Day 92 - Thursday March 30 at Salalah, Oman

Salalah photos
position at 6:30am: N16 59.48 latitude E54 6.98 longitude
(Salalah, Oman)
temperature: 79F, 72% humidity, sunny
distance since FLL: 29,601 miles
Here is the description of the ship's tour that we are taking today.
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Frankincense Trail & Job's Tomb

Duration: 4½ Hours.
Seated.


Discover Salalah by driving into the surrounding area to see the contrast between the lush vegetation of the Garden City and the desolate landscape of the desert. Leaving the port, the tour begins with a drive to Mughsail Beach. Camels may be seen roaming the roadside. Enroute stop for a unique experience - tapping your own Frankincense tree.
Travel to Mughsail Beach, nearly two miles of unspoiled white sandy beaches, with high cliffs at both ends and many picnic areas. If your your arrival coincides with the high tides; you may be among the lucky ones to view the beach's spectacular "Blow Holes".
We drive on for the rare experience of 'tapping' your own Frankincense tree! The trade in frankincense has been the source of wealth of the Dhofar province since ancient times; it was used in holy ceremonies by the Egyptians and the Romans. In bygone days, export was done through caravan routes to Syria and Egypt and by sea across the Indian Ocean to Africa and Asia. Today Dhofar people still use frankincense to add fragrance in their houses.

Next explore Job's Tomb where, according to legend, the remains of the Moslem and the Old Testament prophet Job can be found. This is a sacred place of pilgrimage for Moslems, Christians and Jews. You can take photos and admire panoramic views of the striking Qara Mountains and the Jubriah plain.
This tour also includes a stop at the Al Husn Souq to stroll among the vendors. The colorful stalls are heaped with mounds of frankincense, myrrh, incense, bottles of fragrant perfume oils and a large variety of fascinating artifacts.
Please note: Guests must dress modestly and respect the local culture and traditions. Shorts and skirts are permitted but must reach the knee, and shoulders should be covered. Shoes must be removed before entering mosques. Ladies must cover their heads with a scarf while visiting Job's tomb.
Price: $50 pp
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Our tickets have a departure time of "on arrival." Since we are due to dock at 7am, Debbie set the alarm for 5:30am so we could catch breakfast at 6:00am in LaVeranda and be at the dock as soon as we clear customs. Debbie got oatmeal! We need not have worried being out on time. We were docked a little after 7am but we did not clear the ship right away. The ship's staff herded us into the seats of Constellation Theater again for a first in/first out again, no matter what tickets you had. It appeared that they did not let people out early who were not on tours. Here as at the other Arabian ports, walking is not allowed in the port area. So, you must take a shuttle to the gate and then because of the strong taxi union, a cab anywhere else. There are no shuttles into town. The town of Salalah is about 20km from the port. We got seated in the second section of the Constellation Theater. We got on bus one doing our tour about 7:30am. We were on our way around 7:45am. Roger said they could only get about 9 buses total here for our visit and the 2 tours offered.
The tour was pretty much as described above. We did not tap the poor tree, it did have a rock sitting in its branches, but it was so lonely and beat up already. We did see the water shoot out of the blowholes. There was also a photo stop at the Salalah Palace and a stop for a complimentary coconut water drink. We saw lots of camels today. We had heard about how green it is here vs. the rest of the country because it gets a monsoon in July to September. It must be green then because it was pretty brown here now. Salalah is a city of 100,000 people and we are here on a Thursday which is the start of their Thur-Fri weekend. We did not see a lot of people out and about, and maybe it was because we were here on a Thursday, or maybe there are not that many people to begin with.
Oman, prior to 1970, had very little infrastructure. All the roads, cities and buildings we have seen have been built in the last 30 years for the most part.
We got back a little after the sailing time of 12:30pm and the ship did not sail until about 1:30pm. We were already sweaty so we went up to the Pool Deck for the Tex-Mex buffet there. It was really hot!
Around 3pm, we saw about 8 to 10 large dolphins off our balcony. They were really active, jumping 6-8 feet out of the water and doing back flips. They were only visible for two or three minutes, but they made the most of it.
At 6:30pm, we got our big red parkas and headed to the Ice Bar Party being held in a fish locker. They had large blocks of ice set up to form a ice bar from which they were serving drinks and caviar. We have pictures. It was fun and very cold. The walk-in freezer was very near the engine control room where we had been for an earlier party. But, they walked us through have the length of the ship in service corridors this time so we did get to see some new things in addition to the walk-in freezer turned into an ice bar.
We had a segment directory delivered to our room this evening. It shows there are 611 guests on this segment that started in Dubai and ends in Rome. There is also a time change this evening, one hour backward.
Here is looking to smooth sailing for the next 3 days to Safaga, Egypt.
Salalah photos