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Muscat
Mughsail Beach
Job's Tomb
Birkit Al Mawz
Jebel Shams |
Click here to see all the pictures
in the Salalah photo
gallery.
 From
Muscat, we flew to Salalah, about a hour
and a half flight. It was July
during the khareef (monsoon season) in Salalah, where Oman
meets the Arabian Sea. We saw very little rain, but it was overcast
and humid, with temperatures in the 80's, but comfortable. We stayed at the Salalah Hilton,
a beautiful hotel on the outskirts of Salalah, surrounded by
very little except sand and camels. Camels on the road,
camels on the beach, and camels with our Toyota Land Cruisers,
seemingly the transportation of choice in Oman. We got carried away with taking pictures of
camels, all of which are included in the photo gallery for your
viewing pleasure. But the camels were part of the
adventure. We started by trying to find the local souqs
(markets), based on
directions from the car rental agency. What we found one was probably not a
tourist destination...a little run down feeling, a few shops,
an open air gun souq and a third world feel I just was not ready
for. That disconcerted feeling led to missing a terrific picture,
when, as we walked away from the gun souq, we passed a weathered
older man, dressed traditionally all in black, with a belt of
bullets across his chest and a dagger hanging from his belt. We did
not stay too long, leaving for our first trip away from Salalah to Mughsail
Beach.
 The next day we split up. Half of us spent the day at the Salalah
Hilton, enjoying the beach and all that the hotel had to offer. The
rest of us set off for Ubar and the Rub' al Khali.
Our rental Toyota Land Cruiser came with an unexpected surprise
that we enjoyed throughout our travels in Oman. We found two
cassette tapes, filled with modern Arabic music. One was
commercially produced, but the labeling was so worn as to be
illegible, so it became known as the "white tape." The other was a
recording made from another source and became known as the "clear
tape." We talked to the rental agency representative, who said to
consider them a gift. The first track from the white tape can be
heard here
 (6:41).
The next day we were off again. It was a long day, with our first
stop being Job's Tomb, followed by a
drive along the edge of the Rub' al-Khali, where the mountains meet
the desert.
 And
to finish our last day in Salalah, before returning to
Muscat, we had dinner at Bin Atique...traditional
Omani food, reasonable prices, and very casual. We were all in one
room, no table, no chairs, just a rug and pillows, and a TV
broadcasting in Arabic the day's news and events. Our dinners were
put in the middle of the floor, and we all shared. My favorite was
the biryani rice (more Indian than Arabic). I also enjoyed
the coffee at the end of the meal, although not everyone did. It was
much different than either American coffee or espresso...strong,
thick, sweet, and heavily flavored with cardamom.
Click here to see all the pictures
in the Salalah photo
gallery. |
الصفحة
الرئيسية
الصفحات
Salalah
Ubar and the Rub' al-Khali
The Edge of the Rub' al-Khali
Nizwa
Misfah |
