MUSCAT - OMAN

The main aim of the week away was to visit Almaty in Kazakhstan, I didn’t want to use all of it in one place so I picked a stop off point on the way. Options were a bit limited and it came down to a choice between Muscat and Abu Dhabi. Both were only an hour from Dubai I picked Muscat because it was an “old city” unlike Abu Dhabi which had been built from scratch in 50 years.

It was unusual because I was staying in a hotel, no hostels here but it was only for 2 nights. I arrived at 9 in the morning after a Friday night flight from Birmingham with Emirates. The hotel was nice and upmarket by my standards but a bit out of town. First big mistake was stepping out into the 42-44 degree heat and walking around in it. I got lost in a nearby industrial estate and had a grim hour before going back to the hotel.

Public transport was not good I was told so it meant getting taxis everywhere which I am not a fan of to say the least. So I went to the sea front and walked around the coast to some forts and stopped for some food before heading back for the evening.

No pubs in Oman, alcohol is allowed only in hotels apparently but I didn’t bother looking as I wanted to be up as early as possible to make the most of the one full day I had there.

It was still well over 30 degrees before 8 in the morning. I took a taxi to the main area at the coast and went round Mutrah Souk while waiting for the hop on hop off bus.

It seemed like every western tourist was doing the same thing. The city's sights are spread out over a wide area so the bus was the only practical way of doing it.

I did a full circuit and got off for some food, during this time the area filled up with cruise ship passengers.

I got back on and went to Al Qurm park which was empty, I got on the bus that was going back to the cruise ship (which I wasn’t told by the driver) and ended up in a restricted area but was directed to change buses and somehow got away with it.

I’d had enough of the heat and was glad to be leaving for Almaty the following day, spent the rest of the evening watching TV away in my air con room. I had to be up at 3:00 to get to the airport.