Oman Day 2

We were out early to get to the Grand Mosque before it got too busy. It is only open for a few hours to non-muslims.

The whole area was enormous. It is quite new, and for a while was the largest in the world, till Abu Dhabi built a bigger one. It was built by the sultan for the people with no expense spared. Travertine tiles, highly polished outside, beautiful gardens with fountains playing surrounding the complex. The blip is the men's prayer hall. The pullers were said to be Carrera marble but were so highly shiny they looked more like PVC. The mosaics were wonderful. The heaviest chandelier ever hung - I was careful not to stand below that! The beautiful Persian carpet of intricate design had been handmade by 600 virgins under 16 over a period of 6 years in Iran. What a contrast to the very plain hall which was assigned to the women.

I visited the Information centre where a woman with excellent English answered questions - though she cleverly sidestepped actually answering anything, instead diverting the conversation to such things as how misguided Eu was to take in Syrian refugees who she said were ISIS. When I asked about the carpets she said the women had a carpet which had been factory made in Paisley, Scotland, and it was better to have that than the pretty Persian one so that she'd not be distracted by looking at flowers instead on concentrating on god.

After we left there we got into our 4x4 and headed to our beach camp on the Gulf of Oman. The tents were put up a few feet from high water mark which was lovely, till the waves started crashing in the night.