Maggie and I have wanted to travel to Oman for quite a while. It always seemed kind of exotic, mystical, a bit wild and definitely not just around the corner unless you happen to live in some place like Qatar (which we do at the moment). Now that we have "Been There" and "Done That" we can say that Oman always seemed that way because Oman is that way.

To plan our trip we took an expat friend of ours recommendation (thanks A!.) to go over to Oman Air and have a travel agent book the flight and room to get a good deal. They took care of the details and helped up plan the trip, departing the 13th and returning the 17th. They did have some difficulty in get a <confirmed> car rental and the agent warned us in advance that due to problems with, "the mafia of laborers there, they may not confirm" and this was the case-We still got a car no problem without reserving but in the future we will call the agent direct.

19:30 - Maggie and I had a car arranged at the last minute but he was not showing so we threw everything in the Landrover, said goodbye to Chris our neighbor who would be taking care of Chat Noir, Tirikee and Kareela in our absence, and we were off the Doha International Airport :-)

19:45 - We completed parking, check-in (Doha is not large!) and were wandering around duty free, buying a few Omani Riyals for the taxi at the other end etc.

**It must be noted that Anton had gotten bitten by some form of rather nasty stomach virus, by eating at a local hotel buffet the day before-The virus stayed around for the next 12 days and took 2 trips to the emergency room in Doha to get rid of. It was rather nasty and resulted in us having to stop every hour or two on average plus about thirty minutes after every meal. While it was pretty bad, we did not let it ruin our vacation and had a great time despite it. Never drank so much water in my life as those 12 days...

21:00 Our 20:45 flight departed. The plan is a SMALL turbo prop, one of those ATRs that had a spate of crashes a few years back in the US but it was the "42" model and not the "70" which I think was the problem plane. In any case, the pilot flew well and made up lost time. Arriving in Muscat at night was nice.

Customs and Immigration-As we were coming from a friendly GCC country and we both have residency there, our process was a bit different from those coming from Europe or the US. You should definitely call the local Omani embassy, and be patient. Try to get a solid answer on what you need and get a visa in advance if possible. It will save time and confusion later. For those in the GCC with residency, as an expatriate ****You must ensure you get proper permission to exit from your sponsor, including if both husband and wife have sponsorship. We witnessed a poor woman who went to Oman from Doha without <her> sponsors exit permission. She assumed she could get through by leaving as a dependent of her husband. The Omani border police picked this up in the computer and she was still being held when we left... Whether you have a permanent exit visa or a single, make sure you follow the procedures-The Omanis are computerized and will see this in there system if there is a discrepancy. Don't Understand, Click Here We filled out our immigration cards for GCC Residents (which looked more confusing than the regular ones) and went to the immigration counter. The officer punched in our data VERY quickly and we were off (after less than a minute!)

This was very refreshing so we went off, collected our luggage and my scuba diving gear and we grabbed a cab at the exit to the hotel ignoring the yells for taxi coming form people all over the place. After about 20 minutes, which had us driving through the North side of Muscat, and by the Grand Mosque, the driver deposited us at the hotel, we walked in and went to check in. We were greeted with, "Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. Kaska, did you have a pleasant flight from Doha? " This high level of service continued throughout our stay! We then went up and went to bed! We had an early start planned and it was just after midnight!