So far Oman has been great. This country has been through a renaissance since the current Sultan came to power in the early 70's. He has instituted progressive reforms that have increased the prosperity, infrastructure, and industry of his country many times over from what it was when he first took control of the government. I've enjoyed my time here so far, taking time in the capital city of Muscat to do a little scuba diving, or "visiting an underwater museum" as I like to phrase it (hey, there WAS a sunken ship down there). Currently I am in my second day in Salalah, to the south near Yemen. This area is in the middle of the Khareef Festival, or monsoons. There is a steady mist/rain all hours of the day and the ground is very green, especially up in the mountains overlooking the coast. Yesterday I took my rental car (4WD Land Cruiser) on a little wadi adventure and ran into some young Arabs from Dubai who were down here on vacation. I was really taken aback by how insistent one of the young men was to let me know that his family owns a $1.5M vacation home here that has 15 bedrooms, etc. He is the one wearing the Ferrari cap in the picture below.

Today I'm heading west from Salalah to check out Job's tomb (of the biblical story) and several other places leading up to the Yemini border.

The shabab I met while 4-wheeling through the wadi wanted to take pictures with me, as if I was a tourist attraction. So, I grabbed one of them too. Wish the young woman taking the picture had a bit more skill.

This is why many Gulf Arabs come to Oman for the Khareef Festival. It is their only opportunity to see nature like this.

Dive spot number two in Oman. The first dive was on a huge war ship that was sank to create an artificial reef.

The Sultan of Oman has himself a nice vacation boat. Think of it as his "Air Force One". He visits lots of other countries along the coastline, so I suppose this makes sense.