March 18 – Salalah, Oman. We've been here before so relax, no long yada-yada before the travel stuff.
For some reason I'm just not able to get in gear this morning. I feel like I was up all night. I wasn't but for some reason I don't feel rested.
We're on a tour today that will take us east of, west of and into Salalah. It's an all day tour but some of it is driving. I'm just thankful that I'm not facing a four hour walking tour like the one we did in Mumbai.
Our first stop is Mughsail Beach, two miles of white sand flanked by high cliffs at each end. The parking lot is located just west of the cliffs at the west end of the beach so it's not possible to see the beach from there. We had to climb up a small hill on an improved walkway and then down the other side to get to the beach. The view of the beach was nice from the top of the hill.
The walk was interesting. The path that has been provided across the hill was at least partly covered by a rock formation that looked like a wave breaking over the path. At spots it was like being in the curl of a breaking wave. Makes you wonder how tight a grip the rock has on the portion that hangs over the path, especially those parts that are hanging vertically like the cusp of the waves crest. The rock is very dark and is fairly hard. It's a huge protrusion of basalt or something like it sticking out of the lighter sandy soil around it. Apparently the action of the ocean over the years has undercut the large rock to form this hollowed out part they put the path through.
We're here to see if the blowholes are active. Along the ridge of the beach there's a cap of the same rock the guards the west end. It has been undercut by the action of the ocean and the pressure that builds up in the cavity when the tide is in has found release in some weak spots in the rock. Unlike many blowhole locations you can get right up to these. The Omanis have installed gratings so you can't fall in the hole but they don't really impede the water when it comes out. We are here at just about the right time. Even when the wave action against the rock is not sufficient to cause a water spout, it produces a sound something like a locomotive approaching. This may be because the holes are in a series and the sound comes out of the most distant one first and then approaches as each creates its sound in order.
When we first got there that's all they were doing but it seemed to me that each successive set was making more noise. Since we had a half hour to explore the area I just hung around near the blowholes. My patience was rewarded. The first few waves produced a small spray. In looking out at the ocean it was easy to see that there were larger sets coming. It seemed like every fourth wave was a large one. Our guide was telling us that it was sounding good for a nice blow and when the larger wave hit the system a steady stream of water shot out of the hole sending our guide scurrying so he wouldn't get soaked. This is the first time we have ever been to a blowhole location when the conditions were right for a good display. Old Faithful it wasn't but it was still fun to see. I'd say the water spouted at least 40' on the best eruptions. I think each successive set was getting higher; tide must still be coming in.
Our next stop was at the Royal Palace. Previous Sultans have used this as their main residence but the current Sultan, Qaboos (pronounced exactly like caboose), prefers Muscat and has his regular palace there. He does use this palace as his winter retreat and also for ceremonial and diplomatic visits. It's about as far from Muscat as you can get and still be in Oman. As with the Royal Palaces in other countries, the stop was for outside pictures only. The surrounding area is beautifully landscaped and the blue dome of his mosque and its blue domed minaret was visible over the surrounding high wall.
Our next destination, the souq of course. When translating words from other languages with their own alphabets into English the variety of spellings you can find is broad, giving us souq, souk, soque and so forth. I notice that Word's dictionary for American English prefers souk, so of course I'm going to use souq. In Sri Lanka the locals seemed to use the word souk so that's what I used there. Here they apparently prefer Souq and so that's what I'm using. Contrary to the rumors that are circulating, I really do try to fit in unless what's going on is just too outrageous.
Since I didn't give any history about Oman I probably should tell you that they had the corner on the frankincense trade throughout history. For centuries frankincense was thought to have healing and other miraculous powers and was in great demand. The tree that frankincense comes from is a desert plant. It only grows in Oman and Yemen. Essentially it's the sap of the tree. It is tapped somewhat like maple or rubber trees and the sap that comes out crystalizes and can be snapped off the tree. There are several species of threes that produce frankincense but they do not produce the same quality. The best quality is white with a greenish tinge. It produces the best fragrance and only requires a sliver to make an adequate application. You have to burn it to create the pleasant smell. The way they do it here is they take a little clay container that has air holes at the bottom for air and put a small piece of burning charcoal at the bottom. They slice a sliver of the frankincense sap place it on top of the charcoal. In about 20 seconds the vapor and smell are coming out. It's the same principal as the censor used in religious services.
Our guide says that it can protect you from the 'evil eye' and keep you safe from harm. It's more practical use is for esthetic purposes, creating a nice smell, etc. He claims that when he needs to freshen up but doesn't have a change of clothes or time for a shower he just lights the small censor and stands with it on the ground between his feet and under his robes. He demonstrated that technique with the censor he was using to allow us to smell the aroma and see how they burn it. I have to admit that when I stood next to him later during the trip the aroma of the frankincense was still in his clothing. I guess that's to be expected. If you wear clothes around a campfire, the next day as you're putting them in the wash the campfire smell is still there.
