Oman
THINGS TO DO IN MUSCAT, OMAN
1. SOAK UP CULTURE IN THE CAPITAL
The old, walled city of Muscat, crammed into a bay between jagged brown mountains, was never big. Aside from the two 16th-century Portuguese forts which frame it, most of its older buildings have been demolished to make way for government offices and the Sultan's blue-and-gold waterfront palace (a kind of orientalised Art Deco) built in 1972. One of the survivors is an aristocratic mansion that now houses the Bait al Zubair museum; the displays of Omani crafts and traditional costumes help you know what to look for before you go shopping for akhanjar (the curved, sheathed, silver dagger that many Omani men wear in their belts).
2. VISIT THE SULTAN QABOOS GRAND MOSQUE
The city's biggest and shiniest sights is the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (open to tourists in the morning, but only to those fully covered and, in the case of women, with hair-concealing headscarves). Westerners are likely to find its new-fangled splendour too gaudy, but then medieval fuddy-duddies accustomed to the purity of Romanseque architecture said the same of Gothic cathedrals.
3. GO SHOPPING IN MUSCAT'S MARKETS
That shopping will be done in Muttrah, the next bay along. Less grand but better preserved than its neighbour, Muttrah has a row of handsome, balconied old houses along its waterfront. There's a busy fish-market, where robed fishermen sit on wooden platforms alongside metre-long tuna and rows of crabs with sky-blue claws. Further along the waterfront there's a souk, a maze of narrow alleyways with coffered-and-painted wooden ceilings, and clusters of serious, white-robed men sipping coffee outside tiny, cavernous shops. Many goods are imported - pashminas, Indian textiles and cheap jewellery from all over - but there is nothing out of place in that: Muscat and its port have always constituted one of the great crossroads of trade.
THINGS TO DO IN THE SOUTH OF OMAN
4. ROADTRIP TO SUR
From Muscat eastward towards Sur is a 150-mile journey, much of it on dirt roads, past a succession of tiny fishing villages (each one has watchtowers and deserted white beaches) and the ruins of the ancient city of Qalhāt, of which all that is left standing is a pretty, roofless structure of honey-coloured stone said to be the tomb of a female saint, or maybe a princess of Hormuz. To the south tower purple mountains. Stop and peer over the low cliffs and you may see infant sharks in the ink-blue sea. There is a decent hotel in Sur called the Sur Plaza, but you are strongly advised to sleep out en route. There are no restrictions on camping in Oman.
5. GO HIGH IN THE MOUNTAINS
To wake up on a stretch of white sandy beach at Fins would be wonderful. When I visited it on a Friday, the Islamic holiday, it had just one other car on it. And when you tire of the coast, you can drive (a four-wheel-drive is essential) into the mountains along the Wadi Dayqah. Abdul, my guide, recently brought James Cameron here. You can rent cabins set by beautifully green pools some 12 miles up the valley. Stay there before Cameron embarks on a film which makes this strange and so-far splendidly lonely landscape of high, craggy mountains and deeply eroded rocks world-famous.
THINGS TO DO IN THE INTERIOR OF OMAN
6. EXPLORE FORTS NEAR NIZWA
When the last imam ruled the high plateau of Nizwa any Christian entering the town would have been shot on sight. Now Nizwa is a delightful place to visit. The grimly magnificent fort affords splendid views of the oasis and the watchtowers on the surrounding peaks. On Friday's there's a famous cattle market, but even if you miss it (as I did) this is a great place to shop. In the souk there are heaps of battered old rifles and swords and daggers on display. Omanis love weaponry, though everyone assured me that an Omani carries a rifle only as a token of his manhood, in the same way an 18th-century English gentleman, however peaceably inclined, would have felt undressed without his sword. For those less martially oriented, there are large trays of silver jewellery to rummage through, all of it dusty and tarnished to blackness. Prices are calculated by weight. A finely worked ring costs the equivalent of about £3. Nearby is the Falaj Daris, a comfortable modern hotel, which would provide a good base for a further trip to Jabrin, Oman's other mighty fort.
7. GO ON A SAND DUNE SAFARI IN WAHIBA SANDS
The Wahiba Sands (pictured) lie east of Nizwa. With a guide and a four wheel-drive you can easily reach one of the three tourist camps (it's not advisable to drive alone). I stayed at the furthest in and the most attractive, the 1,000 Nights Camp, which has black-and- white-striped goats'-hair tents pitched in a grove of acacia tress. The camp arranges camel rides if you give prior warning.
THINGS TO DO IN NORTH OMAN
Northern Oman is beautiful but if you want to settle in one spot, Ṣalālah is the place to choose. One would happily spend a fortnight exploring the province and its ancient ruins, its holy shrines, and its spectacular landscapes of water, rock, desert and sudden, lush greenery. These are the best things to do in northern Oman
8. SHOP IN SALALAH
At night, Ṣalālah's souks are bustling. This is the place to buy frankincense for about £4 per kilo; the sellers are the most approachable female Omanis you'll come across. From Ṣalālah it is an easy and beautiful drive into the mountains to the tomb of Nabi Ayoub (Joe's Tomb), where the custodian will show you a footprint in the rock that suggests the Prophet was a giant (it's at least half-a-metre long).
9. BEACH HOP IN ALAJAH
Dhofar is an hour-and-a-half flight from Muscat and all but untouched by tourism. The capital, Alajah, sits on a white-sand beach which runs for 980km in each direction. At dawn, you can watch the soldiers in smart, striped pantaloons riding horses westwards.
10. EXPLORE DESERTED MIRBAT
You can head east, past the ruined city of Sumhuram (from which, it is said, the Queen of Sheba set off to visit King Soloman), and along a vast, sweeping bay to Mirbāt, a town of deserted old houses with massive studded doors and intricately carved shutters to which I'm dreaming of retiring.
11. GO WILDLIFE-SPOTTING AT MUGHSAIL
Drive west to the mountain-framed beach of Mughsail, where flamingos stalk delicately along the margin of a lagoon, and frankincense trees, once the source of fabulous wealth in Oman but now gnarled and dead-looking, grow in the dry wadis.
