Oh-Man Oman

I just returned to Saudi after about 36 hours in Oman. I can’t say I did much that was culturally enlightening this weekend but that was kind of what I expected. I planned the trip last minute. Thursday I lounged around the resort, caught up on a stack of Economist articles that has been building for months, had a nice seaside dinner and crashed around 11 (I hadn’t slept since Tuesday night). This morning I had a great run on the beach capped off by a dive into the Indian Ocean. I then had brunch and got a driver to show me around Muscat for a couple hours before heading to the airport.

A co-worker of mine called Oman, “chill” before I left and that’s the best way I can describe it. It was just really laid back and relaxing. The resort was quiet and very private. I didn’t see many people my age or many American (though most people were foreigners…Germans, Indians, Nordics from what I could tell). The Omani people I met were incredibly friendly and polite. The atmosphere was very island-like. It reminded me of the Caribbean. Geographically, it reminded me more of Baha - arid hills all around with devastating cliffs and white rock.

Muscat itself was quiet and incredibly clean (a stark contrast to Riyadh). My driver didn't speak much English but I think we were able to hit all the big spots. Perhaps the most impressive were the Al Jalali and Al Mirani forts (see next entry) which were built during the Portuguese regime (which started about 500 years ago and ended in the 1700s). Tourists aren’t really allowed in them, but they made for nice photo ops.

One of the more interesting parts of the trip was the flight back to Riyadh. It was my first flight over Saudi in daylight and I was amazed at the mass of open desert. Also, I offered to fill out an Indian migrant workers entry form b/c he couldn't write or read English or Arabic. It started a chain reaction and I spent the next 20 minutes doing the same for all his friends. Many of them only had one name in their passport and all were quite nice. I was surprised to find most of them were younger than I am.