I didn't really want any frankincense so we looked around the souq to see what else it there. Lots of clothing, shoes, Omani daggers, hats and perfumes were for sale. Diana bought a cloth of some kind. Not sure if it's just a shawl or something more Omani. I'll have to ask.
Obligatory shopping stop over, we headed to Al-Baled, an archeological site and the home of the Museum of the Frankincense Land. The name sounds pretty hooky but I'm happy to report that the two small exhibit halls were extremely well done. The displays were logically organized and labeled and created an interesting and informative design. There were two separate halls, one for maritime history and the other for Omani history. Unfortunately no photos were allowed in either one so you'll have to take my word that the displays were totally professionally curated.
The Maritime Hall had models of historical ship types over the centuries. They were all sailing ships as Oman was never industrialized enough to produce steam ships or iron vessels. Early on Salalah was a key link in the flow of spices to the Middle East and the Mediterranean from the islands and India. Several large port cities that are just now being excavated facilitated trade from Europe, Africa, Arabia, India and China. All this lasted as long as sailing vessels were the rule. With the advent of steam ships the role of Oman in trade slowly decreased until it ended completely. A very well done exhibit.
The other exhibit hall was Oman History. It had displays on the historical grave sites around the country. They claim the tomb of Job from the Old Testament is here in Oman. The Book of Job is probably the oldest story in the OT other than the creation story although some expositors put him in the early patriarchal period. The person who first wrote the story down was an Israelite as he uses the Israelite covenant name for God, Yahweh. Nothing in the words of Job, his wife or his friends would tag them as Israelites. Their words are archaic and specifically non-Israelite. The likely date for this story is somewhere around 2100BC or earlier. Based on the best facts I can gather Job's story predates the calling of Abram which occurred around 2091BC. Little to nothing is known about Job so it's unlikely that they know the location of his tomb. But it makes a nice story. Again the displays and artifacts are well interpreted with drawings and models. Again a great exhibit.
The actual archeological work here is in the startup phase so the museum is the thing of interest.
We are now heading to lunch at the Crowne Plaza Resort, Salalah. Our lunch was served in one of the Conference Center's banquet halls. It was a buffet and the food was very good. Not much of it was Omani or even Middle Eastern, unless you count beef stroganoff and pasta in marinara sauce as Middle Eastern. Some of the salads and dips were definitely local cuisine, humus and other bean based dips with pita were offered. I took some of each because I wanted to see how authentic the items we get in SoCal are and I have to say those here and those in SoCal are very comparable. Of course that should be no surprise in the OC because we have a huge Persian and Indian community there.
From lunch we drove to the small town of Taqah to visit Taqah Castle. Taqah was then and is now a small fishing village and the local Wali's castle is appropriate to the area. It's not large by castle standards but it is well fortified and has the space he needs to conduct his business. The Wali is roughly equal to a mayor or county commissioner but he was the executive and judicial segments rolled into one man. Hi was always a sheikh until the late 1900s. He decides disputes over land, animals, business deals and every other element of secular law. The local Imam would settle religious disputes or those arising out of the laws of the Q'aran, known to you infidels at the Koran. In 1991 the offices of the Wali were moved and in 1992 the national government took over the castle and restored it to its original plan. It reopened as a public museum in 1994. It is in very good condition.
During this trip I have finally gotten a handle on the glottal stop (I'm not even sure that's the correct term for the sudden stop/start you find in a word like Maalesh between the a's) that pervades the Arabic language. Whatever you call it I can "Maalesh" with the best of them. (A phrase roughly equivalent to our 'that's the way it goes' when something takes an unexpected turn or has a disappointing ending.)
The castle has a well defended gate room that leads into a central courtyard. The long and narrow gate room is also the waiting area for those having business with the Wali. I don't know if it's authentic but a rather large frankincense burner was set in a niche in the center of the room.
Through the gate room you enter an open courtyard. Across this courtyard is the castle's well and if you make a U-turn to the right you come to the prison. From the courtyard you have many choices of direction. You can turn left and enter the storage and food prep area. The prep room had a nice display of the implements they used. There was a spiked board that's used to husk coconuts. Different methods are used to grind grain and coffee. They had a small version of the type of grinding stones you'd find in a larger mill to grind grain. The top stone has an upright wooden handle to facilitate turning it. Coffee is actually pulverized in a mortar and pestle. Arabic coffee is very strong. Food storage rooms are next door and a bit farther down and across the hall is the castle's armory. A stairway at the end of the area takes you up to the second floor patio just outside the Wali's formal sitting room, probably a back way up for the servants.
