Blogs from Muscat, Oman, Middle East - page 9

It took us five days to get to the United Arab Emirates cruising on one engine at about 12 knots. We had plenty to do on board. The ship’s staff came up with a number of interesting parties and events such as an Indian Ocean sundowner party, the officer talent show and the annual Jimbo’s truck stop café dinner. We had a party for our group on the aft deck on a beautiful evening with warm breezes and calm seas. The Captain made an announcement that the two week cruise from Singapore to Dubai was going to be refunded in full to all passengers since we were not able to call in all of the scheduled ports. This seems extremely generous of Regent and it certainly made many passengers not feel so bad about missing Bombay ... read more

We decided not to take the 10 hour bus journey from Salalah to Muscat. Instead we flew with Oman Air saving ourselves an awful lot of time and discomfort. On arrival at Seeb International Airport we took a taxi to the Muttrah Corniche area of the city. Now Muscat isn't really a city as such, it is more of a collection of towns squeezed between a small mountain range and the coast with fairly large distances between each of them. Finding budget accommodation was impossible. We ended up at the Al-Fanar Hotel tucked away at one end of the corniche. It was the cheapest place we could find by far, and even then it cost the best part of US$50 for a basic room and no breakfast. The location was good though as the hotel is ... read more

...da sind wir wieder... Diesmal mit einem kleinen Bericht zu unserem 2. Ausflug in den Oman. Ursprünglich hatten wir geplant mehrere Tage in den Oman zu fahren. Daraus wurde leider nichts, weil ich kurzfristig für den nächsten Tag ein Vorstellungsgespräch bekommen habe. Also wurde aus Plan A wie so oft im Leben Plan B und aus 3 Tage - ein Tag. Plan A: Wir hatten eigentlich geplant an der Küste entlag bis nach Muscat (= Hauptstadt) zu fahren, dort zu übernachten und uns am nächsten Tag Muscat anzusehen und dann ins Western Hajar Gebirge zu fahren und dort zu wandern... Plan B: Wir sind in Hatta über die Grenze gefahren und sind dann bis zur Küste und dann die Autobahn 01 Richtung Muscat an der Küste entlang gefahren. Leider führt die Straße nicht direkt an der ... read more

Happy New Year and all my Wishes to all of you. Let's hope 2009 will be as good as 2008! Welcome to 2009! What a better way to close 2008 than by a little dive trip. The challenge was not that easy this time...wanted a place where I could depart from Luxembourg between the 26th December and be back on the 2nd January. A place were I could dive, in a country I hadn't visited yet. My shortlist ended up with Djibouti, Cuba and Oman. Really want to see Cuba, but seems that at the only great reef, the boats are not equipped at all, and the food is very very...not there! For Djibouti, great place for whalesharks, but really not easy to reach. So here I am in Muscat, Oman. The last few days were ... read more

The journey to get here has been a bit of a tour though, due to unexpectedly spending an extra night in Kuwait. Spending the extra night menat trying to juggle two flights to still make it here in time to fly to India. Fortunately the lady at Gulf Air was very understanding and threw up a few options. After being waitlisted for the connection from Bahrain to Muscat there was a glimmer of hope. Then someone blew out the candle and I ended up having to spend the night at Bahrain airport waiting for an early morning flight. All was not lost though as for the princely sum of 10BD (they didn't accept my medicare card as airline club lounge membership) I got to spend the five or so hours kicking back in the lounge at ... read more