Thought about walking to the bus pick up point, then ordered an Uber, then it didn’t come, so I took a taxi to wait in the early morning dark for my bus ride to Oman. Worked swimmingly, including the border crossing, arriving in Muscat with time to explore before meeting up with the tour group…
After checking into the hotel, I taxied to the souk at the Muttrah Corniche in the new harbor, but found myself avoiding the sellers, navigating the labyrinth, and finding my way up to the Muttrah Fort…
More pix thereabouts, ending with the pool at the Crown Plaza. Met the group and went out to dinner.
The next morning our first excursion was to the Grand Mosque of Muscat. This batch starts with me and Said (and some other dude), the ladies in their head scarves, and various shots around the mosque. It ends with an interesting Islamic scholar who had more to say than we had time, and who gave me some literature, including the Koran…
After the Grand Mosque we went to the fish market (featured prominently here) and eventually back to the souk. This batch ends with a large batch of frankincense…
Next, we drove not that far to what is the royal palace, stopping for some interesting views along the way. Note the myriad watch towers atop various hills, satellites of the forts built to protect this important port of the Indian Ocean trade system in the Arabian Sea. The one seen here is right above the Al Alam Royal Palace, also shown here…
Our next stop was to visit the Sidab Women’s Group to learn about their empowering work. and having a lovely lunch…
Our tour for the day finished, five of our group chose to go to the National Museum. Lots here, take your time, and near the end of this batch, note in particular the pix of Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the amazing ruler who overthrew his father in 1970 and went on to create modern Oman in a period referred to as the Renaissance. His story is quite compelling, albeit shrouded in mystery…
After the National Museum, the five of us packed into a taxi and went to the Royal Opera House, another amazing building and gift to Oman from Sultan Qaboos. The taxi ride was fun as our jovial driver was concerned about getting caught by the police for having too many people in his car. And though we didn’t see a performance, we took a tour of this impressive building. While it hosts many classical performances, it also promotes local culture. (How ’bout some Omani music?)
The walk back from the Opera House to the hotel along the beach was lovely as kids played soccer on the beach, families frolicked, and the sun set. Later, there was a bizarre light show in the sky as today celebrated the fifth anniversary of the new Sultan, Qaboos chosen successor, Haitam bin Tariq.
The next morning we hit the road to explore more of Oman…