Muscat, Oman - Mar 14, 2013

After a relaxing two days at sea as we crossed the Arabian Sea from Mumbai we now have arrived back to the Middle East and Muscat, Oman. Muscat (Arabic is Masquat which means “Cliff”) is the fitting name for a city with such sheer inland boundaries. This is a very friendly port and the centuries old tradition lingers. The sprawling city of about 750,000 is neatly divided into three main districts, Muscat, Mutrah and Ruwi. The Sultan’s palace is in the central district of Muscat neatly contained inside the old walled city. The Mutrah Fort area is the busy commercial centre. It’s fish market, Souq (Shopping market) and bazaars are fascinating. Ruwi is the business district which has the modern shops and malls. Three areas are very independent from each other as they are built around the many small mountains in the area, dry and barren and rocky is the best way to define the landscape. Historically, the Sultanate’s earliest known settlement date back some 5,000 years, but Oman remained independent until the 16th century when Portuguese traders established a fort at Hormuz. The Europeans rules for a mere 100 years, but after moving to Muscat they were driven out in 1650. Day one here was a good overview day as we jumped onto the Big Bus Hop On Hop off bus, The complete loop took over two hours where we jumped off twice, once at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque and the other at the Al Alam Royal Palace. The Mosque was built in 1995 and is truly an incredible site to see, The carpet inside the main mosque area is just huge, enough for 20,000 worshippers which took 600 women, 4 years to make (weighs in at 20 tones). The Sultan’s Palace was a great photo opportunity. We came back to the ship at about 4 pm for quick snack and a swim and then headed back into the Souq and Bazaars for the evening retail therapy. A very nice city with a well lit up skyline, friendly people, warm comfortable night temperatures and shops where the staff left you alone until you started to look at something and became a serious buyer. A great first day here in Muscat. Some pictures of the Day.