The penultimate post!
In most houses in Oman, there is no piped water. The houses have water tanks on the roofs and these blue water trucks come every few weeks and fill them up! It would cost around $10 month for our water needs!
During our first few days in Arabia we were pretty shocked. There are hot and cold taps in the houses but in the height of summer, the water in the roof tanks gets so hot that when you turn on the cold tap, boiling water comes out! In each bathroom there are individual water tanks that feed from the roof tank. So in summer you use the hot tap to get coldish water, and never use the cold tap to brush your teeth! If you don't take a shower within the first hour or so of sunrise, then the water is too hot to shower in.
Houses in Oman don't have piped gas either, so these bottles are attached to the cookers/stoves and this is how we cook! It is really cheap with a bottle lasting a couple of months for around $15! Electric cookers are not common and more expensive to use. The downside is that we used to have to flag down the gas trucks as they pass by our house to get refills! The key is to always have a spare tank on hand.
