Khasab, Oman

This Eid we were only given a few days.  I had to scrap my tentative plans for Tanzania and decided to do a dhow trip like I had been wanting to do since I moved here.  Despite the hoards of other people having the same idea and jamming up the border crossings, we made it there after a full day of travelling, and stayed the first night at the lovely Atana Hotel.

Up north in an area of Oman called Musandam, is the capital city of Khasab, which is known as the "Norway of Arabia." 

The Portuguese built Khasab at the beginning of the 17th century, at the height of their naval presence in the region. 

In the 19th century, Khasab was the location of a British repeater station, called Telegraph Island, used to Boost telegraphic messages along the Persian Gulf submarine cable, which was part of the London to Karachi telegraphic cable.  

It was not an easy posting for the operators, with the severe summer heat and hostility of local tribes making life extremely uncomfortable.  Because of this, the island is, according to some travel agents and journalists, where the expression "go round the bend" comes from, a reference to the heat making British officers desperate to return to civilization, which meant the voyage around the bend in the Strait of Hormuz back to India.  Abandoned in the mid-1870s' all that's left are some crumbling ruins, but this was a great spot to stop for snorkelling from our dhow boat.

The road to Khasab on the Gulf of Oman.

It took us about 6 hours to reach Khasab from Al Ain, mostly due to the crowded border crossing.

Cute and thirsty stray puppy brothers with curly tails.

Relaxing on the dhow boat.

Cruising the fjords.

Panorama with my friend and Portuguese colleague, Felicidade.

We were very happy to see a pod of dolphins!

A bit of dolphin video.

Other boats vying for position to see the dolphins.

One of the other dhow boats. "Dhow" is the generic name for a number of traditional sailing vessels employing the use of a lanteen sail used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region.  Most historians believe the dhow was invented by the Chinese anywhere between 600BC and 600AD.   The Egyptian felucca would be like a small dhow.

Our first stop was here for snorkeling.

Debating whether to swim through.

Tiny little fishies

Yes, why not swim through?

There were a few fish to see.

I'm on a boat!

Water delivery FAIL!  Dudes were delivering some water to us from a speedboat, but the box got all soggy and the water bottles fell out in the sea.  We managed to rescue them all.

It's hard to see, but there is a Moray eel peeking his head out on the left.

Some crappy video of the eel.

Another panorama with a tiny town in the middle.

I used a fish eye lens for all my shots today.  This one is kind of cool.

Our friends Paul and Marion.

Our last stop was a Portuguese fort before heading out of town.

We were supposed to camp on the beach for the night.  Unfortunately, it was so ridiculously crowded and had way too many kids running around.  We decided to skip the camping part and just head back home.  It took us about 5 hours to get back including border crossing time, which wasn't so bad.  Next time we will rent a private dhow!