Blogs from Muscat, Oman, Middle East - page 8

There are perhaps certain advantages to being delayed for nearly twelve hours, even if that means waiting out that half a day in a tiny, characterless terminal in Dubai with only a McDonald’s and Baskin Robbins to keep one occupied. In this case, the advantage was that, from my fortuitous window seat, I got to see my destination come into view all a-glitter in the night. There were the long ribbons of highways, as well as the bright curves of the bays and harbors that are the reason this city exists. I could also see the black gaps in those lights, mysterious to me from my aerial perspective, but once we landed I could see that those unlit spaces were craggy mountains, another shaper of the city. I had arrived, at last, in Muscat. **** I ... read more

Le tresor du Sultan ! Avant d'organiser ce voyage nous aurions surement ete incapable de situer le sultanat d'Oman sur une map-monde. Autant Dubaï est connu pour ces reccords mondiaux en tous genres, autant le Yemen defraye regulierement l'actualite terrorisante de nos medias, autant l'immense pays qui les separe nous est meconnu ! Mais aujourd'hui, notre passage dans ce paradis d'hospitalité restera gravé dans nos mémoires comme un des plus beaux souvenirs de l'emsemble de nos voyages. Certes ce pays ne brille pas de multiples splendeurs touristiques, encore que les wadis qui entaillent son desert meritent a eux seuls qu'on fasse le detour, certes sa capitale n'a pas le charme d'une vieille ville arabe debordante de vie et de pagaille, mais le tresor du Sultan c'est le coeur de ses habitants... (quelle poésie!) Paradoxe? Nous commencons ... read more

Oman has a great infrastructure these days, but it has somehow failed to give adequate funds to the road department involved with putting up the signs that lead the casual non-resident to where he wants to go. Yes road signs indicating towns, villages and cities are rather lacklustre and often missing, as my parents and I found out to our detriment as we cruised along the smooth paved roads of this Arab nation. If there are signs, they can be either long before the turn-off, say 3 to 6 kilometres before, but not actually at the turn-off itself, or they are right after the turn-off, so one misses it, thinking it is the next one, or they give you the name of some little hamlet of such insignificant proportion that it isn't mentioned on any maps, ... read more

Hi! I finally arrived in Muscat after a quite adventurous journey. I took the A380(!!) from Auckland to Sydney and it was supposed to fly to Dubai after this stop. But unfortunately there was some kind of gas lack at the terminal we were supposed to departure. So they evacuated 900 people and 12 people were even treated medically at the airport. After a few hours of waiting they finally canceled the flight and we were transfered to different hotels in Sydney, where we finally arrived at 3 am. The next morning we were transfered back to the airport at 8 am, where we finally restarted the journey after some delay... So I arrived in Dubai at 9 pm and then two friends (Fahad and Badr) picked me up at the airport and we traveled to ... read more

Following breakfast, the car rental rep showed up with the car delivered right to the hotel. After filling out the paperwork, we hopped in the car for a bit of an adventure. I had never driven in an Arab country before, could not read most signs, and generally hoped for no problems. None were had. We first drove a few miles through the middle of Muscat, skirting the Souk, to the Omen Dive Centre. We just wanted to be sure that we were all ready to go diving with them the next day. Everything was in order. . . e-mail and the internet are wonderful things! We then decided to drive to Seeb which is, if one knows where he is going, a relatively short drive north of Muscat, past the airport. A guide book to ... read more