Muscat

The weekend before last I went with a group over to Muscat in Oman, the country next door to ours. The moment you cross the border you drive in between the mountains and then along the coast with the Oman mountains on the right hand side. Now mountains is a relative word. By NZ standards they are mere low hills, but in this part of the world where everything is flat, these are mountains. The city of Muscat is built in and around these very rocky hills. My hotel was literally backed into the rock. Muscat was of a trading port for spices etc and secured by the Portuguese with many numerous forts standing on the hill tops guarding the city. Even in the heat of the day, 35 that day, I had to go and climb up to 3 forts. A fascinating city and one I have visited 3 times. Each time I find new things there, so I am really keen to return.

Muscat has the port, which the first day I was there had a cruise ship in with 3,000 eager shoppers. As the picture shows it was hard to find a table let alone a good coffee with all the tour buses dispatching the people. I did discover Mango icecream. Large dollops of mango icecream on top of a glass of fresh mango juice, grown in Oman its self. In fact I discovered it on more than one occasion! In the port are also numerous dowhls, the old trading boats. Irag, Parkistan and India are a mere days sail away so the trade is still very brusque, along too with the imports of illegal goods. Oman has a very long coast line protected by these ultra fast multi-hulled vessels from NZ I believe.
I spent a while in the souq, a collection of small specialised shops. I have included a picture of a jewelery shop...... crowded yes, variety most definitely, fun to explore, of course, and expensive, depends if you barter for a good price, but just great to soak up the ambiance.