Muscat - Exploring The Beautiful Capital

Our last full day together in Oman. We woke up early in order to see some of the incredible sights before the heat of the day would take hold.

After a short 10-minute drive, the first stop brought us to a beautiful viewpoint. Picture white flat-roofed houses squeezed into a little dry and sand-colored valley with a clear blue sky providing the backdrop. I have seen this picture when I did my planning and knew I wanted to see the interesting contrasts in colours. It lived up to my expectations!

Next, we were checking out the government area. It might sound a little boring, but the buildings were beautiful. Even though we could not go into the buildings, the outside was pretty much all paved with shiny white marble and mesmerising white hallways. Something you actually would expect from a kinda rich middle-eastern capital, to be honest.

We also paid a visit to the Sultan's residence, which looked like a colourful spaceship. It is a stunning palace and stands in stark contrast to the other white government buildings. We hoped to get invited for tea, but I think the sultan was unfortunately occupied with other plans - I mean, fair enough, he has a country to run.

For our last stop, we tried to find another viewpoint over the city that was marked on Google Maps and was supposed to be easy to find, but turned out to be a complete failure. It was up a steep hill, but it was at the side of a busy street. We couldn't turn the car around here, so we had to go down on the other side, then all the way back up again and down again. Ah well, sometimes travelling does not go super smoothly.

Anyway, once back at the hotel, we relaxed by the pool for a bit. Not too long though, as the Sheraton was throwing its biggest pool party of the year - of course, right when we just wanted a relaxed time. It was the Festival of Colours, which is basically the Indian Holi celebrations. Everyone was given bags of colours to throw around and at people, while Indian and non-Indian music was blasting from the stage.

Naturally, I grabbed a few bags of colour and joined the celebrations. It was actually quite fun even though the clear water of the pool turned dark as all sorts of colours mixed together in the water. It really was a nice party and by the end I was also full of colour.

After a quick shower, we all headed to our last dinner and then checked out another part of Muscat that was especially interesting for my mom - the market. Maybe not as beautiful as the one in Nizwa, but certainly very colourful, full of different scents and life. The market was definitely another highlight. We wandered more or less aimlessly passing the stalls, simply soaking in the atmosphere and watching people go about their shopping and lives.

Leaving the market and walking towards the car, we strolled on a little promenade right by the ocean, completing an amazing day exploring, partying, eating and shopping ourselves through Muscat.Read more