Birkat Al Mouz - Nizwa

Thu 25/12/25

It was 7 am in the morning when we left the airport and made our way to our destination today, Jabal Shams with a few stops along the way.

Our first stop was a café, Bait Al Sabah at Birkat Al Mouz, a historic Omani village with abandoned clay and mud-brick houses, banana and date plantations, and the UNESCO-listed Falaj Al Khatmeen irrigation system,  at the foothills of Jebel Akhdar. There are many abandoned villages with clay and mud-brick houses around Oman that we encountered during our 10 day visit, and this is one of them.

I came across the café while searching for accommodation, but unfortunately it was fully booked. So I decided to just visit the café.

The village is located 132km from Muscat airport, which took about 1h30mins on the highway which did not have any tolls.  We arrived at the café at 8.30am and we had latte and cappuccino for 3.4 OMR (about RM 36). The café is located in an old house built of mud that was recently restored to be a heritage inn. The café have a four legged mascot. 

the cafe cat

our coffee

the old village view from the cafe rooftop

After having coffee on the rooftop, we strolled around the surrounding abandoned village with the falaj drainage system and enjoyed the views. 

view behind the village

old mud brick houses

falaj irrigation system

at the top of the old village

falaj going through the mud brick houses

mudbrick houses

From Birkat Al Mouz, we made our way to Nizwa town to buy some groceries at Lulu hypermarket. After buying groceries, we went for lunch at Turath al Mandi restaurant. We had lamb shuwa with mixed rice for 3 OMR (about RM 33) , lamb or goat marinated in a rich spice blend (including coriander, cumin, cardamom, cloves, garlic) then slow-cooked for hours, traditionally in an underground sand oven (tanor). It was delicious! We were also given black tea free of charge. 

lamb shuwa

sitting on the floor style

We then walked to the Nizwa souq next door for a quick visit to take pictures since it was already 12.30pm, the souq would be closed during the afternoon hour from 1pm and re-open at 4pm. We didn't buy anything here, just taking notes of the souvenirs that we would buy from the souq in Muscat later. 

Nizwa souq entrance door

Nizwa souq

Nizwa souq

Nizwa souq

Nizwa souq food section

halwa or sweets 

We also took some pictures outside of Nizwa fort, just next to the Nizwa souq.

Nizwa fort is behind

We then headed for our final destination today Jabal Shams where we would be staying for 2 nights. 

KUL-MCT

Wed 24/12/25

We would be taking a 10 day trip, starting from Muscat to Jabal Shams, Misfat al Abriyeen, Al Hamra, Bahla, Wadi Shab and back to Muscat. We would spend 2 days in Muscat before returning to Kuala Lumpur  with our flight back scheduled at 1235 pm. For this trip, we booked our tickets through Qatar Airways, part of the OneWorld alliance. In this trip, we transited at Doha (DOH)  before arriving at Muscat (MCT), Oman. We bought our ticket about a month (end Nov) before the departure date (24 Dec). Our return trip ticket cost RM 8524 per person. 

Traffic looked normal, so we decided to take a Grab ride to KLIA at 3.30pm. It started to rain at 4pm and traffic started to build up. We arrived at KLIA at 5 pm.  After checking in and immigration clearance using the MyBorderPass app, we made our way to MH's Golden Lounge at the airside, after taking the aerotrain. We went to the Platinum side where there were less people so we had a bit of time to relax and enjoyed dinner of scallop and beef steak before it was time for boarding. We departed on time at 8pm.

soup

steak

scallop

dessert

I chose seat 1K on the starboard (right) side facing rearwards this time as I wanted direct access to the window. We were given the Diptyque amenity kit and pajamas. 

I chose the pepper crusted tuna and poached tiger prawn for starters, braised lamb shank with peppercorn jus as main course, cheese platter and and ice cream for dessert (it was great!). For light snack, I had peppered beef sandwich on sourdough. I had mint tea for the pre departure drink. 

pepper crusted tuna and poached tiger prawn

braised lamb shank with peppercorn jus

cheese platter

ice cream

let's sleep

peppered beef sandwich on sourdough

We arrived Doha at 10.35pm. We still had about 3 hours before our next flight to Muscat at 1.50am so we made our way to Al Safwa lounge to have our prayers, shower a bit (I was given a spa room) and have some meal of salmon sashimi and arabic coffee which were not served in flight (perhaps because it was a night flight). The meals here are only ala carte (no buffet) which need to be ordered.

spa room

spa room with shower and toilet

prayer room

salmon sashimi

We then made our way to the boarding gate and took the bus with special seats for "First" class. Our short flight of 1hour 35 min from DOH to MCT is marketed as "First" Class, but is similar to Business Class. I chose lemon and thyme chicken with herbed mashed potatoes; and orange and pistachio basbousa as dessert for the short flight.

