Oman Tour (جولة)

Love for travel and catching up with old pals is something that took me to Oman this time. Other appealing factors included Oman’s proximity to Dubai (~215 km from where I am stationed currently), long weekend due to Prophet’s bday and cherry on the top, cheap quicker visa processing (50 AED, 2 days). Hence, with all factors favorable, Ms. Shukla was all set for her Oman travel from 29.11.18 to 03.12.18!!! Below is my travel itinerary and experience of the Omani vacation, with pieces of advice here and there for travelers, in case interested.

Logistically the visa can be processed through  (https://evisa.rop.gov.om/) Royal Oman Police website, though there are other private agencies too like www.ievisa.com and www.omanvisagov.com. My personal take will be to opt for the official govt website. It will be good to know the visa type required based on your travel duration, nationality, and other countries’ visa status. I applied for category 26N as I had a valid UK visa and my visa fees for 10 days was 5 OMR. (~50 AED). I had multiple entry visa for UAE to be back in Dubai post #Omantravels. Though there are flights between Dubai to Muscat (~600 AED, 440 Kms), I preferred taking the road trip as I had to get down at Sohar (220 Kms). I opted the Mwasalat bus services (Oman national transport) which cost me 30 AED and 7 hours to reach Sohar.

Mwasalat buses are pretty decent, service thrice a day (7:30 am, 3:30 pm and 11:30pm), air- conditioned with wifi facility, and drivers/conductors are very professional. Disadvantage being that they don’t have any online/ telephonic booking and one would need to go to their office in Deira, Dubai to purchase the tickets. On any normal day, you can get the ticket on the spot, but for weekends and especially long weekends, one may want to be cautious and purchase the ticket beforehand as I did. The phone number available on Google is not working and here is the number of Munir (+971 55493 8776), who sits at Mwasalat bus counter at Deira. Sources mentioned that there are private bus/taxi agencies for Muscat, near the Mwasalat office at Deira. Private buses cost around 80 AED and taxis around 250 AED, however, their timings are not certain.

I started my onward journey with the bus at 3:30 pm on thursday and being pretty tired that day, slept on my reclining bus seat, until we reached Dubai border at Hatta at around 5:00pm. All the passengers are required to get down at border, pay an exit UAE fees of 35 AED and then get the exit stamped. The officer incharge will check the Oman visa before stamping the exit. Due to some issue, with one of the Brit national, we were caught up at the border for around an hour. Finally crossing the border, we reached the check post entry at Oman. Here again, all the passengers along with their luggage are supposed to get down, get themselves thoroughly checked followed by the police labradors rechecking the luggage, while the passengers fall in line near the bus. Labradors are huge ones and they will sniff around each and every bag and the cops taking the stuff out from the bag where the labrador may point out.

The checking is followed by arrival outpost in Oman where passengers queue up to get their arrival visa. Almost all the passengers in my bus queued up for arrival visa which costs around 5 OMR.

Just 3-4 of us, had our e-visa with us and we queued up on the e-visa line which hardly took few minutes to get the stamping done. Here again, the driver mentioned that someone was caught having some drugs and we were held up at the oman arrival post until 9:15 pm. I finally managed to reach Sohar at 10:15 pm where my friend was waiting to pick me up. In all, if I say, had there been no nuisances with these two passengers, driving time was hardly 3 hours and we could have reached much earlier. But for me, it was still fun in itself, as I caught up some time with the driver who mentioned a couple of bad experiences where people were jailed/convicted while trying  trespassing or carrying drugs (some in socks, shoes and even phone). A fellow seat, Kerelaite passenger also mentioned few interesting stuff about Oman and Dubai in particular. At our house in Sohar, after having fine dining and a sound sleep, I was refreshed and ready for my Omani adventours, on the following morning Nov 30th, Friday.

We started from Sohar at around 5:30 am on Friday and drove straight to Nizwa, reaching Kaybolmus at around 8 am. We met our chauffeur near Golden Tulip hotel, parked our car and on-boarded his 4WD land cruiser. People suggest and we had seen, tourist using their normal cars also to the canyon, but the terrain is not very good and my take again would be to drive using the 4WD vehicle. Our chauffeur Mr. Ali was born and brought up at Jebel Akhtar and had settled at Kaybolmus with his family now. Having blessed with nine children, youngest one is 18 months, he was full of energy, had awesome hospitality and could speak understandable  English. Being local, we could feel his sense of belongingness to the place and pleasant hospitality. Nizwa as a town is majorly known for Jebel Akhdar (Green mountains), Jebel Shams (Canyon of Arabia), Nizwa fort, Bahla Fort (world heritage site), Jabrin castle, Al Hoota caves, Tanufi ruins, and Nizwa souq. We preferred to visit Jebel Shams and Jebel Akhdar, the most important of all the local attractions that could be covered in a single day. People who come for a 2-3 days stay usually go trekking to these mountains and visit the forts (Bahla, Nizwa, Jabrin) on subsequent days. Generall the tickets to these forts for tourists is around 3 to 7 OMR each

We started our drive up for Jebel Akhdar at around 8:30 in the morning. There is a military check post where the documents are checked before one can start driving to the mountains. The whole mountainous drive should be almost 30 min for around 14 km. Driving to this altitude of almost 2000 mts above sea level, the landscape around is picturesque. Surrounded by curly wavering roads,  barren brown mountainous terrains, clouds passing alongside and windy weather, it’s an amazing view throughout. There are lots of scenic spots to take some beautiful breathtaking pictures and a lot of people prefer trekking these paths. Due to the paucity of time, we could not do the trekking but we ensured stopping at these scenic spots for photo shoots.

