Date: Mar 31, 2007 2:49 AM
Subject: Friday, March 30, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
OMAN, MUSCAT
Sorry kiddies, but it looks like no inheritance quite yet. I think I made it, but just barely. I have never been that sick from a cold or flu in my life. I couldn’t get enough air to blow out a candle. This morning I felt well enough to cancel the trip to the hospital and call off the chest x-ray.We had been here before and there isn’t very much to see. However, you can tell you are not in Kansas any more, Toto. Muscat was Masquat, originally. Masquat means cliffs. There are
mountains everywhere you look. Wherever there are newer buildings they have Arabian facades. It is more a tourist thing rather then having any other purpose. Everything is spotlessly clean. This place is a desert and there is always dust and sand blowing. The cleaning is done by foreign labor. The roads are up to US standards and they at least drive on the right side of the street.We booked a tour for an evening cruise on a real handmade Dhow.
That is a traditional style boat built here for many centuries. This one was supposed to be as original as possible even though it was fairly new.We were picked up by a bus at about 4:30 PM. After about twenty minutes we came to a very new looking marina for smaller boats. We walked down a long ramp and then about a block down piers until we came to the end of the pier. Naturally, being Arab, everything was arranged properly, not. The boat that was
supposed to ferry us to the Dhow, was no where to be seen.Finally an open fishing style boat showed up. We call the type center consol. After several trips the Dhow was filled with people. It started heading out to sea as four guys dressed in nice waiters uniforms started handing out drinks and appetizers. The drinks could not be alcoholic.
From the description it sounded like we were going down some
river or waterway. In reality all we did is go out in the ocean and saw the same things we saw from the ship. We went way too far out to see anything well and the sun was going down on the shore side. It was hard to even get any pictures with the sun shinning in your face.They kept on serving different kinds of food and it was all good. Then the fun part came. The wind came up a just a bit and we started to get waves. Not more then one to two feet though. Now I
could understand why this style boat never came to the West. On my last 50 foot boat you would not even feel one to two foot waves and I would go at about 30 knots. This thing wasn’t doing 10 knots and was bouncing around like a balloon and it had to be 90 feet long. People were getting sick and asking for barf bags. They had chaffing dishes with fire heating the water in them, set up on a platform in the middle of the boat. I wanted to see what would happen when they started to spill and fall over. The waiters knew better then to go near them while the boat was rocking 
badly. But somehow they never fell.We were also told there was going to be a sunset. The sun set behind the mountains and not out in the ocean. There was nothing to see.
On our return the Dhow docked much closer to the marina side of the pier and with just a short walk we were back on the buses, and then back to the ship.
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