Ocean Princess is sailing north through the Straits of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf - destination Dubai. More on that later

Arrival in Muscat, one of the two main ports in Oman was at 0700 and our ship squeezed into a commercial dock on the Sultan Qaboos pier. Oman is a small country with lots of money. It has grown to some 4.2 Million people in the past 10 years. Everything is new, clean and well maintained. Note the traffic circles and the sculptured trees along the freeway. At the entrance to the harbour is a Lighthouse in the shape of an incense burner. Frankincense is a hot item here as are perfumes, scarves, gold and copper Arabian trinket souvenirs. Gas is only .18 cents per litre. Oman gets along with all its neighbours including Iran and the USA but has problems with Yemen. More than 1/2 the people are immigrant labour. This place gets to 50C in the summer and is so hot nothing grows on the surrounding mountains. Oman is ruled by a Sultan who is 72 years old and single. The Sultan paid the ransom to release 3 American hitchhikers in Iran after they were held hostage. Apparently other tours were also reminded of this event. But that is a good thing. We toured two museums, the Palace grounds and the Souq which offered too many things to list.
In the scheme of travel destinations, Oman is clean safe and affordable.