Tied Down in Muscat!

Well Muscat was a real surprise for me, I didn’t really know what to expect but was enthralled with what I found.

We had a tour in an adapted vehicle which is the first one that actually has tiedown secures for the wheelchair, making the whole journey much safer and slightly more comfortable actually.

I’m sure that our tour guide thought I was extremely rich as he had three wives!

Around the city of Muscat as soon as you leave the populated area it is suddenly extremely rocky and barren, as you would expect in a land with very little rain, although it does get more than Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Despite this there is an abundance of green municipal areas which give the landscape some colour. All of these areas are artificially irrigated in order to keep them alive.

Our first stop on our tour was “The Great Mosque” something that was constructed by the current Sultan of Oman and was started in 1995 and finished in 2000. The entrance/souvenir shop did a very good trade in selling most of the ladies long dresses which cover their ankles and wrists and headscarves. This was in spite of them wearing what they thought was respectable. Now bearing in mind that this great construction was finished so recently it spoke volumes to me that I could not get access.

Sharon found the building to be architecturally beautiful.

Following the great Mosque and a drive around areas of downtown Muscat which is clean and quite orderly we arrived at a souk or market. This was a fascinating place and genuinely used by the locals particularly to buy spices etc. It was obviously also a very popular spot for tours from the ship as we kept bumping into many familiar faces. My main purchase was the traditional Omani hat which is absolutely fantastic on board the ship as there is no brim for the wind to catch hold of and therefore it sits quite nicely in most of the breezes we have so far found on deck.

The colours within the market were quite spectacular although all shops seem to have steps going up into them which prevented me gaining access, it also served as a good excuse not to buy anything.

Many of the items being sold however were not genuinely from the country. The majority of the pottery comes from Turkey. As usual there is always one shop selling fake copies of football shirts from around Europe. The whole area was really vibrant and bustling and I’m sure “my wives” could have spent much longer there, but luckily for me we were on a tour that only lasted for five hours and we had other things to see.

Leaving the marketplace we drove past the Sultan’s yacht.

Now that’s what I call a yacht. It was absolutely spectacularly over the top and would look absolutely brilliant in the marina at Monte Carlo during the Formula One, I wonder if I can borrow it?

Just over a rocky outcrop and down a winding road of about 5 km which up until the early 70s was the only Tarmac road in the country we came to the area which housed the Royal Palace and many of the government ministry buildings.

Prior to visiting this area we took a tour around the local museum which unfortunately banned the use of cameras. The museum was interesting though as it focused on the more traditional lives that the people lived prior to the oil wealth. Oman is a mixture of tribes of various Muslim sects however they all live very peacefully.

As you would expect the Royal Palace and government buildings were very well-kept and had a visible security presence. The security people got rather vocal and agitated if you got within about 20m of the palace gates. We were warned about this but as usual there is always somebody who even wasn’t listening or didn’t think the rules applied to them, so we got to experience the agitation in real life.

Although I really enjoyed my visit to Muscat I was pleased to get back into the cool of the ship. The heat of the day was just starting to get to me.