Corniche Muttrah

... throttle open, throttle closed, all to no avail. Thankfully the spare engine started with a quick tug, so every 10 mins or so we would flash it up, head away from the rocks the wind was blowing us towards, then shut it down and reconnect the fuel to the main engine to try again.<br><br>Alas, we couldn&#8217;t get the damned the thing started. Our maiden voyage ended with us chugging back at 5 kts on the little 30hp spare. I sat on the swim deck keeping the ...

... with no headscarf, some abayas have been anoth** colour or even patt**ned. One was a beautiful Chinese floral print all ov** on black. The young** girls, around 10 or 11 years old wear their own clothes with headscarves. I can't decide yet wheth** it is a case of 'anything goes' or the styles are according to age/family/staus/moth**/married...I am embarrassed to say that it is c**tainly highlighting yet challenging my v**y little knowledge of Islam.

... this was only the culmination of various similar processes to get a resident visa, sponsorship letter from my employer, photographs of a suitable size and background, and an employee ID card, all of which were convoluted procedures involving lots of official stamps, assorted signatures and much pacing up and down outside obscure offices. Thank goodness for the sun, the pool and the beach. And the cold beer in the club bar.

... I like this place, I couldn't live here with the humidity or heat.  Ugh. I think we saw the royal yacht across from the souk but shopping was more of a priority.  Again, the souk was not that open as it was still Eid and many places were closed for the holiday.  I was expecting a HUGE souk like Istanbul or Jerusalem but it was more on the scale of a small, organized souk.  One of the first vendors had frankincense and myrrh along with saffron from Iran.  He wanted us ...

... it was well after it was made clear they couldn't help me -- something, ending with "No problem." Which just pushed me over the edge, really. No problem? No problem? Maybe in Montreal, they had no problem, but I was in Muscat for five days, with eighteen dollars cash (actually, twelve after paying for the phone time) and my bag in a forty dollar hotel room (cash only). So I did, in fact, have problems. The next day, I took the last of my emergency traveller's ...

... the bus station and asked about buses to Muscat. The guy in the booth told me to go to another bus station, and I will come back to that point in a minute. I decided I'd rather fly than take a bus, so I took a taxi to the airport, and started asking the people questions at the ticketing desk. The cheapest ticket they could give me was 900-something dirhams, roundtrip. Now, I don't understand this: I could just step down the street into an ...

... has a wonderful walkway with some statues. Families were all over the place strolling around and enjoying the cooler air. It was cooler that it was during the afternoon, but it was still hot and thick. It felt like we were swimming through the air. In Jordan everyone starred at us. Here, it was if we were not there at all. I'd grown used to the stares and being ignored was ...

... beautiful white buildings (that all must have an Arabic style), etc. In fact, it reminds me a bit of LA because you have to drive everywhere &amp; anywhere, there are HUGE supermarkets (although they have sparkly blinking lights on theirs at night), there are shopping centers and there are plenty of brands I recognize (McD, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Radio Shack, etc. Near the Intercontinental (a much nicer hotel within walking distance of mine), there were ...

... because the heat is too unbearable until the sunsets. Would I want to live in Muscat? Probably not. The city is nice, the people are friendly, crime is low, and the greenery is nice for the eyes, but the HEAT is too much for me. It drains me too much to be productive in anyway possible. If Muscat averaged 15 degrees lower, then i would actually consider living in this middle-east country. -Rob

... bus. We had to laugh because when he was done screaming in Arabic, he was very proficient in uttering English swear words under his breath. Just as we were about to give up, the driver determined what was wrong and got us going again. We had a very short ride to the end of the beach where there are unusual rock formations and natural blowhole. Now picture 5 buses, 120+ people all standing with cameras in hand waiting for the tide to create a photo op ...