Muscat, Oman
Arieh here. Upon arriving at the Muscat bus station (a 5-hour bus ride from Dubai) I did a good deed and was rewarded twofold almost immediately! The good deed? I helped a lady (Fatma) remove her luggage from the storage under the bus (while the driver sat on his butt waiting). The first reward? The lady's son-in-law (Zayid) came to meet her, she told him of my good deed and he then offered to help Val and I find a hotel, which we accepted. We eventually found something and all turned out well. The second reward? A good joke about Oman told to us by Zayid, an Omani himself. "Oman has two seasons", he says, "Summer and Hell. Welcome to the beginning of Hell."
So began our shortened visit to Oman. I say "shortened" because we detoured to Dubai before we went to Oman. Why? Because we met a very nice Indian couple in Ranakpur, India who are working in Dubai. They convinced us Dubai would be worth a look and, with the cooperation of Air India, we re-routed ourselves to Dubai from Delhi. And so we spent 3 days in Dubai, the commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.).
Dubai is a fairly "green" city. Whomever said "oil and water don't mix" got it wrong. If one has enough oil and not enough fresh water (as is the case in the UAE and Oman), the solution is quite simple. Spend the oil revenues to make fresh water through desalinization plants. And that's what happens in Dubai and Muscat. Dubai is surrounded by desert, has about 5 million people and uses 75 cubic metres of water. Only 1/4 of that amount is fresh well water; the remainder is from the desalinization plants. It is used to keep Dubai looking green, flowery and looking like a well-watered city.
The on-going building in Dubai is tremendous. 5-6 story apartment blocks for living, taller office buildings, even taller hotels, and gorgeous villas. Easy to build highways here--just flatten and compact the sand; no need to blast through any mountains or cut down trees. Many of the buildings incorporate a dhow sail as the motif, the dhow being the local fishing boat. Many of you may have seen pictures of the huge sail-like twin tower hotel being erected in the middle of the sea. And don't forget that Dubai is home to an indoor ski-hill.
Dubai is a magnet for foreign workers, mostly from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Of the 5 million residents, 4 million are foreign workers and 1 million are citizens of the UAE. Many of the FW are in the service and support and construction industries, while many, many others are in IT and banking. And here is an interesting fact for those who are uneasy about Jews and our ability to obtain immediate citizenship in Israel. #1: Anyone can become Jewish, move to Israel and become a citizen of Israel. #2: Non-Jews are and can become full citizens of Israel, while remaining non-Jewish. For non-Jewish immigrants it may take a few years to become a citizen of Israel, but it eventually happens. The UAE has a different system. A foreign worker can NEVER becomes a citizen of the UAE. The children of a foreign worker born in the UAE are not citizens of the UAE and cannot become citizens of the UAE. Oman has a very similar system. In fact, we were told that an Omani marrying a non-Omani (without special permission from the Sultan) is in danger of losing his passport and being sent to jail. So don't forget these little facts when defending Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and it's citizenship system, thank you very much.
Oman (Muscat) seems to be very different in many ways from Dubai. For starters, the ratio of Omanis to foreign workers is 4:1, not 1:4 like in Dubai. (Total population of Oman is about 2.5 million) The architecture is mandated to fit in with the environment (like the stone-facing in Jerusalem) and is mujch more pleasing to the eyes. White or beige-coloured low rise residential buildings; not the modern style structures of Dubai. Oman also is a lot bigger than the UAE and I believe it has a tremendous range of physical landscapes from treeless mountains in the north to tree-covered mountains in the south to a very interesting shoreline on the east to a vast desert on the west. In both cases we only met friendly people, only observed polite, reasonable drivers and felt welcome as a guest in both countries.
Oman has been a relatively wealthy country for a couple of centuries or more. Frankincense (which is located in the south in great quantities) was a big commodity and worth more than gold at one time. The British has an equal-nation trading relationship with Oman in the heyday of Imperialism. Now the wealth is oil and the current Sultan is quite enlightened and much of the money is spent on infrastructure and citizens. One of the benefits of Omani citizenship is 700 square meters of free land to build a house. If you cannot afford to build a house the Sultan will give you a pretty nice-looking apartment instead. Citzens do not pay for water, electricity, medical care or income taxes. Oman seems to be a good place to live, especially if you are a citizen.
We did manage to have some fun in Dubai and Oman as well as some interesting cultural touring. The snorkelling was pretty good near Muscat, the dune bashing was fun (although the driver got stuck) and the great mosque in Dubai was very impressive. Non-Muslims are allowed in on certain days and we went for a guided tour. There was also interesting names for one of the bakeries we came across.
