Okay so here’s my story on taxi drivers in Muscat, Oman.

After arriving, I had to pay upfront at a counter. Fair enough – at least they can’t rip you off that easily.

Second day, I got into a random taxi on the street and the guy brought me back to the hotel. He explained a lot about Oman and that he likes to tell people about it. Cool. Then I asked him for a personal recommendation for a seafood place. At the end we agreed that he would pick me up a couple of ours later at the hotel and take me to a restaurant.

Couple of hours later he picked me up at another location and drove me to the restaurant 30mins away. He went with me into the restaurant and made sure I’m not ripped off. He sat with me at my table until the food arrived and then went to wait in the car. He took me to my hotel and it was only 16 OMR.

After work I had a guy pick me up at 7pm. I asked him to stop by a mall where I needed to withdraw some cash and buy a couple of things. All in all the drive + shopping + ATM was around 1.5 hrs. 8 OMR.

This morning a guy picked me up at the hotel and drove me to work. He didn’t have enough change but I told him I need to go to the airport anyways. OK then I did not pay but instead paid everything after he dropped me off at the airport in the afternoon.

Summary: Muscat has the best taxi drivers that I’ve come across so far. Only one thing to improve: please put meters in your taxi. Replying with ‘how much you want to give’ when asking how much it was – sucks. Really.