Muscat, Oman. January 28, 2016

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Thursday, Jan. 28. Muscat, Oman. Sunny, clear skies. 22C

Jane - Went right (when facing harbour). Wonderful walk along the corniche (harbour front). Beautiful public gardens and walks. Ended up at the huge frankincense burner. There is an amusement park just below it, but it was not open. Walked back to turrety thing, missed the fountains. Wandered through Souk. OMG! So much fiddle faddle. There were a couple of things...a vase made of camel bone...too expensive, did not even try to bargain; and lovely hand woven 3D hangings with semi-precious stones. Unfortunately, there was not one that I wanted to take home, wrong size, wrong colour, so did not even ask the price. The chests were interesting, but all from India and we are going there. Alas, nothing to remember Oman by.

Stopped for refreshment and wifi. Wifi realllllly slow or not available. Gave up and back to ship 5ish.

Paul - The biggest cultural divergence so far. Muscat has only recently entered the 20th century with the repeal of the more morally execrable (to the Western milieu) aspects of sharia law. They no longer behead those who offend the Sultan, nor do they any longer chop off the hands of thieves.

Arabs mostly wear traditional dress, robes and and scarves and hats headdresses of many kinds. Men are allowed to wear white robes, women are not as white can be translucent at inopportune times (recall the backlit photo of a younger Princess Diana when she worked at the daycare). As a result of this belief that women inflame men's uncontrolled passions were they to reveal a neck, wrist or ankle, but clearly (is that a pun?) the men wear shorts and tshirts under their plain white or sandy brown robes and the women consistently fail to have their insatiable passions inflamed.

The women mostly reveal only their faces in their black robes, and stay a pace or two behind the men, but they do drive (although the ones with only their eyes showing scare the crap out of me).

The traditional Arabs seem to be in charge. At least, they walk around the downtown markets a lot and seem to have most of the money. The lingua franca is English, and more usually, Hindustani, as Indian immigrants seem to comprise the majority of the merchant class, and certainly seem to do all the heavy labour in maintenance, construction and landscaping. The few working Arabs I saw was the rare shop-owner (not necessarily shop-keeper), and all taxi drivers. The only working women we saw were in uniform, with badges (port security and police), presumably to deal with female offenders.

Oil cash still is plentiful here, and gasoline itself may as well be free. The streets are filled with new Lexuses, Mercedes and high-end (but very small) Toyota SUVs. Actually, in the city, anything bigger than a sedan can't make the 135 degree turns necessary to navigate in this rabbit warren of improbable corners and impossible narrow and curved alleyways, and streets which inexplicably turn out to go in exactly the opposite direction dictated by my sense of direction.

The walk along the Corniche, which is what locals call the waterfront, was very impressive. The walk of several kilometers is packed with parks, both nature and amusement, many fountains and sculptures, punctuated by the ancient watchtowers placed along the peaks so that one could be easily seen by the next, and ample warning of invaders was given for the people to seek refuge in the forts.

Wandering the souks, or markets, was a series of challenges and not just for the ease of getting lost in the rows upon rows of shops both tiny and large, all populated by eager vendors, many of them selling the same thing.

Bargaining. We learned a lot from Eric and Pauline when we travelled Mexico and central and south america, but this is a different flavour. Omanis are, we were told often, honest and are certainly out to make a profit, but not to cheat. Walking away remains the best weapon, but never offer a price before hearing theirs. Don't make an offer unless you plan on following through. Above all, have fun, remember it's a game and it doesn't matter if someone else paid less than you did for the same thing.

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Photos

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Turrety things all over!

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Fountain in the traffic circle. Unfortunately the water was not on.

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Wherever we go, we see Great Blue Herons!

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Giant Frankincense Burner.

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Beautiful flowers and public spaces.

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Muscat is known for its frankincense.

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Along the Corniche.