More of Our Oman Trip

After we finished our dive time at the fancy resort just outside Muscat, Oman, we headed into town to check-a-look and see what the town was like.

We stayed at a beautiful B&B right on the waterfront. Very nice indeed.
The only downfall of the location was that it was not too convenient getting anywhere you may want to go. Oh-well, nothing a cab ride couldn't fix.
Also, it was nice to go walk down the beach... when the beach was quite.

The B&B had a really nice roof terrace you could go sit on whenever you wanted, which was wonderful!
LOOK WHAT I SAW while sitting up there in the afternoon!!
Remember the Praying Mantis I saw in Singapore that was the size of a bread knife? Well, as big as that one was, this one wasn't! This one was the size of a piece of wild rice.
SO COOL!!!



We decided, while in Muscat, to go see the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, of course, .
There is a reason they call it "grand"!
Ay-carumba, fancy-schmancy!

Every corner you turn around is very elaborately carved, and detailed; no wonder it took just over six years to build.

It's build from 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone; that's a lot of sandstone!
Very detail-carved sandstone I might add!

With a little mathematics-ish-ness thrown in here and there, just for interest sake I am sure.
I took this for Dean - of course - and he loves it. He even took the photo to school... I have to remember to apologize to his students!   0_0

There were mosaics everywhere, which Dean also found awesome.
Me, I just tried to blend in... how'd I do?

Not only was the place massive and impressively built, it was also spotless! Which was nice because you had to spend quite a bit of time with no shoes on; not that going shoeless bothers me - not at all!

The main musalla (prayer hall) is located under the giant dome. This musalla can hold up to 6500 prayers;

this is the mens prayer hall.




It is very fancy with a giant, 14 meter (46 feet) tall chandelier in the dome, (made in Germany *hahaha) and smaller versions located around the perimeter of the room.












The prayer carpet in this room is handmade, taking four years to weave! It contains 1,700,000,000 knots, and weighs 21 tonnes - yikes!

The woman's musalla only holds about 6500 prayers.

Obviously they don't know how effective a womans prayer time is! Ha!! Silly men.

Women have to be completely covered, so thankfully our hostess lent me a long-sleeved shirt! That was very sweet of her. Sophia, a very nice lady, (she is from India, and lived in Canada for a number of years).

Barracuda

Blue Bar Parrot fish
(In the Philippines he's known as the Mulmul)

After seeing the mosque, and changing into something far more comfortable, we headed into another area of town:







the fish market, where we only stayed for about ten minutes max! ... I think I swam with those little fishies just yesterday; they looked much better then   -_-,

From the fish market we walked, heading for the regular market area. However, (oh big surprise) we got sidetracked by a carpet shop.
"Come-come, I have a very good deal for you, best carpets in Oman!"
I knew we would not leave without a carpet, and the one I liked best was hanging on the wall - so, as they kept showing me other ones, I kept saying "no, I like that one."
That's the one we bought  >^_^<   *hehe
The guy just about broke his neck getting it down for me.
Oh well, it's the cost of doing business - hahaha!

Then we finally made it to the "shopping" area.
Was just like an Arab version of Dukes Lane in Hawaii.
Instead of shorts and tanks, they were wearing burkas and thawbs (thobe).
Instead of selling grass skirts, coconut bras and lies, they were selling traditional Arabian Shora/Smagh (mens headwear), and hijabs (womens headwear).

Dean got fitted...
wearing one that morning, for me, was enough for one day.
It's very hard on the hairdo you know! (Not to mention hot and suffocating)

What do you think: does he look like a terrorist?
"Silence, I kill you..." (Achmed)
Scary? Nope, he's not.

That's enough of that - time for coffee.

We noticed a little yacht parked out in the water, and wondered who it belonged to.
Don't you see it out there, I know it tiny, but look hard, it's right there behind Dean.

Upon further investigation we discovered that the little tugboat belongs to the Sultan of Oman.
Yes, when he goes away he prefers to travel in this fashion.
It's rough being the Sultan.

Actually, apparently he has done very well for his country - he's a good leader, and wise investor. If you are a resident of Oman, you are lucky; you have it good!

We enjoyed our visit to Oman very much, and will go back again. It was easy to be there, and the people were very friendly.