Land’s end on the south side of the Straits of Hormuz.

A typical ship in the Straits of Hormuz.

Rotterdam entering Muscat Harbour.

Squeekie watches as the Rotterdam docks at Muscat.

Sultan Qaboos’ Grand Mosque; it was raining hard in Muscat this morning—it was their one day of rain in the year, or so they said.

Armed guards check each visitor to the mosque to make sure they are properly dressed.

Our tour guide showed us how to clean ourselves to enter the prayer hall—mouth, nose, ears, face, hands, and feet.

Squeekie properly covered to come into the mosque.

The main prayer hall in the Grand Mosque; the Persian rug on the floor is the largest one in the world, we were told.

The inside of the dome and the main chandelier in the prayer hall.

Looking straight up into the dome.

One of the gardens outside the mosque.

The Womens’ Hall

The Rotterdam docked in Port Sultan Qaboos in Muscat

A Maria Theresa silver dollar from Austria in the 1780s on a piece of woman’s jewelry in the Muscat museum.

A street in the older part of Muscat; our tour bus is on the way to the Sultan’s palace.

Sultan Qaboos’ Palace in Muscat.

Sultan Qaboos did not invite us in for tea!

The old houses in Muscat have wind towers similar to those in Dubai.

Squeekie in the Old Souk in Muscat

Squeekie trying on her new gold necklace in the store in the Old Souk.

As Rotterdam left Muscat, the Sultan’s Palace was our last view of the city.



Seventieth Day (Monday, March 30, 2009)-- This was a very interesting at sea day because at about 11 am Rotterdam entered the Straits of Hormuz, the very traffic-laden mouth of the Persian Gulf. We were surrounded by ships of many types, but of course the greatest number were tankers; some were bouncing along headed into the Gulf for a fill-up, others were heavily laden, header to consumers at various places around the globe. At its narrowest point the Straits of Hormuz are just 33 miles wide, so it was possible—from our vantage point high up in the Crow’s Nest—to see land on both sides of our ship. The northern land was Iran, and the southern land was Musandam, an enclave of the Sultanate of Oman that is surrounded by the United Arab Emirates. I took many pictures of the shipping traffic with my “whomper” 500mm telephoto lens, but aside from that this was a typical at sea day. I worked on sorting pictures and writing entries in my blog. Today at tea time Kim (the Pinnacle Grill Manager) came by and looked at Squeekie’s collection of pictures of Leslee and Fabian’s wedding, which are stored on her laptop. Later in the afternoon we went down to the Pinnacle where Kim shared with us her pictures of her on-board Muslim wedding with Indra, one of the Indonesian stewards. Squeekie and I have both come to the conclusion that these “at sea” days are very beneficial for helping us to catch up on work and to improve our acquaintances with the on-board staff. . . .


Seventy-first Day (Tuesday, March 31, 2009)-- We awoke as Rotterdam was preparing to enter the harbour of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman. After the busy, Westernised modernity of Dubai the day before yesterday, Muscat and Oman feel much more typical of the old days on the Arabian Peninsula. Our giant boat quietly moved into the harbour and tied up at a container ship dock in what the locals refer to as “Port Sultan Qaboos.” (Before too long we learned that Sultan Qaboos, pronounced ‘caboose,’ is the reigning sultan of this absolute monarchy.)

The port and harbour here is small and surrounded by barren rocky hills and cliffs which gave the place a feeling similar to Cabo San Lucas at the bottom tip of the Baja California peninsula in its earlier, less developed days. All around the harbour were small buildings—no skyscrapers—which carried the stereotypical feeling of the Arabia of yore. After the frenzied pace of Dubai this port town seemed refreshingly calm.

Squeekie had booked for us a “sights of Oman” tour, and we came down off the ship and boarded a bus to undertake that activity. After a bit of a drive out of the harbour enclave over the hill into the newer part of town we came to our first stop, the Grand Mosque of Sultan Qaboos. This vast structure, capable of holding up to 14,000 people at the same time with reasonable comfort, was only built in the 1990s and, during times when prayer is not called for, it is open to non-Muslim visitors in an attempt to facilitate understanding between religions. All visitors are, however, required to dress conservatively (no shorts, for example) and to remove shoes; in addition, women must also cover their heads with scarves. I was horrified to note that there were gun-carrying military guards posted at the entry places to ensure compliance with the dress requirements.

After these requirement had been met our tour group was able to enter the mosque and look at the beautiful architecture of the great hall for prayer. Some of you readers (if there still are any of you out there) may not know that there are strict rules for architecture in Muslim countries. No images of people or animals may be shown in any painting, mosaic, or sculpture displayed in a mosque (or anywhere else for that matter, with some minor exceptions). As a result, Muslim decorative arts tend to focus on geometric shapes and some floral items such as leaves and vines. As may be seen from the attached pictures, the Grand Mosque is a wonderful example of traditional Muslim architecture and decorative arts. The dome in the centre of the main prayer hall and the fine chandelier hung in its middle were especially dramatic entities. On the floor of the great hall was what was advertised as the largest Persian carpet ever made; I don’t really know if this is true or not, but it certainly was beautiful. One thing I did notice, however, was that the meeting hall for women was distinctly secondary, smaller and less beautifully decorated. When I asked our guide about this apparent disparity he emphatically denied that Muslim women receive secondary treatment in Islamic society, but this is so obviously not true. . . .

Back into the old part of town we came to the Bait Al Zubair Museum, but we were not allowed to take pictures here (although I did sneak one of woman’s jewelry fashioned from Maria Theresa trade dollars). A short drive from the museum brought us to the current Sultan’s palatial home, known as the Qasr Al Alam Palace. We could only view and photograph the palace from outside some big steel gates, but the facility was quite elaborate, actually looking more like a movie set than a functioning palace. Two forts, Jalah and Mirani, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century, are located on each side of the palace complex and are still used for military purposes; they stand guard over the sultan’s home.

Our last stop on this tour was at the Old Souk (also spelled Suq and pronounced “sook”) in the Mutrah district of Muscat. Here Squeek and I found a rabbits warren of narrow alleys filled with mostly tiny shops which sold a wide range of Middle East-affiliated items, including spices, teas, fabric, clothing, silver, antiques, and gold. Quite by accident we came upon a store selling gold jewelry, and Squeekie desired to go inside. To both of our surprises, this was no tiny alley way mini-store, it was a quite large and modern-looking store, and everywhere one looked there were gold pieces awaiting buyers. After a bit of searching by the dealer, Squeekie came across a choker fashioned from spun gold (that is, fine gold wires) woven together to form a seeming cloud of gold colour around the wearer’s neck. It was fabulous and worthy of the price which we bargained to get it.

We returned to the ship and did some of the necessary chores which cannot be avoided even on this world cruise, such as doing laundry. The sail away party was scheduled for six o’clock and I got some nice panorama shots of the harbour and the palace of Sultan Qaboos as we bid farewell to Muscat, Oman, and, indeed, Asia. After several days at sea crossing the western lobe of the Indian Ocean known as the Gulf of Aden, we will arrive in the Seychelles Islands off the coast of Africa. Our world cruise continues!