JULY 2017
I love the Middle East. It’s one of my favorite parts of the world, not just for the amazing architecture, modern cities, amazing mosques, and delicious food, mostly down to the kind Arabian hospitality. I first visited Dubai in 2015, and luckily I’ve been back a lot ever since. I always remember that earlier trip to Dubai, at 24, being so impressed with the new buildings, fast-paced environment, and huge malls, a place that was an uninhabited desert about 30 years ago. I always knew that I would return to the Middle East and often wondered, for years, whether the rest of the Middle Eastern countries were in any way similar.
My next Middle Eastern location was Oman, though three and a half years overdue. My initial plan was to go to Madha, a tiny Omani territory close to the northern part of The UAE. I checked it out a few years ago and there was a bus going directly from the Dubai Mall in the UAE. The tours were pretty frequent, but once I looked at the tourist brochure, I quickly decided that it wasn’t for me. I wanted to do my own thing and travel as far into Oman as possible, sheltering myself from the other tourists and tourist traps. So I decided to book a flight to Muscat, the capital of Oman, and the plan was to explore as much as possible in the space of a couple of days.
I arrived in Muscat after a long and awkward flight from Nepal, via Dubai. I remember saying to myself that this would be more unique, maybe even more unique than Dubai. My goal was to go far into the desert and mix with locals and get to know more about the region and get to sample some of the local dishes.
I met an Omani guy called Thamer on arrival in Muscat. He was interested in my trip and I was more than interested in getting to know more about him, his family, and his friends over the next few days. He lived in a place called Al-Bustan, about a 40-minute drive from the airport and I was instantly impressed early on when I noticed how developed Muscat really was. We chatted for a while and tried some local traditional Omani food, a bowl of Makboos with vegetables and basmati, then he randomly said “Do you want to come to my friend’s wedding tonight? I was like, “Sure, but I won’t know anyone there, or anything about Islam” He insisted that he’d help out when needed and introduce me to a few of his friends beforehand. What an icebreaker, I thought to myself. So I showed up, unknown to everyone, just this strange foreigner sitting at the back of one of the biggest mosques in Muscat, with no formal attire and not a word of Arabic. Upon arrival, his friends greeted me almost instantly, very curious
about me and why I decided to come to Oman, a place that is not on everyone’s travel radar, most people just visit the UAE when travelling to the Middle East.
We drank a couple of coffees together and had a feast, sitting on the floor of the mosque, and were given plenty of options to choose from for hours and hours.
Once again, I was introduced to some more locals, even a local who had recently been to my hometown, small world, right? I met his children and he invited me to visit his hometown, a place called Haima, far away from Muscat, though my schedule was packed up at that time.
People don’t do a lot in Oman during the day and I presume other parts of the Middle East. It’s blistering hot and even walking to the nearest shop can be a challenge. The locals usually spend their days inside, with the AC blasting, mostly in the malls, and then plan their activities after 6 or 7, or when it begins to get cool, making it the ideal time to do some nice coastal walks. The desert heat is difficult and it’s hard to navigate around, especially in the middle of the summer.
Thamel continued to drive me around, taking me to Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Bait Al Zubair, Al Jalali Fort, and Corniche Mutrah. We would often stop off for coffee. In Oman, it’s fairly popular to have a Starbucks or another coffee shop with a drive-thru, drinking coffee is a popular pastime throughout the Middle East. This makes things so much easier and more convenient. During my second last day in Oman, I traveled to a place in Muscat called Mutrah, there I met Thamel’s sister and his niece, and more of his friends, as we passed some more modern mosques along the way. Once again, the hospitality was superb, and luckily I met some more friendly locals and we shared stories together.
We chatted about everything, Ireland, Oman, football, Islam, and travel, and the longer the night went on, the more I became comfortable with Thamel, his family, and his friends.
I listened to old Omani folk tales, and traditional Omani music and wandered around the desert once more. The final morning Thamel left me at the nearby highway, reasonably close to his home. He flagged down a taxi, not a taxi as we would imagine in the west, but instead, a huge hummer, sharing with a group of Somali men, so I jumped in and he left me to the airport, another friendly guy from Al Suwaiq, that was forever welcoming and curious about me and why there was a foreigner in the middle of the desert during a normal 40+ morning. Overall, I enjoyed my time in Oman. I got to see the parts of Oman hidden from the tourist map. It made it more authentic getting to share my time in Oman with a very informative local and it meant a lot to me that he would sacrifice so much of his time and all of the effort that he put in to show me around.
