If there is a positive note to Oman, it's the friendliness of the people and their competence at the airport. Compared to the hassle and archaic nature of the airports this one was expensive but a breeze to tackle. Again, fortunately, handling wasn't mandatory but it was a straightforward process to ensure our flight plan was filed, our bills were paid, and our precious avgas could be tanked. This was helpful because I'd be lying if I said the all-you-can drink wine buffet wasn't showing any after effects.

We were able to set off from the sprawling Muscat airport just in time . Before our departure an emir (?) of the UAE (?) was arriving and departing again so the runway was closed. After takeoff we heard that plane's pilot get further routing and they were being declared a V-VIP. Other planes were having to hold over the airport and clear the airspace while the V-VIP was on on the move.

Our flight path had us going right between Dubai and Abu Dhabi so that a quite a sight with the skyscrapers on both sides and seeing the man made palm-shaped reclaimed lands. It was too hazy though to make out too much. The Persian Gulf had lots of activity both on the water and in the air. Still, fortunately, it was a relatively uneventful flight.

Flying in to Kuwait was also lackluster. The controller had his hands full and wanted us to keep up speed, which was fun. But the countryside was flat, brown, and boring. As expected, there were oil fields but really not much else to stand out from the brown haze . Fortunately we followed the ILS in because the haze was such that it was tough to make out the airport less than 10 miles out.

There wasn't more than an hour and half between all of our various arrivals. It was odd and rare that we weren't the last ones by a long shot. Everyone refueled and we received a couple barrels again of our precious. The ride to the hotel showed us a brief glimpse of dreary, brown, murky, Kuwait. The architecture reminded me of a brown-version of Minsk or Homel, Belarus, just with more wealth and nicer cars. Granted, we were holed up close to the airport and I'm just judging by the suburbs, but still, there wasn't a park or reprieve from the monotony anywhere that I could make out. Dinner in the hotel and an early night closed out the day.

Routing from Muscat (OOMS) to Kuwait (OKBK):
MCT L764 IVETO PAXIM P899 ITRAX ROVOS G462 ITROK N563 RULEX A453 KUA at FL160 and a flight time of 5h10m