Surprising First IMPRESSIONS OF MUSCAT EP.110 | MIDDLE EAST Motorcycle Tour
So... Welcome to Muscat Perhaps the last capital city of Middle East in this tour. I've a feeling that it's gonna be one of our most favorite cities.
I don't think there's any other city like this one in GCC that you saw in my vlogs or any other vlog. Wow what a fantastic looking place this is. Really impressive... Check out this amazing view from our room. This resort is located at a wonderful location. I can see people moving about.
The bags in their hands suggest that they are going towards the beach. Here you can see my clothes that got wet during yesterday's ride. They are mostly dry now. Yet I have placed them in sunlight to get them dried properly. This one was a little too wet because I didn't change it.
It's not waterproof. I needed to wear an extra layer over it but couldn't do that due to my laziness. But my jacket gets dried quickly. However, the gloves take a little more time. It's better to place them at a better place like this one.
We can place them here as well. Here they will be in direct sunlight and get dried instantly. Assalam Alekum Everyone and Welcome Back to the Channel from Al Mussanah. It's about 100 km from Muscat.
Today's ride is not a very long one. The next destination that we'll be exploring is Muscat. We'll get there in maximum 90 minutes.
We are not particularly in a hurry to leave though. Let's have a nice breakfast here. Later on, I'll try to share anything that I find interesting. If we don't find anything interesting here, then we'll set off for Muscat. My friend, Aftab, who lives here can give us some suggestions.
He may be able to give us some more information. Our breakfast has been served. You can see that it's a really good one.
Aftab is sitting in front of us. Aftab, tell us the name of this place. This place is called Al Mussanah and this is Barcelo Resort.
Before being called Barcelo Resort, it was called Millennium Resort. Much better now. Alhamdulillah, Abrar got here last night.
He also brought rain along as it doesn't rain here normally. So, you can say that it rained here because of him. That's what I was telling everyone. I saw Aftab's video about a couple of years ago. You published a video from Deosai planes in Pakistan almost a couple of years back. Yes. It was from Deosai.
That video got really viral. I texted him after that and we have been in touch ever since. Finally, we get to meet today after almost 2 years. Right now we are at the breakfast table.
Later on, we'll see what we can do here. Here's a peek at our delicious breakfast. So, let's get done with it.
We have a lot of options here. So lets not waste any more time. We'll get more food if we need. You can now see Aftab's motorcycle there.
It's a Harley Davidson Night Rod. Let him turn on and experience the majestic sound. Our motorcycle doesn't have any sound at all.
Let's go. Bismillah... In the name of Allah... *Prayer for the journey* May Allah make this a wonderful and safe day for us.
I also wish the same for my viewers from around the world. Look at those huge tires of that motorcycle. Almost twice the size of my tires.
I stayed at a resort here. The 2010 Asian Beach Games were conducted here. It was built for that very purpose. Now it has been transformed into a resort.
A lot of tourists come here; mostly foreigners. As I said before, it's almost 90 km from Muscat. So people love to come here and enjoy the resort.
The beach is awesome and a lot of facilities have been provided. Besides, alcohol is also available here. And that's an important factor for foreign tourists.
And it's a little off the main city. Almost all the tourists here, stay in this resort. They hardly go out. They don't have much interest in the city. Also there's not much to see in the city. I also confirmed it from Aftab.
That's why we are leaving. Assalam Alekum How are you? Fine. Do you want the special? 95 Which one do you use? Super. No. No. 95 it is. Full tank? Yeah.
What's the fuel rate here? 0.2? What's that in dollars? It's 0.239 in local currency. So, it's 0.75 US dollars per liter.
Okay. So is it the same price as in UAE? No... UAE is quite expensive. Currently, UAE has almost double this price. You can say it's 2 AED. 2 AED.. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Assalam Alekum Do you recognize him? He might, if I remove the helmet. Do you want it with ice or normal? Normal. Should I remove the ice? That'd be great.
This is special pomegranate juice. This juice is special with no additives. I come here for this everyday.
That pomegranate juice was really amazing. If you happen to travel in this area, the juice shop is just by the Shell Fuel station. This part of Oman is quite congested. Even during the night ride, there was some village, town or small city along the way. I feel that when we'll get to the other side of Muscat... towards Salalah...
that side will be sparsely populated. But I'll keep sharing that with you anyway. And you can see that this area has a lot of agriculture. I think they are planting some vegetables here. I've hardly seen agricultural fields like these, anywhere else in GCC. Mostly, they had some farm in the desert.
