Oman

Muscat hit me differently from any Gulf city I'd expected. The mountains come right down to the sea here — sharp, dark rock dropping into water that goes this impossible shade of turquoise — and the whole old city is wedged into that narrow strip between them. Standing up on the wall above Mutrah fort, you can see the fort, the white government buildings, and the open Arabian Sea all at once, and the light in the afternoon turns everything golden without any effort at all.

The Grand Mosque was the thing I kept coming back to. Two visits in two days. The stonework is this pale cream colour that glows warm at the edges when the sun is low, and the flower beds along the main walkway were still in full bloom — pink, yellow, purple against that marble courtyard. It's enormous but it never felt overwhelming, just very deliberate and very calm.

Wadi Shab is what I wasn't prepared for. You drive through brown desert for an hour and then this crack opens in the earth and the water inside is actually green — not blue, proper jade green — sandwiched between walls of orange sandstone that go straight up. And then we ate a massive spread of mixed grills and hummus at a place in Athaiba on the way back, and that was Oman in a single day: desert canyon, sea, marble mosque, and good food.