My trip to Oman!
Before I begin the blog I just wanted to say many apologies for missing my last upload day, I was trying to make it but my computer had to go in for servicing and it was already almost a week late when I had everything ready, so I decided just to push it to the next upload day. So sorry again and enjoy the blog.
Today we are changing things up a bit, the reason being that as of writing this blog I am traveling in Muscat, Oman. So this post may end up being the only out-of-UAE post that I will be making (at least while I'm still in high school). The places that I ended up visiting were Mutrah Souq, Bait Al Baranda Museum, and Mutrah Fort. Obviously it was a very busy trip and even at the places I visited for the blog I often found myself forgetting to keep up and getting caught in the moment, but I did my best to keep you guys with us at all the important junctions.
Mutrah souq is located in the Mutrah area of Muscat right alongside the corniche, and it is the largest souq in Oman. Bait Al Baranda Museum is located right next to the souq and it is pretty small but you know me, no matter what the size I had to sneak a museum in there somewhere. The Mutrah Fort is also located next to the souq on the opposite side from Bait Al Baranda. This area is one of the older ones in Muscat so as a result we found ourselves running into many a cafe and antique shop that were practically archeological sites in and of themselves.
So to start the trip off the first place that we visited was the souq, and I was very taken by its traditional Arab market feel. Before the discovery of oil in Oman the Mutrah area was the main trading hub and otherwise the monetary capital in general. So as you might suspect the souq is extremely old, in fact it is the oldest souq in Oman.
Being in the souq itself was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip, just because of that feeling of going through the really tight windy alleys with shopkeepers calling to you and just getting lost in the entire atmosphere. Everything about the souq was captivating to me -- from the twisty alleys, the beautiful domes, and the shimmering stores, to the innumerable amount of cats.
The souq is split into two sections, the general souq and the gold souq. On our trip we exited from the general souq side, and we were met with a huge fort on top of a mountain right in front of us. So although we had only planned on visiting the museum and the souq, we decided that we would add the fort to our list. So we circled back to the gold souq exit where we found the Bait Al Baranda Museum nestled in between the souq and a residential area.
We had been told by several sources before that the museum was not very big or extensive in its exhibits, and that proved to be true. While the museum was nicely put together and you know I would never reject a good museum, it did feel a little lacking and next to the fort and the souq it winds up as my least favorite spot. Inside there was a special exhibit on the history of camels and then the usual exhibits which had less in the way of artifacts and more things like robot dinosaur heads, cheesy ambiance sounds, and not totally functional informational video screens. Although I am dissing it a bit I still didn't find it horrible and there was an especially clever room with a book in front of a light screen, and every time you turned a page in the book it played a different informational track with pictures to look at in the book.
After we finished our short visit in the museum we got in our car and drove ourselves down to the mystery fort to see if we could find a way up. When we got to the base of the mountain alongside the main road we were very confused because there were no informational/directional signs mentioning the fort anywhere. Then our suspicions of the fort being accessible were confirmed when a man appeared up on top of the fort and started taking pictures of the sea behind us. So once again we got back in our car and proceeded to drive around the mountain in a clockwise direction.
Much to our dismay we were only able to make it about a third of the way around the mountain when we ran into a one way road and the one way was towards us. So with heavy hearts we parked the car at the first exit we could find and began the uphill climb in the middle of the toasty hot day to make it around the rest of the mountain. Then at last after we had covered about two thirds of the mountain all together we stumbled upon a strange parking lot looking area with a flight of stairs leading up the side of the mountain and into the fort. Even now I am still not totally sure how you are meant to get to that parking lot with your car still with you, but I suppose there must have been some convoluted back alley way of doing it.
There was a small security guard building where we assumed we needed to get tickets, but when we walked up there the nice man said that it was free that day (I should also mention that the fort is still in partial military use so it isn't always open for visitors) so we made our way up the stairs.
Upon entering the fort we discovered that it had been named (very cleverly) the Mutrah fort and it was apparently built in the 1500s by the Omani rulers at that time. Since then ownership of the fort has been passed around from Portuguese, to Persian, to (very briefly) Omani, to Portuguese, to Ottoman (for a long time), to British, to French, and now finally back to Omani. The fort isn't extremely spacious, it basically is just a walled pathway that occasionally hits small open platforms while constantly ascending. There are three towers -- one on the northern end, one on the opposite end, and then one larger one in the middle.
The middle tower is the main defensive point, and thanks to some very eager invaders and very brave defenders it has had to be rebuilt several times. In fact you can actually see some remains of a couple earlier makes blending into the rocks right under the tower. The fort hits my personal favorite spot out of the three places we visited that day and that is for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that as you might already know I love history, and one of my favorite parts about history are the battles, so when it comes to any sort of defensive structures or other militaristic area I'm automatically sold. The other reason is the view, as you might imagine being in a fort on top of a mountain at the entrance of the city and alongside the water. The only things obstructing our vision were the mountains on either side of the fort, because as I mentioned it's nestled right in the middle of this U-shaped harbor and the U is ringed with mountains.
Something that I found extremely interesting was that all around the U, whether it be in the city, on the water, or along the edges of the city there were watch towers everywhere and I just found it so intriguing to look at how strategically they were all placed in relation to the fort. I talk more in length about the towers in my vlog so go ahead and watch that if you're interested in that sort of stuff. Inside the fort there were also several original canons (9 I think) that had been left there by the various owners over the centuries and every floor there were two or three on display with little informational panels talking about their make and other stuff. At the top of that largest tower (which is the highest point) there is even an anti air artillery gun that was installed by the French during WWII and then was just left there after they moved out.
After taking in the view and all the history of the fort we descended off the mountain, got in our car, and made our way back to the hotel. All in all the visit to Oman was a wonderful one, so many memories and good experiences were had and I would gladly go again. As always I highly recommend that you visit Muscat for yourselves and while you're there stop by the Mutrah area to get the real Omani feel from one of the oldest cities in Oman. Thanks for reading and be sure to stop by next post!