Salalah – heaven on earth

The internet in our office is not working – so we are sitting around and waiting for it to come back so we actually can start work. (How did people manage to work without the internet?)

This after all is the perfect opportunity to finally write about my trip to SALALAH…

 

So for the ones of you who still have no clue where or what this is let me enlighten you. Salalah is a small city in the very south of Oman close to the boarder of Yemen. It is somehow famous as it’s the only region on the whole Arabian Peninsula that has Monsoon rains in August/September. So all the Arabs go there during this time to experience the magic experience of rain.

 

As we are Europeans theres no need for us to go there during the Monsoon days. We do prefer the sun and the beach at least for the moment. .

This time it was only Audrey and me. When we found some cheap flights in the internet we took the opportunity, took one day off from work and booked it.

 

So last Thursday finally it was time to pack our bags and get ready for the trip. Thanks god we planned in the hassle of finding a taxi in Dubai as it took us nearly an hour to find an empty one. Finally in the car the driver asked us if we flew Terminal 1 or Terminal 2. HUH????? There are 2 terminals? We didn’t know. Almost out of credits and out of batteries we tried our best by calling the airlines office, the airport and several of our friends to find out from where our plane leaves as it was not written on the 10 page printout of the ticket. But thanks to the help of our friends we found out that we had to go to Terminal 1. Ufff… relieve… Once at the airport boarding time passed by and still nobody was at the counter and no plane at our gate. After an hour someone finally informed us that our plane was late for at least one hour. What a start…
But everything else went smooth so we landed in Salalah 2 hours later than planed. I have never seen as relaxed people as Omanis. The passport control procedure takes FOREVER. They don’t have computers and write down everything in a big book. Very traditional those people!!!!

So our plan for the evening was to find a travel office to book our day trip for the next days as we wanted to see the sights around Salalah. The tours the office itself offered us were very expensive – but they organized another guide – a freelancer – who was willing to take us for the price we were willing to pay.
Our guide happened to be a taxi driver as well and offered us a free ride around the city. This ride lasted for the rest of the evening, including a complete city tour, traditional Omani dinner (which he payed), drinking fresh coconut milk in between and shisha in the end. That was all pretty nice of him but we didn’t wanna end up having to pay for a 2 day trip. I’ve experienced it before.
But he kept on telling us that the amount we payed for the the one day was more than enough and he was doing this for us to have a good time. Hm… ok… whatever…
So next day bright and early we left for our little tour. First we got to see the sights of East Salalah which included an old Fort, a Mausoleum of some relative of Prophet Mohammad, some ruins and an old port in one of the cities. Then we went up into the mountains, cruising around for ever and ever while enjoying the fantastic scenery before we headed west to see the frankincense trees and the blow holes. On our way back to the city we took a refreshing swim in the sea. Unline Dubai there were huge waves which made swimming quite some fight with the water.
Back into town we finally went to the souq to spend all our money on scarves, frankincense’s and jewelry. Of course we ended up spending far more money than we intended to but who knows if and when you will ever be back in Salalah. We ended our day with a great simple meal in the middle of the city.

The whole day we were listening to the same 10 cheesy 80s love songs from the cassette (!!!) in the car…
We had a great time with our guide who took us everywhere we wanted though at some point he got a bit too intimate with us when he started to ask very personal questions. We got a bit uneasy in his presence and had to think about how to make it clear to him that the next day we wanted to spend some time at the beach WITHOUT him…
But it was easier than expected and we set up a date to have one last lunch with him before leaving for the airport. So next morning we started our walk in search of the perfect beach we saw the first night we arrived. After one hour of walking in the sun we found it. White sandy beaches, palm tress… We felt a bit like Robinson Crusoe on his island as there we were the only people on the whole beach. PARADISE!!!!

So we enjoyed our peace and quiet time at the beach before we had to return to busy and noisy Dubai.

The farewell from our new best friend went easier than expected.

So after all it was an amazing trip with excitement and relaxation and we can’t wait to get to plan our next trip to Oman.