Coffee Note: Traditionally they put raw coffee beans in a pan and roasted them over the fire until they were almost black (just a little past where Charbucks roasts their coffee). The still hot beans are place in the mortar and pounded and rubbed with the pestle until very fine. These grounds are then placed in a copper coffee maker, covered with water and allowed to boil for a while. The result is a very strong, bitter (to our Western taste) and thick brew that should have a bit of naturally occurring foam on top. I've tasted coffee made this way and it's actually pretty good. I should have mentioned that they sweeten it with honey (more traditional) or sugar. Apparently the Bedouin custom is to offer their guests coffee before anything else is done. If you get sweet coffee it means that you are welcome and should stay. If you get unsweetened coffee you are not welcome and should drink up and leave as soon as possible. To maintain the proper procedure, your host will protest that you should stay, but if the coffee is unsweetened, you are still supposed to go.
Back at the courtyard, if you go up a very narrow set of stairs directly in front of you, you find the Wali's formal sitting room. This largish room was the place where things were decided, important visitors entertained and private discussions held. In niches around the walls of this room the Wali would display objects from faraway places and gifts from visiting dignitaries. You can access this room from two separate stairways, one up from the courtyard and one leading to the Wali's private area.
The Wali's private suite, accessible by another staircase from the courtyard or by coming up through the public rooms, consists of a woman's area, a nursery and the Wali's private bedroom.
A U-turn to the right outside the gate room puts you at the base of a very wide staircase leading to the roof and towers of the castle. This would allow the castle's security force to have quick access to the top of the walls and the towers. Actually the castle is a lot like an old English palace. There are little doors and stairways all over the building. I didn't take the time to take a look to see where they all went.
The nursery is interesting because they have an Omani style crib on display there. It has four 3 foot long posts connected near the top by 2x4s in a rectangular shape. Inside that rectangle they use rope to suspend a slightly smaller wooden platform about 2 inches off the floor. This platform holds the baby's mattress. They have a cloth sides and top suspended by loops from the four corners at the top of the posts. It's easily installed or taken off by slipping the loops from around the balls at the top of the posts. The ropes suspending the platform are strung to allow the platform to be rocked side to side. When the baby gets mobile in the crib the fall to the floor is less than two inches. Not a bad design for the baby but the mother has to bend almost to the floor to get the baby out.
The Wali's bedroom is not large but it is long. One end is taken up entirely by his bed. The only way to get into the bed is to crawl in over the foot because it goes from wall to wall. It has a privacy canopy that reaches almost to the ceiling. Along one wall is a glassed in niche that has a very nice jewelry display.
Because the courtyard is so small and the castle so vertical it was not possible to get a decent perspective on the building. The best perspective I could get was from a second floor patio area looking toward the main gate across the courtyard. It was a fun place to explore, but arriving with two busloads of fellow travelers made getting around the castle difficult due to the narrow stairways.
Our next stop is a Khor Rori Creek. They've discovered a fairly large walled city here they believe to be Sumhuram. Sumhuram was the ancient center for Arabia's frankincense trade. One tradition says that the Magi (or King) bearing frankincense to baby Jesus traveled from Dhofar, which is the local country. Excavations have disclosed evidence that this city traded with the Far East (China, India, Spice Islands) and Greece in the west. From Greece their goods would have been shipped all over the European continent. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is being reconstructed under their stringent guidelines.
There's a path where you can walk around the entire city outside the walls. There are several places where you can go inside the walls and see all the small spaces that would have been homes and businesses. There is a large open are inside the walls that was probably the public plaza. The reconstruction is still in the beginning phases so not much has been done except for building up some of the walls inside the city where they have found clear foundations. The outside wall of the city is in various stages of completion. Some sections are very high but others are still quite low. Some experts believe this was the site of the Queen of Sheba's palace. The artifacts uncovered so far certainly show that it was an important city with far reaching connections.
On the south side of the city you can see Khor Rori Creek and the ocean. Several migrating flamingos were wading in the creek just below the city. Our guide gave us 45 minutes to explore the city so D and I walked around the perimeter, going inside as openings in the wall would permit. The view out over the creek and the lagoon on the east side was very pretty. I find places like this fascinating because I let my imagination run wild thinking about the daily lives of the inhabitants. I wonder what they were feeling and thinking as they gazed at the same sights I'm seeing. D prefers museums, in her words, "One pile of old rocks looks pretty much like another." In reality she's not far from wrong. Nevertheless, I enjoy exploring ancient sites.
On the way back to the ship our guide demonstrated the way to tie an Omani turban. He ties is over his Omani style hat so that he can take it off and on without having to retie it every time.
Our entertainer was Frank King, the conversational comic. He's very funny but if you are not a native English speaker you just won't get it. I'm pretty sure the British and Aussies don't get some of it.
Someone must have boarded the ship and worked on the internet network because it is now working and much faster than ever. I heard from a staff member that it can now access two satellites if volume calls for it. Whatever else they may have done my AOL app works now. Still can't use Charter though except to receive mail.
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