We wanted a short break, having visited almost all places in UAE during our (me, my wife and 2 kids) stay in Dubai for the last 7 years), the next affordable place is Oman. We have already visited Muscat couple of times, why not Salala? Called the travel agents in Dubai. For 3 nights it is around AED 3000 per person. For four of us (children may get 20% reduction) it may cost around AED 12000!!.
Why not try by road? Hold onā¦ it is around 1500 kms from Dubai to Salala, including the sight seeing tour nearby areas; we may have to travel 3500 kms. Fortunately I have a Mitsubishi Pajero 3.0 ltr(an SUV is not necessary, Saloon cars are more than enough to get to Salala), full tank petrol costs AED 110 , covers 500 Kms roughly. Assuming the hotel/apartment rates for 3 days is AED 750, Plus other expenses, it may cost AED 2500 for the entire trip!!.
It is a season (Kharif Festival) in Salala, Almost all hotels are full. Letās try if there are any apartments available? Googled(for non tech readers, “googled” means searching the internet by going to google.com and type the key words to search) for few hoursā¦got few, telephoned them, but no confirmed booking yet. However, it is understood that there are lot of apartments around so we may get one, so letās take a chance.
We checked with few of our relatives and friends if any of them are interested to join us. Most of them cannot make it on a short notice and doubt whether it is too long to drive. So it is important to have a road map with us because it is the first time we travel to Salala. Lets try if technology helps again..Garmin says “we’ll take you there”. I called their agents in Dubai. The Receptionist told they can probably rent it. But the sales people are busy, I have been asked to call back after 30 mts. Called again the sales guy was not very impressed that I am asking it for rent. He was not interested to continue the conversation too. Ok, lets get some maps. Tried wikimapia.org, the places are marked, but most of them are in Arabic ( I would love to speak, read and write in Arabic, tried several times, still trying but no luck yet) . Google again, mapquest.com is giving all road maps. But the browser is not very user friendly, cannot scroll like google maps or wiki mapia. Now the most important, collected the passport from the PRO (it is a norm in here to keep the passport with the company). I am not sure about the Oman whether the credit cards are accepted in all outlets as in Dubai so arranged for 100 OR (One Omani Riyal is about 10 UAE Dirham).
Filled the Petrol (AED 110).
OKā¦This is my technology blogā¦Let me put the technical aspects of this tripā¦ Olympus Digital Camera 4 MP (works from normal AA batteries), Archos Media Player cum External Hard Disk, battery lasts from 5 hours to 10 hours depending whether the LCD screen is on, Dell Dlink 510 Laptop, battery lasts only for 3 hours. You probably have noticed, I was skeptical about whether these batteries are going to last, so I used the DC to AC converter shown in the following picture (404š¤£)
Day 1 ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦.Kms 0000
We wanted to start as early as possible (4 am), but managed to start by 6:00 am !! Took the Hatta road.
The road to Hatta is interesting travel, a good relief from the concrete jungle we could see the Hajar Mountain range. We reached the hatta border by
7:15, there were no one at the check UAE check post, so we continued till the Oman Immigration office. Only a few people in the
queue so have to wait for 10-15 minutes. The counter staff told that I have to go back to the UAE check post because we did not
have the exit stamp on the passport. So we went back, this time again we were not stopped and thus continued our way to Oman
check post. One of the cops were following us and we were asked to stop because we have not done the customs check. He asked
to go back to the UAE check post again. After the customs check we came back to the Oman check post but now the queue was too
long because there was a bus full of travelers. The visa charges were AED 60 for 4 of us, We also paid AED 160 as Auto Insurance. It
took almost 2 1/2 hours to get out from the border mainly due to our own mistake by not properly checking out of UAE.
