Day 80 – March 26, 2015

Today we were in Muscat, Oman. A very clean and beautiful place. We needed to get some papers notarized ($50 per seal) at the American Embassy, so did not take a tour. It was a great experience as we had never been to an Embassy before. The people there could not have been nicer, bending over backwards to make our visit successful. As an example, after we were done we needed a taxi. You do not really call taxi’s here, so the guard out side said one should be there shortly. However, after 10 minutes none came. The road in front of the embassies is guarded at both ends, so there was limited access. So, he had one of the guys who does the security when you go into the embassy drive us past the police guards and there we were able to get a taxi very easily.

Oman’s position on the Arabian Sea, close to the Straits of Hormuz, made Muscat a pivotal trading and military strategic point going back thousands of years. Persians invaded long before the area became Islamic in the seventh century. The Portuguese took control for over a century, until the Al Bu Sa’id dynasty prevailed over them in the eighteenth century and they’ve ruled ever since, extending the sultanate’s power into East Africa at one point. In the past 50 years, Oman has remained a stable economy based on trade, petroleum, and porting and since the current Sultan Qaboos bin Said took over in 1970, tourism has flourished. Muscat’s position on the water, surrounded by mountains, is dramatically beautiful, and the city’s many well preserved forts and palaces are a glimpse into its military past and development as an Islamic nation.

We were able to get a glimpse of this city in our trip to the embassy and back. And the ship had a shuttle bus from the port to a Souk. We did go shopping. One of the things that is big here is Frankincense and Myrrh. So we bought some and the burners to burn it in. Frankincense smells a little like pine and the smell lingers.

Here are some of our pictures. There are nopictures of the embassy as you cannot take any pictures on the street in front of the embassies or in the embassy.

1 – Old fort

2 – Mosque

3 – Area around the harbor

4-8 Muscat

9-10 Outside the souk

11-12 Inside the souk

13 – Structure in the mountains that looks like an incense burner

14-18 Around Muscat

19 – Looks like a palace