Entering the Al Bustan hotel one cannot fail to be amazed by the enormous central hall complete with fountain and gigantic crystal chandelier. It is a fitting place to end the Manama, Capital of Arab Culture 2012 to Muscat Arab Tourism Capital 2012 Expedition and to launch our book 101 Things to See and Do in Oman. We brought with us Jameel Ebrahim employee of Bahrain’s Ministry of Tourism who we met today at the Ministry of Tourism in Oman.

We were delighted to be greeted at Al Bustan by Yayha Al Kiyumi who first proposed the tour. He introduced us to guest of honour Khalid Bin Mohamed Bin Omar Bin Bahram, Assistant Head of Muscat Municipality who expressed great pride in Muscat and its status this year of Arab Toursim Capital.

Also present were many of our friends from the Oman Ministry of Tourism, our sponsors Omran including Abdul Wahid Al Farsi Omran’s External Affairs Manager, Bernard Viola, General Manager of Al Bustan Hotel and Bahrain Embassy representatives Deputy Head of Mission Khalid Al Mansoor and Ali Hassan, Culture Attache together with other embassy staff.

The evening, expertly compared by presenter Jinan, started with two beautiful videos celebrating Muscat Arab Tourism Capital 2012. These showed many of the places we visited in Muscat while researching the guide book.

This was followed by a photo montage of our tour - many thanks to advertising agency Talk for putting this together at very short notice. The video included some of the pictures of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and of course Oman that Haider has taken during the tour. We’ve been on the road for two busy weeks and the photos were a nice reminder of all that we have done, the places we have visited, the people we have met and the friendships we have made.

Ali then thanked the Ministry of Tourism, Omran, the advertisers in the book and the team for each playing their part in making the book and tour a success. He ended his speech saying “Promoting his country Bahrain and Oman is, has and always will be a subject close to his heart.” The evening closed with an exchange of commemorative gifts.

Tomorrow I leave the team and head back to Qatar. It has been a pleasure working with Haider, Shafik, Eleni and Ali on this tour.

I hope that I have managed to capture in words some of the flavor of the countries that we have visited to complement their wonderful pictures. I also hope that through this blog I have sparked your interested in visiting our final destination, Oman. Perhaps we will meet one day up a mountain, on a beach or in a wadi in this the “Jewel of the Middle East”.  

Sarah Clarke