Muscat

Visited: Jan 10, 2024

Stepping off a plane at around 1:00am having arrived from Abu Dhabi (a trip you can read about here if you wish) we didn't know what to expect of this new land, the airport was very modern and pretty but the check-in process was a little longer than we are used to. Most passport check in's last at most a couple of minutes, yet here we stood speaking to the guy checking us in for at least 30 minutes. He wanted to know every last detail about why we were there, what our business was and why we were only in the city for such a short amount of time.

He was very friendly though and offered us his phone number as a tour guide, but he was talking about money exchanging hands to do so which of course is fine, but when we asked for his rates he said it was up to us, we don't usually use tour guides and given that we didn't know much about him we wasn't sure if he was going to offer us a good price for a personal tour or rip us off, it's hard to say so we decided not to take him up on his offer...although looking back we wished we did as the knowledge of a local would have been very, very useful and something we will look to do when we visit next time!

Once we got through check-in we headed to the nearest SIM card provider in the airport called Ooredoo and grabbed an Omani SIM card so we would have internet during our stay. The SIM card guy was really cool too and we got nothing but positive vibes from the locals thus far!

Once we had a SIM we headed to the bus station, realising they didn't take card payments we withdrew 5 Omani Rials (or OMR as they are known which is around £10/€9.50/$11 as of writing this). We headed to the bus station and started asking around enquiring if anyone knew if a bus went to the location of a nearby restaurant....why we were looking for this restaurant will become apparent shortly.

Anyways, in true fashion Bobby started speaking to a bunch of people nearby and made new friends with some Indians who were working in Oman as contractors who were waiting for a bus home after a long day at work. There was an obvious language gap but they made an effort to help when he asked which bus we needed to take to our apartment.

Ahh yes, now let's get onto the apartment as that's a story within itself!

So we booked an apartment in Muscat through AirBnb, however, the day before we were due to fly to Oman the original apartment we had booked got changed as it had leakage issues with pipes, the apartment we were moved into was an upgrade too which was cool so we had no issues with that!

Bear in mind however, that in order to visit Oman without the need for a visa you need two things, a place to stay and travel insurance which we had sorted in advance and so could stay in the country for 14 days visa free, pretty cool of the Omani government to set this up and was much appreciated and allowed us to make the brief visit before we left the middle east! The issue was however that the apartment location that he provided us was actually a restaurant so this was ringing alarm bells for us already (see told you that us looking for a restaurant would make sense soon! 🙂)

We asked around and showed the people at the bus stop where we were staying, admittedly this was area was NOT a usual area where tourists would stay and to add to the confusion the location for our apartment was at a restaurant,when we was asking people kept assuming that we had the wrong place and we were starting to doubt it too, so to say people who we were asking where the bus was to this particular place were confused would be an understatement!

Eventually we found a bus driver and asked him if he knew if any of the busses in service (baring in mind it was like 2:00am at this point) would be going near this restaurant/place we were staying and he confirmed that he would be going near it and we would just need to take a 15 minute walk there from one of the bus stops he would be stopping at, we were very happy with this and so we paid our 1 OMR each (£2/€2.50/$3) and got on the bus, by this point I think a lot of people were starting to wonder who these strange foreigners were and what our business was in the country which we can't say we would have blamed them as we were just as confused about the whole situation as everyone else was! 😁

Once everyone was on, the driver got off the bus and we noticed he was looking over at us whilst he was talking to a bunch of guys who were also looking over...now to be fair not many tourists were using the busses and they certainly wouldn't have been staying in the neighbourhood we were in, not to mention it was the location of a restaurant, not a hotel or apartment. So this must have been raising some eyebrows, we thought nothing more of it though and eventually he got back on the bus and started driving.

At this point it was pitch black outside but we saw glimmers of lights, shapes of buildings and slight outlines of mountains off into the distance, we were happy to be in a new country and excited to be exploring a new part of the middle east which we were hoping would be more traditional in comparison to the UAE where we had been staying prior.

However, after around 10 minutes into our bus ride the bus abruptly stopped and a guy got on and started checking everyone's tickets, we didn't know this was protocol and had scrunched up our ticket but managed to bring it back...strangely enough he went passed us and checked everyone's tickets before coming back round and stopping at us and asking us quite a lot of questions about where we were staying and our business in the country etc.

We did our best to answer and explain about the AirBnb situation and the fact it had been changed at the last minute to a different apartment which was located in the same place as this restaurant, but he was understandably suspicious.

He proclaimed that he was going to get off, drive to the next stop and we were to get off the bus and get in his car. At this point we were very, very scared as we didn't know this man, didn't know his intentions and didn't know if he was law enforcement or just some random guy making us get into his car, however, we were in a foreign country and knew nothing about the traditions, customs, or the people of Oman and not wanting to upset anyone we did our best to stay calm and compliant with this whole situation.

We got to the next stop and were asked to leave by the bus driver and at the stop found the guy who had been checking tickets waiting there for us, he asked Bobby to step into his car and when Bobby protested and asked why Tammy couldn't come too he was like "oh she's with you, ok she can come too" what a relief as he wouldn't have been going anywhere without her being is wife and all!

