In Oman with Arman

Traveling in Oman was quite a surprise for me, nit knowing what to expect but surely Sand only. But shortly after being in the country the scenery changed to rocky mountain with some trees and fresh greenery. Several times on these mountain roads we traversed small rivers spilling over the road. People were having picnics and playing in the water.
I could fully enjoy the scenery was it the first time for the last 35 000km I was having the luxury of sitting on the passenger seat, with Arman driving.
The lives in the towns changed, there were no women to be seen on the streets. We visited a department store to do some purchases: there were lots of men, doing the groceries and buying even women’s clothes. The only women I could see apart from me was working at the checkout.
Some women doing groceries or were buying fast food stopped their cars in front of the shops, honked, waited for an attendant to appear, I assume they gave them their order which he would pick, they paid and drove off again.
But not only women ordered their stuff that way, many Omanis just honk in front of shops and do their business like that.
Driving through the country there were huge mansions everywhere, one bigger than the other. We wondered, where all the Pakistanis and Indian live as we did not see any small housing. Do they live behind their shops? If working as domestics they will live within the compound of their employers, I guess.
We drove to Muscat, picked up my Iranian friend Hojat and drove together to the Sugar Dunes, dunes, as the name implies, white as sugar. Very impressive, the white sand against the blue sea. It was a bit tight in my little van, but as we Germans say, where there is a want there is a way. At the dunes we met another German overlander couple who had a spare tent which they offered to Hojat, so he had a home for the two nights we spent there.
I would have loved to stay a bit longer but we needed to get back to Dubai for Arman to catch his flight back.
Trouble again on the border into UAE: after all the border checks I still had to see a veterinarian to check on the dog, so we were guided to the "Office of Camel Identifiers" to get the paperwork sorted. But apparently, we did not have an import certificate which costs AU$400 and an export ??? certificate which would have cost another $125. We showed him all the paperwork we had, then there were lots of discussions. This guy was really sleezy, I could not stand him, I was close to losing my cool. So I left it all to Arman. He’s a bit better the me in these situations. Lots of discussions, to get rid of us he wanted to persuade us to return to the border entry where we came into Oman, which was a few hundred kms away. But we would not budge. At the end he brought us to some other official who kind of waved the hand at us indicating we could go.
Arman and I we were quite sure the “veterinarian” just wanted some bakshish. I later heard of some Germans who had the same problem, they tried a few times without success and were considering flying the dog over from Muscat to Dubai. Don’t know what became of them. So, I was lucky again!!
And now Arman is gone again. I miss him terribly. The time was too short! Over the days we had become a good team, we learned again how each of us ticks, the getting up and go in the morning became really smooth, once he knew what goes where and what needs to be done to get back on the road. Rex appreciated him being with us as well, did Arman take him for near daily jogs; he initially accompanied him really hesitantly but at the end Rexby came without a leash. And I did for once not need to take him for a walk. Hurray! I just could pull out a chair and read! And Rex gave up his allocated seat without a lot of fuss!!! That really surprised me was he normally fiercely defending his throne against passengers. And that I appreciate Arman anyway goes without saying!
But now it was time to get ready to figure out how to move from there. Do I return to Iran and continue from there or do I try to get into Saudi Arabia even though I was informed by the Saudi Customs Authority and the Saudi Automobil Club that Right Hand drive is forbidden to drive on Saudi roads. And once in Saudi, how will I continue from there with Egypt, Israel, Jordan being a cal du sac. Lets wait and see. Inshallah, a way will show itself upon time.Read more