Tenancy Law amended

In Business Todays January 2011 edition, an article on the recent amendments to the Tenancy Law here in Oman has been published which is well worth reading (click the link to go to the article).

This is slightly dated news but I only just recently became aware of it and figured some of you would not yet be aware of these recent changes either. Some of them are very significant for tenants leasing here in the Sultanate.

Below is a summary of the major changes that have been made to the Tenancy Law.

Summary of significant changes (ripped from the article in Business Today)

• The requirement that landlords may only increase the rent every three years has been amended such that parties can now agree otherwise.
• The cap of seven per cent of the annual rental value stipulated in the lease contract has been eliminated.
• The earliest a landlord can terminate a lease for commercial property has been reduced from seven to five years.
• In the case of residential property this is reduced from four to three years.
• The new law provides a mechanism for the landlord to recover expenses incurred in litigation in relation to eviction notices served as a result of non-payment of rent.

Well, as you can see - as nicely summarized by Emilie Sarker from Trowers & Hamlins in the Business Today article - it's open season for the landlords to start jacking up the rents again. Just in time for the anticipated boom in housing generated by the influx of expats working on the Airport. Basically the landlords got 5 major amendments to the law, and the tenants got nothing.

Here we go again then.

le fin.

Omantel rolls out new Internet packages

Why am I blogging about Omantel's internet offerings?

Because it's some awesome news! That's why!

Starting on Wednesday January 26th, 2011; Omantel will be rolling out the following new Internet packages:


Yes, thats correct, I had to double check myself to be sure. 40Mbps down and 5Mbps up for 60 rials a month with unlimited usage and the fixed line rental thrown in as well. I imagine that the 24Mbps and 40Mbps tariffs will only be for people that have FTTH (eg Wave residents). Personally I'm excited about not having to fork out RO 99 a month any more, and getting 12 Mbps unlimited now for only RO 35 a month!

For those subscribers that were previously on different plans, you will be upgraded as follows:

Existing subscribers in the 512Kbps plan will be upgraded to the B plan which features a download speed up to 2Mbps for a monthly subscription fee of RO 12/ only.

Existing subscribers in the 1Mbps plan will be upgraded to the B plan which features a download speed up to 2Mbps for a monthly subscription fee of RO 12/ instead of RO 19.

Existing subscribers in the 2Mbps plan will be upgraded to the C plan which features a download speed up to 2Mbps plus unlimited internet usage and bundled fixed line with 100 free minutes(on-net fixed to fixed) for a monthly subscription fee of RO 20/ only instead of RO 29.

Existing subscribers in the 4Mbps plan will be upgraded to the D plan which features a download speed up to 5Mbps plus unlimited internet usage and bundled fixed line with 100 free minutes (on-net fixed to fixed) for a monthly subscription fee of RO 25/only instead of RO 39.

Existing subscribers in the 8Mbps plan will be upgraded to the E plan which features a download speed up to 12Mbps plus unlimited internet usage and bundled fixed line with 100 free minutes (on-net fixed to fixed) for a monthly subscription fee of RO 35 only instead of RO 99.

Now, to me, Plan A and B will become very unpopular except for those that are very light users of the Internet. I suspect Plan C will become the most popular (unlimited downloads for RO 20 a month at 2Mbps).

The other big news is that for most subscribers (Plans C-G) the fixed line rental fee (currently RO 4.900) is bundled into the cost. This is a great step forward from Omantel, it's like we've gained 10 years in technology and pricing in this one fell swoop.

I wonder how the people at Nawras will respond to this?

le fin.

Rain, and last weeks Green March

Firstly, it's been raining, obviously! I enjoy the rain, especially listening to it at night. Its been looking like it was going to rain for days and days, so I was happy when it finally started to pour yesterday (I get a couple days off from watering my plants!). There were a few drops on Thursday as well but not much. The latest forecast on Weather Underground shows that by Monday we should be back to the sun.

Now, someone commented on a previous post of mine their surprise about me choosing not to write about the demonstration (Green March) last week. I wanted to devote a bit more time to it before blurbing about it in my jumbled up post last week.

Last week, on Monday the 17th January, 2011, approximately 200 (source is this Gulf News article) Omani's demonstrated in the Wizarat Ministries area protesting over the rising cost of living, low wages and corruption. As far as protests go, this was pretty poorly attended. Which surprises me because there was clearly quite some organization in getting an approval to come and protest, yet spreading the word about the protest did not seem to be done very well (it seems it was done via SMS messages). The Gulf News article seems to attempt to link this demonstration with those that have recently been occurring in Tunisa. No idea why, and I think perhaps the author was trying to spin something into their article that simply wasn't there.

