My language school arranged a trip to the Mutrah area of Muscat, which is the old and touristy area of Muscat. In fact, cruise ships dock there and disgorge passengers who may or may not be dressed to suit the modest clothing expectations of Oman. The purpose of the trip was to visit the Al Amana Centre, which has an interesting 124 year history in Oman. Various missionaries/medics/do-gooders have worked there over the years and apparently have actually been welcomed by and beneficial to Oman, unlike many other Western organizations that set up shop in foreign countries. Here’s their website (http://alamanacentre.org/), in case you ever want to do religious or cultural programs in Muscat.

My villamate and I joined this trip mostly to get a free ride to Mutrah Souq and the corniche area, which are about 30 minutes away from our house and otherwise would be about a $20 cab ride (which we did have to cough up to get back home). However, I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting the Al Amana presentation was.

A souq is a store or shop, but in this case, it is a collection of shops within a kind of warren. We accidentally backtracked several times, since a lot of the shops look the same. The sellers are extremely saavy and used to dealing with tourists, so I tried to bargain but still got stiffed, I’m sure. I was able to get several fun souvenirs, though.

After shopping, we ate dinner at a nearby cafe-type place and walked down the corniche a little. The corniche is just a walkway by the ocean, very popular and scenic.