A Quiet Weekend in Muscat

Craig left work early so we could take a late afternoon flight to Muscat. We took a taxi from our hotel here because parking at the airport is rather expensive. We arrived early, considering the flight to Oman to be an international flight.

We needn't have bothered. The Abu Dhabi airport was practically empty when we arrived. Of course, I hadn't thought that our carry on bags might be weighed, so it probably was good that we had the extra time. Our carry on bags were limited to 7kg. I had packed in our typical carry on bags - Craig's Tumi and my TravelPro. My bag was nearly full, because I had tucked several last minute items into it, but Craig's bag still had plenty of space left. I hadn't even packed particularly tightly in either bag, wanting to leave some space in case we did pick up some souvenirs.

Our two bags totaled 23 kg. Because it was just a weekend trip, I had not brought my backpack. Craig had his backpack, but they did not weigh it when we tried to go through security. I had to take a few things out of my bag - my journal, kindle, and medicine - and tuck it into his backpack for the flight. When we checked our two bags at the counter, they did weigh his backpack. With my additions, it now weighed 11kg. The lady kindly tagged his backpack as acceptable to carry on despite the weight.

Given those amounts, I'm not sure that even with my backpack I would have been able to distribute the weight to let us carry everything on. If international flights remain so diligent about carry on weight, I'm going to need to invest in a scale. Craig is a good judge of when a bag weighs more than 50 pounds, but 7 kg? Alternatively, I need to invest in much, much smaller bags.

We got our bags checked and headed to the lounge. That was a blessing because I had eaten a very light lunch earlier and was getting hungry. The snack there was just what I needed.

The flight was very quick. I used the two nose-sprays from my doctor, for both take off and landing, and my ears did not give me any real trouble. Flying into Muscat, we could see the stark difference in building height between Muscat and Abu Dhabi. (Muscat has strict limitations on new construction.)

Once again, the airport felt empty. We decided it must be the time of day we were flying. But in reality, it probably had more to do with the fact that the airport in Muscat is brand new...by which I mean not really finished. We got our bags and set out.

Stepping outside the airport was a bit of a surprise. The transition was an odd one - the architecture lulls you into thinking that you are still inside, but the temperature says otherwise! We easily found a taxi and set out for our hotel. The wide, nearly empty, roads from the airport told the story of its new construction.

Checking into our hotel, we learned that it had been open just a month. It was beautiful, but we did encounter some "new opening" issues - getting the wrong room and such. Craig took this picture of me in the lobby:

We got settled in our room and set out for dinner. We'd decided to eat in the hotel that first night. What we did not anticipate, however, was the challenge of finding the restaurant - a combination of "new opening" and really strange design. We followed the signs toward "restaurants" but we were only able to find the buffet. We finally asked the hostess there for the other restaurants.

She walked us through the buffet - the entire buffet - past all the tables and multiple food stations and open "show" kitchens. Near the end, she pointed past the dessert station and told us to continue on and then make a right. We were joined on this strange venture by another man who was looking for the same restaurant.

But as we followed her directions, we only found the Indian restaurant, not the one we were looking for. The unknown fellow asked the host at the Indian restaurant where the other place was and we tagged along. The host took us further down the hall, outside, past their outside seating, to the restaurant we were looking for. The hostess there was very confused that we were not one single party, but we quickly got that sorted out.

Dinner was good. But who designed a hotel so that you have to walk THROUGH the buffet to reach the other restaurants? Never mind that getting to the buffet requires that you either cross the pool area, which was sweltering even in the evening, or make your way to lobby floor, cross the lobby, and go back down to the buffet level. The architecture is striking, but I'm confused about the design of this place.

The next day, we got a picture of the pool area we crossed to reach the buffet. I love infinity edge pools, especially pretty ones like this that look out into the ocean. But it was so, so hot. Even used to Abu Dhabi temperatures, we were melting. It was too warm to do anything more than take a picture.

Later that afternoon, we did spend some time in a pool on the other side of the hotel. That pool was not nearly as pretty, but it did get shade in the late afternoon. Finally, as the sun went down, we decided to make our way to the Muttrah Souk.

First, a picture of the buildings we saw along the road:

You can see how much smaller and more traditional they are compared to the buildings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. These buildings were opposite the corniche, which here would be prime real estate (for all I know, it is in Muscat as well, but they can't build enormous sky scrapers there). Craig also got a picture of the royal yachts. Yes, they almost look like cruise ships. But no, they are not.

Here we are at the Souk:

We spent a fair bit of time there, wandering the side alleys of shops because I'd read that most tourists never made it down those. Craig frequently stopped to take pictures of signs in case we got lost, but every side trip circled back to the main strip. We didn't get lost, but we did walk the same path a few times. I think I held up remarkably well in the heat - we only had to stop once to find a bottle of water. And I tolerated the sales people - that just isn't my thing at all.

We returned to the hotel for the evening. We had another adventure getting to the Indian restaurant for dinner. This time, we struck out from the lobby. We stepped outside, into the still fantastic heat, and made our way down a long set of steps (following the directions I'd overheard given to another patron in the lobby). From this side, we walked down the street, past where we had eaten the night before, past the outdoor seating for the Indian restaurant, and inside to the hostess station. Initially, we couldn't get a table inside so the hostess took us to the buffet. But before we had settled in there, she returned to offer us a table. We had a very enjoyable dinner.

The next day, we requested a late check out and lounged about the hotel. Craig had some work to keep him busy, of course. Our options were limited at the hotel, so after a not-at-all satisfying lunch-snack, we decided to go to the airport. But the airport was worse! I mentioned before that it was brand new? There was hardly anything open there. We sat in a coffee shop until we could check our bags. We visited the lounge, but found it disappointing. The only food on offer in the terminal was fast food. We had a second snack and made our way to the gate. It is a pretty airport. Perhaps when more things are open it will be a nice airport.

Preparing for Muscat, Oman

I'm not sure exactly how we ended up in Muscat, Oman for the weekend. We needed to make a "border run" - a trip outside the UAE in order to renew our visas. Many people will drive to the border, park briefly, make a u-turn, and drive home, which takes about five hours, depending on the lines. Others will choose to take a weekend trip outside the country. We decided the one hour flight to Muscat and a weekend getaway sounded like fun.

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.