The landscape her in Oman is totally different from that of the countries we have visited recently.
Muscat is the capital and largest city of the Sultanate of Oman. Situated on the Arabian Sea, it s landscape is dominated by the Western Al Jahar Mountains. The first thing one sees upon docking are the rocky elevations. The other countries we visited lately were rather flat, because a lot of them, especially Dubai and Singapore have reclaimed lot of land from the ocean. The economy is driven mostly by petroleum, trade and its port facilities. The sultan is well liked by the people because through his leadership the country has prospered and modernized.
As per usual, the tour we took today went to the museum, the mosque and the souks. Here is a photo of some of the market stalls of the souk.
Again I was on the lookout for a beaded top, but no luck. This souk was quite large and had many alleyways and I ended up getting lost for a bit. When it was time to return to the bus I didn’t want to be the last one to come and keep the others waiting, so I was a bit worried. I bumped into Paul, the dance host ( who had gone there in a cab,) and he pointed me in the right direction, to my relief. Then I stood there with a few others waiting for the stragglers to arrive. I needn’t have worried.
One of the places where we stopped was a modern art museum and the former home of one of the sheiks. It was beautiful, made of marble. The living quarters were downstairs built in an open courtyard and upstairs were the bedrooms. One of the tourists asked if there was an elevator to get upstairs. The guide responded that in those days when this home was built and in this country, no one had ever heard of an elevator.
I got into a conversation with one of the employees there and she allowed me to take her picture in front of the drawing I liked the most. She is a graphic arts graduate from the local university and she speaks an excellent English. She told me that a new opera house is being built in the city and that it should be finished within a year. I have a totally different impression of the Arab countries, now that I have visited there. They are quite modern and in some ways we could take an example from them. Muscat is a beautiful and clean city – no graffiti here. The laws are quite strict. If you steal, you get your hand cut off ! ! ! !
No comments:
Post a Comment