Friday, June 15: This week’s photo challenge is Close. It’s a feeling, it’s a proximity…it’s people, it’s a place, it’s objects. They’re close.
Here are some dates found on date palms on the University of Nizwa campus. They are clustered together, as close as close can be.
dates close together on the tree
A mother and baby camel in Salalah who are quite close.
two close camels
Finally, I went on a dhow cruise in Musandam over the holiday for the Prophet’s Ascension. Omani families are very close, and I love the picture of this father and daughter.
Omani father & daughter on the dhow cruise in Musandam
Friday, January 20: We wake up in Salalah, capital of Dhofar, in the far southern reaches of Oman. The city’s colorful subtropical character derives from Oman’s former territories in east Africa, offering a taste of Zanzibar in the heart of Arabia.
Salalah
Salalah is famous for its plantations of coconuts, papayas and bittersweet tiny bananas. Colorful fruit stands line the roads, offering refreshment for passers-by. Everyone has told me it is “so green” in Salalah, but others warned us that we shouldn’t bother coming here in the winter. The time to come to this part of Oman is apparently during khareef, or the southeast monsoon, from mid-June to mid-August in Oman. Numerous Omani friends warned me not to waste time coming to Salalah in the winter: “Wait till khareef!” I heard too many times to count. But frankly, this is the last time I will have off during this school year in Oman. And when my summer break comes, a full 6 weeks of vacation time, I plan to spend two weeks in Greece and four weeks in America. I won’t have time to come to Salalah during khareef!
Alex & Adam at the breakfast buffet at Salalah Beach Villas
Another colleague encouraged me to go during this break. She said, “Who wants to go during khareef? It’s like a steamy sauna, wet, hot and sticky. The Omanis love it, but it’s much nicer in the winter.”
So, we are here now, in the midst of winter and it is most definitely NOT green! Surprise, surprise! The plantations are of course green, and there are smatterings of green here and there, but it doesn’t look like all the pictures I have seen. I have to say I’m a little disappointed, as are the boys. But the idea of being in a place where there are beautiful beaches smothered in rain and drizzle and fog, well that doesn’t appeal either. Solution unknown.
Bananas!!!
So, if we can’t enjoy lush greenery, the next thing to do is partake in the fruit. The boys do just that. Every time we encounter a breakfast buffet, here in Salalah or elsewhere, the boys demolish whatever fruit is offered, much to the dismay of the hotel staff. Breakfast at the Salalah Beach Villas is no different. The boys load up their plates with ALL the bananas from the buffet and gobble them down in minutes. The other guests sadly have to do without.
boys on the balcony, preparing to jump
After demolishing the fruit, Adam goes up to our 3rd floor room and, looking over the balcony, sees that it is directly over the pool. He wonders if he can jump into the pool from the balcony and the hotel staff tells him he can jump, but he should do so from the 2nd floor. They provide him with a key to a second floor room, and Adam proceeds to jump off that balcony into the pool. Alex decides he wants to try as well, so they both go up together to the balcony and jump off into the deep end.
We then pack up our stuff because the boys have decided they want to camp tonight. I am not thrilled about camping although I have purchased a bunch of camping gear here in Oman that I’ve yet to use. I know if I’m going to get used to camping in Oman, now is as good a time as any to try it, while the boys are here. Honestly, I would prefer to stay in the Salalah Beach Villas another night, but the boys are really pushing for the outdoor experience. 😦
drinking coconut juice at a Salalah fruit stand ~ Oman
We are going to explore east of Salalah today, but first we stop at our favorite fruit stand where the guy takes a machete and chops off the tops of three coconuts and serves them to us with straws. The boys buy a huge bunch of small bananas, none of which are ripe yet. On our way out of Salalah, Alex yells, “Oh, *#@*! There are ants all over these bananas!” We stop the car while the boys take the entire bunch of bananas and wash them off with bottled water, one by one.
We are quickly bored with this place. The springs, which look inviting in this heat, are inaccessible because of a parasitic snail that lives in the water. Signs are posted: “This area harbors the snails which can transmit the disease bilharziasis. Swimming and defecation (!) in the water is strongly prohibited to control the infection with bilharziasis.” Eek!! There is also a cave at the top of some steps that is covered in grafitti. Overall, a kind of shabby place. And BORING.
the Travertine Curtain
We hop in the car and go in search of a pitted 150-meter-high cliff face called the Travertine Curtain. Travertine is a type of rock formed when carbon dioxide-rich water dissolves limestone underground and carries it away in a solution. Upon reaching the surface, the carbon dioxide is released, as in a fizzy drink, and the limestone recrystallizes, forming the huge stalactite features on the cliff.
Alex & Adam, hot & sweaty at the Travertine Curtain
During the khareef, this cliff face apparently has waterfalls cascading over it, in effect the entire contents of Wadi Darbat. Guidebooks call this “Arabia’s answer to Niagara Falls.” Of course, it is “winter” in Salalah now. There is none of the lush greenery promised in guidebooks and no cascading waterfalls over the Travertine Curtain. It is still pretty interesting, with its pockmarked face and its sheer perpendicularity. We park the car and hike up as close as we can get, taking pictures along the way. It is hot and sweat is pouring off of me; the boys have removed their shirts, but as a woman of course I am covered with long pants and short sleeves… miserably hot. Oh, the sufferings of being a woman in Oman.
