Craig picked our hotel based on an article he had seen about hotels with striking architecture. He booked our flights and arranged our visas for Oman. Then, he got overwhelmingly busy at work and was unable to do any further planning. He asked me to do some research before the trip.
Perhaps you remember the detailed spreadsheet of activities, including opening times and pricing options, that I created for my trip to London with my sister and company. Or perhaps the more recent, but similarly detailed, optional itinerary I created for my trip to San Francisco with Court and the girls. I do enjoy researching a location or a route, creating lists and spreadsheets, drawing up maps, and making all sorts of plans.
This probably comes from childhood memories of travel with my family - my mom always got the appropriate AAA guidebook and maps before a trip. She plotted out the journey and any important stops. I have one particularly vivid memory of my mom recalculating and rewriting an entire afternoon of stops on a roadtrip to the Grand Canyon because one of my siblings overstayed the allotted time at a rest stop! With a family of seven, it's a wonder this didn't happen more often.
My plans are never as settled as that. When I travel, I tend to plan with lots of options. I won't do everything that I've researched, of course, but I will have a variety of activities for any possible mood, energy level, or budget situation.
But if you expect something like that from this trip, you will be sorely disappointed. If you consider those two trips, you might notice one striking similarity - Craig did not take those trips. (You might also notice that both of those trips only had female travelers, but I didn't notice that until just now.)
When Craig and I travel, our preparation is markedly different. He usually asks me if there is anything in particular that I would like to see at our destination. Sometimes I'll do a bit of research to see if there is something, or I'll tell him if I have something in mind. We will, without fail, visit that place. (See, for example, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which we managed to visit over our accidental 24 hour layover, even with my illness. And that, I was only fascinated by from playing Civilization games years ago.)
Often, I will research a few particular issues before a trip. I might look at weather or dress code for my own packing. I often look at health issues with some interest, as I tend to be more concerned about such things than Craig is with his frequent travels. Sometimes, Craig will ask me to look into a particular issue - such as how much cash one might need in Cuba.
In contrast to my own travels, I typically find myself immersed in more research after a trip I've taken with Craig. I love to pick up random novels when we visit different countries, if I can find them in English. I enjoy that glimpse into another culture that feels more real after visiting. And I'm a sucker for the historical fiction type novels sold in gift shops around the world, though usually Craig will order them for my kindle.
But back to this requested research. I don't think that I fully understood what was needed. I approached it from Craig's typical request of "what would YOU like to see" while we are there. I looked at websites and blogs and reviews. I compiled a short list of "the things to do in Muscat". And it was a short list: visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (the biggest in the world prior to the construction of the Grand Mosque here in Abu Dhabi), visit the Muttrah Souk, stroll the Corniche, tour a fort, and visit two museums. On this list, nothing stood out to me in particular to earmark as a "must see" from my perspective.
I did note that most of the websites I looked at mentioned that if you had more than a day to spend in Muscat, you would want to spend the additional time on day trips outside the city. Those day trips consisting mostly of activities typical in the region, I did not imagine that Craig would be interested. He had suggested that he might enjoy a quiet weekend, recovering from a cold, and it seemed that we were heading in that direction.
I moved on to the hotel website, which listed exactly the same activities I had found in my research. I was a bit frustrated, thinking I could have saved myself the time. But even if I had looked their first, I probably would not have believed there were so few options.
It was only as we were packing Thursday morning that I realized how little research Craig had been able to do of his own. Everything I had read said that Oman was more conservative that Abu Dhabi, specifically that men should not plan to wear shorts. I had read a bit about the currency and taxis and other such things, as well. At Craig's request, I compiled a second email summarizing things of this nature...not that they were entirely accurate to our experience, as you'll see in the next post.
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