More to do with Oman/UAE..? 18 2 5 ( 14) 25 1 30

This morning I posted another couple of pics on Instagram from our vacation 18 1 25 to 18 2 3 in these Middle Eastern countries: these of the people who populate these countries. The first ostensibly of the two western ladies sitting at our table on this 5 star hotel terrace where our party were enjoying chilled beers before switching to a Pakistani Restaurant for dinner, but more pointedly of the group of 4 ladies dressed in the black Kuwaiti hijab: covered in black from head to foot with only a gap of maybe 2 cm x 10 cm, about an inch by 6 inches, sitting on the next table where they sat pulling with gusto on their order of Water-pipes (the water through which the hot tobacco smoke passes said to be for cleaning and cooling purposes) brought by a waiter suitably prepared with burners which stood slightly to the side of each of them. Beyond there was a table of a group of men also attired in traditional costume of ankle length white collarless gowns with long sleeves, known as Dishdasha, with traditional Omani style hats recalling pill boxes, known as Kumma, sitting on their heads and said to follow the example of the profit Mohamed to show the universal qualities of respect and humility.

The first pic was taken in the evening of our last night in Oman and the second pic was taken as I was about to descend by roller escalator between the upper restaurant floor and the lounge area bar at Dubai International Airport where we waited for our 4:10 flight back to Scandinavia, together with other tourists returning to the four corners of the Earth, or so it appeared. The juxtaposition of Middle-Eastern versus the rest of the world was intentional and I contrasted the gentler Omanis on the one hand with a group of, perhaps like we, chastened other peoples who appeared equally well behaved, after chilling during vacations among such gentle people..?

Our host and hostess T and C had during the previous 5 or 6 days explained much about the culture of these two destinations: how the Sultan of Oman historically was the overall ruler of these two states who as a much younger man had deposed his own father who was sitting on the oil fortune at the time, and who then proceeded benevolently to provide the Bedouin children living in the surrounding mountainous areas elevated above the coastal cities with a basic education including studies in English. He also provided much of the social infrastructure of health services etc., to give the Omani people a quite good standard of living. At a later time the United Arab Emirates were spit from Oman and ruled by lesser royal family members we were told when the Sultan didn't have sufficient population to continue holding it all together. Educated in England as a an Army Officer at Sandhurst we also heard how the Sultan subsequently joined a Highland Regiment and adopted a similar pipe band of musicians for his entertainment. It was apparent therefore that there was a strong bond between the British and the Omanis and later we got to visit an Oasis Café where a group picture including the UK Prince Charles adorned the wall in the reception area, together with a portrait also of the Sultan…   

During a 2 day camping excursion into the mountains for trekking we were to witness at first hand the results of the Sultan's benevolence when children, teenage girls similarly covered from head to foot but displaying much of their traditional coloured dress code, and rigidly averse to uncovering their faces to facilitate conversation, addressed us in English to discover whence we came and generally passed the time of day, one of maybe only two dozen cars of tourists similarly drawn to these beautiful mountainous climes and where they had simple textile articles for roadside sale by the older members of their group: much cooler than the upper 20s deg. C or 80s and 90s deg. F of the coastal areas.

Perhaps the hierarchy of the country was Omani at the top with the other nationals lower down, like T and C who both taught English in highly paid tax-free jobs alongside the various other professionals: civil engineers, with the builders and construction workers lower down still,  together with people waiting on table, the business classes and restaurant people somewhere in between, brought in for a limited time from surrounding countries of the Middle East and Asia. On the evening of the Festival we attended on the night of the Super Moon, T broke away for ½ hour to take his son E to an exhibition enclosure displaying prehistoric monsters, dinosaurs and the like, built like robots and presented exclusively by a Chinese contingency.

All in all a refreshingly non-racist experience far away from the war-torn middle east one reads about daily in news bulletins back home in the so-called developed western world. Have a good day everyone and give yourself a lift if you are able sometime to check these places out for yourself..?