US Attacks Iran, A Lucky Escape For Our Tour Group

This is the route that the Air Canada flight took, giving Iran a wide berth and flying over Saudi and Egypt. My Emirates flight flew closer to the Iraq border and over Syria and Turkey.

Pam and Dave who are still in Oman took this photo of a destroyer off shore from our hotel in Salalah, Oman.

Saturday, February 28th.

We flew from Salalah, Oman to Dubai, UAE and arrived at 9:30. My flight to Toronto boarded at 2:30 for a 3:30 departure. Sometime during the flight the US and Israel attacked Iran and Iran retaliated by striking US bases in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. I was dozing and kept being woken up by crying kids, so I turned on the news on the TV on the seat in front of me and was surprised/ horrified to find out that the US and Israel had attacked Iran. Many people on the flight were watching it too. Ironically the song playing on my headphones then was 'Thinking About Things I Don't Understand' by Renaisance. All of us in our tour group knew that tensions between the US and Iran were mounting and it was always in the back of our minds but, we didn’t talk about it much and it seemed that they were negotiating and we’d be okay. 

However, now all the airspace over the Middle East has been closed. I think we were very lucky to get out and may have been one of the last flights out. One couple in our tour group opted to stay an extra day because they had found a cheaper flight out and now they are stranded. And of course there are business people and tours all over the area who are now stranded. 

In hindsight I was lucky too, because I have a hate on for Air Canada, I opted to take the Emirates flight to Toronto that left two hours later than the Air Canada flight that Bernie, Alexandra, Cam and Jane took. Theirs left at 1:30, mine at 3:30, that would have been horrible if the air space closed between those two times and I was stuck! What a mess, and a lucky escape. Now that I have met so many people in all of the six countries we visited, I feel for them too as it will affect their lives and livlihoods. I hope that this conflict doesn’t spread and become a major event, more that it already is. I feel for everyone involved.

The Frankincense Trade and End of the Road

Our local guide Salim.

The Sultan's palace in Salalah (one of several in the country)

The current Sultan, Haitham bin Tariq, and the late beloved Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

His coat of arms.

Salim explains the technique of burning frankincense.

Dozens of shops selling insense and tourist souvenirs.

Flamingos

The view of the Salalah Beach.

Camels up close and personal.

Fording a small lake to have a picnic.

Relaxing and eating in the shade.

 

Alexandra and Andrea enjoying the down time.

The guides couldn't eat as they are fasting.

An interesting bird that I need to identify.

The ruins of Al Baleed, a major trading town back in the day.

A frankincense tree...

and its flowers.

The frankincense museum.

We drove past many small fresh fruit and produce shops.

The last supper.

Thank you George!

This was the scene on the beach the next morning... the morning after that Pam and Dave saw a US destroyer off this beach.

Thursday, February 26th.

Today was the last official day of the trip. We had a laid back morning. We visited the local beach where we saw a large number of flamingos feeding in the shallows. A little further along the coast we saw a beautiful lookout where we could see the beach and the buildings along the shore. I figure in about 5 to 10 years, judging by the amount of construction going on here, that it will look like Miami Beach.

We had lunch up in the mountains (which are only about 600m) at an African Lion Safari type place without the lions and replaced by camels, goats, and donkeys. The drivers put out some blankets and pillows and we ate our lunch while they lounged in the shade and they continued their fasting. I watched as the six of them performed their prayers in unison on the grass. Next we went to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Al Baleed. This is the remains of a coastal trading town that existed here about 2000 years ago when trading for frankincense was a big thing.

We visited a small museum about the frankincense trading route that flourished here in BC until about 300 AD. They burn frankincense, which is the sap of the tree. For some reason the religious people of the time deemed it valuable as they thought it had healing powers. The trees only grow in this region of the Arabian peninsula and when it was harvested it was traded to the Roman Empire, India and up and down the east African coast. Then we headed back to the hotel where we bid goodbye to Salim and our drivers. I immediately headed to the pool to cool off. No one else came down, so after being in the pool for a half hour I lay on a lounger and did Sudoku listening to the raucous call of the crows.

Later we had our farewell dinner at the Palm Grove Restaurant in the Hilton Hotel we were staying in. The food was good and everyone was up beat and having a good time while also a bit sad that the trip was coming to an end. Yesterday I had asked the group about someone making a thank you speech to George so that he didn’t miss out like Yannis did in Saudi, and they asked me to do it. So I said a few kind and appropriate words to George on behalf of the group. He was a very well organized, patient and fun loving young man and we all benefited from his leadership. When we broke up a few of us went to the bar and had a couple of drinks as a celebration. Sad or interesting to say, that the lack of opportunity to hang out at a bar after our day’s adventures and enjoy a beverage, didn’t help this group to bond a little bit. When we headed off to bed little did we know about the imminent series of events about to unfold…

An Off Road Mountain Journey and Fly to Salalah

Goat crossing

Off on a driving adventure...

Two great Omanis, Mousad and Ayman.

This is how water is delivered to remote communities including roads like today.

This was probably the craziest, scariest road I've ridden...

going way down there...

around blind corners with no guard rails..

to our lunch destination in a remote village in an oasis in a small valley.

Village street...

Metal doors are ways to personalize homes that look much alike.

Then we had to drive another 20 kilometres on dirt roads to get back to the highway.

