The sumptuous 250-room Al Bustan Palace Hotel is Oman's dream offering to tourists. The unlikely keynote of my month in Oman was seamless comfort I am far from accustomed to this on my travels Muscat has few hotels for tourists, and few tourists. This anglophile country supports two English-language newspapers, one produced by the Ministry of Information."Not as such," he replies. "Of course, we have self-censorship.""That means you can't criticise the Sultan," I comment."Why should we?" he said, amazed "We love him. And nobody would believe us anyway."It is a nine-hour slog from London to Muscat, though not for me in the pampered, first-class luxury of Gulf Air. At the top, the rich make no arrogant display of their privilege, not even with flashy cars.

At the bottom, there are no bitter unemployed, no beggars, no homeless or hungry people."Do you have censorship here?" I asked a reporter from the Independent Times of Oman. Omani men wear the long Arab robe, the dishdash, and embroidered caps or small turbans. Omani women cover their hair with scarves and wear the black tent, the abaya, rather like a dust coat over colourful high-necked, long-sleeved, long-skirted dresses.Oman's oil wealth is finite and measly compared to that of its neighbours, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran, but the Sultan has spent the money well Unlike most rulers, he is universally popular He has benefited all his people and they know it. Roads, electricity, telephones, television, cars, public transport, breeze block instead of mud brick are all novelties. Oman has remained stable during these revolutionary changes because the Sultan has not disturbed the rooted social customs of his people, though they are beginning to be gently eroded by time and the education of females.

However, girls are still segregated from males at the age of 10. Marriages are arranged, the mothers of bride and groom being the principal brokers, and grooms pay "bride money" Anyone in western clothes is a foreigner. The Sultan thought the 14th century was about the right time-zone for his people, allowing only three boys' schools. However, he sent his only son and heir, Qaboos, to public school in England. After graduating from Sandhurst, Qaboos completed his European education with the British Army in Germany. On his return to Oman, his father kept him under house arrest for six years, believing him a dangerous western influence. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said became the absolute ruler of Oman when he was 30 and has done a miraculous job of transforming it into a modern functional state, starting from scratch.

This long-isolated, retarded country catapulted into the 20th century in 1970, when the old Sultan was quietly deposed and took up exile in the Dor-chester Hotel in London. Everyone in Oman knows this story. Apart from respectfully preserved relics, Muscat and everything man-made in Oman is new. Muscat meanders for 45km along the lovely coast of the Arabian Sea Strange and beautiful jagged-stone mountains rim the city. A litter-free city, in fact a litter-free country, is not only an aesthetic treat but good public health Quietness is another boon. And flowers are everywhere: narrow beds of pink, red and purple petunias divide the main dual carriageway; hibiscus, bougainvillaea, oleander abound.