When we got up this morning and looked at the front of the ship, there was a dummy of an old man sitting in a rocking chair with a sign on it wishing the "Old Man" a happy birthday. Turns out it is the captain's 50th birthday, and the rocking chair thing is a tradition for Dutch ships. Tonight is going to be party time, with free champagne flowing!

Muscat is the capital of Oman and the city that the current Sultan prefers to live in, although he was born and brought up in Salalah. We took a ride on an Arabian dhow and saw lots of beautiful coastline.

The dhow was kind of like going to sea in someone's living room. There were two spaces, one up some stairs where the pilot sat at the wheel, which had cushions around the floor to sit on, and a lower one with cushioned benches around the sides. There were carpets on the floors, and tables in the middle of the lower level that held snacks – fresh dates and figs. There was even a closed area that looked like it held food and other kitchen items if they wanted to serve a meal. The fresh dates were delicious, much sweeter than the ones we are used to. They were almost like candy, except for the pits. We all threw the pits into the ocean; I expect they didn’t do any harm there.

The rock formations are beautiful, and we watched a sailing school from the marina. The student boats are all tied to a motorboat that tows them out (and presumably contains an instructor who tells them what to do). We saw two strings of these sailboats; they looked just like ducklings following mama.

One of the sites we sailed past was a former sultan’s palace that is now a five star hotel. I am starting to wonder what it is about five star hotels: is there some kind of international competition to have the most? Every travel guide wants to tell us how many five star hotels they have, and they must know it doesn’t really matter to us, since we are traveling on one. (Maybe it’s a subtle plug to get us to come back on a land trip sometime.)

There are lots of interesting old forts on the hills and a huge frankincense burner on a hill in a park overlooking the harbor. We also visited the sultan's palace and saw the palace he had built for Queen Elizabeth II's visit years ago. The Sultan's Gate in the picture used to be closed every evening at about five o'clock, but they don't close it at all these days.