Muscat, Oman – Friday 6th April

Muscat is the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, which is an independent state on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.  Apparently the Sultan Said bin Taimur who came to power in 1932 ran a very harsh regime and following  guerilla attempts to overthrow him in the 1960s he was ousted by his son Qaboos bin Said in a bloodless coup in 1970.  Under the new sultan there have been massive changes in the country with the building of hospitals, new roads and an international airport – the most impressive statistic is that average life expectancy has risen from 47 in 1970 to 71 for men and 76 for women.  The country is about as big as Italy but has a population of only 3 million.

View of Mutah as we sailed in

We docked at Port Sultan Qaboos which is in the town of Mutrah, itself 3Km from Old Muscat.  It is certainly a picturesque location with the mountains in the background and the Portuguese forts on either side of the bay. The forts look lovely but cannot be visited so  the main point of interest in Mutrah is the Souq where the shuttle bus dropped us.  As it was Friday we didn’t expect shops to be open but they obviously make an effort for cruise ships and were open in the morning.  We found the traders to be quite pleasant and although they called us in to try to sell their goods they weren’t overly aggressive.  We ended up buying a local hat for Keith and some Arabian perfume – although one of the bottles was broken by the time we got back to the ship (made the cabin smell nice!)

Muscat and Portuguese Fort

We took a cab into Old Muscat and visited the Sultan’s palace (built in 1970s), which is very grand but quite austere, there were a couple of museums which appeared to be in renovated old buildings but most of the city didn’t look very old, and there wasn’t a lot to interest us here.  There is a new Muscat which houses all of the shopping malls but that was further inland.  We decided to walk back along the seafront and began to find out how difficult it is to find your way around when no-one speaks English and you don’t have a map.  Eventually we found the right road (it was complicated because we had to go inland to get round the fort) and set out in the 41 degree heat.  It was tempting to give in to one of the many cab drivers who were touting for business but we persevered and were rewarded by seeing some marine wildlife in the very clear water- especially  two huge stingrays who came up close  – but by the time we got the camera out they had moved away.

The Palace

The Promenade

Back at the port we crowded into one of the few cafes which were open, along with many of the ship’s passengers and crew, but there was nothing else open so we headed back for the ship and cooled down in the pool.  It would have been great to stay for the evening when everything comes to life again but we could only watch from the deck as the sun went down and we sailed away.  It is a very beautiful spot and we heard from people who went on an excursion to an oasis that the interior is definitely worth visiting.

New Hat, Old habit

We now have four days at sea before our first stop in Egypt at Safaga on 11^th April.