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Published: February 17th 2018
Hello my fellow travellers!
I started my day early, going to the small Sabkha Bus Station where I was told that the bus to Muscat would leave from. Turned out it doesn't, it used to be possible to go this route by taking a bus from here to Hatta, on the border to Oman, and then take another bus from there to Muscat, but the bus between Hatta and Muscat no longer runs. The bus instead runs from another bus station, one that I ironically was at yesterday.
Well, since I had already missed the direct bus to Muscat I decided to take my chances on the Hatta route, figuring out the crossing some other way. While waiting for the next bus to Hatta I sat and talked to the station attendant who brought me tea. He was a really nice guy, also from Egypt, and we spend quite some time just chatting and enjoying each others presence.
As the bus for Hatta rolled in we said our goodbyes and I jumped on and I chatted to the driver as well on the way to Hatta, trying to learn a bit about the border crossing. Apparently there are
two border controls, quite a bit from each other and there's no forms of public transports across the border and it's quite a bit to walk so he recommended I take a taxi to the first point.
So that's what I did, when I got off the bus there were a few taxis waiting so I jumped on the first one, but he didn't have permission to drive the whole way to the first border point so he dropped me maybe a kilometre away, I started walking from there while asking for a life which I got from a truck drive. Only problem is that he passed the first border check point without stopping, and I do have to get my exit stamp so I don't run into problems later so I tell him that I don't have an exit stamp so he stops so that I can run back to the border check point.
Luckily it was just kind of like a big office I could walk into without it really being noticeable that I came from the wrong side, or that I came on foot. I get my exit stamp (I can enter and exit several
times for 30 days without problems as a Swedish citizen, but I still need my stamps).
Of course, now I'm kind of in no mans land with a few kilometres to the next border check point so I start walking under the blistering sun. I try again to get a lift but this time it's a bit slower and while walking I hear someone yelling in the distant but doesn't realise at first that it's addressed at me until I see a security officer coming running from behind me. He asks why I didn't stop and I told him that I didn't realise he was calling out for me, he's a bit disgruntled about this and he starts asking me who I am and what I'm doing. I tell him that I'm from Sweden and that I'm crossing the border on foot and I show him my passport (that is thankfully in order now).
He is really surprised at this, I'm most likely the first one to ever cross the border on foot, there's only a heavily trafficked road with no walkways available at all and the sun is really hitting you here. Well, my paperwork is in
order, and he can't really do anything about me being crazy enough to do this thing so he returns my passport and waves me on so I kept on walking.
After a while I manage to hail a car with two guys that are going to Muscat and they at least agree to drive me to the border point, perhaps all the way to Muscat even though they seemed a bit reluctant, but at least I came to the Oman border. As we park at the border we all go inside together, one of them go to the immigration window while the other go to get a mandatory traffic insurance that's apparently bought at the border.
They clear immigration before me but when it's my turn it get a bit confusing as I try to explain how I arrive, they didn't quite get the concept of me walking/hitchhiking here and they want me to show insurance for the traffic but I tell them I only rode a car here, I don't actually drive a car myself, I told the officer that I rode with two guys and he asks to speak with them, they're already outside so I
go get to them and explain but they tell me they got insurance for two passengers, apparently it's based on the number of people, and that they continue on their own to Muscat.
With that I return to the border officer who's been waiting for me and explain that my ride just left and I enquire about busses, he tells me there are none, perhaps one in the evening if I'm lucky. I tell him I'll figure something out so he process me and I pay the VISA fee. For what it's worth, I'm at least inside Oman now, just not as deep as I'd hoped I'd be by this point.
I figure I can't wait around for a bus that may or may not arrive so I walk outside to where you drive through the border check after having VISA and insurance squared away. I start talking to the officers there which are all nice, especially one fellow who allows me to wait with him and ask the people that stop to show their passports if I can ride with them.
It actually goes pretty quickly, like the third car, there are two great guys that
live in Muscat that invite me to ride with them when I tell them of my situation. When they show their insurance to the officer I've been talking to, their insurance also being for two people of course, he asks if I have any insurance, I tell him no but he just smiles and changes the number of people on the insurance from two to three and as such I was allowed to continue on my way. After a few bumps in road but thanks to the help of lots of nice individuals I was finally on my to Muscat!
We stopped quite soon after the border and ate and my two saviours, Majid and Nasser, even paid for my meal. It was really awesome of them, I'm so fortunate that I met them. I was pretty beat so I drifted in and out of sleep during the drive to Muscat, it takes a lot longer than I thought it would actually. Whenever I wasn't sleeping I was chatting with them about everything imaginable, it was a very pleasant time.
As we came to Muscat we stopped where Majid lived and he left the car to Nasser who
then drove me out to Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the main mosque in Muscat. It's a beautiful and imposing structure that was completed in 2001. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside which is a shame because it has the second largest carpet in the world, it's handwoven and took four years to make.
From the mosque Nasser drove me out to my host Hemant who lives on the other side of Muscat which is a quite large city despite there not being that many people living here. The view was beautiful and we stopped on the way so that I could take a couple of photos of the city at night.
Hemant was home when I arrived and I thanked Nasser dearly for his and Majid's invaluable help today, without them I might still have been stuck at the border. When Nasser left me and Hemant sat down and chatted for a while and drank a couple of beers together. Because he had a friend in Stockholm we talked about the state of Sweden and the migration situation, he himself being an immigrant, Oman has a lot more migration than Sweden with around half the population being immigrants but
as he put it, they attract the people that want to work hard, while Sweden attract people that don't want to work due to our social benefit systems. It was interesting to hear his viewpoints and comparisons to another country, being an immigrant himself.
While we were talking I received a text from my mother that my grandmother had passed away, it was expected as she had been sick for a long time but still made me sad of course. Her last time has been painful though so I'm glad that she's finally at peace.
Since he had promised to baby sit tonight he said that I was welcome to stay at the house alone but he recommended that he'd drop me by the waterfront instead since there's a lot of life going on there during night and it would be a lot nicer for me than just sit around alone in the house. I agreed and so he drove me down and dropped me by the waterfront and drove off, agreeing to meet in a few hours.
The area was indeed quite alive, there was a lot of young couples and groups of people barbecuing and
it smelled amazingly, it was a lovely atmosphere and the weather was perfect even though it was pitch black. I began by just taking a walk and enjoying the general atmosphere before I sat down and rested for a bit, thinking about my grandmother and the events of the day, after all it had been a long and eventful day.
After I sat down it took maybe a whole minute or so before I was hailed by a group of eight guys having a barbecue a bit away, motioning me to come over. I walked over to them and they offered me a seat and to share in their barbecue which I was happy to do.
They were a group of co-workers and it was nice to share in their happy banter and it lifted my spirits, eating and drinking heartily and it was really delicious. After the meal was done we all took a walk along the beach together before they packed up and went their separate ways. I thanked them all for their generous hospitality and I will cherish this memory. After they left I just sat down with my thoughts until Hemant came and picked
me up again.
We spent the rest of the evening chatting and he gave me some tips on where to go tomorrow, my plan is to see the historical part of Muscat and I look forward to it a lot.
Until tomorrow I wish you all peace and happy travels!
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Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro
On eating dates
I went to Oman some years ago and I really liked it there. Nice country, nice people and lots of interesting places to visit. Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque was one of them. One thing I really like about the Arabic countries is that here and there they offer you free dates to eat. It is a nice tradition that makes me feel very welcome. /Ake