Salalah is the second largest town in the Sultanate of Oman and a traditional stronghold and birthplace of the Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Salalah, despite being in the Arabian desert, enjoys a temperate climate through most of the year. The city is surrounded by the Dhofar and the Jabal al Qar mountains. The mountains are supposedly lush and green. We didn’t leave the city so all we saw was desert like terrain and the Arabian ocean.
Salalah is a city of antiquity, boasting the ruins of a palace reputed to have belonged to the Queen of Sheba and the resting place of Nabi Imran, the father of the Virgin Mary. I mentioned both these places to our taxi driver and he gave me a blank look.
I left the ship around 9 am without having any definite plans except to take the shuttle to the port gate and hopefully get a taxi to take me to a beach. This would be my last opportunity to dip my toes into the Arabian Sea and I was determined to do that. Well, the group of taxi cab drivers that met us at our stop were a riot. I so wish that I had gotten a picture of them but I was just too busy trying to negotiate a good price. Before I knew it a large group of men in white robes and cute little white hats were surrounding me. Without me realizing it, I was doing the bargaining for whomever was interested in joining me. It was mass confusion. “Madam, Madam, where you want to go? I take you. I have clean taxi, good rates!” versions of this were repeated over and over again. I felt harried by all this unwanted attention and at one point I tried to extricate myself from the melee. I was never afraid just overwhelmed.
Finally, I ended up in a cab with Andrew, a British fellow who was willing to share a cab with me as long as we got to a Souk as well as the beach. So off we took with Aman as our driver.
I took this picture because I love the Arabic lettering, have no idea what the sign says.
The city of Salalah is known as the perfume capital of Arabia, so I purchased a bottle of Ginger Perfume for $3, which has a delicate scent.
Southern Arabia and a small part of northern Africa are the only places boswellia (Frankincense) trees are grown. We went into a shop where these bags of Frankincense were all over the place, they were busy repackaging it into smaller bags. This is big business for Salalah. At the height of this commerce around the 2nd century, tons were being shipped to Egypt, Greece and Rome. I am bringing a bag back to NH to burn as an incense throughout the year but especially at Christmas.
Both Andy and I thoroughly enjoyed this small museum that had a lovely collection of boat reproductions. Sindbad the Sailor was from Oman. They can now prove that the Sindbad legends from “A Thousand and One Nights” are real and evidence of the thriving trade that existed along the Maritime Silk Route some 1200 years ago did exist. This museum was playing a National Geographic film called: “Ancient Treasure Ships and the Great Oman Voyage”. However, since once again our time was limited, we weren’t able to sit and watch it. I hope Netflix has it in stock.
What a day for me this has been, the Arabian Sea and now a grouping of three camels. I’m an innocent on this voyage because most of my fellow travelers have seen camels before and they watch me in amazement as I get all excited. Oh well….
I watched this from the ship, I was intrigued by the animated conversational style and how it was handled peacefully but with much drama.
Unlike the other ports that we have visited the Arab countries have not greeted us with bands or folk dancers, so this spontaneous send off was special.
Love the beach pictures - not too many folks can say they put their toes in the Arabarian Sea!! You look like a post card. Who is Andrew - looks like a nice guy???? Bunny
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