World Tourist Destinations

Muscat, the capital city, is the pulsating heart of the country. Popularly known as "Arabia's jewel”, Muscat lies sparkling white, topped with golden minarets in the middle of a maze of brown pleated mountains that reach down to the Arabian Sea.

The older part of the city has many forts, castles, mosques and towers dotting the landscape. Of particular note are Jalali and Mirani Forts flanking Al Alam Palace. Among the city highlights are the majestic architecture of the Royal Opera House beaming with plays and performances of international stature and the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the Corniche with its promenade, and the old souq of Muttrah - an ideal spot to buy souvenirs and treasures.
Greater Muscat showcases eminent business properties, world-class highways, upscale suburbs rooted in traditional Islamic architecture, elegant mosques, large green parks, archaeological sites, museums and world-class hotels. The intermingling of ancient cultural heritage and modern style allows Oman to preserve its historic character while enjoying its contemporary spirit.

For culture buffs, Muscat is conveniently located for trips to explore the Nizwa Fort, the 400-year-old town of Al Hamra, the rocky terrain of Jebel Shams or the coastal Sur. For families, what better way to bond together than over fun experiences like bumpy rides on rolling sand dunes, whale and dolphin-spotting experiences or simply relaxing at a Bedouin camp. For adrenalin junkies, Muscat is the gateway to go wadi bashing through the Wadi Shab, sand dune bashing at the Wahiba Sands, embark on a mountain safari through the Hajjar mountains, quad biking, trekking or caves exploring.

One of the must-visit destinations in Oman is Sur, a placid coastal town, famous for its dhow shipyards (and presumed home of the legendary Sinbad the Sailor) with an en route stop at the Wadi Shab.
Nizwa, with its historical buildings and imposing fort, is also famous for its souq that sells everything from local artefacts, spices, dates, gold and silverware. See the silversmiths hammer patterns into the hilts of khanjars. Amble through the souk for a glimpse of the traditional Omani lifestyle.

The awe-inspiring Wahiba Sands are a vast mass of red and white sand with dunes rising up to 150 meters. Experience life at the Bedouin camps in the desert where Bedouin herders still wander from waterhole to waterhole.
Another must-visit is the Ras Al Jinz for turtle-watching. It the only place in the world where you can watch the nesting process of the endangered green turtles, the loggerhead turtle, the hawksbill turtle and the Olive Ridley turtle.
Nicknamed as the "Norway of the Middle East" because of the inlets likened to Norway's fjords, Musandam offers amazing views of fjords in placid waters, marine life and secluded beaches.

Oman has some of the best beaches along its 1700 km long coastline. From the placid waves and stillness of the sea to the crashing surf and palm fringed shores of golden sand, Oman’s pristine beaches and quiet coves with its rugged and rocky coastline are thoroughly enthralling.

Enjoy swimming, diving, snorkeling, boating, surfing and beach combing at the popular Qurum beach, Bandar Al-Jissah, Sawadi beach or Al Bustan beach. See the beautiful coral reef formations and marine life whilst diving off Daymaniyat Islands or around Muscat. The Oman Dive Centre, located at a private cove between Qantab and Barr Al Jissah, is an ideal place for those who’d like to learn diving or take advanced diving courses while on a holiday in the sun.
Discover Oman, a magical country in the Arabian Gulf.

When Tushar Ramaswami splurged a decent chunk of his savings on a family holiday to Europe, he expected it to be a trip to remember. “We booked a 10-day package tour, but the schedule was so hectic that we did not get any time to do the things we would really have liked,” he rues.
It is experiences like Ramaswami’s that have set off a new trend dubbed ‘untravel’. With an ocean of information readily available at the click of a button, people are increasingly opting for offbeat holidays, steering clear of package tours. “Of late, many of our customers have been coming to us with requests to plan only certain details of their vacation; they work out most of the schedule themselves,” says Bangalore-based travel agent Prakash Pillai.
“For me, the whole thrill of travelling starts right from doing the groundwork,” says Pallavi Baruah, a working professional and avid traveller. “Recently, I went on a road trip from Delhi to Bhutan that I chalked out myself. It was an exhilarating experience, discovering something new at every stage of the journey.”
The new crop of holidaymakers are looking for experiences beyond shopping and sightseeing, and even if they approach travel advisors, it is with a specific idea in mind. According to Nikhil Gupta, Director, Travel Bazaar, “Often people have a concept for a holiday, but they don’t know how to go about organising it, nor do they have much knowledge of the costing point. This is where we come into play.”
Arjun Mangaram wanted an action-packed bachelor trip before his wedding in December. With his heart set on Amsterdam, he approached his travel agent to organise the trip, complete with a pub crawl. “While we could have easily booked the flight and hotel in Amsterdam ourselves, meticulously planning out the pub crawl would have proved a tall order. The agents did an excellent job of planning out the entire schedule to meet my requirements to the last T,” explains Mangaram.
There are others though who are willing to spend the extra hour researching and organising their experience holidays themselves. Vishesh J, 24, recently got back from such a trip to New Zealand, full of adventure. “Although it was a family holiday I had no intention to listlessly while away my time. While my parents wanted a relaxed trip, I did all my homework online before we left Bangalore, and lined up a number of activities, including bungee-jumping, a WTV trek, parasailing and free-falling, for my time in Kiwi-land.” Vishesh contacted the agents who organise these events and did all the necessary preparations before leaving India.
Travel experts give out a caveat though on personalised trips. “Many of these offbeat holidays need to be organised through small websites or operators, which may not be as safe as the established sites. Additionally, customers will incur about 3.5% transaction fee while making payments with credit cards online,” points out travel agent Anil Kumar.
Some ‘experiences’ may also be hard to coordinate online. For instance, a whiskey tasting tour in the highlands of Scotland or a trek to Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa are excursions which don’t come at the click of a button. Agents here who have tie-ups with local operators abroad specialising in such theme-based outings can come in handy.
Travel agents themselves now offer unique experiences for those who want go off the beaten track. One can take a tour inside of Opera House in Sydney, for instance, or walk right under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or enter a pyramid in Egypt. “I was not even aware of such a thing. When I was planning a quiet getaway with my husband for our first wedding anniversary, my agent suggested we go to Paris. He organised a walk through the Eiffel Tower. By sundown we ended up at the top of the tower, and the city looked beautiful all lit up. It was a wonderful experience,” says Smita Joshi.
g_supriya@dnaindia.net

