Muscat after GONU - the cyclone

During the weekend when I stayed with my cousin and family in Muscat, Cibi Chettan, took me around Muscat in his car, and we visited many of the important land marks of Muscat. He took me to those places where the beach was washed away during the heavy rain fall along with GONU, the cyclone.

GONU destroyed the capital of Oman – Muscat, to a large extend. The death toll is many times more than what is actually officially reported, says the locals. I saw many car showrooms, completely covered with mud up to 3 or 4 meters high, and earth movers, being used to pull out those new cars destroyed. Thousands of vehicles are lost.

When compared to Dubai, the density of buildings and height of buildings in Muscat is very much less. The cost of living is also very less. Free lands of sands (desert) are visible through out the city, where in Dubai, only buildings can be seen where ever we look.

One side of Muscat is protected by the sea, and the other side by the rock hills. We went to the valley of those hills. Big excavation work is done over those hills, to cut open a way over it, and to construct a high way connecting some other city.

Birds, especially doves are seen through out UAE as well as Muscat, where there are a sufficient population density of humans.

Apart from the buildings, and the artificial gardens built here and there, Muscat is rather dry. The soil is almost sand, but I heard that the place Salalah, another city in Oman is completely different from other places. There it rains frequently and people do a lot of cultivation.

The beach nearby Muscat was very beautiful, said Cibi Chettan. The nice beach was no more there. The beauty got completely washed away by the Cyclone and the heavy rainfall. Since heavy rains were not expected in a desert, the construction or roads were not at all withstanding. They got washed away very easily.

The above picture shows the personal ship of the Sultan of Oman – Qaboos Bin Said Al-said. Cibi chettan described that, where country Sultan visits, if the country is reachable through sea, then the ship will reach the country before the Sultan, to provide all the facilities required.