Thank you to Habiba Hinai of Al Harah web forum (Google translation) for the pictures

People were chanting:

Salaries! Salaries! Jobs! Jobs! No to corruption! No to corruption!

Now, the cost of living here in Muscat has indeed increased pretty sharply in recent years, and I certainly believe that there are many Omani nationals here who are under-paid for one reason or another. I have no doubts in my mind that there is corruption here as well.

I think the pay scale should be the same for many jobs here. There's plenty of competent and capable Omani's who are paid less for doing the same job as an expatriate worker. Let's be clear here, Salary is different to living allowances, which are often paid to expatriate workers to cover their incurred living expenses for moving here to the Sultanate. That is another kettle of fish but is essentially the carrot to bring people like me over here.

For me, the single biggest piece of news here was that a demonstration was allowed to even take place. I'm going to put myself out there a bit and say that for the most part, Omani's are very fortunate people, they have these following nice perks:

• Free healthcare
• Subsidized fuel, power and water (heavily subsidized)
• Omanization protecting jobs (you wont see this in Europe)
• Practically free land awarded via lottery frequently
• No income tax
• No property/council tax
  
• No road tax (just the RO 20 per year renewal fee for the mulkia)
  

However, the minimum wage for Omani's (holding high school diploma certificates) is pathetically low (its around RO 150), and as the cost of basic food items has increased, and continues to do so, this minimum wage has not been increased. This rise in food costs is reflecting the world market's general trends as a whole, but many people do not see an uplift in their salaries each year to account for inflation.

It appeared that the demonstration was targeting the Merchants who are charging increased costs for these basic foodstuffs. That could really only mean flour and rice, seeing as how Oman locally produces dairy products, meat, vegetable and fruits, and the cost of these items are low.

Merchants such as Lu-Lu's, Carrefour, The Sultan Centre, Al Fair and so on are naturally charging for items to generate a profit, this is the nature of a free market. Perhaps what is needed is a combination of increased salaries (revised minimum wage) to those in low-paying jobs, and an industry watch-dog to ensure that merchants are not gouging customers at the tills.

But that is not the entire story. It is all too often a common story when you hear about people and their debt's here. That is another blog post in itself, and one I probably would not do justice, something more up Muscati or Undercover Dragons street. Possibly people here are living beyond their means, and I'm generalizing and know full well that not every Omani is living beyond their means, but as a general trend, it seems this way. People changing their phones every few months, brand new cars and so on. So perhaps a little attitude change from people is required as well?

I'd hazard a guess that the three big loans that any Omani (man, women would be a slightly different story) has to obtain are:

1. Car
2. Marriage
3. House

You start work, and you need a car. So one is financed. How many people buy brand-new cars on finance, when realistically they should do what many other people just starting out around the world do, and buy used? (read: really used! - my first car was a Citroen ZX 1.4 and it was a dog, it kept over heating, one time the brakes even stopped working when driving in rush-hour city traffic!).

Why throw an over-sized wedding if you can't afford it? Why must Dowry's be paid? These seem social issues that are effecting the economic health of the citizens of this country. And as Oman matures as a developed nation, the harsh reality that having a large number of children is not something that can be sustained economically.

And finally, the single biggest commitment most of us will make in our lives (and no I don't mean saying "I do") is getting a mortgage to buy a home.

It's a fact of life for almost all of us in this world - we do not have enough money to buy a home, and so we need to borrow the money to do so. And hopefully over time the value of our home increases and we can build our financial stability around it. How are people earning these low wages meant to feed and clothe themselves, before even attempting to start buying a home?

It would seem that the minimum wage is simply too low. People need to earn more money to keep up with inflation.

What do you all think?

le fin.

Oman tourist visa price hiked from RO 6 to RO 20

Well it had to happen, and congratulations to Muscat Daily for covering it (coincidentally, when are they ever going to get around to making a website?) on their front page today.

Tourist Visit Visa's have been hiked from RO 6 to RO 20. A pretty sharp increase in the visa charge, but in line with the charges being levied by the UAE. Of course those carrying passports on the magic list don't have to pay the visa charges in the UAE, but will now have to pay RO 20 instead of previously RO 6 when coming to Oman now.

