Back in college there was a Fulbright Scholar from Oman who was the TA for my Arabic class. I remember this guy very clearly because he smelled really, really good. Like a weird mixture of incense and musky wood. I've come across that smell a few times since, and it's always on men from Oman or Yemen. Weird... yes. Awesome? Definitely.
When I went to the Mugamma to pick up my passport, it was heatstroke weather outside, as always, so I decided to wait in the marginally less hot corridors of the Immigration department. Suddenly I smell something familiar. Wood. Incense. Hermes Terre d'homme. Whatever. I'm thinking to myself... "Smells like Yemenis!" I lift my head and there are two Yemeni men on my right, two on my left. Smelling really good. It was like a gust of relief came to save me from all the sweaty grossness of that crowded hall. I spent all afternoon being puzzled about how they all manage to smell like that, until I saw a snippet of Egyptian TV that showed me how. It's a spritz of perfumed oil behind each ear, followed by absorbing incense smoke under and around the robes and headdress. Whatever they do, that shit lingers. Must patent.
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