Land
of Frankincense: Part II
Wednesday,
1 February 2017
Early
start today. We left the apartment just before 08:00 and walked up to the main
road to catch a cab. We had barely stopped when a car pulled up and asked where
we were going. Apprehensive, we told them we were going to to Mwasalat bus stop
and the bloke inside offered to give us a ride. I was uneasy and asked how much
he expected for the ride. He assured us he wanted to help and showed a file,
saying he was an engineer. We looked at each other then decided to trust him.
We just hoped he wouldn’t turn out to be like the man in Petra who demanded us
to pay him.
He
drove to the taxi stand near the souks and asked the cabbies there before
driving off. We would have been happy had he dropped us there but he drove on
and finally I recognised some landmarks and told CT that we were on the right
track. We made small talk and he mentioned that he was actually an Egyptian who
had lived in Oman for the past 15 years. He dropped us off and we got down
after thanking him profusely. We then made our way to the Mwasalat office and
bought tickets to Muscat. The fare was OMR1.8 for each of us.
The
bus came along and we boarded it after loading our bags. The journey took
almost two hours. At Ruwi, we changed buses for the red city bus no. 4.
Unfortunately, it didn’t pass Mutrah High Street so we got down a stop before
the Mutrah Souk stop and walked to our hotel. We walked for about 35 minutes in
the hot sun dragging our bags behind us. Well, the journey wouldn’t have taken
as long if I had not needed to stop every now and then to check we were on the
right path. We finally reached Mutrah Hotel and checked in (check-in and
check-out times are 12:00). A Bangladeshi worker who used to work in Malaysia
showed us to our room. I was disappointed when I saw our room. It was spacious
but the furniture looked like it came straight out of the 1970s. The wifi
connection was also unreliable that first day. I ventured out around 13:30 to
check out the neighbourhood. There was a SPAR supermarket and Muscat Bakery (it
has a branch in Nizwa and in fact I bought the previous day’s lunch from the
outlet in Nizwa) just diagonally across the street so I went over to buy a
6-litre bottle of water from SPAR and some buns from the bakery before
returning back to my room.
We
left at 15:30 and walked down Mutrah High Street. We decided to take some back alleys until we
emerged out at Al Mina Street. We walked on until we saw the direction for BaitAl Baranda (no, there is no Tourist Information Centre in either Bahla, Nizwa, Mutrah or Muscat, at least none that we could find!). The house has many exhibits on
the archaeological and maritime history of Oman and Muscat. Entrance fee was
OMR1. We spent about an hour there before heading out.
We
then walked along the waterfront or The Corniche. The sun was getting down so
it wasn’t too hot and there was the light breeze that made the walk very
pleasurable. We enjoyed people-watching, bird-watching and even spent a brief
while watching some foreign workers catching fish without the use of any
fishing rod. We walked all the way until we almost reached Riyam Park. There
were some benches and we sat down for a while before turning back. We went to
the Mutrah Souk but we were also starting to feel hungry so we decided to
return the next day or on Friday.
We
decided to try out some fish biryani (the ticket man at Bahla Fort told us that
Omani eat a lot of fish) for dinner from a restaurant across the street from
our hotel. I think it’s called Amazon Restaurant and it has a lot of customers
because we saw a lot of people who drove by to pick up their orders which they placed
by phone calls earlier. It was a good thing we bought only one portion because
it was a huge portion and yes, it was very good! The portion was so big that we
managed to save some for the next day’s lunch.
Thursday,
2 February 2017
We
had a lot of places to cover today so we had another early start. We went for
breakfast just after 07:00 – it was adequate, Alhamdulillah – before walking to
the fish souk. Yes, you read that right, the fish souk. We had to go through a
covered market selling vegetables to get to the fish market. I was pleasantly
surprised by the lack of any fishy smell there and we spent some time enjoying
the atmosphere before leaving. A new fish souk is being constructed next to the
covered small market.
We
waited 15 minutes for the bus no. 4 to Palace Al Alam. The fare was 200 Bz if
you travel within one zone. The Palace is the ceremonial palace for Sultan
Qaboos. We couldn’t enter the palace grounds but we could walk outside the
palace perimeter.
