April 20 – 26
Welcome to Oman!
Oman, the only country in the world that starts with an ‘O’ sits on the southeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Its official name is the Sultanate of Oman and is a monarchy run by the Sultan. The Sultan’s word is final and undisputed and has an enormous amount of wealth and resources at his disposal. The country is nearly 90% Islam and was our first exposure to dressing restrictions and the traditional dress such as the men’s dishdasha and the women’s abaya.
Oman is not as well set up for tourism as other countries and was new to our cruise company so many of the expeditions were not as well run, but still provided a number of great memories. We visited a handful of places – the capital city of Muscat, the northern city of Khasab, a small city called Dibba Al-Baya, the cities of Salalah and Sur, and the island of Masirah.
When we approached the first port, which was Muscat, we were immediately struck by the barren, rocky landscape that pervades the entire country.
The Grand Mosque in Muscat, the capital city
Our first experience in the country was the Grand Mosque in the capital city of Muscat and it was amazing. Completed in 2001, it can accommodate 20,000 worshipers and is incredibly lavish. The mosque is surrounded by five minarets that symbolize the five pillars of Islam: profession of faith, prayers, giving of alms, fasting, and pilgrimage.
Reflecting the disparity between the rights and privileges of men versus women in the, the praying room for women is quite plain while it is the men’s area that is reserved for country all the extravagance. Throughout the mosque, there are beautiful white and grey marble walls almost entirely covered in intricate hand-crafted mosaic patterns. The carpet in the main sanctuary is all one piece and is hand-knit, requiring 12 million hours of labor by 600 women over four years. Both the carpet and the chandelier were originally the world’s largest when the mosque was built but apparently both have now been outdone elsewhere.
Located in the center of the men’s prayer hall, there is an Italian-manufactured chandelier that measures over 45 feet tall and weighs over 9 tons. Its 24-carat gold-plated frame is trimmed with 600,000 Swarovski crystals and holds 1,122 bulbs.
All women visiting the mosque must cover their heads.
Khasa, Oman
I took a cruise on a Dhow through the fjords, interestingly referred to as the “Norway of Arabia” but in fact does not look at all like the fjords in Norway. The scenery is all limestone and sandstone rock formations, some rising up over 1000 meters.
Eva took a 4×4 trip to a place called the Mountain of Women. It offers incredible views from above as well as fossils dating back 250 million years.
Sur, Oman
Here we visited a fish market right where the fishing boats come in; a dhow shipbuilding facility, and an old fort from the 1700s.
Fish Market
Traditional Ship Building
Historical Forts
Markets (Souqs)
Masirah Island
This is the largest island in Oman and is quite sparsely developed. It is quite popular with kitesurfers and is home to herons, flamingos and nesting turtles.
Salalah
The highlight here was an area called Wadi Darbat. A wadi is an area that fills with water during the monsoon season but dries out the rest of the year. Once it starts raining, it quickly turns from a dusty brown to a rich green in color with all the revived plant life. You can think of it of an oasis of sorts. Given that we visited late in the dry season, we were fortunate it still had some water.
Snapshots from time at sea
We are enjoying the quiet days at sea but sometimes I get called on to stand in for various people on the ship. The captain often calls me to stand in for him when he needs a break. They have this amazing software on a big screen that shows detailed maps with water depths, details on other ships in the area and tons of other supporting information. They rely on it completely for their navigation.
A number of times we are on the ship eating or relaxing and the expedition leader will suddenly announce that there are dolphins in the area and everybody grabs their camera and rushes out to look. It can be spectacular. One time there were apparently hundreds of dolphins near the ship, but I missed that one.
Man Overboard?
One day our relaxing lunch was interrupted with frantic shouts of “man overboard, man overboard!!!” from the back of the ship. Soon after, the alarm sounded and was immediately followed by a sobering announcement from the captain “this is NOT a drill, I repeat, this is NOT a drill”. Crew members rushed to their emergency stations and the guests did not quite know what to do. Some froze in silence while others rushed out to the balcony, some to watch and some with binoculars to assist.
A small dhow was positioned on the horizon so it was unclear if the person came from our ship or from there. There was just a dolphin sighting a few minutes before so the initial thought was that somebody fell overboard trying to take a photograph. The day before somebody jumped overboard to their death on a cruise ship from Australia to Hawaii so that thought entered some people’s minds. The captain stopped the ship amazingly quickly and turned around to head back. For a time both the crew and guests kept an eye on one area of the water hoping to get another sighting of the activity in the water. At first there was nothing but then the activity resumed much to relief of the crew.
The head marine biologist on deck was busy focusing in with his binoculars and made a positive identification. It’s a group of turtles, he cried out! I was able to get a photograph of the activity, but only from very far away. Apparently, these loggerhead turtles get quite large and when mating can be quite active at the surface. Have a look and imagine seeing this with the naked eye from far away. Many of the expedition team said in all there years of being on cruises, they had never experienced an actual man overboard alert. It was very sobering.
Sunset
Our time in Oman is finished. On to Djibouti and Saudi Arabia.
