This YouTube vlog ("WHAT OMAN IS REALLY LIKE + BIG NEWS!!!", Jan 20, 2018) follows Kara and Nate Buchanan on their first full day in Oman (their 67th country). They explore Mutrah/Mutra in Muscat—visiting the waterfront fish market, adjacent fruit & vegetable market, and the Mutrah souk—try local foods (fresh dates, hummus with chicken), comment on weather (sunny, high ~75°F in January), and plan a desert 4x4 trip. Interleaved are channel milestones: they reached 100,000 subscribers, tease a large giveaway (sending two viewers on a trip), and announce a Shorty Award nomination with a request to vote through February 22nd. The tone is enthusiastic and personal, focused on on-the-ground impressions and community updates.
Questions this video answers
Their 67th country.
It took over 30 hours to get there and they slept maybe two hours.
About a 10 minute walk.
Sunny with the high 75 (°F).
"One Armani Real, which is like $2.60."
Chapters
Sam.
We just had to interrupt this vlog because there's something super exciting that happened while we were sleeping and we wanted to celebrate it with you. Last night we got 100,000 subscribers.
It's crazy to think that this, like, oh, we're gonna take a one year off and go travel around the world has turned into three years.
And a YouTube channel. So this isn't the official celebration. We actually have really big plans to celebrate with 100k giveaway. It's going to be bigger than anything that we've ever done and it's going to involve sending two of you on an awesome trip.
One of our favorite adventures we've ever done.
So make sure to keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks. Back to the video. We just wanted to quickly say thank you.
Thank you.
Today is our first full day in our 67th country of Oman. It took us over 30 hours to get here and we slept maybe two of those hours. We basically slept all day yesterday.
We are staying in a part of Muscat called Mutra, I think is how you say it. It's supposed to have a couple really cool markets. So we're gonna go try to find those and also find some traditional cat fight, some traditional Omani food. This is like the first time we've ever spent time in the Middle east. So we're just excited to get out and go swimming.
Our hotel is only about a 10 minute walk from the coast. That's where we're heading now. And our first impressions on our walk so far is that Oman weather in January is perfect. Sunny with the high 75.
Everybody we've encountered has been so nice and everything here is white or gold and shiny and beautiful.
So far, Oman is unlike any place that we have ever been now. Loving it so far.
I love it.
This is just a sidewalk. Beautiful.
So I believe we just made it to the fish market, which is this big white fancy building behind me. According to Google Maps, it looks way fancier than I was expecting. Expecting. But this is Oman, so maybe this is what I should have expected.
Just. What?
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
He was funny. So we found ourselves in the fruit and vegetable market. Apparently it's connected to the fish market and that man really wanted to sell us some dates.
Plus, he really liked the camera and he was a lot of fun.
He was funny. So we took him up on his offer and we bought some dates for.
One Armani Real, which is like $2.60. I don't know if that's a good Deal or not? I assume not, since we bought it from the first person that we saw. But we have heard that dates are a big deal here in Oman. I love dates.
Oh, wow. Really good. It's like candy.
The only other time I've had fresh dates was in Morocco, but these are, like, so juic.
So this fish market is super organized, super clean, one of the least smelly fish markets we've ever been to. And everybody is so nice. We weren't really sure how the cameras were going to go over in this country. We kind of heard some mixed things, and so we've tried to be very cautious with it, but they totally love it. Like everybody we've asked if we could vote and they're like, yes, yes, yes.
Good. Very good. Thank you.
It's been great. Bye. Bye.
So the fish market is located right on the waterfront. And I believe on the other side of the waterfront is where the mutra souk is. And I believe suk means market in Arabic. Could be wrong on that, but it's supposed to be one of the coolest markets here in Muscat. So that's where we're going.
We have found the super. Looks like there's lots of cool little sous vides. We're gonna go check it.
