After wrapping up the Europe part of our trip, Mom and I bid goodbye to hubby and MIL, and continued our travels to the Middle East. Our travel 'bootcamp' continued as we hopped across 5 countries in 6 days - Turkey, Jordan, Oman, U.A.E, Qatar. Thankful that Mom was willing to accompany me to this part of the world as I continued my quest of exploring more new contries. =)
29 May 2025 (Thurs): Amman - Muscat
After spending 2 days in Jordan, it was time to continue hopping to the next country. We arrived at Amman airport around 9.30pm, but had to wait to check in because Oman Air's counter didn't open until 11.25pm (3 hours before flight). This was my first time flying Oman Air. Booked our flight from Amman - Muscat - Dubai for 7,500 Alaska miles + $118 per person.
Since Oman Air wasn't officially part of Oneworld until June 30, I wasn't able to access the lounge with my Oneworld Emerald status. However, we were able to access the Plaza Premium Lounge with my Priority Pass. There were 2 other lounges that I could access with Priority Pass but I was too lazy to lounge hop.
3.5 hour red-eye flight from Amman to Muscat at 2.25am. This flight was completely full. We definitely noticed the change in demographic of passengers in this flight, which were mostly Omanis.
Arrived Muscat at 6.45am. I intentionally booked this fligth with a 7.5 hours transit because I wanted to do a quick sightseeing of Muscat.
Malaysians didn't need visa to visit Oman and we cleared immigration very quickly. Our bags were checked all the way to Dubai so we didn't need to claim our baggage here. We went through customs with just our backpack and thought it'd be easy but nope, I was pulled aside at customs because of the basic meds I had been carrying all around the world in a little Mentos container. Few custom officers gathered around looking through the meds (labeled in ziplock bags) and I tried explaining what each of them were (e.g. headache, mucus relief, etc.). They finally let me go since I was only gonna be transiting in Oman for a few hours and will be leaving that same afternoon.
Call me crazy but I booked a rental car (Kia Cerato) with Europcar for $35/day for this transit. Paid for it with my CapitalOne travel credit. Oman drives on the same side as the US. I thought I'd need my international driver's license but they were fine with just my US driver's license.
Left the airport at 8am to begin our sightseeing. It was so HOTTTT in Muscat (36° C / 96.8° F), we felt like we were in sauna. So glad we had a rental car and I was blasting the air-con to the max. The roads in Muscat are nice and well maintained, and was easy to drive around.
Left the airport at 8am to begin our sightseeing. It was so HOTTTT in Muscat (36° C / 96.8° F), we felt like we were in sauna. So glad we had a rental car and I was blasting the air-con to the max. The roads in Muscat are nice and well maintained, and was easy to drive around.
1st stop...Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. Head covers were required to enter and since they wouldn't let us use the hood of our rain jackets, we just took some photos of the exterior and left shortly because it was very hot. We have mosques in Malaysia so we weren't too interested to go in either.
2nd stop...Yiti viewpoint. Since it was so hot, I told mom to juts wait in the car while I hop out to take photos. You can feel the 'heat' from my expression...lol!
3rd stop....Al Jalali and Al Mirani Forts. Another quick photo stop while mom enjoys her air-conditioned nap in the car...lol!
Few more quick stops....Mutrah Promenade, Qurum beach overlooking Gulf of Oman, and Royal Opera House while mom continues napping in the car. I was too lazy to even step out of the car when we got to Royal Opera House and just opened the windows to take photos from the car...lol!
I noticed that there are a lot of archways in Oman.
After 3 hours of speed sightseeing around Muscat, we made it back to the airport at 11am and returned the rental car. The staff was probably wondering why we returned the car so quickly...lol! Muscat airport was nice but definitely felt less international than other bigger airports in the Middle East as majority of the passengers seemed to be Omanis. Would I visit Oman again? Probably not so I'm glad to check off this country as part of a transit.
Visited the Primeclass lounge in Muscat Airport with my Priority Pass. This lounge was pretty nice. The lounge even had a flutist performing the whole time we were there. Food options were also very good. We had lunch and chilled while we waited for our next flight at 2.30pm.
Next stop...Dubai!!
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