Blogs from Muscat, Oman, Middle East - page 5

This morning we woke to watch the sunrise over Jebel Shams, a mountain range 3000 meters above sea level in the Western Hajar mountains, the peace and serenity is to die for! We have had a trendous time in Oman and being our last blog, we have decided to include various highlights from our trip here. We returned to the Sultan's Palace and did a wonderful day trip to Al Seifa, a seaside village and tourist spot with my Uncle. With a friend, my Aunty and I visited the Grand Mosque in Muscat, but we were deemed inappropriately dressed, as my sleeves were too short and Aunty Bern's white trousers too see through! Hmmm! This being the case we had to hire abajas and of course it is always necessary to wear a scarf when you ... read more

Muscat Started with a visit to the magnificent Grand Mosque. It’s quite new and has a stunning main prayer hall with massive chandelier, beautiful tiles and the world’s second largest Persian carpet that was also beautiful. The outside is vast, many shady courtyards and big lawns, a peaceful place. Mutrahis the heart of the traditional area with its corniche that goes between the souq and Old Muscat. Had lunch at an old watchtower on the corniche, (later to discover that these are absolutely everywhere in Oman). Walked along the waterfront into Old Muscat, not at all lively, government buildings and a big palace. On the rocks that create the harbor for the palace there’s writing dating back centuries from ships visiting the harbour, clearly some British HMS … Apparently this is called the “Sultan’s Visitor’s Book”. ... read more

Arriving The journey to Muscat was easy once we were in the airport, but dealing with Doha’s new airport did not prove the simple task we had anticipated. The problem lay with the very new and free long-term parking. Despite being completed only a few months ago it was full. We couldn’t quite believe the security guards who told us this, so drove up and down every row until quite convinced that there wasn’t one parking spot left for us. Dilemma; drive all the way home and call a taxi, oh but wait taxis normally say they’ll be with you in 3 hours time, if you’re lucky, or pay for short-term parking which is priced per hour. Quick thinking on the mad dash out of the airport was to park at he Marriott Hotel just outside ... read more

Temp: 94F 32C Distance travelled: 498 nautical miles We are still a few days away from pirate/bandit country. The badlands lie around the horn of Africa along the Somalian, Eritrean and Djibouti coastline. We followed a small tanker out of the Khor al Fakkan port. I noticed that the tanker had rolls of barbed wire coiled around the hull of the vessel. This seemed to be for no other reason than a deterrent to would be hijackers. Ships will go to any length no matter how basic to slow down a potential attack just to allow enough time for the security services patrolling the area to come to assistance. As soon as we cleared the coast of Khor Fakkan and entered the Gulf of Oman, we counted 22 ships of varying sizes all trying to go ... read more

After all the glitz of the United Arab Emirates it is such a contrast to arrive in the sleepy Sultanate of Oman. This fairytale kingdom is ruled by Sultan Qaboos bin Said who has done a good job of preserving the unique essence of the country while slowly moving it into the 21stCentury. Oman was a closed country until the mid-1990s. Now education is encouraged and Oman has one of the few Arabian female ministers in its government. The Sultan maintains good relations with both the United States and Great Britain. Omanis are in a dither though because their 72 year old monarch has no heirs to the throne. So it is uncertain who will carry on the Said dynasty. We arrived on Friday which is a holy day for Moslems so we had to make ... read more