I’ll begin this week’s update with some good news ( in short supply in the Middle East this past week 😳 ). There’s also an update on our current status ( as of March 7 ) at the end of this blog ( more good news ).

 Upon arrival in Muscat, Oman, we were (finally !) able to buy some beer and wine (at the airport duty free store )🥳. Not the world’s best value duty free store, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers as they say, and we were very happy just to have it following a month of effective prohibition in both Saudi and Bahrain. I bought a case of Corona and a couple of bottles of wine for Lois. The friendly fellow at the airport store then asked me if I “perhaps wanted a second case ?” ( their liquor allowance is quite generous here ).  “No, thanks”, I replied. “Are you sure ?”, he asked, then added that “……it costs 3 times as much in town, and that’s if you can get it – it’s Ramadan here now, you know”.  A good salesman – I took the second case 🙂.

While not nearly as big as Saudi, as with Saudi there would be some very long drives here in Oman, too. Given the distances,  our plan was to tackle the very long drive first up – Muscat to Salalah via the inland ( desert ) route. Everyone we’ve spoken to who had been to Oman before us told us we had to get to Salalah. A really pleasant small city right by the ocean, with palm trees and camels everywhere, along with beautiful beaches – we had long anticipated it. The vibe, we had heard, was very laid-back, something that would appeal after the long drive to get there ( just over 1,000kms ). A quick overnight stay in Muscat with old friends Barb and Al ( teaching in Oman now ) got us rested up for the long drive ahead ( thank you for the superb dinner and gracious hospitality Barb !). The plan was to get to the very bottom of Oman and then slowly work our way back up the east coast, taking in its considerable sights before wrapping up back in Muscat for a few more  days visiting again with our friends.

It all started off so well. The route, while mostly boring desert, took us via historic Nizwa and its famous fort, a nice respite from hours on the road. Finding a hotel in the desert after leaving Nizwa was a challenge but we stumbled up one in the end. We asked in the first town we crossed ( none there ) and were told there was “one” about 120kms further south- like I said, lots of “nothing” here, much like Saudi.

Having reached our AirBnb in Taqah (near Salalah), we were both ready to relax, kick back, enjoy the ocean view and sip on a glass of wine and cold beer. Indeed, we did just that for the first few days – swam, hiked, walked the beach, shopped, toured around and just generally enjoyed the place. The weather was divine, making it all so seemingly perfect…….

 Then all hell broke loose. News broke of the Israeli/US attacks on Iran, death of the Ayatollah and senior Iranian military  personnel , and retaliatory Iranian strikes on Israel and US interests in the Gulf states. While we felt very safe in Oman ( far enough away, and initially not attacked by Iran ), that would change in the coming days. In the meantime many hours of every day were spent glued to the TV ( Al Jazeera, in English, giving  some excellent coverage ), attached to our phones and IPads, watching international news and fielding calls, texts, WhatsApp’s and emails from concerned friends and family. Very touched by the concern from everyone, thanks to all who reached out. At this point we decided to move into Salalah proper to be closer to the attractions and to meet up with some old Swiss friends from our Turkey travels. Found a wonderful hotel with great amenities so at least we could spend this increasingly tense time in the company of friends, who were, in a sense, in much the same predicament.

Needless to say, while we loved Salalah ( and spent  almost a week there by the pool and beach ), much of it with Swiss friends ( Martin and Maria ), ultimately events took a turn for the worse and the “war” ultimately touched us, even in Oman.  Just north of us, in the port city of Duqm, a drone strike hit a warehouse at the port. No deaths, no real damage, and the Iranians ( typically friendly to the Omani’s ) actually denied firing it. It shocked everyone here – after all it was the Omani foreign minister who was doing the mediating between the United States and Iran, prior to hostilities starting !  Of all the places here that absolutely no one unexpected them to hit, Oman was top of the list- no US bases, no other US military installations, and no permanent US military personnel are here, unlike the other GCC states. But, it happened.

At this point we decided it was time to secure a flight out ( subsequently even a second flight out – yes, we booked two, to different destinations for some added insurance ), and start thinking about when to start making our way back to Muscat. We were not fearful ( no one here was at that stage ), and certainly we were not rushing for the exits, but we did want to secure seats for the future in the event things deteriorated further at which point getting out maybe more challenging – or even impossible. We did that and chose a date to leave Salalah a few days ahead so we could get to Muscat in time for the flights out we had booked. Full details on that in the upcoming blog – interesting times we live in, to say the least 😳.

Till next week…

Alert: Just prior to this blog post being published, everything changed, we scrambled back to Muscat and managed to safely exit Oman. I will leave the tumultuous details of our final days there till next week.