And that would be an artificial farm. But this place doesn't look artificially treated for farming. The environment here is somewhat different. I have been riding for almost 40 to 50 now.
I just a signboard of Muscat as well. We must have reached the surroundings now. So far, I've found Oman to be wonderful. And for the first time, I saw something totally different in GCC. It's only here that you get the feel of some Middle Eastern country. Because the other countries have quite a different life style, perhaps owing to their riches.
Even here, you can see a sound infrastructure. The roads are really nice. Everything is clean.
However, you see many different colors of life here. You'll see small markets by the roadside. There are no flashy plazas.
I have hardly seen a shopping mall along the way. It feels great to be able to see something different here. We still have to go another 30 to 40 km for Muscat. Let's see what more we can find here. Every passing day makes love this place more and more. We have left the skyscrapers and huge buildings in Dubai when we came here.
This looks like a really beautiful crossing. Very nicely constructed. So... Welcome to Muscat. Perhaps the last capital city of Middle East in this tour. It probably is.
I don't know anything about Yemen, yet. Most likely, I may not be able to even enter Yemen. In that case, this will be our last country of this tour.
Or capital city... We have now reached Al Mouj. A small area by the airport. We have to meet Aftab's friend here. Most probably our hotel will also be here. If that's the case, we'll unload our luggage here.
Followed by a motorcycle tour of the city. This area looks rather beautiful. You can say that it's a residential area. Constructed a little off the main city area.
The beach is also next to it. Sort of an upscale area. That's the sort of vibe I'm getting.
All the buildings around it are in white. That over there is the only shade of gray and brown I found here. Well...
I think it may be the hotel... Yes, it is... Mysk by Shaza Assalam Alekum How are you? I'll just go and take a quick look. I hope the motorcycle won't fall down. We have checked into our room. As soon as you enter the hotel, you get a luxurious feeling. In fact it is a luxury hotel. I've come to my beautiful little room.
You can call this a room tour. Because many of my viewers ask for a room tour. So, let me give you a room tour. The area down there is commercial sort of area.
With cafes, restaurants and everything. As soon as you step out of the hotel, you see all these things. In the background, you can see the beach and the sea.
If you get all these things just beside your hotel, what more can you ask for. Bismillah... In the name of Allah... We are now three riders instead of two. Here is Hassan ... on his CBR Fire Blade ... by Honda. I don't know its exact power.
Must be a 1000 or 1200 cc. Other than my own motorcycle, I don't know much about motorcycles. He was telling me that there is only one such motorcycle in Oman. There's a very beautiful mosque coming up on our right side. It could be the Grand Mosque of Muscat.
Sultan Qaboos Mosque. I did see his pictures but I'm not sure if this is the one. Anyways, if that's the mosque, then you'll get to see it in the next vlog. But it looks beautiful for sure.
The front yard had so many plants and trees in it. So the mosque has a pretty large perimeter. Right now we are at the highway.
And we are headed towards the city center... I mean corniche. We may get to see some more interesting stuff. I'm a little surprised that I haven't seen any skyscraper or high rise buildings yet. Not at all... I have hardly seen that in any other city. I mean even if you go to random cities, you still see high rise buildings.
But here you mostly see buildings with not more than 5 to 7 floors. It could be a part of the law. I'm gonna ask this from my fellows here.
I'll also ask them to share more facts about life in Oman. This looks like the main road here. Because there are so many buildings along this road.
This looks like a government building too. But I can't read any information given on the board... Because it was written in a very thin script.
Have to keep my focus on the road as we are going a little faster. After every few minutes of ride, you get to see some interesting monuments. There's a rather beautiful mosque over there.
We are now on the corniche. I'm gonna stop here for a bit and show you the beach. I hope I'm capturing something in this shot. I think there's a small island here as well. I can see it in the distance.
You may not be able to see that through my GoPro. So we have stopped here. So, this is the Love Street, right next to the beach.
And that's the road. Love Street... It's just a street. Just a small road... I wanna ask him something.