There are many unique trees on these mountains and we saw pomegranate, olive and berry trees too. The place is a rare treasure for geologists as one could see first hand,  the history of rocks spoken by rocks present there. One would see all the different types of rocks, sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous ones, all present there. Ali also showed us various coral formations and fossil imprints of fishes, snails, and frogs on these rocky mountains which clearly showed that these mountains formed of rocks were once covered by water millions of years before. I could recall my geography learnings way back from my school days and see the evidence first hand here. The roads go round these mountains and there are few villages (having close to ~50houses) on some of the mountain plains.

Speaking of mountain villages, Ali did mention a few names but I will apologize for not remembering the names of these hilltop villages. People here usually grow the fruits and especially pomegranates of Nizwa are highly valued. Rosewater of Jebel Akdar is very popular and most of the villages have in the house rose water formation. Villagers are very hospitable, would receive everyone very cheerfully and usually offer dates and local coffee (Kahwa) to people. Govt deserves a special appreciation as each of these households had a gas, electricity and water connection.

People usually keep their cylinders outside their houses and talking to few villagers, I learned they never heard of any theft, burglary or harassment cases ever. Villages’ ambiance is very calm, scenic and heavenly. There is a social norm of greeting everyone, even strangers with “Salaam Valekulam” and offering kahwa in case someone stops by at your door. There are total of six hotels at the top (Atila, Golden tulip being the ones I remember the names). Their price varies from 80 OMR to 250 OMR, pretty expensive from normal Indian tourist standards:) There is also military presence throughout. Ali also showed us a hilltop area which is gifted by Royal Sultanate to the Sultan of Qatar and the palace is in construction for Qatari Sultanate at this place. After having spent a couple of hours at Jebel Akhdar we descended on our way back to Kaybolmus around 12pm. We treated ourselves with Omani fine dining at a local restaurant run by a Kerelaite.

Oman has a lot of Indian expatriates especially from Kerela and Gujarat. Mostly the labor intensive and dining ventures are taken up by our brethren from Kerela and businesses are generally owned by Gujaratis. Khimji Ramdas is one of the known Indian origin conglomerate in Oman, who are offered Omani citizenship, also considered quite close to the sultanates.

Omani fine dining was a novel experience for me. Local Omani restaurants have closed rooms, with fine rugs and cushions placed. Seating arrangement is generally circular  and on the ground, each dining room accommodating close to 10 people. They usually serve food in huge size trays. A disposable polythene like mat is usually places on the rug and food from the trays is then kept on this mat. People usually eat by hand; Rice, shavarma (chicken), dried fish are usually the delicacies. Food is simple, ethnic and flavours do the most enriching part. Kahwa (black coffee), Sulaimani (masala coffee) are some of the local coffee, tea blends. The restaurant we were in, was also run by an Kerela expat family who had been in Oman for over three decades now. It was an amazing dining experience followed by Sulaimani coffee and we were ready for our onward ascend to Jebel shams at around 2:30 pm

Jebel shams also known as grand canyon of Arabia is at an altitude of 3000 mts above sea level. I had earlier visited the Grand canyon in Colorado, the USA too but somehow I found Jebel shams to be better than that. Probably biased views could be because this was less crowded, appealing temperature (~17 deg Celsius), cheaper to visit and accompanied by a local tourist guide Ali who could explain the beauty of the place.  

Reaching the top, the canyon’s curl shredded extensive mountains, the depth of the gorge and the fossil imprints on the rocks give an amazing picturesque view. Cool winds kept on blowing and the clouds appeared as if accompanying us. Though the temperature was around 17-18 degrees, it wasn’t feeling chilly because the sun was steep and right above our heads. We walked through the area, had lots of pictures and enjoyed the view for 2-3 hours and started back for Nizwa at around 5pm. Ali mentioned that the best season to visit both Jebel Shams and Jebel Akdar is usually from March - Sep, as the whole mountain will be lush green covered with fruits and flowers, hence the name “Jebel meaning green”. We also saw the Jabrin castle, and Nizwa forts from outside on our way back but were too mesmerized by the beauty of Jebel Akdar and Jebel shams to view anything else. After bidding goodbye to our chauffeur and Nizwa, we drove on our way to Muscat which is around 150 Kms from Nizwa, We reached Muscat at around 8 pm on Friday, had our dinner at Udupi restaurant and retired back at our guest house at Al-din.

Muscat was our destination on the next day, 01st Dec, Saturday. My friends had packed up their stuff of Barbeque snacks including other required picnic stuff. We had our breakfast at Arya Bhavan and started off for our Muscat ride. The city ride is amazingly beautiful, broad roads, lush green trees on both sides, brown/green shaded mountains alongside, clear sky, cozy temperature, 23-25 degrees, and curvy roads.

