Oman

Muscat also has coffee vendors on street corners serving a thick black substance that poured like syrup and smelled like petrol, I declined....  note the coffee pot and yellow spittoon!

Muscat in the country of Oman (next to Saudi Arabia and Yemen)

Oman has a population of 3.5 million people and is a significant producer of oil. It is a small but extremely wealthy country. Muscat has been a key controlling sea-trading port since the 1^st Century AD. Oman is one of the most conquered countries in the world. It has been controlled by the Omani’s then Persia, Bagdad, Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire before returning to Omani control in the late 18^th century. Muscat is still actively guarded by two fully armed forts, one facing the sea and one inland.

We parked the ship at the front door of Muscat, handbrake on, some Omani Rials in the meter and we went ashore. ($AUD1= $RIAL3). It was 43 degrees at 7.30am and rose to 46 degrees by mid afternoon! The whole city is a clutch of white flat roof buildings hugging the ocean and built right up to the rocky beginnings of the desert. Fifteen minutes in any direction (except east) and you are in the desert and heading for the next country.

 Our time was spent visiting the only mosque and several “SOUKS”. Souks are shopping alleyways that specialise in gold, silver and bric-a-brac. No great stories to tell here. This was also a “short-stay” port as we left at 2pm heading for Dubai.

Mumbai Photos

Mumbai Traffic

haircut & shave $2

That's me after a shave. The poles are to hold up the roof, no kidding!

Breaking News – Nathan wins cocktail mixing contest

Yeah, that's me under the hat.......

I must have learned a few things about the fine art of mixing cocktails whilst on board as I found mixing cocktails to be an almost natural talent.   In the midday sun, on deck, the ships company assembled for the mix off, bar staff v passengers. Showmanship was measured alongside potency and colour of the cocktails. It was a tense and sweaty experience but I prevailed; my prize being to drink what I had made, a task easily accommodated.

Mumbai Photos

The heritage listed Taj Hotel with the new unsightly adjacent hi-rise addition to the hotel

When in Rome....... or Mumbai. This is a silver plated horse and carriage !!

Gateway of India
 plus Ghandi's bedroom and office. Note the wooden thongs

I found Jesus in Mumbai

The first thing I saw as I stepped onto the streets of Mumbai was Jesus, at least a truck named Jesus, and I was moved; moved to get out the way as Jesus was clearly on a mission that did not involve slowing for the people as is most of the traffic here.

Mumbai, or Bombay until 1997, was settled in 1509. The British East India Company took over Mumbai in 1689 and set up adorning it with massive Victorian buildings to prove that the sun never set on the British Empire.

India has a population of over 1.2 billion with 14 million living in Mumbai.

A most humbling experience was a long visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s home and now museum. In times of major global upheaval Ghandi was a living role model of persistence, moderation and acceptance. I was moved by one particularly astute observation made by Ghandi in 1921;

“To call women the weaker sex is a libel;

It is man’s injustice to women….

If by strength is meant moral power then woman is immeasurably man’s superior…

If non violence is the law of our being the future is with women.”

Ghandi also wrote to Hitler in 1939 asking him to reconsider his war effort on behalf of humanity but received no reply.

Today was a busy day, The Taj Hotel, Gateway of India, Ghandi Museum, dobi Ghat (outdoor laundry), Elephanta Caves, Prince of Wales Museum, shopping, and a haircut & shave for $2. To absorb local culture and blend in we chose a traditional horse & buggy for part of our travels and tuk-tuk for the rest.

A macabre tour we took was to follow the killing trail of Muslim terrorists that set fire to the heritage listed Taj Hotel and killed many people along the way. We began with lunch at the Leopold Café where Muslim terrorists lunched and then began their bloody massacre and then onto the Taj and Oberoi Hotels to see where the massacre continued. There are red circles at each point where a person was killed or injured. The hotels show little sign of the fire and machine gun damage from the Muslim terrorists but security is now incredibly tight to gain entry.