Drinking it - Most people here drink bottled water. The tap water is actually safe to drink, but its the pipes that are the problem. Some pipes are very old and plumbing here is just like everything else - built fast, no attention to detail. The water comes from the Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf to us). Tap water is desalinated (and the salt is dumped back into the ocean which is bad for the fish but they are working other processes to help with that). We buy bottled water but also use tap water to cook with and even to drink sometimes.
Bathing in it - During this time of year the hot is cold and the cold is hot. Here "cold" water is put in a container up off of the sand to help keep it cool (the sand gets VERY hot). The hot water is held in a small water heater in each room - there is a small hot water tank in the kitchen and one in each bathroom. In our villa the cold water tank is on the roof and the hot water is in the water heater in the ceiling of each room.... so when you turn on the cold water it is coming from outside in the hot sun and the hot water comes from inside where the air conditioning is on and its shaded. Since the cold water is so hot you keep the water heaters turned off otherwise all you have it hot water. Weird huh? I assume in the winter this will be reversed. I will keep you posted on that.
