The kids and I had to do a “Visa Run” which basically meant that we had to exit Qatar and re-enter. Andrew has his QID (Qatar ID = Residency card) which means that he could now sponsor us on a family visa as opposed to the holiday visa we currently held.

We decided to make a family vacay out of it, I mean Obvi! Why not. The school was even going to pay for the kids and my flight plus one night in a hotel (and the transfer to and from). It was a no brainer that we decided to stay for 2 nights and make the most of our time in a new country.

We flew out on Thursday October 10th at night. Oman is an hour ahead, so by the time we landed, got our visa’s, went through customs and security it was pretty late. The kids were whiny AF and we couldn’t wait to get them to the hotel so we could all just crash.

Speaking of hotels!! I’ve become a master at scouting out a deal! The school has booked us into a pretty basic hotel for 2 nights. I went online and saw the price and convinced Andrew to get the school to cancel the one they booked and to compensate us for the one night. I turned to google and found a site that I will check out from now on first. My go to is usually Expedia.ca but don’t be fooled by the little gnome! I was able to score a 4 star hotel with a 9.2/10 rating on booking.com for a fraction of the price of expedia. The room we booked for so low was a one bedroom suite with a kitchenette for wheelchair access. So the counters were lower, there was a stand up shower with an option to unfold a chair to sit on and some extra handles near the toilet. Totally worth the money saved! We only ended up paying less than $75 out of pocket for that extra night (plus the cost of Andrew’s flight) #worthit. The hotel room didn’t have an extra bed (there was a couch but it didn’t pull out) so we had HAttie-Mae sleep in the king size bed with us and jimmy rigged a bed for Holden out of 2 winged chairs pushed together. I really hope I grabbed a photo, I will post it if I did. No complaints!

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We slept in the next morning. By slept in, I mean in standards of having a 6 and 3 year old. Ok… I was taking in to consideration the time change as well so it was 8:30 HA! For sharing a bed and a makeshift chair bed… I’d say it was pretty successful.

There was a breakfast buffet option to add on to our hotel package at $28 per person (per day) through booking.com. Come on, you should know me better than that! I wasn’t about to pay over $100 for the 4 of us to eat breakfast PER DAY! I knew there was plenty of places to eat around the hotel so I decided we should wing it. Being Friday, the holy day in any Muslim country I forgot about the fact that most businesses don’t open until 1pm after Friday prayer. Its ok though, that buffet breakfast I mentioned was FREE for kids and closer to $25 per person. We happily paid $50 both mornings for the 4 of us to eat. It was a really great buffet. Andrew and I got a french press of coffee to share the first morning and latte’s the next. The kids were happy little beings with their fancy fruit assortment and I concocted them a blend of fresh pressed juices with pineapple and carrot.

Instead of planning the entire weekend, I took mental notes of what we wanted to do. I should say, of what I thought the kids would enjoy. I had read on Trip Advisor that there was a natural park very close to the hotel. We decided to save the taxi riyals and walk there. In retrospect, we should never have walked because we didn’t actually reach our destination. It was a hot walk in the blaring sun, no less than 35 degrees Celsius with the humidity. Our fingers blew up to tiny little sausages and Holden’s head looked as though he had been swimming so I made the call on turning around and heading back to the hotel. #youliveyoulearn

The rest of our day played out perfectly though and we got some extra steps in, so it was completely fine. We raced for water and our swim suits and decided to check out the roof top pool. What a view! Photos will never do it justice, I hope I remember that view forever. It wasn’t typical over looking the ocean, but it showcased the Omani landscape perfectly. White flat roofed houses in the valley with rocky mountains and the ocean off in the distance. Oman is a beautiful country. It reminded me a little of the Okanagan with the mountains and the water. Swimming was a huge success. Hattie-Mae is a fish in the water and Holden swam independently with a cool blow up vest I had bought for him. We were happy as clams!

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The ocean was screaming my name. If you know me, you know I love to swim and I love the ocean with my whole heart. My soul feels at home in the ocean. If I’m near an ocean and can’t go swimming (like the frigid pacific in Vancouver) I get pretty bummed out.

