Muscat, Oman
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The Lonely Planet about Oman (1) reports local police fines to owners of dirty cars. If I lived in Oman, I should have to work to pay the fines for the bad condition of my car. The indication of the famous guide, besides a funny tone, represents a perfect image of Muscat and Oman.
All cars, rigorously high-powered and expensive, are immaculate, meticulously clean and shiny, but not for fear of sanctions, it is the will and the lifestyle of the Omani, lovers of perfection and cleanliness.
Although Muscat is built on the desert sand, they do not tolerate even a tiny speck on cars.
This aspect is apparently of little meaning and funny. Serves to understand and to identify the character, strength and beauty of an Arab country, capable of keeping together tradition and modernity.
The clarity and cleanliness are Oman's characteristics.
Neighbours Emirati, Qatar, Kuwait have built an exasperated modernity, almost indelibly erasing an important historical memory, marginalizing it in a reserve. It happens, for example, in Dubai, where Deira's ancient buildings are impeccable, irreproachable in their restoration but so much perfection, almost like a movie set, proves the fiction of the whole.
Muscat extends along the coast of the Gulf of Oman for kilometres. The desert, the rock, the total lack of vegetation are the constants of the town. The architecture has the quality of being horizontal. They are not dominated by the height as in Dubai, the buildings are squared and they have a parallel linear trend, painted of the traditional white.
The same style is maintained even for the great works such as the Royal Opera House built near the Qurum Beach.
Born as a wish of the Sultan Sayyid Qaboos bin Said Al Said to satisfy his passion for opera, the theatre is a pleasant gift given to Muscat. It is beautiful in white marble while the inside is red.
The sun brights in the daytime on the sand, on the roads, the heat is fiery, burning, scorching. Moving in the middle of the day is difficult, the Omanis move slowly and only if they must, using the insufficient shelters as the scarce trees. There are not many people around; most of them wait in the dusk and go out in the nigh, to have some refreshment. White dominates until it turns dazzling under the sun.
White is the ideal colour to describe the order along with security, which is also perceived by walking at night. Many women stroll, at any time, even a quiet solitary without any problem.
There are also some eccentric uncertainties. Like the difficulty of crossing the streets on foot, above all, the long lines that cut through the city. The sidewalks sometimes end up in strange places requiring a particular ability to improvise.
Old Muscat is characterized by a great silence. Although it is the political and administrative capital of Oman, the old city exalts the feeling of quiet and calm, a positive quality of the Omani inhabitants. The same tranquillity and serenity can be found walking in the evening on the Qurum beach. The shore is surrounded by a halo of romance, with many groups of friends and some couples secluded in moments of intimacy. Lighting comes just from a single source: the moon.
The country is not isolated but rather has the ability to learn, mainly among the many young people.
Many people hang around; you can meet everything, even a guy with a guitar while playing flamenco for friends, not the typical local music, but a popular Spanish sound, sign of integration and knowledge of distant cultures.
Al Khuwair is the new centre of Muscat also for to the presence of the largest shopping centre in the city: the Oman Mall.
Different, distant is the district of Matrah with the biggest suq of Muscat. Inside there are few tourists and many Omani looking for an unusual shopping. Matrah is lively even during the hot day. The hurried tourists arrive on the cruise ships, they stop hastily in the port of Matrah, wander tired and lost in the uq.
Matrah is still a classic and traditional Arab centre. At the end of the market, there is a small mosque, an arch, a small square with benches. In the evening men, old people, young people arrive. They are in groups or alone and they sit down relaxing in the shade. It is very hot and therefore they maintain an accentuated calm. The gestures are minimal, phlegmatic. They sometimes talk with the neighbour. They ask a question, but the answer always comes late. They remain seated. Then they get up and say goodbye, leaving the seat for a new guest. They can remain calm for hours, impassive, it is the solution of the Omani in the heat, and it is their secular experience of a life lived in the desert. However, the crowed suq, among the many shops, buyers, sellers hides some secrets. They are difficult to discover, but if you have an open mind, the secrets will be finding us.
The differences with the other Gulf countries are evident in the immigration flows. Immigration is not as evident as in Dubai and Abu Dhabi; they maintain a more limited and less showy presence. Laws follow this orientation. For example, the taxi license is issued only to the Omani. The sector is protected by a low gasline price policy even though recently there has been an increase. In consideration of the vastness of the city, taxi drivers enjoy good well-being. These choices influence the widespread prosperity of the local population.
Some classical aspects are easily recognizable even among young people. One of these is the style in dressing.
The Kumma is the symbol hat and above all, it is very elegant. The Omani buy the handmade Kumma, they are very expensive and beautiful, full of arabesques and drawings. Observed carefully the Kumma are all different, each with its own pattern. The family usually gives them to their sons as a generational passage.
With the same refinement, they bring the traditional dagger, the Khanjar. The Khanjar is something superior, it is the emblem, the sign of the nation, it is indeed present in the Omani flag, intertwined by two swords.
It is the embodiment of a nation; the Khanjar is a costly obligation because they are handmade and product with precious materials. It is the symbol of the warrior myth, they never surrender and they are ready to arm themselves again to defend the desert so loved.
Then there is the Wizar. The Wizar must find out for ourselves. Just men wear it; it is comfortable, practical, essential and easy to use in case of urgent and impelling needs.
If no one has shown you the Wizar means that you have never been in Oman or, if you have been there, you have slept all the time. :-)
(1) Lonely Planet Oman, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, 4th Italian edition, February 2011
