Muscat - Day 1 and 2

November 22 (Tuesday):

Got up at 7:45 am.  Went for breakfast at 8:10am.  Had continental breakfast, including omelette.  Rested for a while in the room,  At 11:45 went to Iqbal's house.  Iqbal's wife had invited 2 other friends, and we all had Biryani together.

Back to the hotel.  Slept and rested; checked out at 4:00 (manager had extended our check out time).  Went to the Corniche souk and did some shopping.  Had dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking the harbour.  On our way back to the hotel, ran into the members of the Indian band from the night before, so went and listened to them for 1 hr.  The owner of the hotel happened to be there and gave us complimentary appetizers.

Took taxi to the airport at 10:00pm.

November 21 (Monday):

Alarm went off at 4:30am (clock was not working properly).  Back to sleep.  Got a wake up call (knock on the door) 6:30am.  Got ready, had continental breakfast - no omelette as the cook was not supposed to come in till 8:00am).

Tour guide came to pick us up at 8:00am, for a half-day City tour.  Drove around Muscat to the Hyatt to pick up 3 other passengers.  Drove around the various Embassies (very large, impressive and on the sea front) and Government buildings.  Went to see the Grand Mosque - huge and impressive.  Went to Muttrah (old city) - visited the fish market and the Muttrah Souk (market).  the Sultans' private yacht ( was as big as a cruise ship) was anchored in the harbor.  Visited the museum and then the Sultan's Palace - amazing, massive and perched on a cliff top. Were dropped off back to the Hotel at around 1:00pm.

Walked on the Corniche and ate at the waterfront (Chicken Reshmi) - so-so.  Went back to the hotel and slept for a while - the flight and travel was finally catching up on us.  Freshened up; walked around the Corniche; went to the Muttrah Souk; had Shawarma; walked lots.  Met a number of Indian people, working in Muscat, and one group insisted we join them for drinks.  Went to Mina Hotel for beer and to listen to a live Indian music group - our new friends insisted in paying for the drinks.  One gentleman (Iqbal) invited us for lunch (Biryani) at his house the next day.

Spent the night at Corniche Hotel.


ps.  most of the people in Muscat speak Hindi; Swahili and Arabic.  Hindi as a great many people here are from India on a working visa.  Swahili as Zanzibar and parts of East Africa were under Omani rule and so a large population has East African heritage - either was born there, had parents born there, or currently have family there.


On the flight in, we overheard some people speaking fluent swahili, so we started chatting - he was from Singida.  We met another person from Tabora.  We also met Kutchi speaking people from Sind.