SALALAH, OMAN (4/2/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (BiggiRoot)
Date: Apr 2, 2007 2:17 PM
Subject: Monday, April 02, 2007

Monday, April 02, 2007

SALALAH, OMAN

Oh man! We’re back in Oman. This is really the garden spot of the planet. Now you may ask: “How do I know that?” Then I will tell you how I know that. Because they keep telling me this sand pit is a wonderful vacation resort. The Perfume city. The place of the Sultan’s summer palace. Well, you can tell the Sultan, either he got one heck of a bargain on that palace or he has been sniffing way too much Camel dung.

Did I say sand pit? That does really describe it unless you want to add dirty. Dirty sand pit. The sand is kind of a darkish color. Camels are running, make that slowly walking, everywhere. As are goats and cows. Everything here is a little slow. You know what happens when you let all those creatures go wherever they want? Then I will tell you this thing too. They go. And go. And go. And go. That has to be all they do, is go. Unless they can eat sand, there is nothing to eat. There are various forms of animal “go” wherever you go. It must be another of Allah’s miracles. If so, may he please keep those kinds of miracles only for the Arabs.

We were only docked here for a short time. We took a bus tour early this morning. The tour was called Frankincense trail and Job’s Tomb. We got on this really ratty old bus. Half the seats didn’t work and the aisle was so narrow I could not fit down it. I usually go to the back where I can lay down but this time I had to give up after squishing by only two rows. The air conditioning was working really well and was blowing right on my head. Head was getting too cold so I tried turning the vent to aim it in a different direction. It just crumbled in my hand but was now blowing straight down at the window seat. So I moved to the aisle seat. Bobbi sat behind me and complained about the air blowing right on her.

We drove along the beach for several miles and then stopped at an area with a washroom. It was a very deep beach. At least 1,000 miles and more likely about 5,000. On the opposite side of the road there would be a house or two every once in awhile. If there were a group of houses there would also be a government provided mosque.

Next it was a ride down the beach road in the direction from which we had just come. All the roads were well made US quality but too narrow. After a short ride we came to an area with a few scrubby looking bushes. They call them Frankincense Trees but they are far too short to be trees. More like tall bushes. The big deal here is to scratch the bark and get a few drips of the sap. When you have enough of the stuff it is boiled and made into perfumes. You could have sure fooled me. It just smelled like Pine-sol. We looked up Frankincense on the internet. This pine cleaner smelling stuff is ridiculously expensive.

Now it was on up into the mountains. They ran in both directions, for as far as we could see, and were inland just a block or so from the beach. We were now on our way to Job’s Tomb. Right about now I figured out that we not only had a lousy driver but a sick bus also. This junk could not make it up the least little grade. We would slow to about 3 miles per hour while loaded trucks and cows passed us. Finally we arrived at Job’s Place. There were wash rooms here too. I chose to partake in the usage of aforementioned said same. Not a good idea. All along I thought I had seen the dirtiest place on the planet when we stopped at Port O Prince, Haiti many years ago. Now I am not sure if wasn’t actually here. Some low life slug excuse for humanity had lifted his ankle length skirt, they all wear, and defecated over the entire place. I mean the camel dung piles were pretty and smelled good compared to this perverted mess. And there was an attendant to take care of these sub human dropping events. He must have thought it was nice as he just stood and watched to see if anyone would really walk in it.

We did walk up to see Job. Sure enough, it did look like he was dead and had probably been so for quite a while. The best part is where our rag head guide completely changed the biblical story of Job to fit the teachings of the Koran.

There was a very small building with a small gold colored dome as a memorial. Like most other Muslim buildings, you had to take off your shoes to walk in. I would not. I could see everything there was to see, from the doorway. Outside was a metal plate in the ground. If lifted, you were supposed to see the foot print of Job. We did. Yeah, right. That had to be Job’s foot print. I also have some water front property in Florida to sell you.

All this time a mechanic had been following our bus in a truck. When we got back to the parking lot he was now trying to do something to the engine. This thing sounded like a camel trying to give birth to a Buick. The mechanic just shrugged his shoulders and closed the engine doors as we arrived. I figured it was safe now as we were going back and it would be all down hill. Our next stop was for a coconut milk drink and a banana tasting.

It was all downhill. Too downhill. Our driver was afraid to go more then about 5 miles per hour. We were passed by a truck filled with logs. Then another with a load of hay. That was the good part. As I had mentioned, the air did work well. Now that we were going down hill, it was really working too well. It started leaking water all down the inside of the bus on the left side. Lots of people had to move but Bobbi and I were on the dry side. I told the others not to tell anyone about this. If they found out about ours being the only one with an onboard shower, they would want one too.

When we finally got down from the mountains we were far too short on time for what we had left. So we were told we only had 10 minutes. Cute. It takes that long to get 20 people off a bus. There were men chopping the tops off very small green coconuts as we arrived at the fruit stand. They were handing one with a straw to everyone. The coconut water was very sweet. They had some very tiny bananas we could pull off a stalk. They were very banana tasting and extremely sweet.

Now we were on to our last stop. The souk. You have no Idea how terrible I felt, yes you do, when we found out we were running so late we would have less then 15 minute to shop. I should have known better by now. Just because Bobbi takes hours and hours to shop, she really does not have to. All of a sudden Flash is off the bus and headed toward the nearest perfume shop.

It seems that when we were in the souk, the other day, a man had put a drop of their perfume on her wrist. It would not dry like the kinds we are used to and smelled awful. Several hours later, after it had dried, it smelled wonderful and strong. Their perfume is in an oil base and not an alcohol base like ours. It is supposed to be rubbed in like skin lotion. Even after many washings, her arm smelled great.

Nothing we tried smelled anything like that in this store. Still Flash had to buy something before we left. After all, this was the biblical place of Frankincense and Myrrh. So now I have a bag full of some kind of bottles of this over priced drain oil.

Several hours after being back on the ship, I decided to write this piece of literary genius. Just now, as I’m about to finish, I had to reach for a Kleenex. I suddenly smell this wonderful odor. I am wondering where I got this scented Kleenex. I find it is not the Kleenex at all. It is my arm where I tried the perfume when Bobbi ran out of spots to odorize. I think I am in love with my right wrist. It is lovely. I never noticed how nice it was. I guess one of those bottles, Flash bought, was really good.

Bobbi said I had to write about how cool it was to see bunches of camels by themselves. Little ones being taken care of by the bigger ones. We saw no women. She also says the scenery was beautiful. The roads were empty once a mile or two from town. She says the drive was well worth it and she says she is going to hit me if I don’t say this stuff. Now she says she is going to hit me anyway. So what’s new?

One thing I forgot to mention. Toward the end of out tour, while driving on the road running along the ocean, we noticed thousands of huge piles of sand. Each one was like a large dump truck load. This was in the area between the road and the mountains.

If I didn’t recommend this as not an ideal place to live, let me make it very clear. I guarantee this alone would make up your mind. We were told that the summer time is their monsoon season. When they get anything more then a drizzle, the ground is not absorbent, and there is a flood. We could see dry river beds in many places. That is why there are those huge sand piles. Those are ant or termite nests. When the rains come they move to the top of these nests they have made. I wonder what happens if someone or some animal disturbs these nests. Do they just eat the trespassers alive?

Tonight we had a Passover Seder dinner. It was very nice but someone was suspiciously missing. Dear Captain Dag. He manages to at least sick his head in and say hello for every minor event on the ship. Even if it’s only half a dozen people. Not this one and every chair in the restaurant was occupied. Seems very strange to me. I have often wondered about Captain Dag.