Oman 1: The difficult journey and some time in Muscat

   The morning of our flights started off well enough.  We drove the hour and forty minutes to the airport, left our car in long term parking, and headed over to our terminal.  I wanted to arrive three hours before our flight because we were not allowed to check in the night before, I wanted to give us plenty of time in case there was an issue with the airlines accepting our visa and checking us in.  There wasn't.  There was no line, we checked in, and breezed through precheck.  We walked to the gate, found a remote corner to sit down and take off our masks, and began the wait.

  All seemed well.  The plane had arrived and the flight consistently showed as "on time."  However, when we were supposed to board, nothing happened.  I overheard one worker explain that they were simply cleaning the plane.  After further delay, they announced that a crew member was sick, and that we would be awaiting a replacement member.  There was a single worker at the gate and a long line to see her, that barely moved.  I stood on the line just in case.  After about an hour, she announced that a new crew member had landed and would reach us in about fifteen minutes.  Since I had a two hour and fifteen minute buffer for our connecting flight, I stepped out of line.  It took them nearly thirty five minutes to arrive, and then another fifteen before they began boarding.  Since I had stepped out of line, it was going to be impossible for me to speak to the agent.  I had to decide whether we should go, knowing it would be extremely tight.  There didn't seem to be any alternative flight options when I looked, so I decided we should.

  It took quite a bit of time for the plane to begin to move, and then we taxied for a while on the runway.  When we landed, we had twenty five minutes to cross to the other terminal and board our flight.  The attendant asked people to let the people with connecting flights off first, and people surprisingly listened.  I had to decide to take the bus or the auto train.  Normally I would have taken the train, but the bus was right there.  I asked the worker if he thought we should bolt for the train or wait there and he assured us that the bus would be fastest, though it would take nearly ten minutes for it to arrive.  We crossed the space between terminals quickly, but in the new one, we had quite a distance to cover.  Since I was pulling and carrying three out of our four bags, I had Miles run ahead, and I alternated between jogging with my pants falling down, and walking, all while wearing the mask.  As I pulled up to the gate, the plane was three minutes from scheduled takeoff.  The door was closed.  They called the plane and asked them not to leave.  They bumbled around with our passports and eventually opened the door for us.

  The consequence of this short connection, which we would not discover until later, was that our two checked bags did not make it onto our plane.  This was a seven and a half hour flight to Frankfurt, which went by quickly.  We had a two hour and twenty minute layover before taking our final flight to Oman.  Miles wanted to find waffles, but we decided to get to our gate first, and I am glad we did.  We took a long bus ride to another terminal, walked down multiple long corridors, and then encountered a long line which culminated in another bag scan.  To make matters worse, this scan required every single electronic to be removed, from laptop all the way down to charging cables, which explained why the line moved so slowly.  We arrived five minutes before boarding and asked the gate agent to check to see if our bags had made the connection.  Once boarded, they were kind enough to send someone over to alert us that it had not.

  This flight through Oman Air was the only flight without the choice of seating.  The closest that I could get us together was one row apart.  A family of three, with extra leg room, ended up moving to the window, and the stewardess allowed Miles and I to take the three seats that they had vacated.  This made for an extremely pleasant flight.  The in flight tv gave the option to review the Quran and identified us as flying over the state of Palestine.  We landed, went through passport control, put in a claim with the baggage handlers, picked up our rental car, and drove ten minutes to our airport hotel.  Our flight had arrived after 7:00 pm at night, and it had been a long day.

  Without our bags, I was unable to have Miles wear long sleeves, so we had to skip our planned visit to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Masjid.  Instead, we went to the Royal Opera House of Muscat.  Even Miles was impressed by its grandeur.  We had a short narration by a tour guide through the handful of rooms that we were allowed into, mostly detailing where the raw materials had come from.

  Just down the road was a grocery store, where we picked up snacks as well as replacement toiletries in case it took longer than expected for our bags to arrive.  Our hotel is located along the Mutrah Corniche, a seaside road with a fish market on one side, along with ships as big as a cruise liner, and vendors, a fort, and the Muscat Souq on the other.  That night we kept it simple by resting and then going out for dinner.  I chose the Bait Al Luban Omani Restaurant because the ratings were decent, the pricing was reasonable, and it had numerous Omani dishes that I had read about online.

  We sat across from what I believe to be a prayer area, as I saw one person make use of it this way.  I ordered Pakora, a fried set of vegetable dumplings and a traditional dish called Harees Dijaj.  The waiter asked me if I was sure that I wanted this, as some tourists found it to be challenging.  I went ahead with it anyway.  Despite its unappealing look at texture, the taste was quite decent.  For dessert we had a sampler set that included halwa, qashat, mahoo, and madlouka.  I enjoyed three out of the four desserts.

  Our next day was to be a long one.  We began by walking 3.6 kilometers, along the flat walkway along the water, towards the Muscat Gate Museum.  Along the way, we passed the entrance to the Muscat Souq, and spotted sea life along the side of the path.

I have been unable to identify this sea creature.

I saw these sea creatures bouncing on the rock.  

This gate housed a tiny museum.

  The museum ended up being just one large room.  It was free, and no one was inside.  Next, we stopped at a small convenience store for drinks.  Inside, I found my favorite Asian sports drink.  I got two.

  Just a few minutes down the road, we passed through a car tunnel, and then went along the water to view Al-Mirani Fort and Al Jalali Fort.  Al-Mirani is temporarily closed and Al Jalali is only open on Thursdays through Sundays, so we just missed it.  We were also able to see the back of the Al Alam Royal Palace.

  Continuing along the road led us to the front of the palace, and then opposite, was the small, but elegant National Museum of Oman.

The National Museum of Oman.

My favorite piece of the museum.  I have absolutely no idea why they had this Japanese display.

The previous Sultan's throne.

  Before beginning the walk to our hike back to the hotel, we stopped at one last museum, the Bait Al Zubair.  Once outside, I asked Miles if he wanted to skip it.  He said we should go, since we were already there.  To be honest, it was quite boring.