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Published: April 6th 2009
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We decided not to take the 10 hour bus journey from Salalah to Muscat. Instead we flew with Oman Air saving ourselves an awful lot of time and discomfort.
On arrival at Seeb International Airport we took a taxi to the Muttrah Corniche area of the city. Now Muscat isn't really a city as such, it is more of a collection of towns squeezed between a small mountain range and the coast with fairly large distances between each of them.
Finding budget accommodation was impossible. We ended up at the Al-Fanar Hotel tucked away at one end of the corniche. It was the cheapest place we could find by far, and even then it cost the best part of US$50 for a basic room and no breakfast. The location was good though as the hotel is right opposite the fish market which is great to look around in the morning. Fortunately we didn't overlook the road and therefore didn't get the smells or early morning noise of the fish market!!
Muscat isn't really going to keep anybody too occupied for more than a few days, and even then that would probably require visiting all the museums. We weren't
too lucky with the weather either as the storm clouds were gathering even as we were checking into the hotel!
We walked along the corniche in the early evening and fortunately avoided almost all of the passing showers. The corniche pavement takes you all the way from Muttrah to old Muscat. On the way we saw some of the nice statues and wall plaques all depicting traditional Omani life throughout the years. The harbour was quite busy with a strangely decorated cruise liner, the Sultan's dhow and a visiting catamaran all in clear view. We didn't see any dolphins though! (We had managed to see some, and even a whale in Salalah). The enormous building in the shape of an incense burner was intriguing too, as were the numerous forts which seem to sit atop every piece of high ground.
It took us about an hour to stroll over to old Muscat. There we saw more forts but were disappointed that none of them were open to the public. The Sultan's palace is currently being extended but you can get a good look at part of it from the corniche area. Back in Muttrah we had a good
Our Hotel!
The one on the right look around the souk but didn't find anything too exciting. After dinner we sat out and had some fresh lemon juice with mint, very reminiscent of our time in Syria!
The following morning we visited the fish market. It was colourful, noisy and smelly but well worth looking in on. We even saw some loads of fish being landed and sorted. If you are squeamish, it might be best not to look too closely!!
Finally came the fun and games of hiring a car. We had arranged for a car to be delivered to the hotel at 10am. After a delay due to traffic (!) no car was delivered but a driver was sent to take us to the head office. We had expected to simply pick up the car and drive off with our rucksacks. After a bit of an argument we cancelled the reservation and spoke to Hertz. That saved us a fortune as they were much cheaper, incredibly helpful and surprisingly efficient. The only problem was finding them as our taxi driver had great difficulties even after asking around.
At the wheels of a shiny white Toyota Yaris for US$30 per day (ouch! and
that was cheap!!) we set off to explore some of Oman's "interior".
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