Day 26 Salalah, Oman

Day 26 Salalah, Oman

The ship didn't arrive into Salalah, Oman, until 12 noon, 3 hours late. Due to heavy seas over the past 2 days the Dawn Princess sailed at 14 knots an hour, to enable passenger comfort. A heavy sea mist encompassed the ship on the arrival and departure giving the need for the ship's fog horn to sound at regular intervals.

I am surprised to find, again, high humidity in this desert country. Salalah is on the corner of the Arabian Peninsula which experiences heavy summer rains from the Indian Ocean, making it lush and green. The city is surrounded by coconut, banana, guava and paw paw groves.

It is considered the perfume capital of Arabia. Frankincense trees grow readily here and attempts to establish them elsewhere in the world have failed. The souks closed between 1pm and 4pm, so by the time we got to the Muttrah Souk, we had only 20 mins before the tiny shops closed. At least I had an opportunity to sample some sandalwood, mer and frankincense before they closed. I bought a local hat for Paul, the name escapes me. The shopkeeper accepted my Dhs (UAE) money for payment. He also took USD. The local money 'Oman Rials', were almost inaccessible to us, some passengers exchanged some in Dubai but the ship didn't sell any.

We had a look at the Grand Mosque from the outside. We missed out on entering the mosque as it is only open for 2 hours in the mornings for sightseeing. Pity the ship had been delayed as it would have been an interesting place to see. We spent some time looking at a banana and coconut planation. They had some young camels there as well.

The last place of interest was the museum. The grounds on the outside of the museum interested me more as it is the archaeological dig for Queen of Sheba's Palace.

Paul has been fighting a cough which has extended to his chest. The ship's air conditioning seems to affect quite a few passengers with this condition. He seems to be OK outside, away from the air conditioning but by the end of the day he is fairly flat. Next stop Petra which requires a reasonable amount of walking, so I hope he will shake it in the next 3 sea days.