Muscat – Day 2 - Ernie Explores

Well, after seeing the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque last night, we knew we had to go today. So, with that in mind we headed off. The mosque is only open to non-Muslims from 8 to 11 am and you must dress conservatively. Walking around the mosque yesterday we saw that renting clothing in the vicinity of the mosque is ilegal (according to some signs), but that wasn’t going to be a problem for us. As you may have noticed, I’m always fully covered and you may recall that my partner walked around all day in Qatar with pants on, so he can handle this.

Either way, we did not get there early. My partner brought his pants and changed in the washroom, and by the time he was ready it was already 10:40. Uh oh. 20 minutes for this huge complex? Well, it’s what we’ve got. And we leave for another location tomorrow, so there aren’t any other options. In we go.

Well, since we didn’t have much time we essentially ran for the two main structures.

The second room, the main part of the mosque, was glorious. So, so big and so, so beautiful. It was impressive last night on the outside and today both outside and inside.

Then we quickly started walking around to see the grounds within the mosque. By this time the clock said it was 11, so we needed to hurry before getting kicked out!

So we walked, walked, walked. Well… my partner did. All I did was pose for pictures. And then, by the point we had circled back to the gardens we noticed that no one was hurrying us out. So we relaxed a bit and took another lap around the complex, this time much more relaxed. The entrance was closed and the parts of the mosque we had entered were also closed, so we could only tour the outside of the buildings, but that was nice enough.

Then, by the time we finally let ourselves out it was 11:40. It was a very good decision to enter, even though we thought we only had 20 minutes to tour the whole thing. That would have definitely been way too short! And with that, our tour of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque was done. Definitely recommend stopping by if you’re ever “in the area,” hehe.

Now, onto our next adventure in Muscat! What is that? Back to where we were yesterday. But this time, we should be able to get in! So we left the mosque, turned onto the busy street, and started walking towards the next bus stop.

By coincidence, a few minutes later a man that had said hi to us at the mosque, was there as well. He sat next to us and went along for the ride to Ruwi. He was an Algerian man, told us that we should visit Algeria, and told us that he had been in Oman for quite some time just doing tourist things. Living the dream, I suppose. As would be any child going to this as their Children’s Public Library. Wonder what they read as kids in Oman… Arthur?

At Ruwi we parted ways with the Algerian man as he went to do some paperwork and we went to get some much needed water and a few pictures of the surroundings.

Not much, to be honest. So it was back to the station and onto the bus for Muttrah. This time we went right by the Souq, the Fort, the Gate, all the way to the last stop, The National Museum.

Inside the museum was great. Quite big and it had a variety of exhibits, the majority, as one would expect from a national museum, was on Oman’s history. It showed pre- and ancient history, the introduction of Islam, and the renaissance of Oman following the colonial period. Here are a few highlights. They were the oldest man-made object found on the Arabian peninsula, a Bronze Age tomb, a traditional Omani boat, and the Omani coat of arms.

They also had exhibits to show what Oman is like today, showing the diversity of the people that live in Oman as determined by their geography.

And then in the renaissance period it is focused on the work that Sultan Qaboos Bin Said has done to bring Oman forward (we did notice that many projects and great works of infrastructure have his name, like the Grand Mosque we visited today). To further the point they showed the interactions of Oman, and specifically the Sultan, with the world through speeches and gifts, like this gift of a model of the Dome on the Rock.

And finally (but not for us, just in the way we’re telling you) there’s a temporary exhibit about Syria: The Cradle of Civilization.

It was a nice exhibit showing many archaeological finds from the birth of civilization to more “modern” ancient times (oxymoronic), including these busts.

And then we were done. When we came out of the museum it was late afternoon, so we didn’t expect much more sunlight. We quickly went around Muttrah looking at the sights that we had only seen at night yesterday.

And then, without knowing when the next bus would come, my partner decided to walk as far as possible back to the Muttrah Souq. So, like last night, we went back along the waterfront road to Muttrah.

And good thing we did. We made it all the way to the Souq without seeing a bus, and the Souq was aliiiiiiive. Way more stalls were open now in the evening as compared to when we were here yesterday in the early afternoon. Now it was abuzz with activity.

So we walked around and looked at all the stalls again. The stalls in this Souq mainly sell tourist trinkets (magnets, flags, etc.), things made of cashmere, and spices; but you can find pretty much anything you’re looking for in some corner of the Souq. There’s also the gold area. No pictures allowed. Hehe.

Well, time to head back and wait for the bus. It shouldn’t take too long, we hope. At least it’s not an ugly view.