Most of my time in Doha was spent either in an air-conditioned bus that took me through the city’s lanes, dotted with towering skyscrapers and five star hotels, or inside the plush rooms of those hotels. A few things I learned quickly about the city: no one really walks in Doha, not before 6pm anyway. The heat is excruciating, especially in the months before winter, which starts November.
Riding on the bus, I could see that living in Doha is like living in two cities at the same time. A large part of it presents largely Islamic architecture, with pale-coloured single or two-storeyed buildings concealing lavish interiors. The other part is all looming structures, coming up at a frantic pace. Among clusters of skyscrapers are more skyscrapers, many of them in different stages of construction. It’s a new development, our tour guide tells us, as part of Doha’s 2030 plan.
It seems like the city wants to be the new Dubai, only better. The plan got a boost with Qatar winning the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the smallest nation ever to have done so. The country aims to have a fully functional metro system across the city before the start of the WC, the first of its kind in the Middle-East. But it’s the skyscrapers that are transforming the skyline the most; 300 of them are planned with more than 100 already in the final stages of development. And all of this for a city that doesn’t even have too many people living there yet, but is just preparing for the influx.
Qatar’s oil and natural gas resources have kept it self-sufficient and thriving, but it seems they are looking at newer avenues now. The Qatari administration, I was told, wants to encourage international MNCs to enter Doha and create job opportunities for locals, and to attract people from other countries to come and work there.
But there are cultural considerations to be kept in mind. The city has a strict code of conduct. Alcohol is available only in five star hotels, and only to select Qataris with permits to consume it indoors. Will opening up Doha to foreigners change all that? If a Dubai-like lifestyle has to be adopted, Doha needs to find a middle path where the religious and cultural traditions it so values can co-exist with modernity and the influx of a diverse population.
The World Cup seems like the perfect excuse for change. Alcohol laws will be relaxed for the event, for example, the first time ever. For the kind of experience that Dubai offers, where tourists and locals feel liberated in addition to living a comfortable life, Doha needs to adapt. And it looks like it’s ready for it too. It’s a city in transition, one that isn’t content to be identified as rich, but wants to be considered accessible too.

Savanur, an erstwhile princely state, and the headquarters of Savanur Taluk in Haveri District in Karnataka, is not listed as a tourist spot. But it is the only place in India where three giant baobabs stand together. The baobab (scientific name Adansonia Digitata), is a type of tree native to Africa, and is almost impossible to hack down as it regenerates quickly from the roots. Yet, when their time is up, the trees vanish, leaving little more than a heap of fibres behind, and no one can tell what a giant it once was.
A few years back, a few of us students were out doing field research for our Masters thesis. I was working on the receding cultivation of betelvine in Savanur. After the day’s work, we asked our autorickshaw driver and guide if there were other places nearby that might interest us. He told us about these trees. “How different a tree can be?” we thought.
Were we wrong! In full bloom, the tree was impressive. Three 2,000-year-old trees stand tall in face of water shortage and unbearable heat. They look like guardians of Savanur, or like the trees that come to life to protect middle earth in Lord of the Rings. With a thick, greyish-brown trunk, the tree looked like it had been planted upside down, with roots for branches. Three of them together resemble a small forest. The thickest baobab is 15.5m tall with girth of 15.7m. The second reaches a height of 16.4m and girth of 12.92m. The last one stands at 15.7m with a girth of 12.62m.
The bark looks swollen because it can store thousands of gallons of water. Incidentally, this is what sustains the tree even in the most arid soil. In parts of Africa, people access this water by cutting off branches (which later grow back).
According to legend, baobabs were the first trees on earth. In Savanur, locals believe that Lord Krishna planted the baobabs with seeds he got from Africa. It is also believed that the tree can prevent decomposition of a body, and that food kept under the tree does not spoil.
In recent years, people have reported seeing baobabs in Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Raichur, but never in a cluster as in Savanur, and not as tall or as wide as these. The largest known baobab in the world is reportedly in a farm in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. Tall at 22 metres and with a circumference of 47 meters, the tree’s hollow was cleared by the farm owners to create a pub inside the tree.