It'd be interesting to see the revenues generated from the visa fee. What do you lot think about the increase in fees?

le fin.

TRA to ban VPN's in Oman

This is a re-blog of the original article written by Riyadh Al Balushi (aka @blue_chi) here.

Essentially, The Regulatory Authority (TRA) have decided that too many people are circumventing the filtering system imposed on net users here via Virtual Private Networks. If you read Arabic, here is the draft proposal being tabled by TRA for banning all VPN's in the Sultanate.

According to Riyadh's translation, those found privately using a VPN will be fined RO 500, and those found commercially using a VPN will be fined RO 1000.

Now this is a double-edged sword, because many companies here use VPN's to conduct their business. In fact, as a business, you must pay an absolute fortune for a leased line here - the only way to get a static IP with Omantel (Omantel conveniently decided that ADSL connections could not have static IP's, even though all it would take is a few clicks of a mouse - Nawras offer static IP's on their connections for a reasonable RO 50 a month). To give you an idea, an 8MB ADSL (and 0.5mb up) residential line is RO 99 a month. A 1MB leased line (that's full duplex, up and down) is RO 1,725 a month (after RO 400 setup fee) (this falls to RO 1,294 a month if you commit to 3 years usage). You read that correctly - to get a Fixed IP (which is required by many corporate networks architecture) you need to spend between US$3,364 and $4,485 a month! And that is only for a 1MB connection - you can look at Omantel's rates here. Alternatively, you could go to Nawras and get a Fixed IP on a 16MB down and 2MB up connection for a rather frugal RO 369 ($959) a month. It's a wonder why Omantel continues to refuse to offer static IP's on it's Business ADSL packages. Stupidity does come to mind.

So now then, the rest of us. Many people have been using VPN's to circumvent the restriction policies in effect. Some people use VPN's to get their skype working, others use them to look at porn, others to access regional-specific websites (Such as the BBC's iPlayer), and further more people use VPN's to access educational institutions. Some people just don't want their browsing to be monitored and so choose to encrypt it. OpenVPN is the software of choice for these people (it's the defacto standard because it's available for free, you just need to connect to a host machine - which is where companies charge). Omantel have blocked the standard ports that OpenVPN use, thus knocking out a large swath of VPN users in one swipe. Nawras have throttled these ports, to a point where a stable VOIP connection cannot be achieved, but browsing can still continue.

It seems that this move by TRA is more about stopping people from VOIPing than protecting the moral fibre of internet users here in the Sultanate.

The point of this argument is this: Where do you draw the line? To ban VPN's because people are using them to enable their Voip connections, that's one thing, but to ban VPN's because people are encrypting their traffic and big brother is not happy (which is the reason being spouted at the moment) is just a slippery slope. What happens when I want to do online banking, or access email, or visit any website which is SSL encrypted (thats https:// as opposed to http://) - following that line of thought from TRA, they will want to stop ALL of that because it's encrypted traffic.

I find this just another example of how draconian the policy makers at TRA really are, and I wonder what will happen next? The filtering hardware and software already imposed on us by TRA slows our internet traffic down significantly already, and for those people that game online (pc or console) they'll tell you the same thing - finding other players that they can play with without a significant lag (delay) is proving to be harder and harder these days.

The fine, if you are caught, is significant - RO 500 for personal users, and RO 1000 for commercial users of VPN's. That's a large chunk of change. TRA will grant licenses for educational institutions and businesses, but you may not apply for a VPN license if you are a private user. There is no word on pricing from the TRA, nor is there any word on how long it will take to get a license granted, or how they will apply those licenses to the ISP's filtering processes. Smart money says it'll be done via a whitelist of IP's - except that wont work for Omantel ADSL business customers, or Nawras Business customers that do not have static IP's. There's a lot left to the imagination here.

To detect whether someone is using a VPN, there are a number of methods that can be employed to do this. The most obvious one is to just simply block the common ports that are used by popular VPN providers, which has already been done. After that it get's technical, and essentially what can be done is that a profile is looked for in the pattern of your internet traffic coming from your account. For example, if all the traffic coming from your account is being funnelled through one port, then that's an easy guess that you are using a VPN. It gets very technical very quickly and thus over my head, but suffice to say - YES, it is entirely possible to detect when people are using VPN's.

One does have to ask the question - when does internet access here become so limited, that it's just not worth the already high prices charged for access?

le fin.

