Saturday April 3rd

Today we docked at the General Cargo Terminal of Salalah in Oman at 9am. It was a very dry day with a temperature of 36 degrees by late morning! The excursion we'd booked onto today departed at 9.15am and was entitled "Scenic Salalah". Salalah is a coastal city, which is a traditional stronghold and the birthplace of the Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said. We were looking forward to a trip to see the alleged resting place of Job in nearby Jabai Gadu also.

Once on board the coach we enjoyed the company of our guide for the day, Ahmed. He was extremely enthusiastic and easy to listen to - a great ambassador for his country and very knowledgeable as well as interesting. His English was not great, but my Arabic is non-existent so I wasn't complaining! He asked for us to correct him with any mistakes, which was actually an ongoing task, but quite endearing really! My favourite pronunciation was when he was talking about Noah, and he couldn't quite grasp the fact that the "h" at the end of the word is silent. His interpretation was therefore something like: "Noahuh". He also found the use of apostrophes confusing when talking about possessions. Instead of Job's Tomb, he kept referring to it as Job Toms! My opinion of him was probably biased because he took the time to single me out for thanks as we got off the coach for our first stop - he took my hand in both of his and thanked me for my support - he said that he could tell I was listening to him because I gave him eye contact all the time and looked interested in what he was saying. Obviously he went up in my estimation even further after that!

Anyway, onto the first stop of the morning's excursion - the beach and dramatic cliffs at Mugshail beach. The photo at the top of the blog shows the steps leading up to this cliff area - some of the shapes created in the rock look like the faces of mythical creatures. I particularly liked the sign that was placed at the foot of the cliffs for visitors - it should be something we all take note of where-ever we visit, but sadly it's not always the case.

We didn't take that many photographs today as Keith didn't fancy lugging his camera around in the temperatures we were experiencing, so these shots are all taken with my compact Canon Ixus - I took some video footage which I will be using along with the still photography in the DVD we finally produce.

There was a viewing area at the end of the cliff walk where there were blow holes through which the sea forces itself if the tide is high. These blow holes are perforations in the limestone rocks - some of the water fountains produced can be up to 100feet high. I got some footage on my video camera which portrays the sound of them as well, but here is a still photo just to give you a vague idea of the event:

Ahmed could never pronounce blow holes correctly either, and we now always refer to them as "bowl" holes like he did!

The coastline was beautiful, with nearly two miles of unspoilt, sandy white beaches beyond these cliffs. The views were inspiring. The journey to Mugshail beach was also interesting because of the number of camels just ambling along the road - they seemed to look at us with contempt as we slowed down to drive past them. Quite often I wondered how we avoided hitting them, actually, as they didn't seem at all put off by vehicles and even appeared to challenge them as they walked along!

We then travelled on up to the Qara Mountains where the site of Job's Tomb is said to be. This was less of a highlight and more of a damp squib, really. In order to go inside the building which houses said tomb, women had to make sure their shoulders were covered up and were advised to wear a scarf over their head and neck. Not too bad a task, in spite of the searing desert heat even up in the mountains! However, the tomb was in a building smaller than a garage and when we arrived there were already about 40 people inside. Added to this, we had to take our shoes off before going in. Again, this is not a big deal, but try to imagine taking your sandals off and stepping onto hot coals in your bare feet. OK, maybe that was a slight exaggeration, but the ground outside the tomb building was extremely hot and painful to walk on bare-footed. Once inside, we saw this:

 The best part of this little section of the trip was when Ahmed read out one of the notices on the wall, which was a transcript from the Koran relating to Job. He read it in arabic and it was more like a song than a recital of information. I only wish I'd had the foresight to ask him to do it again so that I could film him, it would have made a good piece of videography for our holiday DVD. Once we'd all looked at Job's exceptionally long tomb (he can't possibly have been 8ft tall, can he?) we were driven to see the walls of the Sultan's Palace. I stayed in the coach while Keith got off and took a photograph as quickly as he could before the other members of our party got out of the coach. That's the problem with coach parties - everyone wants to take photos of the same thing at the same time and invariably you end up with someone else's elbow/head/arse in shot as well as the object of choice! It was a shame we only got to see the walls of the Palace, not the Palace itself, and the only interesting feature of the wall was the tall clock tower.

The final stop of the day was to the Al Husn Souk in Salalah. Basically this was a street lined with shops selling frankincense, myrhh, incense, perfumed oils, clothing and a variety of artefacts.  However, as we had not intended to buy anything on this excursion and therefore had no money on us, it was pretty pointless looking in any of the shops. Added to this, the sun was now at its height and we found it unbearably hot. There was no shadow at all and we were extremely glad to finally get back into the air-conditioned coach. The image here is courtesy of a seasoned travel blogger, whose words you can read at ian-englishmanabroad.blogspot.com/

Once back on board the ship, we had a quick lunch in the dining room then had a rest in the cabin and carried on reading my book, Chasing Darkness. I actually finished the book today - Keith took a few photographs around the ship while I carried on reading.
 
This evening we had booked a table in the restaurant which was very conveniently just next to our cabin, through a fire door and down a few stairs. This restaurant provides a lovely alternative to dining in the Lido restaurant (more like a cafe, really) or the dining room as it only has seating for up to 30 people. We were looking forward to "eating out" for a change and had heard good reports about the food. We were not disappointed - we were very well looked after by the staff and once we had ordered our meals, the first surprise arrived at our table. A long serving plate containing 4 oriental styled spoons was placed in the centre of the table. Two of these spoons had their handles facing me, the others facing Keith. On one of each of our spoons was a smoked salmon , on the other was a small meatball in a delicious sauce. We thought this was a neat way of serving the hors d'oeuvres and it set the tone for the rest of the meal. For starters, I had a spinach and ricotta ravioli, Keith had seared scallops. We then followed with a turbot for me and fillet steak for Keith. Both were excellent. Our wine choice for the evening was a light red for a change (we usually like a merlot) and it was very quaffable - A Fleurie Beaujolais. The wine also went well with the side dish accompanying the meal - ciabatta bread and a choice of parsley butter and/or balsamic vinegar and olive oil  - mmm! At the end of the meal we were served another dish on a spoon, this time a sweet raspberry mousse.  We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and planned to visit The View again during our cruise.