Once in the car he started driving and asking us a LOT of questions about our apartment, our reasons for visiting and what we were planning to do in Oman, looking back he must have been an undercover officer who had been alerted by the bus driver so we compiled and did our best to explain as he drove us around occasionally looking though his back mirror at us accusingly, from this point we'll just assume he was an officer so I'll refer to him as such from this point on too as no random civilian would have been this inquisitive.

We produced evidence of our stay and the contact of the apartment owner, the officer called the apartment owner who was not willing to tell him anything for "security reasons" he passed the phone to Bobby and again the apartment owner wasn't being helpful, the officer got fed up and grabbed the phone back off Bobby and told him we would be dealing with this at the apartment itself.

The officer at least now seemed satisfied that we had a legit place to stay but just needed to figure out where it was, and so he summoned a nearby taxi driver, instructed us to pay him 2 OMR (£4/€4.50/$5) and the taxi driver would take us to the location of our apartment.

We arrived at the apartment location but could still not find how to get into the apartment, the taxi driver called the apartment owner who would not tell him anything either, at this point we started to worry that we had been scammed and that this place didn't even exist and that we had been conned, we got even more worried when the taxi driver and officer both told us they were unfamiliar with what AirBnb was too, did it even actually exist in Oman, so many questions and so much worry, not a good start to our first few hours in Oman at all!

The taxi driver took his phone call with the apartment owner outside, put him on loudspeaker and asked a nearby crowd of people who were gathered outside to ask the owner what on earth was going on! Tammy was getting scared by all of this understandably and started thinking we were going to get arrested or detained, but all Bobby could think about is wow, I wish I was rolling the camera for all of this! The driver was trying to get the apartment owner to explain how to get into the apartment but he still remained tight lipped.

The taxi driver, understandably frustrated at this point came back into the car and asked Bobby to talk to the guy again, Bobby asked him why he was not giving information and yet again he gave him nothing, Bobby then asked if he was scamming us and that we had booked through him and he had emailed us earlier, he asked for Bobby's name and email address and he gave him the details...once he knew we were the people who had booked the apartment he was happy to tell the driver where it was.

Turns out it was above this restaurant and could be accessed by a door on the side of the building, we used the keycode and got in, the first step was completed! The taxi driver accompanied us to make sure the place was still legit just incase, we went up a rather dubious looking elevator and got to the floor, we tried the lockbox and the code didn' work! Now we were worrying again and didn't know what to do, Tammy gave the email one last read and realised that we had been looking at the lockbox code for the old apartment, not this new one! We tried it and it worked to our absolute relief!

We paid the driver the 2 OMR plus a 1 OMR tip (to be honest it was the last 3 OMR we had and he had earned it) he was taken aback by our offer for the tip and initially refused, but we insisted saying we may have never found this place without him, and so he departed and we entered the apartment which took so much hassle to find and get into!

Now it must be said, we were very, very impressed by the apartment, it was beautiful and was HUGE! It had 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, aircon in every room and had a traditional, yet homely vibe.

Bobby called the apartment owner to ask why he had been so evasive and that his evasiveness could have caused us some big problems and he seemed genuinely sorry for the confusion but insisted that security needed to come first which of course is understandable too so all was forgiven!

However, by this point we were so emotionally exhausted that we pretty much just went to sleep, we found it hard to settle initially as we were still shaken up by the events that had just occurred, but exhaustion took over and we fell to sleep in what was probably the biggest bed we have ever slept in, so it was all worth it in the end!

We woke up the following morning at around 10:30am and got showered, refreshed and started wondering what to do next, we settled on exploring the area we were staying in as we doubted many non-native travel vloggers would be staying in such an obscure, non-touristy area.

And so we set off and explored our surroundings, camera in hand. However, you may appreciate the fact that we were still very much on edge and didn't know the customs of the country and had a misunderstanding that it was strict and our vlogging efforts would not be welcome, despite these reservations we captured our moments going into some shops and exploring the local area and were taken aback by how friendly and kind everyone was!

We had a great time and caught content for what has now become one of our most popular videos and have received hundreds of kind messages from people in Muscat with helpful advice and words of encouragement for our attempts at learning some Arabic, we then decided to jump in an OTaxi and head to the Muttrah Souk!

OTaxi by the way is Oman's version of Uber, it is super reliable, affordable and in our opinion the best way to get around the city! Our driver arrived and we filmed some of the incredible views along the way, he was so friendly and helpful and this really helped us calm down a lot more with our feelings of worry about vlogging, we soon realised that this had perhaps all been down to a misunderstanding so we started vlogging with more confidence and really enjoying ourselves!

We arrived and Bobby and the driver had been discussing life in Oman, England and of course football where Bobby showed his appreciation for the wonderful Ali Al Habsi, one of the best goalkeepers to come from the Middle East and a native of Muscat who had played in the Premier League in England and was an absolutely superb and respected goalkeeper back where we came from!