Cost of living: 2010 update

For a general break-down on furniture shopping, groceries, alcohol, and a few others, please read my article from last year on the cost of living here.

Muscat is a large area, and depending on where you are working, you will most likely want to live in a particular area. This map is the best online map resource I can recommend, and it has helped me countless times. This is not an exhaustive list of all the residential area's within Muscat, and please comment if I've forgotten a major area frequented by expatriates.

"Central Business District"
This is sometimes referred to as the CBD, or downtown, or city centre. The residential neighbourhoods in this locality are, as a trend, usually occupied by people of Asian decent. There are not many Villa's available here, but there are plenty of flats. 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedroom apartments are commonly found here, and prices for a 1 bedroom apartment can start as low as RO 200 a month. Many people also choose to co-habit and rent just a room in an apartment here. CBD is considered as the following areas: Muttrah, Darsait, Ruwi, Wadi Kabir & Hamriyah.

Qurum
Qurum runs from the PDO camp along the coast up until the Wizarat area where many Ministry and Embassy buildings are. It is one of the most popular residential locations, and apartments are hard to find in this area (except at Bareeq Al Shatti). Rental for Villa's can range from RO 1500 - 6000 a month, depending on where exactly you want to live. There are many 5* hotels in this area, complete with bars, restaurants and night clubs. There's a cinema, the Beach road (nice to walk, have coffee). Shopping area's are in abundance: The CCC Complex (contains Al Fair, and recently renamed the Al Qurum Complex), The Sabco Centre and associated commercial buildings around it, the Qurum City Centre (containing Carrefour), The Jawharat Al Shatti shopping complex, The Al Harthy Complex (contains The Sultan Centre), the Al Masa Mall and also the Sarooj Centre (containing Al Fair)

Al Ilam
Al Ilam sits between Qurum and Medinat Qaboos (MQ). It is not on the coast, and is considered an upscale neighbourhood. There are not many apartments available for rent here, but many Villas. Rents start at around RO 1100 and range up to RO 2500 per month. It is very close to Qurum City Centre, MQ, and Al Khuwair.

Medinat Qaboos (MQ)
MQ is the original spot where Western ex-pats live. There is the British School Muscat, and the American British Academy located here. There's a wide range of both Apartments and Villa's available here, with rents starting around RO 700 - RO 3000 depending on what you are looking for. There is an Al Fair supermarket in the shopping centre in the middle of MQ. Also, of note, there are 4 or 5 alcohol retail outlets, and the popular Mexican restaurant, Pavo Real. Other restaurants of note here are Silk Route and Kargeens.

Al Khuwair
Al Khuwair is next to MQ, and fronts onto Qurum, Wizarat and Ghubra. Al Khuwair has a good split of apartments and Villa's and is an area lived in by people from all walks of life, but is very popular with Indians. There is the Zakher Mall and the very popular service road for retail elements. Supermarkets are a plenty, LuLu's, Safeer supermaket and Rawasco. Rents can start as low as RO 200 and up to RO 1500.

Bowsher
Bowsher is a large area, predominately with nothing in it. It's mainly Villa's and is where you will find the Muscat Private Hospital, and the Sultan Qaboos Sports Compelx. It also houses the TAISM school. Rents are usually for Villa's, all though a few apartments are starting to come on to the market, Villa's can be rented for RO 800 - RO 1800.

Ghala
Ghala is the industrial hub of the city. It is where there are many ware-houses, labour camps and Contractors HQ's are. Most of the manufacturing that occurs in Muscat, occurs here. However, this area has been slated for redevelopment and will become the "downtown" of Muscat in the coming years. The Bank Muscat HQ is now complete, Ministries are starting to build their offices here, Muscat Hills (and it's golf course) is now open, and the Convention Centre site are all to be located here. There are currently no main-stream supermarkets here. It's hard to price rents here, but small apartments can be rented right now at Muscat Hills for RO 850 a month.

Ghubra
Ghubra is a lot like Al Khuwair, but has some coast line. Villa's here can be rented from RO 1200 - 1800, and apartments can be rented for as low as RO 350 for a 2 bedroom. There is a 24 hour supermarket there, called Al Maya, and a supermarket called Mars. There are many other shops to be found here, particularly carpentry and drapery shops.

