A day in Muscat

One of the stops on my recent trip to the UAE and Oman with MSC Musica was to Muscat.

As 3 woman travelling, we didn’t want to upset any locals, as we had heard that they was very strict (being a Muslim country) on how they expected you to behave and dress whist ashore. The ship even has signs for appropriate dress that needed to be complied with to avoid being turned away from certain places of interest.

So respectfully, even the though the rain had now stopped after the hideous storm that we had encountered the day before and the sun was hot beaming down, we made sure we left the ship wearing appropriate dress, covering our legs and tops of our arms.  I have to say though, that not every female leaving the ship did take notice of the signs and advice given by the ship and I, myself did find this a little disrespectful.  Short shorts and skimpy vest tops in a place like Muscat, is only going to attract the wrong attention.

When visiting other countries, I always feel it is necessary to take note of and respect their culture. After all we are visiting guests and do not want to cause any problems for the short time we are there.

The Royal Caribbean ship Splendour of the Seas was also in port, soon to become the new Thomson Discovery after her stint in the area.

Splendour of the Seas

Muscat Port

We wanted to see the city of Muscat, completely different to Dubai, no high rise building in sight and also check out the souks to just see what they was all about. I had been given advise about a city bus that you could pick up from the port or just outside. When we got off the ship, we had missed the city bus as it had departed about half hour earlier, so we decided to walk into the town and pick it up from there, which was only a 10 minute walk.

Coming out of the port was very odd to say the least. We boarded a bus from our ship, got off just past Splendour of the Seas, went into a port building where they checked our landing cards and then went through security, came out the doors and had to board another bus to take us to the port exit. Here we was bombarded by loads of men asking if we wanted a taxi and as 3 woman alone, it was very daunting.

We walked towards the city and finally found the pick up point for the bus, after speaking with the city bus rep, we was informed we had to wait approx. 1 hour, so decided to head into the dingy alleys of the souks. The smell was overwhelming, it was a mixture of heat and incense. Again met with lots of men trying to get us into their shops for bargains. Not a place I felt comfortable in or enjoyed.

Once we managed to escape the alleys of the souk, we came back out to meet the bus. We was then informed that the bus would be another half hour and would cost us around £42 each. There was some taxis there also, so we negotiated a price with one of the men and agreed to pay 10 Rials an hour (approx. £18) for a city tour, he would take us to where we wanted to go and show us the sights. We was not interested in seeing the mosque, no offence but we just didn’t. But we did want to see some of the old town, the palace, the opera house and he also took us to the beautiful resorts of Al Bustan and Shangri la.

The Sultan’s City Palace

The Sultan’s City Palace

The Sultan’s City Palace

The Sultan’s City Palace

The Sultan’s City Palace

Ali our tour guide

Looking down to the resort of Shangri La

Al Bustan Palace, where the 8th floor is just for the Sultan!

Al Bustan Palace

Al Bustan Palace

Muscat Opera House

Muscat Opera House

The city and old town is beautiful, with a real rugged coast line and very mountainous, low rise white buildings, it was very clean. The beaches that we saw was beautiful and pristine.

I am so glad we missed the city bus because for a fraction of the price, we had a great day, the tour guide Ali was informative and gave us lots of information regarding Muscat and the local culture. He also took us to some great places that the city bus went to but with the luxury of taking us to the door step and waiting for us, rather  than us having to wait for the next bus!

It was a very safe city, once you get over the initial harassment of the taxi drivers at the front of the port. It is a city that I would be happy to return to for a 3 or 4 night break.

Dawn

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