Muscat 2 of 6

Today, Muscat looks like a city out of Arabian nights with traditional Arab dhows cruising beside modern liners and merchant cargo ships. There is also a fascinating mix of ancient and modern buildings. Whilst Arabic is the official language of Muscat, English, Urdu, Nepali, Baluchi and several Indian dialects are spoken here because Muscat is a multi-cultural country because many foreign workers are employed in various mining industries, building projects, domestic, commercial, transport and hospitality industries. Foreigners can never gain citizenship and they are paid less than citizens from Muscat who are employed in the same jobs but for many foreign workers the conditions in Muscat are much better than their home countries and they are able to send money home to support their families and provide an opportunity for their children's education and for them to rise above the poverty line.

Muscat's skyline is dominated by wide mountain ranges, tall domed mosques with sky bound intricate minarets, modern apartment buildings and date palm plantations. Camel trails have been replaced with modern highways which link Muscat with the vast stark and barren Arabia Desert, its rocky mountain ranges, isolated and scattered seasonal wades, hidden oases and new towns.

Through Cruise Critic we'd booked a private tour with a local guide. There were 36 in our group and we travelled in convoy, in air-conditioned 4-wheel drive vehicles with a driver-guide and 4 passengers. We left the waterfront about 8.30am and headed along the modern highway towards the high mountain ranges. Each time we entered a new town we passed through impressive archway edifices. The highways are very modern with electronic signage, speed cameras and in some areas overpasses and bridges over dry desert watercourses. Dry as they appear our driver assured us that beneath the desert soils, water courses flow through ancient stone layers and through channels that engineers have built to supply water for homes and small town green areas. Whilst oases areas have natural under water supplies, newer settlements rely upon rubber hosing trails to deliver water to small garden plots and small parklands.

Since our visit last year many of the highways and bridges have been extended and new booming towns have been completed "almost overnight". Some buildings like the blue domed roof one in the photograph (in this section on our Muscat blog), are very modern and energy efficient. Solar energy is being adopted at a fast rate since the sun is ever present in this middle-eastern country. Older settlements still rely upon electricity that is oil generated because Oman has enormous oil supplies. Most homes, office buildings, apartments and shops and businesses now rely upon air-conditioning to make living in such a hot country so much more comfortable. On our drive we saw no women or children in the towns but this may be due to the fact that Oman which is a strict Islamic country is observing the holy month of Ramadan which means that all Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and observe fixed hours of prayer throughout the day.