Azaiba
Azaiba is next down the coast from Ghubra and is fast becoming a popular hit with Western expatriates. Rents for Villa's range from RO 1000 - 2000. There is a large Horizon Fitness gym, and a branch of The Sultan Centre supermarket, and also a Safeer Hypermarket. Many people living here are working either in Qurum, or the Airport area, as this is a convenient "half-way" point (but Azaiba does butt-up to the Airport land, and Ghubra is also popular for people working in either area).

Al Hail, Seeb, Mawaleh
I've bunched these three together because they're all the same really. Al Hail is home to the popular The Wave development, and is literally minutes from the airport and Muscat City Centre (contains Carrefour), and also the Markez Al Bahja mall (contains a cinema and Al Fair). Rents here are generally cheaper due to the fact they are so far out from town, but rents in The Wave are amongst the highest in Muscat. Commute times to Qurum from Mawaleh in the morning rush hour are easily over an hour if that is an indication. However, one can rent a villa here for as little as RO 650 - it's just the commute that is hard - not such a problem if you are working at the airport though!

Estate Agents
Here's a list of estate agents in town that can help you find a rental property:

Cluttons
OmanHomes
Gulf Property World
Hamptons
Eqarat
Taif Real Estate
Engel & Volkers
Hilal Properties


Banking
Banking in Oman, much like the rest of the region, is fairly frustrating. Most landlords want their rent paid up front - be it 12 months, 6 months or 3 months and so you may need to take a loan early on to pay for this. Consider yourself very lucky if you get to pay your rent monthly.

There are quite a few banks here, and let me stress that they are all terrible. I personally use HSBC, because everyone in my office uses them, and my company banks with them. I would not trust them to do anything but peel a banana for me (because I firmly believe they are staffed by monkeys).

Here is a list of banks here in Oman:

HSBC
Bank Muscat
National Bank of Oman
Bank Sohar
Oman International Bank
Bank Dhofar

There are a few more, but these are the biggest ones. I believe Bank Muscat has the most branches.

Schools
There are a lot of schools here in Oman, and here's a list of them (thanks to Muscati for compiling it on the very useful Oman Forum). Fee's can be quite high - TAISM for example is over RO 7850 per year for a child in grades 9-12. There are also waiting lists - so do not delay getting on the waiting list once you know you are going to need schooling here.

TAISM
British School Muscat
ABA
Ecole Francaise de Mascate
Sultan's School
Choueifat
MIS
Azzan bin Qais
Sahwa
Indian Schools: Darsait, Ghubra, Wadi Kabir
Pakistan School
Egyptian School

Salalah:
British School Salalah

Sohar:
Al Batinah International School


Telecommunications
Telecommunications here in Oman has been improved dramatically in the last few years. There are two main players in the market, Omantel and Nawras. There are a few niche market mobile phone operators, such as Friendi and Renna, but I've not used their services (however their neworks are leased from Omantel's).

Omantel services are:
Fixed line phone over copper - RO 4.900 a month plus usage - calls within Oman (to land lines) are free.
ADSL (Speeds range from 512 kbps - 8MB for residential customers)
Mobile phone service - 3G (And just pioneering 4G as well) (Contract and PAYG)
3G Mobile internet

Nawras offer:
Fixed line phone over Wimax (VOIP product) - recently launched, can be as little as RO 15 a month with a 1MB internet account (6GB of usage) + cost of calls
Wireless internet over Wimax (speeds up to 5MB)
Mobile phone service - 3G (Contract and PAYG)
3G Mobile internet.

Both offer blackberry plans, as well as data plans for smart phones.

At a glance costs
A loaf of bread - RO 0.500
A litre of fuel - RO 0.120
A litre of milk - RO 0.700
4 chicken breasts (boneless) - RO 1.850
A Mcdonalds meal - RO 2.000
A news paper - RO 0.100
A 6pack of Pepsi/Coke - RO 0.650
A pint of beer in a 5* Bar - RO 2.700
Interest on a personal loan - 8%
A KG of local tomato's - RO 0.330
A KG of Holland tomato's - RO1.925
A 5KG sack of rice - RO 1.500
A 1.5KG bag of flour - RO 0.520
A large Water Cooler bottle - RO 1.000
A 250g pack of frozen bacon - RO 1.900
A case of Heineken - RO 13.000

I hope that helps. I welcome comments, but please do not ask a question such as, "I've been offered a job doing X for RO X per month - is this a fair salary". I'll only ignore them.

le fin.

