OUR 2019 HOLIDAYS - WE ARE IN MUSCAT, OMAN

Hello friends,

My narrative about our 2019 holidays continues.  Thanks to my visa fiasco, the full story of which you can read in Part One , our wandering through the Middle East continues.  We spend a first few days of our holidays in Doha and then we flew to Muscat, the port capital of Oman that sits on the Gulf of Oman and surrounded by the mountains and the desert which means that we continued to experience an extremely hot, up to 45 degrees C, weather.

We stayed at Kempinski hotel in Doha and liked it so much that we booked it in Muscat too.  It's situated right on the beach which we were able to see from our room and that remained absolutely deserted during the day and only in the evening, when the heat would subside, few people would come outside to have a swim.

We didn't want to have dinner at the hotel  and asked the concierge where the locals eat.  He suggested that we should try the The Walk, a pedestrian mall with many shops and eateries frequented by locals and tourists alike serving food from all corners of the world, some of them with prime waterfront locations.  We reached it in about 10 minutes after a slow walk and joined the throng of local men and women dressed in their national dress walking up and down the drag enjoying each other’s company on the way to their dinners.  

After a few minutes of walking up and down the street, we settled on a place that was serving local food which was absolutely delicious. 

Since the consumption of alcohol in public places is totally prohibited, except at the Western hotels and resorts, the locals like to spend their evenings over a cup of tea, coffee or some other non-alcoholic beverages and a plate of a delectable sweets in one of the many desert places that you can find along the mall.

Earlier on, as we were walking along The Walk, I looked through one of the shopping windows, I saw a beautifully decorated sweet shop and mentioned to my husband that we should go there after dinner for something sweet. 

Walking back to our hotel, we stopped at the marina to admire a beautiful sunset over the Gulf.

Since we didn't have a car, and public transport is scarce in Muscat and given the extreme weather conditions, we ruled out the possibility of exploring the capital of Oman on our own and let a professional tour guide help us. We contacted the agency called Zahara Tours and for the next two were driven everywhere by an extremely polite and knowledgeable driver/tour guide in a luxury air-conditioned car.  

Our tour began by visiting by visiting Royal Opera House of Oman.  As it was a summer season, there were no performances but it was open for excursions and we went inside.  

It was built on the royal order of Sultan Qaboos of Oman in in a unique Omani contemporary architecture.  Our next stop was a visit to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the main mosque in the Sultanate of Oman.  It was the middle of the day and the Mosque was closed but it looked beautiful from the outside, its golden dome glittering under the hot sun.   

Our last stop for the day was at Alam Palace, ceremonial residence of the Sultan known for its facade with bright blue and gold columns.

The following day our guide took us outside Muscat so we could see some old forts which played an important role in the country's history.  After an hours drive, we reached Al Mirani Fort built by the Portuguese in the 16th century.  Although closed to the public, its formidable structure looms large over the harbour and it is noted as one of the iconic landmarks of Muscat.

Luckily for us the nearby Al Jalali Fort built around the same time as the nearby Al Mirani Fort to protect the harbour was open and we went inside.

The last stop on our daily itinerary was a visit to Oman's Grand Canyon.  It is often referred as Grand Canyon of Arabia and is regarded as one of the best natural attractions in the country.  Our driver carefully and expertly drove the car close to the rocky rim of the canyon and invited us to step out onto so called Balcony Walk.  As we did, we were greeted by the breathtaking view over the canyon, the surrounding mountains and the villages below.

It was late in the afternoon that our guide took us back to the hotel with a short stop at the souk where he took us to the shop that was selling nothing but the dates.  Apparently, there are over 200 types of dates in Oman

I have never seen so many varieties of this fruit.  The owner insists that we tasted as many different types as we wished but they were so sweet, even for me, that after tasting just a few we thank him and left.  And on this sweet note our Middle East adventure came to an end.  At long last our really holiday has begun but all about it in the next post.

Until then
Anna
xoxo