Nepal here I come

I wasn't sure how long it's going to take to get to the airport at 8 in the morning so I started early and stopped to fill up the car before returning it after 2070 km of Omani roads, dirt tracks, sand dunes and wadis. The are currently (apparently since 10 years) building a new Terminal at the Muscat Airport but all the flights still left from the old terminal. After a couple of scans of the luggage and myself I was finally in the departure hall.

Trying to use up a couple of Rial that were left on my card I made a few calls and went onto the plane to Doha in Qatar. There I found myself sitting next to a Nepali who was taking the same route as me to Kathmandu. He gave me a bit of advice and after only an hour and 20 minutes we already arrived at the brand new Doha Airport which only opened in April this year.

My stopover of 1 hour was not enough to go around and check out the intensive selection of Duty free products. I wanted to get a specific camera because of the fussy hairs that show up in the lens of my current camera every now and then (they usually show up on the nice shots :-().

So I am still on my fussy hair cam which means I am preferring to take photos with my mobile at the moment.
The decent into Kathmandu was a very unique one. It was dark already but it was really dark... barely any lights of the city showed outside. The entire valley was dark with only a few small bulbs here and there. It looked nearly like a ghost town. I had never seen anything like it before and it got even more unusual when we parked right next to a white United Nations 737 and took the buses over to the one story brick terminal building.

Now I knew Nepal was going to be interesting. The Immigration and Visa procedure was not as bad as expected with 30 min queuing but the waiting for the luggage at the belt (yes they do have a luggage belt) more than made up for that. It took at 90 minutes until my luggage arrived. During these 90 minutes every 3 to 5 minute one additional item appeared on the belt and most people were also still waiting for their items (which kind of made me think, my backpack is still on it's way). So it did indeed appear 2 hours after we landed.

The taxi ride from the airport to the hostel was also a bit of an adventure. By now it was nearly 11 and the streets were not very busy but the drive still drove wildly honking through the little streets made up mostly of potholes and random items just standing around in the way.

However we made it to the hostel eventually and I got my bed. Dropped my bag next to it and went up to the roof terrace craving for a nice cold Nepali Beer. Before I could take a sip from the bottle I already had a joint passed on to me (Which I of coursed passed on, Mom :-)).

I immediately got into a chat with a few guys around the table (kneeing on pillows around the low table). Everyone seemed so informed about treks you could do, which permits you needed and what you have to bring. I was not very well prepared and realized I will have to do a good bit of preparations over the next few days.

Back to Reality

The rain had stopped during the night and it was a beautiful day in the morning again. My trip took me back along the road and I tried to stop off at some prehistoric tombs that have been there for 5000 years (3000 bc). It wasn't that easy to find the way to get close to these tombs. I had to cross another wadi and drive along one. It was all explained in the Book and I did finally get there walked up to the beehive tombs maybe 200 m, saw a little snake slithering about and enjoyed being at a 5000 year old burial site all on my own with no one watching.

On the drive back to Muscat I cut across between two major roads and came through some nice villages with some forts and oasis like little valleys. This I felt was really off the beaten path with kids waving and being really happy ( I assume) to see such a strange white man walking around their town.
Since the couch didn't work out that night I went back to my favourite Hotel, which later turned out to be probably one of the cheapest in Oman. I still wanted to meet up with Aziz but time was a bit short. We agreed to meet at another (the third) Costa along the Street of the 18th of November (sorry I didn't research the significance of this date in Oman history).

I didn't really get there on the direct way and also due to a lot of traffic on the road arrived quite late but we had a good time and I also met his girlfriend Gredien who is working in the Dutch Embassy in Saudi Arabia and was over for the week. It was quite interesting to hear about life in Saudi Arabia but at some point it was time to part and head back to the hotel and get ready for the next stop. Nepal. This will be an adventure as well. I have really enjoyed Oman, though, it was full of beautiful landscapes, exciting animals and maybe most importantly wonderful, friendly people. Goodbye, I hope we meet again.

My last Omani Adventure

Off to my last adventure in Oman today. From the Oman Off Road Book I wanted to explore the area of Western Hajar, a mountain range about 200 km southwest of Muscat. The major city to get to was Nizwa and from there it was back roads.

All of Nizwa is being rebuilt at the moment and it's a single construction site. I tried to drive around the town only to find out that the road I took was blocked off after about 10 km. Instead of turning back I tried to find my way back to the main road through a lot of ancient little alleys, which proofed challenging with the Pathfinder and no map. The alleys were just like you imagine them to be, with little places and date palms scattered between the Arabian houses, goats, dogs and chickens running around between them. In the end I ended up on the road I came from again and followed it back to the main road where I also got some lunch at a place where women weren't allowed to have lunch.

From Nizwa it was only 80 km until got to my intended location. Wadi Damm is another dried river out river bed with some pools to swim in but the sun was already setting so it was imperative to quickly find a nice spot to camp (or park and sleep in the car).

