Blogs from Dhofar, Oman, Middle East

Bonjour à tous. Merci Cathy pour la très belle découverte du jour. Le buffet du soir sensiblement identique aux jours précédents. Pendant le souper, un serveur, est venu nous inviter, pour 20h30, dans une salle proche du restaurant, à un concert de musique orientale. Oui oui bien sur on va venir. Ni l'un ni l'autre, sommes attirés par ce type de musique. Moi ça me donne juste des boutons et mal aux oreilles. J'haï ce type de musique. Ce matin au petit déjeuner, un troupeau de dauphins, est venu, se promener, à quelques dizaines de mètres de la plage. Bien agréable ce défilé, en buvant le café. Perso je ne les ai pas vu sauter, Cathy oui. Mon copilote avait trouvé sur la carte, et sur le guide d'Oman, une visite pour aller voir les cascades, ... read more

“I was exhilarated by the sense of space, the silence, and the crisp cleanness of the sand.” Thesiger put it in a nutshell. Sometimes, I find, the places that have the deepest impact are the hardest to describe. The next morning, I stood at the top of the smallish (75m/250ft) dune behind our first night’s camp in Rub’ Al Khali and tried to grasp the fact that this stunning, terrifying, hypnotising, incredible landscape continued in front of me for another 500km (310 miles), and stretched the same distance to either side of me. Even today, all of the Empty Quarter crossings made by non-resident explorers can be summarised in little more than a single screen of a Wikipedia entry, and, even now, all the technology in the world cannot insulate the visitor from its dangers. We ... read more

Queen Mary 2 and cruising to Salalah Great transfer to QM2 and looking forward to 3 days at sea before berthing in Salalah. QM2 has been remastered since our last cruise on her in 2015. So what has changed, exploring shows not a lot. To me she is still imbalanced with the Queens room are the rear of the ship and access is still up and down. They’ve created a lovely Carinthia lounge which used to be the Winter Gardens, a very underused space but now a more airy area!!! So apart from extra cabins on and extra kennels, nothing much has changed, general decor and titivation!! Salalah is a southern city in the Sultanate of Oman, the capital of the Dhofar region I worked here in 1977, more in Muscat but there was a dairy ... read more

Geo: 17.0139, 54.0923We've arrived in Oman for two port days separated by another sea day. Today, we left early for our shore excursion to see the sights around Salalah. Leaving the port, the bus had to stop for a security check. An officer came on board to check each person's landing card. They had been given out by ship's personnel as we disembarked. Before we got very far, just after passing customs and security, one couple realized they were on the wrong bus. Although we pulled off the road and the guide contacted his supervisor, we were not allowed to wait for the other bus to catch up. We had to go back to the ship and drop them off before starting again. Arriving at the checkpoint for the second time, our guide was able to ... read more

"Do you hear that?" "Hear what?" "Exactly! Silence! No beeping!" One of the things we noticed about Salalah, and one that speaks volumes of the people there, was the complete lack of beeps. No cars honking, nobody tailgating you and flashing their lights trying to run you off the road. People were very content to wait and to let you find your way. I tell you, if you have not experienced a daily commute in the Middle East, you don't know how touching this small token of hospitality is. We commented constantly about it, like when we would go around a roundabout three or four times trying to find the right road. Or when there was some kind of procession on the major freeway at night, there were no beeps - people waited their turn to ... read more