Disembarking for our final destination: Salalah, Oman.

The view from my balcony at the Hilton Hotel.

Wednesday, February 25th.

Note in our hotel:

During the holy month of Ramadan, smoking, eating or drinking in any public area from sunrise to sunset is strictly forbidden. Violations of these rules will result in serious legal action.

This morning we were picked up by six 4x4 Toyota Land Cruisers. The lead one was driven by Mousad and I was in the car with Cam, Jane and our diver Aymen again. We drove back into the Hajer Mountains along a paved road to a beautiful overlook. From there we descended on a wild, winding, very dusty dirt road for about thirty kilometres to the ancient small oasis village, Balid Sayt, one of the oldest towns in Oman, nestled between the mountains at the base of the Jebel Shams massif. The road was narrow and incredibly hilly and twisty with no guardrails, blind turns and steep dropoffs. We were all on edge as we crept along for over an hour. Even the normally talkative Aymen was very focused and quiet and was relieved when we arrived safely. We parked in the village and had the chance to wander the quaint narrow streets and view the crops of the oasis. Just above the village and date oasis they have recently built two new hotels, which the locals are apparently not crazy about. The government is building, for the town of seven hundred people, a school and a hospital so that they can remain in their homes in this remote area. The people are now asking for a paved road, which Mousad said would be a big expense for just this small village. From the balcony of the Season Inn Hotel we had an excellent view of the beautiful oasis where they grow many different crops. I marveled that people had found there way into this area back in the day and was not surprised given the roads, that they never found their way out again. We had a great lunch there before driving another twenty kilometres on the dangerous dusty dirt road to exit the valley. 

We then continued to Muscat along the main highway, arriving in time for a farewell dinner before our evening flight to Salalah, the second-largest town in Oman. Salalah is isolated far in the southeast, close to the Yemeni border. (Yemen is the only country on the Arabian Peninsula that we did not visit as it is at war with Saudi Arabia). The setting is magnificent, Salalah faces the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean, backed by hills. We arrived at the Hilton Hotel right on the water. I had a great view from my 4th floor balcony of the pool and the ocean. Off to my right I could just see the container port. I went for an exploratory walk at midnight around the pool and across the sand to the beach across about 200 metres of sand. The sound of the surf pounding the shore was a very different vibe from the rest of this mainly desert journey. 

 

Nizwa Fort and 4x4 in the Mountains

A gathering of merchants.

The Nizwa souk

Where you could buy guns for target practice.

Authentic old artifacts

Nizwa Fort

The interior of the large circular guard tower.

The view from it.

Tower and minuret

Aymen, our excellent driver.

An abandoned ancient stone built town. 

Typical houses today.

Off-roading through a wadi

A irrigation water trough from the mountains.

An old guard watch post.

Reall off-roading up the mountain.

To the view called the balcony.

A very hairy cute inquisitive goat.

Another abandoned town, this one was mudbrick.

Some pictures of the interior of the town.

Tuesday, February 24th.

We left this morning in a convoy of six 4x4 Toyota Land Cruisers and drove to the massive Nizwa Fort which was the home of the last Imam, Ghalib bin Ali al-Hinai, who ruled over Nizwa which was in the interior of Oman. Muscat, on the coast, was ruled by Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Very simply put the British backed the Sultan of Muscat and together they defeated the Imam in the 1950’s. Then the name of ‘Muscat and Oman’ was changed to the Sultanate of Oman and the country became ruled by a Sultan, who is a muslim monarch, rather than an elected religious leader. The fort was massive with 10 ft thick walls and an enormous round tower from which the Imam could defend his territory and repulse the Portuguese colonizers in the 1600’s.  Masoud gave us the history of the fort as he led us through it. After that we had some free time in the local souk, which was older and felt more authentic and historic than some of the others we had seen recently. Then we went back to the HUGE Hypermarket for some lunch supplies.

Next we drove up into the Hajer Mountains. I was traveling with Jane and Cam and we had a great conversation with our driver Aymen, a 34 year-old Omani who spoke excellent English with an Indian accent as he had been to university there. He was very informative and had a great sense of humour.  

We stopped for a scenic lookout at a wadi across which we could see a 200 year old abandoned village. All of the houses were made of stone. Then we heard that the rest of the 4x4’s had driven down into the wadi so we followed along a very stoney, bumpy, ever narrowing road. I wondered where we’d ever have space to turn around again… but finally we found the others parked in a wider area. We had a chance then to eat our lunch and explore the area. Then we continued our mountain adventure and drove further up and far enough that my ears popped three times. We eventually reached the summit near Jebel Shams, Oman’s highest mountain where we could see the formation called the balcony. There we could peer down into the Oman ‘Grand Canyon’, primarily known as the Wadi Ghul which is a 1000 metre deep gorge.

On the way back we stopped to see the 400 year old large abandoned village of Birkat Al Mouz on the edge of a large oasis full of date trees. We wandered through the village marveling at the complexity of the crumbling mudbrick houses (very different from the stone houses we saw earlier),  carved into the mountainside in the foothills of the Jebel Akhdar. Then it was back to the hotel in time to get organized before our 7 o’clock buffet dinner. I ate with Cam, Jane and Marsha and we enjoyed a drink with dinner. I spent the evening catching up some more.