Muscat 176th most expensive city to live in.

It's a slow news day today. But of some interest today was Mercer's Cost of Living report. The report basically lists the most expensive cities to live in for expatriates, based on a common set of goods, services, accommodation, etc.

The top 5 Most expensive cities to live in, as an expatriate, anywhere in the world are:

Luanda, Angola (1st)
Tokyo, Japan (2nd)
N'Djamena, Chad (3rd)
Moscow, Russia (4th)
Geneva, Switzerland (5th)

I'm amazed. I always thought Manhatten, London and Moscow were the most expensive cities. OK so Moscow is up there in 4th, but where are the others?!

The top 5 most expensive cities to live in anywhere in the Middle East & African region are:

Luanda, Angola (1st)
N'Djamena, Chad (3rd)
Libreville, Gabon (7th)
Victoria, Seychelles (13th)
Tel Aviv, Israel (19th)


But Muscat comes in at 176th place. So where did we stack up against the other major cities in the GCC?

Abu Dhabi, UAE (50th)
Dubai, UAE (55th)
Manama, Bahrain (139)
Riyadh, KSA (144)
Doha, Qatar (146)
Kuwait City, Kuwait (152)
Muscat, Oman (176)
Jeddah, KSA (181)

And it's been my experience that groceries are more expensive here than in Dubai. Hmmph!

Also, a small highlight, local manufacturer Oman Plastics Industries began making "oxo-biodegrable" plastic bags. I am assuming these are the new type of plastic bags that degrade a lot quicker than your standard shopping bag. I wonder if any of the local supermarket chains will start using them?

That's all for today!

le fin.

Shanfari assimilated merge with Zubair, and other stuff.

So the big news today is that Shanfari Automotive merged with Zubair Automotive's Dodge, Jeep & Chrysler brands to form Dhofar Automotive. A 70% - 30% joint venture (in Zubairs favour, of course) will see a new flagship showroom built in Wattayah (where else?!) and the closure of the existing showrooms & service centres in Azaiba and Al Khuwair (or is that MQ, never really been sure what to call that area). A new service centre is also being planned in Seeb near the airport which may be converted into a showroom in the future.

So what's the news here then? Having nearly bought a Dodge Charger last year, I went to both Shanfari and Zubair for quotes. When I went to Shanfari first, I said "Oh but the guys at Zubair were willing to give me this price, and free servicing for x years, and a years free insurance". I said that having absolutely no idea whether they would actually offer all that, but the response from the Shanfari guys was: ok, well for you we can offer you this very special price, and match that offer. Now having a firm offer in hand, I went to Azaiba to see the Zubair people and showed them the offer and said that I'd rather buy from Zubair blah blah blah, and Zubair ended up offering me a price 900 rials below sticker price, with full options, 3 years servicing and some insurance deal too, all with a financing plan to boot.

That is the benefit of a competitive market. Shanfari and Zubair have obviously decided that they can make more profits by monopolising the only un-monopolised brands in the Oman automotive market and mark my words: Pricing will increase. And lets not even start talking about the pricing of the spare parts. One only has to look at the plight of local Omani businessman Tariq al Kiyumi and his battle with Bahwan for Toyota parts.

Shanfari had a fairly good reputation for it's service department (even winning a coveted Other Oman Automotive Award for best Sports car mechanic and best spare parts dealership) which offered usually cheaper parts and usually better service than Zubair did. Hopefully Shanfari's service team will get to call the shots in the newly formed Dhofar Automotive. I doubt it though.

In other news, Oman have been busy cranking up their commodities exports. the Ministry of National Economy recently issued the monthly statistical bulletin for May 2010 (yes OK things are a bit slow, its the summer). Contained within that bulletin, is the Foreign Trade report which amongst other things shows a significant jump in Chemical products (125.9%), Plastics & rubbers (125.3%) and Minerals (88.6%) exports. Should any of you be savy investors, you might want to take a punt on some listed companies in those market sectors before they post their results. Could be a nice little earner. Also, notably, Transport Equipment imports (aka cars!) have dropped 35% in the last 12 months from Jan '09 - Jan '10. Now doesn't that tell a story?!

