expatswissbliss: Oman

We're back from our trip to Oman - it was great! The arrival was a bit rough, though. After the 6+ hour flight it took us a good hour to get through immigration and then another 45 minutes to get our rental car. Finally, at about 1 am we were on the road to our hotel - another 45 minute drive - if we hadn't gotten lost. Here we learned our first lessons about Oman and the Omani people. 1) It is impossible to find an accurate map of Oman/Muscat. 2) Omani people must not be used to using maps anyways & don't know how to read them 3) Omani people are so friendly, though that they don't want to admit they can't read the map & will try to help you anyways. Thus, after driving for an hour & asking numerous people we finally had a very nice man actually escort us in his car until we found our way......checked in at about 3am!

Resort was beautiful - great swimming pools & right on the beach. The resort has 3 hotels and there is a "lazy river" that you can float down on innertubes to get from one hotel to the other. One of our favorite activities!

Admittedly, we didn't venture off the resort as much as we normally would. It was hard to convince Lukas (and ourselves!) that we should just walk by the sparkling cool swimming pool and instead get in a hot rental car to see the sights but also invariably 1) get lost 2) have Lukas live up to his "Pukey Lukey" nickname and 3) have to worry about searching for tasty authentic - yet stomach friendly - food. Plus, everything closes from noon - 4p.m. so you have to plan your sightseeing accordingly.

Why give up this?.......

For this.....(post-puke clean-up)

That being said, we had some awesome experiences! We spent a full (12 hour) day driving to some nearby towns to explore some old forts, castles and markets.

Of course, just being "off resort" was an experience in itself seeing all of the Omani in their daily dress: dishdashes (basically white robes) and an embroidered cap for men and long black dresses/robes and black shawls for women. Most women just covered their heads & neck with the shawls, but we did see a fair amount of women that only had their eyes showing or not even that (very sheer shawl over entire face.) Looked so hot to wear! It was interesting - on Thursday & Friday - the weekend in Oman - we had more Omani people at the resort. We saw a few of the women wearing the robe & shawls poolside. Even floating down the lazy river & swimming in them! In case you're wondering: Inga could wear her normal clothes "off resort", but it was appropriate to wear long sleeves and long pants/skirts. On the resort, shorts/tanktops, etc. were OK.

We explored Muscat, the capital of Oman. There was a great "souk" or market with silver, pashmina scarves, frankincense, and spices. Oman isn't touristy yet so the markets feel authentic without any t-shirts, souvenirs, etc. Also visited the Sultan's palace (can't go in though) and the Grand Mosque. The mosque is the 3rd largest in the world and has the world's largest persian carpet in the men's prayer room - very ornate & beautiful. We basically headed into Muscat every evening for dinner since dinner on the resort was the typical $80 while off-resort it was closer to $10. Unfortunately, the food wasn't anything spectacular (either on or off-resort) - lots of shwarma and Indian food .

Sultan's Palace

Grand Mosque

Finally, we hired a private tour guide to take us into the desert with a 4x4. It was amazing - nothing to see for miles but dunes, dunes, dunes, camels wandering and the occasional Bedouin (nomadic Arab tribe) camp with tents & goat pen.

We did some dune driving (limited - based on Lukas' puke history) and some camel riding. Wow - are camels tall! And you REALLY have to hold on when they get up or get down from a standing position - otherwise you get catapulted over their head! But look who decided he wanted to ride afterall.......