Day 1 Part II - Going to Oman

dogewm (50)in #photography • 5 years ago (edited)

Read about the beginning of the trip:
Day 1 - Arriving at Dubai

First mosque we saw in Oman

Indeed, day 1 was a long day. Since we arrived early (before 6 am) in Dubai we where able to get the whole way to Oman and specifacally our primary destination Muscat.

Our path to get there

The closest and fastest way to get from Dubai to Muskat by car is to get to Hatta and to cross the border at Al Wajajah border post and getting than from Suhar to Muscat. It takes around 5 hours.

Hatta hill park - it is a kind of adventure park where you can go mountain biking or take the big-ball-thing (how can it be called?) to get down a hill. Surely fun :D Interestingly most people there where western expats.
On the way there we met also several bikers as weather was nice for biking - clear and not hot.

After getting a banana and water at the market we explored Hatta a bit more before moving to the border. It is a nice, quiet place.
It is also worth noting it we have been there at a friday - it is similar to sundays in europe.

To cross the border was a bit different than expected, but everything went well.
As I life in europe I am still used how it was/is to cross borders. Usually there is a border check of one country and after some meters of no-man's-land the border check of the second country.
At the Dubai/Oman border there was first an UAE checkpoint, where we have to pay a small fee to leave the country and got the exit stamp in our passports, than there was a small Oman check point where the police officer only checked shortly the car and how many people are in the car - we got than a paper with the number of the people in the car and after maybe 200-300 meters there was a big check point where it is needed to get into the house and get the immigration done. There was one long wating line for truck drivers and another, shorter waiting line for all others. We had be lucky right before us a new counter opened and it feeled like getting served privileged (as in our waiting line we have been at number 3). Also uniquely the officer checked our car insurance for Oman (which we got at the car renting company - although had to pay addtional money for it). Luckily our immigration got on quiet fast and after maybe 100 meters another check point was ahead of us. There was a police car, but it seemed that the building is empty (in europe, when there still where borders, it also could happen that check points were empty and so I just drove slowly past to it as suddenly a police officers jumped out of the building *lol.
Heading back some meters I told him I was sorry not to see him and if he wants to check some thing - basically he just needed the paper with the number of the passengers, which we got at the first check point, at everything was done. Yuhu - crossing border accomplished :D

As time was flying and hungry was coming we headed to the next bigger city - Sohar - and got first to a park.

After having lunch at Burger King - yes, getting slowly into eating culture of a new country *lol we were heading toward Muscat and arrived soon there.

Swimming pool of the Hotel in Muscat. It was a bit chill outside (only sligthly above 20°) so a bit cold for swimming.
The place offers a nice view over the city and makes clear it is very different from Dubai.

After getting a sim card in Oman at Omantel (it is always useful - although if you need only a few MB of data some Global Roaming Sim card can be already enough) we headed to an irish bar in Muscat. Oman is very strict about alcohol and so this bar was the first and nearly last drop of alcohol there. Since the place was very crowded we decided to leave after one beer and headed to have dinner.
The option were: