Wednesday, 5 February 2020—Muscat, Oman and Colombo, Sri Lanka

I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Muscat or Oman prior to our voyage. Yet, after we arrived and walked around the city of over a million people, as we were told, we found Muscat to be a delightful place. The mostly Muslim people we encountered were quite friendly and easy to engage. We visited a large park and walked three or so miles along a beautiful sea wall. In addition, we went through the city’s souk—which is an Arabic word for “marketplace.” Neither of us are big shoppers, so I am sure we were a disappointment to all the hundreds of shopkeepers and entrepreneurs.

Following our day in Muscat, we were at sea for three days. We can only send messages like the blog back if we are in port. Thus, it can sometimes be sketchy on when we can send you text and photos. During our time at sea, we read, swam, napped, visited with many other passengers, dined, worked out, walked around the deck, and . . . well, you get the idea. We have also had a great collection of what are called “celebrity speakers.” This week we heard a guy lecture about the history of pop/rock music during the 60s and 70s. He was first-rate and talked a lot about the Beatles.

As I am typing this, we have just returned to our ship from a day in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Today is day 27 of our excellent journey. In Colombo, we ended up renting a Tuk Tuk for three hours. A Tuk Tuk is like a tricycle that is placed on a motorcycle frame with two seats in the back and a driver in front. It is comfortable with three occupants, but more than that is well-nigh impossible to visualize. We then toured around Colombo for our rental time and saw Buddhist temples, Islamic Mosques, and Christian churches. We saw schools and a student protest that looked to be comprised of about 3000—4000 thousand students strong. It had something to do with student scholarship endowment as all schools in Sri Lanka are free from tuition. We were told that the population of Colombo proper is about 750,000 people—about the size of greater Fort Worth.

As an aside of how English can sometimes be translated and given an unintended meaning, we saw one such sign this afternoon. It read: “Find your dream school—study abroad.” We thought it was comic! Again, we will be at sea for the next few days as we sail to Phuket, Thailand. We will check back with you next Sunday evening, perhaps.

From your friends,

Neil (the editor) and David