Seeb - final stop in Oman

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The drive down from Nizwa took all of the afternoon and we arrived into Seeb quite late but fortunately the whole of the next day to explore the towns and surrounds.

The day started with a quick visit to our final fort of the trip at Nakhal. More interesting though was the nearby Ath-Thowra hot springs, not that a place bathing in 40 degree heat requires hot springs! Back in Seeb, we had a short wander around the town. No tourists sights as such, Seeb is a coastal town that thrives on fishing and has an interesting souq and a wonderful corniche. We strolled down the corniche watching fish dry out on the sands and take in the wonderful sea views. It was early evening before we knew it and I sat and watched a 25-a-side game of football on the beach, which was occasionally interrupted by passing dogs and cars driving through the beach, before the standard last-goal-wins rule came into force and everyone packed up to go home! A final walk along the corniche as the sunset was a fabulous way to end our trip.

And that was Oman! It had been a wonderful 2 weeks in a more traditional Arab country which is a million miles away from the modern glitz of nearby Dubai, and is all the better for it.

Talking of Dubai, to ensure we didn't miss connecting flights we had one more night here before carrying onto Hong Kong. So we flew from Musca and that evening we had a lovely meal in a restaurant in the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, the food was great but the setting was wonderful as well as e were sat in the courtyard of one of the historic buildings. After dinner we took another one those awesome trips over the creek, which is wonderfully atmospheric at night. I discovered that the Radisson Blu on this side of the creek had a bar on it's top floor so we sneaked in for a beer whilst taking in the views of the creek, souqs and mosques all wonderfully lit up at night.

We had a bit of time before our flight the next day and so wandered down our side of the creek to the Shindagha Heritage Area. Similar to Al Fahidi but this area contained a fabulous museum - the Sheikh Saeed al-Maktoum House. This grand building was the official residence of Sheik Saeed from 1912 to 1958 and contains a genuinely interesting collection of photos of Dubai from the 40s and 50s. To see them now, together with experiencing the new side of Dubai and having driven round Oman, really gave me a great idea of what Dubai would have been like...

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Photos

25 a side football
Just stick it in the mixer!

An exquisitely tiled mosque
We just stumbled across near our hotel!