A Magic Carpet, er Ship ride to Arabia.

[love_the_life]

We've been given the low down on Oman. Conservative dress. No touching. Insta and FB banned. Wonder about AFF? It looks a stunningly beautiful place. Muscat being the first stop. Our tours got messed up by timing change. We were booked on a free trip to see the Mosque, the Souq, and some random thing in the middle. Then a Dhow cruise along the coastline. We have to use a shuttle bus to exit the port that only stops at the souk. Taxis very expensive to the Mosque but it looks amazing. But we risk the timing on the Dhow trip. Decisions decisions.

Doesn’t Viking have to sort out the replacement arrangements due to the timing?

 

[RooFlyer]

Taxis very expensive to the Mosque but it looks amazing. But we risk the timing on the Dhow trip. Decisions decisions.

Oman is an expensive place to visit due to the strength of their currency. I don’t understand all the issues, but if it is choice between a dhow and land visits, I would choose the land visits.

Watch out for the head-guy’s (mega-) yacht in the harbour.

 

[Pushka]

Doesn’t Viking have to sort out the replacement arrangements due to the timing?

They told us to choose. Lots impacted. Them’s the breaks.

Our ship now has razor wire embracing deck two. We are just about to berth in Muscat. Stunning.

 

[Pushka]

While on shuttle bus waiting for 9am departure and still in Wi-Fi range.

Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.

Last time we were in Muscat was in the ‘80’s on a BA flight to Europe. We were not allowed to leave the plane and were surrounded by armed guards.


One of the Sultans Yachts.

 

[Pushka]

Muscat, Oman is strikingly beautiful. We are on the verge of summer season when everything closes down. Today was so hot that my carefully thought out long sleeved shirt was a fail. I sweated so much on my back then leant against a seat and it became see through. Ooops.

This morning our Viking tour of the mosque was cancelled due to conflict with the arvo Tour we decided to take the first shuttle into the souk as it's a working port and you can't just walk out. We were the only ones on the bus! we were just going to look in the Souk. Nice enough. So we were approached immediately by taxi drivers. We asked how long it would take to go to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, which is what we wanted to do but we're concerned about time. He said 90 minutes tops. Hmmmm. How much. Well, we had rial so on a good bargaining position but it still wasn't cheap. But we decided what the heck. So in we bundled. So glad we did. The taxi driver was a great guide, told us lots of information and drove well.

Along the way, some photo grabs. Taken from a fast car so not sure how blurred. Mosques everywhere. Stunning. Stunning new buildings.







First glimpse of the Grand Mosque. Beautful.

 

[Pushka]

In the 1970's, Oman had few schools, nor hospitals. Then Sultan Qaboos became the powerful leader and implemented drastic improvements. To the extent that it went from two schools to compulsory schooling for both girls and boys, free to 18 years. Free University to those who qualified. Transport. Infrastructure, stability and most importantly, Peace. His grand expression is the Sultan Qaboos Mosque, in the new Muscat. It is stunning.

Warning. If you are not interested in Mosques, pass on.

We first entered the main entrance and because it was before 11 am, as non Muslims we were still allowed to enter. I had to wear long sleeve top, pants and a hair shawl. All good. I was prepared. The external is built from Carerra Marble. It is so white. So clean. We were walking outside on the marble floors. Our feet remained clean. Amazing feat, the Mosque is effectively washed every week.

The entry path.


We turned to the First mosque on our right. It turned out to be the Women's Mosque. Very beautiful, clean and surprisingly cool.





Hand woven carpet from Iran.



Beautiful carved doorways everywhere.

 

[Pushka]

We then proceeded to the main mosque. We were trying to keep ahead of the Viking Tour buses. . But we also listened in. They were after all free and what we had originally booked.



Shoe boxes. There are stalls like this everywhere. Again, all very clean.


And then we entered the Mosque proper. To say it's stunning does not do it justice. It is magnificent.

 

[Pushka]

So details about the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. The designs commenced in 1992 and took almost 7 years to build. It can hold 20,000 worshippers!

That Carpet

The Prayer carpet consists of one loom and was handmade in Iran. The carpet measures over 70 by 60 metres (230 by 200 feet), and covers the 4,343 m2(46,750 sq ft) area of the praying hall.

That Chandelier.

The chandelier above the praying hall is 14 metres (46 feet) tall and was manufactured by the Italian company Faustig. Since the mosque is 90 metres high, the chandler looks proportional, but it used to be the world's largest chandelier, before again being replaced in this respect by the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It weighs 8.5 tons, includes 600,000 crystals, 1,122 halogen bulbs complete with dimming system, and includes a staircase for maintenance within the chandelier. Thirty-four smaller chandeliers of the same design are hung in other parts of the building. it is absolutely stunning.

 

[Pushka]

Last views of the Mosque. We then found the taxi and off to the Souk.





The Souk was wonderful. The stall holders question but aren't nasty or too aggressive. Everyone was actually extremely polite and curious. We told them, when we weren't buying that there were many others following us the ships excursion returned and as we left to leave, they were there advancing in their hundreds.





