MUSCAT - 2nd port in OMAN - March 28th

We arrived fairly early - the sun rises well before 6am and we were on our balcony and Len caught these photos of dolphins.  There must have been about 30 dolphins in this group.
This come came so close to the ship that we could hear him splashing in the water.

This is a spectacular picture Len took.

Our second port of call was really interesting. Muscat is the capital of Oman.
This was the view from the ship. The fort was built by the Portuguese and the mountains, the Western Al Hajar Mountains dominate the landscape.
Since the ascension of Qaboos bin Said as Sultan of Oman in 1970, Muscat has experienced rapid infrastructural development that has led to the growth of a vibrant economy and a multi-ethnic society.

Like most Arabian countries, the store owners are natives, but the workers are mostly Indian and Pakistani here on work visas.

We did not have a tour planned and had a chance to go into the city to a large bazar.  We wandered around for hours looking at all the "stuff".  It is amazing the quantity of goods just in this market.  It was crowded with tourists and again, the people were friendly and of course tried hard to pull everyone into their shops.  Our eyes were big as saucers at all the merchandise.

We found a shop that has pots, HUGE POTS. We could only get to the front of the store where they had a medium size pots.There were far bigger pots in the back that we could not photograph.
Since camels are a large part of their diet, they need HUGE POTS, no kidding.

Like all Moslem countries, the scenery is dominated by mosques.  Each one different, but all with minaretes. Each one is beautiful and each one has a live emam  calling them to prayer.