First Steps in the Land of the Benevolent Sultan

14th – 16th October 2009 – Days 16 to 18 – Muscat, Oman

Arriving to Muscat from the exuberantly noisy and dirty Cairo serves as a good reminder of there being some sophistication left in this world still. Muscat airport in the evening looks somewhat like a candy store with spotlights in soft shades of green and purple surrounding the dashingly clean white building, and the airport sure has a good gardener to look after its bushes too. I was aware of that Sultan Qaboos has a very specific taste and that he likes to look after the general outlook of things, and just by seeing the airport you can tell that he has a thing for colours in particular. After all, this is the same man who ordered the Hyatt Hotel in Muscat to tone down its coating because of the pinkish building was apparently too bright – for the Majesty or for the area or what, I’m yet to find out. Now the hotel’s coating is described as ‘peachy’ instead. (Later addition: Unfortunately we never made it to the Hyatt to check out what the new coating looks like so I can’t provide evidence of the Majesty eye for style in this case.)

Omani Urban Design, colour coordination par excellence

Our first impressions of the country were unified in terms of how neat everything is. In the taxi from the airport to our hotel on the Muscat corniche we looked around in amazement at all the buildings and cars being shiny and new (there’s a fine for driving a dirty car) and at people walking on the street looking very proper in their outfits. We came to a slight panic, even, about how quiet it is around you in this capital city. There is virtually no noise, just the humming and swooshing of cars driving past and the odd hooter from taxis asking if we want to hop in for a drive somewhere. People don’t seem to speak much, to us or to each other. For a short moment I started thinking that there’s something wrong with us or that we’re not that welcome to this spotless paradise with our backpacks. As always, I decided not to let this bother me for too long and already from the first night settled on enjoying the silence, peace and beauty of this strange capital which has not got the slightest feel of a capital to it. The first two days in Oman we spent wandering around exploring the corners of Muscat, not really getting too fussed about the pace of which we were doing things. First “morning” for us started late at 5pm, and we did nothing at all apart from walking to along the corniche in Mutrah, the port area of Muscat where we were staying, and paying a quick visit to the souq. Mutrah has hotels, a couple of restaurants, a museum, a souq and the fish market which you can breathe in as you’re waiting for a microbus right next to it at the aptly named Fish roundabout.

Haggling for bargains (or not) in Muttrah souq

The second day we improved our standards enough to rise at 11.50am only to rush out from the hotel as we had to check out at noon. As we hadn’t sorted our lives out by this point enough to know where we’d even be continuing to from Muscat, we swiftly checked in at another hotel next door for 30 % lower price. We had at least investigated our surroundings as much the night before to know this was officially the cheapest hotel in town. After the downgrade in price but not in quality, we set out to explore the town a bit further and possibly to rent a car.

The Muttrah corniche by night

Muscat is laid out on the rocky coast of the Gulf of Oman, and pretty much everything is centered in or around three main areas of town called Mutrah, Ruwi and Qurm. All of these are separated by 2-3 km’s distance from each other and require a microbus or taxi ride if you don’t have a car at your use and happen to be lazy like us. In other words, no one walks in this town anyway so it’s easier to just do what the locals do and jump onto the microbus. On our first day in Muscat we had nervously looked around for where and how you could get on these things but it was only on the second day that we were awake enough to crack the formula (they just stand at roundabouts and you get in – simple as pie).

On one of these buses it’s a 10-minute ride to Ruwi which is the transport hub of town to inquire about buses and car rental and to do further research at an internet café. After a visit to the bus station, a better look at “the Bible” (Lonely Planet) and a 3-hour session on the net it turned out buses don’t go to too many places in Oman, at least not very often, and that by renting a car you can see much more as most of the attractions are in its nature and cannot be reached via public transport, and most often a 4x4 is needed as well. Best place to get a car quickly in Muscat is the airport so we got a taxi there (37 kms), negotiated one from one of the rental companies and at the point of handing my license in for the paperwork, I realized I’d left my wallet at the internet café. Back to Ruwi on the microbus we went, me holding my breath and thinking about all the places I’d have to start calling in case the wallet would not be found. Gladly the guys at the café had found my wallet and made sure I checked that every Rial of cash was still in there as well, again an example of Omani society at its finest. I had to insist five times to leave a tip to the guy running the café and once he finally accepted my small token of gratitude, he passed it on to the other guy hanging around keeping him company. Go figure. I called the lady at the car rental agency in the airport to say we could come pick up the car now, but stupidly made sure my license would actually be valid as it’s not an international driving permit, and was told that would not do. Disappointed at the fact that I wouldn’t get to drive on the wide, new roads in decent traffic, we concluded that it would be for the better to drop the car rental for now and just take a bus the next day to get moving somewhere at least.


The evening we spent visiting the Sultan’s palace in old Muscat. You can get a surprisingly close look at it without any guards patrolling around making you feel uncomfortable as the Sultan is a man close to his people in all respects. We admired some more of the nightly skyline of Muscat on the walk back to the hotel, passing by some beautifully lit rocks in pastel colours, all in perfect harmony.

Omani rock decoration - colour coordination par excellence