We retuned to the ship to cool down and grab a quick lunch before the next excursion. I laughed as I saw the Main carvery item - the most magnificent leg of Pork, replete with Crackling, apple sauce and gravy. Deal. The deserts looked wonderful too.




It was delicious.

 

[Pushka]

In the afternoon we did a Dhow cruise. It was hot even on the water but a nice trip.
The Marina
.
Crystal clear water.

The Dhow




The locals fishing. They fish for Tuna.

Small forts line the coast.




The Sultans palace. The buildings either side are the guest quarters.

 

[Pushka]

For some reason we left Muscat 90 minutes early. I posted while it happened, looked up to see we were moving. Trusting that everyone was back onboard!

We pass the Incense burner on the way out of Port.



Piracy Protection. Haven't seen the armed guards patrolling just yet but as we proceed south towards Guif of Aden we will pick them up soon. There are other measures in place that we won't be told about.



As we ate dinner a pod of dolphins cruised past then we watched them playing and jumping as they headed past us.

 

[Pushka]

Today we berthed in Salalah, Oman. An industrial port but we amused ourselves watching giant sea turtles pass us by. Last night we went to a port talk. Viking tried to pull a swifty on the Taxi Union here by providing shuttle buses from a different gate and thereby bypassing where all the taxis are. Taxis are super expensive here. Unfortunately that completely messed with our plans as we had pre booked a Tour with Locals private car and needed to meet at that gate. The tour manager was less than helpful and said we should take their Viking tour. Which to be honest were awful. We knew East Salalah was exceptional from someone we knew who worked there. So we hightailed down to the shore excursions person who suggested that if we could get the drivers ID, car reg and make then the gate would let him through to where the ship is docked. So we quickly emailed the driver who has been fabulous, who then gave us those details and those were forwarded to the port authority. We still didn't know if our plans had worked until we berthed, and this is what we saw!

That row of buses? Nup. The white car just next to them - Yep - our car awaits us. Brilliant.



The driver, Mohammed said he'd never been given permission to do that before. He had made a sign with our name and simply showed the guard and was waved right through.


So we were off to the Wadi first, an hour drive away. Along the way we stopped for a coconut milk, local bananas and nuts, which turned out to be betel nuts.




We then stopped at the oldest souk in Salalah and I bought best quality francincense a burner and charcoal for 1 rial, or around $4.50 all packaged up. Oman is the centre for Francincense.. We saw many trees where it is produced.



We then proceeded east along the stunning white sand coast line. The water an incredible blue. It goes for miles.

Then up the mountains to the Wadi. It's the end of dry season and Mohammed said after the monsoon next month, everything everywhere is green and the waterways flood.

The colour was beautiful azure blue. And camels everywhere.

 

[Pushka]

We then drove to the waterfalls.

 

[Pushka]

The beauty of this tour was that no buses were allowed. We were there on our own.

There is more to post but with three sea days before Saudi Arabla I'll post over the next couple of days.

Pirate prevention will step up tonight. No extermal lights at night, window shades drawn at dusk in all areas and public areas will have lights dimmed. We will be past the Gulf of Aden in about two days. External support boarded today. There will be a piracy drill tomorrow as to what we need to do.

 

[Pushka]

It never occurred to me that each container was the size of a semi trailer.

 

[Pushka]

Armed guards all set up. They are a British Team. Might try get to talk to them, apparently they are very chatty. . This is on the main world ship tracker.



@drron, a Silversea ship is making its way through the Suez Canal now. Silver Cloud.

 

[Scr77]

Armed guards all set up. They are a British Team. Might try get to talk to them, apparently they are very chatty. . This is on the main world ship tracker.

View attachment 328117

@drron, a Silversea ship is making its way through the Suez Canal now. Silver Cloud.

What’s the ship colour coding mean here? Red ships are armed, green ships are easy pickings?

 

[Pushka]

What’s the ship colour coding mean here? Red ships are armed, green ships are easy pickings?

We've been trying to work that out. Way above our pay scale. . The number of various kinds of ships out there is staggering. Can't imagine what it would have looked like when Covid struck the world.

The Armed guards wear all black, long pants and sleeves with Gold Viking insignia and their relative stripes to rank. They are friendly when not on duty and have meals with the rest of us. The next 48 hours they will be hard at work. I think the Captain said we would be doing 30 knots during the riskier areas. That is top speed. And uses a lot of fuel. I could see on the tracking site we were doing 20 knots out of port to make the midnight rendezvous last night .

Current position to the East of Yemen. Ignore the time. It's set to UK.

 

[drron]

Armed guards all set up. They are a British Team. Might try get to talk to them, apparently they are very chatty. . This is on the main world ship tracker.

View attachment 328117

@drron, a Silversea ship is making its way through the Suez Canal now. Silver Cloud.

You should read the cruise report on the Cloud cruise in the SilverSea CC forum. Fletcher has a wicked sense of humour.

 

[Pushka]

Off to read it. Roll call or general silversea boards?

You should read the cruise report on the Cloud cruise in the SilverSea CC forum. Fletcher has a wicked sense of humour.