Scuba

I was in Oman over the weekend and spent most of my time in Muscat. I liked the feel of the city. I realize now how much difference traffic and high rise buildings can make. Dubai, with its urban traffic mayhem and high rise buidings seems to dwarf any natural features of the surrounding landscape. It feels like just another characterless big city. However, in Muscat, the low and flat buildings seem to blend in with the surrounding topography and the undulations and other natural characteristics don’t remain hidden.
The high point of my visit was undoubtedly the snorkeling trip that my brother and I went on. Oman has some of the clearest waters in the Middle East, and also the safest (I was thankful to know). The underwater life is extremely rich and I noticed so many varieties of fish and other marine life that I struggled to identify. Snorkeling was exciting but I realized that I am way out of my comfort zone in open waters. My brother would swim away absorbed with the silent world below him but...and I am ashamed to write this...I was more than a little scared. I’ve seen too many shark films and sharks were such a big point of discussion in Australia that I kept imagining sharks everywhere in the water. In fact, there were no sharks in those waters but you know how one’s mind plays tricks. I never swam too far from our boat and I would resurface every few minutes to check that I wasn’t too far from other humans. I know this sounds silly but try as I would, I could not give my undivided attention to the world beneath. I remember a stretch of about five minutes when the life under held me in its grip and my fear vanished but that spell was broken when I saw a huge coral reef in front of me. It was pretty innocuous but to my frantic mind, it looked like a dark, black beast. I fairly skimmed the surface back to our boat. Anyway, I am going to try my hand at scuba diving again and this time I will try and be braver.