Oman

Our first stop in the middle east was in Salalah, Oman on April 22 (Day 99). My first impression of middle eastern ports, including Salalah: hot and sunny.

Unfortunately (for us), we arrived in Salalah just as Ramadan was ending and the three day holiday to celebrate called Ede was starting.  The people were enjoying the end of fasting, and about to visit family, some prayer. Because of this, we saw few people about on our excursion. Many many of the places we were scheduled to visit were closed.  Our tour in Salalah, therefore, was a bus drive around with no inside visits. We could take pictures from outside, and this seemed like the best that could be done.

On April 24, the ship docked in Muscat Oman. There we were able to visit the Grand Mosque.

By arriving in the morning, we were able to go inside the Grand Mosque as visitors. The mosque opened until 11am for visitors (including women) and then closed in time for 12 noon prayer.

To visit, we had to have on proper attire, which for women included a baggy long sleeve shirt (or long dress) and baggy pants. We also had to wear a big scarf that covered all our hair. There were some men who watched everyone who entered and those who didn’t pass inspection had to visit a room where they rented a full outfit for $8 for the visit. Luckily I passed muster. We removed our shoes for the entire time we entered the inner part of the mosque.

There was a prayer room for women where they could come to pray and watch the Iman on the television set. We learned that women do not usually pray at the mosque and typically do it at home.

The men’s prayer room was quite impressive:

Our guide demonstrated for us the practice of ritual cleaning or ablutions that should be performed before prayer.

On the way back in Muscat, we stopped at a museum to see some of the area costumes.