After the dolphin watching tour, our driver told us he would take us to a viewpoint beyond Marina Bandar Al Rowdha.
We drove along the highwayDrove past the massive Consultative Assembly of Oman buildingWe drove uphillAnd then downhill to a resort complex at the edge of the hillThe waters are so blue (Took this on my phone)We drove back and kept stopping at every nice looking viewpoint. Down below was a very small beach, which seemed only accessible by boatThis was another. We walked towards the edge.Took a panoramaZoomed in on the majlisWe then drove back to Muscat cityWe were planning to visit the incense burner monumentBut when we got there… gates were locked. Shucks!So we drove to a viewpoint near PDO beach
PDO is the Petroleum Development Oman, the nation’s primary petroleum company. And the above is the company’s private beach — for their employees and their families. And if a private beach wasn’t enough of a company perk…
… PDO owns a golf court too! Ahhh, oil money.Besides that, this viewpoint is a popular picnic jauntA lot of luxury houses facing the seaNext, we drove down to Qurum beachIt’s near PDO beach but open to publicVery clear waterAfter that, it was off to the popular Al Shati beach road. A lot of coffee shops by the beach here.Al Shati beach in itself is okayThe Crowne Plaza hotelis the big white building at the edge of the beachThe next stop was the Royal Opera HouseUnfortunately, there wasn’t much we could see of the Opera HouseThis was just a lobby, we couldn’t enter the main hall… but we were told it’s impressive! 🙂Impressive interiorsDone with the day tour, we went to The Cave for lunch. Looks like something from The Flintstones doesn’t it?You have many choices for restaurants inside The Cave
Unfortunately when we entered, there was no reservation in our names. So we had to contact the travel agent to speak to the front desk and sort things out.
We settled for the buffetWhat I started withHad a bit of everythingWe had ordered some seafood as wellDesserts — yeah, I love my sweets!I can’t vouch for the menu but the food we had was pretty good and the interiors of The Cave are what really sells this place
After a sumptuous lunch, our driver decided to go for a smoke break and left before us. The rest of us washed up, took some photos of the restaurant and before making our way out. But when we tried to exit the restaurant, we were stopped by one of the staff. When we asked why, she said we have to “pay first”. Stunned, we were (again) perplexed by the lack of communication. We tried to convince her that this was an organized lunch courtesy of Oman Tourism but she called the manager instead. When the manager came, we told them this was being paid for by Oman Tourism and fortunately he knew deal and understood the situation. He then just asked one of us to sign the bill, which I did.
Our driver finally came back to the surprise that we were still inside. That’s him talking to the lady who stopped us from leaving. She later apologized.
Anyway, once we were ‘set free,’ we walked back to our car.
The Cave is situated atop a hill, and this was the view from parking lotPost lunch, we were dropped off at Lulu HypermarketI wasn’t planning on doing all my shopping now itself. So I just prepared a list of items I planned to buy, and their prices. Baklavah was one of those items!After Lulu, we hopped across to Grand MallWhich… wasn’t that impressive to be honest. Another reminder that Muscat cannot be compared to the likes of Bahrain and Dubai when it comes to malls and shopping..
Grand Mall did have a Carrefour and Daiso though. I made note of the prices at Carrefour as well, and realized Lulu Hypermarket was cheaper (in general), and then left after buying some stuff from Daiso. By sunset, we were picked up by the driver to be dropped back at the hotel.
Saravanaa Bhavan is in Muscat too!Dinner was at the Radisson Blu
This was our last night at the Radisson Blu. Tomorrow we would check out, visit the Grand Mosque and leave Muscat for Jebel Shams. Now I was really excited to see what more natural wonders and history Oman had to offer!
We all woke up early today as we had to be at Marina Bandar Al Rowdha by around 8am. First up, it was breakfast at the Radisson Blu hotel.
This was just the breads section. Also had fresh pistachios, almonds, cashews, walnuts and a variety of bread spreads.The cold meats and fruits counter. On the other side, there were other traditional breakfast dishes, puri-bhaji, omlette counter, corn flakes and a whole variety of hot & cold drinks on offer. All in all, a huge breakfast buffet!I started off with some croissants. Too bad we didn’t have enough time to sample everything in the buffet.After breakfast, we were picked up by our driver.We were on our way to Muscat City againThe marina looked lovely early in the morningI missed roundabouts of the Gulf 🙂We stopped at a petrol station to fill up and pick up some water bottles. Being in a GCC country, I just had to take a photo of how much petrol costs out here. Regular costs 0.114 riyals, which is Rs. 18 ($0.30/€0.25) per litre!It was a fairly long drive to Marina Bandar Al Rowdha
This past October, I won a chance to fly to Oman, courtesy of Oman Tourism. This wasn’t an invite per se, but a contest win. Indiblogger.in held a contest sponsored by Oman Tourism a few months back and my submission was chosen as one among the three best. Three bloggers won the chance to visit Oman on an all expenses paid guided tour of Oman.
The flight was, of course, by Oman Air.
My flight was early morning and Bangalore was cold and foggyBut it was all sunny and fine above the cloudsSoon after take off, we were served breakfast.After a nap, I woke up to the sight of OmanTwo things Oman is famous for: clear blue seas & rocky landscapesVery mountainous countryCan’t imagine life in the middle of all this… but there isWe were about to land at Muscat airport