And in a follow up to the Oman Rail network (I like trains) some more information has emerged on the planned network. The Sohar-Muscat section (260 km) will have eight passenger stations and an unknown number of cargo stops; the Muscat-Duqm section (526 km) will have nine passenger stations and two cargo stops; the Sohar-Buraimi section (140 km) will have four passenger stations and two cargo stops; and Sohar-Khatmat Melaha section (58 km) will have four passenger stations and one cargo stop. I should imagine Oman Air and local bus companies / cabbies will not be too pleased with the number of planned passenger stops. Especially because the real benefit of rail is in the movement of goods, not passengers. As evidenced by the rail networks of North America (almost entirely goods these days).

Approval has been given for the construction of two lines for the railway track which will be operated at a speed of 200 km/h for passenger trains, and 80 km-120 km for cargo trains. The specification of the tracks is for speeds up to 350 km/h - potentially an upgrade there then!

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all though, is that the trains will be operated by electricity. I would have thought that Diesel would have been a much better option. Perhaps the people in charge haven't noticed the considerable demands on the electricity network here in Oman?

And lastly, what on earth happened with England last night? And am I right in assuming that the linesman didn't award the goal because he was too slow to actually get to a place to do his job? I guess it's Brazil's for the taking now then!

le fin.

Local spot light: Muscat Buy or Sell

For those of you that are facebook users, you probably will have at least seen this facebook group: Muscat Buy or Sell. This group is for locally based people who are looking to flog stuff. It's an electronic version of the Al Fair supermarket notice board. All sorts of items appear to be up for sale, ranging from pets, kitchen equipment, electronics, cameras, furniture and vehicles.


If you're looking for a bargain, it is worth at least having a look. It appears to have been a group started by a South African (perhaps I'm wrong) by the name of Azelene Williams and has been gathering speed at a remarkable pace.

As the summer slow-down takes hold, and the wives flee to cooler climates, I wonder if we will see adverts tail off, or pick up? I suspect gadget sales will do just fine. Anyone for an iPhone 4?

le fin.

Cost of living in Muscat

Much like my Pork Shop post recently, I've decided to blog some information on the cost of living here in Muscat, Oman. It'd be really helpful if anyone can contribute their costs as well.

I live in a 3 bedroom penthouse apartment with a fairly sizeable terrace (great in the winter!). I own 2 cars and a land rover - the landy was bought for RO 925 cash, and one of the two cars is financed with HSBC loans which I chose to do over 12 months. I borrowed RO 4400 for a part-payment of the vehicle and my monthly repayments are RO 400 a month for that.

Now, to specifics:

• My rent is RO 600 a month.
• My Water bill each month (based on 2 people and lots of plant watering) is approximately RO 8 a month.
• Electricity is about RO 10 a month (including summer months with higher AC usage). Note that the Government heavily subsidises power here, and even more so in the Summer.
• I have an Omantel land-line (which I do not use to make any calls) and it costs me RO 4.900 a month.
• I have Omantel ADSL 512 Kbps connection and it costs me RO 12 a month + usage up to a maximum monthly amount of RO 42 a month.
• My loan payments total RO 700 a month (400 for one of the cars, 300 for a furniture loan).

We bought the following furniture: King size bed + mattress, end tables, coffee tables, TV table, 32" LCD, 42" Plasma, kettle, toaster, plates, knifes and forks and kitchen stuff, gas bottles, bbq, desk, chairs, 3+2+1 sofa set, rugs, artwork, dining room table, washing machine, Electric oven/ gas hob (try baking with a gas oven here... very difficult), 2 fridges and a chest freezer. All of this is serviced by the monthly loan we have (due to finish very soon...!). For those that are unsure of their length of stay here and want to factor in risk in purchasing furniture, there is an outfit in town that rents house-hold furniture, and even offers a rent to own mechanism too. Packages can start from about RO 128/month for a 3-bedroom house to be kitted out. The company is called Home Essentials.

We shop for groceries at a few different stores, but our average monthly spend is approximately RO 250 for the two of us. We're from the Western world and have what I'd imagine is a "Western" diet. We eat a lot of chicken and beef - but don't eat rice and daal very frequently. Fresh fruit and vegetables are high on our diet lists as well. We shop at the following stores: Carrefour, The Sultan Center, Al Fair (Unfair), LuLu's and Al Hamadi Fisheries (the fabulous pork place).

Car insurance is based upon (usually) 5% of the value of your car. For example, if your car is worth RO 10,000, your insurance premium will be approximately RO 500 a year - more or less. They do accept No-Claims bonus letters if you bring one from your home country - it will reduce your premiums.

