Muscat, Oman... a flying visit

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Muscat, Oman... what a beautiful city and country.

Unfortunately we only had a brief flying visit in to Muscat to visit our friend Topsy, however we hope to return soon to explore more. I snapped away for the brief time we were there, not great quality photos... but I thought it would give you a tiny glimpse, as it did for us.

We have driven through the spectacular rocky mountains in the north on previous occasions, but this was our first visit to Muscat. It was refreshing to be away from the skyscrapers and traffic of Dubai. To see people going about their daily business and the historic fishing village area, with winding streets in the sand, decorative doors on the walled houses, leading in to inner courtyards...this was also a breath of fresh air after the over designed Dubai Downtown area.

Nearly all the buildings in Muscat are low lowing, one or two stories high, with only a small number of medium height buildings. It was on a much more human scale which I really liked. It seems their heritage is more preserved in the style of buildings and housing. Streets wound around the rock face & mountains, nature dictated the outlay of the city as it stretched along the coast, with the jagged rocky dry mountains cutting down to the sea in between. The sandy/ ochre and mostly white colors of the buildings stood out in beautiful contrast to the backdrop of rocky mountains, which, when the evening sun caught them, lit up in golden colors.

We were blessed with a stay at the Shangrila Resort on the outskirts of town. It was a pity we didn't have more time to stay as we had a full sea room view, with cliffs, sea & pools in our view, but we made the most of our short visit!

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Photos

Abu Road
at Abu Dhabi airport on the return form Muscat