Muscat Mess: Sun, Sea, and Trying Not to Melt

lowercase, like my energy when i landed here. so, muscat. yeah, i said it. not 'dreamy muscat' or 'charming muscat' or whatever other bs people throw around. it’s hot. insanely hot. i just checked and it's literally 20°C right now, which sounds nice until you realize that’s like… the cool part of the year here. and even then, the humidity's sitting at 72%. that kind of muggy-ass weather where you step outside and immediately start sweating through your shirt. just typing this i'm sweating.

okay so geographically, it's in northeast oman on the gulf of oman, right by the straits of hormuz which is like the busiest shipping lane ever apparently. big whoop. lots of tankers. also, there are mountains, the hajar ones, which is cool i guess but good luck hiking them without dying. it’s all rocks- plutonic and volcanic and whatever the hell that means. mostly just means sharp and sun-baked.

the city itself is kind of sprawling. the metro area has like 1.7 million people, which sounds huge until you realize that the actual city is around 795,000. still a lot of people bumping into you while you try to not melt. the white buildings everywhere are nice though. they kind of glare in the sun like 'hey! suffer more!' but aesthetically it checks out.

the neighboring cities are... there. like in the distance. seeb and bawshar are part of the whole mess, and if you get bored of muscat (which you will), sohar’s a quick drive north. someone told me that sohar's getting big in manufacturing and stuff, but like… do i want to drive there? absolutely not. i want to stay in the verrrry slight breeze by the harbor in muttrah and pretend i’m okay with the 40°C summers. i mean, it literally never drops below 10°C. it’s like… permanently summer. how do people live like this?

also - fun fact - this place was built around harbours. muscat and muttrah. they’re natural. shocker that the economy revolves around trade, gas, and porting things. wow. so revolutionary. the corniche is cool though. you can walk along it at night and feel slightly less like a piece of meat left out in the sun.

anyway, here's a map if you’re too dumb to find it on your own phone:

so yeah. muscat. oman. hotter than hell. pretty in a ‘postcard’ kind of way. arid. sticky. weirdly humid for a desert. and everyone looks like they’re professionally hydrated while i’m over here chugging bottles of water like it's a competition. do you like that kind of thing? 'cause it's there right now. have fun.

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