English-born Indian journalist Monisha Rajesh is no Phileas Fogg. Yet it was this popular Victorian hero of the Jules Verne classic Around The World In 80 Days that inspired her journey. While Verne’s Fogg undertook a journey across the seas and continents, Monisha’s journey was more personal. It was her way of discovering her motherland, India. As a tribute to Verne’s classic, Monisha kept her travel companion’s name a secret, preferring to call him ‘Passepartout’.
Monisha and Passepartout spent four months travelling 40,000km across the country’s length and breadth. She wanted to allow the country, in all its colourful, smelly, crowded, noisy and chaotic glory, to impress her. The Indian Railways, in that regard, did not fail.
Some of her journeys trumped the others in that they afforded more colourful characters, breathtaking views or just unusual experiences. Here they are.

Train number 64 was special because it took Rajesh closer to the northernmost point of the Indian Railways, at Udhampur. She was alone on this, but she found company in Arun, a Cochin resident who among other things taught her how to make her bed. “You have travelled on 64 trains and you still do not know how to make up a bed?” was his introductory line. Then after making her bed to hotel precision, the self-confessed ‘train fan’ proceeded to explain what the numbers painted on the outside of trains meant, how to calculate the age of a carriage and how to tell engines apart. For instance, if the number on the coach was 88432, it meant the carriage was built in 1988. If the last three digits were between 401 and 600 it meant that the coach was a general second class, if they were between 201 and 400, it was a sleeper. Thus, subtracting 401 from 432 gave 31 which meant the coach was the 31st coach built that year. “I really wish I had met him much earlier. It would have made travelling much easier,” says Rajesh. Arun was also indicative of a very Indian trait, “They will just strike up a conversation, even after eavesdropping, and teach you stuff they know,” she adds.

For most people travelling the Mumbai to Goa route, the Mandovi Express is usually a luxury that cannot be afforded because it takes the whole day. But Rajesh loved it so much that she travelled that route twice. “The first time I slept through most of the journey,” says Rajesh. “The next time round, I made sure I had the best seat in the house”. The best seat, at the doorway of the carriage, arms linked through the railings and feet dangling below, was soon to become Rajesh’s favourite spot. “I could just reach out and feel the leaves, the rocks and the water dripping down the mountainside...it was beautiful”. Having always travelled in the London tubes with a clear glass wall separating the inside and outside, Rajesh was thrilled to “participate in the journey”.

“We had seen it on the telly, people had warned us about it...but we were keen on experiencing the phenomenon that is ‘rush hour’,” says Rajesh. After a month of smooth rides, Rajesh and Passepartout wanted to spice things up a bit. Their journey from VT to Parel was pleasant enough, ignoring the fact that “the series of hooked metal handholds gave the creepy feeling of being trapped in a human abattoir”. It was their return that gave them a true experience of a super dense crush load. It started at the platform. Oblivious to the fact that incoming trains generally have people hanging out of it, the duo revelled in their luck at finding a 2m gap between the crowd and the edge of the platform. They realised their mistake once the “hordes of men rained down on us, with monsoon force, while the rows behind began to heave forward”. That lesson apart, Rajesh loved Mumbai’s locals because they made travelling alone extremely easy and there was always entertainment of some sort handy. While seated in the ladies compartment, a fight broke out over a seat, between a Punjabi lady and a hawker. After a couple of minutes of shoving and pulling hair, the hawker got off and the lady went and sat down. “It was as if nothing had happened,” says Rajesh.

One of India’s luxury trains, The Golden Chariot was a palace on wheels. “I was curious because the UK press are very gung ho about India’s luxury trains and there are plenty of people who come to India just to take these luxury trains,” says Rajesh. Her fondness for the Golden Chariot over the Indian Maharaja Deccan Odyssey stemmed from the fact that it had more Indian tourists than westerners. “Being on a train with westerners fits every cultural stereotype they are attached with, and whenever they step out they garner a lot of attention. With Indians, it is like being part of one big family and you are not treated differently,” she says. Being amidst so many Indians also helped Rajesh ignore the fact that they were in a capsule, despite it being very well-furnished. The Golden Chariot also covered a route that is usually not accessible by train, Bangalore-Kabini-Mysore-Hassan-Hospet-Badami-Vasco. From the carved wonders at Hampi to the heritage churches at Old Goa on Easter Sunday., Rajesh had a taste of the cultural diversity that one passes by on a train ride in India.

Monisha Rajesh’s journey has been documented in her debut book, Around India In 80 Trains.