Salalah, Oman
Our excursion to Salaleh was led by a delightful young woman who was the only female guide in her company – a perfect illustration of a country held by Muslim tradition, but encouraging change, particularly for women. In fact, Oman was the first Gulf country to allow women to drive.
In the 1970s, women could not go out in public without their husband or father. The country was ruled by the difficult father of the current Sultan Quaboos ("car-bus"), who sent his son to prison for two years for having modern ideas after studying in England.
Once Sultan Qaboos was in power, he set about returning Oman to a powerful and modern country. He called for Omanis who had left the country to return, although most were uneducated. The new Sultan used oil revenues that had previously only been used for the royal family to benefit education and services for all Omanis.
No teachers were Omani until 1986, when our guide started school – the first year that girls were permitted to go to school. The Sultan had gone house to house to talk leaders into letting girls to to school.
We visited the Sultan's Palace, the Sumhuram archaeological site, and Taqah Castle. We shopped at a local souk, where our guide showed us how to identify the best frankincense, which only grows here in Southern Oman, Somalia, and Yemen.
More about the Sultan... the Sultan is beloved by the people for all of his efforts in education and reform. His forward-thinking about women in education is notable. He has cancer and regularly gets treatments in Germany - when he returns, "the people dance, and drink and celebrate his return and to his health."
Read more about the Sultan’s focus on education.
The part where pirates become real...
The journey from Oman to Jordan requires passing through the Gulf of Aden*, an area between Somalia and Yemen that is known for Somali piracy. Encore staff performed two pirate drills. The news to the right displayed eerily on my treadmill while in the exact same spot...
We found out later that four snipers had gotten on board to accompany us through the Gulf - exiting once safe, and returning to escort following ships.
* Over 20,000 merchant ships, including ten percent of global oil trade, transit the Gulf of Aden annually.
This Somali hijacking occurred two weeks prior to our passing, and this hijacking occurred just this May.
