I packed my bag and still had a few hours before checkout at 12. Since I had to pay hourly on arrival I thought I should be using every minute of this place and left my bag in order to walk around Bur Dubai for a bit. This was a bit more my thing, old, narrow alleys, with Arabic looking buildings and mosques squeezed in between them. I knew somewhere down these alleys should be the Dubai Creek, the former centre of Dubai when it was only a fishing village (just about 20 years ago.
I made it to the creek and found a little dock from where I could cross the creek to the other bank. It was somewhat touristy but I shared the little boat with maybe 20 local people that were crossing to get to work or do their shopping. There were old Dhows (traditional Arabian cargo ships) shipping down the creek and we had to pass through between them with our little boat. It was really a great experience. Then on the east bank of the Dubai creek there were many, many of these Dhows that were loading and unloading their cargo. There were no cranes in sight but they guys had hundreds of fridges and washing machines on board. they must have carried them on one by one. Quite shocking for me to see people doing this kind of work where at the same time you don't need to leave an air-conditioned area in order to get from the train to the mall, to the top of the tallest building in the world and then go for a round of skiing on snow in the middle of the desert.
Anyhow, we are all aware that Dubai is having some extreme contrasts, so I took another boat back from a little quay just down the creek and arrived over at the western bank again. Each trip only cost 1 Dirham (0.20 €) and I enjoyed this more than the Burj Khalifa or the mall. On the way back to the Apartment I got annoyed by some salesmen trying to get rid of their Keffiye (arabian head scarf) but I dodged them as good as possible.
Now I had to make my way to the ONTC bus stop near Al Rigga Road. The Metro took me there safely and I found the stop (following some instructions on the internet - from Al Rigga Road Metro stop follow the road south east and cross the large street through the pedestrian bridge above. Follow the extension of Al Rigga road for maybe 300m and find the ONTC office on the south/right side of street, next to the caravan restaurant) pretty quick. On the way there passing by a car rental place that offered Ferrari, Rolls Royce and Bentleys.
Tickets to Muscat were 55 Dirham (about 10€) and the bus was leaving in 2 hours. So I still had some time but not much to do there so I set down in the bus that was waiting. The seat allocated moved around a couple of people (quite rudely) and we were off to Oman.
As the allocated moved me to another seat I found myself next to Kieran from Dublin (well, he is America but lived in the fair city for most of his life). He now works in Oman as a English teacher and gave me a couple of tips. Funnily enough he was teaching in Dun Laoghaire just about 4 km from my flat and he also watched the Oman : Ireland game two weeks ago in the stadium. The immigration went fine, although the Oman official didn't stamp my passport carefully enough, so that the Omani official could not read the exit date, but it was assumed it was today, so I got my visa granted.
Since it was the end of the weekend the roads were quite busy and we got stuck in traffic a couple of times and only arrived at Ruwi bust terminal in Muscat around midnight. Two friendly Omani shoe salesmen suggested a local hotel right at the bus stop and helped me arrange my Omani Sim Card. I have to say, I was a bit suspicious initially because they wanted to drive me around but, I have had only good experiences so far with Omanis. They are a very friendly and helpful people.
The Hotel Sun City, right at the Ruwi bus stop is certainly worth recommending for anyone who arrives here late at night. Clean and easy and a single room with air-con and a bottle of water in the fridge for 16 OMR (about 32€). No internet in the room, but I did have my new SIM card for that :-).
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