calming, earthy scent greets me as soon as I land at Muscat International airport. The mystical fragrance continues to haunt me in the car to Shangri-La Hotel in the Barr Al Jissah area. It’s here in the grand lobby of the hotel that I come face to face with the scent—curling up from a latticed metal diffuser, close to the Omani coffee pot. Frankincense or luban (the Arabic name), is the quintessential scent of Oman. Whether you’re in a souk, masjid, mud-brick fort, a
