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.


2000rpm......2500....... ..3000.........cough......cough........ ...splutter............silence.


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 ...

... 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.

... individuals they were given to the first guy we had spoken to and duly stamped - only an hour and a half but it seemed like forever, and it sure gave us a very poor first impression of the country. You live and learn, and we drove on a little way before stopping by the road for our picnic lunch, at which point Kym phoned his Austrader in Muscat to let her know we wouldn't be there in time to meet with her before his business meeting. The excellent 4 lane ...

... inside the car. It's a good thing I carry it with me at all times. I handed it over, and he flipped through it several times, and asked me questions because he apparently couldn't see whether or not I had overstayed my time here. That's probably because of all the entry and exit visas I have in the durn thing, all crammed in next to each other. I had to show him the specific one. "Where are you from?" he demanded. "The United States of ...

... 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 ...

I think I never met nicer people than Omanis. One of the things that makes them so sweet is the fact that they're not used to tourists. In many places I went to in Oman, I had the feeling that I was the very first tourist that the locals had ever seen. And in many instances, it was probably true. It's interesting to know that Oman actually opened a Tourist Ministry only about a year and a half ago. It's a rather expensive place to visit with no good public ...

Hi all, Today was a scorching 40 degrees celsius! I really felt like I was melting. Mixed in with the humidity, and all of the energy is sapped from my body. For example, today we went to go see a travel agent and passport agent to arrange a 2 day trip to Dubai. I was outside walking for about 20 minutes and everything ...

... was my honor serving you. And then offered to drive me back to the ship! WHAT!!! Maybe they were ordered by the government to be nice to tourists. Then I went on a little tour with a cabbie who was such a great guy. He showed me all around the surrounding areas. I saw a beautiful beach and this great little egg like dome that no one seems to know what it is. Hmmm I figure its James bonds next villains Hideout! The great thing was that at the end of it the cab driver ...