For Miss Kiki's term break, we had planned a trip to Egypt. When looking for flights from Jakarta to Egypt, two airlines came on top in terms of price: Oman Air and Saudi Air. I have never flown with either of the airlines before so I didn't know which to choose. Upon consulting with other travellers, I decided to fly with Oman Air. The review was that they were both good airlines with toilets that could get disgusting on a long haul flight, but transiting is Muscat was much preferable than transiting in Jeddah. All of the above were proven to be true based on our experience.
For this trip, we travelled with one of my friends. You've probably seen her face all over my blog before considering how often we travel together :D
On the day of our departure, we arranged to meet at the departure hall at T3 Ultimate Soekarno Hatta Airport. I had booked Oman Air to get from Jakarta to Cairo, with an overnight transit in Muscat. This overnight transit was by choice, because we wanted to make half day side trip of Muscat. We had packed our luggages without realising that our suitcases would have been checked in through all the way to Cairo! Lucky for us, my friend had arrived at the airport earlier than us and had noticed this issue so she informed us about it. Alas, when I wanted to get the outfit I had prepared for Muscat our Samsonite luggage lock was jammed! We weren't able to open it..... In the end I opened the other suitcase and grabbed one of the outfits intended for Egypt. I was rather disappointed because I had dreamt of wearing this maxi dress and a Blongket scarf from Palembang for photos at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque! The trip didn't have a very good start but well we still had a long way ahead of us.
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| Boarding! |
The flight to Muscat on a Boeing Dreamliner took about 7 hours, approximately the same as a flight to Tokyo. However, the experience was totally different. After a couple of hours of flying the toilets got more and more unbearable, so bad to the point that Miss Kiki went and came back deciding that she would rather hold her urge. The cabin crew were mostly male and not very friendly (compared to asian airlines especially). They had a lot of movie options for entertainment, and their food was nice. One was good, another one was very good! We had 2 meals during the flight and for both meals, they brought child's meal for Miss Kiki ahead of everyone else. I didn't even request child meal, so that was very nice of them!
Upon arrival at Muscat Airport, we rushed to the nearest toilets. We were surprised to find that the toilets had entrance doors to them. We were so used to the latest public washroom designs where you don't need to open and close the doors for hygiene reasons.
Oman airport was modern, clean, and comfortable. It had the feeling of a rich and organised country. We spotted a couple of ATMs and I withdrew cash right away. The Omani Rial or OMR is one of the highest currency I've ever come across. It was close to 2 GBP (British Poundsterling) per OMR!
We went through immigration without any problems. Indonesians and Canadians do need visas to enter Oman but applying for one is very simple. Near the exit we stopped at an OmanTel booth and paid 2 OMR for a SIM card for my phone. This option was less expensive than paying for roaming in Oman.
We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel that we booked. It was called Muscat Hill Hotel, a no-nonsense hotel about 10 minutes away from the airport. It was well priced, and even though a lot of reviews said that the halls were smoky we were willing to take our chances just for one night.
The taxi went on meter and we paid 6 OMR to get to the hotel. Upon check-in, we dropped our luggages and asked for a taxi at the lobby so we could go to City Centre Mall nearby. It was just a bit further than the airport, and our 'taxi' (it was a private car) charged us 6 OMR. Since our taxi ride from the airport cost the same, we agreed to it immediately.
The City Centre Mall is open until midnight and it has a lot of the major brands like Marks n Spencer, H&M, Zara, and more. We were interested in buying food for our breakfast in the morning so we headed over to Carrefour.
What an impressive Carrefour they had! There was a large fresh bakery section offering a huge variety of western style breads and pastries as well as the more typical Middle Eastern flat breads. In the bulk section they had a large variety of nuts and pickles, ridiculously large variety of cheeses and they also sold jam by weight. On top of that, they had bulk spices and seasonings. It was amazing to see!
At Carrefour we bought flat breads, jam, sliced cheese, juices, water, and a bucket of blueberries. Walking out of the store, we spotted a sign that looked all too familiar. Well of course we had to stop and had Timbits!
