Oh man, Oman!

I have to admit that despite being the geography nerd that I am, I didn't know Oman existed until very recently.  After hearing that I was moving to the Middle East, some friends that had travelled in the region told me I had to go to Oman.  Oman is beautiful!  Oman is safe!  You'll just love Oman!  So, for our first holiday of the school year, we borrowed a guidebook, hopped on a bus, and headed for the border...


Oman is located right next to the UAE, so we didn't need to fly there.  To get to Muscat, the capital city of Oman, by bus from Dubai you need to buy tickets one day in advance from the Oman National Transport Company office in Deira next to the Ponderosa/Caravan Restaurant.  The bus we took left at 7:00am, and we had to be there a half hour before.  Luckily, tickets were cheap... only 90 UAE Dirhams ($27) for a round trip ticket with an open return date.

On the back of the bus ticket it claims "All our fleet are fitted with speed limiters for assuring safe journeys."  Vehicles here have speed warning beepers that start to beep once you go over 120 km/h, and that bus was beeping for most of the trip.  Luckily, the driver got us to Muscat safely in around 6 hours.  The annoying part about the bus ride (aside from the beeping) was that we had to show our passports a bunch of times and get in and out of the bus at various checkpoints and have our bags checked and passports stamped.  We got Omani visas on arrival for 50 Dirhams each (around $15).

Since taxis aren't metered in Muscat and the city is quite spread out, we decided to rent a car through Thrifty at the airport.  We used Thrifty when we rented a car in Australia, and they gave us a car pretty quickly without much hassle.  Canadians can drive in Oman with their Canadian licenses.  The roads in Oman are brand new, and there wasn't much traffic outside Muscat, a city of around 1 million people.  Gas was fairly cheap and getting around was easy as we brought our GPS with us.  If you want to get around Oman, I'd highly recommend renting a car because there didn't seem to be a lot of public transportation options in between cities.

Here's where we went in Muscat...

Muttrah Souq

This crazy place is a labyrinth of food stalls and shops selling every typical Middle Eastern trinket you'd hope to buy, and more.  Need an incense burner?  Genie lamp?  Flying carpet?  Gold camel statue?  It's all here.  Just make sure you come during the opening hours, from around 8am-1pm, and 5-9pm.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

The Grand Mosque is definitely grand.  It's huge and so beautifully designed that you can't help being impressed.  The mosque is free to visit, and open to non-Muslims from 8-11am.  You must visit wearing appropriate clothing (men need to wear pants, women need to cover their heads and have arms covered to the wrist and legs covered to the ankle).  Inside the mosque is the world's second largest piece of carpet which took 4 years to make (the biggest one is now in the UAE at the grand mosque in Abu Dhabi... leave it to the Emiratis to make something bigger and better)!  There is also a huge, stunning chandelier which is made of 8.5 tonnes of Swarovski crystals, and is 14 metres high.  It used to be the biggest chandelier in the world until it was surpassed by one made in Qatar.  The mosque was a peaceful place to visit, and a must-see in Muscat!

Qurum Beach

We visited the beach at low tide, and it was surprising how far we could walk out to the Indian Ocean.  It wasn't your typical beach though, as not many sunbathers could be found.  Being so conservative, you didn't see locals out in typical swimming attire.  Women were walking around taking selfies on their ipads in their abayas and men wore shorts and t-shirts and played soccer.  Some people were swimming with clothes on, which is what I did!  It was nice to take a dip in the Indian Ocean to cool off.

Muttrah Corniche

This coastal road was great for people watching and admiring the harbour of Muscat and surrounding mountains.  The royal yacht, owned by the Sultan of Oman, was parked in the waters.  It's one of the biggest yachts in the world... I can only imagine the luxury inside.  It looked like a cruise ship!  The corniche is nice to stroll around but unfortunately upon closer look, you can see that the water is polluted with lots of garbage... too bad!  The souq is located along the route, as well as many juice bars where you can grab a nice cup of refreshing lemon mint water.

While Muscat was an interesting place to spend a few days, we wanted to get out and see more of Oman.  Let the road trip begin!  ...