Today started out much the same way as yesterday, I spent the morning in my room as I only had it until 12pm. So I spent this time watching TV and resting. After I had to relinquish my room, I packed up, got dressed and went to check out and pay my bill.

I had then decided to spend the day in Muttrah to kill time until 6pm when I would need to go to the airport. So I caught a taxi which cost two rials, an absurd amount to travel such a short distance, but hey this is an expensive country. I arrived at the sea front or the Corniche as they call it in the Arab world and immediately went about getting lunch, as I had not eaten yet. There were hundreds of tourists around today, mainly due to the fact that a Royal Caribbean cruise liner was in port today. I hate cruise passengers, they are the ultimate stupid tourists. Sorry Mum.

I went and sat in an outside café and instead of being annoyed by these people while I ate my lunch, I sat and people watched and had a bit of a laugh at their expense. Seeing them trying to grapple with the money, watching them get ripped off, seeing the women wearing skimpy tops and getting looks from the men was actually very amusing to me. I also watched the locals, the highlight of this was when I saw a man dressed in full Omani garb drive past in a hot pink, convertible BMW…something like Reese Witherspoons character from the movie Legally Blonde would drive.

After lunch I went for a stroll down the corniche and photographed a few more mosques. They really are spectacular here. My favourite included one with a minaret completely covered in mosaic and another with a bright blue rippled dome. It was now getting really hot so I decided to sit down for a bit, before I started walking back the other way. I walked all the way down the other end of the sea front, and it was siesta time, so I decided to join the locals. I pulled up a spot on the grass, laid down and closed my eyes for a bit.

At about 3pm I started walking back and spent the remainder of the afternoon in the souq window shopping and playing with this small but friendly kitten, who some horror child kept trying to scare half to death. As with all animals in such places I felt really sorry for the poor little dear.

At about 5pm I caught a cab back to the hotel and got the free courtesy bus to the airport. Let me just say this, I was only going to Dubai and it was only a 45 minute flight, I think in total the screwing around at airports took about six hours. There is a bus from Muscat to Dubai and by the time the airport fiasco was over I wished I had actually got the bus. By the time I got to my hotel in Dubai, I didn't care if I never saw the inside of another airport again. Lets see how I feel about that when I fly to Paris tomorrow!