15/06/2010 7:58 am
Yesterday found us in Dubai doing a Leyland brothers rally through the sand dunes to a Bedouin settlement where we rode camels, watch ethnic dancing etc...
Oman was a surprise...not at all what we expected...a clean, bustling, well designed city emerging from a series of rocky, sandstone mountains. Don’t knock Mr Rudd’s mining tax. Here in Oman the citizens do not pay tax, have free education right through university and if Omani Universities cannot supply the course you choose to do they pay for your education in the country that can provide your course. Likewise with health...all treatment free and you’re flown to hospitals elsewhere if their hospitals can’t treat your condition.
No problem with choosing the colour of your house- all houses are white! Muscat is on the Tropic of Cancer and was expected to be very hot ...It was. But no worse than a hot, dry November day at home. When we returned to the ship at lunch time it was 42 degrees.
We toured two private museums and a souk (shopping market). I chose this trip because of the dates and coffee morning tea and was not disappointed. The dates were the best I’ve ever tasted. The coffee is served in a tiny cup and is quite strong and unsweetened but you sip it with the dates which provide the sweetness.
Mrs Mc would love the embroidery. The hat alone that the men wear takes their mother/wife 3 months to embroider. The markets have whole shops just filled with sequined edgings.
This was written while we waited to be cleared for disembarking. But we were unable to get on the internet to publish it.
Yesterday found us in Dubai doing a Leyland brothers rally through the sand dunes to a Bedouin settlement where we rode camels, watch ethnic dancing etc...
Oman was a surprise...not at all what we expected...a clean, bustling, well designed city emerging from a series of rocky, sandstone mountains. Don’t knock Mr Rudd’s mining tax. Here in Oman the citizens do not pay tax, have free education right through university and if Omani Universities cannot supply the course you choose to do they pay for your education in the country that can provide your course. Likewise with health...all treatment free and you’re flown to hospitals elsewhere if their hospitals can’t treat your condition.
No problem with choosing the colour of your house- all houses are white! Muscat is on the Tropic of Cancer and was expected to be very hot ...It was. But no worse than a hot, dry November day at home. When we returned to the ship at lunch time it was 42 degrees.
We toured two private museums and a souk (shopping market). I chose this trip because of the dates and coffee morning tea and was not disappointed. The dates were the best I’ve ever tasted. The coffee is served in a tiny cup and is quite strong and unsweetened but you sip it with the dates which provide the sweetness.
Mrs Mc would love the embroidery. The hat alone that the men wear takes their mother/wife 3 months to embroider. The markets have whole shops just filled with sequined edgings.
This was written while we waited to be cleared for disembarking. But we were unable to get on the internet to publish it.
As our cruise announcement says, “Whatever you are doing today we hope you have an excellent day and enjoy what the day provides.”
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