Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J, TK whY

[amaroo]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J, TK

Awesome TR! Makes me want to re-visit Turkey...

 

[Ric]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J, TK

Awesome TR! Makes me want to re-visit Turkey...

Me too! But not just right now with all that's happening.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J, TK

My #1 man and his wife just spent 4nts Istanbul Aug 17-21 - they reported ZERO grounds for concern. They spoke to a number of locals who expressed view that unrest is indeed instigated by current Govt attempting to shore up their own significance and position - who knows?

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J, TK

Thanks to the above .

Last instalment - the Rockford Stonewaller lunch was fantastic, and a great antidote to the excess of kebabs and stews I'd had in Turkey! We (AFF) had 8 of the 16 places, and the other 8 was a group of lawyers! Yes, we got along, even though the concept of 'why fly direct when you can connect' was a bit hard for some of them.


Snapper, lemon and fennel soup; Chicken, galangal and lime



Beef and shiraz pie; meyer lemon pudding.




Lunch finished as the sun was going down, and we did our final shopping and headed back to Adelaide.



Can't wait to go back to Turkey - would like to look at the north of the country, and mountains.

 

[Boca68]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J, TK

Oooh! That lunch looks fantastic.

 

[Myrna]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J,...

Its visa on arrival. Fortunately most pax are doing transit. The visa on arrival booth is un-attended. I ask some-one what to do. Official (guy) asks for my passport and examines it minutely, page by page. After a few minutes he points to a different area which sells visa on arrival. What the F was he going through my passport for?

At the counter. Lady does the processing thing then asks for X Omani Ryals; I proffer a credit card. No cash? She asks? I said no. (NB there are no FX shops airside at DOH). She says I can't process without cash! What do I do? I ask? She has a brilliant idea. "The next person can help you". FFS x 10! Why not just say that! it took about 5 mins to get the VoA processed.

Immigration - one bully in charge. Shouting at poor sub continentals who happen to be in range. My passport gets passed between 3 of them. More chaos.

Thanks, RooFlyer, for your trip report. I read with specific focus on Oman, as we will be in Oman next year for about a week. We are Australians but living in London, so I have been looking into visa for Oman. I am going to check if we can apply for Oman visa in London with the Oman embassy (as Australian passports) - but the cost is quite high. I have read about Visa on arrival - which appears to be cheaper. From your experience it sounded like a complete nightmare! Our BA flight arrives in Oman early in the morning, so I guess we have time to go through the hassles of trying to get visa on arrival before getting into the hotel.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J,...

Sorry, I missed this. How did you get on? I think (hope) my experience was because the flight was so late getting in.

 

[Myrna]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J,...

Sorry, I missed this. How did you get on? I think (hope) my experience was because the flight was so late getting in.

we are not going to be in Muscat until September next year. We have booked flights - points redemption with BA. I am just doing some research on visa. On the BA forum in flyertalk people said the first thing to do on arrival would be to pay for visa at a forex place, then make a bee line for immigration. So this is what we must do, I suppose. Only thing is that we hold Auatralian passports (not UK). I will report back next year after the trip. I am also doing research on tours / trips outside of Muscat, and hotels. I note you stayed at the top Shangrila hotel. I have been thinking the same but maybe not at the top.

 

[Myrna]

Re: Historic Turkey (and 5 airports!), finishing in Muscat,Oman. QF, QR and WY J,...

Sorry, I missed this. How did you get on? I think (hope) my experience was because the flight was so late getting in.

We just got back from our trip to Muscat, Oman last week. We had a great time seeing the sceneries of Oman. We did not have any problem with getting Omani visa on arrival at Muscat - we headed straight to one of the currency counters, paid 20 OMR each (expensive! as the woman who served us said there was only one visa fee now and it was 20 OMR), got the receipt and went to the immigration line, got passports stamped. The whole thing took less than 5 mins! We told the tour guide / driver not to turn up too early at airport because it might take about an hour for us to get the visa. We were wrong, so had to stand around and wait for him for about an hour

When exiting the arrival area, we had to get our bags scanned (like in some Asian countries, eg VN). We found a good driver / tour guide on tripadvisor, he was recommended by an Australian lady on a cruise to Oman. We used him for the entire duration of our stay in Muscat, for all transfers and tours.

Departing Muscat we had to go through 3 sets of security checks - a bit time consuming. The lounge BA used in Muscat was the Plaza premium - OK, nothing special. We could have used our priority pass to get in as well.

We stayed 2 nights at the Shangri-La Al Husn to enjoy the beach, the ocean and the pools at the resort. Then moved to the cheaper Grand Hyatt for 3 nights to be closer to the airport for an early morning departure back to London, and to do the 2 full days tours outside of Muscat. Flights in and out were on time and uneventful.