Muscat,Dubai,Khasab and Salalah

---

Tuesday 18th April
Would you believe we have already been away for one month! Time has flown, think we will just have to book another cruise and just stay on board for another few months.….
Yesterday was out first experience in the Middle East, and boy what an experience that was…..
We sailed into Muscat, Oman, early in the morning….I think I took a least 50 photos just sailing in. The landscape was spectacular, and as we got closer to the city, all you could see was beautiful white buildings everywhere. We sailed right past the Sultans Palace, then docked just across from the Sultans yacht. The Spirit docked at a container wharf, which was the cleanest wharf I have ever seen. We were going on a City tour, so went down to board the bus at 8.45am. We were given “Visitor” visas to pin on our shirts until we cleared the dock area. Driving through the dock area, and amongst all the containers, you would swear someone had been there scrubbing the ground……not even a sign of dust anywhere let alone garbage of any sort. The guide said Muscat had been declared the second cleanest City in the World, after Singapore. We thought it was even cleaner than Singapore, but probably didn’t win as it is so much smaller. We drove all around the city, spectacular buildings everywhere, almost all painted white. Roads are wide and perfectly maintained. There are lots of beautiful public gardens, fountains, sculptures etc etc. Suppose there might be money in oil? Our first stop was The Grand Mosque. We were very surprised that we were able to go in both the mens and the womens prayer rooms and were allowed to photograph everything we wanted (apart from the men). The only women there were visitors anyway. We were told if we wanted to photograph people, we would have to ask the men…..were not allowed to ask a woman…..they don’t get a say. Can’t say I would like to live like that but…….the other thing about this culture that I think is dreadful, is the men dress in nice cool white, while the women have to cook in black. If their religion or culture says they have to cover up from head to toe, well fair enough…but why can’t it be in a cooler colour?
The Grand Mosque is the only one in Oman where “visitors” are allowed to enter. Not everyone agreed with the decision, but the Sultan said that was what was going to happen, so it did! Good to be king!
The mosque is absolutely spectacular; I could never even imagine anything so beautiful. The men’s prayer room was unbelievable…..in the centre was a chandelier of gold and crystal, about the size of our whole living room, then there were dozens of other chandeliers all around the hall. There were magnificent carved timber doors, leadlight windows, hand woven carpets etc etc. The women’s room was much plainer, no carpets, not much decoration, although they did have chandeliers much much smaller chandeliers though!
We also got to spend some time at the Souk, but not as long as I would have liked. There were all sorts of goodies to buy, but not enough time to buy much. The shops all close at 1pm. for “siesta”, so a lot of people from the ship just caught the shuttle bus and went shopping……I wouldn’t have liked to miss the tour though. Suppose I can shop anywhere!
We also found the people in Muscat very friendly….it was a lovely introduction to The Middle East, and not what we expected at all.

I’m afraid I get very frustrated with fellow travellers at times…..later in the day we asked one man what he thought of Muscat, as we didn’t think anyone could help but be impressed by the place. His answer? “Been there, done that, didn’t do a thing for me”….I then asked if he has seen the mosque.. his reply… “why would I do that? I don’t believe in it, so why would I want to see it?”……my only answer to him was “architecture, art, beauty, design, workmanship, history”…then I walked away….why do some people bother travelling?

We then left Oman and sailed off to The United Arab Emirates, Dubai. Arrived in Dubai around 3pm. on Tuesday so everyone was up on the Sky Deck watching the sail in. Unfortunately, it was very hazy, so photos won’t be terribly good.
That night we had a “Seabourn Experience”…. We left the ship around 5pm and were taken through the city, to the edge of the desert, by bus. I suppose we had read enough, and heard enough about Dubai, not to be terribly surprised by the City, but I think we were still amazed at the amount of construction going on around the place. When we reached the desert, we transferred to Land Cruisers, and did a bit of sand sliding until we reached a “Bedouin camp”. Of course it wasn’t a ~real~ Bedouin Camp, just one done for tourists, but it was really well done and we had a great time. John tried the camel riding…..poor camel you could see the pained expression on the poor things face. At least John didn’t fall off and break anything, but it took 2 blokes to get him back off the camel! He also got tattooed! They had sand boarding down the dunes, but I didn’t see too many people trying that one. I think the majority of Seabourn passengers are a wee bit too old to be climbing up huge sand dunes, just to have a quick slide down again. There was a huge buffet of all types of food, local stuff, bbq meats, salads and even spaghetti! Also another buffet of trifle, baked custard and chocolate cake!
The evening ended with belly dancing, which I suppose was good, but even John got bored with it as it went a bit too long. I suppose that is really showing his age!
We then got back into the 4 wheel drives for another dash across the sand dunes, back to the buses and home to the ship.

