Woke up the next morning to another blue sky over Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and partook in breakfast on the Gold Floor lounge.
Gold Floor Breakfast
We had an evening flight to Muscat but needed to decide how to best use our last day in the capital city. Originally I had planned to visit the falcon hospital, but neither of us were enthralled by that idea day of. That left us with three options: mostly incomplete Saadiyat Island; the F1 track and waterpark on Yas Island; or environmentally-friendly Masdar City. All three had their pros and cons, but we ultimately decided seeing Saadiyat Island best fit our interests. I’m not really the waterpark type and I wasn’t so sure Masdar City actually offered anything of value besides walking around some Jetsonian city streets. We ended up being happy with our decision; but who knows what we missed out on. With a destination set, we hailed a taxi and headed toward Abu Dhabi’s mega-cultural development.
Abu Dhabi Investment Council Headquarters
In what I suspect is an attempt to boost Abu Dhabi’s tourism and compete with the allure of Dubai, Saadiyat Island will be a hub of commercial, residential and most importantly cultural facilities. Currently a few hotels and resorts exist along with a museum showcasing the future of the island, but also serving as a sales pitch to invest. Eventually the highlights will be the Zayed National Museum, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Just after passing Zayed Port you begin to see never-ending construction of the island’s future destinations. Our driver dropped us off in between the Manarat al Saadiyat and the UAE Pavilion. With no taxi queue or other facilities in site, we began to wonder if we had made the right decision.
Construction of the Louvre Abu Dhabi
The UAE pavilion was originally built in Shanghai for the 2010 World Expo and was relocated to its current home on Saadiyat Island to house special exhibits and events. Its design represents two sand dunes in its sun baked golden color. It was not currently open to the public.
Front of the UAE Pavilion
UAE Pavilion
Side of UAE Pavilion
Across the street was Manarat al Saadiyat, literally ‘Palace of Enlightenment.’ Another multipurpose exhibition venue, it is currently showcasing the master development plan of the island along with a small sample of the works to eventually be housed in the Guggenheim Museum down the street.
Manarat al Saadiyat
Entrance to Manarat al Saadiyat; Today will end?
Façade of Manarat al Saadiyat
Exhibit 1: Saadiyat sales pitch
Master plan of the island; Guggenheim lower left, Lourve lower right, Zayed National Museum upper middle
Multimedia experience
Zayed National Museum model
Bus crash
Exhibit 2: works bound for the future Guggenheim Museum
iPod Touch audio/visual tour
Gallery floor
Arabic shadows
One of the last displays was a small enclosed room with mirror covered walls and LED lights dangling from the ceiling. The unique feature was the small meandering path from one side to the other with water on each side. While the lights are bright, the reflectivity of the mirrors and water makes it impossible to see. Let just say even with the guidance of the staff there was a splashdown just after I exited. They admitted to this being a daily occurrence with one patron even grasping for the suspended lights on their way down and causing some damage before their eventual bath.
Light up slip and slide
Neat exhibits and I suspect after they stop postponing the expected completion dates the island will really put Abu Dhabi on the map culturally. As of now one of the big three museums is expected to open each year until 2017; with the surrounding developments by 2020. If that comes to fruition is anyone’s guess. We luckily found (i.e., accidently stole from someone queuing in the AC of the museum) a taxi and headed back to Bab al Bahr to pack our belongings and have a snack in the lounge.
Afternoon tea
With a few hours to kill we walked around the grounds of the property and wandered over toward ‘The SOUK’ on the property of the Shangri-La.
Bab al Bahr entrance
Bab al Bahr
Hide and go seek with Sheikh Zayed Mosque
Venice of Abu Dhabi; Shangri-La
Our hotel had suggested we experience The SOUK, but clearly they didn’t understand our interests. It was nothing more than an empty high-end shopping mall.
The SOUK
With our fragrance shopping done (or so we thought) for the trip we decided why not enjoy one last over-indulgence of canapés in the lounge before heading to the airport to eat again at the Al Dhabi lounge.
Gold floor Canapés
Sushi
Hot selections
Playing whack-a-mole on the taxi ride to AUH
Farewell UAE for a few days
Security just to access the check-in desks was a short line (~10 people) but still somehow managed to take 30 minutes for some unknown reason. The moment we got through, they opened up about 5 other lines. Check-in for BA73, a 5th freedom tag flight from AUH to MCT, was a breeze and we were in the Al Dhabi lounge in no time.
Al Dhabi buffet; same lounge as earlier in my trip
Neither of us had any interest in eating any more so just used the down time to make a few calls and eventually headed toward the gate which was over packed with a flight to India.
Bus gate!
