Although the
port is called Muscat which is the capital of Oman, we actually dock in Muttrah
the older and quieter section of the greater Muscat area. Oman is a sultanate, population around 5
million. The country is ranked 25th
among world countries in oil reserves.
To give you perspective on that, the USA is ranked 11th. The official religion here is Islam and women
tend to dress in traditional black garb.
The ruling Sultan died just a few weeks ago and his cousin took over as
leader. The country is bordered by the
UAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. They’ve
been able to maintain a peaceful existence in this crazy part of the world.
We’ve been
here before and at that time took a comprehensive tour of the city, the Grand
Mosque (fabulous) and the countryside so this time we opted out of an organized
tour. We decided we really needed to get
some exercise. Lucky for us the weather
was fantastic, as it was in Dubai. The temperatures
were in the low 70’s with a light breeze and no humidity. You couldn’t ask for anything better.
We walked
along the corniche, a walkway along the sea all the way to the gate that
separates Muttrah from Muscat. Along the
way we passed an ancient Muttrah Fort high on the hill and a colorful Mosque.
We had hoped
to hike up to the Riyam Incense Burner, a symbol of welcome, but alas the road
up to the top was closed. We don’t know
the reason for the closure. In Muslim
countries it’s not unusual to see museums and the like closed on Friday and
Saturday but this had the feel of something more permanent. It’s too bad for us but we did find a
beautiful park at the base of it and were able to sit in the shade for a while.
We walked
back to town along a slightly different route and came upon an automatic (is
that the right word?) toilet. Most other
toilets we saw were manned (or womened) by an attendant. We didn’t try those out and unfortunately, we
didn’t have any local currency to try this one.
In the
downtown area we went to the Muttrah Suq (market) or Souk as it’s sometimes
written. We’ve been here before and
bought a number of things, this time we didn’t buy anything. I got into a discussion (haggle) with one
shop keeper but we couldn’t agree on a price. That’s okay I probably didn’t need it. I don’t think we’ve bought a single thing on
this trip. I guess we are all souvenired
out.
It was a
nice day and it felt good to get some real exercise. Now we have three sea days before we get to Columbo,
Sri Lanka. At this time, we don’t have any
plans for that stop. We were going to go
to a tea plantation but then found out it was a 3-hour bus ride to get there…and
of course 3 hours back. That’s a long
time on a bus to spend an hour or so at a tea plantation. I cancelled that one. In the tour office literature, they make sure
you know the buses might not be the best in Sri Lanka with dodgy air conditioning
and suspension. Fred’s back has been
doing very well on this trip so far and we don’t want to jinx that.
Tomorrow is
the Super Bowl and the purser’s office promised it would be on TV, I certainly hope
so!
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