Once in the Muttrah Souk we realised just how touristy it all was! We were surprised and even more surprised to realise that we were around 40 minutes in a car away from it all, so we were truly off the beaten trail!

The area was astounding, we had never experienced ANYTHING like it, we visited the spice markets and were taken aback by how expensive everything was here in comparison to where we were staying! A traditional hat cost around £40 but we could have got one for probably £5 where we were staying!! We also went up the grand fort and saw the panoramic views of the city, there were some very, very rude tourists at the top who were being particularly bothersome, so we made our way back down and grabbed a fresh coconut drink and set off to find some camel meat and halwa which is a local sweet...

However, it got blindingly hot and we noticed everyone was going indoors and closing up their shops, we knew it was time to go and so we booked a taxi back to our apartment and rested for a few hours.

When it finally started cooling down we headed down into the shops to grab some water as we were not able to drink from the tap based upon the information we had read online, we had also found some cockroaches in our apartment so was dubious about the cleanliness standards too so decided against risking it to be on the safe side!

We also brought some bakhoor which are shavings of perfumed wood which you burn to add a nice smell to a room, we brought this alongside a traditional burner to burn it in, we also brought some charcoal disks but soon realised we wouldn't be able to take them on the plane with us soo had to get rid of them and buy some once we had got back to the UK.

Once we were stocked up we dropped it all off at the apartment, chilled some more and then made our way over to a restaurant which specialised in camel meat, we had heard so much about it that we wanted to try it for ourselves, it was around a 30 minute walk across some rather busy roads, but we got there and the meal was sublime!

However, when it came to paying we had a BIG BIG problem...Tammy had left the bank cards at the apartment! Now this wasn't usually a problem in European countries, but in Oman and the Middle East our bank really didn't like us spending money there and kept trying to block our card everytime we wanted to make a payment by contactless, we ended up using the card and pin as this would usually not trigger off the system which would attempt to block off our card, having called the bank earlier that day to explain we didn't think it would be a problem, and besides we had already eaten the meal before we had realised so it was a little too late now!

So we went to the till and hoped for the best and unfortunately for us the worst thing happened, the card declined and all payments got blocked! So here we were stood in front of this guy having eaten this meal and with the amount of issues we had already had we didn't want anymore, so we explained that there was an issue without bank and that we would try to resolve it...but guess what...Tammy's phone was dying and Bobby's had been robbed in Athens, thankfully the guy behind the counter had a charger and so we rang her bank...we were kept on hold for around 30 minutes and passed around departments, Bobby got to know the patient man behind the counter and it turned out he was from Bangladesh, his English was limited so conversations were difficult, but they smiled and enjoyed talking football together, truly the universal language!

At some point the bank actually hung up on us (by mistake of course) all we could do was apologise and the man kindly said not to worry about paying and we could leave, but we were determined to pay our way, this honest kind man had been so patient, but all we had was 1OMR on us in change and the meal was 3 OMR (which is only £6/€5.50/$7 so was a bargain for the amount of food we had too!). Eventually we got through to the bank, implored them to unblock the card and were told to wait for 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes felt like hours as we had a flight to catch in a matter of hours and wanted to get it sorted and do the right thing!

Thankfully we swiped our contactless and it worked! We gave the man the last 1 OMR we had too as a thank you for his patience and kindness to us. We started making the 30 minute walk back to the apartment and grabbed a meal from the restaurant where we were staying, which seemed logical given that it had been the centre of all of our issues earlier on! The meal was great and we were truly ready for a long trip home, we got back to the apartment, packed up and booked one last OTaxi back to the airport where we went through a very long, but less stressful checkout process (it was long due to the queues) and then enjoyed an Arabic coffee as we waited for our Wizz Air flight back to Abu Dhabi which was now delayed by over 3 hours at this point, in fact we didn't get back to our airport accommodation in Abu Dhabi until around 6:00am with check-in for the flight back to Athens being at 11:00am so we didn't have very long to recover after all of this either, a very brutal, but memorable journey for sure!

The part that surprises many is that Oman is actually now one of our favourite countries in the world despite all of the bad things that had happened along the way, when we actually thought about it that undercover police officer was just trying to help us, all the questions we kept getting about our business/purpose in the country were for our safety and the apartment owner being diligent was for our safety too. The people were some of the kindest people we have ever met on our travels, the culture, food and architecture was incredible and the land has a vibe that no other place has been able to capture, Oman will forever remain a special place in our hearts as it is also the first place we visited which truly embraced us as vloggers and a large portion of our YouTube community are the people of Oman and we will always love and respect them as brothers and sisters and cannot wait to return one day.

Had we known this country would have left such an impression on us we would have stayed much longer, but there is always the future and you can be sure we will return better prepared, staying longer and making use of the knowledge of the locals to learn more about this wonderful country...

And to think we did ALL OF THAT in ONE DAY!! We still can't believe it when we actually think about it!

Thanks for reading this one, it's one of the longer ones but is perhaps our favourite story from TeamMcGrath so far, so we wanted to share each and every detail of it for you, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we do telling it! 🙂❤️🇴🇲