World cruise 36

March 27

At sea today, ripping along at our anti-pirate pace. We slept late this morning...or at least I did...so missed the announcement of a course change to avoid a pod of migrating whales. Then during lunch, the Officer of the Watch came on the PA system to point out a super-pod of dolphins cavorting off the starboard side. For the second time in my life and on this trip, I was on the correct side of the ship to see the sea life. They had obviously found a school of fish and were having a feast. There were even a couple of small fishing boats hovering nearby.

The ship has been battling a stubborn outbreak of GI illness for several weeks now. A rumor this evening is that there is only one case in quarantine at present. If no new cases occur for 72 hours, we might be back to so-called normal operations and some of the super sanitizing measures can be relaxed, e.g. we can get our own drinks from the coffee and water machines in the Lido and can check books out of the library, etc. etc. Fingers crossed.

March 28

Today we are at Salalah, Oman which is about in the middle of the southern side of the Arabian peninsula. It is close, but hopefully not too close, to the borders of both Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Ah, after we sailed, the Captain announced that we will stay at least 70 miles off the coast of Yemen as long as possible, and tomorrow when we get to the strait called" The Gates of Tears" between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula at the south end of the Red Sea, he will, in his own words,"wind this baby up to well over 20 knots" until we reach the (relative) safety of Saudi territory. Like Bilbo Baggins, we set out on this trip to have an adventure, and we certainly have managed to find a few.

Meanwhile, if you like hot, flat, sandy, and maybe camels, Salalah is the ideal place for you! It is the largest city in Oman. I think that's because there is all this very flat desert to expand onto. It's probably also why they have lots and lots of really broad traffic circles. Here's a sample of the suburban countryside.

I took the short version of the basic tour. Our first stop was unplanned and due to a traffic jam...of camels! The herds of camels roam freely during the day and return to their homes at night for dinner just like people. Anyway, suddenly, in the midst of a nice, fast highway, there were about 8 or 9 camels of various sizes.

So the bus stopped while they wandered up the road. Most kept to the sides of the road, but one got square in front of the bus, walked slowly away giving us a view of its rear end while expressing its opinion with "emissions."

We saw several other camel herds along the roads, but none actually blocking traffic at the moment we passed by. I understand that, if you hit a camel in daylight, it's automatically your fault, you will owe the owner recompense, and the owner will turn up promptly to claim it was his very best camel. However, if you hit a camel at night, it's the owner's fault, but you'll never see him, and you're still stuck with the damage to your car. When asked what camels are used for these days, our guide said they are raced, eaten, and entered in camel beauty contests. Go figure that last one.

So, we drove past a beach that seemed pretty desolate for a Saturday morning, but by the time we came back by an hour or so later, people were beginning to arrive.

Our first scheduled stop was to see a frankincense tree "in the wild." I could see several perfectly well from the (air conditioned) bus window, so felt no need to get down and hike up a rocky hillside. Besides, in the dry season they don't have leaves and look pretty brown and generally dead. That is when the sap is harvested, and frankincense is a big export for Oman as well as a big seller within the country.

We made a stop to see a famous blowhole in some ocean cliffs, but the tide was out, and it wasn't blowing. Next we headed up into the mountains to visit the Tomb of Job. Yes, That Job. I found the trip more interesting than the tomb. Here's the one shot I took of the tomb, plus one of a very friendly camel who came to greet the busloads of tourists. I had forgotten how long their necks are!

Before Sultan Qaboos was crowned in 1970, Oman had no paved roads, no schools or hospitals to speak of. His vision and regime have turned that around. When these people decided to build roads up mountains, they didn't mess around. They made them as steep as possible to just allow a loaded truck or bus to creep up slowly in its lowest gear. On the other hand, the trip back down is rather exciting. Here is your basic Omani mountain scene.

The last stop was for shopping at the local souk. At that point I bailed on the tour and got a cab back to the port. I must say, however, that the Omani people are really nice, friendly and helpful. And I am most impressed by their national policy of helping others rather than fighting them.

Remembering that some of the best chairs on the ship are up on Deck 9 forward in a place with huge windows called the Crow's Nest, I managed to arrive there just as they were beginning to serve afternoon tea. That's 3 days in a row for a fancy tea...this could be habit forming!