Oman roads
at the beginning were a two way road because of the road works and there were trucks crossing so were running less than 100 kms
per hour. There is lot of small places in between the road to Muscat. I have to pay attention to the vehicles taking U turns in the
middle of the highway. We reached Sohar at about 12:00 pm. <a title=”Rain at Nizwa”
href=”http://gotoyourlink.com/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=3″><img
src=”http://gotoyourlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/pc040131.thumbnail.JPG” alt=”Rain at Nizwa”
/></a><span style=”color: #0000ff;”>We continued towards Muscat there we were boards showing Salalah so
we make sure that we are going in the right direction. We reached almost in Muscat and took diversion to Nizwa. Here we stopped to
fill petrol (7.5 OR). There are small shops next to petrol station like the ones in Dubai. I did not have roaming enabled in my post
paid Etisalat phone so asked the counter staff if there is a mobile SIM card for visitors but they do not have such a package. I
purchased a phone card for OR 20. The way to Nizwa is also thru mountains. We stopped by the side of a mountain when we saw rain
drops. Children were much exited to see rains especially because they are out of the hot humid whether in Dubai.<a
title=”Rain at Nizwa” href=”http://gotoyourlink.com/wp-
content/uploads/2007/08/pc040131.JPG”></a>
<a title=”Falaj Daris Pool”
href=”http://gotoyourlink.com/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=4″><img
src=”http://gotoyourlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/pc050001.thumbnail.JPG” alt=”Falaj Daris Pool”
/></a></span><span style=”color: #0000ff;”>By 4:00 pm we reached Nizwa, we looked for hotel
apartments, found a few but finally selected falajdaris hotel. We all liked it, there was a cool breeze and nice swimming pool beside
our room. Then we went out to Nizwa City Centre. It is small city with a Fort as the centre of attraction. We could not find decent
restaurants so came back to the hotel. They have a restaurant serving continental food. We had noodles, rice and chicken. The food
was OK. No alcohol is served because it was a religious holiday <a title=”Sheep at Nizwa”
href=”http://gotoyourlink.com/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=6″><img
src=”http://gotoyourlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/sheep-nizwa.thumbnail.JPG” alt=”Sheep at
Nizwa” /></a> <script type=”text/javascript”>// <![CDATA[
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<span style=”color: #0000ff;”>Day 2 ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦. Kms 0592
We checked out, the bill
was Or 47 (OR 37 room rent, OR 8.8 dinner and 1.2 for morning coffee and milk for children) started 9am to Salala. The two way road
was bit of a surprise to us. I have to be very careful in driving especially during overtaking the slow trucks. Children forced me to
stop to see the sheep, I stopped the car by the side at the old unused road. They fed the sheep with a pack of bread. By the time we
started of we could also spot a single camel under the tree.The next couple of hours were bit boring, the road started showing
cracks, there was not much things of interest, no radio signals were available, so we started listening to the songs by plugging in the
Archos mp3 player with the FM transmitter.
During the long boring road to Haima children played cartoons & video on the
Archos and my wife played songs from the Laptop. I began realizing the use of technology; we were running out of battery in the
media player and the laptop. The car a/c adaptor was a ‘life saver’ when it comes to charging these devices. Another surprising thing,
we no longer see any petrol stations. This has caused concern to me since I have not filled petrol when started from Nizwa. We were
hopeful to see some places in between but we could not see anything but desert. I slowed down to 100 kms so that I donāt waste
petrol (technically speaking, not sure whether that will help). Finally we reached Haima station when it was just about to finish.
I had a
chat with the attendant and found no restaurants other than the one next to the station. The only available option was Chicken
Biriyani, It only cost us OR 1.8, and we enjoyed it.Haima Kms 0967 I stopped over a few minutes after Haima to take a short nap. We
had tea at Shaheen Al Khurait. Not to take any risk we filled the petrol for OR 7.0 before continuing.
