OM: Muscat Day 2

I had a good night sleep last night. Woke up fresh. Today’s plan is to visit museums around Muttrah/Muscat. The first one to visit is Bait Al-Bandara which is located just two blocks away from the hotel. The museum is only open from 9am, therefore we have plenty of time to laze in the morning. Had my shower and went for breakfast on the top floor of the hotel.

Few minutes past nine, we already at Bait Al Bandara. This is originally a house owned by one of the Omanis. It was renovated and now houses the history of the country. It is very interesting to find out that our country shares a lot of similar things with the Sultanate of Oman. Definitely a must visit for tourist in Oman. The entry fee is OMR1 (~MYR9.3) per person. And it worth every single baisa :-)

Next stop was Bait Al Zubair, another museum within the wall of Old Muscat. The entrance fee is the same and this museum houses Omani cultural items. I would also recommend this museum to be added in the itinerary when visiting Muscat.

Original plan is to stop by Gate Museum, however, it was closed on Saturday. It is only open from Sunday to Thursday. Then SA wanted to buy more souvenirs for his friends and he insisted to go to Omani Heritage Gallery in Qurm. Since most of the shops close at 1pm and reopen at 4pm, this one is no exception as well. So, there we go, rushing from Muttrah to Qurm. The traffic was bad along the main highway, but we managed to slip through the beach road towards Qurm.

Had our lunch at D’Arcy Kitchen as recommended by lonelyplanet guide. This place is favourite among the expats and it is located next to the Omani Heritage Gallery shop.

Before we left the hotel this morning, we have informed the receptionist that we will check out late at 2pm and was granted without any fuss. Since somebody spent too much time in the gallery, we have to rush for lunch (Zal and SA were soooo excited to be in that gallery.... :-) wonder why, hiks). So, to make things simple, everybody ordered the same dish, fish and chips. We thought this is a special dish from the kitchen since it is only serves three days in a week, but it turned out not that special. I think, it is a little overcooked.

Rushed back to the hotel and requested for another 30 mins extension for the check out. Again, request granted! Freshen up, checked out and zoomed straight to our final place in our itinerary, Sultan Al-Qaboos Grand Mosque. This mosque holds a world record for the biggest single laid carpet. It is a beautiful mosque. You must visit this mosque. If you are a Muslim, you can visit this mosque anytime in the day and recommended you include this as the last in the itinerary (the mosque is located along the way to the airport and you can just stop by). For the non Muslims, visiting time is in the morning, from 8am till 11am daily except Friday (if I am not mistaken).

My flight is at 7pm, and we completed our personal tour at the mosque around 4pm. Since we have more time to spend in this beautiful Oman, we decided to stop by at one of the shopping centers near the airport. Nothing much there…. so, we decided to be at the airport a bit early and let Ard and SA continue with their own agenda. I heard they went to another shopping center near the airport and watch "300". SA flight is after 9pm while Ard is at midnight.

So, that’s wrap up our trip to Muscat. I never regret it … in fact I love it and I RECOMMEND to all my blog readers to visit Oman…

Next, my journey back to hot and dusty Doha….

~ MT @ 0man
~ Seeb International Airport

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

OM: Muscat Day 1

The first day, or shall I say second day (? whatever lah ) started very early. The sun ray that slipped through the curtain woke me up at around 6.45am. The original plan is to visit the bustling fish market just right in front of the hotel, but once all of us were ready, it was already 7.30am. And we should be at the Blue Marlin marina by 7.45am for the dolphin watching trip. So we have to skip the fish market.

Since our stay at the hotel includes breakfast, we tried our best to pack the breakfast and eat it on the way to the marina. Hoping for a full continental breakfast, what we got just few toasts with butter and jam! Well, better than nothing.

The journey from the hotel to the marina took us along the Muttrah Corniche and through the old Muscat. It was a beautiful sight to behold. It supposed to be a short trip, especially Friday morning since it is a weekend there and not many traffic. However, our wonderful map-reader got a wrong direction and we ended up near a church in Old Muscat.

Once we reached the Marina, there were six other people already waiting for us One Oriental guy and the remaining are Americans (from the slang). Zal argued a bit with the travel agent representative on the cost and the trip. At the end, we decided only to do the dolphin watching for OMR15 and skip the snorkeling part. The whole dolphin watching or rather dolphin chasing was only less than one hour (one hour plus a bit if includes the journey to the area [10 – 15 mins each way]).

Back to the shore, did a bit of photography around the area of the marina before driving to the south towards Bandar Jissah. This looks like a new area developed by the government by building three international hotels. The interesting part of the area is its link with Muscat through a series of picturesque modern roads. Really really beautiful.

Then, we drove back to the city area using a different road. This time we drove towards Ruwi and on the way, there is a Friday Market at Wadi Al Khabir. Stopped by to look around and get a bite (somebody was soooo hungry…)

Since it was Friday (a weekend in Oman is same as Saudi, Thursday and Friday), the traffic was light and when we passed Ruwi, most part of the area were still deserted. So, we decided to go to the Qurm Beach, an area where you see the luxury lifestyles of the Omanis (and probably expats). This is the area where majority of international brand hotels are situated. Very nice beach. White sandy beach with clear blue water.

The humidity has got all over us and we decided to go back to the hotel to freshen up and take a nap (haha..still ada masa nak tido).

At 3.30pm, we decided to explore the Souq. The souq is only opened at 4pm, so we decided to go to Old Muscat first. According to Zal, our “walking travel advisor”, Muscat is flanked between two forts, Fort Mirani and Fort Jalali. It is bordered witha series of wall.

