Wednesday in Muscat

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Following breakfast, the car rental rep showed up with the car delivered right to the hotel. After filling out the paperwork, we hopped in the car for a bit of an adventure. I had never driven in an Arab country before, could not read most signs, and generally hoped for no problems. None were had. We first drove a few miles through the middle of Muscat, skirting the Souk, to the Omen Dive Centre. We just wanted to be sure that we were all ready to go diving with them the next day. Everything was in order. . . e-mail and the internet are wonderful things!

We then decided to drive to Seeb which is, if one knows where he is going, a relatively short drive north of Muscat, past the airport. A guide book to Oman suggested that this was a more typical Arab town than Muscat, with an interesting souk. Well. . . we think that the guidebook was half right. So much for interesting souk. Anyway, after walking through the center of the town, we headed back in the direction of Muscat. On the way, we encountered a goat market for the Eid. Here’s the deal, as God did not require Abraham to kill his son to show his loyalty, but allowed him to instead kill a goat, each year at Eid, which recognizes the end of the Hajj, Muslims celebrate the holiday by killing a goat. (Stephen thinks that this is a great practice in lieu of killing a son each year at this time). At a large intersection, we came upon persons selling goats to be sacrificed this holiday. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. . .and people just walking up, and negotiating for their choice. The goats didn’t appear to be all that excited about the activity, nor concerned for that matter.

We drove back to Muscat and dropped off the rental car at the hotel. We were going to the Muscat souk that evening and didn’t want to drive there. The souk (market) is quite large and was very interesting. It was full of all kinds of stuff. . . spices, clothing, knives, all kinds of tourist things, etc. We had dinner there at a little restaurant that overlooked the port. After purchasing a couple of items, we walked along road boarding the water and just basically enjoyed the evening. Later, we took a taxi back to the hotel and called it a night.

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