OMAN … MUSCAT / MUSTIQUE … OR MYSTIQUE

So we’re off and moving again … We just left Mumbai, traveling the Arabian Sea for two days on our way to Oman … located in the Arabian Pennisula.

I am very excited to see this place since I didn’t even realize it was a country. The capital is Muscat … I thought that was the place the British Royals hung out for their vacations ( like Princess Margaret … in “The Crown” ) … I guess I am really geographically challenged because it turns out I am mixing up Muscat with Mustique … an island in the Caribbean 7555 miles away.

So I thought I was heading to see where the rich and famous vacation … “ the St Barts of the Arabian Sea” with sand dunes in the background and good looking men in white robes riding around on camels.

So I was pretty surprised when we pulled into our port. There was no sand, no camels, no glamorous shops … but there was rock everywhere.

Oman is a small country 120,000 square miles … about the size of New Mexico. It is governed as an absolute monarchy … like Brunei … led by a Sultan. ( Haitian bin Tariq … I don’t think anyone will be remembering that name. ) Oman is the oldest “independent state” in the Arab World … with a population of 4.7M. The language is Arabic with 89% of the population practicing Islam … the economy is driven by tourism, fish, dates and other agricultural products. ( Seems as though you would have to sell a lot of dates to support 4.7M people. )

So now that I understand we are in Muscat, and not Mustique I guess I need to reset my expectations. So I am ready to explore … but even with a new perspective I have to say it was by far … the weirdest stop to date …. No-one was there…. I mean NO-ONE … ANYWHERE … well … except one group that were in some boats in the water that I will tell you about a little later.

Since we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere I decided to take a 4 hour tour …

… a new recreational facility on the beach that they were very proud of. And last but not least … a Fort … the only place with people.

… then we headed back … with almost no cars on the road … 4 hours on the road and we saw NO-ONE.

It was a very erry feeling. When I asked the guide …. Who is not from here himself … I got a vague answer …. “ The people don’t come out during the day becuase it is too hot” ( Are they nocturnal? ) … the other answer was …. “because it is the weekend they are in Dubai” ( 3 hour drive ) …. Hard to beleive all 4 million people went to Dubai for the weekend …. and when I asked about where they work … I was told “most in Dubai” and that they come to Oman for the weekend … seems to me .. a bit contradictory and we were visiting Oman on a Saturday when they should be off from work. So I have no idea where anyone is and I still don’t know where they are or what they do. It is very hard to get a sense of a country or its culture without any people.

It was all very odd… and in follouwp … I mentioned earlier I did see some people in the water when we first came into port … well it turns out they were smugglers from Iran. And there were loads of them.

They had their little speed boats …. They would zip up on shore …. Load their little boats with packages wrapped in plastic taken from some pickup trucks and zip away. Tons of them …. All morning they did this …. back and forth.

It turns out they bring electronics and who knows what back to Iran. (I was not going to ask ) I would have loved some close up photos but was to afraid to even aim my iphone that way for too long. I captured a few quick pics and called it a day.

When we left I finally saw two men in port …. I don’t know if they were coming out because it was the end of the day … (the nocturnal thing … they only come out at night) or if they were glad to see us leave … but that was how the day ended in Oman.

So Oman was not at all what I expected … It is obviously not Mustique …. But not sure I would call it Muscat either ….I think a better name might be Mystique …. So check that one off the list and now off to safer havens.

NEXT PORT …. DUBAI DAY 135