Everywhere else in Middle East that I have visited... I could see skyscrapers and beautiful skyline there. And you especially get to see that in GCC. They have a whole area by the corniche, that has huge buildings by its side. There's none here. What's the reason for that? Not even a single skyscraper. Why so?
According to the law here, you can't have a building with more than 25 floors. They believe that the ground here is not strong enough to withstand the weight and would collapse. Because it's soft and has sand in it. But still... I could see no building with more than 8 floors or so. No. There are buildings with up to 20 floors.
We will see them today. But not more than 20 floors. I was a bit confused. I thought you see such buildings when you visit any city. We can, in fact, see these tiny hills in the city, from here. And that island far in the sea... What's it called?
That one? No, the small one in the distance. Well, it doesn't have any name. It just a mountain in the sea. Not an island but just a mountain. You can get on that thing. It has started to get more crowded out here.
Overall, this city is quite different from other cities in GCC. You don't get the feeling of being in a congested city, here. Most of the capital cities are like this...
Because a lot of people live in capital cities. But I didn't get this feeling here. The roads are quite spacious and broad.
There's a considerable traffic and it gets denser at certain places. I think... I mean this is the main road here. And people are out here for the evening to enjoy nice weather. And that has resulted in more traffic. However, the city looks quite relaxed, nevertheless.
Here, you do get the vibes of being in a Middle Eastern Arab city. If our next few days here turn out to be good... And if I'm able to share my experience with you guys as well...
then it's gonna become one of our favorite cities. Look how the buildings along the sides are built in a traditional style. There's a modern touch as well. More like a mix of the two. It feels like a hilly city. Some areas are higher than the others.
The previous area was mostly flat. But this area that we are riding through is a little up and down. But it's beautiful without a doubt.
I don't think there's any other city like this one in GCC that you saw in my vlogs or any other vlog. Check out how that whole section is white. And all the buildings are almost at the same level. They have the beach in one area...
And now we are making our way through mountains to get to the other neighborhood. I don't know exactly where we are going, though. I'm sure my fellow riders are taking me to the right place.
It seems that we are in some historical area. Look how beautifully they made the dome and minaret of that mosque in blue color. Wow what an awesome place this is. Really impressive.
It is now among my favorite cities in the Middle East. We have just narrowly escaped a collision with that Ford. He didn't see me coming while he was reversing. And I was also distracted and looking around. I think this is Mutra, the historical old town of Muscat.
It's nice that I was able to show you some of this today. I actually wanted to show you in the next vlog. But at least we are covering this area on motorcycle, today. We'll visit it in detail tomorrow.
This is the Mutra Souq, guys. Muscat has really impressed me... at first sight. We are now at the corniche in Mutra. It's just wonderful. It has mountains on one side and the beach on the other. The port is at the back.
I noticed that Omanis do all sorts of jobs here. I'm talking about the locals. That's unlike any other GCC countries. For instance, in the hotel where I'm staying, the locals were even carrying the luggage. There were Omani taxi drivers as well. In other countries these jobs are performed by Pakistanis and Indians.
Guys, are you mad at me? Why have you turned your faces away? Not at all Abrar... It's just because you were recording. Is there any rule here that says that some jobs will be done by Omanis and some by others? In fact yes. They have specified some jobs only for Omanis. Expats can't do those jobs.
It's very difficult to get the visa for that category or to work in those categories. I mean ... anyone can be a taxi driver. Normally, people from GCC don't perform the jobs like these.. The ones where you have to do customer care. But here they are working in hotels and driving taxis. That means they are willing to do all sorts of jobs.
True. These are hardworking people. Aftab might light to add something. Indeed they are hardworking people. Secondly you can't say that these are ordinary low paying jobs.
They get good salaries in these jobs and they also have their own businesses. I've many clients who do jobs but they also have their side business; mainly in construction. So not just hardworking people but also businessmen. You'll see all sorts of people here. It's a good mix.
Aftab has brought me here for dinner. These cats here are fighting but lets ignore them... because our meal has been served.
The name of this restaurant is Lahori Biryani. But we are not having biryani. Instead we are here to try this Maula Jutt Karrahi.
I haven't tried this one before. Hopefully it will be good. And along with that we have some... Wait... let me show you... That's BBQ... Chicken Malai Boti.
We can try this one. Let's place this here. We better start with our Maula Jutt Karrahi.
2023-02-11 19:00