We were stopped by military
personnel about 50 km before Salala. They just looked at the Driving License and Car registration and allowed us to continue. Slowly
we could see bit of greenery by the side of the road and could see small muddy hills appearing. The temperature started cooling
down to 30, Even though we have read about the whether in Salala, the mist, rain and wind came bit of a surprise to us. We were
stopped by the police as soon as we enter into Salala Mountains. My wife thought it was because of a bad whether and we canāt
continue. The cops asked for the passports. One cop sitting in front passed the passports to the back and asked questions, Name,
date of birth and place of birth and the cop at the back seat confirmed it. Children were so happy to see the cool whether and
jumped out of the car and dancing. It was a wonderful scene, a must see at the following link.
We continued our journey thru the Hajar mountains, the traffic was moving very slow due to lack of visibility. I switched on the fog
lamp. Many of the drivers put the hazard lights on, which did not make sense to me. What if there is a real danger and you stop the
car? If the hazard lights are always on how the drivers behind you are going to notice it. Unfortunately the tentative booking we
made at one of the hotels was not available. We found a chicken shawarma restaurant in the New Salala area and had dinner. The
waiter had recommended an apartment nearby. The rentals are bit too much OR 40 per night (because this is peak time otherwise it
is OR 15), however the apartment was big enough and furnished, even to cook the basic stuff. <script
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<span style=”color: #0000ff;”>Day 3ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦.Kms 1550
<a title=”AyenHumaran”
href=”http://gotoyourlink.com/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=1″><img
src=”http://gotoyourlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ayenhumaran.thumbnail.jpg”
alt=”AyenHumaran” /></a><span style=”font-family: Georgia;”><span style=”font-
family: Georgia;”><span style=”font-family: Georgia;”>We started for the sight seeing via the beach road,
towards Ayn Hamaran. The cool nice spring brought memories of Kerala(My native place). Also took a short trucking to the hill top. It
was very exciting for the children since they never see small fishes and frogs in Dubai! <span style=”font-family:
Georgia;”><span style=”font-family: Georgia;”><span style=”color: #0000ff;”><a
title=”Picnic Area” href=”There were few groups of people at the picnic spot nearby. We spend some time in there
enjoying the beautiful landscapes.Darbat has a waterfall. Children spent some time playing in water in the small river. We also drive to
the muddy interiors of the river side. At some point I was bit worried whether we are going to get stuck in the mudā¦see the video
below.On our way to Mirbat we saw lot of camels on the road. We did not have a tourist map (however managed one by the end of
our trip in Salala) so I am sure we missed many tourist places on the way to Mirbat. Mirbat is a small town with a nice beach. Before
we wind up the day we called one of my relatives (my wifeās Aunt) who stay in Salala.<span> </span>She voluntarily agreed
to come with us to show the places next day. In the evening we went for a walk in the new Salala area looking for Bank ATM. We
were also looking for to dine at a restaurant, and next to the Bank we found the famous Indian Vegetarian restaurant āUdupiā. That
was a relief for us as we were having junk food for the whole day<
Day 4 ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦Kms 1701
We visited Auntās house and then started off to Garziz area. This place reference in the Bible and
believed as Jobās Tomb (Nabi Ayub). There were lots of people visiting the Jobs tomb.Next was Mughsail on our plan.This is almost
near the Yemen border. We spotted the Frankincense trees.I managed to steal a branch of it (I have been told later that I was not
supposed to do so) The road to Yemen was interesting, we went to the peak to get a view from the top. But the visibility was poor
because of mist. There is a natural fountain in Mughsail. The sea water bursts up through the holes in the rock. Also the place had
beautiful scenery.One of the other places we missed during our journey to Mirbat was the Khor Rori, believed to be the palace of
Queen Sheba I was told. This is a world heritage. This was once a very busy port. It was evident as the land was cut next to the
sea.One another place we wanted to visit was the Anti-Gravity place Tawi Attar. Even thought it was too late, I wanted to experience
it. I put the car on neutral on a plain road and the car started moving and reached at the speed of 40 Kms/Hour.On our way back to
the hotel, there were lot of fruits and vegetable shops in the street. Aunty insisted to take some with us to Dubai. We picked up a
sack full of some banana, tender coconut and Mango.