Feeling safe in Muscat, while region trembles

Go or stay, stay or go. Apprehensive, maybe even afraid. That was the Muscat state of mind I anticipated of first-time visitors to Oman who normally live on the bustling yet close-knit Dutch street where I grew up. You know, one of these places where neighbours carefully watch one another (move over, Alexa).
After all, just two days into their carefully planned vacation, strikes on a country across the Sea of Oman not only killed people, including children, but also sent an unprecedented shock through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region where these first-time visitors were staying.
I must admit I felt a little concerned about them, not so much about their actual safety as about whether they were feeling safe.
Although the GCC region comprises six diverse countries, it is generally perceived as safe and secure by tourists and expatriates alike and is hardly ever associated with feelings of being “stranded” or “scared”. Plus, not to boast, but Oman in particular has always offered an additional sense of calm and peaceful tranquillity that sets it apart.
'We just had such a wonderful trip to the desert where silence speaks louder than words, and now came back from a wadi, it was fantastic,' the Dutch neighbours, Oman’s first-time visitors, replied, seemingly undisturbed when I checked in on them. “Even though it does feel as if the world is unravelling,” they quickly added, perhaps not wanting to sound completely out of touch with reality due to the immersive impact that this country’s dazzling landscapes and serene scenery clearly had on them.
These first-time visitors to Oman stayed comfortably until their planned departure. This stands in sharp contrast to another Dutch tourist who was here last week, and who described herself as “being stranded in Muscat” while exchanging anxious messages with expats, even asking if it was “safe to go outdoors.” After she managed to get a flight back home, I asked if she had at least managed to enjoy some of the country. She never replied.
“Are you guys safe?” family and friends in the Netherlands have been asking me as well after watching Western news channels, some of which like to sensationalise things. They got a little bit concerned about our actual safety.
“We feel safe,” I have been replying so far, although I admit I had a few moments of real unease after receiving a temporary ‘shelter-in-place’ order from the Netherlands Embassy, which was later withdrawn. I have been residing in Oman for many, many years, but such an alert was new to me and made me wonder if we were supposed to hide under the IKEA kitchen table following that kind of advice.
I have also been sharing awesome images highlighting Oman’s role as a regional peacemaker and quotes by Sayyid Badr bin Hamad al Busaidy, Foreign Minister, who has now truly become world-famous for his diplomatic skills in mediating peace.
Honestly, despite what is going on in the region, until now I still feel safer here than I did going out to a restaurant in Amsterdam last summer with someone who was wearing a Rolex right after news of daylight robberies targeting watch-wearers; safer than in Nice in the ’90s when a man emerged from a club with a knife and we felt as we had to run for our lives; safer than in that Uber in Paris last spring when the driver’s comments while on the road made me feel like I just landed a role in ‘Taken 4’.
It will take a lot for me to simply pack our things and leave my beautiful Oman, and I still feel its calm and stability.
This entire last week, while looking out of my office window, I watched tourists stroll through the Ministries district towards the beach.
But since last Saturday, I have instead found myself hoping that they, too, sense the calmness and peacefulness of this place.

Bregje van Baaren The writer is a freelance contributor