David Foran and Fintan Gillespie WEEK NINE:After seven days in the spectacular and ultramodern United Arab Emirates we crossed into the sultanate of Oman. They're used to foreign cars crossing this border, as many expats come to Oman for breaks from the fast-paced cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The sultan, Qaboos bin Said, has opened the country to tourism over the past 20 years and tried to ensure that it has not damaged the country's beauty, peaceful atmosphere or identity.
Like most other centres of population here, Muscat, the captial, is on the Gulf of Oman. Our two days in this spotlessly clean low-rise city coincided with the Olympic torch relay. It was a hugely hyped - and slightly disappointing - procession, involving a ridiculous amount of security around the torch-bearer we saw.
Heading south along the coast, we stopped at Oman Dive Centre, in a picturesque cove in Bandar Jissah. We could only stop on its stunning beach for a day, as its accommodation huts are so popular that they were booked solid for three months.
Heading south again, skirting the Hajjar Mountains, we passed through the dhow- building town of Sur, which has been the regional centre for this traditional activity for more than 300 years.
In the intense desert heat we reached our final stop in Oman, Ras Al-Hadd, the easternmost point of the Arabian Peninsula. The nearby Ras Al-Jinz beach is hugely popular with travellers, as it is a nesting site for the endangered green turtle. We took a guided tour of the government-protected beach, to witness these gentle giants nesting.
Back in Muscat we met an official from the Saudi Arabian embassy, as we wanted to travel through the country to Jordan. It is notoriously difficult to enter Saudi Arabia, which doesn't issue tourist visas. With luck by next week we'll have obtained a transit visa, hammered through the kingdom and be writing from Jordan or Egypt. If not, we'll more than likely be back in Iran and travelling towards Turkey.
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