The last day of our trip in Salalah we just spent some time around town exploring the last few sites before our flight to Muscat. We went to the Souq (outdoor market) and checked out what they were selling. The man below, from Yemen, was selling frankincense, so I went ahead and bought some.
Frankincense is, after all, the reason this region of the world was so popular for thousands of years. Below are huge bags of frankincense which is again, the dried sap of the frankincense tree.
This region of the world also has bees that make wild honey. I've heard, but haven't confirmed, that either Oman or Yemen has some of the best honey in the world. The man below was selling honey on the street. The section of honey on the far right is from Yemen and the other four are from Oman. We tried a few of them and I have to say the honey from Yemen is the best I've ever tasted. We bought some of this as well.
Another thing in Salalah that Chris and I loved were the fruit venders that you could find just about anywhere. In the four days we spent in Salalah we probably ate about 60 of these little bananas. They were kind of bitter sweet but incredibly good. You could also get a coconut, they would chop off the top, stick a straw in it, and drink the coconut milk. Good stuff. 20 little bananas and four coconuts cost us about 1 US dollar.
Drinking from a coconut.
Here is a picture again of the Sultan Qaboos mosque. Not to be confused with the Grand Mosque in Muscat by the same name.
The most significant religious site in the area was the tomb of the prophet Job. Muslims also believe in the prophet Job, but in Arabic, his name is Ayub (pronounced Ai - oob). To get here Chris and I took a little drive into the mountains.
Its kind of hard to see but at the top of this mountain there are two little yellow domed buildings. The biggest one is the mosque and the small one is Job's Tomb, or Nabi Ayub. Is this really the area where Job lived and died? I have no idea. We did a google search about it and apparently there are two other sites that claim to be the tomb of the prophet Job.
Above is the mosque at Nabi Ayub.
Here is the spot where Job is buried.
Afterwards we went back to Salalah and checked out the last major site, an ancient city named Al Baleed. This city is very old, perhaps as old as 2000BC if I remember correctly.
Here are some of the ruins of Al Baleed. Just like the other old cities of Oman this city was big into sea voyage and trade.
More ruins. In the picture above I'm wearing the traditional Omani....head...thing. In Palestine it has a different name, in Saudi it has a different name. I don't know what the Omanis call it. I'm wearing it because our adventures of the past few days gave me quite the sunburn and you can't really buy sunscreen anywhere. This was the next best thing.
An old toppled pillar at Al-Baleed.
The city is from 2000BC if I remember correctly, but the city continued to exist and has many old mosques from the period after the prophet Muhammad. The picture of above shows the ruins of the city's grand mosque.
More of the city.
It was about time to catch our flight to Muscat so we paid one more visit to the fruit stands before we went.
Enjoying one last coconut.
Above is Mrs. Kumar, our hotel owner. She was one of the best parts of staying at the hotel we did. She helped us with many things like finding the sites we wanted to see, getting our car, and even mailing stuff for us. So if you're ever in Salalah and you want a cheaper but nice hotel, try the Salalah beach villas. We caught our flight, and I'll write the rest later.
This is me at the top of our hotel for breakfast the next morning. We had an incredible view of the city. The city is built around the mountains that line the coast and so Muscat is actually made of a number of smaller cities connected by various mountain roads. I seriously couldn't get over how clean and organized the city was. There is a law here where you must have a clean car. The traffic wasn't bad either and people drive more safely here.
The building you see with all the cars is the fish market. You can see a cruise ship on the water. This area has a large number of tourists coming into the city by ship.
Early in the morning the fishermen bring in their catches and get them ready for sale.
Chopping up the fish parts.
Cleaning the fish.
Anyone for a wheelbarrow full of shark?
After the fish market we went to the souq to check out what was for sale. They have a very popular gold souq here with a number of of expensive things to buy.
Here is the other part of the souq with the typical things for sale. Hats, incense, knives (called Khanjars) and other popular tourist things.
Here is a tour group getting ready for a bike ride around the city. I took this picture from the cafe we ate at. They had excellent hummus.
We walked along the city's corniche because it is popular to do a walking tour of the city. The gate above leads into the official part of Muscat where the Sultan's palace is. There is also a museum in the gate. Omani's seemed to really be proud of their history. They loved art, music, and culture from what I could tell which was a nice change from what I'm used to.
This is me in front of Sultan Qaboos palace. This is like the Washinton D.C. of Oman. I have to say that from what little I have learned about Sultan Qaboos, I have to respect the man. 40 years ago Muscat only had a school or two, a hospital, and no major roads connecting the different towns. Today Muscat is incredible. When Sultan Qaboos began to rule Oman he promised his people he would turn their country into a modern nation that would restore the former glory Oman knew thousands of years ago. I have to say its probably the most beautiful city I have been to in the Middle East. It reminded me of San Francisco.
Another view of the palace.
500 years ago the Portuguese were in control of Muscat. They did this to control the shipping in the area. Because of this you can see various Portuguese fortresses all around Muscat. The mountains are filled with different watch towers from that period. Today, the Sutan's palace is surrounded by two very large fortresses.
Here is another fortress next to the palace.
Above is the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. The Sultan built this mosque during his 30th anniversary ten years ago as a gift to his people. On the 40th anniverssary, last year, there was a huge celebration with a lot of fun and interesting things to see and do.
The grand msoque has five minarets (towers) to symbolize the five pillars of Islam.
This is the area where Muslims wash themselves before prayer.
Here I am in the main prayer area of the mosque.
Beautiful right? It was incredibly peaceful and calm inside. They allow tourists to come here in the morning hours when nobody is praying. It was a wonderful place.
Its hard to see me in the picture above but here I am looking at the mihrab. The mihrab marks the direction towards Mecca and it is the direction the Muslims pray towards.
The carpet on the floor of the grand mosque is the largest in the world. It took 4 years to make by 600 women.
Walking around the outside of the mosque.
There were a lot of flowers and trees outside.
Chris walking around getting his pictures.
More outside of the mosque.
Below is just simple picture of the city. It was very white.
The last thing Chris and I did was take a boat ride to dolphin watching.
Checking out the view of the city from the boat. The weather was awesome.
Muscat from the sea.
Here are some of the dolphins we saw.
We followed this group of dolphins around for about 40 minutes. It was pretty cool.
Chris and I after our boat ride. This was the last thing we did before taking a cab back to the airport. The trip went by too quickly and as I expected I would be returning to a chaotic situation at work but thats life. 
