Happy and rich in an Omani toytown

NOT so very long ago, Oman's borders were sealed to the outside world and Muscat's gates clanged shut at sunset. Everything began to change in 1970, when Sultan Qaboos, then aged 30, overthrew his medieval-minded father, unlocked the gates and ushered in a brave new world. Using money from oil, which started to flow only in 1967, he built roads, schools and hospitals. He gave boats to fishermen, houses to nearly everyone, and introduced some of the strictest environmental laws in the world. Nowadays, it is as if a giant hand had opened a box of Lego, pulling out toy houses and forts, park benches and squares of grass, and telephone booths and bus shelters built like mini-castles.