Oman Day 1: Arabia's Best Kept Secret

Chris and I got 6 days off of work so we could travel a bit. We decided to travel to Oman, the southeast most country of the Arabian Peninsula (and its one of the best kept secrets in the world because its one of the nicest countries I've ever visited). To make the most of our vacation and avoid some crazy long layovers we flew from Riyadh to Jeddah KSA, Jeddah to Muscat Oman, and finally Muscat to Salalah Oman. This almost ended up in disaster however because when we arrived in Jeddah at 2:50am we had to board our next flight by 3:40am. No problem right? Well when we got there we asked where we were supposed to board our next flight. They told us the north terminal. What we didn't know and were not told was that the north terminal was a 20 minute drive from the south terminal! So we rushed to grab a taxi thinking were weren't going to make it. When we got there to get our tickets the man at the counter told us they were closed. I begged him to get our tickets and board the flight and luckily he relented. We made it just in time. Finally we were on our way to Oman to my relief. The instant we arrived we knew we weren't in Saudi anymore. Not all the woman were covered up from head to toe - one woman even had tatoos all over her arms, music was playing in the restaurants, and they were selling art, movies, and books about different religions. Hard to believe we were only hours away from Saudi Arabia by air. We arrived in Muscat the capital but our destination that day was Salalah on the opposite side of the country as you can see on the map. It was another hour and a half flight to arrive there.
There were many reasons we chose Salalah to visit. The city itself is located in the Dhofar region which is the greenest place in the Arabian Peninsula (its the only green you can see on a satelite image of the region). Monsoon rains called Khareef, water this small part of the country for 3-4 months out of the year. However, we knew we would be arriving during the dry season so we didn't know exactly what to expect. We had seen pictures of the area during the Khareef and it looks like a green tropical paradise. We knew it wouldn't be quite like that, but we were still excited (if only to get away from work for awhile)

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that even though it was not the Khareef season Salalah was still very green and warm. The air was humid and cool and didn't smell like an arid wasteland. The streets were very nice and all the people waved at us. Also, garbage wasn't thrown all over the place which is the case in all the other Middle Eastern countries I've been to.

For my Mormon friends and family, this part of the world is where Mormon scholars strongly believe that the Bountiful in 1 Nephi is located. In fact, the Dhofar region is the only place that meets all the requirements in all the Arabian Peninsula to be Bountiful. This place also has Biblical and Qu'ranic significance as well which I will also mention. While we were here we went to a few of the most likely sites for Bountiful, as well as other historical sites and ancient cities. It was quite the adventure but this day we mostly just settled in since we had been flying all night.

Throughout the city of Salalah (a small city by the way) fruit plantations were all over the place. Every road we took was lined with palm trees - very beautiful.
Our driver took us to our hotel, shown above, which is located right on the beaches of Salalah. The Beach Villas Hotel was located right along the Indian Ocean, and though small, and only two star, it was the highest recommended from the travel book Lonely Planet because of the good price, location, and the owners, who helped us find everything we were looking for and went out of their way to help us have a good vacation.

Here is the view from our balcony. We could hear the waves of these great waters as we slept at night.

Here is our room.

Its been so long since I had seen green!!!

Our hotel owners, the Kumars, set us up with a nice car so we could go anywhere we wanted.

Since we were tired and didn't have a lot of day light left we decided to play it easy. We went to the museum of Frankincense land, a UNESCO World Heritage site and museum. I mentioned this part of the world had Biblical significance. It is because the coastline of Oman is the perfect place for frankincense trees to grow. Its one of the only environments these trees grow in. For thousands of years the coasts of Oman were visited by ships from Egypt, Persia, China, and so many more countries for trading and to get the rare frankincense. We read that the people believed frankincense strenghtens your immunity and protects you from evil spirits. Even today people still harvest frankincense, which is the hardened sap of a particular tree. Traders and camel caravans would also travel up and down the west side of the Arabian Peninsula to collect Frankincense and trade other goods. A very difficult journey through the wilderness I might add. The frankincense presented to Jesus most likely came from this place.

Here is one of the frankincense trees in the park.

Just relaxing at sunset. Besides the frankincense museum that talked about the history and many old cities that belonged here, there was another part of the museum that talked about ship building (there were numerous types of ships that sailed these waters) and the importance of trade and ocean life in Oman. I had no idea that Oman was such an important part of the world in ancient times.

More frankincense trees. Besides the museums and the trees we weren't aware that this place was also the site of an ancient city known as Al-Baleed. We visited this site on our last day in Salalah.

We next went to dinner in the city. It was a Lebanese restaurant popular for its fish.

As usual, I order the ugliest fish available, but it tasted great.

Above is the most prominent Mosque in the area, Sultan Qaboos Mosque, named after the Sultan of Oman. Very beautiful. So that was our first day in Oman. There is too much to write about so I have to split this up. I'll try not to sound like I'm giving a history lesson in future posts. I just wanted y'all to get a feel for the place and its importance.