Nate and Kara Buchanan document a budget trip from Muscat, Oman to Dubai by bus. The vlog follows their day: buying inexpensive grocery lunch, taking taxis to local buses, transferring to a long-distance bus with plugs/Wi‑Fi, passing through an Oman exit stamp, a roughly one-hour border process (including a separate UAE entry inspection where Kara’s unlabeled medicines were temporarily held), and arriving in Dubai around 10:20. They note cost savings (bus ~30 for both vs ~US$100 per person to fly), that this will be their 68th country if the crossing goes well, and end by walking to a budget Airbnb and previewing a cruise the next day.
Questions this video answers
75 cents
30 (currency not specified) for both
68th country
About one hour
6:45 (AM/PM not specified in transcript)
Chapters
I would say it's one of the easiest and most pleasant border crossing experiences we've ever had. I take back everything it says.
Today is, unfortunately, our last day in Oman. We are taking a bus from Muscat to Dubai, and it's going to be a super budget backpacker kind of day.
Starting with budget lunch from the grocery store, which actually looks really delicious. We got these beautiful salads with cheese and olives and peppers for, like, less than a dollar.
Chapati. Fresh chapati.
And hummus. This entire thing of hummus costs 75 cents. If you were to try to buy this back in the US it would cost at least $5 for, like, fresh, fresh, delicious hummus. So after we finish lunch, we are going to jump in a taxi that's going to take us to a local bus station. Then from that local bus station, we go to another local bus station where we get on a bigger bus. And then ultimately, that bigger bus takes us to Dubai.
It's going to be a long travel day.
That was like the Cliff Notes version of the entire vlog. So the rest of the vlog is just a much longer version of that.
And just to give you an idea of how much money we're saving, it's probably like $100 a person to fly from Muscat to Dub. And the bus cost 30 for both of us, so we thought it was worth it, and we'll get to see some more of the countryside.
All right, first thing we have to do is find a taxi and then try to negotiate them down to two real, because that's what the lady at the desk told us that it should be.
Here we go. Travel day begins. Today's travel day looks a lot different than the last travel day.
We had.
No lounges today.
No airplane, no airports.
No lounge food.
It shouldn't take too long. Anytime we walk down the road, at least 10 taxi drivers honk at us. Now that we have all of our stuff, nobody's home.
Comes. We got it. We got it. We got it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right, we're looking for bus number one. We know when it's leaving.
Have a good feeling. We're leaving. It turns out that one's full.
Next bus is here.
Still on schedule.
All right, step two is complete. We took the local bus to the bigger bus station. Now, hopefully, we can get tickets for Dubai here, because we don't have those yet.
Yes, one way.
In six hours, we're going to be in our 68th country. 68.
68. That is assuming that the Border crossing goes well. From everything I've read, we don't need a visa to go to the United Arab Emirates, but we do have have to cross a border on the bus on the way there.
We'll see how that goes. I plan on getting on my computer and using up the two hours of battery that I get without a charge. Do we have plugs?
Got plugs.
And then we brought some snacks. And there's movie screens, but I don't know if they'll be in English.
Probably not.
It's gonna be an exciting ride.
Bus is super comfortable.
It is. The AC is great. I have WI fi.
Sam.
It is 6:45. The bus has just stopped. Everybody seems to be getting off. I'm assuming that we're at the border and I'm probably not gonna be able to use.
And we are officially stamped out of Oman.
And we got ice cream.
One of the more pleasant border crossings. Now we're jumping back on the bus, driving a little ways, and then I assume we'll get stamped into the United Arab Emirates.
We are at the UAE border.
I think.
We are officially stamped into the uae. I would say it's one of the easiest and most pleasant border crossing experiences we've ever had.
We didn't have to, like, get out in the parking lot and dump all of our suitcases out for people to loop through.
It's great.
And it's about 7:30. The border crossing took about an hour. And now I think we have two or three hours left until we get to Dubai.
That was so interesting.
I take back everything I said. Not the easiest, not the most pleasant. We just hadn't made it to customs yet.
It was pleasant. It just wasn't expected.
We still haven't talked about this carriage. Just had this silly grin on her face ever since she got back. We got separated.
That's better. I'll try to keep it short and simple. After we got back on the bus going through customs into the uae, we stopped again. And the guy got on and counted everybody. Then he comes back around and tells half the bus to get off with our stuff. So we get off. They tell me to go stand over by myself and everybody else to go. Oh, maybe because I'm the only girl.
Yeah, for sure. It was all dudes in my.
Okay, I go in this government building with this beautiful lady and there's all these guys in there too. But, like, I'm in the room with her. She goes through every pocket and every zipper of everything that I have, which.
Is so much to give you Some perspective. There were probably 20 guys in the room that I had to go to, and Kara's inspection took longer than all of ours.
So she literally opened everything, which is great. Like, I'm all about safety. That was her job. Then she did a good job. But she found my medicine bag, which has a bunch of medicine in it that's not labeled because bottles take up a lot of room. Anyways, she takes it away and she's like, I have to take this because it's not labeled. So I had to write down what all of them were. Some of them I kind of guessed. I was pretty sure most of them were. So she takes it and gives it to this guy and he's like, we have to check all of. And if we don't know exactly what they are, we have to keep them. And I'm like, great, just keep them. It's fine. I have to catch the bus. And he's like, no, it's okay. And I'm like, no, really. And he's like, go sit down. So I go sit down with this lady and she's like, do you want some tea? And I was like, yeah. And so she brought me some hot tea. It is so yummy. And we're just chatting back there. Like, I totally forgot the bus.
She was looking at all my passport stamps.
Everybody else was on the bus. I was getting really worried. Like, everybody just sat here and waited on Kara for 15 minutes.
So then this guy walks in and gives her a thumbs up and she's like, here you go. And hands me my medicine and my passport.
It's similar experience. He just opened up all of my bottles and I didn't know if he spoke English well, so I just said like, stomach, head. He opened up one pocket and he was like, camera? And I was like, yeah. And then he was like, where's the medicine? So they're strict about that. Okay, now we have two hours till Dubai.
It is 1020 and we have just arrived in Dubai. Now we are standing on the street trying to figure out where our Airbnb is. To complete our backpacker day, we have decided to walk to the place that we're staying tonight. Riding an escalator over the road right now, I've also seen two Ferraris in a Lamborghini already.
Made it. This bed is a rock.
In our 20 minute walk to our place, we learned that we are not in Oman anymore. But it's been a pretty uneventful day. Besides my tea party on the border and our walk back.
Looking forward to seeing more of Dubai, but it won't be tomorrow because we're getting on a ship.
So tomorrow is basically going to be the complete opposite of the backpacker day that we had today. We're getting on a cruise, but we're.
Going back to Dubai in seven days, and we're going to be here first.
I'm tired.
Window? Yeah, the usual.
What are you doing? I'm hungry. I miss Oman.
Looking forward to exploring Dubai? That's all I got.
