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As we look forward to the highlight ports of our trip, namely Egypt and Israel, we have one more stop in Oman before three sea days and then non-stop fun….well, honestly, long and exhausting tours of very interesting spots.
But before we get to those bucket list places we go to Salalah, Oman. Like us, maybe you haven’t heard about it, but you are about to!
Click here for the detailed Salalah Photo Gallery.
This verdant part of Oman is about 600 miles to the South of Muscat. It has the benefit of being in the path of the monsoons that pass through about four months each year. Salalah becomes lush and green during this period. That period hadn’t come before my tour today, however.
Other than the traffic circle parks, banana plantations (plenty of them) and thousands of coconut palms there was not much green to be seen. We didn’t see much severe poverty, saw plenty of fairly normal strip malls along the roads and both old and new housing including large apartment buildings. The roads were modern and in very good shape. The Sultan, who has many palaces, has chosen Salalah to be the location of his summer palace. Once again, it’s good to be King!
Today we are taking a bus tour called Arabian Heritage and Margaret wisely decided to pass. Not I. Seated in my typical seat towards the back of the bus I got out my MacBook and started writing this post as soon as we departed. The tour guide was a dark complected Arab who had on traditional dress including the little cap. I had planned on getting one of these outfits in Oman but have now passed on that. I’ll have to be something other than an Arab Muslim for Halloween next year.
The guide’s English was strained at best but all the people past the first five rows were spared it because we couldn’t hear a word he was saying. Despite trying, it was finally declared hopeless and we relegated ourselves to hearing him drone on talking to the first five rows in the background for the next four hours. Given that, the rest of the info in this post came from my online research.
The first stop was Bin Ali’s Tomb following a one hour and fifteen minute drive. There wasn’t much along the drive. It looked like the Palm Springs area before all the development (I actually saw that). There were large hills/mountains in the distance to our left and ocean to our right. Bin Ali was sort of the patron saint for this Dhofar area. He was the primary driver for the people here being converted to Islam and was apparently a descendant of a brother-in-law of the prophet Mohammed.
After a 50 minute drive, out next stop was the Samhuram Archeological site. In the 3rd – 5th century AD this was a mixed-use residential/business development where traders lived on the second floor and their businesses were on the first floor. It was strategically located for trade and was even more popular because this Dhofar region was the prime source of frankincense. The Queen of Sheba was involved in this area to some extent but I haven’t figured out how. It is now an active archeological site that is still in the process of being reconstructed. Some interesting aspects of the site was someone was building a large dhow from scratch near the water down the hill from the structure. There were also a fair number of birds, some of which looked like large cranes.
The village of Taqah was our next destination. This small city has a castle, which was the purpose of our stop. It was a two story building which was built in the early 1800’s as a private residence and was then co-opted into an administration center and governor’s residence until 1991 at which point it was nicely restored. There are many rooms and they were all well labeled and signs and displays informed you of their way of life. Samples of how the women dressed, their weapons and their herding and farming tools were all in abundance. You could even go upstairs and look out the viewing areas where they used to shoot their enemies. The living spaces had wood floors with the traditional style pillows on the floor…no chairs.
Next we drove along a very nice beach that was completely deserted…although I’m not sure what that means when the beach is in the desert?
After turning inland we drove through an area saturated with banana trees until we arrived in Montaza, which must be the banana and coconut stand capital of the Dhofar region. Here we got, get ready for it, a coconut! The large, green and still in its’ husk, young type of coconut. The owner was a master with his small machete and expertly chopped it three times to expose the top, then a quick chop to cut off enough to stick a straw in! It was amazing how much water was inside…filled right to the top! I also got to try the white meat from a smaller, brown and mature coconut.
A nice Portuguese couple, that didn’t speak much English, sat in the very last row. In the end, our renegade group in the back never heard a word that the tour guide said the entire trip but I don’t think it mattered much as we had a good time anyway.
Cheryl - Love the photo’s combining very old culture with the technology of today! My thoughts are always the same… What an amazing trip! Your comments take us on the journey with you. Thank you so much for all the time you put into writing and editing this along with your photos.
Trip Summary » Travel with Dale & Margaret - […] Salalah, Oman […]