Oman April 2008 

Oman is a small Arabic country we visited as a result of reading an article in a travel magazine.  The article described it as an oil-rich sultanate with few tourists, that provides an authentic “Arabic experience” in a safe and friendly environment.  Oman’s population is a little over four million with three-fourths belonging to the Ibadi sect of Islam, and the remaining twenty-five percent Sunni or Shia Muslims.  The country is notable for its religious tolerance and the Ibadis, who are found primarily in Oman, are considered one of the more moderate branches of Islam.  

While Oman is rarely mentioned in world news, because of its strategic location at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, in the 1700’s it was a powerful empire competing with Britain and Portugal for control of the Straits of Hormuz.  Oman shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen and marine borders with Iran and Pakistan. 

The Straits of Hormuz provide the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and a third of all petroleum shipped by sea passes through the straits, making it a strategic location for international trade.  Recently Iran has threatened to close the straits and has sent a one hundred ship naval fleet to demonstrate its ability to do this.

Oman is an absolute monarchy and the sultan, Qaboos (sounds like caboose) Bin Said al Said, was, at the time we visited, the longest serving ruler in the Middle East.  He rose to power after overthrowing his father in 1970 in a coup supported by the British.  He changed the name of the country from Muscat and Oman to the Sultanate of Oman.  Oman is now perhaps the most politically stable Middle Eastern country and has proven oil reserves of more than one billion barrels, the 25th largest in the world.  Unlike its neighbors’ oil dependent economies, a significant portion of Oman’s economy includes tourism, fish, dates and other agricultural products.

Our trip began in Dubai, after a five-hour flight from San Francisco to New York and then a fourteen-hour flight on Emirates from New York to Dubai, a 9,500-mile journey.  Dubai is one of the seven United Arabic Emirates (UAE), it’s situated on the Straits of Hormuz, and borders Oman on the northwest. 

After spending two nights in Dubai, we picked up our four-wheel drive Landcruiser and drove southeast toward Muscat, the capital and largest city of Oman.  Before getting to Muscat, we spent a night in Sohar, a port city on the northern coast, which claims to be the birthplace of the legendary Sinbad the Sailor (which isn’t factual since Sinbad was a mythical being).  There wasn’t much to see in Sohar, other than an old fort and museum and a fish market, but it was our first introduction to Oman and gave us a chance to look around and get acclimated before going to the larger city of Muscat.

Even though before leaving home we did reading and online searches, we really didn’t know much about Oman. We quickly learned it’s a very friendly, clean and safe place.  Crime is pretty much non-existent, not because of harsh penalties but because of their extreme Ibadi religion and also the fact that it’s a wealthy country and property crime is rare.  English is generally the foreign language of choice, and signs were in both Arabic and English, which made it easy for us to find our way around.

Perhaps because the strict Ibadi sect of Islam is the state religion, almost all Omanis dress in their native garb, which is the white long gown for men, called a dishdasha, and the black gown for women, called an abaya, which covers everything except their face.  At first it all looks like a costume party or a movie set, but you quickly get used to seeing everyone dressed this way and it’s kind of fun.

We arrived Muscat the next day after a several hour drive down the coast along the Gulf of Oman.  One of Misti's friends, that she played bocce with, had a cousin who lives in Muscat, and he and his family invited us for dinner and a tour around the city.  This was a great way to start our trip and we were fortunate to be able to experience the Omani culture first hand.  Ahmed’s cousin and his wife opened their house, and their hearts, to us and treated us like family. 

With Ahmed’s cousin and wife we toured Muscat, seeing the 16th century Portuguese forts near the harbor as well as the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, big enough to hold 20,000 people.  Muscat means “safe anchorage” which is an appropriate name since it is a model of calm amidst a region often in conflict.  The city fathers ensure that all buildings have domes, arabesque windows or some other form of Arabic architecture, to retain the traditional Omani character.

We had a memorable dinner, joined by their daughter and younger son, as they told us about their family background and about Muscat and Oman in general.  Dinner was served Arabic style, with the food at room temperature (it gets really hot in Oman) and no utensils. 

Our plan was to spend two weeks touring through Oman, which was probably more time than we needed since it’s a small country and much of it is barren desert with shifting sands and camels. Our road trip was confined to the northern regions of Oman - Muscat, the Western Hajar and Al Batinah and Al Dhahirah. 

Oman shares a roughly five hundred mile border with Saudi Arabia. The area between the two countries is referred to as the “Empty Quarter” and the geographic boundaries are still not firmly defined.  The Empty Quarter, which also includes the area between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world.

One of the best sights in Oman is the Wahiba Sands (also called the Sharquiya Sands), a vast desert area with yellow and red sand dunes stretching to infinity.  Even though our Landcruiser was four-wheel drive, and we had extra gas and water, we hesitated to go “dune-bashing” fearing we’d get stuck in the sand and they’d find our bleached bones years later.  So we stayed near the road and enjoyed the serenity of the dunes without driving through them.

