Oman has been on the list of "Countries to visit" for awhile. People we met along the way all seem to ask the same thing "why Oman?". Can't say that I knew much about Oman in particular, but it was different and my father visited some time ago and described it as something from the book "Arabian nights". The crossing from UAE to Oman was pleasantly easy and apart for a search through our bags by the customs officers there was no hassle at all. The bustrip was also ridiculously easy for being us and we were in Muscat in no time. Muscat is a pretty strange place in terms of layout. There is no real city centre. Instead there are "city parts" spread out over a distance of 50 km which is collectively called Muscat. We opted to stay in Mutrah which felt more like a fishing village. It was blissfully quiet and relaxing and people were amazingly polite and helpful!
As usual Dan and I had not even opened our guidebook until arrival. Now that we were here in this wonderful country maybe it was time to start thinking about what we wanted to see other than the inside of shawarma restaurants!! Most people probably are a bit more prepared, but in our defence we had moved between countries just before the trip and had shipped the guidebooks straight to NZ to avoid having to carry bulky books. We soon found out that for this country being prepared would've been beneficial. There were very little public transport of any kind to sites of interest and apparently this was a country for almost exclusive driving. Either one of us had brought our driver's license since we thought international driver's license was required, which turned out to not be the case. Merde as the french would say!! We discussed the best way of doing this and soon came to the conclusion that it was best to get hold of a driver and a car. We shopped around for potential drivers+cars. It was heartbreakingly expensive, but we decided to go on the road for 3 days with a driver or we would not see anything at all. We had said that since this outing was so expensive there would be no sleeping in the car to make the most of every second. I am notorious for falling asleep in cars so that would be a challenge on its own. We were meet by our driver Hamad, who was a friendly guy that spoke good English. We liked him at once and me even more when it turned out that he also trained Muay Thai (although only in Thailand since it is not allowed in Oman). Our roadtrip covered incredible landscapes, sand dune bashing (scary but fun), sea turtle nesting and swimming in amazingly turquoise water in Wadis. Although we decided to go back to UAE after our road trip (a day or two earlier than initially planned), Oman was everything I had expected and we will definitely go back there again.....with our driver's licenses.
As usual Dan and I had not even opened our guidebook until arrival. Now that we were here in this wonderful country maybe it was time to start thinking about what we wanted to see other than the inside of shawarma restaurants!! Most people probably are a bit more prepared, but in our defence we had moved between countries just before the trip and had shipped the guidebooks straight to NZ to avoid having to carry bulky books. We soon found out that for this country being prepared would've been beneficial. There were very little public transport of any kind to sites of interest and apparently this was a country for almost exclusive driving. Either one of us had brought our driver's license since we thought international driver's license was required, which turned out to not be the case. Merde as the french would say!! We discussed the best way of doing this and soon came to the conclusion that it was best to get hold of a driver and a car. We shopped around for potential drivers+cars. It was heartbreakingly expensive, but we decided to go on the road for 3 days with a driver or we would not see anything at all. We had said that since this outing was so expensive there would be no sleeping in the car to make the most of every second. I am notorious for falling asleep in cars so that would be a challenge on its own. We were meet by our driver Hamad, who was a friendly guy that spoke good English. We liked him at once and me even more when it turned out that he also trained Muay Thai (although only in Thailand since it is not allowed in Oman). Our roadtrip covered incredible landscapes, sand dune bashing (scary but fun), sea turtle nesting and swimming in amazingly turquoise water in Wadis. Although we decided to go back to UAE after our road trip (a day or two earlier than initially planned), Oman was everything I had expected and we will definitely go back there again.....with our driver's licenses.
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