Salalah - Please forgive me for not updating my blog in so long. After the first few port intensive days, I was exhausted and needed a break.
We had two part days in Oman. Our stop in Salalah had to be shortened due to an unexpected stop in Aden, Yemen to let off a passenger with a health emergency. Due to that late night stop, our time in Salalah was shortened to 3 hours. We weren’t able to take our excursion to Job’s Tomb, but that was ok with us.
The reason we stopped in Salalah was to pick up provisions. Three containers were delivered there, so it was a must stop. We watched as most of the crew assisted to loading the locks of mostly food onto the ship. Even the captain jumped in and joined the assembly line of those toting boxes upon boxes up to the next crew member. After all the provisions were loaded, we took off.
The port area was container port with piles of rock and sand up to the mountains.
Muscat 34*C at 10:30am
We arrived here after many sea days, two of which we were quarantined to our cabin due to illness (not me, but I was sequestered for one day as a possible carrier….. I did enjoy the time to relax). Since Crystal and I had booked a private snorkeling excursion for the afternoon, we took the shuttle bus to the souk. A souk is a shopping area with many small stalls where vendors sell local products. Since Oman is famous for frankincense, Crystal wanted to purchase some frankincense, so we stopped and she bargained for her purchases. After we walked through the souk observing all that it had to offer. We walked through a section where we were the only Westerners. Our walk took us past the textile souk and then walked past the gold souk. One observation is that only men work as vendors. Yes, almost all the women we saw wore the long black dresses that sweep the ground and the black habibs. They carried designer purses and their eyes were made up to the hilt.
That afternoon we were to meet our ride for the snorkel trip just outside the port gate. We put our long pants on overtop our suits and hoped on the shuttle. At our request, we were dropped at the gate and walked though and waited where we thought was a good spot to be seen by the driver. After over 30 minutes, no driver showed up, so we walked back through the gate and hopped on the crew shuttle back to the ship. Most of the ports we have visited so far have been container ports and not the place to walk around. Some ports prohibit walking due to all unloading of containers and trucks driving through. Crystal emailed the snorkeling company was told it was the assistant’s fault we were picked up. Oh well, we have the Seychelles to look forward to.
We had two part days in Oman. Our stop in Salalah had to be shortened due to an unexpected stop in Aden, Yemen to let off a passenger with a health emergency. Due to that late night stop, our time in Salalah was shortened to 3 hours. We weren’t able to take our excursion to Job’s Tomb, but that was ok with us.
The reason we stopped in Salalah was to pick up provisions. Three containers were delivered there, so it was a must stop. We watched as most of the crew assisted to loading the locks of mostly food onto the ship. Even the captain jumped in and joined the assembly line of those toting boxes upon boxes up to the next crew member. After all the provisions were loaded, we took off.
The port area was container port with piles of rock and sand up to the mountains.
Muscat 34*C at 10:30am
We arrived here after many sea days, two of which we were quarantined to our cabin due to illness (not me, but I was sequestered for one day as a possible carrier….. I did enjoy the time to relax). Since Crystal and I had booked a private snorkeling excursion for the afternoon, we took the shuttle bus to the souk. A souk is a shopping area with many small stalls where vendors sell local products. Since Oman is famous for frankincense, Crystal wanted to purchase some frankincense, so we stopped and she bargained for her purchases. After we walked through the souk observing all that it had to offer. We walked through a section where we were the only Westerners. Our walk took us past the textile souk and then walked past the gold souk. One observation is that only men work as vendors. Yes, almost all the women we saw wore the long black dresses that sweep the ground and the black habibs. They carried designer purses and their eyes were made up to the hilt.
That afternoon we were to meet our ride for the snorkel trip just outside the port gate. We put our long pants on overtop our suits and hoped on the shuttle. At our request, we were dropped at the gate and walked though and waited where we thought was a good spot to be seen by the driver. After over 30 minutes, no driver showed up, so we walked back through the gate and hopped on the crew shuttle back to the ship. Most of the ports we have visited so far have been container ports and not the place to walk around. Some ports prohibit walking due to all unloading of containers and trucks driving through. Crystal emailed the snorkeling company was told it was the assistant’s fault we were picked up. Oh well, we have the Seychelles to look forward to.
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