Salalah (and happy to say ta-ra!)
Tuesday 9 May – we sailed into Salalah at 10.00am this morning and were greeted by a very uninspiring sight….a load of cargo ships, oil refineries, pipes, cranes and piles of limestone rocks – this is very definitely a working port!
It serves the markets of East Africa, the Red Sea, the Indian Subcontinent and the Arabian Gulf, and is part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast, via the Suez Canal, to the Mediterranean. It was from Salalah that the US Maersk Alabama, captained by Richard Phillips, departed prior to being seized by 4 Somali pirates in April 2009, the story “A Captain’s Duty” which was co-written by him was later adapted into a film, “Captain Phillips”, starring Tom Hanks. This segues nicely into what I am going to tell you next. I mentioned previously that razor wire had been put around the lower decks of the ship prior to our arrival in Muscat, well, when we went back into our cabin this afternoon we found a note on our bed informing us that as we are preparing to sail through a high-risk region (read - around the Gulf of Yemen, past Somalia and Sudan to the west of us, and up to the Red Sea), as from tonight all balcony lights will be turned off, curtains must be closed, we are not allowed on our balconies after sunset and after dinner, all lighting in public areas will be reduced to a dimmed setting and blinds will be drawn. We have also been told that armed guards are arriving after midnight! Of course Geoff and I are used to this, don’t forget the two of us sailed around Honduras with the same threats!
Pretty much straight after docking we were making our way on to our Bus for our Salalah City View Tour – as Geoff said in hindsight “it was a tour we had to go on to realise we shouldn’t have gone on it”. A very underwhelming city, hot, dusty, everything pretty much in shades of white, beige, dark beige and by the looks of it, not particularly wealthy. The third largest city in Oman and the capital of southern Oman’s Dhofar province, it is also where the Sultan Qboos bin Said was born and where he comes for holidays. It is also known for its locally grown fruit - bananas, papayas, lemons, avocados, custard apple, guava, star fruit and sugarcane. The Khareef, an annual monsoon, transforms the desert terrain into a lush, green landscape and creates seasonal waterfalls.
The first stop on our tour was a photo session allowed only outside the Sultan’s holiday palace, surrounded by a high wall, so not much to see here except some gates and the top of his mosque and it’s minaret!!!! I think I was more excited by the camels we spotted roaming around next to the main road enroute there. There were, however, some beautiful gardens in front of it, with thousands of litres of water being pumped over them to keep them watered and the grass green.
Next stop was the Museum of the Land of Frankincense, a museum of various items on display with a beautiful frankincense tree in the courtyard. The museum is located in Al-Baleed Archaeological Park, another UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the only Museum in Salalah.
Artifacts and remnants of the Islamic ancient city on the Arabian Coast are beautifully displayed and there is a whole Maritime Section which Geoff particularly enjoyed. I was very interested in the origins of Frankincense (I didn’t own the Jo Malone Boutique for nothing!). Before we entered the museum we stopped outside with our guide who showed us how to scratch the bark of the tree and release some of the fragrance. There are 4 colours, white, yellow, brown and black. The quality of the tree resin depends on the climate, environmental conditions and the harvesting period. The resin quality can be determined by its size and colour – the larger and lighter the resin, the higher the quality. The finest and most highly prized frankincense resin is produced in the Dhofar province and this resin is reserved for royalty.
We had a short 15 minute stop amongst some farmland where there were loads of coconut palms, banana and papaya trees and a refreshing coconut juice enroute back into the city centre for our final city stop, yep, another mosque…..
Sultan Qaboos Mosque – this time with a photo opportunity outside the bus through the fence – fortunately it was on my side by the coach window as we drove towards it and I was able to get a much better photo from inside the coach!
Our final stop was at another Souk which actually looked a bit like a run-down shopping centre. It was meant to be closed but some retailers had come in to open for us. The shops mainly consisted of “Gents Ready Made’ Clothes” and frankincense shops. We had a few Omani rials left so thought we may as well spend them on frankincense. Annoyingly we will not be able to bring any of it back into New Zealand with our strict customs, but we did manage to find some frankincense oils which we will be allowed to bring in.
And that was it, back to the boat. I certainly wouldn’t recommend you put Salalah at the top of your bucket list and our short stay of 7 hours was more than enough here!
5pm and we were off….next stop Jeddah in Saudi Arabia!