ALL I NEED IS MY PASSPORT

January 2023

Oman’s Al Said Haitham bin Tariq Al Said replaced his uncle, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, upon his death in 2020. Qaboos was a much-loved Sultan. Using rents from the natural resources of Oman (petroleum, natural gas, and minerals), Qaboos modernized and transformed Oman, developing its infrastructure, healthcare, and educational systems, as well as various income-generating sectors, including tourism, fisheries, and agriculture.

The Royal Opera House in Muscat, the Capitol of Oman

The Oman you see today is very modern but in a tasteful way, unlike many of its neighbors.  However, it is not free of issues. 16.9% of nationals were unemployed in 2017, and that figure was 30% for young people. The regime has attempted to address its problems caused by lowering natural gas and oil prices by cutting public spending, raising taxes, and reforming the subsidy system but had to rein those back after they triggered protests in 2017-18.  The future of any government with a supreme ruler is never certain.

Oman is not alone in its high need for expats to make the country run.  There are over 1.6 million expats in Oman, in contrast to just under 4 million Omanis.

Al Hajar Mountain range

This is the highest part of Oman. The area around Jebel Akhdar in the Al Hajar mountains is accessible only by four-wheel drive, and there are guards on the road to not only ensure your vehicle is adequate but that there are no more than five passengers in your vehicle.

Wahiba Sands

The desert in this area is captivating. Formed during the Quaternary period as a result of the forces of the southwest blowing monsoon and the northern shamal trade wind, there are five colors of sand, making for wonderful photography.

Goats heading home at dusk in the desert

The area is occupied by Bedouins who tend their goats, rent out their camels to tourists, and congregate at Al-Huyawah, an oasis near the border of the desert, between June and September to gather dates.

Bimmah Sinkhole

The Bimmah sinkhole was formed by a collapse of the surface layer due to the dissolution of the underlying limestone.  However, locals used to believe this sinkhole in the shape of a water well was created by a meteorite, hence the Arabic name Hawiyyat Najm which means “the deep well of the (falling) star”.

Bimmah Sinkhole ranges in depth from only a few feet to over 300+ feet in the deepest part and is apparently lovely for swimming.

The sinkhole sits in a large recreational park, and so it has a garbage collection site.  Somehow this donkey has figured out how to turn the garbage bins on their sides and scavenge for food.

I assume they are also accustomed to getting handouts, as this little fellow came right up to me expecting, I am sure, food.

There is no doubt that there is so much more to Oman than I was able to see in three days; someday, I may return.

December 2023

Khasab and the Musandam Peninsula

Khasab is an exclave of Oman at the tip of the Musandam Peninsula, very near the Strait of Hormuz. It has been dubbed the “Norway of Arabia” because of its extensive fjord-like craggy inlets and desolate mountainscapes.  

Oman is very fractured geographically. This is where Khasab, on the Musandam Peninsula, sits in relationship to the Arabian Peninsula; notice how it is separated from the main body of the country by the UAE.  This is very important in regard to the politics of this area.

We are here to enjoy the dolphin sanctuary in the waters around the Musandam Peninsula.

However, you do see a lot more than dolphins. Oman is essentially a crime-free country, So it is rather odd to learn that smuggling in broad daylight has long been tolerated. Due to US sanctions on Iran, smugglers cross the Strait of Hormuz to buy appliances and cigarettes in Musandam and carry them back to the Islamic Republic, dodging tankers and the Iranian coastguard.

It is believed that the Hajar Mountains were first formed on the Arabian-Eurasian convergent plate boundary as a result of a continental collision that began at least 30 millennia ago. Exactly when these mountains developed is still not known.

Being part of the edge of the Arabian tectonic plate, the rocks are subjected to massive pressure as the plate subducts beneath the Eurasian plate. As a result of this plate subduction, Musandam is being pushed downwards at approximately 0.24 inches per year at its northernmost point.

As can see by the map above, the area sits in the northern mountains of the Western Hajar Range. It is a remote patch of Oman separated from the rest of the country by a corner of the UAE. Hundreds of years of isolation have led to the evolution of the area’s own language, Kumzari,  a blend of Farsi, Arabic, and Hindi, with a smattering of Portuguese, Italian, and English. The area lacked roads until just a decade ago.

A funny little outcropping that looks like a cartoon

Telegraph Island. The name comes from the telegraph-cable repeater station built on the island in 1864.

Being stationed on Telegraph Island must have been hell. Although, the men did have servants, a couple of boats for leisure time, and regular newspaper deliveries. The telegraph station was abandoned in December 1868.

There are random, very isolated villages throughout the Musandam Peninsula

Goats in an isolated village

There are bottlenose dolphins in this area, but what we saw were Humpback Dolphins.
Their dorsal fin sits on top of a fatty, hump-like structure, which gives the dolphins their name.

Most humpback dolphins are grey in color, intelligent, and generally live in groups.

A crane as he hops from boat to boat in the harbor