Blogs from Oman, Middle East - page 20

From Dubai we did a short sidetrip of one week to Oman. Short, but enough to see some highlights and get a taste of a country we probably would never visit otherwise. Oman is a wealthy country with a high living standard, and is still a very traditional muslim country: all men wear white jalabah's with traditional hats and the woman are dressed in black clothes with veils or burka's. Small mosks can be found on virtually every corner of the street. We can honestly say that Omani people are some of the most welcoming people we met on our trip. Locals are extremely happy to see you and are very helpful. They all want to have a chat with you to practise their English. Tourism in Oman is still in its infancy and most tourists ... read more

Area: Hajjar Mountains around and on Jebel Shams - The highest mountains in Oman and this region standing tall at just over 3000 meters above sea level. Wadis covered are Bani Awf and Sahtan. Travel Month: Dec 2009 Country: Sultanate of Oman Total Days: 5 Days Attractions: Complete Offroad Experience!! Far off villages, very steep dirt track driving, and mountains. Total Distance Covered: 1200 Kilometers Total No. of Vehicles: 5 with five families Travelogue: DAY 1 Wadis in Hajjar Mountains were on the list this time around. Due to Eid holidays we were able to make a 5 days trip to cover. We planned to enter into Oman from the Hatta border and early in the morning to avoid the holiday rush that will be nasty to spend a few hours at the border checkpost, however ... read more

مَرْحَبًا, My stay in Oman is almost over...unfortunately! It was really great! I've been out for diving two days ago, which was gorgeous...lots of fish, lobsters, sting rays, torpedo rays, hugh morays and so on... I had a traditional Omani day yesterday. First Fahad and I went to the desert and stayed with the Beduins, then we drove along the coast line visiting different Wadi's. We saw some Egyptian vultures. Afterwards I was invited to the traditional oman wedding of Momos sister, which was a great experience. Today at midnight I'm leaving for Dubai to catch the flight back to Vienna tomorrow morning... ترحيبا عَنْ تعُمَان, Stefan... read more

Today was quite amazing. We started out the morning early, and did not even have time for breakfast before whisking ourselves away to the Oman Dive Centre. We were supposed to be there by 8:00 am, so we thought we would leave by 7:00 am. Well, Dad’s watch was an hour off, so what we thought was 7:00 am was really 8:00 am. Luckily, we left a few minutes early, and did not encounter any traffic, so we arrived there only a few minutes late, and in time to get all our gear and get on the boat. We made 3 dives today, 2 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. The first dive was Novice Bay, then Cave Site, then Mermaid Bay. On all of the dives, there were rock reefs, as well as ... read more

Today we had to get ourselves from Luxor to Muscat, surviving a 6 hour layover in Doha (Qatar). Our flight was not until late in the morning, so we basically doodled around the hotel and a local market while waiting. There was not enough time to see anything interesting, so we just sort of messed around. We drove to the airport, cleared security and check in, hung around a bit, and hopped on the plane. There were very few people, apparently, flying from Luxor to Doha. We arrived in Doha and basically then spent 6 hours walking around and talking about various things, and I read an article in Newsweek that essentially said that America is in decline, and we had better get back on the innovative track. We then boarded our next flight, from Doha ... read more