We
then walked around until we stumbled upon Bait Al Zubair Museum, funded by its
founders, the Zubair family. The museum houses the family’s vast collection of
Omani artefacts and consists of a number of buildings. We first went to Bait Al
Bagh which is the main museum building and houses exhibits of Oman’s
architectural heritage. There are also galleries on the ground floor that
exhibit excellent examples of khanjar (Omani dagger), male and female attire,
traditional swords and firearms, antique jewellery, musical instruments and
even a wedding display. On the first floor is a stamp collection and also some
coin collection. There are also other buildings, one housing an art gallery and
the other, a café. In the garden is a miniature example of falaj, the
irrigation system in Oman, and miniature forts. The entrance was an
eye-watering OMR2.
After
that, we walked to Omani French Museum, a museum located in the former
residence of the French Consul. It provides a snapshot of mostly 19th
Century colonial life in Muscat. I didn’t enjoy it as much. The lady who manned
the reception (first time we met a lady receptionist) was excited when we told
her we were from Malaysia and said she had been to KL just last year.
We
left and sat in the garden, eating the biryani leftover. I then went to ask the
lady at the reception if there was a prayer room and she said no. Nevertheless,
I used the bathroom and performed ablutions. We walked back to Al Alam Palace
and I decided to perform prayers outside a mosque.
After
that, we walked back to the bus stop and waited 15 minutes for the bus. I asked
the driver if it was possible to take the bus to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
and he said yes. A helpful female passenger told us we would need to change
buses at Ruwi station. No problem, we thought. So we rode the bus all the way
to Ruwi bus station and at the station, I asked the bus no. 1 driver if his
route cover the Grand Mosque. He said yes so we boarded. We had to pay 300 Bz
fare as it was in another zone. I then asked if the bus would pass the RoyalOpera House and he said yes. Great! So it was possible after all to travel on
your own without going on the Big Bus Tours to explore Muscat. We did it the
‘backpacking way’. Heh.
As we were approaching the Royal Opera House, the driver asked if we wanted to get down. I
thought quickly and said we would stop on our way back so we continued on. The
Grand Mosque is in the Madinat As Sultan Qaboos district and about 25 minutes
away from Ruwi. The driver told us the stop so we got down and walked to the
overhead bridge to cross over. It was a bit of a walk to the Grand Mosque. The
Grand Mosque is open to non-Muslims only at certain times. We told the guards
that we were Muslims and they allowed us in but told us to go to the ladies’
side only. On the way, I saw some ladies peering in the men’s section (the much
larger section) so we joined in. We stayed probably all of five minutes as the
call for Asar prayers came on not long after we were there. We then made our
way to the ladies’ section before checking out the garden. I had already
performed Zuhur and Asar Jamak prayers, otherwise I would have joined in too.
We
walked back to a bus stop on the same side of the mosque and waited for the bus
to the Royal Opera House. He told us where to get down and man, on hindsight,
we should have just got down earlier and visited the Royal Opera House before
taking another bus to the Grand Mosque. As it turned out, we had to walk back
to the overhead bridge to cross over the highway and then walk to the Royal
Opera House. Two buses passed by and we still hadn’t reached the Royal Opera
House and as the bus frequency at that time of day was still every 15 minutes,
it meant we took more than 30 minutes (or about 2 km!) to get to the Royal
Opera House from the bus stop. We entered the grounds and took pictures of the
exterior (we were not allowed inside) before checking out the Opera Galleria.
We
trudged back and took a shortcut to cross the road – instead of walking all the
way to the overhead bridge which we had used before, we went down into a dry
river (drain?) and ran in the dark tunnel to the other side, just like the
foreign workers. Haha! We reached the bus stop and checked the schedule: the
bus was due in 4 minutes. Had we gone all the way to the overhead bridge to
cross over the highway, we would’ve missed the bus.
We
went down at Ruwi station, changed for bus no. 4 and got down at Murtah Souk.
We browsed the souk and bought some dates (it’s kinda expected of me to buy
dates for dad) before heading back to the hotel. Tonight we decided to try
another restaurant and bought one Shely fish biryani to go. The portion was
huge again but the rice was better at the first restaurant although this
restaurant provided us with some gravy which was delicious. I also ordered some
prawn soup which turned out very differently from the photo on the menu.
