Our tour today with Joanne & co., left around 9.30am and as we have been to downtown Salalah a couple of years ago, this trip was to take us up into the hills and on a bit of a mystery tour.
Our guide, Ackmed was very friendly and it was going to be a fun day with very good company. One of the first impressions of Salalah is the colour of everything – cream – and the haze! It's arid, with homes few and far between until we approach the city centre – also very cream with boxy like buildings, decorated with ornate designs.
We drove along the coast for a while and wondered what all the lovely white tents were for at one particular spot – apparently it is their equivalent of our caravan parks - as the hotels in Salalah can't cater for all the holidaymakers. This particular one even having its very own amusement park and fun train.
Our first stop into the arid hills was to photograph and get up close to a frankincense tree and learn a little about the tree and how the sap is eventually is taken away to make the lovely sweet Farnkincense perfume.
We then went to the Al Mughsayl Blowhole which was a lot smaller than we imagined it would be (we're used to our Kiama Blowhole in NSW), but it did the right thing for us and I managed to get a picture.
Then we headed in the opposite direction to more hills, but these were green as – quite incredible to see such lush greenery just a stone's throw from the baron Salalah. Our little bus struggled long and hard up the hills, but we finally arrived at the Prophet Job's Tomb (Job was mentioned in the first chapter of Job in the Old Testament of our Holy Bible). There were lots of sightseers here and the tomb itself was inside a small brick building with an open prayer room next to it. The tomb itself was 4mts. long and 1-1/2mts. wide and covered in colourful cloth with just a small space to walk around or sit and pray.
We had a late lunch at a nice restaurant and were treated to a lavish Indian style hot feast (in air conditioned comfort) with delightful dishes, mainly chicken and rice, full of flavour and very homely, followed by fresh banana, pineapple and ice cream, washed down of course with a lovely glass or two of cold 'water' – no alcohol here!!!!
Running short of time to finish all on the agenda, it was off to the Souk (market), but as it is their holy day, not too many shops were open and we weren't tempted to buy – our bags are chockas already.. Then it was a quick drive past many banana plantations to the Palace Gates - can't go in only a photo stop.
We made it back in good time and rather hot, tired and with full tummies, we had a nanna nap - not even to surface for dinner but had a late night snack.
Photos: All of a very, very interesting and fun day in Salalah.
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