Unnerving Persistence

Upon glancing through our guide books a couple of weeks ago, both Marcus and I drew up a vague mental list of things we'd like to do/see whilst here. The Sultan's Armed Forces Museum deserved a visit, we agreed. That would be a nice relaxed trip on some future lazy weekend, we thought: the job's a good'un... Bob's your uncle, etc etc.

So we were somewhat bemused when we found out that the SAF Museum is closed on a Thursday and Friday (the equivalent Western Saturday and Sunday), and is on weekdays open only until 1.30pm. Why on earth would a museum be closed at the weekend and during the afternoon? Beats me. Thus we saw the presence of the school cross country event yesterday as a great opportunity to pay the museum a visit, since we weren't needed at school to marshal, time-keep, or, god forbid, run.

The museum is located in Bait Al Falaj, a 150 year old fort, the original headquarters of the Sultan's Armed Forces garrison. It explores Oman's military history, providing interesting information from the Pre-Islam Persian dominance of the country right through to the Communism-fuelled Dhofar Rebellion, which took place between 1962 and 1975.

After paying the 1 Rial entrance fee we were escorted round the museum, which was remarkably quiet, by an Omani soldier in full military dress. Alas he wasn't much use because we could only understand about 20% of what he was mumbling, and we just couldn't shake him off; he was loathe to let us explore the museum by ourselves: after he had raced through the outdoor section, which showcased military vehicles, planes, and boats (including the state Cadillac which was used to transport VIP guests of the Sultan in the 80s!) Marcus shook his hand and said "Thanks, we'll just have another wander around if that's OK," to which the reply was a stern "Oh I'll stay with you. How long? Ten minutes?"

It's not as if we were going to nick off with a tank or anything.