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| Mountains in Oman |
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| Fort Near Muttrah Souk |
For the second Eid and also our first wedding anniversary we decided to drive to Oman from Abu Dhabi. We saw from Google maps that the drive itself would take about five and a half hours. We set out on Friday around eleven which put us at the border at about one o clock. I realized when we approached the border that we were middle east border "newbies" when I saw we had to feed our cars into this narrow fenced in area with buildings on both sides. From my border crossing experiences in the U.S. and Europe I expected to drive up to a booth where I could just hand over my passport, get a stamp and be on our way. However in this case we had to find a parking space within the fenced area and proceed to one of the buildings for processing. The line (or queue as is more commonly said in the U.A.E.) was rather large given the holiday. We walked up to the first of two queues and began to question the
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| Omani Traditional Dress |
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| Shangri La Resort |
other members waiting if this was indeed where we needed to be to stamp our passports. Unfortunately no one was aware of why they were waiting in line, instead they were just hoping at the end they would be cleared to enter Oman. After baking outside in the sun for about an hour (the line stretched outside the building) we made it to the slightly air conditioned part of the line. We proceeded to wait there for about thirty minutes at which point an officer came in and kicked us all out of the building for some reason. After that there were hints that a riot might ensue after the line was scrambled and others who had clearly been waiting longer lost their positions. It was at this point that the officer made his handcuffs visible which calmed everyone down. After a slight bout of confusion out in the sun again, the officers changed shifts and the new office promptly offered to let women inside out of the sun. Following that chivalrous gesture, my wife was able to secure our transfer to Oman, two and a half hours (the border can also get crowded because people do what they call "border runs" because they are on a thirty day temporary U.A.E. visa, so they go to the border, leave and turn right back around to get another thirty day stamp on their passports) after our initial arrival.
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| Darcy's Kitchen Cafe |
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| Beach Restaurant |
Now that we were back on the road again we had one more parking checkpoint for the Oman part of customs and then we were back on track to Muscat, Oman. We had reservations at the
Ramada in Muscat which we arrived to after about eight hours of travel between the border and driving. We both quickly noticed some stark difference between Oman and the U.A.E., the traditional dress is slightly different, there far less taxis in Oman, and the vast array of amenities offered in the U.A.E. are not as readily available in Oman. Oman has a beautiful landscape that transforms as you drive from the rolling sand dunes in the deserts of the U.A.E. to Oman that contains its staggered mountains streaked with colors of brown, white and red. The locals in Oman also do not wear the Kandura or Agal with their robes, but either a pill box type
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| Al-Ameen Mosque |
cap or turban. The first thing I noticed while driving in into the night atmosphere of Muscat was the Al Ameen mosque which was towering over the city. The most eye catching aspect of this structure is the architects chose to cast light on the mosque in the evening. From afar and even close up the Al-Ameen mosque does not appear to have lights illuminating it, but instead the mosque appears to emit a blueish and yellow glow off the stone, a truly beautiful sight. After checking in to our resort we set out for food, but ended up getting lost for about thirty minutes driving back out towards the border and then making a sharp left turn that drove us through a mountain road with no turn around points. Sadly, this experience of getting lost in Oman would not be the last. When we finally found our way we had a meal at a nice little outdoor restaurant called Darcy's Kitchen where Sarah found a Chai Latte that she fell in love with and I enjoyed the fact that they served breakfast all day (we came back for another later in the trip).
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| Beach Restaurant |
The next day we decided to make it a beach day at the Shangri La
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| Ritz Lobby |
hotel resort which is a series of three hotels. We bought a day pass for the beach which included a buffet pass as well. The weather on the beach was the best we have had in months with a temperature of around 23 degrees
Celsius (about 75 degrees Fahrenheit). We spent around six hours on the beach that day and enjoyed the nice buffet. We laid around and went swimming and snorkeling (I snorkeled for hours, shame I forgot to bring my underwater camera). In the evening we decided to celebrate our anniversary by eating at the Beach Pavilion restaurant at the Ritz Carton (the lobby inside the Ritz is breathtaking). It is a fine dining restaurant with tables set out on the beach sand right along the water. It was a very nice dinner and the service was great.
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| Ritz Carlton Lobby |
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| Muttrah Souk |
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| Muttrah Souk |
On our final day before driving back we decided to pay a visit to the Muttrah Souk (a Souk is a traditional Arab market place) and see how different they were from the Souks of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They were very similar with some slight differences. I bought an old map of the middle east after about an hour of bargaining (which I love to do) which I plan to frame here in the U.A.E. eventually (framing services like so many other services are very cheap in the U.A.E.). After a walk through the Souk, we got back to the car to make our way back to the border. One of the most memorable details about the trip was on our way back when we mistakenly arrived to the border designated for U.A.E. nationals only (which had the drive up booths I had expected to see coming in to Oman...go figure) where our attendant asked us if we knew Arabic. Sadly we did not know enough to converse so he tried to explain that we needed to go to a different border, in his best and kindest effort he said in English "this border for brown people only", Sarah and I could not stop laughing, we know he meant no offense, but we could not help enjoying the satire after a long drive to the border. Thankfully after getting to the right border the return did not take as long as the drive in.
Oman was a great place to visit. It is amazing that a place so close to our home in the U.A.E has such different geography, styles, customs and practices. We would love to go back someday with any friends and family who visit (hint hint) in the future, but if we do I think next time we will place our bets on flying versus driving.
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| Beach Outside Muscat |
