Man Oman

Man, Oman!   Vialula and I did not know what to expect here but man o man were we surprised.  This land is floating on money.   It is evident in all aspects of the place.   We come sailing into Muscat, the capital city of Oman, and of course we have to go by the two big yachts owned by the Sultan.   I heard that one of them was $300,000,000 and the other cost $500,000,000!  One of them was not much smaller than our boat.  And there they are, displayed right out in front for everyone to look at as we near our dock space.  Today, we share the port with another cruise vessel.  So, first thing you think is that it is going to be crowded everywhere we go with all the added tourists.  That was not the case.  The streets were almost empty as we traveled around.   Turns out the Sultan declared a national holiday for some reason and everyone took the day off.   Good for us!!

I have mentioned the Sultan.   He has been in power since 1970 and is very well liked.  He runs the show and everything is named after him.  Sultan Qaboos this and Sultan Qaboos that.   Oman is by far and away, a Muslim country.  Islam is the official religion.  That being said, it is not a Muslim nation where zealots or extremist exist. Arabic is the official language and Oman is proud to say they have peaceful and good economic relations with all nations, western or eastern.   As you come into Oman, you immediately see the sharp contrast of rugged brown mountains, almost void of any green vegetation against the stark white of all the buildings.   Oman is white.   Building exteriors are all white.  Residents can only be 3 stories high and business can go up to 9 stories.  Cars are mostly all white.  Buses, boats, the dishdashas the men wear, everywhere you look it is white.   Some of this is to battle the heat and some of this is to impress.  And it does.  Oman is made up of 63 states.   Only about 5 million people call it home and almost 2 million of those are foreigners who work there.  The place is absolutely spotless and we even saw workers out at intersections sweeping the curbs with individual brooms.  Oil is the number one industry and it sure must be a profitable one.  People can go to public or private schools, public or private hospitals, public or private businesses.   If it public then it is free from the government.  Women are treated equally with men and can study, drive and be anything they want, unlike some Middle East places.

Our tour today is quite a variety.  We start out by going to the Grand Qaboos Mosque.   It is named after the Sultan because he paid for it.   Of course, he pays for everything since everything is basically his.  This is the third largest mosque in the world and it is quite impressive.  Over 20,000 people can worship there at one time.   In the chamber we were in, 8,000 people can worship   A hand made Persian rug covers the floor underneath 8 Swarovski chandeliers, one weighing 8 tons.  The walls are hand painted tiles.  The whole campus is very large made of Italian marble with several different buildings of various natures.   In the Islam religion, men must go to a mosque 5 times a day for their ritual prayers.  Women, too, must do this although they don't have to go to the mosque.  I am not going to go any further in the Islamic religion.   I will just say, God bless them.

 

Next we headed out to the city of Nakhal in northern Oman.  On the way we saw miles of desert and rock dotted with scrub brush.  The landscape is either flat, rocky, sandy soil or mountains.  We pass flat areas and see camels searching for forage among the scrub.  Not much to eat out there.  In Nakhal,  we explored one of the 600 old forts in Oman.   Nakhal Fort, which houses the Khasab Castle.   It was built back in the 3rd century when Persia ruled this part of the world.  It stands over 200 feet tall and it's design and location make it very difficult to attack and easier to defend.  Narrow staircases and small openings created opportunities for small forces to repel larger armies when they attacked.  Today, it is a museum and houses many artifacts like guns, and many rooms are still made up and cared for as if the fort was still inhabited.  This shows us the uses and diversity it represented back then.

Next we didn't have to go far to find out where all the people were that day.  Since it was a holiday and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the locals we visited were all at the hot springs, the Nakhal Oasis.   The springs come out of the mountain and flows down thru the wadi's.   This particular spring is only about 40 degrees Celsius when it comes out and it cools down as it flows.  One thing is certain.  Kids here are like kids anywhere!  Give them some water to play in and let it happen.   Families come out and make a day of it.   Picnics are set up anywhere they can.  Men were grilling alongside the water.  Women on blankets under shade trees were relaxing, and the water is enjoyed by all.   It is a little different to see the women still in their long traditional clothing trying to stay cool.   No where did we see adults in swimming suits like what we would wear.  Little girls wore dresses to swim in.  We felt a little bit out of place.  Here was a couple of bus loads of white tourists invading an area where the locals were trying to just relax and enjoy the day.   We stood out and they probably felt like they were in a fishbowl.  We didn't stay too long and hopefully no more groups interrupted  their day.

Next we had a quick stop at the Bait Adam Museum.  This is a small museum in a private home catering to small groups like ours.  It is somewhat a historical nautical museum and it's curator and owner, Latif al Bulushi, told us more about the U.S.'s naval past than Oman's.   There was a nice collection of old maps, old documents concerning trade negotiations and accords.  There was some weaponry of old and some old money.  We didn't stay long because the natives were getting hungry.   So back to the buses and on to the very nice Al Nahda Hotel for lunch.  Lunch is once again a buffet of authentic local cuisine, some of which I have no idea what it was.   But it was very good.

We drove back into Muscat and to the Mutrah Souq.  This is where you read "local market."  It is almost hidden from the street yet it stretches deep into the middle of the city tucked into alleys and between buildings.  It is filled with shops where the locals and tourists come and get whatever they want.  It is like a walk thru superstore.  It is located along the main street at the waterfront and unless you are looking for it you would walk right past it.  There is store after store of all kinds of things and yet one of the things missing here is the hard sell.   People are out hawking their wares but they don't inundate you if you happen to slow down to look at something.   A pleasant difference from Mumbai.  As usual, Vi and I did our best to stimulate their economy a little, although I don't think we made much of an impact.   The Souq is really a fascinating place.   We felt very safe there and no one reported any troubles at all while in Oman.

Finally we made a quick drive by through Old Muscat.  The Sultan's official office is located here.  We also saw the iconic "Incense Burner" which is a big beautiful white lookout tower perched up over the port area. By now, we were already past the time of when we were supposed to be back on the boat.  Luckily another bus was still out so we weren't the last ones back.   Some very quick photos to capture the site and off we went back to our beautiful home on the water.   Oman was a very enjoyable stop and more than a little surprising to us   Once again, we got to see somewhere that we had preset notions about in our head and luckily we are able to come away with different ones.

We are off to see for five days, and our next stop is Jordan.  As always we thank you all for following us on our journey.  See you there!

LeRoy and Vi