Elsien's Traveblogue

Muscat, Oman
I have an hour or so to kill before my bus to Nizwa and it's incredibly hot out there. Oman is for the most part rocks and desert, although I haven't seen much of that yet, it's where I hope the bus will take me to. I've been on the coast, the Arabian Sea, staying on the Corniche in Mutrah, a small fishing port near Muscat and yes, it's as romantic as it sounds. The little port has one or two big ships in, lots of small fishing boats, even though at the moment there's no fishing going on as it's Eid al Fitr, the end of Ramadan, and also a couple of incredibly beautiful dhows, traditional wooden Arab boats. The buildings on the Corniche are all low, white and either traditional, with latticework windows, or done in a compatible style. There's an incredibly beautiful soukh, with amazing wooden carved ceilings and lots of silver shops, aimed at tourists, of course, but still lovely. Behind the buildings, overlooking the bay, the sharp points of the completely bare mountains that I'm hoping to traverse or at least skirt today. Bright blue sky, white heat, I'm really in Arabia.
It's expensive though and many of the roads are only accessible by 4-wheel drive, and ideally you should have a driver as well, so the best way to really be a super tourist in this country is to start work in Dubai and then 'sultan' it from there. Most of the tourists are indeed ex-pats working in one of the other Gulf countries and staying in one of the expensive 5 star hotels. My hotel just about rated one, but it was clean and comfortable, room had bathroom and a/c, I don't entirely slum it, even though I travel on local transport with a backpack.
The Omanis, beautifully kitted out in dish-dashas (long white dresses for men, I've fallen in love with the word) and turbans or little Pakistani type hats are much more reserved than the Egyptians, who I adored, they'll chat intelligently with anybody, even if you don't want to buy anything. The Omani wives are pretty well wrapped up in black and stay in the house or the a/c car. Even with the holidays not many promenaded outside, although plenty of men did. There are also lots of Indian workers here and their wives are visible, in beautifully coloured saris and lots of cute looking children. They were all out yesterday, in the park by the sea where I spent a few hours sheltering from the sun, having messy pic-nics and playing noisy games. They don't chat to you much either, so this is all a bit more lonely than I'm used to.
I walked along the Corniche to Muscat itself, an impressive walled city with forts, watchtowers and castles towering over it and an amazingly opulent Sultan's Palace. The current Sultan is called Sultan Qaboos, unmarried and childless but must be in his fifties or older. Anyone interested?
I'm here until 2nd November when I fly to Karachi. I'm hoping to see a little more of the country before then.
I notice I've used the word 'beautiful' a lot: well, that's because it is! Wish you were here, but bring bags of money, sunglasses, head cover, a 4WD and a driver!