You can really tell you’ve crossed into another country. It’s probably resembles Dubai thirty years ago. Lot of road and building construction, traffic snarls, a general look of disorganization. Like the UAE, many Indians and Pakistanis, who seem to at least equal the local Omani Arab populace in number. Not many motels, and those that we found were expensive. If you wanted to compare the look of it to somewhere in the States, think Utah or Nevada. Parched, and this is the wet season. The air conditioner on our car went out a few days ago, but luckily it’s been very cool, and with the windows rolled down it wasn’t unpleasant driving. But it was a bit scary. On one stretch there was about eighty miles between gas stations, and we gulped our liter of water down to slake anxiety rather than thirst. Man, those are some scary mountains.