Oman...Not What I Thought...

Ever heard of Oman? It shares a border with Yemen. Yemen is the birthplace of Osama Bin Laden, and by all accounts a fairly poor and dirty place. When I learned that this trip would include a jaunt to Yemen’s next-door neighbor, I assumed that Oman would be dirty, poor, and backwards. I was wrong. Very, very wrong!

Oman is an incredibly rich country in terms of both culture and financial acumen. Everything appears to be brand-new, built out of marble, and designed by some of the best architects the world has to offer. This was not by accident; the Sultanate of Oman decided some forty years ago that he wanted his country to take a progressive path and cater to tourism (some of the best scuba diving in the world is found here…so I hear). He ordered world-class hotels built. He ordered that the roads be paved anew. He funded education to all new levels. The only problem was that when he started ordering these changes, he wasn’t in charge of the country…his father was.

But the people were on the side of the son and wanted to move into the modern age. So, the son had the father thrown in jail. But not just any jail…this was a jail built on an island. The new Sultanate then built a palace on the mainland that faced the jail so he could keep an eye on the old man.

When his power base was secure, the son released the father and allowed him to retire to his own (heavily guarded) villa, where he died of natural causes many years later. In the meantime, Oman moved steadily forward to establishing itself as the tourist Mecca for this part of the world.

And the people LOVE him for it! I have been to countries run by dictators, kings, presidents-for-life, etc. Usually, these people are detested by the average person on the street. In Oman, things are different. They understand what this man has done for his people, and they seem to genuinely appreciate his efforts. It’s amazing the love the people have for this man.

Our host, Hunaid (who resembles Quasay Hussein a little…but lacks his evil disposition) took us around one evening to show us a few sites. We were able to see one of the 7-star hotels that has been built to cater to wealthy (very wealthy) tourists. The rooms there start at $800 per night during the relatively cool winters, and dip to $300 per night during the unbearably hot summers.

We also visited a souk, which we would call a “bazaar.” It has miles and miles of tiny shops selling everything imaginable. Of course, the shopkeepers are fairly aggressive in this part of the world and had Phil and me in their sites long before we cast a shadow on their thresholds. It didn’t help that we’re two very white men in very Western business suits. That’s OK…Phil bought a couple of souvenirs for his grandkids, and I managed to get some entertaining video shots.

The next day, I had a presentation for about 50 people. If you’ve ever wanted to know what I do for a living…watch this video. That’s me, in front of a relatively small group of people explaining how our solutions can help them accurately collect hand-printed response data from paper forms. While I’ve included a few minutes of the video for this blog, I actually talked on this day for over three hours. That’s three hours of straight talking, answering questions, and pitching our solution…we did take one 15 minute break. And yes, every single person actually returned to the presentation after the break!

After the presentation, we ate and returned to our hotel. Phil and I had to get up early the next morning to catch our flight to Dubai.

That’s all from Oman (at least for now…it looks like I’ll be going back there in a few weeks). Keep checking the blog for the next exciting tale from the Middle East!