InterContinental Al Bustan Palace Muscat Muttrah

This morning I slept in till about 9ish and had to hustle a little as to make breakfast by 10:00am.  Oops!  There was still coffee but it was hard to find a clean table but we did find a place to sit and eat.  Today's agenda was the Souk in Mutrah along with the Corniche and then to see the city of Muscat. The drive didn't take long and we were able to find a parking place not to far away.  By the time we got there, it was already 43'C!!!!!  Let me tell you, I felt it ...

... I then spent a couple of hours at an internet cafe trying MasterCard on the phone; I'd like to say I kept my composure, but I didn't. Oh, I did for a while, explaining the situation, while they insisted they couldn't put a PIN on the card so I could take cash out of ATMs, and they insisted that you could get cash advances from banks. Maybe in Montreal, you can, but not in Muscat. At one point, the lady said -- I can't even remember what it was about, actually ...

This time I really did go to Muscat, or rather, the outskirts of Muscat. My friend Muhammad in Oman sent me a number of messages, urging me to come to Oman despite everything. I asked him, Didn't that make me part of the problem? Just another mouth to feed and water? Despite that, I decided I really wanted to go. Mostly, I just wanted to leave the University for a while. I randomly skipped out of my afternoon class and went into town. I went ...

After nice long naps and much needed showers dusk had arrived and we were ready to explore Muscat. There was a sign pointing towards the old town of Muscat that noted that it was 4 km's away. That didn't seem too far so we decided to check that out. Muttrah has a really nice water front area. On the street side there are stores, restaurants and the souk. The side agains the ...

... or a 5-star hotel's private beach. :( Muscat is an interesting city and the Sultanate of Oman has a pretty interesting recent history. The much loved Sultan has modernized the country immensely since he took power in the 1970s. At a museum (Bait al Zubair), I saw pictures of what Muscat looked like back then - pretty much just dirt roads and shanty-looking buildings. Now it is a sprawling city with highways, good lighting, interesting statues at every round ...

... hate them, despise them, i hope to never encounter roundabouts ever again. (i'm not bitter =P) Muscat is really safe. I'd say safer than Calgary. Not once did i hear about a crime nor witnessed one. There are just a bunch of car accidents. Why? cause the drivers are crazy. No signals, no respect of lanes, and speeding out the wahzoo. Life in Muscat doesn't happen usually until after 6pm. This is ...

... and in the road). Several times our driver had to come to a complete stop to wait for them to move to the side. As we were driving, we noticed the bus was struggling. When we got to sea level the air conditioning died, and before we could express our dismay, the bus came to a complete stop. Ali asked us to get off and the driver started poking around under the hood. He then got on his cell phone and started screaming at someone on the other end to get us ...