Che and I decided it was time for us to see the coast of Oman by boat so we went on a 4 hour boat cruise in the waters around Muscat organized by Gulf Leisure Tours. (www.gulfleisure.com )
Beauty and the boat!
A view of the Marina. Tourists buy tickets for the glass bottom boat tour in advance and are responsible for getting themselves down to the Marina by 8:15am in the morning. The boat leaves at 8:30am.
My darling at the Marina
One of the many other tour boats we saw while on tour. The kids on our boat loved passing this one and thought it looked like a pirate ship.
Che at the spot our caption dropped anchor. We swam and snorkeled here for about 30 minutes. This was the only place you could see through the glass bottom. There were so many colorful fish and we even saw some giant turtles! Sorry I wasn’t able to get any good pics. I simply enjoyed my time with the love of my life and wasn’t thinking of photos…
The boat kept close to shore on the way back to the Marina which was more exciting than the ride out. (They should mention that 1.5 hours of the 3.5 hour tour is an uneventful rapid ride out to the deeper part of the sea. Then again, maybe it was uneventful simply because there weren’t any whales or dolphins on the day we went out…not the best season for dolphin/whale sighting someone mentioned.)
My funny Che! Leave it to her to “sneak” a photo of me videotaping, ha!ha!
The Shangri-La
My Che-the photogenic one! Seriously though, you would be amazed HOW much people are always sneaking a look at her or outright oogling her!!!
The newly renovated Al Bustan Hotel, from our boat. Another 5-star hotel here in Muscat.
A cute photo of Che at the entrance of the Marina on our way out.
Now this is what I really call traveling in style. This boat, The Al Said, (Al is arabic for “The” so I guess I just called it “The The Said”?!…) is His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Al Said’s private yacht, I’m told. This was later in the day docked at Mattrah Port.
Andy in Oman 
>Nice pictures Andy. Just a quick comment.. the Al in Al-Said is different than the Al you explained. Al in Arabic is “The” as you said, but Al in Al-Said is actually pronounced Aaal , not Al as in The. Aaal means “the family.” Al-Said or Aaal-Said as pronounced means “the family of Said.” The family of Said bin Sultan actually, the founder of Al-Said family (royal family of Oman). And yeah, just like you heard, Al-Said is the private yacht of His Majesty the Sultan.
>Cool!It has been such a long time I went for a boat ride!You pic are awesome and U have induced me the thought to go to boat raid again!
>WOW amazing pic… 😉
>Thanks for the comments!Amjad, thanks so much for the info. It’s like a lightbulb went on in my head as you were explaining it and it all came together for me! And thanks for confirming about Al Said. That’s pretty cool that I was able to see His Majesty’s personal ship!
hi andy,
when is best time for dolphin/whale sighting?
Mala,
I’m not expert on dolphin/whale sighting. In my 5 years here in Oman, I’ve never seen dolphins or whales! It’s definitely on the “to do list”!