Muscat, Oman
March 10-11, 2018
After a day in Dubai, we blasted off to Muscat, Oman for the next part of our Middle East journey. We actually flew to Muscat as a 24 hour long layover before our flight to Amman. What we didn't realize is our bags wouldn't be able to be picked up at the layover stop...whopps! As a result, we had a 3-4 hour long ordeal at the airport until 2:30am working through a language barrier with airport operations to reunite with our bags. Parking our car in the dead of night, we stumbled into our hotel, Centara Muscat Hotel Oman, totally exhausted. The staff welcomed us warmly, offering late checkout given our late arrival. Best customer service ever!
One thing that made traveling through the Middle East so easy was the fact that our T-Mobile One Plan includes free 2G international data in almost every country (except Oman and Jordan). We had some fun struggles in Muscat trying to preview routes offline on Google Maps with little success ;)
The Omani Rial currency is very strong! Even stronger than the UAE Dirham in Dubai. We didn't expect this given it's such a small and relatively unknown country. 1 Rial = $2.60 USD. Therefore, most things were priced between 1-10 Rial, which feels like a steal until you do the conversion.
Oman wins the prize for the most religiously conservative country we visited. Women didn't wear colors other than black and covered themselves head to toe. It definitely made me more conscious to cover up and respect the culture. Lucky Steven didn't have to alter his wardrobe at all as a man. I know it seems backward coming from the States, but it's a different country and you can't do whatever you want just because your culture does it differently.
After sleeping as much as we could that night, we woke up early to see the beautiful and grand Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. Definitely the highlight of Oman with its vast white walls and beautiful architecture. They offer free entrance for tourists before designated worship times.
I foolishly wore a long maxi dress with sheer material from my knees down. The entrance guards didn't allow me to go in because of this and a random man graciously rented me a simply black abaya for 2 Rial. I also wrapped my "made from camel hair" scarf from Dubai around my head to cover my head. It kept flying off so I spent the morning trying to wind the unruly material around my head, but it served its purpose! Beautiful gardens adorn the front of the mosque and it's simply majestic.
After the mosque, we went back to the hotel because 1) our Google Maps didn't work without wifi to get us anywhere else and 2) our hotel had an amazing rooftop pool. We needed a little rest and rejuvenate before tackling the rest of the day!
For lunch, we ate at a casual Turkish restaurant with the most delicious garlicky chicken gyros ever for cheap :)
Since we had a rental car, we cruised across the city to the Royal Opera House, another big grand white building, that was unfortunately closed for tours already! Instead, we continued our trek to Qurum Beach where we met nice Brits looking for a pub. In Dubai and Oman, you really can't get alcohol anywhere but hotels. It's not the culture to drink there, so I understand their struggles in not being able to find anything to drink!
We got our history on by visiting the Bait Al Zubair Museum to learn the history of Oman dress, weapons, culture, and more about the bedouin people. Pretty interesting and it felt nice to have a lax afternoon strolling through quiet museums.
Lastly, we visited the Al Alam Palace. Brightly colored flowers, long tree branches and marbled floors stretched to the palace that unfortunately isn't open to the public. Pity as we would have loved to see the inside!
For dinner, we did something we've never done before. Something almost as crazy as eating crickets in Mexico City.
We ate camel.
Yes, the same type of camel that we rode just the day before in Dubai! *Crying* But really, it's a normal food in this part of the world so we swallowed our fears and tasted it.
For once, it's not another food that tasted like chicken! It tasted like a more gamey beef. We ate at a very local restaurant that also separated out men from families at night and sat in a private room on the floor to eat. Very unique experience we'll never forget!
Another fun-filled adventurous day for the books! Next stop: Amman, Petra & Wadi Rum in Jordan :)
Missed Part 1 of our Middle East adventure in Dubai? Read it below!