Al Qurm Beach

Al Qurm beach in Muscat did not disappoint. It wasn’t picture perfect with clear water mostly because it was very shallow BUT it was perfect for the kids. The one thing I did plan was to go to the beach at low tide, thanks to my trusty friend Trip Advisor. It was perfect because there were tide pools for Holden to swim and play in and Hattie just L O V E D the shallow ocean. I was confident that she would love it. It took a while, but once she saw how happy I was swimming and playing in the waves, she became more confident and swam on her own. The 2 of us walked out pretty far and dove into some mellow waves that she thought were quite big. There was no rip current, I felt at peace with her swimming without any device but I made sure to keep my eyes on her at all times or hang onto her when I was floating on my back because I know the ocean can be nasty at times. I didn’t want to take a chance. We spent a bit of time collecting sea shells and gems, we even found a hermit crab living in a big snail shell. I had almost stepped on a dead manta ray the first time I ran into the ocean, so Andrew brought it to shore to inspect. It was pretty neat. There were a lot of local families playing on the sand and in the tide pools. Overall, it was a memorable experience. My heart was full when Hattie-Mae whispered in my ear that it was the best day of her life. Experiences like that, I hope will be ingrained in her memory forever. We took a taxi back to the hotel so we could change and get ready for the souq. We were all tired, but mustered up the energy to explore some more.

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Muttrah Souq

Exciting and beautiful as the country. Located along the opposite side of the road from the waterfront. 2 large cruise ships parked in the harbour actually belonged to the Sultan of Oman. They were his private yachts! There was shops lined up in a similar fashion to Souq Wakif in Doha, yet it felt different. We grabbed a karak and headed in. Our first stop was a vendor filled with beautiful silk rugs and wall hangings. So many different designs and colors to choose from. Andrew was set on getting one, so we bartered with the shop owner. We settled on a hand sewn silk rug underlined with linen. Approx 24×36″ with cotton tassels. It now sits hung over our bed with its floral design of neutral colors and 2 tones of green. I will post a photo below for reference.

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The kids were starving and whining, so we kind of just sat down at the first place that caught our eye. right out front of the board walk with big fans pointed at our table to cool us off. We had chicken shawarma, chicken tikka and the kids had chicken shawarma wraps with fries and a mango “milkshake” (fresh mango blended with milk and ice) The friendly server brought us some delicious dates to snack on while we waited, because he noticed the kids were getting hangry.

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We walked around some more. Bought some local incense with a small clay burner, elephant pants and Oman t-shirts for the kids and called it a night because I had booked something special in the morning for us.

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Dolphin Tour

I splurged. I have fond memories from when I was a kid in Florida and my parents took me deep sea fishing. So I booked us an early morning dolphin tour. The 4 of us were down at that breakfast buffet at 6:30am so we could be out front for 7:15 pick up. No one was grumpy despite waking up so early, we were all excited. We were picked up a little later than expected and drove to the harbour. The drive alone was stunning. swerving up hills through rocky mountains and palm trees, down into the valley where the ocean was. The harbour smelled RANK. Like rotting dead fish. The entire harbour was covered with floating dead fish. A mystery, we were told the same thing happened 6 years prior. Something to do with the oxygen levels. We even saw 2 blasted, puffed out puffer fish floating on top. It was wild. We couldn’t wait to get on that boat away from the stink!

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Our guide picked us up on the dock and we hopped into the large fibreglass boat. It had 2 300hp Yamaha motors on the back. It cut through the ocean smoothly leaving the rotten stench behind. There were only 3 others on the tour with us. Hattie and I rode in the front bow while Holden and Andrew stayed back. Soon enough we were surrounded by other tour guided boats and pods of wild dolphins jumping and migrating through the water. The kids were stoked! Hattie was squealing with delight as we rode around find more pods. It was pretty neat seeing so many wild dolphins at once!

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After 45 minutes, our guide asked us if we’d like to continue chasing pods or if we wanted to take the scenic coastal route home. We opted for the second and I am so glad we did! We saw the most beautiful, majestic sandstone rock formations on the edge of the water. Tiny fishing villages were tucked into the foot of the rocky mountains and the most crystal clear, turquoise water. We even got to drive under a sandstone rock tunnel and idle for a family photo. We saw jellyfish in the water that Hattie pointed out. It was so much fun!

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We were brought back to the dock and guided back to our hotel. We gathered our things and headed to the airport. The Muscat airport is modern and very nice. Its also got some really good curries if you’re not into fast food like McDonalds and KFC which is surprisingly everywhere in both Doha and Muscat! Oman carries a special place in our hearts and the kids keep asking when we will be back.

I would love to go back and stay in a fisherman village.

xo, Kerry-Lee