Weekend trip to Muscat and surrounding area

In the last entry I already announced it - here now a report about our short trip to Muscat and the surrounding area two (or is it already three?) weeks ago.
On Felix's birthday we started and flew from Saudi to Muscat together with my parents, the capital of Oman.
On the day of arrival not much happened - we went to eat and took the opportunity at the airport to buy some 'drinks'. Oman is also a Muslim country, but alcohol is not as strictly forbidden as in Saudi

The next day we started to explore the country. First of all, I have to mention that we were extremely surprised how clean it was everywhere! In Saudi, it is often very polluted (especially in the desert because the trash is simply thrown into pits and then spread everywhere by the wind). In Oman, however, it was strikingly clean - of course, there is the occasional plastic bag somewhere, but that is absolutely incomparable to what I have been used to in the region.

The first excursion took us to the Hawiyat Najm or Bimmah Sinkhole, a sinkhole on the northern coast of Oman. A sinkhole is a depression, hole, or funnel-shaped hollow with a round or elliptical base that can be found in karst areas. The sinkhole is connected to the ocean through a cave system, so the water in the sinkhole is salty, but it has a lower salt content than the nearby sea because it mixes with groundwater. There is a legend that the sinkhole was formed by the impact of a meteorite. The Arabic name Hawiyat Najm translates to 'the shooting star'. Alternatively, it is reported that the sinkhole was formed by the impact of a piece from the moon.
The Arabic alternative name Bait al Afreet means 'House of the Demons'.

After that, we continued to one of the most beautiful wadis (a valley or riverbed that often only carries water temporarily after heavy rains) in Oman, Wadi Shab.
Since the weather is still quite 'wintery' (meaning pleasantly cool, 25-28 degrees Celsius, light breeze, etc) for Arabian standards, we were able to walk quite far into the wadi. At the end, we even had the opportunity to jump into the water and cool off. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to hike all the way to the end of the wadi where there is supposedly a great waterfall in a cave - but that will have to wait for the next visit!

In the evening, Felix wasn't feeling well and later we found out that he had caught the flu.

Fortunately, he was 'well enough' on Saturday to join us on the rest of the excursions.
The next stop on our tour was a castle in Nakhl. Overall, there are several castles/forts in Oman that are supposedly all worth seeing. Nakhl has the great attraction that the castle was recently renovated and is located at the foot of the eponymous mountain.

Furthermore - and this was a real surprise (because we didn't imagine it to be so great), there were hot springs nearby that we visited afterwards!
At these hot springs, you can sit with your feet in the water and let small fish nibble off dead skin cells.

Some people spend a lot of money on a spa for this - we were able to enjoy this wellness treatment for free and in a wonderful environment.
This is also one of the insights of this trip - we were told in advance that Oman is quite expensive, but that was absolutely not confirmed on site! In many places, we either didn't pay an entrance fee or paid very little, the food was often abundant, delicious, and surprisingly cheap (full meals for 4 people for a total of a maximum of 15 euros), and the hotel we stayed at in Muscat was great, clean, and cheap at 55 euros per night.

On the last day of our stay, Felix was feeling pretty bad, so my parents and I went to the Grand Sultan Qaboos Mosque alone.

It is the main mosque in Oman and is considered one of the most important buildings in the country and one of the largest mosques in the world! In the large men's prayer hall, there is also a huge carpet that is considered a masterpiece of Iranian carpet weaving art, measuring 293.45 square meters (70.50 m × 60.90 m).

In the afternoon, we all went to the Corniche, the coastal road/beach promenade, and browsed for souvenirs at the souqs (the market).

All in all (and this was also confirmed for the rest of my parents' holiday, as they stayed for another week after our departure), Oman is a truly great travel destination. An exciting mix of tradition and modernity that - as far as I can judge - has worked better here than in any other Arab country.