Dhow Cruise

Trip Start Aug 13, 2009

Trip End Sep 04, 2009

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Flag of Oman Khasab, Musandam Peninsula, Oman
Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Got up and ate my usual granola bar for breakfast, checked out of the hotel, then headed down to the harbor to find my boat for the dhow cruise. I checked to see if the moneychanger was open and it wasn't I drove to what I thought was the harbor, but it wasn’t exactly right (the harbor wasn’t really that big). I thought it might be next door, but I called the office since it was almost the 9am tour time. They gave me directions to their office in heavily accented and broken English, which had me driving around for a bit until I found it across the street from where I was before. I went up to the little house (it was basically a little trailer like construction companies use) and they told me to go to the place I had thought it might be. I drove across the street and went over to the dhow to meet the contact Vinoey ("Vin-oo-ey"). I was the first one there. They asked if I wanted a snorkel and fins---they cost extra and I didn’t know if I would need/want them, but they were only $5-6 so I got them anyway. A few other groups arrived---a German couple and a family that I later determined to be Russian (sounded Eastern European and I heard some “nyet’s”). While we waited to take off, there was water, tea, coffee, and soda. I had a water to start, but it tasted awful. I never knew bottled water could taste bad---was either the taste of plastic or just bad water---yuck.

After a little while, we set out on our cruise. We hugged the coastline and saw a bunch of cormorants (birds) along the coastline. They were perched on rocks and even lined up on the coastline like a row of soldiers (the Germans commented on this must be where Hitchcock filmed his movie “The Birds,” haha). As we cruised, I talked quite a bit with the German couple---their names were “Joe” and “Jill” (his name, and probably heres too, was sanitized for my convenience—I joked with his that I knew that couldn’t be his real name! J). They lived in Muscat, he was in oil, and they had traveled around quite a bit (working in Saudi, Yemen, etc.). They were very nice, gave me some tips on my upcoming travels to Oman, and I talked with them throughout the trip. It was nice to have traveling companions for a short while---made me think that this was one of the advantages of tour groups. Despite the fact that Joe said they were on a “romantic vacation” (Jill’s reply: “When does it start?”), they involved me in conversation and seemed to appreciate my presence too (or perhaps took pity on me).

We cruised into the khors and got to see what the scenery was all about. The mountains were beautiful and a geologist’s dream---you could see the rock (limestone) striations easily on the sides of the mountains. A dolphin began following the boat, swimming alongside and playing---got some good pics. We went past a small village on the side of the mountain and on the shore. We were told by one of the two dhow operators that the children went to school by boat and that they ate and made a living by fishing (we later saw the nets stored until a seaside cliff overhang). They had electricity to the village (thank you Sultan Qaboos for development initiatives), as did a similar later village farther along the khors. Apparently the village was empty now as they didn’t live there in the summer (the Omani government did encourage them to continue living at the village, however, but I suspect they were incentivized through development and other benefits).

We continued on until we reached Telegraph Island, an island that was used as a British outpost as they strung a telegraph cable from here to Basra, Iraq and also to India. The climate and isolation must have been too much for them though, and it was only manned for 10 years. We stopped on the other side of the island and snorkeled for an hour and a half. It was really cool---there was lots of cool coral and fish to look at---wish I would’ve had an underwater camera! There were tons of purple sea urchins though, so you had to be careful not to touch bottom (good automatic coral protection!). This was only my second time snorkeling though (the other being Isla Mujeres near Cancun, Mexico), but I did OK. My fins were too big though (I only kept them because they kept my feet from sinking down to the sea urchins) and I kept getting saltwater in my mouth/nose and my leaky goggles.

We then cruised to the second village (similar to the first) and back to Khasab harbor. Nearby there were small “jumping fish” that skimmed across the water---too bad they were too small and infrequent to catch on camera. We past a development on the way where they were building another resort (the only other one being the Golden Tulip Resort a couple of miles west of Khasab. Too bad---one of the best things about Oman is that it hasn’t yet been totally overdeveloped and tourist-ized like many Western nations. One other thing to mention was that the tea was incredibly good----not sure what they put in it to make so good (the coffee I thought was weak/bad)!

Back at the harbor, I got Joe’s Omani cell number in case I had any questions/problems while traveling there. Since I had to get the car back to the rental agency before it closed at 7 (to avoid having to worry about finding parking around the hotel), I took off right around 1:30-2PM. The drive back was pretty uneventful---only stopped to take pictures at a fort I had seen, but missed on the way up. While up on the hill and out of public sight, I ate the same cheese and Arabic bread I had eaten before. The cheese was called Halloumi, and this stuff squeaked like the cheese curds in Wisconsin (“squeakers)—real good—made of goat, sheep, and cow’s milk. Going through the border though, there was a semi that blocked the lane, so I went around (out of where I was supposed to go) and got a comment from the border guards, but nothing major (it’s good to be a U.S. citizen!).

Khasab hotels

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