Souq Muttrah is one of the highlights if you are visiting Oman. Unfortunately, it is not up to my expectations. It is quite big, but it is missing something. May be there is no trace of Omani culture and traditional blended there. But we did spend around 3.5 hours there. :-) Did not buy anything.. wait.. I did buy something.. yes.. I bought Omani Henna for my mum. I bought once for her last time I went back home (from D0ha) and she likes it. Omani henna is one of the expensive henna. Yemeni henna is a bit more expensive since it is already being mixed with lemon juice (according to the seller) and it is good for body art. It is not suitable for other part of the body i.e. hair.

Later at night, we planned to have a dinner somewhere near the Grand Hyatt as recommended by the TimeOut guide. Once we got there, we saw another café (Candle Cafe) which is next to the one recommended and it is by the beach. In no time, we decided to have late dinner at Candle Cafe. Not sure whetehr it is a good decision or not since everybody was not so pleased with the food. The food was not great (I had Nasi Goreng P!noy style) and I don’t recommend this place for dinner. However, for hubbly bubbly and casual meeting, this place received my endorsement. You can enjoy the beach view and once a while, an aircraft departing from the nearby Seeb airport.

Late dinner was our last activity for the day… tomorrow’s plan, history of Oman… :-)

~ MT @ 0man
~~ Muttrah

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: The Journey Begins... DOH-MCT

All my other MiME travelers have written about our MCT trip in their blogs. I’m late already. “Dah basi cerita ni…” Anyway, this is my story… hehehehe

I left office around 5.45pm. I am already half-way packing (came back during lunch time) and it just took me less than 10 mins to finish it. Freshen up and said goodbye to SK who will be left alone at my apartment for the weekend.

Drove to KM’s place nearby the airport and left my rented Corolla there. KM drove us in his red Swift to the airport, which is located two blocks away from his apartment. The time was few minutes past seven in the evening and there were not many passengers at the airport. The first level security was smooth and we proceeded to the Oman Air (WY) checking counters. There were three counters opened and at least 10 passengers queuing at each counter. Majority were South Asians going back to their homeland. "Looks like the flight is pretty full tonight".

I was assigned seat 12E while Zal got himself comfortable at the next seat 12F. We walked to the departure area and bumped into Zal’s work collegues who are heading to Afghanistan and few Malaysians in-transit from umrah. Apparently, QR has been one of the favourite airlines for Malaysians to go to the holy cities of Mecca and Madinah.

We prayed Isyak at the new prayer room and then had a dinner at the food-court. I had two piece A&W fried chicken and Zal had a burger. About 40mins before standard time of departure, we proceeded to Gate 2 - the holding area for tonight's WY flight to MCT.

We were bussed to the aircraft and was greeted by the only female crew on board. Can’t remember her name, but I guess she is from India (from her name-tag). Further inside the cabin, two male crew were in stand by to assist passengers, both are local Omanis. Our seats are the third row from forward economy cabin. I was in the middle seat while Zal has privileged to enjoy the outside view. On my left is an Indian guy flying back to his home town, C0chin.



The standard flight time is 1hr 15 mins, however due to traffic, we were delayed for 5mins. Not a big deal!

Ten minutes into the flight, the service started. Amazing that WY serves meal on its one hour plus flight. The choices were rice with chicken or vegetables. I am not an avid veggie eater, so I opted for chicken. Hoping that Zal chose veggie, he decided to go for chicken as well. Aahhh, now I don’t have a photo of veggie meal for you. The chicken was so hard that the plastic cutlery unable to cut it through. Luckily I had two-piece chicken at the airport – so I am not that hungry.

Later, the crew came around for a drink – tea or coffee. Am not sure whether WY serves alcohol or not. Anyway, not that I bother :-)

We landed 5 mins behind schedule and were bussed to the terminal. Unwelcome predicament started for me. Although I have been in Qatar for nearly three years, I have never applied for a residence permit. I have been using the business visa all along. Zal managed to get his visa for OMR3 since he is a residence of Qatar and for me, the cashier unable to ascertain my status. So, I was told to queue at the Immigration counter to enquiry the visa status for me. The immigration officer told me to pay OMR3 and I went back to the Cashier. With the receipt, I queued again only to be told at the counter that I need to pay OMR6. There I went again to the Cashier and pay another OMR3. Only then I was allowed to enter Oman… fuhh…. That was tiring and luckily not many arrivals at that time (after we landed, there was an EK flight from DXB). At the arrival hall, Zal was waiting for me already and had our checked in baggage.











We met with our fellow MiME traveler outside the arrival hall and walked to Thrifty Car Rental to pick up our car for the weekend. This is my first time meeting Ard, the fellow MiME from AUH. Hello Ard :-)

Our transport for the weekend was H0nda City. That night, Ard drove us to the hotel and for the rest of the weekend, I was the driver. I really enjoy driving.. don’t ask me why :-) Reached our hotel by the Corniche around 1am and slumped into slumberland in no time….

Can’t wait for tomorrow…..

~ MT @ Oman
~~ Marina Hotel, Muttrah

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

QA: Trip..Trip...Trip

This Thursday, I am going to spend a weekend in Muscat, Oman. I am flying there with Zal from Doha. Joining us are two MiME bloggers, Ard from Abu Dhabi with British Airways and AP from Sharjah with Air Arabia.

Looking forward for the trip. This is my first time to be in Oman and first time flying with Oman Air and first time to fly in B737-800. :-))

*MiME = Malaysians in Middle East

~ MT @ Qatar
~~ Ibn Mahmoud, D0ha

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~