Starting a new trip is always a special feeling. This is especially true when promoting your country or a place you are in love with like Oman. It's a place we have visited several times and everyone in the team loves it, not only for what it offers tourists, but for what makes it very special – its people.

We started our drive from Bahrain at 7am. and as always the traffic on the King Fahad Causeway was heavy. We had to wait for over an hour and found ourselves wishing the Friendship Causeway between Bahrain and Qatar was open. It would have saved us at least three hours of driving, but crossing the wide expanse of Saudi Arabia is nevertheless quite enjoyable.

We stopped for breakfast in Saudi Arabia and when we came out of the restaurant, we saw people milling around the cars, especially the Land Rover, which has a picture of Salalah on it. They couldn't believe the greenery of the place. We had a good chat with them and gave them copies of our travel guide 101 Things to See and Do in Oman. We told them they would have to go and see the place for themselves to experience it. 

We continued the drive, stopping next for lunch just before the border with Qatar. Once in Qatar, we drove all the way to Doha, where we were joined by Sarah Clarke, the writer of 101 Things to See & Do in Oman. She showed us one of her art projects - it's amazing what you can do do with bottle tops. It was pretty amazing and she has promised to write some information about it in a later post.

Ali Mushaima