Off to the Souk

On my first visit to Muscat in February I had briefly stopped by the port area and seen some of the spectacular scenery of old forts and a brief glimpse into the Muttrah souk, the largest souk in Muscat.  Souks are the old Arab markets, though the Muttrah souk is enclosed and you follow labyrinthine hallways to all the different areas of the souk to buy things like frankincense, rugs, jewelry and handicrafts. 

Yesterday a coworker and I set out to the souk for a little shopping.  I knew we'd be ripped off since we look like tourists.  While I'm generally okay being ripped off in markets when I travel, I don't want to be ripped off in my home, though unless I go there with an Omani it will keep happening.  Putting aside my annoyance at paying extra, I bought some Omani jewelry and some Omani-style rugs for my bare floors.  The rug guy kept trying to explain the difference to me between Omani rugs and Arab rugs, but the best I could tell is that the Omani rugs are more geometric-based designs.  And definitely colorful.

After shopping we had a lovely dinner at Karjeen, which is an Omani outdoor restaurant in a garden.  The scenery was gorgeous and this was the first time I'd gotten to try Omani food.  I tried shuwa, which is a traditional dish of a meat (generally camel, lamb or goat...I think I had goat) that is slowly grilled in a pit overnight and then served over rice.  I wasn't actually all that impressed with the shuwa - it had a lot of little bones that were hard to pick out, was a bit dry and I've never been a fan of plain white rice.  My stomach also didn't appreciate some of the spices that the meat was cooked in, but at least I can say I tried it!