Hello all,

Today is our last day in Muscat, Oman and we head to India in the morning. We have had a really good time here. On Saturday we went to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque which was very large and impressive but almost completely empty. Olivia had to cover her head and was rather put out by the fact the men's prayer area was so much grander than the women's. After our trip to the mosque we decided that taxis were too expensive and that we would travel by baiza bus from now on. These are little minivans that you can flag down on the motorway and travel between major areas. We went out for dinner that night and our waiter, Fathi, told us how to catch these buses and that they were very cheap, only costing us a few hundred baizas (a few pennies). He was right, It cost us about 40p to travel around Muscat the next day. We first went to Muttrah to the fish Souk (market), which had incredibly big fish and was very, very smelly! We also went to Muttrah Souk which was mazelike and quite daunting. From there we went to Old Town Muscat where we saw the blue and gold presidential palace of Sultan Qaboos. While in the area, we accidently walked into an Omani naval base! We were literally the only people in the entire area, there weren't even guards!

Our drive back was quite exciting. The driver of the baiza bus said he liked to drink and that he was a very bad muslim, adding that he would sell his wife and daughter for a new Jeep. He told us that he recently had an accident at 118kph where he had flown through the windshield! He showed us the scar and promised he now drove much more safely. He also said he had recently bought a sports car for 2000RO (about £4000) and that all cars were very cheap to run (petrol is about 30p a litre here!!). It is also illegal to have a dirty car in Oman and can lead to a fine of £100! This is why a lot of the cars here are gold, brown or yellow, to hide the dirt.

On Sunday night we found a sports bar to watch the Chelsea game.

Yesterday, we hired a 4x4 and guide called Suilleman to take us inland up into the mountains. We went to Wadi Bani Awf, a dry river valley in the mountains. There was spectacular mountain scenary, which our guide said were some of the best in Oman. He was quite sad, however, because they are building a road through the Wadi. After an hour or so of some serious off-roading, we reached the village of Bilad Sayt, one of the most beautiful, and isolated, mountain towns in Oman. The town has been there 130 years despite the fact the dirt track connecting it to the rest of Oman was only made in 1983! The mountains were really high and at the top it can get down to -5 degrees and sometimes snows in the winter. However, where we were it was about 39 degrees according to the car thermometer. Suilleman then took us to Nakhal where we stopped and explored the fort which pre-dates Islam. Amazingly, the jail still smelled of pee centuries later!! After the fort we travelled to Nakhal's hot water springs. There were locals, donkeys and goats bathing in the water and people collecting the fresh water and carrying it home on their heads. In the springs there were lots of little fish that nibbled our feet.

Today, our last day, we spent the day on the beach and in the sea. The beach has been completely deserted every day and we have had it all to ourselves.