 The Al Bustan, the one and best of the 5 5 stars hotels in Muscate. Splendid, worth a visit.
Rooms are from USD 500 a night (down to 70 off season.. but then it's hot like hell). |
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 Next to the Al Bustan small cottages and an excellent diving center. |
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 In front of the diving center another 5 star hotel: the Shangri La. |
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 Going for a dive of a snrokel, both excellent opportunities. |
 The fish and vegetables market. |
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 The old Muscate souk. |
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 LOutside of the souk the coast to Al Bustan. |
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 A place where we dropped the snorkeler whil we went further for diving. |
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 The Mosque of Muscate. The only large building not to miss (outside of the Al Bustan). Closes at 11 AM. |
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 The large lights of the main room. |
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 Ablution area, this one for women. |
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 On our way to Sur, south of Muscate, splendid coastline. |
 and a basin that we could enter down some 100 stairs. |
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 Not the desert, but almost, just between the road and the sea. |
 Easy parking is to be found nearly everywhere. |
 just below the highway one of those fjords that you can visit by boat. |
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 Guarding Sur, one of the many towers. |
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 And plenty of new houses that indicate the level of living of the Omani. |
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 Going toward some Wadi (like an Oued) that look completely dry. And we'll see later on that they can be flooded in a matter of minutes. |
 On the way to the Wadi Bani Khalid. 20 km drive in mountain roads, a few meters walking and a nice place to rest, hike and swim. |
 Some aqueduct out of the Wadi Bani Khalid to show us the way upward. |
 The Wadi Bani Khalid, where we swam and ate. |
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 On the way back to Muscate stop in Nizwa. |
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 The Nizwa fort, recently resotred (1985-1995). |
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 Wanting to visit some caves we were stopped by a sudden rain. The caves were closed because of the flood. It it was almost too late for us to return to Muscate as many of the roads we not possible to cross with a normal car. |
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 By the Bhala fort, under restauration. |
 The Jabreen fort (1670, renovated 1976-83), just closed when we arrived (16:00). |