Salalah is a small city 1.5 hour flight from Dubai.  In Oman, it is the centre of a small crescent of desert and wadi butted up against green and wet mountains.  Once the centre of the frankincense trade, it is now a destination for the sun-weary tourists of the entire Gulf.  August is the Khaleej festival - a celebration of the monsoon season. 

Indian Ocean on one side

Not always so calm

Green mountains and rivers on the other side

And the wadis in between

A tough place to live

It seems to belong to the camels

The major road hazzard - they don't even pause as they saunter across the traffic

We travelled with good friends Kathryn and Mark

And were shown around for 3 days by the one-and-only Ahmed

Lunch purchased on the side of the road

To be eaten under a 400 year old tree

We tried the local customs

   getting soaked at the blowholes

A kind of bread cooked in the hole

And we tried the local costumes

Into Salalah for shopping

Omani doors, ostensibly, are prized in Dubai for coffee tables??

Beautiful domes

And minarets

But the most beautiful thing is the people of Oman

This was an unexpected treat - watching marksmen practice for next days competition

Where I acquired a really beautiful old goatskin bag from a really beautiful old Omani

So much natural beauty

And roads (to Yemen) left for another trip

Oman is becoming a favourite destination for us.

All photos © KC Barker, GypsyChicken Productions 2007