Part 1 : The bittwersweet beginning.

Hey guys,how are u all? Hope everyone is doing fine :)

Having arrived at Ras Al-Khaimah the day before, we were getting ready for a tour of Oman on Monday. The Khasab Travel and Tour van arrived at our hotel around 7.30 and
we were on the road for quite a while before reaching Oman.

Oman is located outside of the UAE so we had to cross the border. So it goes without saying that we had to pass passport control. So after the authorities had checked our passports,we received them back,albeit lacking one passport (more on that later). It was the start of the journey,albeit a shitty one.

Then,me and my brother signed up to rent a pair of flippers and goggles along with snorkels. Next,we got on the boat along with a few other tourists. It’s a nice boat,made of wood but beautifully decorated and even complete with a shower! At first,I was quite nervous of going out into the sea because I’m quite prone to sea-sickness. But thankfully, the sea was unbelievably calm that day,and none of us had any problems with sea-sickness.

Sailing off(it’s actually powered by an engine but baah!) , we were surrounded by hills,unusual ones at that. These hills are not like those hill you’d find in Malaysia where it is green and full of trees. Instead,they are barren hills with nothing but rocks and sand. It’s grey instead of green,but they are undoubtedly beautiful and a sight to behold.

Another thing similarly grey but miles away in terms of beauty,are the dolphins. Yes,dolphins! I didn’t expect to see dolphins in this part of the world. But we saw quite a few of them and had a few shots of these marvelous creatures. That being said,they were quite shy and didn’t really do the classic dolphin stunts such as jumping out of the water,so good pictures were hard to come by. Nevertheless,we enjoyed the sight of them having fun in the sea.

Around 12.00 o’clock,the tour guide anchored the ship near the shore and they started to prepare for lunch. They had also given us some time to have a dive in the 3-meter deep sea. Having rented the equipments earlier,me and Ihsan decided to take a swim in the sea. So we jumped in the water and immediately,sea water rushed into my mouth and my God it was as painful as it was salty. Recovering from that moment,I then had a quick swim but that was almost impossible as the goggles were leaking saltwater into my eyes. Damn,it was painful. Ihsan were having similar troubles and after a few minutes of suffering,we decided to get out of the water. Perhaps a little bit more experience would have helped us,but nonetheless,it was quite an interesting experience.