The Marina in Muscat
We were then driven out of the town towards the new town. This would not be part of our tour as we didn’t want to have such a long tour. We past by a new imposing group of buildings that we understood to be a jail for juveniles and the police station. Then we past the entrance to the British residence before turning off to pay a quick visit to a marina.
From the marina we had a great view of the British residence above us.
Our driver told us about the new town and offered to extend our tour so that we could see it. By now despite the air-conditioning we were getting even hotter and politely declined his kind offer again.
Out of the marina we past this roundabout.
al Bustan Palace
Our last Muscat site was the al Bustan Palace Hotel. At first we were surprised as the taxi driver up to the hotel through its extensive grounds. We were helped out of the taxi by a couple of doorman and our taxi moved away from the entrance.
As we entered the hotel’s lobby we realise just why our driver wanted us to see the hotel. We walked in and simply still in stared at the size of the lobby, the wonderful floor and patterns, similarly the wall pans and it simply amazing vaulted ceiling.
No one in hotel seem to be phased by a couple of cruise ship tourists wandering around taking pictures. The doorman even thanked us for our visit as we left and we walked the short distance to wear a taxi was waiting.
Back to the Corniche
Our journey back to the souk and the Corniche was a lot faster and we were rushed past places that we had not visited. As we drove down the hill into the old town there were some cyclists riding up the hill towards us. This prompted the driver to tell us about the earlier visit off a German cruise ship. It seems, in his opinion, very few of the passengers took taxis but instead rode around on bikes off the ship. He added how friendly the UK and the Oman were and how pleased he had been to taker us on the tour!
We walked back along the Corniche.
Then we crossed back to the souk and stood and watched the melee around the parking spots there. Coaches were parked nose in and were partially obstructing the main road. They were P&O tour coaches and had dropped their passengers off for a walk around the souk or to walk along the Corniche.
Along with us there were other passengers waiting for a shuttle bus to take them back to the ship. A policeman was trying his best to get the coaches to move. He had to help a couple to back out into the traffic and move away.
After the shuttle bus had arrived and everyone was onboard, it set off down the Corniche for a of couple miles to a roundabout. Then it came back to along the Corniche back towards the port.
At the cruise terminal I tried again to get Wi-Fi before we walked out onto the quay and across back to the ship.