Entries about markets

Building (largely by workers from India and the sub-continent) seems to be happening everywhere in Muscat, indeed everywhere in Oman. New international airport, new railway network, 4G upgrade to the telecom network; a major new infrastructure project seems to be announced everyday. Everywhere that is apart from Mutrah and "Old" Muscat which seem quiet unhurried villages on the coast in comparison with the bustle just a short distance inland.

Mutrah, despite being the main port area for Muscat has the feel of a small fishing village with a very active fish market where the daily catch is delivered and sold. It had a lovely atmosphere without a particularly fishy smell and nobody seemed to mind as we (and subsequently a coach load of tourists from the recently arrived cruise liner in the port) wandered round the fish market looking at all the different types of fish that had been caught that day. There were tuna, swordfish, sardines, red snappers and many other strange looking types of fish most of which I couldn't name; one large dark coloured fish with protruding eyes looked particularly ugly to me as it was laided out for display at the back of a truck (see final fish market photo).

Stallholder at Mutrah Fish Market

Freshly caught Swordfish and Yellowfin Tuna at Mutrah Fish Market

Mutrah Fish Market

Mutrah Fish Market - the cruise liner tourists arrive

Ugly looking Fish being unloaded at Mutrah Fish Market

Moving on from the Fish Market we walked along the "Corniche" or harbour wall looking at the boats in Mutrah's harbour and port area. There were a couple of pretty Dhows moored off shore but pride of place was given over to the Sultan's Royal Yacht with its dedicated naval supply ship behind it. It's an impressive looking boat but apparently spends most of its time moored here. Behind the Royal Yacht was the big cruise liner Costa Atlantica and a couple of small catarmaran ferries, I think we can guess which boat the coachload of german tourists at the Fish Market came from!

The Corniche at Mutrah

Dhows in Mutrah Harbour

The Sultan of Oman's Royal Yacht in Mutrah Harbour

The Cruise Liner Costa Atlantica moored in Mutrah Port

Across the road was the entrance to Mutrah Souq, a typical chaotic Arab Market but housed in a surprisingly modern building. We were lucky to visit it on a Sunday, an unusually quiet day but will still heard one stallholder offering to sell "Gold, Frankincense and Myrhh" which perhaps isn't one of the most original of sales pitches but probably goes down well with the tourists.

The entrance to Mutrah Souq on the Corniche

Gold, Frankincense and Myrhh on sale at Mutrah Souq

Mutrah Souq

Mutrah Souq

From the Souq we moved on to Old Muscat in the next bay along the coast. Like Mutrah, Old Muscat feels unhurried and small scale compared with the bustle of the commercial area slightly in land but the buildings are certainly not old and pride of place goes to the Sultan's Palace built in 1972 on the site of the former British Embassy. Surrounding the Sultan's Palace were different ministry buildings and a couple of museums one of which was the Bayt Al-Zubair with its interesting well presented collection of traditional weapons, clothing and other artifacts from the different regions of Oman. It also had a new hall dedicated to the "Jewel of Muscat", a replica of an Arab Dhow that was sailed to Singapore in 2010 recreating what happened in the 9th Century.

The Sultan's Palace

The Sultan's Picture on the wall of the Bayt Al-Zubair Museum

Giant ornamental Frankincense Burner at Al-Riyam Park overlooking Mutrah Harbour

The last major excursion of my visit to Oman was to Jebel Shams ("Mountain of the Sun" in Arabic), the highest mountain in the country. On the way we again past through Nizwa and its spectacular fort about 2 hours out of Muscat but this time we stopped to have a look. What I had expected to find was a museum with well laid out grounds and old canon; what we found was a virtually deserted Souq.

It turns out what Nizwa Souq is famous for is its livestock market especially of live goats but we had chosen the wrong day, we needed to come on a Thursday. Never mind, what I did stumble on unexpectedly instead was the specialist gun area of the Souq and it initially shocked me to see guns so openly on sale.

Nizwa Fort

Street scene in Nizwa by the Souq

Gun shop in Nizwa Souq

We then began our drive up to Jebel Shams with a photo stop at the vacant village of Ghul at the mouth of the canyon and became aware of the goats - more on both anon!

