May 17 – Khasab, Oman

Weather – 37º, or so the weather app said – it was HOT

Steps – 7,103

Humidity – thankfully, little

Praise the lord, we didn’t get up before the sun. Chris said when he woke up and saw the sun through the curtains, he was thrilled! It was still only 6am, but we’re making progress.

Saravanan delivered on all of our requests…including the FLAX! Because I had

smuggling operation

yogurt, flax, and kiwi breakfast was an in-room DIY affair. Our excursion wasn’t until the afternoon, so we were able to lazily enjoy our first morning on the ship.

settled in for the dhow ride

Enjoying our room also included enjoying our enormous balcony. It was already too hot to stay out there for too long, but long enough to catch our first glimpses of the Oman/Iran smuggling operation. The first thing I noticed was the endless stream of small speed boats unloading an equally endless stream of sheep! Boats that didn’t appear to be full of anything at all suddenly had a couple of guys launching the sheep out. Each boat probably held about 20 sheep. After disembarking the boats, they were then herded onto pickup trucks.

just like our dhow

Empty boats also arrived in port to take on items such as cigarettes, iPhones, flat screen TVs, cosmetics, and basically anything Iran can’t get due to sanctions and embargos.

500 of these tiny boats (staffed mainly by teenagers, who earn $40 a day for this work) make the 60 Km, 40 minute trip across the Straight of Hormuz 3 times a

chilling on the dhow

day, 7 days a week taking goods back to Iran to be sold on the black market. The route these smugglers take crosses a busy shipping lane between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. At one point when we were on our own boat tour, we saw one of these boats being ‘chased’ by a Omani police boat. There’s a warehouse somewhere here in Khasab where all of the contraband is stored. 

Oman doesn’t care about any of this because as far as they are concerned it is just shipping. Nothing is illegal until the goods enter Irani waters.

more like relaxing, not at all chilly

The sheep come from Iran to Oman and from here will be distributed across the Middle East. All of this went on from first thing in the morning until after we left – probably during daylight.

Something more about the weather…in Dubai and here in Oman, we experienced what we call hair dryer wind. The wind is actually hot, exactly like what you would feel from a hair dryer – if I had the choice, I’d pick this over humidity!

same as the one we're on

Today’s tour was titled “OMANI FJORDS - Delve into Oman’s longest fjord in a dhow (a traditional Middle Eastern wooden boat), taking in the hauntingly rugged scenery, which is dotted with fishing villages and a tiny island where you might choose to swim.” Yup, that basically summed it up. We wore swim gear under our ‘conservative’ clothes. We wondered how conservative we had to be. The tour description said we should have knees and shoulders covered which we had, but it wasn’t really necessary. The dhow we boarded was a 15 min walk from our ship, so we weren’t really mingling with any locals other than the guides.

floating!

Once abord the dhow we found our seats. All seating was on the ground on cushions, it was very comfortable for us, but I’m not sure all of the mostly older passengers felt the same. A woman actually FELL ON ME getting to the ground. It was a soft fall, so neither of us were damaged, but a fall nonetheless! Had she not wanted to sit RIGHT NEXT TO ME she would have just fallen on the cushions. There was a TON of space, and somehow, she chose the spot RIGHT NEXT TO ME! Thankfully, the boat was covered with plenty to shade.

Anywho, at this point I was in a lather, but as soon as the boat got going the breeze cooled things off a bit. We were offered water, Pepsi, 7-Up, dates, fruit, and Omani coffee – a

dhow with the Voyager in the distance

strong, unsweetened coffee flavoured with cardamom – notice, no booze, we’re still in a Muslim country.

We sailed through Khawr Shamm, Oman’s longest fjord in and amongst

at 5:00!

rugged cliffs for about 3 hours, stopping at a couple of points to search for dolphins! We only saw a handful, but it was thrilling. We are a bit spoiled for Omani dolphins - when we were here in 2011, we did a dolphin watching tour and saw an enormous number of dolphins. Today wasn’t at all the same but still thrilling.

Then we found a swimming spot. I not always up for a dip…to me getting wet is a commitment, but when it is this hot I get in. Most people chose to use life jackets – I wasn’t going to go in without. It made for a lovely experience just floating around. The boat even had a freshwater shower to get the salt off – salty skin is also a impediment to me getting in the water.

Our journey was narrated and accompanied by Malala our guide.