Marhaba Salalah!

Today Ruth and I arrived in Salalah. The plane landed on the runway and upon exiting the plane, we walked into a building that looked more like a general store than an airport. Passport control was, well, quite different than what I am used to. It consisted of two men (however, only one man was handling passport and visa matters, the other man was busy staring off into space) and a counter. Behind the counter, the passport control man spent some time writing, stamping and then asked for a fee that seemed to have little consistency among the plane's passengers. For instance, Ruth did not have to pay. I, on the other hand, had to pay 6 Riyals. Who knows...I didn't question (actually, I couldn't because my Arabic isn't that good). We were met in the lobby by a gentleman from our hotel, the Haffa House, who drove us to the hotel. The hotel was similar to the rest of Salalah...old and traditional. Ruth and I concluded that the building used to be some sort of mall or market place as there were escalators that were no longer in use outside of our room and the halls were about 30 feet wide. The hotel room was quite nice, especially for the price we paid...though we found out later the building was infested with mice. Oh well, every place has its faults I guess. I would much rather stay in a mice-infested Omani-style hotel than a very Westernized hotel like the Crowne Plaza.

Hotel bathroom

After Ruth and I arrived at the Haffa House, we relaxed for about an hour and then caught a taxi to the Crowne Plaza where our scuba diving class was to take place. Taxis in Oman are different from Dubai in several regards: 1)the drivers don't really speak English 2)the cars are from the 80s 3)you work out the fare before you enter the cab...meters do not exist. Ruth and I went to the scuba diving office at the Crowne Plaza and met a lovely British woman who has lived in Salalah for the past 10 years of her life. We found out later that this kindness was not specific only to her, but rather pretty much the norm over entire Salalah. After a while of chatting, we met Yousef, our diving instructor, who was likewise just as friendly.

Hotel room

Scuba diving is a strange experience. If you think too hard, you freak out and cannot breathe properly; however, how that crap are you supposed to relax when you are strapped into a tank and suit with buttons and valves all over the place, meanwhile your ears are in pain due to the pressure difference and to top things off, you need to focus on swimming and breathing "as if you are at home chopping onions" (a direct quote from Yousef). Right. It took me a while to get used to this and by the time we climbed out of the pool it was evening. Yousef took Ruth and I out to dinner for local Omani food, but having already stuffed ourselves with a LARGE plate of hummus, we simply opted for fruit salad at the restaurant. Not very unique to Oman, but the fruit there was wonderful (mainly bananas, papayas and coconuts).

Omani currency...the Riyal

Ruth at Al Fareed Restaurant

View of the Crowne plaza