Muscat, Oman 🇴🇲

Our welcome to Oman by a super friendly immigration official who gave us a 3 month visa instead of the 14-day one really framed the start to our Middle Eastern adventure.
Ignoring the multiple offers of 'Taxi Sir', we bused into Muscat city and immediately experienced the legendary kindness of Omani people.
We didn't have the correct bus fare, but a lovely local man changed a 5000 rial note into 5 1000 baisa for us so we didn't have to get off the bus and wait another hour for the next one.
After traveling for 20 hours from Casablanca via Dohar with a 3 hour stop over ( gotta love budget airfares!), this was so appreciated.
Our bus fare was .400 baisa / $1.86 each!

It was a 1.2km walk from the bus stop to our accommodation, in the rapidly warming Muscat morning with very hungry tummies.
Knowing our craving for an eggs bene was futile 🤣 we found an interesting Pakistani hole in the wall cafe which exceeded our initial expectations!
Dahl, roti, omlettes, sweet semolina cake, and coffee $6.96 for 2, delivered by the kindest young guy.
By the time we left, we'd exchanged numbers and been invited back for a BBQ and byriani tomorrow!

Muscat is a gateway to the Daymaniyat Islands, a group of 9 islands roughly 45 minutes north by jet boat, famed for their powder sand beaches, pristine waters, colourful fish, and most importantly.. turtles 🐢.
We booked a fabulous half day trip (Oman Sea Tours) and had an incredible turtle overload experience!

Oman is a Muslim country, and Omani people are very conservative and traditional with their clothing.
Signs about appropriate and respectful clothing are common. Tourists are not.
Coming home from our delicious byriani and bbq meal, I popped into a women's clothing shop to browse the stunning beaded clothing,
Nathan struck up a conversation with the owner's husband and was getting a lot of local intel... there is no tax in Oman 😳
I ended up finding a top and scarf that were more covering and would stretch the meager capsule wardrobe out further!
When I went to pay, I was stopped by an Omani woman we'd been talking to who was shopping for her head covering for her upcoming wedding.
She wanted to pay for my items as 'a welcome to Oman gift' ! It was very humbling.

Interesting for : Using a taxi off from the airport, a taxi stand or randomly on the street, the price can be outrageous.
The app Otaxi makes travel a bargain in Muscat and reflects the actual price of fuel - NZD$1 a litre when we were visiting.Read more