Oman: Muscat

 Monday, April 24, 2023, Muscat, Oman

The night before we got to Muscat we found ourselves in the middle of a  tremendous rainstorm, with thunder and lightening. The entire sky lit up around us, and other times we could see bolts of lightening going into the sea. There was also thunder, with one especially loud clap among smaller ones. It was very exciting to watch, and unusual for this trip. 

The day we arrived was sunny and a perfect temperature. The first thing you see approaching from the water is a giant white sculpture of an incense burner on the hillside. 

Incense burner sculpture on hillside—symbol of Muscat from frankincense trade

Muscat from the Sea of Oman (recently renamed by Sultan—used to be Gulf).

Muscat seems very organized and almost scary clean. No graffiti here, no  garbage. Very attractive plantings along highways. Things seem to run on time.

There appeared to be a couple of cruise ships in port a similar size to ours, but it turned out to be the Sultan’s private yachts.

Sultan’s yacht

We had tickets for the Hop On/Hop Off bus. Oman is the 4th safest country in the world (according to them). I believe it. 

The first stop was the Muttrah Souk. We went into a shop the driver told us about looking for postcards. They had stamps, too. Charlie found those while I shopped spices. Then on to the souk itself.

Gift shop where we bought postcards & stamps (and spices).

I love The Muttrah Souq. It’s a labyrinth and easy to get lost. We were looking for cough drops for me, and had to ask a couple of times before we found the pharmacy fairly deep into the Souq. It was tiny, and packed full of people. Charlie volunteered to wait in line so I wasn’t coughing on the other people. I wandered out into the labyrinth, careful not to get too far—it would be hard to describe to Charlie where I was. I bought some pants and another pashmina. Charlie was looking for a regular button up shirt. The vendor in my shop offered to take him to another building behind the Souq, so we followed him there.

Entrance to Muttrah Souq

Inside Muttrah Souq

I thought a saw some money pass hands as he left us with the vendor. This vendor tried mightily, but couldn’t find what Charlie wanted. He finally sold him a pair of workout shorts. 

We went back to the Souq and were hungry. We decided to eat at the Second Home, a restaurant that advertised Omani food and Chinese. Some other people from the ship came in while we were there. We were seated and tried to order food. They were out of vegetables. They were out of rice. They were out of seafood. Whatever we ordered they were out of it. We’re not sure what the business was, but it was definitely not a restaurant.

Dubious restaurant. Most likely front for something else.

We hopped back on the bus, planning to ride through the stops and not get off again. I was still pretty low energy from a bronchial infection. However, at the next stop Charlie spotted Oman’s version of a 7-11. We got off to get snacks. We stocked up on nuts, some chips made with tapioca flour (really good) and some British cookies we recently discovered called “Digestive Biscuits” that are surprisingly good and guilt free.

Back on the bus, we rode the whole circuit. The most interesting part was going through an arch in a wall next the sultan’s palace. It didn’t seem like the bus would fit, but it did. We couldn’t go inside the palace walls but got a pretty good look from being high up on the bus. 

We enjoyed our laid back day.