MUSCAT DAY 2

Yesterday was a long tour day into the rocky interior of Oman.  Today I wanted an easy, unscheduled exploration of waterfront Muscat.  I had thought to walk the corniche as far as I could manage but I met Lawrence from Romania at breakfast and he planned to take the local bus again today as he did yesterday.  Last time I saw Lawrence was during the Abu Dhabi bus fiasco (so slow!) but he assured me that this route was only a few miles long, and he had Omani rials to pay for the bus (about 60 cents).  

So we took the shuttle to the port entrance, fought through the horde of taxi drivers who were quite insistent that the bus would never come (it did in 10 minutes), and boarded the bus.  The city streets were extremely quiet at 8:45am, and we commented on how clean and beautiful the corniche was.  My tour guide yesterday told me that his majesty insisted on cleanliness, that cars couldn’t be dirty, and so most drivers washed theirs every day to avoid being fined!

The bus route ended at the Sultan’s palace, a huge modern waterfront estate with old forts on every corner.  Lush gardens fronted every public building, water being one of the three abundant natural resources in Oman; petroleum and natural gas being the other two.

Lawrence had already visited the National Museum which is opposite the palace so after snapping lots of pics we walked over to the Bait Al Zubair museum.  It was once the private collection of the Zubair family, open as a museum since 2005.  An interesting display of old jewelry, costumes, weaponry, etc. as well as a lot of not-as interesting stamps and coins.  There was the same outdoor display as seen in previous places of typical summer houses, outdoor kitchens, and curiously a little man-made river flowing through a Lilliputian collection of mud houses, forts, and villages.  Oman in miniature?

Lawrence and I parted ways after the museum, I walked a few blocks to the water to see the rear of the sultan’s gigantic palace, and the private harbor it backed on to.  I then headed back to town, bussing half & walking half in the hot sun to the Souq.  I needed to buy my Oman magnet!  The souq was full of tourists and fairly pushy salesmen.  Pashminas and perfumes were the hot commodities apparently.  I almost succumbed to buying some jewelry but obviously it was not all from Oman and the sheer amount of it crammed into each shop was overwhelming.  I couldn’t pick out a piece to look at for the vast quantity hanging from the ceilings, walls, displays, counters, etc etc.  I wandered many alleys in my search for the perfect magnet, ignoring all other temptations until I eventually found one that would suffice.

I surfaced from the darkness out onto the corniche and another 10 minutes or so walk along the waterfront brought me to the Vegetable Market which was a pleasantly air-conditioned cut-through on my way back to the ship.

Once again I went straight to the dining room from the gangway.  4 hours of walking left me hungry and exhausted!  A meal, a glass of wine and a few hours with my book were called for.

We left Muscat during dinner, so I was unable to find out if Andrea Bocelli was serenading our departure again.  We’ve a full day at sea tomorrow, arriving in Bahrain on December 19th.