Wednesday 19th.April

This was the day when a lot of people came to the end of their cruise and had to leave the ship. Its always sad to see some people leave but also happy to see others go! After breakfast we went out on another tour. This time it was a tour all around the City, showing us all the main parts of Dubai. We even took a water taxi across Dubai Creek, which was a bit scary, not much to hang on to and they rock around a bit. Would be easy to end up in the drink! We crossed the Creek to go to the Spice Souk, where we had a bit of free time to look around and shop…..however we wouldn’t be able to take any of that stuff back into Australia, so nothing there we could buy. Next it was off to the Gold Souk…….wow……of course we didn’t buy anything….will have to wait till we win the Lottery and go back there then. I took some photos of all the gold jewellery in some of the shop windows. It was magnificent, but some people who actually checked out prices, said it wasn’t any cheaper than at home……although you wouldn’t find the type of jewellery they had at home. I saw lots of beautiful pearls I would have liked…… maybe next time……*sigh*

Back to the ship, for lunch and a snooze, then up to the Sky Bar for sail away, and to watch the new lot of passengers having to do their life drill. This time there are about 60 people left from the previous cruise. There are a lot of much younger passengers this time. Will be interesting to see what all the new ones are like.
We had dinner with two new couples, one from New York City and one from Tennessee.

Thursday 20th. April

After we left Dubai, we back tracked, to Oman, reaching Khasab around breakfast time. There is no Port here, so had to tender to shore.
We left the ship at 8.30am. for a tour along the coast. The drive was absolutely spectacular. The scenery was breathtaking…..very stark, but beautiful. Our driver and guide were really great, good sense of humour, all dressed in their Arab outfits. The drive was around an hour and we passed remote fishing villages and ended at a Fort. Back to Khasab, and to another Fort, where some local people were playing music and singing for us. The best part was all the children were dressed in their traditional clothing, and loved having their photos taken……of course they also loved getting a few dollars too!
When we leave Khasab later today, we will be at sea for two days, then to another City in Oman, Salalah…..will be interesting to see what differences there are between Northern Oman and Southern Oman.

Again today I asked one of the “new” passengers how he enjoyed the tour we did…..his answer… “it was too long” the tour was just over 3 hours? Guess he won’t be experiencing Petra or Cairo!

So far we have really been blown away by our introduction to The Middle East. We have found everywhere we have been, clean, safe, very friendly people, and beautiful scenery.


Sunday 23rd. April

Arrived at our last Port in Oman, around 6am. This was at Salalah in the South of Oman. We were only going to be in Port till 12.30 so just a quick sightseeing tour around the area. First we drove out of the City, through some very desolate areas, and to a coastal area where there are “blow holes”. However the seas were too flat for any action to be taking place at the blow holes. It was also very hot, so was a bit of a relief for me, as I didn’t need to walk so far! We then continued on to “Jobs Tomb”. Once there we had to cover up, long sleeves, scarf etc…..then walk a fairly short distance to where the tomb was. By the time we got there, I thought I was going to boil over, the long sleeves I could put up with, but once my head was enclosed in a scarf, the heat just got to me too much. I decided seeing Jobs tomb just wasn’t worth the discomfort. After all we had been told that there is also a “Jobs Tomb” in Turkey, Yemen, Iraq…and I think they said a few other places, so looks like the old boy died a few times!
We are now a sea for 4 days, and headed to Aqaba, Jordan.

---