A bull bolts and lunges into the crowd. Men in white, starched dishdashas and women in black, flowing burkhas scream and scatter like animated chess pieces, but soon enough order is restored. I am at the Friday goat market in Nizwa, capital of the Sultanate of Oman back in the 6th century. It is set against the backdrop of the Nizwa fort and the souq, one of the country’s oldest bazaars. There is a diversity of livestock at the ‘goat market’ — sheep, cows and very big bulls. The goats are diverse too; the white, bearded ones are from Salalah in South Oman, the shaggy, curly hoofed ones are Jebel Akhdaris. Making up the numbers are shaggy any-old goats, grouped together as ‘Omani goat’. The livestock are all being marched counter-clockwise in a circular parade before raucous bidders. Some obstinate animals have to be cajoled to join the show, while others flaunt their haunches.
Haggling is the order of the day and I’m tempted to join in. I run off instead to photograph a man who is steering his new acquisition by its hind legs through the saturated parking lot (like a bleating wheel barrow), but I’m yanked off course. An old Omani man has looped his cane through my camera strap and is tugging me towards the shadow of his cattle-laden pick-up truck. “Sit!” Clearly this is a man used to commanding goats. “Show photos!” And to commanding photographers. He laughs hysterically at all my photos of goats and calls his friends to join in. Then he orders me to have my own photos taken by his son, with my camera. I agree, since it makes him feel better about my pictures.
Oman is not the biggest boy in the Gulf, nor the richest or the most popular. But with its 1,700km of fjord-lined coast, vast deserts, 83 nature reserves, 5,000-year-old culture and friendly people, it gets my vote for the best.
I must confess here that I have been travelling to Oman for the last 25 years to visit my parents who lived and worked there. They are now retiring to Delhi, so this visit is by way of a farewell; it’s probably the last time I will visit Oman. I’ve seen Oman develop gently in the past quarter-century. I remember the landmark achievements I witnessed as a child: the opening of the ice-skating rink, the American burger chains, Dairy Queen and Hardees and the first mall, Sabco Centre, which had its own Body Shop. I remember snakes and scorpions wandering into our house as their own homes were cemented over, and I remember holding Ali Campbell’s hand for a split second as he sang ‘Red Red Wine’ during a UB40 concert at Al Falaj Hotel.
I know this Oman well. Its capital city, Muscat, is not as flashy as neighbouring Dubai, but it still has the Arabian penchant for setting world records. Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, the current ruler of Oman, managed several records with the construction of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, which has the distinction of housing the world’s largest chandelier and the world’s largest hand-woven carpet. The 28-colour Persian carpet weighs 21 tonnes, approximately the weight of 42 medium-sized female Arabian camels. The tastefully decorated sandstone mosque can accommodate 20,000 worshippers, and has a special prayer area for women. It has five graceful minarets, and long external corridors that are divided and decorated by Islamic art from different areas and eras.
Currently, Oman is in the midst of its renaissance, a word that seems most comfortable in its association with Europe’s teenage centuries. This renaissance began in 1970 when Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, known as H.M. (His Majesty) among the expat community, overthrew his father, Sultan Said Bin Taimur, in a bloodless coup and sent him into exile. Before you feel sorry for Sultan Said, you should know that he spent the rest of his life at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Also know that during his 38-year reign, he kept Oman in almost hermetic isolation and ran it like a medieval fiefdom, without electricity or running water. He banned education, shops and had a peculiar dislike of sunglasses — so he banned them too. When Sultan Qaboos seized power, six years after his return from the British military academy at Sandhurst, Oman had a single 12-bed hospital and a dozen kilometres of tarred road that led from Muscat’s royal palace to its military camp. For Sultan Said, this had been adequate, because he had also banned cars. Sultan Qaboos broke Oman’s shell of seclusion and allowed the waters of modernity to permeate its culture and economy. Over 6,000 schools have been built, there are hospitals in almost every town and 36,693km of roads span a country slightly larger than Gujarat.
Oman was also ‘beautified’, so allegedly, tens of tonnes of imported German grass was planted along the roads and in the roundabouts of Muscat. The hundreds of roundabouts scattered around the Sultanate are often giant, bizarre sculptural references of Omani identity — a kahwa pot and cups to symbolise hospitality, frankincense burners, more frankincense burners, khanjars (the traditional Omani dagger that men wear with their ankle-length dishdashas), fish and, more recently, books, as a tribute to Oman’s commitment towards education.
Oman’s renaissance has quite literally been lubricated by its oil reserves. It produces enough oil to make its people comfortable, but not arrogant. Why this is an oil-producing nation is abundantly visible in its unique geology and prehistoric sedimentary mountains. Information from millions of years ago is trapped in these rocks and fossils are as plentiful here as Shashi Tharoor’s tweets.
