Muscat is one of those names that seems to say “exotic city”. A place quite unlike Main Street USA.

The name does not quite reach the level of Timbuktu or Samarkand, in terms of connoting images of Old World trade, and caravans and spices, but it’s not just another town with a souq.

It did not disappoint.

The typical description of Muscat, in the UAE, is “what this country was like 40 years ago”. That is, citizens doing regular jobs, getting their hands dirty or driving a cab, something Emiratis in Abu Dhabi and Dubai gave up a generation ago.

Muscat certainly is older than the UAE’s two big cities, by a millennium or three, and some of its old stuff has not been knocked down.

The Old Town is surrounded by various small forts or strongholds, to provide warning to the town, which was built around a crescent-shaped bay backed by stony mountains. Raiders have been an ongoing issue in Muscat, involving just about any group that managed to get to this part corner of the Indian Ocean, from Persians to Portuguese.

As we came into the central districts of what is a very spread out city, we had an opportunity to see Matrah, an area near the modern port and the location of a souq the locals allegedly frequent, but we pushed on to the aforementioned Old City.

The area includes what is now called the “ceremonial” palace of the sultan, at the end of a long pavilion, and the department of finance, perhaps where the gold was once kept.

One old place houses an interesting museum with displays of old weapons and clothes, as well as coins and stamps.

Muscat, the capital of Oman, in some ways is similar to other states on the Arabian Peninsula, in that it is predominately Arab and overwhelmingly Muslim.

Oman, however, has a different feel, because it has less money, but also because it has had continuous contact with civilizations from Africa and Asia. It seems more cosmopolitan than the Gulf countries.

Omanis usually can be identified immediately, among the region’s Arabs, because they wear a colorful scarf atop their heads, compared to the typical monochrome look in this part of the Gulf.

Also, their country has a bit more water, and seems to have a little more agriculture, and seems more self-sufficient.

Travelers to Oman almost unanimously talk about how friendly the people are, and we saw nothing to change our opinion.

After the leisurely drive on a busy day, and the visit to the palace and the museum, we decided to push on to a five-star hotel on the eastern edge of the city, the Ritz-Carlton Al Bustan, where we smiled at the door men and walked in.

We listened to the male harpist in the lobby, then made our way to the beach bar, and ordered some drinks, while enjoying near-perfect weather, a welcome respite after the frantic events of the day before.

We came determined to see the opera house, apparently fabulous and unique in the region, built by the arts-interested sultan, Qaboos, but we missed it on the way in and had tarried at the hotel.

Dinner was curious. Oman is known, as one guide book put it, for “eating to live rather than living to eat” — and it has few restaurants of any fame, even locally.

We decided to go for “odd” — a place called Nations Barbecue, just a few yards from the hotel — and ordered the “Turkish mixed grill for two”, which came with eight skewers of chicken and lamb, all for 8 Omani rials, or about $20.

What made the place odd is that each table was enclosed inside a booth. We could hear other patrons, but we could not see them, and when we were ready to order I pushed a button that rang a bell. (See below.)

The night ended at the Chedi Hotel, near the water, where we met two former colleagues for a nightcap in the dark and quiet five-star hotel, and asked questions about Oman — which both of them love. (They had just come from an oud concert at the opera house; they are fans. Ten minutes of the oud would put me close to nervous collapse.)

It was not an exhaustive visit, by any means, but we got a sense of the slower pace of the UAE’s neighbor to the east, and a feel of most everyone being OK with a more humble lifestyle.

The drive back this morning included the same two border stops, but it seemed most of the weekend tourists were staying another day, and we got past the Omanis in about 15 minutes, and the UAE station delayed us only 45 minutes.

And now we no longer have to explain how it is that we could be in the UAE so long … without ever visiting Oman and, especially, Muscat.