Salalah, Oman,, March 20

Thursday, March 20

You'll have to wait until we have sea days to hear about the rest of India as we're trying to sort out photos, notes and the like. In the meantime, here's what's going on.

After arriving back at the Amsterdam in Mumbia (formerly Bombay), we rested, relaxed and took inventory of the t-shirts and other stuff we have bought since the cruise began. I think that after one washing the XXL t-shirts might fit little Jordan, our 2 year old great grandson.

We had a day in Mumbai (more than you want to know later) and then two sea days. St. Patrick's day was celebrated on the 18th and we were invited to a wonderful cocktail party in one of the lounges. It was formal night so all the men were in tuxes and the woman in beautiful gowns....many green.

Today, we are in the port of Salalah in Oman. Situated in a region with volatile neighbors (Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, Oman is pretty stable. It was ruled by a Sultan who was against progress and oil explorations. In 1970 his son, Qaboos overthrew him in a non violent coup. At that time there were only 5 ks of paved roads, 3 schools (boys only), 1 hospital (run by American missionaries), no police force, radio, TV or newspapers. Oil and natural gas and a new ruler has changed all that. Unlike Dubai and other Arab countries who spend money on hotels, fancy cars, etc., Oman has put money into the infrastructure, planning for the future. Wide highways go out from the docks at Salalah and continue over the country. In 1994 women were given the right to vote.

Oman is mostly Muslim and the woman we saw working in the souvenir shops were dressed in burkas with only their eyes (well made up eyes) showing. Families are large and anyone with less than five or six children is considered strange.

Oman is about the same size as the UK,, 82% sand and gravel with 15% mountains. Now the mountains are brown and bare but when the monsoon season comes they will turn green. Visitors from across the Persian Gulf flock to Salalah to avoid harsh conditions during this time. The population doubles and large flat, barren areas along the highways become camp grounds as many Omani people rent out their homes to foreigners move into campers.

It is the land of Sinbad the Sailor and the Arabian Nights. And Job 's tomb. Our bus trip took us up roads with hair raising curves into the mountains. There we stopped at an unassuming small complex of buildings. We passed the toilets (eastern style) on our left, a non-descript mosque in this area of gold doomed mosques, took off our shoes, the ladies covered their heads, and went into a building about the size of a one car garage. There was a long rectangle area in the floor, covered in drapes, with incense burning at one end. The tomb of Job. Outside is hole in the ground about 2" square and 18" deep. Imbedding in the concrete bottom is what is supposed to be a footprint of Job.

Along the roads, in yards and just outside of the city, we saw camels (one hump) grazing. Camels, camels, camels. Small and brown with small feet to climb up and down the mountains as opposed to the larger camels with bigger feet who live in the desert.

Salalah is the perfume and Frankincense capital of the area. We visited a Frankincense tree (actually two trees beside the road which we felt were there for the tour buses).
In olden days Frankincense was worth its weight in gold but this is no longer the case.
The limbs of the trees are scratched, and after a wait of three weeks a white sap is collected. The process is repeated three times and each time more sap is released. After waiting three months, the process is repeated on the other side of the limbs. Frankincense comes in three qualities. white being the best, the darker, and the third the darkest.






The trees need little water and grow on the sides of the mountains. Large forests of the trees are out in the country. Judging from the amount of frankincense we saw in shops they must have billions of trees. It was like the pearls in Australia and other countries. Bins and bins, bags and bags. In shops and shops.

Arriving back at the port, we showed our permit cards to the police on duty and the bus was waved through.

Salalah is not a pretty port, nor is the area around it. It is, however, a busy commercial port containing long, long breakwaters, a few cruising yachts and many container ships.

Except for a part of Istanbul we’ll be visiting, we’ve left Asia. Three days at sea and we’ll be in Africa, in Safaga, Egypt. Then it will be through the Suez canal, into the Mediterranean, Alexandria, Turkey and ports in Europe.

It's now 6:45 and we're about 45 minutes out, into the Arabian Sea, it just getting dark, there is a balmy breeze on deck and a full moon overhead. Can life get any better?