Salalah

Just returned from an amazing long weekend in Salalah, Oman, and, rest assured, that there will be way too many (but not enough) posts dedicated to it. I had been to Oman several years ago, but that was a visit to Muscat, which is in the far eastern part of the country. This time I visited Salalah, which is in the far western part of the country near the border with Yemen (more on that later). It is less than an hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Muscat (in fact, almost exactly the same flight time as from JFK to Burlington) and then around an hour and a half from Muscat to Salalah. I flew on Oman Air, which was a good experience with the exception of a couple oddities which I'll discuss later. I love Oman and if I stay here I suspect I'd end up heading down there once a month. The Omanis are so wonderfully friendly, or, as my great friend Jyoti elegantly put it, "god's children." The country is amazingly beautiful, with an almost unmatched combination of sea and coastline and mountains and desert. Because of the peculiarities of the monsoon winds the southern half, including Dhofar where Salalah is located, is sub-tropical, and constantly reminded me of India. It is definitely the dry season right now, but it still felt lush on the coast with lots of coconut trees in abundance. Muscat and Salalah are the two biggest cities in Oman but they couldn't be more different. You can drive between them and it is supposed to be about as sparse and desolate as you can imagine with almost nothing in between, which, of course, makes me want to go. The coastline is amazing with miles of sandy beaches and, especially once you get past Mughsail, cliffs that rise up out of the ocean. Just extraordinary.