Sultans of Slow

This is not an article about Dubai, which is a place you hear about all the time these days as a great tourist destination. Maybe sun lovers who are there for the first time still think it is. (Or maybe they’re the kind of people who like any place with sun, even if it’s a spoiled tourist trap like Marbella, Ibiza, Phuket or Cancun.) They don’t seem to see the pollution, the congestion: the relentless encroachment of property speculation on the sand, the sea and the formerly blue sky. The national bird of Dubai is the building crane. I’ll tell you, it may be a great place to get rich, but I wouldn’t want to visit there.

No, this is an article about Oman, the place where people who’ve made their fortunes in Dubai go when they want to get away from all that. Its landscapes are still arid and pristine: iridescent mountains change color with the changing light of day, and the horizon stretches across open water toward faraway India. The sea is full of life, including spectacular game fish. The few, excellent luxury hotels make no effort to awe you, as the architectural extravaganzas of Dubai do. Instead they aim to comfort you with quiet design, professional service, understated diversions and superb food.

You might wonder how Oman has managed to be so different, given that its capital, Muscat, is only a four-hour drive or a very quick plane ride from Dubai, and the city’s own international airport is well served by direct flights from Europe and Asia.

Well, in this deeply despotic part of the world, it’s not too much to say that the Oman we see today is the work of one man. Ever since Sultan Qaboos overthrew his father in 1970, he has gentled the country toward modernity with remarkable taste and restraint.

One little example: air-conditioning units protrude from the walls of houses and shops in Oman, of course, just the way they do in many hot countries. But in Oman, it’s decreed they will be covered with wooden latticework so they don’t look so ugly.

Some bigger examples: those luxury resort hotels around Muscat.