After arriving at my hotel in Muscat this morning and after a very long journey from Phuket, Thailand, I freshened up and went out for a bit of a look around.

I left the hotel and realized I was surrounded by mountains, all the buildings were white and there was not another tourist or traveler in sight. Marvelous! I walked under the fly over and down the road the hotel is on and ran right into the Sultan Qaboos Mosque, the most famous mosque in Muscat. It is really spectacular with its bright blue dome and gold crescent moon on top of it. The minaret is also in the same style, I sat and looked at the magnificent mosque for a while, which kind of reminded me of the Palace in Disney's Aladdin, it had the same kind of domes. It was surrounded by palm trees and against the backdrop of the surrounding mountains looked spectacular.

I walked around and ended up in a suburban area, the apartment blocks still looked very traditional and not westernized in any way, it was really nice to see. However, like Cairo they also had multiple satellite dishes on top of them, although, granted not as many. Unlike Cairo, also, as I walked down the street no one hassled me, or whistled at me or attempted to con me…well except the taxi drivers, I think they're like that everywhere.

I walked back via the mosque and ran into the ONTC bus bay, I couldn't believe my luck. I had a look at the timetables and decided I should do at least one long distance trip out of Muscat while I'm here, Nizwa maybe. I then went back to the hotel for a much needed nap.

I woke up and went back out again in search of food, unfortunately the only thing with out heaps of men crowded around it was KFC and it was vile. I would give anything to have had something nicer. I had a bit of a walk around the little shops and went back to the hotel, intent on going in the pool. It had gotten a bit cold, so I decided to instead sit by the pool, look at the mountains and watch the sunset, feeling like I was somewhere I belonged. I always feel that way when I am in the middle east for some reason.

I sat there pondering how far I'd come in a year, it would have been this time last year that I gave up the Top Deck job to be with Ben, one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Everything happens for a reason I suppose, I still felt very lucky that I had managed to claw back the tour leading opportunity after that. I mean how often does one get offered the perfect job. This makes three times for me, I'm a lucky girl. I'll never forget who I really am again.