Emily's Oman Pictures - A day in the life

Now, we are getting to the good stuff. Emily wanted the true Muscat experience, so here it is. First, off to one of the local mini malls, which had a Starbucks, of course! All the stores here are in these little air conditioned mini malls . . . kind of a replacement for strip malls because why would you want to be walking around outside at a strip mall when it is 120 degrees. Next, to the beach for some shisha! In this part of the world, the traditional way to smoke tobacco is to smoke this shisha out of a hookah. It seems very bizarre to me, but it looks kind of cool. I am not sure Emily is running back here to smoke some more, seeing as I think she enjoyed the sound of the water bubbles in the bottom of the hookah more so than the smoke, but I think she was glad to do it once. Next, on to the grocery store. Actually, there isn't just one grocery store. I have to go to about 4 different grocery stores to find everything I need, which is a royal pain. With that said, I would rather have to go to 4 different stores than not be able to get the groceries at all! The best grocery store of all (or at least the one with the most entertaining name) is the LuLu! The LuLu is best at night, though, because it is all lit up in flashing fairy lights. It looks like a circus. And to call the LuLu a grocery store is underestimating it a bit. It is actually more like a two story Walmart with groceries. A must see for every visitor to Muscat. ;)And last, but definitely not least, I took Emily to the market one day, and she went a little nuts. I think she bought out the entire place. In any event, we had to have a fashion show of all she purchased. So here she is. . .all dressed up in traditional Muslim attire! (Yes, that is her underneath all of that.) For what it is worth, most Omani women don't wear the face covering, but it makes the picture better that way.