12 Nov 2023
The tour itinerary itself was fine and covered the main attractions well (although East Salalah seems more picturesque). However I was a little disappointed by my guide (Karel), although he was entirely polite to me and full of factual and numerical information about the area he made a few comments about the local Omani population that I found distasteful and spent quite a lot of time on his phone. Examples of the comments include "They go to school but don't learn much", "Its unsettling for Europeans to see how the women dress here, they are covered and look like they are dressed for a funeral" & "The Omanis don't have much entrepreneurial spirit, they aren't good entrepreneurs", even if you think those things are true I'm not sure why anyone would say them out loud. I came away without a local feel for the area and culture and with the impression that he wasn't really passionate about Oman and was there just to make money. Shame.