Salalah, Oman

2nd September 2018



It is obvious we are now in the tropics as we arrive at Salalah, and are alongside at 10am. It is hazy, still, humid however the temperature is a comfortable 24 C as we arrive. Our berth is in a very industrial port.

No Cruise terminal here, just a busy working freight port

It is cloudy and there is a bit of humidity haze, but a light breeze makes the outside conditions reasonably comfortable. Salalah is a refueling stop, as much as anything, and before long, the fuel tanker is coming alongside to fill us up.

Shore excursions today are all only around 4 hours duration and all commence from around 12.30pm, so there is a chance to relax this morning, have a light lunch, and be on our bus by 1pm. The tour we are going on is the free one provided by Viking.

In the meantime we went for a walk around the ship, and discovered that up on the sports deck, there was a minigolf course. We decided to sharpen our putting skills to fill in a bit of time.

A light lunch was all we felt like, and we were on our bus by 1pm. It is a large port and it takes around 10 minutes to drive to the port entrance, and then we are a further 15 minutes from town.

Salalah is an important port, and the city (of around 300,000 people), has always been important for shipping. Frankincense is produced here, and the economy over the ages was built around it being one of the most important ports on the Frankincense route in the 13th century. Oil refining is now also important. The big difference you notice here over the rest of Arabia that we have visited, is that everything is green. Salalah gets the Indian monsoon and has just enjoyed two months of light rain and also gets the occasional cyclone.

The result of the rainfall is a lot of tropical vegetation and an abundance of tropical fruits and fresh vegetatables. We see coconut palms everywhere, bananas, avocado, sugar cane, mango and most of the tropical fruits you see in SE Asia, plus the Middle East staple, dates.

The first highlight of our tour (there aren't many !), is a visit to the largest mosque in the City, The Sultan Mosque, built in 2009. Visitors are only allowed inside the Mosque in the mornings, so the extent of our visit is a look around the outside.

There is an appearance of renewal going on in Salalah, with old buildings being demolished (unless of historical value) and new housing being built for the residents of those demolished. Also the roads are wide and appear well laid out. It will most likely look very different in 10 years time.

Next on our schedule is a visit to the Al Baleed archaeological site and museum. The site is a sprawling ruin with not a lot to see, or in our case, not enough time to see what may be interesting. There were some old wooden boats.

However the highlight of the visit was the museum, which was actually very good. It was split into 2 parts, one which covered the history of Salalah and Oman and in particular the importance of frankincense. 

Frankincense is the resin tapped from Frankincense trees , in much the same way as latex is extracted fro  rubber trees. It is washed and dried into hard resinous lumps and the value is determined by colour. The light coloured product being the most valuable.

Our guide explaining the extraction process, standing beside a frankincense tree

Samples of different grades of frankincense (top one is the highest grade)

Frankincense is traditionally placed on top of burning charcoal in a small burner and it gives off a perfumed smoke.It can also be dissolved and consumed as medicine.

There is also quite a good Maritime museum in the complex and we could easily have spent some more time going through the exhibits there, but this is a short port visit and there are deadlines to get back to the ship.

Back on the road, we have yet to visit the Sultan's Palace and the Al Husn Souq. Once we arrive at the Sultan's Palace, it is pretty clear that all we can see is an impressive gate and high walls, so resist the temptation to rush off the bus to get a photograph.

Hopefully our last stop will be a winner. Down near the beach, and not that far from the Palace, we arrived at the Al Husn Souq, time for a bit of shopping for those so inspired. We thought we might take a quick look at the beach, which apparently attracts a lot of Arab tourists over their holiday period.

The beach is pretty quiet, so we head off to the Souq, to see what bargains are on offer. It quickly becomes clear that unless you are in the market for bags of frankincense or perfume, Omani clothing, hats, scarfs or dishdashas, or Chinese made toys then time spent here will be futile.

Back at the bus by 4.45pm, we are keen to get back on board, enjoy some air conditioning and relax. Salalah clearly has a bit of work to do to become a tourist attraction, but at least they do appear to be upgrading the city and I suspect they will remain a popular place for ships to refuel for some time.

We have another great meal at the Chefs Table, and then watched a movie under the stars on the pool deck before turning in for the night.

Tomorrow we are at sea on our way to Muscat.