Likes

1. Weather
2. 24 hours water and electricity supplies
3. Clean and wonderfully laid roads
4. Well maintained roundabouts
5. Rugged mountains
6. Breathtaking desserts
7. Wonder called the Falaj
8. Well kempt beaches
9. No pollution
10. Commuting time between office and residence
11. Availability of time to spend with family
12. Shopping malls
13. Low crime rate
14. Incredibly friendly and helpful locals (except when they are behind the wheels)
15. Cars
16. Arabic cuisine
17. Local culture and tradition

Dislikes

1. Road rage
2. General laid-back attitude
3. Bureaucracy
4. Medical services
5. Education standards
6. Non-competitive workplaces
7. Slow adaptation to technology
8. Lack of public transport
9. Murky rules

Thus reads an ad by Oman National Transport Company (ONTC) in today’s newspaper. It reminded me of a story which happened to us during Eid holidays last year. Last October, we took a sleek-looking ONTC bus to Dubai, and the journey was just horrible. To begin with, the driver and conductor/helper were arrogant and rude, and they hardly bothered to reply questions posed by passengers, who like me, were on their maiden journey by road to Dubai. The driver also kept on talking on his GSM till the bus reached Sohar. Most of the time, he managed to control the steering with one hand (left hand) even as the vehicle zipped off at high speeds.

As soon as the bus approached the Al Walaja border, the conductor appeared from this deep slumber, and demanded our original passports and road permits be handed over to him for stamping purposes. He disappeared with our documents and came back only after 45 minutes. He then started handing over passports to passengers, and to my utter shock, he had misplaced my passport at the stamping counter. Looking cool as a cucumber, he nodded to my questions, and asked me to follow suit to search the missing passport. With my heart pounding at extremely high speeds, I walked with him, only to find my passport lying like an orphan at the counter. Utter carelessness was the story behind my missing passport. I can never forget that moment.

When the bus reached the Hatta border, thankfully, the passengers were told to get their passports stamped by themselves. It was a blessing for us although it meant standing in the queue to nearly two hours under the hot sun. I didn’t want the bus staff to play around with our documents, which if lost, is much more a difficult task to get it done all over again than finding a job in Oman!

My sincere advice is if you are planning a trip to Dubai by bus, then try private operators like Comfortline, etc. I am told they much much better than ONTC, on any given day.