To begin on my 1-month trip around Oman, I had first to somehow get there from Dubai. I checked the internet for bus routes. The first thing you run into is the Omani state-owned Mwasalat bus company. Those guys operate 3 routes per day at 7:30, 15:30 and 23:00 from Dubai to Muscat, and at 6:20, 15:20 and 23:30 from Muscat to Dubai. Tickets cost AED 55 for one way and AED 100 for a return ticket. The buses are fairly comfortable and the drivers sane. This is their website. At the time of writing, they have not yet implemented an online booking service.
I also found another company: Al
Both the companies’ offices in Dubai are located in an unnamed Google Maps street near Deira City Centre subway station. I was at Al Khanjry’s a couple of hours before the night bus’s departure.
I didn’t find that online booking system of theirs very reliable, as it didn’t send me any mail confirmation of sorts, but I only got to screenshot a local confirmation message on their site which briefly appeared before the page crashed. Fortunately, the booking was normally registered and those dudes at the office promptly spotted it. Quite faithful to the schedule we’d hit the road by 23:00.
From Dubai to Hatta border
The bus was hardly half-full, the space bountiful, the seats decent, the temperature ideal, and the trip comfortable. The views out of the window were quite interesting as well. With low-flying airplanes continually rumbling overheads, the city and the red sky covering it gradually gave way to broad sandplains and a deep-dark sparkling sky.
At some point along the way, we also stopped for dinner and tea. I had to swallow the last mouthfuls hurriedly in response to the driver’s nerve-racking abuse of the bus horn.
Rough, rocky mountain slopes started taking off by the verge of the road. We drove through the small but pretty vivid town of
Hatta border: the Emirati side
The immigration procedure on the Emirati side was fairly fast and simple. We entered the neat post and queued up before a white-marble counter adorned with some pretty huge portraits of Abu Dhabi’s and Dubai’s Emirs above it. First, there was one clerk who collected an AED 35 exit fee, then there was another one who stamped the passport, and we were free to go.
Hatta border: the Omani side
After a short drive, we encountered the Omani luggage control post. A big sign warned against taking pictures. A number of trucks were queued up in one lane. We took another priority one and were soon requested to get off the bus with all our luggage. The control was far from thorough: I could have easily carried out my idea to smuggle a bottle of wine or two, had I decided it. On the way back, however, a month later, we underwent a lengthy and painstaking control on the Emirati side. It is a wager I guess.
We then drove for quite some time on what must have been the longest ride I’ve ever had between border posts. Eventually, we encountered some not so orthographically proper signs, like that one stating ‘othorised vehicles only’, and parked outside of the immigration office. We walked in and queued up once again.
Pretty similar in luxury and all with the Emirati post, the only thing I noticed making a difference here was that the Sultan was depicted dressed in a European military uniform, in the huge, prominent portrait overlooking the room, unlike the Emirs whom I’ve only seen depicted in thawbs.
While waiting in the queue, there was a pretty intriguing and entertaining spectacle I and all the other travellers got to witness. Out of all the many Arab and Pakistani bus passengers and truck drivers, we were only two foreigners present. The other did rightfully earn all the attention…
It was a not-so-brilliant, blond European girl whom I could describe as either terribly ignorant or eccentrically ostentatious. She was traveling together with a shy, rich, brawny Arab boyfriend who was obviously quite embarrassed by his girlfriend’s appearance: short jeans and an open tracksuit top revealing her naked abdomen and rich bust in a bikini top… not quite the attire you expect someone to wear at a border crossing, and especially one in Arabia.
From Hatta border to Muscat
Deep dark night, we were free to drive into the Sultanate. We passed a few characteristics of Oman villages with illuminated minarets and bastioned white houses, and we were back in the loneliness of the desert.
At some point, we must have also stopped for a while in Sohar town but I didn’t notice anything: I fell hard asleep shortly after the border and woke up instinctively at the exact right time. We had entered Muscat and were passing by the closest point to the place I was headed for.
I asked the driver and he promptly pulled over to drop me off by the side of the highway. An open coffee shop stood just there. I fixed myself a nice breakfast and got to enjoy the beginning of a new day in this exotic land.
Accommodation and Activities in Oman
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