Like oil and fossils, the Al Hoota Cave too is a product of time. Water worked its magic, sculpting rock to give Oman the cave. A 100 million years ago, it lay on the sea bed; today it stands metres above sea level, in the foothills of the Hajar mountain range near Nizwa. It is one of the world’s largest cave systems, more than 5km long, according to its official website.
Only recently has the cave become tourist-friendly. It has dim but effective lighting, 822m of pathway and 435 steps made of steel and cement. Its highest point, Mehrab Al Jinn, or the Area of Ghosts, is also the sweatiest — not just because of the fear that the supernatural residents arouse in visitors, but also because humidity here can reach “almost 200 per cent”, as our guide said.
Over centuries, calcium deposits have dripped into formations that resemble tall towers of chocolate profiteroles, a lion or a jellyfish. Al Hoota is also home to animals endemic to the cave. Garra barreimiae is a blind, pink fish unique to this habitat and lives in the cave’s lakes. While the fish is eyeless, a newly discovered species of spider more than makes up with its eight eyes. You are unlikely to see it, but it will probably see you.
Inland Oman is dominated by three colours — brown, browner and brownest, but the sea embraces the entire spectrum of blues. To see them together, take a sunset cruise on the Azzura, a 75-foot catamaran that has a sparkling white deck laid out like a café. The catamaran’s double hull bumps up the sailing speed and makes the journey flatter and smoother, so you can have your cake and cola too. The two-hour cruise starts at the Bundar Jissa Marina, near the new Shangri-La Barr Al Jissa Hotel. I sit on the knotted trampoline at the boat’s bow, enjoying the delicious salty breeze rip past my ears and through my hair. The cruise sails past all of Muscat’s identifiable coastal landmarks — the fjords at Jissa; the gold-domed Al Bustan Palace Hotel (which, incidentally, is the world’s greatest living adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s favourite hotel in the world); the colourful Royal Palace flanked by Mirani and Jalali, a pair of 16th-century fortresses that guard the Muscat Bay; the corniche with its spaceship-shaped frankincense burner; and finally past Mina Qaboos, Oman’s largest port. If you are lucky, H.M.’s 500-ft yacht will be at the dock. It is the second-largest in the world, and has room for a 50-piece orchestra (H.M.’s love for Western classical music is evident from the hour dedicated to it daily on Oman radio, the establishment of the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra in 1985 and the Opera House that is under construction).
My fondest memories of la vie Omani are of our explorations of the expansive and diverse countryside — being rescued by my anxious father and smirking sister when I was too scared to come down the mountain that now stands beside the 250-room Al Bustan Palace Hotel; overnight camping at Ras Al Hadd to watch the giant green turtles lay their eggs and see waddling hatchlings head to the sea the following dawn; swimming in the aquamarine waters of the wadis and water-skiing in the turquoise sea.
So, the next day, I board The Stingray, part of the fleet of boats owned by the Oman Dive Center, also located at Bundar Jissa. This time, we head away from Muscat to the beautiful inlets of Bundar Khairan. I learnt to dive with the ODC 17 years ago; then there was no fleet, we didn’t wear wetsuits and we carried our own tanks to and from the boats. What hasn’t changed is the variety of the marine life. Oman’s nutrient-rich waters are home to over 900 species of fish, ranging from the teeny nudibranchs to majestic whale sharks. There are 21 species of whales and dolphins along this coast.
Oman really is a diver’s secret haven. Over the years, I have dived with black tip reef sharks, rays that were double my length and several times my breadth, and wise-eyed turtles that gazed at me, quickly grew bored with what they saw and paddled on. This time, we dived a wreck. In 2003, to give divers a bit more bang for their buck, the Royal Oman Navy sank one of their 84-metre, 3,000-tonne ships near Bandar Khairan. Al Munnassir now sits 30 metres below sea level and is home to eels, sea snakes, parrotfish, surgeonfish and an assortment of other marine life I could not identify.
Historically, Oman has been a seafaring nation of traders and sailors (including the legendary Sinbad). At one point, it controlled swathes of East Africa, and the Sultan ruled his empire from Zanzibar. An excavation site in Khor Rori, just outside Salalah, has uncovered stone ruins of an ancient port town, where, according to legend, the Queen of Sheba had her palace. She amassed her great wealth from trading in the world’s first air freshener — frankincense. It is hard to believe that the gnarled boswellia shrub’s bubbling sap can produce a fragrance so sweet and smouldering or that, in 1,000BC, it made this region the most affluent in the world. Frankincense was worth more than gold, which was why it was seen as a gift suitable for baby Jesus. Now, for a few rials, I buy two pots of ‘best quality’ frankincense at Salalah’s Al Husn Souq. Incidentally, Oman still produces the most valuable perfume in the world — Amouage, bottled in gold and silver flasks.
