Return to Muscat
Trip Start
Nov 30, 2007
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19
34
Trip End
Jan 17, 2008
Muscat,
Oman
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The evening, after the drive from Sur, was a relaxing night with little on the agenda -- the exact opposite of my first evening in Muscat. Instead of trying to get cash sorted, I wandered the streets of Mutrah; had dinner in a cafe on the street, went through the souk again, and wound up buying a traditional Omani hat, and even got it from the actual hat sellers, rather than the in-market touts selling machine stitched hats; the band and top were made seperately, and after the band was stretched to fit my gargantuan head, they sewed them together. When I put it on, one of the women nearby just bust out laughing, so I hammed it up, noting how I was a real Omani now.
The next morning started with the goal of visiting the Sultan Qaboos Mosque; the largest in the country (but only open 8-11 AM). Holy cow, what a spectacle. It's done in a beautiful contemporary Islamic style, with clean but intricate work throughout. The grounds are immaculate, of course, and the insides are incredibly richly detailed. The main mosque has the largest Persian carpet in the world; it took hundreds of women three years to make. It was difficult to even comprehend the dimensions inside; because of the modern construction techniques and the square shape, it was a lot more open than any of the large cathedrals I've been to, which makes it hard to categorize.
Another perfect Mutrah corniche shot.
In most respects, from what I can tell, Sultan Qaboos rules better than pretty well any unelected dictator, so it was nice to be in a gigantic, ornate structure named after someone who doesn't make you feel icky inside -- compare to Kim Il Sung Square, for example.From the mosque, I drove back to Mutrah for the Bait Al Baranda, a new museum tracing the history of Muscat and based in an old courtyard house. I sort of blew through the museum -- it closed at 1:00, and while taking afternoons off is civilised for the inhabitants, it makes life a little difficult for visitors. Regardless, it's a wonderful museum from the perspective of museums; providing detail without being boring, bringing aspects of the city to life (in particular the city as viewed by others through history), and nicely presented.
Following that was... well, just wandering around, I suppose. My flight was at 8, but I wanted to be at the airport 5:30 or so to avoid any drama (and traffic that way is a nightmare at that time), and nothing really opened up again until 4, so I was adrift. I wound up following the corniche (seaside road) from Mutrah, through old Muscat, and around through communities to Jissah Beach. Located on the other side of a mountain pass from the next neighbourhood over (a pass high enough to have a viewpoint at the top of it), it was a relatively quiet (maybe 20-30 people on it) beach, again with rock on either side, and crystal-blue sea out to... the horizon and beyond. (Omanis giving me tours tended to gesture in the direction of the various foreign countries -- that's India over there, Iran that way and so on.) I mostly just relaxed there; eating my nutella and doing postcards for people; they wound up being four-country postcards as they passed through the UAE and Bahrain before being mailed from Saudi Arabia.
In short, I chilled and enjoyed the beauty of Oman and Muscat in particular. Nothing major, but the sort of thing that just reinforces how wonderful a city is and how much I'd like to revisit some day.
