Day 234 – Salalah, Oman
The mission for the day was to find some famous Frankincense trees which Salalah also was known for. First we headed to the Frankincense market to find out where will be a good place to find them.
Frankincense Market.
I had no reason or desire to buy frankincense, perfume, oil or one of the other five million products they offer to the western tourists there. One thing caught my attention though. The majority of shops on the souq where closed or left. I photographed the leftover interior from a showroom which seemed they closed the business just the week before. Business folder and documents still there, destroyed shelves and old ID cards all over. I talked with the shop owner next to it, and he told me last year this was his shop, but he had to give it up like many other here to make space for building a new souq. The most buildings are already down and it will be just a matter of time until he also need to close this smaller shop after 25 years in business.
Up into the Mountains.
Where are this Frankincense come from? Dali and I drove out of Salalah up the mountains. Here was an unreal mix of cows, camels and donkies in the dry grass land everywhere and the road had a zebra look caused by all the cow shit spreading on it.
We stopped for lunch break on a truck stop. A tone of restaurants, we choose the one which looked very rundown with the most cars in front of it. The Chef took us in the kitchen to show us the dishes he had. It was so surreal, a bunch of guys sat in the dark room and stared hypnotic on the small 4:3 TV in the corner to watch an old, extreme trashier Indian warrior movie. A sort of trash movie which is so bad and old cliche that it had a special unique style on it which kept me watching until my food was ready. One of the best Beriany I had on this trip so far, also Dalis fried fish was great, and we celebrated our good catch while the chef observed how we ate the food, with the same amount of interest like the other guys watched the move.
Outside on the parking lot I watched some Pakistani changing a back tire of a fully hand loaded Trailer. How other people solve problems in a different and creative way is always very interesting to me. I went over to take a closer look.
Back in the desert.
A 30 minute drive by car later we arrived at the other side of the mountain range just 50 km from Salalah the landscape looked like a proper desert again. I felt back in a well known environment and made me realize how tiny the bubble of green around the city is.
We arrived at a dry field with more or less 200 trees and a fence build around it. The Boswellia trees where relative small compared to them outside the fence. Luckily the door at a corner wasn’t looked and gave us the way to check out some bigger trees to see some proper Frankincense.
Frankincense is the resin from the Boswellia trees. It looks like the tree is bleeding out of the slashed bark and turning from clear to milk white by harden on the air. Brutal to see the trees get tapped two to three times a year. Unusual of the Bsowellia tree is their ability to grow in harsh environments I saw them on mountains, or growing on top of a solid rock. Frankincense also known in Arabic as al-lubān or olibanum. Popular from old references, it was one of the offerings to the infant Jesus beside Myrrh and Gold. Christian Churches using it in their rituals and made me feel like being in a church whenever I smell the unique smoke.