It also started raining a little bit which was quite an event and usually means you shouldn't be crossing any Wadis. So when I got to the to the Wadi which needed to be crossed I sat there for a while to watch the others go across (I hadn't ever driven through the water before). Also an Omani confirmed it was safe even after the rain and I went though the little creek (maybe 20 m wide) and got out on the other side. It was pretty cool and I had another couple of these wadis ahead of me before getting to proper solid ground again.

Now off to find a spot and I thought up the hill was going to be good, so I followed the curvy dirt track up the hill and found a nice little niche to park the car. Looking back at the valley, I saw the sun set behind the mosque in the little town surrounded by green date palms.

There was no point in setting up the tent and it was dark already, so I stayed in the car and fed off Doritos and Salsa. To contact home I actually had to walk back a kilometre or so to get a signal. During the night it kept raining a bit and I was glad I was on higher ground than the wadi.

Muscat for Insiders

Kasper was going to host a Portuguese girl the next night and she arrived from Salalah (1000 km south of Muscat) at 5 in the morning. She was waiting already a while at the Coffee shop where we were going to meet her. After a few minutes chatting and figuring out that she works in Berlin we went for some breakfast/lunch and thought we could combine this with a bit of a tour around Mathra and Muscat. Driving down the Motorways in Muscat I slowly got used to driving here, I knew where I was going and which exit to take. This time in Mathra we also went up the fortress and found the massive wooden door unlocked and no sign telling us not to enter.

The three of us were all alone in the fortress and had great view from the top of the tower which had to be conquered by rope. On the way back to the entrance we were caught by a watchman who said "We got problem!".

Next stop for us was Old Muscat and the Sultan's Palace again. At this time it was already a bit late to be heading off to Western Hajar, which was actually my plan for the day, so I deciced to stay one more night in Muscat and leave early tomorrow morning. So our tour around Muscat could continue.

We actually didn't get any food yet and Kaspar suggested a bit of fancy place outside behind the hills. This was a secluded 5 star resort Al Jissa, nestled in the rocks on the Gulf of Oman.

We were greeted by shiny blue Rolls Royce Silver Phantom rolling up the road contrasted by the beige, rocky background. It really fit into the scenery with the yachts and fancy Hotel set in the rocks.
Unfortunately the fancy Hotel didnt have a parking spot left (or so the security guard at the gate told us) and we had to drive back, stopping at small marina on the way to another place that Kasper suggested. The Golden Oryx, a Chinese restaurant. Daniela, the Portuguese girl invited us (Kasper for the couch and me for the driving) and we really enjoyed the food.

Since we had some time to waste we went to the next coffee shop on the Al Shati road (a sort of promenade where people just drive up and down to show off their cars). We had a stroll on the beach as well and then headed over to a newly built up area called the Wave, where we just stayed on the beach until the sun set. Since I wanted to rearrange my things and have a quite night I went back to the Sun City Hotel around 10. This day turned out quite nice and I got a few inside views of Muscat that I wouldn't have gotten without the couchsurfing experience.

Back to Muscat

Surprisingly the Bedouin came back at 6 in the morning and gave me my 20 Rial and drove me down back to the road. He got out in the middle of nowhere (no tents, camels or palm trees around for at least a kilometre) and I asked him if I should take him anywhere, but he was fine.

He even stopped by a couple of minutes later when I stopped at the side of the road to see where I was going next. I decided to drive to Wadi Batha which was a few km back the road I came from, then I turned off the main route 23 and drove up north along a nice curvy mountain road that lead over a pass and through a village to a Wadi.

Due to the fact that I was up early again I was again the first person at the Wadi, I wandered around bit. A young Omani wanted to walk with me and showed me a couple of places. This Wadi was much more developed than Wadi Shab, it had bridges and a food area, but it was still very empty, so I headed on back to Muscat. On the way I tried to sort out my bed for the night.

Aziz my previous host using the weekend to bring his Girlfriend to Sur (just where I was a couple of days earlier) so he was out. Kasper, a polish guys, was willing to host me though. First thing I wanted to do though is get back into "civilisation" and freshen up in the Mall, have a coffee and follow up with my blog a bit. So I went back to the Costa Coffee place in the mall and relaxed there for a while.

A shocking experience was when I looked at all my pictures from my Camera and noticed that a hair sneaked into the lend and was present on nearly every photo I took over the last couple of days. So I will switch to my mobile phone camera until I get a chance to buy a new proper camera.

Now it as time to sort out my bed for the night. Funnily the place where I am suppose to meet up with Kasper was another Costa. So I drove over there and we had a chat and after that went to see the Grand Mosque lit up at night and got some food at a turkish place. We finished off the evening with a shisha before we used the nice empty roads at 2 am to take a bit cruise over a mountain road from which you could see the City lights stretching forever. His place was very basic but I slept well.