We recently had a long weekend over here for Eid Al Fitr, these weekends are the perfect excuse for a mini vacay that's close enough to here, but far enough away to be a getaway. We decided a few months ago we wanted to go to Oman, neither of us had ever been there and we have heard great things about it. So tickets were bought, hotel booked, Ramadan came and went and our weekend was here!
We flew on Oman Air and stayed at the Crowne Plaza.
Day 1:
We arrived in Muscat late afternoon and some of the first things we noticed were how different Oman is from the rest of the Gulf. The people are super friendly, everything was very clean, driving was normal (our driver actually SLOWED down for Chris to take a picture of the Grand Mosque...these things just wouldn't happen anywhere) and...there are mountains! Not just a regular, flat desert. Also, there are no high rise buildings, it's all very old school Middle East and it was a breath of fresh air. Once at the hotel, we were upgraded from a city view room to a sea view room, so that was great, and our view was amazing!
That afternoon we relaxed by the pool and enjoyed the seafood buffet - hi grilled lobster and bottomless wine, yes please.
Day 2:
After starting our day with the best breakfast buffet ever, we decided to rent a car. In the end, it was much cheaper to do this than take taxis everywhere, so we got our cute Nissan Sunny and headed out with our maps.
We started off by going to the Muttrah Souk, it was a neat place to shop for cultural souvenirs and gifts, not to mention nice to get out of the hot sun.
After wandering around there for awhile, we kept walking down the Corniche (road by the sea) and climbed up the steps to the Muttrah Fort - except you can't go inside, so that was awesome.
After walking even farther, we decided to turn around, because it was so hot!
After getting back to the car, we drove to our next stop, a watchtower that looks like an incense burner, but couldn't find the entrance to walk up to it,
so we kept driving, stopped to take some pictures of the Old Muscat Gate, it's signifies where Old Muscat used to be (still is, but it's what remains).
We found a (very steep) mountain slope to drive up for a scenic view, it scared the crap out of me, but it was so worth it.
The best idea we had for the whole trip was to rent a car, we were able to drive everywhere and explore. We found a small village with a bunch of goats wandering around (dinner?), a small beach and walked around the Al Bustan Palace Intercontinental Hotel - amazing.
We went to the Grand Qaboos Mosque to start our day. I had to cover not only my hair (which I knew I would have to), but my wrists and button my shirt to the top.
Day 4:
Wwoke up late and headed out for our scenic drive. The mountains were beautiful and we ended up driving to a small town called Quariyat. We were able to go inside a fort, which was cool. Drove around the town (which took about 5 minutes), saw a lot of goats, walked near the beach and then headed back. It was a good last full day here.
We're already talking about heading back sometime soon!
xoxo
I was really excited because I found out we were leaving the next day (Thursday) in the evening, and not in the morning to San Francisco like I had originally thought - so I went to Target and did some other small errands before our flight left.
We headed back to Austin on that Sunday for a few days, where we went shopping, ate a lot and hung out with our families. On Wednesday, we headed to Mississippi to visit Chris's grandma. She lives on the coast in Ocean Springs and we spent most of our time there driving around and I learned a lot about Chris's family who has quite the history there - there's even a street named after one of his great-great someones! We played Bingo - and I won $5 - woot!
We checked out a new club on 5th called The Madison which was awesome. (Any place that plays all 3 of Lady Gaga's hits is fine by me!)
Anyway, back in the land of 2 beaches (that's what Bahrain means actually) and looks like Dubai is in the works! Obvs, we can't stay away for long. 
After a few hours there, we ended the night at Buddha Bar. 
After that, we went to a club called 400. After some techno music, they played much better music and dancing and drinking ensued. 
One of the guys, Adnan, who we went to school with in Saudi met us there for a little bit and then Chris and I met up with Mutaz and some other people at Buddha Bar. Somehow we didn't get home til almost 5am - why?
Woke up late on Saturday, went to lunch at Fuddruckers, came back and I took a nap, then got ready and packed up, then headed to meet up with Deep at this place called Reem for tea and shisha. Mutaz took us to the airport, we weren't bumped off our flight, we arrived back in Bahrain and went straight to bed. 
We traveled to the Maldives for our honeymoon – we stayed on the island of Kuramathi, which has 3 resorts, and the one we stayed at was called the Blue Lagoon resort. We first arrived in Male, found our resort booth and had to wait for a bit before we were ushered to the speedboat which took us to our island. The Maldives is made up of so many islands that you have to either get to your island by boat or seaplane. After an hour and a half boat ride (or nap) we arrived at what can only be described as paradise. It was absolutely breathtaking, it looked like something out of a movie, some desert island that has been tucked away that no one knows about. 
Once we arrived, we were given fresh juice, had to fill out an information card and then taken to our part of the island. The island was barely 1 mile long and yet you felt at times as though you were the only people on it. We were taken to our cute beach bungalow, 335, set down our things and then headed to lunch. 
We were on the all-inclusive plan which means our meals (at our main restaurant), all drinks (non and alcoholic) and 2 excursions were included. So we headed out to our restaurant and were given “our” table, 46 – similar to being on a cruise but you don’t have to talk to people. Then we just went exploring on the island, finding the bar area, walking down the sandbank, etc. 
Later that night, we met a guy named Simon from London, who was there with his family, and his dad Graham who had his Ipod speakers and we jammed out and unfortunately Graham lasted longer than we did, as he did most every night.
Don’t worry – I won’t recap our entire trip day by day because basically they all included sun, food, drinks and relaxing :)
The next day we had our sunset cruise which was just us and 20 of our best friends riding a boat around the islands watching the sunset, drinking sparkling wine. Perfection.
Our last night was the best night, we booked a couple's massage on the open air pavillion which was amazing and the entire spa was great. The package came with henna tattoos which Chris declined immediately and so I got 2. Haha. Then we ate at the Laguna Grill and enjoyed a bottle of wine, jumbo prawns and the crabs running along the beach.
We had to spend one night in Male because our flight was so early and that wasn't nearly as nice as our island resort, but the things you gotta do :)