Adam, shirtless at the Travertine Curtain
After the Travertine Curtain, we head to Wadi Darbat. We go off-road on several dirt tracks, only to find we are decidedly not at Wadi Darbat. We see multitudes of camels grazing in this valley. We love seeing all these camels in the wild. Camels also roam about in northern Oman, but not in the numbers that we see in Salalah.
a camel in Wadi Darbat, Salalah, Oman
We drive through the wadi, which is like a wide valley, unlike most of the other wadis I have seen in Oman. We find a lake and a stream, and more signs about the ominous parasitic snails. Large red signs warn of bilharzias, this worm that can penetrate your skin and then take residence in the veins of your bladder and intestines. No swimming here in the waters of Salalah!
Wadi Darbat ~ no swimming allowed!
Interestingly enough, some of the surrounding caves in this wadi were used in the mid-1970s by the Sultan’s forces, along with the British SAS, to infiltrate areas of communist insurgency. Adam is tempted to climb the hills into these caves, but he tosses this idea when he finds that neither Alex nor I want to accompany him.
swingin’ in the trees at wadi darbat
Our next destination is the Tawi Atayr Sinkhole, one of the largest known sinkholes in the world, 150 meters in diameter and 211 meters deep. It is known locally as the “Well of the Birds” because of all the birdsong that emanates from its depths.
the Tawi Atayr Sinkhole
Sinkholes are common where the rock below the land surface is limestone or other carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can naturally be dissolved by circulating ground water. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground. These sinkholes can be dramatic because the surface land usually stays intact until there is not enough support. Then, a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur.
the lagoon Khawr Ruri in the distance, where Wadi Darbat empties into the sea
We walk to the viewing platform and some Pakistani people are milling around looking a little shady. My Omani friend Moo warned me about places in Salalah where Pakistanis or Bangladeshis try to weasel money out of you; he says you should always be with an Omani guide to avoid being approached by these people. Two of them try to lead us down an overgrown trail deeper into the sinkhole, but ultimately we turn around, not feeling comfortable with them or our surroundings.
strange fencing around someone’s home ~ discovered on our fruitless search for the Baobab forest
The next place we want to see is a Baobab forest. Sometimes called “upside down trees,” they have enormously fat trunks and a spindly network of branches, which often looks like a bundle of roots. We follow the map in my Off-Road book, but at the place where there is supposed to be a dirt track, we find a paved road. The paved road doesn’t match the description in the book, and finally we give up. No Baobab trees in sight. We’re disappointed, but it is starting to get close to sunset. We decide we need to start looking for a campsite, because we don’t want a repeat of the Sur episode, where we couldn’t scope out campsites because it was dark.
the plateau above Khawr Ruri
Adam decides he wants to stay at a place called Khawr Ruri, where the water from Wadi Darbat empties into the sea. There is an archeological site here which was once the palace of the Queen of Sheba, overlooking a peaceful lagoon. We go to scope it out but the rocks on the plateau above the opening are rocky and hard. Adam wants to drive my car down a very bumpy and treacherous road to the beach, but I tell him I don’t want to take my car down here. It doesn’t look navigable and I don’t want to damage my car.
our tent set up on a beach near Mirbat
He complains that I never like his ideas, and he wants to stay here or nowhere. I say fine, they can take me back to the Salalah Beach Villas, which I would prefer anyway. Then they can take the Terrain and find whatever camping spot they want. They can go camp by themselves! We get into a huge argument again, and Alex finally yells at both of us, telling us we are on a family trip and he wants to spend the night all together as a family. After he lectures us, Adam and I are dead silent, each of us fuming inside.
I go in search of a camping spot on the beach, which I had envisioned from the first. Near Mirbat, we find a huge expanse of beach with soft sand, and I pull off the road. Finally, a place we can all be happy with. We set up the tent and some chairs, and I volunteer to stay behind and hold down the fort while they drive together into Mirbat to find us some dinner. They come back with some fruit drinks and some delicious vegetable wraps, which we gobble down in our beach chairs in the dark. We don’t have a campfire or anything, so there is nothing to do but go to bed.
sunset in Salalah
This is why I hate camping. Unless you have ALL the gear to make yourself comfortable, it’s simply not fun. There is nothing to do once the sun goes down. We have a little lantern, but all I want to do is sleep because the light isn’t good enough to read by. We go to sleep at around 8:30; a very long night ahead. I have a fitful night, tossing and turning after another embattled day. So far I’m not too enamored with Salalah, and neither are the boys. I wonder what on earth we will do tomorrow. I’m very tempted to head back to the north, where I find the landscape to be much more interesting and beautiful.