It was getting late so we took a taxi back to our hotel. The taxi driver didn't want to bother with meter but asked for 5 OMR so we happily agreed. We went back to our rooms and retired for the evening. The rooms were not as smelly as we had imagined it to be. Freshly painted, it looked quite okay. However, the A/C looked like it had never been cleaned and the floor was kind of icky. Had it been a for a longer stay, I would have chosen a different hotel.
In the morning we got up and got together for breakfast. We opened our stash from Carrefour the night before. Miss Kiki loved the flat bread we bought. At 8:30 we checked out of our hotel and waited for our tour guide at the lobby.
Based on reviews on Trip Advisor, I wanted to book a specific tour guide called Yasser. When I contacted him, he requested that I contact his tour company which I did, and requested Yasser to be our guide. Unfortunately, the tour company assigned someone else as our guide and there had been miscommunication between them and the guide about our hotel. Our guide didn't show up at our hotel on the agreed time because he had gone to another Muscat Hills Hotel. Of course, the tour company didn't want to be blamed for it and blamed the guide, who claimed otherwise. Regardless, I wasn't impressed. If you happen to want to try your luck with them, the tour company is called Al Maamari Tours +968 97019931 (Whatsapp). If you want to contact Yasser directly, he can be reached at +968 9947 1007 (Whatsapp).
Our guide picked us up at our hotel lobby 30 minutes after the agreed time, and we all hopped on his white Land Cruiser and headed out. Our first destination was the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. It was a beautiful mosque, definitely worth a visit if you are in Muscat. To enter the mosque you need to follow a specific rule for attires. At least long pants and T-Shirt for men, while women are required to cover up all the way to the ankles and wrists, including a head cover. If you don't have proper attire to enter, you can rent some by the entrance.
Our tour guide gave us some basic explanations about the mosque and about other things throughout the tour, but he was pale in comparison with our Egyptologist guide in Egypt who gave us a wealth of information.
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| Prayer room for women |
The main prayer hall at the mosque features what used to be the world's largest single piece carpet from Iran, and also what used to be the world's largest crystal chandelier from Italy. Both titles now go to the carpet and chandelier in Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. The pictures don't even show how big they actually are!
The washing area for before prayer (wudhu) features granites and automatic faucets. All sparkling clean.
After the tour, all visitors are invited to visit their office/knowledge centre, where we were given complimentary tea, coffee, and dates. DH and my friend said that the dates were better than the ones we usually get in Indonesia. They had many resource books visitors can take for free, and also they host a Q&A session for visitors who are interested to know more about their religion. We stayed and listened for a while, and were impressed with their answers. As there are many different denominations in Christianity, there are also many different types of Islam. In Oman, we were told, that the Sultan teaches the people to live their lives honestly, not to enforce their beliefs to others, and also not to judge others. This is very comforting after all the bad religion-related things we hear on the news daily. I think a lot of people in my home country could learn a thing or two from them.
After the mosque, we hopped back in the car and drove to Al Alam Palace with a couple of stops. The first stop was a new dining experience that was basically a man made structure with caves inside, where in each caves they have restaurants and dining tables. It was not open when we were there so we snapped a picture and drove off.
Muscat has large and smooth roads with interesting buildings and structures on each side...
Before reaching Al Alam Palace, we also stopped at the fresh fish market by the new harbour. It was full and busy, clean and not smelly. We were quite impressed considering the number of fish and other seafood they had there.
After a quick walk-through at the fish market we moved on and finally went to Al Alam Palace. The actual palace is closed to the public but visitors are free to roam the complex. Other than clean and tidy, we didn't have too much impressions on the palace.
After the palace, we drove back towards Muttrah Souq. We saw a few forts and such on the way...
We parked across Muttrah Souq, took some pictures, and then crossed the street to see what the famous historical market had to offer.
As planned, at this market I bought a pack of Frankincense. Omanese Frankincense is considered the best in the world, from the Boswellia Sacra type. The colour is white and it is edible. We bought it from the sellers from Dhofar who have stalls right at the back of the market.
We were running out of time and we went back to the car to go back to the airport with a quick stop outside the Royal Opera House.
We loved Oman, and even though I don't know when or if we would ever be back but if you are in the area it would definitely be worth a visit! Oh I forgot to mention that our half day tour (4 hours) with guide and car cost OMR 80 or USD 225.
Thanks for reading and please stay tuned for our adventures in Egypt!
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