March 6

4-6: Yesterday we saw our cousin, Starr, in Salalah, Oman - nothing like coming half way around the world to see a cousin that, in Ginnie’s case, you haven’t seen in 44 years! We had a great time. It all started out with our almost starting an international incident…Starr had taken a cab from her hotel to the port for 3 rials and the cabs at the port wanted 10 rials to take us into town! This is a bargaining society so Starr went down the group of cabs until she found one that agreed on 3 rials and brought it up to pick us up. We got in and headed out and all the cabbies got in front of the cab and would not let us pass. They were shouting at our cabbie and he was shouting back. Starr got out of the cab and was arguing with the head cabbie guy - it was wild. Then the cabbie told Ginnie and I to get out - he wasn’t willing to take the heat from the other cabbie guys. So here are the three of us with all these Arab men milling around talking to us - Starr at least able to talk back. A cop showed up but would not even talk to Starr - a woman and all that - but obviously was not backing the cabbies either. Finally, some nice cabbie, Saed, said get in and we did and he took us to town. The other cabbies were all still milling around. It was great! We sat in Starr’s hotel room and visited and talked to cousin Harry on the phone which was great. Then we called Saed and had him come pick us up for the afternoon. He took us to the suqs and then dropped us off for lunch - which was pretty bad - and then took us around Salalah. There are some beautiful beaches and since the Sultan will allow no foreigners to own land they are not at all developed - they were wonderful. The ocean is so clean and beautiful and even though it was a fairly warm day standing in the shade of the palm trees on the beach was great - nice cool breeze. When Saed was bringing us back to the ship he gave us presents - postcards and perfume! When was the last time a cab driver gave you a present - it was so sweet. All in all our day was great - we had a good time with Starr and Oman is really starkly beautiful. Now 3 sea days until Safaga where we have an all day tour to Thebes and the Valley of the Kings.