For my Eid break, I went camping in Oman. This was my first visit to Oman even though it is quite close. I, of course, only saw a relatively small part of the country but what I saw I really liked so I’m sure I’ll be back again. This post will be relatively brief as I’m really not feeling like writing a lot but I want to write something before I forget.
I found that Oman is in many respects very different from the UAE. There is so much more history in Oman; there are lots of ruins and old buildings. There are plenty of nice places there but they aren’t insanely extravagant as they sometimes are here. Oman has many mountains and consequently has a lot of great places to hike. This trip was with a hiking group I belong to so we did a fair amount of hiking. In the rural parts of Oman there are many, many more goats than people! Most of the people in the areas I visited (which included Jebel Shams, Tanuf, Nizwa, Fanja, and Sohar) are actually Omani which is quite the opposite of most parts of the UAE and the Omani people were incredibly friendly and helpful. Oman appears to have few tourists and most of the few tourists seem to come from Abu Dhabi.
Jebel Shams
Tanuf ruins
A small village
Fanja
A mosque in Sohar
Two of the three nights were definitely somewhat hotter than ideal for camping (which, naturally, is expected at this time of year) but the other night actually almost felt cold as we were at relatively high altitude near Jebel Shams.
Amanda NOT in Abu Dhabi 