When I visited Salalah, there were blue seas and blue skies, for which the locals seemed very apologetic. “You come again in khareef, now not good.” Now was pretty spectacular too, but the khareef or monsoon season brings respite from the heat, lush vegetation to the mountains and a mist reminiscent of the Nilgiris, making Salalah unique in arid Oman. Apart from the ubiquitous date palms, Salalah produces most of the fruit and vegetables for the country. There is an unusual myth about a king from Kerala, Cheraman Perumal, who was also one of India’s first converts to Islam. He fell ill while returning from Haj and asked for permission to dock in Salalah. In return, he was asked to pray that this desert region become as fertile as his own land. He prayed not only for coconut, banana and papaya trees to grow liberally, but also for the Kerala weather to prevail here. He did not, however, survive the sickness and has his tomb in Salalah, along with many other prophets, including Job.
Salalah might be a smaller town than Muscat, but it is packed with options for Friday picnics. We head out to Shaat — a plateau that balances on sheer cliffs — near the Yemen border. We pass hundreds of camels ambling along the sandy beaches of Muqsail, and watch clouds create astonishing shadow tapestries on the surface of the sea.
Khushwant Singh was so impressed with Oman, he suggested the slogan “See Muscat before you die”. I think of that as I swim in the sea for the last time. And then a turtle pops out of the water in front of me. It is a fitting farewell.
The information
Getting there
Oman Air operates direct flights to Muscat from Delhi and Mumbai and, inevitably, to some cities in Kerala including Kochi and Kozhikode (www.omanair.com). From Mumbai and Delhi, other airlines, including Jet, Emirates and Etihad, also operate flights to Muscat, some of them non-stop.
Where to stay
Muscat The city offers the full complement of international hotel brands, from Sheraton, Shangri-La, Hyatt to Holiday Inn and Ramada. The Al Bustan Palace Intercontinental is more legend than hotel, spectacularly situated in a bay ringed by mountains (+968-24-799666, www.albustanpalace.com). On the Boushahr beachfront, The Chedi is a lush, design-heavy hotel (24-524400, www.ghmhotels.com). The Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah is similarly lavish and just as beautifully located, by the coast and nestled at the base of a mountain (24-776666, www.shangri-la.com). The Park Inn is located conveniently for both leisure and business travellers (24-50788, www.rezidorparkinn.com). Another affordable option is the Al Falaj Hotel (24-702311, www.omanhotels.com/alfalaj/).
Salalah The Crowne Plaza enjoys great views of the Indian Ocean on one side and 45 acres of gardens on the other (23-235333, www.ichotelsgroup.com). The Hilton Salalah Resort is also popular (23-211234, www.ar.hilton.com/en/hotel/Hilton-Salalah-Resort).
What to see & do
Diving: The Oman Dive Center in Muscat is a ‘dive resort’ that offers accommodation and restaurant as well as dive trips and a dive school. For bookings, call 24-824240 or book online at www.omandivecenter.com.
Cruises: A full-day cruise on board the Azzura throws in sailing, lounging on private beaches, food and drink, and a range of water activities. Sunset cruises are also on offer (24-738550, www.oceanblueoman.com). A full-day cruise on a traditional Omani dhow is offered by Musandam Sea Adventure; for prices and bookings, see www.msaoman.com.
Caving: The Al Hoota Cave, situated 200km from Muscat, requires advance reservation for tours. The cave can be visited 9am-1pm and 2pm-5.15pm, Saturday to Thursday. Call 92-404444 for reservations (www.alhootacave.com).
Nizwa: The old capital is located approximately two hours from Muscat. The goat market, next to the Nizwa souq, is held every Friday 7-9am.
Salalah: This lively, subtropical city in the south is reached from Muscat either through a 12-hour bus journey or a 1hr30min flight. The Al Husn Souq is open 10am-1pm, 4.30-10pm.
Where to eat
For Omani food, try the Bin Ateeq restaurants, in Muscat, Salalah and Nizwa (www.seemuscat.com). The Kargeen Caffe (www.kargeencaffe.com) in Muscat is popular for Lebanese. Also try the Automatic chain, which has outlets scattered all over Muscat (24-487200). International options include Pavo Real for Mexican (24-487200), which also serves great margheritas; Japanese at Tokyo Taro at Al Falaj Hotel; and Chinese at the Golden Oryx Restaurant (www.thegoldenoryx.com).