This is reminding me so much of the souks in Morocco. That's the only time I've ever been anywhere that compares to this. It's just a never ending maze of alleyways. It's crowded with lots of people, but all the shop owners are burning incense and it smells fast.
It was tough, but we've made it out without buying anything. I was really tempted with the perfumes and the spices, but if I was gonna buy one thing, it would be the lance.
Oh, I was gonna say the swords. They have these really cool curved, like, dagger swords that I believe are like the Omani national symbol. And they are.
They, like, wear them on their belts. All right, what's next?
Food.
About to have our first umani food. Besides what we had for breakfast, which was hummus. Never had hummus for breakfast before. Thank you. There was also a lamb leopard, but.
We didn't have any of that.
Okay, so the first thing we ordered is hummus with chicken. And it looks so beautiful with a big old basket of pitas. There's even little pomegranate seeds on here.
Smells so good.
Making taco? Yeah, maybe. I think you, like, ripped the pita bread.
Let me start over. Nate says I was doing it wrong, so I'm just going to rip a Piece off and crack some now.
Oh my gosh. That's amazing. The hummus is so good, but the little crunchy of the pomegranate seed is so nice. Love this. We're going to be fighting over this.
Thank you.
The second thing we got is a full apple plate. That looks so good.
Lunch was delicious. I'm not sure if we nailed the traditional Omani food that we were going for. I think it actually might have been a Syrian restaurant, but either way it was really good. Now we're going to attempt to walk about a mile down the coastline to go to the old city of Muscat. From what I've read on the Internet, it's possible just to walk all the way along the coast. And since it feels so good today, even though it's over a mile away, we're just gonna walk it.
And we're trying to work off our Christmas weight.
And it's not a million degrees outside. I'm sure walking would be no fun in summer.
I think we found old Muscats. We're gonna go see what there is to see.
So we've stumbled upon this very big important looking building. Now would usually be the time that we would pull out our phone to figure out what we're looking at. Unfortunately we have T Mobile which works in 135 countries, but Oman is not one of those countries. So I don't know what this is. We'll have to like put a title or something so you can google it. I'm sure it's important. I'm sure I'm offending some people from Oman right now that I don't know what this is. But it's cool. It looks awesome.
The architecture in the old city is really cool. It was definitely worth the walk down here. Although I don't think many people walk because we get honked at by at least 20 taxi drivers on the way here.
I don't know why though, because it's beautiful out.
I assume like 90% of the year it's too hot to walk, but today it was perfect.
I love Oman. I love the people. Everybody like smiles and waves and says hello when you walk by. Everything is so beautiful. We just really had no idea what to expect. So I'm just really glad we had a good first day cuz we have a week in Oman. If we didn't like, today would have.
Been a long week was absolutely, absolutely fantastic. Like I was a little nervous because of how spread out the city is, but this was like the best walking day of just like Wander around and run into cool stuff.
Yeah, those are my favorite days.
Now we have about an hour walk back to our hotel.
Hopefully we'll catch the sunset on the way back.
That wraps up our first day tomorrow. We are renting a four wheel drive vehicle and going into the desert.
And we're back. The last 48 hours has just been crazy. In addition to hitting 100,000 subscribers, we have also been nominated for a Shorty Award, which is kind of a big deal.
An award people like Casey Neistat, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart, huge people have gotten. Shorty Awards. We're not in that category. We're in the travel category with a lot of really awesome people. So we are so excited.
But we need your help if we're gonna win. The winner is determined partially by a vote, so it would really help us out if you could vote. We will put a link in the description below. You can vote every day now through.
February.
Twenty something.
Okay. You can vote every day now through February 22nd. Obviously you don't have to vote every single day, but it would really help us out if you could vote at least once. We would really appreciate it if you want.
No pressure, but.
Every day.
Thank you so much, guys. I just like, still, these are two, like, really huge things that have happened in the last 48 hours and. And yeah, it's just.
We're so happy. Thank you so much. There's a cat.
I was like, what is in my lap right now? I thought I had spilled my drink or something.
