Well… let’s hope that today we get to take off and actually get to Khasab. Since we were told that this happens often, and we’re not hopeful on actually leaving today… we’re going blind. We didn’t book a hotel or anything in Khasab, that way we don’t have to cancel again. We did check however, and there are availabilities, so we should be fine. Hopefully. Fingers crossed, ha.

So, let’s try to be positive. We woke up in a new hotel, but still the nice views of Muscat that we have come to really enjoy.

We got up earlier than usual just to go have a little walk around the neighbourhood since we didn’t yet know it. There wasn’t much going on this early, just had the chance to look at a few mosques in the area. One of which we had already shown you last night.

But, it was hot, so we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. Since it’s a dry heat, the shade makes a HUGE difference. We literally just walked around a little block in the neighbourhood. Not much exploring, just to get my partner’s legs moving before we head off to the airport for the day (hopefully airport and a flight). Then it was back to the hotel, and back to the bus stop, to go back to the airport.

When checking in we talked to the gate agent and she was the first person from Oman Air to tell us that it often happens that the flight to Khasab is cancelled because of the weather, and the weather is generally fog. It is a mountainous region, so you need good visibility to be able to land. She said that sometimes multiple flights are cancelled in a single week, especially during the winter season. But! Today’s weather should be okay. Uh oh… great… well, at least we know what hotel to go back to in Muscat and what to do if we’re stranded again. Honestly, we didn’t know what to think at this point.

Well.. you already saw the airport yesterday. But what we hadn’t realized is that the three wings of the airport are coloured in such a way to demonstrate the geography of Oman. The lush vegetation of the oases, the desert/mountains, and the ocean. A nice touch that we hadn’t realized yesterday. We’re getting to know the airport very, very well.

Also, they have a bunch of things relating to Omani culture all over the airport to keep you entertained while you wait. Here are just two examples of traditional male clothes and jewels/trinkets.

And then it was time to board again. We’re still not 100% convinced we will take off. What will happen if we get delayed so much that our ticket to Khasab gets moved after our return flight from Khasab..? Let’s hope to not find out. But at this point it is the 23rd of December and our return flight is the 25th of December… so there’s not much give there. And to make things a little more fun, the hotels in Khasab aren’t showing vacancies anymore. Weird since a few hours ago they had so many. Uh oh. All we can do at this point is hope for the best.

At least there was almost no one on the plane today. If yesterday it wasn’t a full flight, I don’t know what to call today. I had my own seat all to myself for the entire trip. Quite comfortable. But where did all the other people go..?

We were all seated, ready to go, and the pilot comes on the intercom system. Damn. “The weather in Khasab seems to be okay, we are just waiting for the go ahead, but everything should be okay. I really hope so, especially since I heard that the flight yesterday was cancelled.” At least he acknowledge our pain, hehe. But what can we do?

We just wait and wait. With every passing second and minute we think that we won’t take off. No way. Another day in Muscat. We just hope they let us off quickly so we can enjoy Muscat today.

And theeeeeeen! We’re set to take off, and off we go! SO, SO HAPPY! We really thought we were going to stay in Muscat again. Good thing we said we would try to stay positive, right?

We thought we were on the correct side of the plane because we sat on the righthand side, well… the plane turned around to take off, so we didn’t see Muscat. And the coast seemed pretty far off and covered in clouds, so we didn’t even see any land. But whatever, the clouds are nice enough!

And then it was time to land. A very quick flight. We were warned that there would be turbulence, but that the pilot would do his best to give us a smooth ride. Well… it was a very bumpy/turbulent landing. And then we could really tell why. It was absolutely crazy. Mountains everywhere that just go straight into the ocean. Khasab is almost a bowl in the mountains. It is surrounded on three sides by steep mountains, and the fourth side is the Straight of Hormuz, the ocean.

We took a time-lapse of the entry, because we expected it to be amazing, and it did not disappoint. But, since we were busy taking a time-lapse, we couldn’t take normal pictures, so instead you get screenshots during the time-lapse. It tells the same story, you just don’t get to see my face. I know, you’re so sad. Eventually you’ll see the time-lapse somewhere. Someday.

And then we were in Khasab! We got off the plane, walked to the airport, and of course got a picture with the airport! We were quickly told that we were not allowed to take pictures, so we will respect that and not post any pictures of the airport here. Well… remember how we don’t have a hotel? Our plan was land, get on wifi, and get a hotel. And the hotel we had planned on getting yesterday had a free airport shuttle for us, so once we booked we would ask them to come pick us up. Only problem? The airport is tiny and has no wifi. Our luggage was just wheeled into the airport and given to us by hand. Definition of tiny. So… what do we do? The two hotels we had looked at were a bit far to walk to with all of my partner’s things… what to do, what to do. We asked another shuttle service if they could help us contact our hotel, he said that he couldn’t and didn’t have their number. Dang. But then he told us to just go into town with the guy who rents cars at the airport. Okay, we agree to that. As we’re leaving with this guy, they shutdown the airport. The airport only opens for the two flights a day, the one that leaves Khasab in the morning and the one that arrives in the afternoon. Definition of a small airport.

So we get in this car he charges us 3 OMR, not like we have a choice, we need to find a hotel (and it’s not that much in the grand scheme of things). While driving we tell him about not being allowed to take pictures, and he said that it’s because it’s not really an airport, it’s a military base that they allow Oman Air to fly into twice a day, that’s it. So now it makes sense why the military guy told us not to take pictures. Got it. The drive was literally 5 minutes and we were at the hotel. Walk in and ask if they have rooms… and they do! Perfect. We are set! We thank the driver and go up to our room. Look at this!

Not a bad view at all. The whole of Khasab is just like this. Everywhere you look it’s either ocean or the mountain coming right on you. It’s incredible.

And as you can tell from that picture, there’s still daylight, and since my partner can’t sit still, off we go! We check the map and there’s a beach nearby, so we head off in that direction. It’s actually crazy. The road just snakes between a tiny bit of land between mountain and ocean. We will show you all of that in a later post, but for now we just went straight to the beach.

Put our feet into the Straight of Hormuz (which is one of the most strategic waterways in the world since so much oil and natural gas flows through it) and enjoyed the view. But, then we noticed that there were a bunch of people and cars on a piece of the mountain that was above the beach. We asked some locals how to get there, and off we went.

Quite the view all around. I’m sure we will come back during daylight to give you a better view from up above so that you can really appreciate the beauty that we saw. But you can kind of get a taste for it here.

Now, it was starting to get dark, so we needed to get going back to the hotel. Some of the way there didn’t have a real sidewalk, just a shoulder to the road, so we wanted to get back onto the sidewalk before actual darkness came. No problems whatsoever, nice and easy. Then as we walked back towards our hotel we saw a big neon sign for a hypermarket on the other side of the town, so, we knew we had to go get food. Luckily we did because we saw the Khasab Castle. Not a bad way to end our day at all.

Goodnight from Khasab, finally!!