Coral Boutique Hotel Muscat Ruwi

... br>We launched smoothly, gracefully slipping from the trailer and heading out to sea at a stately 8 kts. A mile out we decided the engine was nicely warmed and it was time to see what she would do.<br><br>2000rpm......2500.........30 00.........cough......cough...........s plutter............silence.<br><br>The next 45 minutes was spent trying to get it started again. We tried every combination of choke in, choke out, spare fuel tank, spare fuel feed line, engine ...

... about £8) and a short one was 3.5 OR (£5). Nice. Lat** I'm told that I should have haggled. Freya was dancing to the Arabian music in the shop. V**y cute. She has not questioned the women's dress and veils - she is v**y accepting. Probably a good approach to have h**e for so many things! Women seem to wear diff**ent things h**e. Mostly black abayas with black headscarves, some with coloured scarves, we have seen one or two women wearing the abaya ...

... form. Take it to another office and.......join a queue. Get to the front, take another ticket and wait again. Only 96 people in front this time. Take a break, go out to the car park and scream, punch or kick the car as appropriate. Re-fix smile and go back inside to wait. Finally get into the Resident Card issuing office. All you paperwork is correct, your photographs are suitable, your fingerprints have been scanned ...

Eight hours later I arrived at Muscat Airport where Miriam picked me up in her swanky mercedes a little more luxurious than the bus to say the least : The bus journey to Muscat was interesting, lots of desert and mountain views, a crazy bus driver, a slightly ominous stop at border control and a free burger meal courtesy of the cheapest and bumpiest bus I've ever been on.And so my time in Oman had begun.

... they would know, wouldn't they? Yeah, right. So the first thing I did in Muscat was hit a bank; I was almost out of cash. I went to Bank of Dhofar, and was told no. I went to HSBC, and was told no. I explained my story. I was still told no, to use the ATM. The card didn't have a PIN on it, so of course that didn't work. I went to the Standard Chartered Bank; they told me to go to HSBC. It got hotter, and still I had no cash. So I went to the hotel I was ...

... a giant chasm of water now. If you click on the picture, you can just barely see where part of the road broke off and crumbled into the sea. I think that the dirt road beside it was formed later to help with relief. We passed a car lot, housing quite literally hundreds of brand new cars--I would estimate between 500-700. Not one of them survived the storm in tact. People ...

... the hotel and take a break. Not that either one of us was complaining about that. Right across from our hotel was the fish market. Both of us had hoped that would could buy something and then have someone at a near-by stand cook it for us. This turned out to not be the set up of this particular market. Instead we wandered the few stalls. I would have liked to take some pictures, but I didn't want to be rude. It wouldn't look ...

The main highlight of today's very long day was going to Wahiba Sands - the desert - in a 4WD vehicle. And, of course, the one I was in got stuck on this large ridge of sand as we were trying to go down a very steep dune. It only took 20-30 minutes to get unstuck though! More later...

... body, so I hope all goes well. All I know is that I dislike sitting in a seat for 10 hours straight. I hope Calgary isn't cold, for I fear getting sick from such a drastic temperature change. IMPORTANT!!!!!!This trip is not over yet, as I will be in Calgary for only 2-3 days before I catch a flight to the States. Where am i going? i'll let you all know once i get back to Calgary. LET THE BLOG LIVE ON!! -Rob out

... located on Muscat Bay and is absolutely beautiful. This is the place to stay for anyone coming to Muscat. It is only an hour's drive from the city but it felt worlds away from anywhere. Salalah We had a very interesting day in Salalah. In many places that we've visited, the ship's tour director has prepared us for possible mishaps and fuzzy schedules, but really nothing too outrageous has happened. He didn't give us the same warning here, but we had an ...