After saying goodbye to our team member Sarah and Waleed from the museum in Doha, we drove to Saudi Arabia and then to Abu Dhabi airport to pick up Eleni who arrived from Greece to join us. Eleni first met the Friendship Arabia team in Thassos during our Bahrain to Greece expedition and was fascinated with the idea of the tour. She asked if she could join one of our trips and was all the more interested in this tour since she had visited Oman last year and fallen in love with it.

The drive from Doha to Abu Dhabi airport was long -- 610 kms in fact -- and  when we met Eleni it was quite late at night. Still, we decided to drive to Al Buraymi in Oman, since we had a meeting with Governor Ebrahim Al Busaidi the following morning. Al Busaidi who is chairman of the photography club in Oman, knows team members Haider and Shafeeq from a photography trip they had done earlier.

We checked in at our hotel and had a good sleep after all the driving we did over the past two days. In the morning, after breakfast we drove to the Governor's office. We spoke about photography and how we could work together to promote Al Buraymi not only as a stopover destination in Oman, but one where tourists can truly explore. Al Busaidi gave us some information about some areas of interests for tourists. 

Later, we visited two markets and a fort. Oman has more than 500 forts, most of them with unique architecture. We had lunch at our hotel (Al Salam) and later met the general manager, Jamal Al Safar who was curious and very interested in the branding of our two vehicles. He asked us about our trip and then made himself available for the entire afternoon so he could show us some places that tourists do not know about. We followed him to an area called Al Khadra meaning "the green in Mahdah". It is a beautiful place for tourists to explore and great for a walking tour.

He asked us if we would like to see the 5-star hotel they are building which will open on 12/12/12 and he gave us an invitation for the opening.

We then returned to the hotel and we met Yaqoob Bin Karam, chairman of Bin Karam Modern Investment Group, who made us feel very welcome. He was fascinated with idea of the promotion trip for his country and  assured us of his complete support for any future trip to promote Oman.

On every tour, we have always come across interesting people, people who love their job like Al Safar and people who are committed to giving something back to their country like Bin Karam.

Ali Mushaima