World cruise 35

March 25

Due to various threats and dangers in the area, instead of a leisurely 2 days at sea doing 8 knots to Muscat, the Captain and Powers That Be decided to spend last night at dock in Dubai and race at 18 or 19 knots to Muscat in about 18 hours most of which were in daylight. We saw lots of ships and boats of various descriptions, but none appeared suspicious. About 11:30 p.m. I felt a change in the engines. At first I thought she was speeding up, then remembered we were due to pick up the Omani pilot around midnight and realized that she was actually slowing down for that maneuver. So we docked about 1:00 a.m. but didn't get cleared until about 8:00 a.m.

March 26

Muscat, Oman. Margaret took off for the hinterlands along with stops at a gorgeous mosque and the local souq (pronounced sook and means "market"). She'll report eventually.

I had a tour bus that sported extra decoration to set the mood for the day.

We also stopped along the Muscat corniche at the Muttrah souq, but I didn't do any shopping. I found a seat at an open air restaurant at the main entrance to the souq, ordered a mug of scalding hot tea, and was doing some crocheting as well as people watching.

Suddenly I received a present from Sultan Qaboos (pronounced like "caboose"). 4 young men in Omani dress, carrying decorated baskets and handfuls of flags appeared in front of me. Our guide was sitting nearby and gave me this explanation: these men from a local school were distributing gifts (it wasn't clear if they were from, or maybe paid for by the Sultan) celebrating the fact that the Sultan had recently returned from Germany after 8 months there for cancer treatment. I received an Omani flag and a bag containing candy, dried flower petals, 2 small pins with the Sultan's photo, a laminated photo of the Sultan, and a small container of a tan substance with a little spoon that eventually turned out to be excellent and super-sweet caramel.

We continued the tour through some very sharp peaks somewhere between hills and small mountains to old Muscat with 2 old Portuguese forts and the Sultan's main palace along with major government offices.

More thanks to Mike for taking my photo of the Sultan's Palace grounds.

Finally, on to the Al Bustan Palace Hotel. This hotel was also over the top, but in crystal and marble elegance instead of bling like the Burj Al Arab.

We had tea in the lobby to the music of a harp. While it was lovely and the little chocolate cakes had gold leaf decorations, the food was not as sumptuous or quite as delicious as in Dubai.

On the way back we passed the new National Museum that's due to open in a week or so when the Sultan feels up to the ceremony after his travels.