On Thursday 13th February, me and my dad, mum and my brother took a taxi to London Heathrow Airport. We checked in our bags and went through security to head to our gate. At 7:00pm we boarded the British Airways Dreamliner. Soon, we had taken off. We had some dinner and then we had some sleep. 8 hours later, we were arriving at Muscat Airport and it was 8:00am Omani time. We went through the building and got to our rented car. Then we took a 2 hour journey to our first hotel Anantara Jabal Al Akhdar Resort. We stayed at this beautiful mountain resort for 2 days, and first, the hotel guide Yasser showed us around. Over the next 2 days, we did things like swim in the pool and eat lovely food. On Sunday morning, we got in our rented car and drove back down the mountain to our next hotel, but on the way, we stopped at the town of Nizwa and saw an ancient fort and also went to the souk, (market) and looked around.
Soon, we were off again, on our way to Desert Nights Camp, and it was so much fun driving on the sand, but the only way we could do that was to deflate our tires a bit so that they would grip the sand. Then, we entered the desert. It was a lovely place, and the food was great! We ate things such as rice, kebabs, bread and vegetables. Our room had a tent roof but brick walls, and the floor was stone. It was so cool! In the evening, some of the staff took some of the guests to the very top of the sand dunes, and we were one of those guests. From up there, there was a wonderful view of the sunset that night. We walked back down, and then went to get some food. The next morning, me and my brother got a camel ride, and the camel’s back felt so bony! Then, our family was given a dune bashing trip by a kind Bedouin who showed us how it was living in the desert, and we also sped down steep hills! After that, it was time to leave the desert and go to a turtle sanctuary which also had a hotel.
When we got there we checked-in at reception and then went to our room which was an actual tent this time! It’s walls were tent’s walls and the roof was also part of the tent, although the floor was wooden. Once we had settled in, we went to the turtle museum upstairs and it had lots of facts about turtles. After that we quickly had dinner and went to a hall as we and a load of other people were going to see turtles laying eggs on the beach. We had to wait for 2 hours in the hall with barely anything to do but it was totally worth it when we saw a baby turtle and two big turtles on the beach. We had to have red lights as turtles can’t see red lights and we wouldn’t be disturbing them. Unfortunately, the big turtles didn’t lay any eggs as the sand was too soft to dig a hole to lay the eggs in, but at least we got to see turtles.
The next morning we set off heading to our last hotel, The Chedi in the main city of Oman, Muscat. On the way there we stopped at some places such as a boat factory and a wadi (a big river naturally created in the middle of 2 mountains). But the only way to get to the wadi was to take a 1 hour hike climbing the side of the mountain. We finally got there and went for a little swim. After that we had a short drive to a sinkhole (a huge hole created by ground giving way but the hole has water in it). After we had looked around the park the sinkhole was in we finally went heading to The Chedi. When we got there our bags were kindly taken by one of the staff and we were given a welcome drink and then we headed off to our room.
We stayed at this hotel for the longest amount of time, 3 days. We did quite a lot there including a tour around the city of Muscat and we also swam in the pool. The city of Muscat was nice to see and we saw things like some souks, the Grand Mosque and we also went to a museum and we saw the office of the king who had recently died. But when at The Chedi we swam in the sea and had lovely meals at the restaurants. After the 3 days of staying there we had to leave Oman and come back. But the only way to be in time for our flight was to wake up at 5:30 am. The previous evening we had booked a room service meal for 6 o’clock and we ate it as quickly as possible then one of the members of staff took our bags to our taxi which was waiting for us at the front of the hotel.
We took a taxi to Muscat airport and boarded our flight at 8:30 am. The flight back was a little bit longer and it was 8 and a half hours. After a long time, we had our arrival at Heathrow just on time. We then went through the airport, and finally, took a taxi back home.
I thought it was one of the best holidays ever, and I would love to go to Oman again. The holiday altogether was 8 days and next time we go to Oman, I would like to go for a few more days.
Weather:
The weather in Oman is very hot, normally 30c.
Religion:
The local people in Oman are Muslims and speak Arabic.
Local People:
The local people in Oman are generally very polite and kind.
My Favourite Place (out of the places we went to):
My favourite place was the desert because the people there were very kind and I loved the soft, silky sand and the dunes.
By Daniel Sealy – Age 8