Thursday, January 19: We wake up a little bruised from the battle last night, but we all try our best to put the episode behind us. After eating breakfast in the Al-Ghaftain Restaurant, we get in the car for the second half of our drive through the Empty Quarter. Al-Ghaftain is a little over halfway from Nizwa, so we still have about 4+ hours of driving through the desert.
Adam & Alex in the Empty Quarter, Oman
Uneventful is an understatement to describe the rest of the drive. This empty part of Oman is desolate and barren. I can’t find much to say about it except that there are periodic signs warning of sand dunes encroaching on the road. Mostly flat desert, there are only small sand dunes, more like enlarged ant hills, dotting the landscape. We make one stop along the way to take photos of ourselves standing in the gravelly sand. We fill up with petrol every time there is a gas station, even though sometimes we get just over 1 rial of gas. There are some road diversions along the way, little construction projects in the middle of nowhere, with apologetic signs at the end of the diversion: “Sorry for the inconvenience.” We see one lone man running along the roadside; with no towns for miles and miles in either direction, we wonder where on earth he came from and where he’s going.
Adam, Alex and the GMC Terrain in the Empty Quarter
We look forward to stopping at the Frankincense Park to see the frankincense trees. Until I read about frankincense in my Oman Off-Road book, I didn’t know anything about this ancient commodity, traded “pound for pound with gold” throughout India, Arabia and Europe. The Dhofar region’s trees produced what was, and still is, considered the best frankincense in the world.
Frankincense trees in Wadi Dawkah, north of Salalah
From Oman Off-Road: Frankincense is the hardened aromatic resin of the Boswellia tree, and is burned for its medicinal, aromatic and insect-repelling qualities. The resin is produced by careful shaving of the bark of the tree. A good tree may produce 10 kg of frankincense in a season, which runs from April to the beginning of the monsoon. The trees grow wild and are located where the southern mountains of Oman meet the desert plateau.
Adam, our “guide,” and Adam under a frankincense tree
We walk down to the park where a Bangladeshi man who tends the trees shows us some trees with the resin on the trunks.
the resin from the tree that is frankincense
Most of the resin is still oozing out of the trunk and has not solidified. He tells us that once it hardens, they will shave off the resin and sell it in the markets. Apparently, good quality frankincense has a silvery color, is transparent, and is a good size clump of resin. The more opaque and reddish it becomes, the lesser the quality. Our guide shows us the resin in various stages of solidifying; I find it fascinating how this scented treasure is formed.
Wadi Uyun
After our sweltering walk through the Frankincense Park, we head next to Wadi Uyun. We drive through 3 1/2 km of dirt roads to an overlook with glimpses of green pools and grasses. Though my Oman Off-Road says you can find traces of a trail down to the water, we frankly don’t see any way down to the water. Mostly high cliffs and boulders surround this wadi. Granted we don’t take a lot of time to search for the route as we’re anxious at this point to get to Salalah after our long drive. So we just enjoy the view and move on.
Alex & Adam & their camel friends
Along the road to the wadi, we encounter a bunch of camels grazing on some meager tufts of grass. We get out of the car and move up close to observe them; they ignore us totally, knowing, I suppose, that they rule in Salalah.
After our camel encounter, we finally arrive in Salalah, where we check out the Lonely Planet-recommended hotel: Salalah Beach Villas.
Salalah Beach Villas ~ right on the beach!
This hotel is right on the beach, with no road in between, or behind for that matter. This makes it a little difficult to find and we drive around in circles looking for the entrance. After much miscommunication with the non-English speaking receptionist, we check in and unload our suitcases, and then check out the pool, the white sand beach, the poolside outdoor dining area, and our room.
me by the poolside as the sun is setting
We head out to find fruit at one of the multitudes of fruit stands along the road. The boys are enamored with the fresh coconuts, hacked open and served with a straw, as well as the bunches of tiny bananas.
After collecting a coconut each, and sipping on them through our straws, we drive into Salalah proper to find another Lonely Planet restaurant, Al-Fareed Tourist Restaurant. The guidebook tells us it’s on 23 July Street, but we drive up and down that street to no avail. (23rd July Street is a common street name in Oman, commemorating the July 23, 1970 coup by Sultan Qaboos; it marks a day of renaissance for Oman “in the political, social, cultural, economic and technological spheres of life. Ever since he acceded the throne, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos has begun to plant the seeds of his vision to make his country enjoy the fruits of modernization and restore its glorious past,” according to Oman’s Ministry of Information). We also try to call the number in the book but we get no answer. Finally, we’re starved so we stop at a Chinese restaurant where we order vegetarian spring rolls, vegetarian fried rice, and vegetarian noodles. I order a grilled prawns with vegetables that seems more deep-fried than grilled; I send it back because it’s totally not what I expected.
Alex & Adam with their favorite fruit guy in Salalah
Adam & Alex ~ Chinese in Salalah
We crash early after our long drive and I feel a little better about our altercation the night before. However, I still sense a shadow lingering over us, aftereffects of the disagreement. I hope we will eventually recover our laid-back attitudes so we can enjoy the rest of our time together. Time is always the healer of wounds, so we just have to let it pass to mend our hurt and angry hearts.
