07:30 - Anton woke up to go diving! This was Maggie's day to take it easy so she explored the gym and pool are and relaxed under the Palms on the large grass area along the seafront.

Anton drove up to Bandar Marina again and met up with the folks from BlueZone Dive Center. Sorry no photos taken since I don't have an underwater camera :-) About 8 of us set off by launch along the coast for the first dive, which would be on the Al Munassir wreck. This is a military transport ship purposely sunk recently. It lies at a depth between 15 and 30 meters (about 50-100 feet ) and the ship itself is 86 meters long (BIG) or 282 feet. My buddy was Chris a divemaster who bounces between the UK and Oman. He and I paired up and went off on our own way during the wreck dive. For divers reading this, we about spent 40 minutes inside exploring inside and then moved outside to make a good round about the ship for the last 5 or so. Although recently sunk, we saw many fish including large parrots, angels, and a bunch of largish moray eels (Honeycomb Morays) that really, really wild looking-I had never seen them before. There were also some lionfish, which were highly poisonous but cool looking.

By the time we came up on the surface, a pretty good wind had come up and there was a bit of chop. We wanted to dive along a wall next but due to the chop we decided to move to an area known locally as Holly Rock. Holly Rock was near to Bandar Marina and the trip back took 3 times as long due to the chop. We took to wearing our masks as the water was covering the entire boat with each wave :-) Glad Anton had a light breakfast and visited the restroom for his stomach virus before starting out :-) Holly Rock was very nice and is a shallow (5-14 meters or 16-45 feet) natural reef that was absolutely covered in fish of all sorts. The coral was very interesting in that there were medium size fans, tubes and all different sorts instead of just a few types (I am still learning all the names for the different type of coral). I got to swim alongside a pretty good size sea turtle here which was fun and we heard, but did not sea dolphins-they were staying just out of range. If your a diver and going to Oman, I can recommend the expat run BlueZone. BlueZone is a PADI 5 Star facility that is family run. They are not far from Muscat, are friendly, very professional, and their prices are fair. They made me feel at home like it was my local dive center within 15 minutes! I drug my gear with me so I only needed weights and cylinders but others rented gear and it was all-good. They also carry extra gear sets on the boat, oxygen, first aid kits, etc. which is good since one person had a BCD valve problem and was able to swap out and not miss a dive.

15:30 After the dives, I rinsed off my gear, threw it in the Landcruiser and went back to meet Maggie. Maggie and I then had some burgers at the beach bar. One note here about the beach bar at the Intercontinental- the service is pretty lame at best. We waited 40 minutes for burgers with no one around but the staff joking about. We ate there a few times during our trip and the service did not improve. All other staff seemed to be highly professional from the other eateries to the cleaning staff.

16:50 We headed to find the Oman Fine Arts Center next. According to our LP guide, it was "across the street." We drove out and started hunting. After driving in circles for quite a while, we found what appeared to be it and the guy said it opened at 17:00. By then it was 17:30 and the guy said, "oh, maybe 18:00 then... or 18:30-anyway they should come soon." We gave up and headed back to the hotel to visit the little boy's room, and in the process Anton was daydreaming and drove right past the hotel to the deadend of the street which was 5-10 small shops. As we made a U-Turn, we ended up in front of the "Omani Fine Arts" center... hmmm. Ok, that "across the street." We laughed and checked it out but it was closed. We took off and decided to gather provisions for the next day in which we planned to drive quite a ways and do some serious exploring. We ended up back near the airport and did our shopping. We also picked up some Halwa which is an Omani sweet made from REAL SWEET stuff, Pistachio chips, Rose Water and some other stuff. It is really good. The stuff we got was homemade-we got it from some girls that were selling it and some crafts... The shopping was ala Doha, or Dubai, or Kuwait, etc... A place called the "City Center" with all the same shops. Prices for food and essentials is similar throughout the gulf is similar but the Omani's really take you on souvenirs unless you are really good at bargaining.

Most guidebooks tell you the Sultan (Sultan Qaboos) stays holed up in his palace so we asked around. Apparently (as related by both local Omanis and local Expats) the Sultan likes to sneak downtown and wander around. He likes to check out how things are going form the street perspective. If he, for example, sees a dirty car (as in you haven't washed it in a few days) he will have you fined, quite substantially, on-the-spot. He also demands the roads and sidewalks are always cleaned. Building codes are likewise on-the-spot corrections and one story was related to us how the Sultan noticed a multistory in a single story neighborhood where the owner had ignored the authorities and built what he wanted-The Sultan had the second story removed overnight!!!! Locals are happy to talk about him and seem honestly proud of all the improvements made to Oman and point them out as well as letting you know the Sultan is hard but fair (Omani's must take jobs if offered unlike elsewhere in the gulf so you find Omani's employed in every sector)

For dinner we went to Senor Picos which is in the hotel and was pretty good Mexican food. Anton's stomach virus was still pretty bad so it was restrooms every hour or so but we continued on...