Muscat, Oman without John

This post is out of order.  It should appear directly after the post about Dubai, but we are playing catch up with our posts at the moment.  We can only do so after "sea days" and sometimes we take a day to recover from touring the day before, so please forgive us.  I also can't add any photos to this post yet.  I think the internet is too slow.

John doesn’t have a lot to say about Muscat, not having been able to leave the ship.

Why, I hear you ask?

Well basically because the Port Authority of Mina Qaboos, where the ship was docked, does not officially allow pedestrian traffic on the dock. All access and egress from the ship to the terminal and from the terminal to the dock entry gate must be by shuttle bus. And you guessed it, the shuttle buses have no wheelchair access.

And there were also no tours offered by Princess Cruises on accessible buses, and no private ones we could find.

Accessible taxis appear to be unknown.

A fellow passenger, who has paraplegia, managed to find a local shuttle bus driver whose car was parked on the dock, to use his own car to give our friend and his wife a lift to the dock gate, from where they caught a taxi to Muscat. On the return journey he wheeled from the town, asked security at the gate, and was allowed to wheel back to the ship. So it can be done.  Mind you, he was nearly wrecked from the heat.

In addition, he saw several members of the Sea Princess crew also walking back from the gate to the ship.

John is not happy.

It’s a pretty port and here are some photos John took from the ship. 

But Margaret caught a shuttle bus into Muscat twice – the first time she had forgotten to take her camera.  The trip was divided in two:  the bus dropped us 150 metres away at the terminal where we went through customs and immigration – then picked us up on the opposite side of the terminal.  It was basically a huge barn with very slippery marble floors, steps and a ramp. Not good for the many mobility impaired passengers on our cruise.

It was a very hot day – 38C and humid.  The bus delivered us to the town within 10 minutes, right to the Suq or market.  Most shops sold material – in bulk or made up into scarves and clothing.  There were the usual souvenirs and overall very colourful. Some of the lanes to the sides were extremely narrow, and as well as materials, there were many selling kitchen goods for locals. The food markets must have been elsewhere.  Margaret changed $20 USD into the local currency – dials and baisa,  three dials to the dollar - and bought two scarves, some postcards, a fridge magnet and two cool drinks.  She then went back to the ship to collect her camera and hop on another shuttle bus back to the Suq (not Souk) as the locals name it.

Unlike Dubai, there were no passengers off aeroplanes, many young and inconsiderate of local etiquette about covering up.  Sea Princess passengers seemed to be the only tourists in town, and the women – generally of a certain age - conformed to the custom of not showing elbows, shoulders and legs.

But it was extremely hot and many passengers were glad to get back to the ship.  It was the first day of Ramadam, but since there were so few food shops and restaurants in the area, it wasn’t noticeable.