Boarding BA73; 777-200
BA flight 73
Abu Dhabi, UAE (AUH) to Muscat, Oman (MCT)
Depart 21:30, Arrive 22:50, Time 1:20
Boeing 777-200, Seat 31JK
The flight was maybe 50% full, with most passengers connecting from London, and the passenger in our set of three seats decided to find an empty seat elsewhere leaving us an open middle. The aircraft seemed very new (for a 20 year old bird) and the IFE had a great display for economy; although one hour isn’t enough to really take advantage. The service was nearly non-existent with pre-poured cups of water offered about mid flight. Normally about a 45-minute journey, we spent 80 minutes in the air due to ATC.
Post departure beverages
Finally an airline displays in-flight data in a somewhat logical format and not just 3 stats per page
Roughing it in economy
Deplaning
Not before long we were off the plane and on the bus to the terminal. At this point the mad rush began. Imagine 100 Brits racing from the bus to queue for their VOA. At this point I had made a mistake but was saved by an earlier mistake. I had expected to take out some cash form an ATM before paying for our visa, but there were no ATMs available and the VOA cashiers desk took cash only. Very fortunately I had taken out an extra 100 AED before leaving for the airport and was able to pay for the two 5 OMR (10 AED=1 OMR) 15-day tourist visas without a dirham to spare. I really don’t know what would have happened had I not had the 100 AED. I did have 6 Benjamins I could have broken if absolutely necessary, but that wouldn’t have been ideal. Curious what happens if you land with no cash.
The visa process certainly wasn’t expeditious but I’d say within 20-30 minutes we were officially, but not very cordially, welcomed to the Sultanate of Oman. Little did we know what the next 2 hours would have in store! Not wanting to hire a driver for ~$150 USD daily I decided to hire a car and found Europcar to be the best value at ~$140 USD for unlimited kilometers. The rental process was easy and I only needed one credit card (amex plat), passport and drivers license. Although I was advised to have an IDP (international drivers permit) and a sign on the rental desk stated so as well, it was never requested. I had an expired one with me just in case. While the car was being fetched I bought a GB of data (plus one bonus GB during the wee hours of the night) and SIM card for 7 OMR (~$18 USD). There were three major carriers but I selected FRiENDi based on having no queue. While waiting my mom began her fascination of the dress and behavior of the Omanis.
Omanis buying SIM cards
Our Mazda 2
With our car ready and SIM loaded we easily found our way out of the airport as we headed toward the Mutrah Hotel. One problem: the SIM had not yet activated. So while I had a push pin loaded on our destination and some high level maps cached, we were driving blindly into the abyss. Being dark (old eyes), and technologically green, my mom was limited in her usefulness as navigator. The first half of the 30-minute drive went as planned until decision time. As we neared the destination I had to pick option A or B from a city wide view. Option A seemed like the right call as we drove along the corniche and got a nice feel for the layout of the city. About 2km away I realized we had made our first mistake. The road I had planned on taking was a one-way route and there was no easy alternative to enter Mutrah from the city. (Picture medina like streets winding between buildings and geography that had existed long before the roads). With a brief stop in a dark ally (imagine my mother’s anxiety at this point) to regroup and plan phase two which involved a good amount of backtracking out of Muscat we headed around the city to attempt entry to Mutrah from the south. After a series of wrong turns and long detours to get back on the right path we were within 500 m of the hotel but again, another one way street was preventing us from much desired sleep. (01:00)
At this point my mom was terrified, and I was growing increasingly frustrated having to blindly navigate the, fortunately empty, streets far longer than I had anticipated. Thankfully as I pulled off to park and walk to the hotel and ask for advice our first taste of Omani hospitality saved the day as a gentleman noticed our despair. After explaining our tumultuous last hour exploring Muscat and Mutrah he confirmed my suspicion that the maps we were using were outdated and the hotel is indeed difficult to find without knowing the proper location to pull a U-turn and right the sinking ship. His explanation wasn’t quite sinking in and he decided it was best to drive ahead of us and point us to the street we needed to turn down. We were extraordinarily grateful for his help and as fate would have it, we would figuratively cross paths down the road later in our trip. (I’ve literally always wanted to appropriately use figuratively in a sentence.) And with about an hour delay (90 minutes rather than 30) we arrived at the well-regarded Mutrah Hotel. And as a sign of things finally on our side, there was one parking spot remaining!
Certainly a step down from our suite at the Bab al Bahr, but with our agenda in Oman, we would hardly spend a waking moment in the room. Now that I wasn’t driving I had the chance to properly set up the 4G service and load maps for tomorrow morning. For the record, at the time of my trip, Google Maps does not offer turn-by-turn navigation in Oman. Also, as I knew, maps in Oman cannot be saved for offline use. I found another app, Sygic, that offered a 7-day free trial of maps in Oman with turn-by-turn navigation and between the two we survived driving around the Sultanate.
Check in was a breeze and before my mom could discover there was no hair dryer, I was asleep. What a first few hours in Oman.
Mutrah hotel; later that morning
Mutrah green rooms
Mutrah deluxe double
Bathroom