The vacant village of Ghul at the mouth of the Canyon

Goats at the side of the road on the way up to Jebel Shams

The road to Jebel Shams

Despite being the highest mountain in Oman (10,089 feet, 3,075 metres and site of a military radar station that can apparently see as far as the Mediterranean Sea) what Jebel Shams is really famous for is the spectacular 6,000 feet deep gorge that runs along side it. Known locally as the "Grand Canyon of Arabia" it is so leg wobblingly deep that it is impossible to convey this in a photograph - although I did have a try!

Looking over the edge at Jebel Shams

Me next to the canyon edge at Jebel Shams

In addition to a few Bedouin women selling handmade trinkets, there soaring above us were eagles; we must have seen about 6 - mainly sea eagles but also a brown eagle - and then there were the goats. These appeared out of no where and loved to be fed the apple we had brought up for them. A handful of German tourists took loads of photographs of me oblivious to what I thought was the far more spectacular sight I was trying to point out to them of eagles circling only a few feet above their heads.

The goats at Jebel Shams do like to be fed apple

We then made our way back down the mountain the same way we came up to the village of Ghul at the entrance to the canyon we had been looking down into and began our drive in. None of the precipice edges to the road this time but a challenging 4WD none the less. Eventually we reached a small village which was as far as we could go and looked up at the gorge rim we had been at looking down from only a couple of hours earlier.

After exploring the village I accepted the offer of taking over the driving, my first experience of off road driving and enjoyed it more than I expected - even if there was the constant worry of misjudging and hitting a rock! We then drove back to Muscat and this time I was able to share the driving taking over just beyond Nizwa.

The entrance into the Gorge

Our road through the Gorge

This was as far as the road would take us in the gorge

Looking up at the Gorge rim - we were up there looking down less than 2 hours ago!

One thing I did not realise when I booked a hotel next door to the National Stadium Skytrain Station in Bangkok was that I would be next door to the most expansive shopping mall I had ever seen. I had heard of the MBK Center but until I experienced it I did not appreciate how unbelievably immense with an unexhaustable range of small stalls and shops it was. There are 7 floors and each floor seems to go on for ever, each time you think you have reached the end another bazaar of stalls and shops seems to open up before you.

The entrance to the MBK Center at night

Skytrains on multiple levels above the street outside the Siam Paragon

Inside the MBK Center, escalators everywhere and you can not see all the floors!

The escalators to the lower floors of the MBK Center

You can buy just about anything you can think of in the MBK Center, the free directory of shops is 20 pages long! I wanted an off the shelf pair of specs to replace my tatty 2nd pair and instead ended up with my old pair fixed up as good as new for next to nothing while I waited; a concave piece of glass to my prescription was lazer cut and fitted to my frames right there in front of me. I never appreciated before how complex the process was - facinating! Thai Street Food is rightly famed across the world but for the mega lazy there is an international food hall at the MBK Center where you take a ticket, get anything you want to eat from the stalls - Greek, Japanese etc. as well as the more usual Thai and Chinese and then present your ticket to pay when you leave.

Crowds shopping in the MBK Center

Shops and stalls as far as the eye can see (and further) in the MBK Center

Descending down onto the Ground Floor of the MBK Center

Anyhow enough with shopping! Equally interesting was how all the shopping centres competed with each other to attract shoppers. On my first night I stumbled on a Thai Boxing Tournament outside the MBK Center, not something on my list but a spectacle none the less.

Thai Boxing underway outside the MBK Center

One of the boxers is floored during a Thai Boxing Bout

The final Thai Boxing bout of the night was Female

Meanwhile the large more convential shopping centres next door had a free fashion show for a new product launch while another had a pop concert being broadcast live on radio.

The Entrance to the Siam Paragon Shopping Mall

Fashion Show at the Siam Center

Fashion Show at the Siam Center Shopping Mall

Free Concert underway by the dancing fountains between the Siam Center and Siam Paragon Shopping Malls