It’s not crowded like Dubai and not too isolated like Sohar. The whole city has majorly white buildings, architecture resembling typical Arabic one. We passed through Sultan Qaboos mosque (Blue and Brown colored Islamic architecture), royal Opera house and various other Govt buildings. We were onroad to “Bandar-al-khiran” and the road to the destination is no less beautiful than the destination itself. It passes through the mountainous chains, roads taking shallow curls and offering amazing picturesque views. We took the As-sifi route,  crossed through Shangri-la hotel, drove through Yiti beach, though did not stop at these destinations due to the paucity of time. This drive to Yiti and Bandar-al-khiran is highly recommended whether you may decide to visit the place or not. There is also a cave restaurant on the way which is known for one of its most exquisite dining and panoramic views.

We reached Bandar-al-khiran at around 11am and spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the sea and doing barbeque. Awesome cool breeze, beautiful fishes and fossils in the Gulf of Oman and panoramic beauty of the beach is a place you can’t avoid falling in love with. There are all sorts of water sports facility available here including speedboatgua, yacht rides, snorkeling etc. The beach has some really sharp edges so one has to be careful and wear the footwear; a couple of people were hurt being barefoot. Water is crystal clear, turquoise blue color with birds and ducks around, tidal bays and mangrove trees.

Compared to other beaches, this is much quieter, peaceful and amazingly beautiful. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach and packed up our stuff at around 5pm to head back to our hotel. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at old palace of the king. It’s a huge and very beautiful one. The army guards the main chambers and the surrounding outer area is opentor the general public. Moving from there, we spent some time at the “Mutrah souq”. The beautiful lights at night, the water fountains, sea water by its side all provide a very serene ambience. From the distance, one can also see the Royal Naval ships stationed in their full glory and vigor. We spent some time walking along the shore and were back at our hotel in sometime. Post a luke warm water shower and some refreshments back at the hotel, now was the time for fine dining. Having read some good reviews about “Mumtaz Mahal” restaurant, that was our destination next. On the way though, we took some time to visit Qurum beach. It’s another beautiful one, providing a nice walk alongside. There are lots of restaurants by its side and ambience is very pretty. We took some time for walking on the sandy beach and then headed for our dinner at Mumtaz. Restaurant is good, but is not too worth the cost. All in all, the experience is good for dining. The dinner and road trip back to hotel finally marked a eventful day of the first day of the month.

Dec 02nd was finally reserved to visit one of the largest mosque of Oman, Sultan Qaboos grand mosque. Build with Indian limestone and housing one of the biggest chandeliers, its spectacular in architecture and huge in size. However the dress code is not as strict as the Abu dhabi grand mosque and as long as women have hands and head covered, one is good. Also, if anyone does not have dress code appropriate, one can rent or buy through some locals who are stationed outside the mosque. The mosque is opened to non muslims from 8am to 11am except on Fridays. The beauty of the mosque is worth appreciation and the garden outside is beautifully maintained. I spent over an hour at the mosque and then headed for the national museum.

The national museum opens at 10:00 am and the entry fees for tourists is 5 OMR. I would advise visiting the museum especially because it provides one-stop guide to all the forts of Oman.

Museum also houses the cultural history and warfare history. It has 2 floors, ground floor majorly covering army and warfare equipment, jewelry, dresses, and cultural heritage, shipping history and currency section. The second-floor houses the description and history of major Omani towns, forts, the irrigation system, development of Oman and Omani connects with the outside world since ancient times. I loved the museum and spent some good 2-3 hours. Having done with the museum & the mosque, we finally took one long drive to the city of Muscat, had our lunch and headed back for Sohar. We finally reached Sohar around 5pm, had an hour long nap and spent the evening spending some quality time with friends on dinner. Next day morning, took the 9:00 am bus to reach Dubai back at 4:00pm. All in all, it was one of the most amazing, beautiful lovely vacations and travel to Oman.

As a tourist, some of the my take away from Oman travel:

• Oman is very safe to travel, people really good and cooperative to the extent that they will invite you to their homes and even offer rides in case you are stuck up 

• English is not very good with locals and on the contrary Hindi and Malayali will work, Arabic being the local dialect

• Its advisable to maintain the dressing sense, women should prefer avoiding very short dresses though no one would explicitly call that out

• Natural landscape is amazing and it’s one of the best countries for trekking and camping

• Its advisable to use 4WD for mountains while the cities/ towns are good to be covered with normal vehicles

• Best season to visit is Nov - April in general, but for Sur, Salala & Jebel Akhdar/Shams its Mar- September

• One should plan at least for 7-10 days to cover whole of Oman if possible. If not, 3-5 days could cover (a. Nizwa-Muscat  b. Khasab-Muscat c. Muscat-Sur d. Salala). Salala is on the bottom most part of Oman and is one of the best destinations of Oman, but it will easily take 5-7 days. In the absence of time, Nizwa-Muscat combination is the best deal that I covered.

• OMR is expensive currency so in general one may find Oman expensive from normal tourist standards.

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