Road-Trip to Muscat

I have been to the capital of Oman many times since coming to the region.
It is a nice city in beautiful region, the Omani's are friendly and as well the country is kept clean.
The entry below is by Sandland Son since his first visit looks at it from a different perspective.
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The boys and I decided that we needed to get out of the Emirates and see something new. So we loaded up Sebastian’s trusty Mazda and started off at the ungodly hour of 8 AM (I didn’t even know there was one of those in morning as well!)

Sebastian is not much of a morning person either, so the driving was left to Sjoerd "bin" Kappel, seen here trying to capture that “Arab Taxi Driver” look.

The trip takes about 5 hours; we made good time even with some bureaucratic problems at the border crossing (e.g. Sebastian trying to explain to the border guards where Poland is - we eventually agreed that it was in Germany and they sent us on our way)

The drive is boring until you get near Muscat, where we come across one of many interesting mosques (as opposed to the boring ones back home)

After a few wrong turns and realizing that Oman, like the entire of the Middle East, has not invented road signs yet, we made it to our hotel, checked in, and headed out to Muttrah, which is the old section of the city.

After a quick lunch of shwarma pizza, Sjoerd and I decided we wanted to be proactive and climb up to the castle. Sebastian, after checking his cigarette supply agreed and we began trekking through the maze of side-streets that is Muttrah:

And here is the view from the top

Then off to the Sultan’s Palace (rumour has it that he is a bit light in the loafers… can you tell?)

Then off exploring the coastline:

We came across a group of Omani guys chilling on the beach so we stopped and had a smoke with them.

They were happy that we were enjoying their country, but told us that if we wanted to become honorary Omanis we had to dress better. So! Off to the souq! (NB: Arab, Dutch, and Polish guys discussing the do’s and dont’s of fashion is tragically funny)

That is… if we ever get by the block party!

We finally arrive at the Souq and start exploring, trying to find ways to be Omani.

Hmmm… this should do!

We totally blend in now! You would never figure out that this was actually an evil Dutchman. Sjoerd was actually worried after all the Fitna controversy, so he felt totally safe! Now to find a carpet, hopefully one of the flying variety!

No flying carpets, only authentic Iranian carpets made in China…Uh-oh!

It was a long day and we were all feeling thirsty; luckily our taxi driver noticed us panting and got us to the Crowne Plaza in record time!

And we are off to discover the night-life of Muscat.