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Sightseeing in Oman? You Mustn't Miss the Smugglers 

The Iranians come at daybreak, buzzing across the green water in small boats packed with goats. They deliver their livestock to Omani traders, idle away the hot midday hours and, as darkness sets in, return to Iran, this time loaded with cigarettes, tea and clothing.

Aside from the starkly beautiful rocky fjords, tourist attractions are scarce on this remote tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Watching the Iranian smugglers come and go is about the best local travel operators can muster. . . .

But the goat and cigarette trade, running perpendicular to the oil tankers, is the only commerce the locals care about. It is said to represent over half of the economy here on the Musandam peninsula . . .

These days, however, traders like Abdullah Sadani, a 33-year-old Iranian, complain that reform in Iran is ruining business. An import deal that Iran signed with international cigarette companies in 2002 has decimated that trade, which was by far the largest and most lucrative

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