire cars that were left on dry ground were snapped up by the locals who had lost theirs!

We relied on Abdullah, the public relations man from DGCAM, to get us around for 2 weeks, however he soon lost interest and left us to our own devices!

The cyclone has disrupted all aspects of life here, including housing, and many people were displaced and properties ruined. There are a lot of properties built on Wadis,(dry creek beds), due to their prime location and lack of rain in northern Oman, so when unusually a cyclone came all these properties were destroyed. This meant that rental properties were in small supply, high demand and at greatly inflated prices.
After looking at various properties I found a 2 BR apartment just 10 minutes west of the airport in the suburb of Mawaleh. A 1 year lease is mandatory and so is payment for the whole year in the form of 3 months in advance, then post dated cheques for the rest of the year.
The apartment is serviced by water tanks on the roof until a pipeline can be laid to mains water supply which I was assured would happen within 2 weeks (as yet to happen). As the pumps of the water trucks filled up water tanks for 30 residents at 2300, which seemed to be the time of last call for prayer the loudspeakers of the Mosque next door, I wondered about my 1 year commitment in my new apartment. While sagging uncomfortably on my borrowed airbed that night, listening to the planes at a few hundred feet zoom into Seeb airport outside my window I yearned to be on the next one departing to Dubai then back to Melbourne!