The Cube

Nizwa, located about 140 km from Omani capital, Muscat is one of the oldest city in Oman. It was once a center of trade, religion, education and art. I flew in to Muscat from Cairo while sis flew to KL so I was on my own in Oman. 

I arrived Muscat closed to midnight but mobile phone providers were still open. I got a sim card, withdrew money from the ATM and tried to add my credit card to the taxi app, Otaxi but failed. It also didn't work when I tried outside of Oman. 

I withdrew enough money for my four days in Oman especially since the accommodation I booked on my night of arrival required cash payment. There is an option to pay cash with Otaxi which I tried for my ride from the airport to the hostel. Unfortunately, the taxi driver didn't have small change even though I paid OMR 10 for a OMR 7 taxi ride. Luckily I managed to get the hotel manager on the phone and he had small change to settle the taxi fare. I managed to add my credit card to Otaxi after checking in to the hotel but I didn't have the need to use it again. 

I booked a hostel within 15 minutes walk from the Burj Al Sahwa Bus Station and took bus route 54 scheduled to depart at 8:30 AM. For some unknown reasons to me, I can't seem to find bus route 54 from Mwasalat website, and the app refuse to load. I don't even know what confidence I had that I checked out of the hostel and made sure I reached the bus station before 8:30 AM to buy a bus ticket (OMR 2.50 one way) for this bus to go to Nizwa. The staff asked if I wanted to get the return ticket as well, so I did. I needed to show my passport and the ticket was printed with name, passport number and the actual bus timing. The link to the ticket was sent to me via a text message as I have an Omani mobile number. 

On boarding the bus, the driver will match the details with a piece of printed paper that they had. The stop to get off is Nizwa - Saal Pedestrian Bridge Towards Bahla. Female passengers were assigned to sit in the front of the bus. I read about this but forgot and promptly went to a sit further back in the bus. One of the passengers came and told me that I should move to the front of the bus. 

The walk from the bus stop (Nizwa - Saal Pedestrian Bridge Towards Bahla) to Nizwa Old Town is a short walk away. 

The village of Al-Aqr, also spelled as Al-Aqur or Al-Aqer is encircled by a wall which integrates the Nizwa Fort. The Al-Aqr Wall and Al-Aqr Square is about 1,950 meters long. The wall runs across date palm orchard and old mud houses. The wall includes six towers, the highest is at 13 meters.

Entrance fee: OMR 5

Nizwa Fort, also known as Al-Shahba because of its height and foretified strength. It was built by Imam Sultan bin Saif bin Malik Al-Yarubi during his reign (1649-1679 AD) and took 12 years to complete. Standing at 24 meters and has a diameter of 40 meters, it is the largest circular tower in the Arabian Peninsula. The fort is surrounded by an old wall that is 1200 years old, and connects to Al Aqr archaeological site. The fort has defensive characteristic, which include hot date syrup sumps to deter enemies. 

The built of the adjacent castle started in the last of 8th century and further expanded in the mid of the 9th century, and renewed during the reign of Imam Nasser bin Murshid Al-Yarubi (1624-1649 AD). Rooms within the castle includes date stores and for students.

Unfortunately, none of my days in Oman were Fridays so I had to give the goat market a miss. Nizwa Souq was still a good stroll though. There were different areas to segregate the goods for sale. The food market area seemed quieter, possibly during the time of visit in the evening but when many carried purchase of halwa. When I returned to the market area the next morning, the souq were busier, especially the East Souq.  

Just outside of the old city gate at the car park area, there were pop up food stalls in the evening. There is also a mini market a short walk away where I bought water and breakfast. The hotel staff cooked and offered me to have lunch with her which I gratefully accepted the invite. I got a takeaway from one of the nearby Yemeni restaurant, Yemeni Popularities. I can't remember the exact but it is likely a Yemeni version of biryani. I wanted to get some food from the pop up food stall for breakfast the next day but they gave me a samosa and currypuff each, and even gave me some sweet potato red bean sweet soup to taste. I wanted to pay but they refused any payment. 

Dinner the next day were some chicken skewers from the food stall, tahini and bread. 

Egypt's national food which consisted of rice, lentils, macaroni and vermicelli topped with tomato sauce, spicy chilli or garlic sauce and crispy fried onions. Sis doesn't like it, I'm ok with it but it did feel like combining leftovers carbs and mixing them up with some sauce. We first had it as part of tour to Saqqara/Memphis/Dahshur. We had it again for lunch after visiting Coptic Cairo because of limited choices available. 

Breakfast was included in our accommodations in Cairo and Siwa Oasis. We stayed in 3 different accommodations in Cairo because the hotel we booked was said to be on maintenance and they moved us to their sister hotel in the Garden City for the first 2 days. We had to move back to the initial hotel we booked for day 3. The hotel we initially booked (i.e. the one we stayed on day 3) was so bad that we booked a different hotel for our last day in Cairo before flying out. 

This refers to veggies stuffed with rice mixture. We had a few - mahshi warak enab (stuffed grape leaves), zucchinis, bell peppers and cabbage from different places. They were all delish!

We first had stuffed grape leaves in a restaurant named Oldish. While all the food we had there was delicious, we noticed price differences during checking the bill before payment. One of the dishes had a price increment of a few hundred Egyptian pounds and one of the drinks was cheaper by EGP 10. When we asked, we were told that they coincidentally had a price revision that day and had not had a chance to update their menu. This wasn't informed to us when we placed an order nor when they gave us the bill. After a couple of rounds of back and forth, they adjusted the price for both dish and drink, and claimed that they reluctantly gave us a "discount".

Molokhia or spelled as mulukhia is a green soup made of minced jute leaves and cooked in broth. I first learned of this from the Cooking Fever game. So when we first saw it in Oldish restaurant, we ordered it. It was also part of the home-cooked meal in Luxor. 

Egyptian goulash is nothing like the Hungarian goulash. The Egyptian goulash is a type of meat pie with the crust made of phyllo dough. We saw it on a menu and wanted to order it to try but was told that we needed to pre-order it. This was the only dish we told our Luxor hotel owner that we wanted to be included in the dinner. We were told that they didn't have meat but we didn't mind, so this version was made with chicken. We initially thought they were going to replace it with some vegetarian option but it was likely that they were referring to beef in this context as it is usually made with ground beef.  

I would say these are more popular outside of Egypt, I guess?

Ta'ameya is Egyptian's version of falafel that uses fava beans and usually eaten as breakfast. We ordered a portion at Abdo in Siwa Oasis when we were out for brunch. It was also included in our breakfasts in Siwa Oasis. The other one with bread was also for breakfast. We arrived back in Cairo from Siwa Oasis and saw a breakfast food cart when we walked to the hotel. We joined the locals, stood around the cart and ate. It came with fuul (broad or fava bean paste).

On arrival at Luxor, we asked the hotel owner for recommendation of food and he suggested this Wolf Restaurant which is just a few minutes walk away. We ordered tagine dishes - from memory, one was moussaka and the other fish tagine.   

Om Ali which is the Egyptian bread pudding.