APR. 7th -- MUSCAT, OMAN

FYI -- Temperature is: 94°F/34°C 😎😅
It is the 93rd day of our cruise.

We arrive in Muscat (means "safe anchorage" in Arabic), Oman at 7:00 AM.

Barry gets me up at 6:00 AM to see the approach to our port in Oman and also to see the sunrise.  The approach looks so different from anything we've seen up to now.

At 6:00 AM

Rocky mountains all around

As you can see the city of Moscat is surrounded by rocky mountains -- a rustic backdrop for all the white buildings.  Notice there are no trees on these mountains, they are just rock.  Interesting.

All the buildings are white

As we docked, Barry & I notice 2 cruise ships already in the port.  Turns out both of these ships/yachts belong to the Sultan Qaboos Bid Sa'id.  Wow, right?

The Sultan's 2 yachts.

We have an excursion today called "Splendors of Muscat" that is 4-hours long and we leave at 8:15 this morning.
As our bus heads out we can't help but notice the most unusual thing....EVERYTHING IS SO CLEAN!!!  After India & China, this is unbelievable.  The streets are pristine and all the grounds, boulevards, etc. are groomed.  When questioned about this, our tour guide said that city workers get up around 3:00 or 4:00 AM to go out and clean the streets.  I have put a couple of pictures below to try and show how clean everything looked.  No litter, no graffiti.

Our first stop is the Zawawi Mosque for a photo stop ... we can only view this place from the outside.

Zawawi Mosque

We then head to the Bait Adam Museum.

The dagger is called "Khanjar"

We then visit there Mutrah Souq or Bazaar.  This was a lot of fun.  The place reeked of frankincense ...did not care for the smell.  Frankincense is one of Muscat's main exports!

Dave & Cath in the Bazaar...Dave is wearing a traditional "Omani" (the cap)

There's my guy...feelin' good again.

From here we go to the see the Sultan's Palace...we can only view this from the outside.

The grounds around the palace are beautiful

Main entrance to palace 

Outside the palace gates...still beautiful

From the Sultan's Palace, we have a quick trip to Forts Jalali and Mirani.  We all jump off the bus for a photo and then back on and back to the boat.

Picture taken at the forts through the gates

Fort Jalali

Fort Mirani

On our way back to the ship, our tour guide demonstrated how to put on (fold & tie) a turban.  Very neat and looked a little tricky.

Our 23-year old Tour Guide...

 Flowers are everywhere in Muscat

Anyway, it was a good tour.


We are planning a quiet evening as we get to Abu Dhabi tomorrow and have a big day.






PS --The internet is a bitch today...it has taken forever to download my pictures...sorry for the delay.