Days 70-71 (May 15 - 16, 2013): Musandam, Oman

The Quick Facts:

* Took an overnight trip to Oman to see the mountains, stay at a hotel on the sea, and enjoy a boat trip through a 17km fjord
* It’s a ~5 hour drive from Dubai to Khasab (the town in Musandam), 3 hours if your driver does Mach 2 like ours did (it seems everyone in this part of the middle east views their current car journey as their opportunity to be discovered as the next great Formula 1 driver, as they generally travel no slower than 100km/hour)
* Booked our tour with Khasab Travel and Tours
* Stayed at the Golden Tulip, which is a beautiful hotel on the coast of the Persian Gulf (only 55km from Iran, oh yeah!); this is really the only hotel in the area, and you should stay here if you’re ever there as it becomes your only food option; there are other hotels being built, which should come as no surprise

The Good:

* The Musandam area in Oman is beautiful, set on the banks of the Persian Gulf and surrounded by mountains that afford wonderful views as well as a long fjord that we got to travel and swim in
* Khasab Travel and Tours, our tour operator, was wonderful, particularly our local tour guides in Oman

The Bad:

* The speed at which we hurtled through the desert in the van was a bit hair-raising, but hey, we survived!

As part of our visit in the Middle East, we decided to do an overnight trip to Oman, which is a ~3 hour (again, only if you travel close to the speed of light…in a van) drive from Dubai.  Of course, this meant another land border crossing and with it the obligatory (and prohibited) photo of the border point:

 

Once in Oman, we took a “land safari” tour through the mountains.  Our first stop was to view a fjord created by the Indian Ocean:

 

The next (and final) part of the journey was to the top of the tallest mountain in the region, part of the Al Hajar mountain range, approximately 2000 meters high.  On our way up, we got to see two villages, one of which is able to collect enough rain water to have grassy fields from which they can grow some crops and raise livestock:

 

And here we are at the top of the mountain (or as high as we’re allowed, as the top is used for military observation purposes).  This is our tour guide and driver:

 

 

We went up to the 1600 meter level, where there are fish fossils preserved in the rocks.  The mountains, as you might expect, used to be under water.  Pretty cool, eh?

 

Our hotel, the Golden Tulip, was set right on the water.  This was our view from our balcony.  Not bad.

 

And our second day was a day-long boat ride into the longest fjord in the area, 17km long.  It was a beautiful, relaxing trip.  In addition to lunch, we got to swim/snorkel twice.  Here are some pictures, including Carrie and me jumping into the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out these rocks, looks like they were stacked on top of each other and then got knocked over.

 

And finally, during the trip we were visited by some dolphins (including a mom and her baby) who decided to ride with us for a while.  Hopefully the video below works...

All in all, a wonderful trip to Oman and highly recommended if you’re ever in the area!

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