We
had walked for more than 30 km today, yes, you read that right, more than 30 km (!) and with the biryani dinner, had no
problems at all falling asleep.
Friday,
3 February 2017
It
was an overcast start to the day and I was surprised to find the ground was wet
when I stepped out before breakfast. We decided to have a late breakfast today
as we weren’t planning to go out this morning. All museums are closed on
Fridays (hence why we did the whirlwind tour of Muscat the day before) and the
souk would only open from 15:00. We checked out at noon and sat at the lobby. I
then went to pray at the corridor of the fourth floor (hotel looked like it was
part Indian-owned and I doubt it had a prayer room). We then had leftover
biryani before walking down to the souk after 15:00 and the waterfront where we
waited for bus no. 4 to LuLu Hypermarket. Yes, it’s the same LuLu that has a
supermarket at Capital Square in KL.
CT
wanted to buy some souvenirs and managed to get some at LuLu at better prices
than at the souk. We then went to the supermarket where I bought some buns
before taking the bus back to the souk. At the souk, we bought some perfume
oils to bring home. We probably spent an hour there checking out the different
scents and haggling! This despite having visited the shop on our first evening
in Mutrah! I was happy that I managed to buy perfume oils which cost less than
the tacky made-in-China souvenirs.
We
then walked back to the hotel and placed an order for chicken biryani at Amazon
Restaurant before crossing over to the hotel to collect our bags. The owner had
told us that the taxi fare to Ruwi station was 300 Bz (per person as it turned
out) so after dinner, we stood to wait for taxies and of course where was one
when you needed it? One came and asked for OMR6 (you gotta be kidding me
mister) and another came and asked for OMR2. We bargained it down of course and
the driver agreed. A man jumped in and sat in front, apparently another
passenger. So in a way, that helped us because if he paid 300 Bz, why should we
be asked to pay more (granted we did have some bags in the boot)? A taxi all
the way to the airport would cost OMR10 at least. Definitely a no-no.
At
Ruwi bus station, we saw a couple of no. 1 buses but we decided to head to a
money changer first to sell off our OMR for USD. Thankfully the transaction
didn’t take long. We managed to board the third no. 1 bus and got seats. All
the buses were full that evening for some reason. The wind was very strong the
whole day today and made the day seem cold.
It
took 35 minutes to reach the airport stop and we got down and wrestled with our
bags against the strong wind to the terminal building. We went to change and
freshen up first, then I had to go to a mosque outside for prayers (again, the
wind!) before rejoining CT. I must say that Muscat International Airport is
woefully inadequate in providing seats for the travellers and those sending
them off. We finally went in with the hope that we would get seats inside.
Well, there were only 16 seats inside. 16 for all of us travellers waiting to
check in our bags! We managed to get two vacant seats somehow and sat down to
wait for the IndiGo check-in counters to open.
I
got up to check the relevant counters and was surprised to find they were
already opened. We finally joined the long queue. When our turn came, the man
behind the counter proved less competent that his peers. He kept having to
refer to his colleagues and acted as if he had never seen anyone checking in
their bags, collecting them and checking them in again for the next flight. We
finally got our boarding passes and went to the boarding area for another long
wait.
Saturday, 4 February 2017
We
finally boarded the bus to the plane and I fell asleep almost immediately. When
I next opened my eyes, we were landing at Cochin. In Cochin, we went through
the same routine as before. One thing though: make sure you get a bag tag for
every hand carry bag you have. I was given only one and was told to get another
one for my backpack. Not my fault when I was given only one at the counter! I
was so angry that I stuffed my backpack into my Longchamp tote and carried on.
We
boarded the plane (got seats close to the rear of the plane). No cushion and no
blanket this time – do you only provide them for evening flights, Malindo?! We
landed at KLIA at 17:30 and the bags took a while to come out.
If
I ever had the opportunity and rezeki to visit Oman again, I would love to go
to the Bimmah sinkhole, Wadi Shab and maybe Musandam. I tried fitting Musandam
into our trip; unfortunately, we were pressed for time and there is only one
ferry going and one returning in a week. You could fly there of course but we
didn’t really consider that. Or you could go by land via UAE but be subject to
another UAE exit fee and Omani visa fee on arrival. Oman is a beautiful country
and still relatively unexplored.