We had read about overnight stays in Bedouin villages and were tempted to give it a try to get closer to the culture, but after learning more, we decided we’d skip roughing it sleeping on the ground in one hundred plus degree temperature, with no electricity and questionable sanitation facilities.  We opted instead for an air-conditioned hotel with a nice bed; maybe a Bedouin tent, sleeping near the camels, next time around.

We spent two nights in Nizwa, also called the “Pearl of Islam,” Oman’s second largest and second most visited city.  Nizwa was the capital of Oman in the 6th and 7th century and was the first to convert to Islam.  It was always a center of Islamic scholarship and until the 1970’s the city was essentially closed to non-Islamics.  In 2013 it was named the Capital of Islamic Culture.

That being said, we were fortunate, or smart enough, to stay in a hotel where they actually had a bar and served alcoholic beverages, a big no-no in Nizwa and much of Oman.  Having a properly made martini in what is probably the most Islamic city in the world, and what many would consider “the middle of nowhere,” was a real coup. 

A highlight of Nizwa was the goat market, a very Arabic experience, where we got some great photos of goats and goat herders.  Also the huge souk, where we saw giant barrels and sacks of dates.  Nizwa is known for its highly prized dates, especially the khalas and khumaizi varieties.  Also interesting was the selection of handcrafted khanjars, which are “J” shaped daggers traditionally worn by men on ceremonial occasions, and popular primarily in Oman.

While in Nizwa, Misti became ill with what we thought was a type of flu.  Her fever got worse and we decided to go to the Nizwa hospital.  Many of our friends express concern when we travel to “exotic” places like Oman, saying that if we were to get sick there wouldn’t be decent medical care available.  Not so: we found the hospital to be quite modern with more than adequate facilities, and very qualified English-speaking doctors on staff.   Oman, of course, is a very wealthy, oil-rich nation.

I had an interesting experience while I was sitting in the hospital waiting room.  Because Oman is an Islamic country, there are separate waiting rooms for men and women.  As I waited, men would enter the waiting room and as each came in he would go to the five or six men who were seated, including me, and shake their hands and greet them.  This, of course, was all in Arabic, but I could sense the good feelings, and I was impressed by this aspect of the Arabic culture.

Nizwa is the gateway to the Al-Hajar Mountains, the highest mountain range in Eastern Arabia, which stretches between Oman and the UAE, and looks across the Straits of Hormuz to Iran.  Al-Hajar is Arabic for “The Stone.”

Using our trusty Lonely Planet, we decided to explore Jebel Akhdar, Arabic for “Green Mountain,” which rises to about 6,000 feet and is famous for its wide plateau near the summit.  We followed a winding dirt road up the mountain, glad we were driving a sturdy Landcruiser, which seemed to have some mountain goat DNA.  We were surprised when we reached the top and found a mild climate with fertile soil and an abundance of crops including fruit, nut and flower orchards; so very different than the 100 plus degree desert we had just left.  The pomegranate on the mountain is considered among the finest in the world.

On this trip, in 2008, there were no hotels, restaurants or other tourist facilities at Jebel Akhdar, only a scattering of small Omani villages.  We’ve since read online that now there are several top-end hotels, and the area is being promoted as one of Oman’s tourist attractions.  Nice we saw it before the tourist world learned about it.

Perhaps the best and most exciting experience in Oman is driving through the wadis.  The word wadi in Arabic means a valley, ravine or channel that is dry except in the rainy season, when a wadi can change into a roaring river.  Wadis have vertical landscapes with limestone cliffs soaring above narrow canyons.  Driving the off-road wadis in a four-wheel drive vehicle is a thrill, and gives you a feeling that you’ve left civilization for a more prehistoric time that includes cave dwellings and ancient villages that seem to be part of the canyons.

It’s estimated that Oman has more than five hundred forts, castles and towers, built in the 16th and 17th centuries, and located mainly in the northern one-third of the country.  More than twenty of these enormous monuments, built of mud brick, stucco and stone, have been restored and are important tourist attractions. The defensive forts in the interior were built by tribal leaders, while other forts were built on seacoasts to protect Oman’s shipping interests.  Some were built on fortifications dating back to earlier Persian occupation or pre-Islamic times.  Because these forts weren’t built by central leaders or authorities, they have different engineering and architectural features, which lends to their historical and educational value.  We visited several, but were limited by the extremely hot daytime hours.

After roughly two weeks, we concluded our trip through Oman and drove back to Dubai by way of Abu Dhabi.  When we crossed into the UAE at Abu Dhabi we were impressed by their border security.  We looked into an eye camera and our eye photos were put into a scanner and run against a database, searching for anyone on their “no-entry” list.  We were, of course, fine and continued on through Abu Dhabi to Dubai.  We stayed in Dubai for one more night and then flew Emirate Air home via New York.  Thus concluded our Omani adventure.

Art Faibisch. July, 2018