For furniture here in Oman, you have a few options: There is The Home Center here which caters to the upper-market sector of people living here. A 3 piece sofa set can easily cost up to RO 700 and beyond. A 6 seater dining table easily around RO 400. And so on. We chose to drive to IKEA in Dubai and bought a bunch of stuff there (bed, tables, desk, chair, kitchen stuff) and drove it back. We bought a mattress here from Raha Oman and we're not overly happy with it, but it's been OK I guess. It only cost RO 70. There are other furniture places dotted around town that specialize in various types of furniture. A new comer to the furniture scene is Pan Furniture situated in Al Khuwair in the Zakher Mall. There is also ID Design, Fahmy Furniture, Khimjis Bait Al Ahlam amongst many others.

Satellite TV package costs RO 8-24 a month, depending on the provider and bouquet you choose. English speaking networks available are:

Orbit (Badr 25.5), Showtime (Nilesat), DSTV/Multichoice (Pan-am Sat) DSTV is not legally allowed to be received here. To get DSTV (Which has South African television - best sports coverage around) you will need a larger dish. Orbit and Showtime can be received with a simple small dish.

Cars in Oman.

There are basically four options: new, used, rented or taxi's.

New cars are, depending on the model, comparatively priced with the same brands accross the globe. Toyota's are king here, and tend to hold their value the best. You can buy a Toyota Yaris for approximately RO 4500 and sell it 3 years later for about RO 2500 - give or take. Buying used cars can be a difficult experience, and there's three main ways to go about it:

1 buy a used car from the dealer (eg MHD Landrover will have used Landy's for sale).

2 is to go to a used car dealer (best cars Oman is, in my opinion, a waste of time unless you want a used Toyota) - there are many used car dealers dotted around, but there's especially quite a few along the Sultan Qaboos highway in the Ghubra area. Be careful though, some of these dealers have a reputation for importing flood damaged cars from the USA and selling them for huge profits, buyer beware.

3 is the notice boards, Al Fair, The Sultan Center and a few other places have notice boards where people put up adverts of things to sell. Look at the ad, call the number, kick the tyres, strike a deal.

Cars can be rented here in Oman from approximately RO 150 a month. A reasonable price, for, say, a Mazda 6, is about RO 225 a month. If you want, you can even rent BMW's and Mercs, but obviously you will pay a lot for it!

Taxis come in 3 flavours: Blue and Red metered taxis (but they're only interested in taking you from your hotel to the airport or vice versa) and they are very expensive. You can flag down an orange and white taxi pretty much anywhere in Oman. I've often joked that if I were lost and stuck in the middle of the desert, I'd pretty much expect to find a taxi before long. They are literally everywhere. However, taxi's are not metered here, and prices are generally agreed upon before you start. At the risk of sounding racist here, if you look "Western" then you're going to pay significantly more than if you were of another racial group. Finally there are the Baiza buses which charge up and down Sultan Qaboos highway and have a general fee of 100bz per round about.

Alcohol in Oman.

When you come here and apply for your Resident Card, one thing you must mention is your religion. If you are a Muslim, you will not be eligible for the liquor license. Alcohol can be purchased in licensed bars by anyone - regardless of religion. The cost of a pint of beer ranges from 800bz at the PDO recreation club to RO 3.000 at most of the 5* hotels. A glass of wine can cost up to RO 3.000 for house brands and (a lot) more for others.

You can purchase, from the ROP, a blue liquor license booklet. You will pay an up-front fee for a license that lasts 24 months, and you may purchase alcohol from one of the alcohol supply shops dotted around. A case of beer ranges from RO 9 for a case of Castle, RO 12 for a case of Heineken and RO 15 for a case of Corona. A bottle of Smirnoff Red Vodka is about RO 6, and bottles of wine start at RO 3 and the price goes up from there. One thing to note is that the license you purchase will have a monthly spending limit, restricting you to only be able to purchase alcohol up to a maximum value in any given month (in the take-home shops). The higher your license value you can go is based on your salary. The one-time up-front fee is based on the value of your license. I'd suggest that if you like a few drinks, to get a higher license than you think you need - its purely up to you.

As a final point, I will note that in order to lead a comfortable life here as a "Western" expatriate where you are required to provide your own housing and transportation, a total monthly package should not be less than RO 2,500 a month. I am not a recruitment specialist and so can't advise you on what salary you should expect to get working here, so please don't ask me.

Hope this helps!

le fin