First class bus seating

our "First" class seat

lemon and thyme chicken with herbed mashed potatoes; and orange and pistachio basbousa

We landed Muscat on time at 4.30 am. Immigration was smooth, I didn't have to show my itinerary print outs, just some random questions from immigration. This time we had Wise card, so we withdrew cash of 320 OMR from the ATM with a competitive exchange rate of 1 OMR = 10.7 RM. We did change 76 OMR in Malaysia (with exchange rate of 1 OMR = 11.5 RM) 

We then picked up our rental car (Thrifty, at the airport parking) at 6 am. Our car was a Toyota Yaris Sedan. The rental cost OMR 316 (about RM 3380) for 10 days. There is only 1 USB port and we couldn't connect our phone navigation to the car display.

our Yaris rental car

We opted for 15 day Maxis roaming for RM99 per person 

It was 7 am in the morning when we left the airport and made our way to our destination today, Jabal Shams with a few stops along the way.

MXP-KUL

Sun 21/9/25

Since breakfast is only ready at 8am, we ventured out to Lake Garda and Malcesine town first at 7am so we could take pictures before the crowds come in. There were people jogging by the lake too in the morning. We planned to buy some croissant and apple strudel at the bakery which opens at 7.30am, but when we arrived there, most of the bread and pastries were not ready yet.

by Lake Garda in the morning

Castello Scaligero in the background

Malcesine town centre with the mountains in the background

Lake Garda in the background

So we returned back to the hotel and had our breakfast before packing our bags, taking pictures at the balcony of our room and checking out at 10am. Yes, the check out time here is very early. 

breakfast at the hotel

Lake Garda from our room balcony

We walked again to Malcesine town to the bakery, but the pistachio croissant wasn't available, so we settled for plain croissant, jam croissant and apple strudel. We spent a bit more time sitting at the bench enjoying the views at the lake, before returning to the hotel and making our journey back to Milan at 12 noon.

Lake Garda at Malcesine

We drove along Lake Garda until exiting to the highway at Casello di Peschiera. We stopped by at the Islamic Culture Centre at Saronno for prayers, and then planning to have late lunch at a nearby halal restaurant. However, we couldn't find a parking spot, so we had to forego the plan and continued onwards to Milan Malpensa airport to return our rental car at P2 parking lot. We also stopped by a petrol station to fuel up on the way to the airport.

Islamic Culture Centre at Saronno outside

Islamic Culture Centre at Saronno inside

We arrived at the airport earlier than planned at 5pm. We had a cheese pizza at the food court while waiting for the Qatar airways check in counter to open at 7.30pm. Our flight was scheduled at 11pm

cheese pizza

Finally we checked in at the counter at 7.45pm, was given a fast track boarding pass for the security check, but the immigration queue was still long. Some people were cutting queues to catch their flight, we just let them pass as we still had time. 

We went to the Sala Montale lounge after immigration check, but there were so many people with limited food at the buffet counter. We had a sandwich, chickpeas, chips and water while waiting for for boarding at 10.15pm At about 9.30pm there were less people and calmer. Partner In Crime tried to book the shower but was told it was fully booked.

Sala Montale lounge

Our flight was on time. We sat shortly at the gate before being called for boarding. For the pre departure drink, I had iced tea with mint leaves. No arabic coffee and dates were served tonight. There was no pajamas also given for tonight. For starter we had salmon, and soup with tomato and parmesan cheese. For dinner I had grilled lamb chop with herb jus and ice cream for dessert. I also requested for the cheese platter this time around. Managed to get about 2 hours of sleep before it was time for landing.

5A tonight

iced tea with mint leaves

salmon appetiser

tomato soup with parmesan cheese

grilled lamb chop with herb jus

cheese platter

ice cream

let's get some sleep

We only had about 2 hours of transit time, so we quickly made our way to the Al Mourjan lounge. I had to wait for shower use, and was called after about 15 mins. Didn't have enough time to shampoo and dry the hair though, so only had shower. Partner In Crime only had 5 minutes left to shower and managed to do it quickly. I only had water and cut fruits at the lounge before proceeding to the gate for our flight back to KUL via MH this time.

shower with toilet

light dining area

Our flight was on time at 8.05am. I chose the hibiscus lychee drink before take off. For breakfast, I chose the masala omelette with lamb sausage. It was accompanied by yogurt and croissant. I didn't request for the dine anytime meal, managed to get about 1 hour sleep and then woke up to have satay before landing. I got 4 sticks of stay, while Partner In Crime requested for an additional 2 more sticks lol. I did feel a bit hungry by then, I should have requested another 2 sticks too. 

MH seat 6A

hibiscus drink with headphones and amenity kit by Aspinal London (bag) and Payot (lotion, lip balm) 

yogurt with granola and blueberry compote with cut fruits

masala omelette with lamb sausage

let's try to get some sleep

mixed satay 

We landed at KLIA on time at 9pm. We quickly made our way to Immigration autogate using the MyBorderPass app then arrived at the luggage carousel before the first bag, so I waited a bit there. We then made our way back using the KLIA taxi and reached home at almost 11pm. It was a short but sweet trip enjoying nature at the Dolomites and Lake Garda.