Ridiculously absurd and incredibly amazing doesn't even cover half of what this weekend felt like. This weekend ranged from seeing thousands of camels to busted tires, and the thought "wait I'm in Oman" steadily remained in my head. Just to clear a few things up if the weekend thing doesn't make sense, in Oman the weekend is Thursday and Friday and the week begins on Saturday and ends on Wednesday.
We arrived in Salalah on Wednesday after going to our Arabic classes. The change in weather after stepping off the plane was incomparable, it was weather that you never get in Texas because it's either scorching hot or "winter" cold. Salalah in it's entirety was an amazing place.
On Wednesday we started off by going to the Frankincense museum, which despite its name had alot about general Omani history. It included things about what Sultan Qaboos has done, and it's absolutely incredible how much progress Sultan Qaboos has been able to achieve in forty years. When Sultan Qaboos became Sultan he visited each city and made sure that health centers and schools were built in each city. The health care system in Oman is great, everybody receives health care and if the Omani doctors are unable to perform certain procedures then the government pays for the patient to receive their surgery outside the country. The museum also included a gallery on all the different ships from the history of Oman as well as different prints of the Qoran.
The summer months are called Khareef in Salalah. These are the months during which they have tropical weather and everything turns green. From June to July they hold the Khareef festival in Salalah and we got to go. The festival had a wide range of activites the most...interesting one being a hamester ball type of thing. Basically there was a pool filled with water and these huge plastic balls and children would be put in them to roll around the pool. I also watched traditional Omani dances, got to go shopping in a huge festival tent, and I finally got to try avocado juice! The avocado juice was pretty good, but soooooo overloaded with honey, when I get home I will try to make some myself.
Look at the little girl in the back!
Stopping at a coconut stand for some fresh coconut milk!
A huge recycling event was happening at the Jabal and we got to meet the CLS students, CLS is pretty much the NSLI-Y program for college kids. The Jabal had a nice misty thing going on and the mountains were beautiful, and green! I love green!
Nobody wanted to leave the beach, but from the beach we got to spend time at the Souq in salalah, and I am finally beginning to get the hang of the whole bartering thing, it helped that Bekah and I went together because it was twice the persuasiveness and still one shop keeper. We managed to find some of the best type of frankincense that is made. It is a green crystal kind, and managed to get scarves that feel absolutely incredible.
Unfortunately the Salalah trip had to come to an end, but I definitely could not have asked for a better experience.
We arrived in Salalah on Wednesday after going to our Arabic classes. The change in weather after stepping off the plane was incomparable, it was weather that you never get in Texas because it's either scorching hot or "winter" cold. Salalah in it's entirety was an amazing place.
On Wednesday we started off by going to the Frankincense museum, which despite its name had alot about general Omani history. It included things about what Sultan Qaboos has done, and it's absolutely incredible how much progress Sultan Qaboos has been able to achieve in forty years. When Sultan Qaboos became Sultan he visited each city and made sure that health centers and schools were built in each city. The health care system in Oman is great, everybody receives health care and if the Omani doctors are unable to perform certain procedures then the government pays for the patient to receive their surgery outside the country. The museum also included a gallery on all the different ships from the history of Oman as well as different prints of the Qoran.
The summer months are called Khareef in Salalah. These are the months during which they have tropical weather and everything turns green. From June to July they hold the Khareef festival in Salalah and we got to go. The festival had a wide range of activites the most...interesting one being a hamester ball type of thing. Basically there was a pool filled with water and these huge plastic balls and children would be put in them to roll around the pool. I also watched traditional Omani dances, got to go shopping in a huge festival tent, and I finally got to try avocado juice! The avocado juice was pretty good, but soooooo overloaded with honey, when I get home I will try to make some myself.
Look at the little girl in the back!
Stopping at a coconut stand for some fresh coconut milk!
Thursday and Friday were packed to the brim with events so I will divide up the rest of this post by the day.
Thursday: We started the day in the best was possible, going to the beach. From the beach we went to the Taqah castle which previously had been a type of fort protecting Salalah. We got to visit the Rhori ruins.
From there we went to the Jabal(mountain) My favorite moment on the way up to the Jabal is when I turned to look back and saw the driver behind us talking on his cellphone and then taking the other hand off the wheel to wave to us. Everyone in the car began to wave so I decided to take a photo and of course they all posed, but what surprised me the most was when the person in the passenger seat took out his camera to take a picture of us.
When we were driving to dinner things seemed normal, but then got pretty shady when the driver just turned off the road and stopped in the desert. Random trip to Yemen? No, sitting on the side of the road and having dinner is normal in Salalah, it's a thing.
Afterwards we got to learn about traditional Omani dances. Shout out to Steve for doing a great job planning the trip and getting the best tour guide ever! I have never seen a man so able to dance, he showed us the traditional wedding dances, female, male, freestyle, and even belly dancing. All in all it was just an immense amount of fun. Desert dance parties are the best.
Friday: We started the morning off by going to Job's tomb which was pretty high up in the mountains, but was really fun to see after studying the Old testament this year. I've never had any issues on Friday the 13th, but it's Oman. What hasn't happened in Oman? A tire getting blown out hadn't happened yet, so of course it happened on Friday. I was half asleep on the bus and I just heard a huge mixture of thump, screech, and seventeen screaming girls. The tire had blown out. Luckily we had a great driver and a few Pakistani's stopped to help. It only took about thirty to forty minutes, and who wouldn't want to have the "blowing a tire out and being stuck in the desert" story?
From the desert we got to go to the most beautiful beach ever, Mukhsayl beach. Pictures don't even capture half of the beauty. The water was so blue and mountains are a perfect back drop anytime. Plus we saw camels on the beach!
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| I'm in love with camels and Oman |
Unfortunately the Salalah trip had to come to an end, but I definitely could not have asked for a better experience.
Today we signed a language pledge meaning that I can no longer speak anything but Arabic, and the same applies to everyone in the group, so now we're all saying the five words and phrases we know, and figuring out different gestures and intonations to somehow get our point across. Right now it's pretty ridiculous, but it's the only way that we'll manage some fluency in the short time we're here.
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