Oman – Day Zero

On Sunday we packed up and flew to Oman, on our own. This was our first test. Uber to airport and nobody but surly visa and rental car counter employees to greet us when we arrived in Muscat, Oman.

Uber and the Doha airport were uneventful, but Liz got absolutely schooled in a hangman match against the in-flight entertainment computer. See what difficult word she failed to guess!

Arrival in Oman was less auspicious than that into Doha because the airport (scheduled for replacement on March 20, about three weeks after we left) was kinda cramped and hot. Felt like an 80’s era airport in the USA. First things first, we headed to the visa counter to get our tourist visas — 60 USD (cash-only!) each to enter the country and the women at the counter were absolutely non-plussed about the whole situation. Then on to the rental car counter (Europcar FTW) where the response was markedly more welcoming.

We got a Mitsubishi Pajero, which turned out to be a very nice ride. We took about 15 minutes getting our bluetooth jams all setup, and then we drove around for about 15 minutes trying to get off the top of the parking ramp. It was mostly a case of too much signage; there were exit signs everywhere pointing every direction. I think they were all technically correct, in some universe, and when we finally found the down ramp both Liz and I looked at each other with amazement and relief.

Our number one goal was to find our AirBnb, which we did without much trouble. Tim, our AirBnb host, had given us several great pdf’s with maps and other arrival information.

In short, the apartment was great. Cool location, walkable to some great restaurants and locations (including the picture below) and a nicely appointed home.

After we settled in and took a nap, then we took a nice long walk. Then we settled into our suburban assault car and drove to a nice Turkish restaurant for dinner, followed by a fun shopping trip to Carrefour (hosted in a mall) for some provisions. Finally to bed.