March 29

At sea. Slept late. Worked on updating the blog off and on with one major break for a game of Mexican Train Dominoes.

World cruise 35

March 25

Due to various threats and dangers in the area, instead of a leisurely 2 days at sea doing 8 knots to Muscat, the Captain and Powers That Be decided to spend last night at dock in Dubai and race at 18 or 19 knots to Muscat in about 18 hours most of which were in daylight. We saw lots of ships and boats of various descriptions, but none appeared suspicious. About 11:30 p.m. I felt a change in the engines. At first I thought she was speeding up, then remembered we were due to pick up the Omani pilot around midnight and realized that she was actually slowing down for that maneuver. So we docked about 1:00 a.m. but didn't get cleared until about 8:00 a.m.

March 26

Muscat, Oman. Margaret took off for the hinterlands along with stops at a gorgeous mosque and the local souq (pronounced sook and means "market"). She'll report eventually.

I had a tour bus that sported extra decoration to set the mood for the day.

We also stopped along the Muscat corniche at the Muttrah souq, but I didn't do any shopping. I found a seat at an open air restaurant at the main entrance to the souq, ordered a mug of scalding hot tea, and was doing some crocheting as well as people watching.

Suddenly I received a present from Sultan Qaboos (pronounced like "caboose"). 4 young men in Omani dress, carrying decorated baskets and handfuls of flags appeared in front of me. Our guide was sitting nearby and gave me this explanation: these men from a local school were distributing gifts (it wasn't clear if they were from, or maybe paid for by the Sultan) celebrating the fact that the Sultan had recently returned from Germany after 8 months there for cancer treatment. I received an Omani flag and a bag containing candy, dried flower petals, 2 small pins with the Sultan's photo, a laminated photo of the Sultan, and a small container of a tan substance with a little spoon that eventually turned out to be excellent and super-sweet caramel.

We continued the tour through some very sharp peaks somewhere between hills and small mountains to old Muscat with 2 old Portuguese forts and the Sultan's main palace along with major government offices.

More thanks to Mike for taking my photo of the Sultan's Palace grounds.

Finally, on to the Al Bustan Palace Hotel. This hotel was also over the top, but in crystal and marble elegance instead of bling like the Burj Al Arab.

We had tea in the lobby to the music of a harp. While it was lovely and the little chocolate cakes had gold leaf decorations, the food was not as sumptuous or quite as delicious as in Dubai.

On the way back we passed the new National Museum that's due to open in a week or so when the Sultan feels up to the ceremony after his travels.

World cruise 33

March 19

At sea again. The routine isn't quite a rut yet, but it might be by the time we get home.

March 20

Mumbai, India. There was some confusion about getting off the ship and meeting our private guide and driver. First of all, we were late because every day that we have been in an Indian port,, everyone on the ship has had to line up by assigned group numbers (depending on which tour you were taking or not) and receive their passport a landing card, and a photocopy of their passport, present it to one of several dour-faced Indian Immigration Officials who look at it all, decide if it's okay, and stamp the photocopy (I didn't notice if they also stamp the passport). They then file out of the room and had your passport back into the ship's personnel. This process, without the passport itself, but with the photocopy and landing card, is repeated at least twice more before you can exit the grounds of the port then a least once or twice more at various points along your way and again when trying to get back into the port area. Even to go into The Taj Hotel, we had to have our papers checked. They are very security and terrorist conscious here.

So, we did finally connect with our guide, Nandini. We spent much of the day driving around town in the kamikaze traffic, looking briefly at various standard sights. There are occasional traffic lights, but it's mostly drive-on-the-left, full-speed-ahead and watch the jaywalkers jump. The roads are clogged with anything that might conceivably have wheels: trucks of all sizes, buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and heavily laden handcarts like this one.

We even saw a cart being pulled by a bovine...not exactly sure which species, but it was plodding along oblivious to the other wheeled traffic zipping around it.

We saw the University Library tower

the Prince of Wales Museum, the Flora Fountain, the central railway station (formerly Victoria Terminus but now Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus) built in 1888 and still handling 1.7 million passengrs a day.

We went along Marine Drive with its collection of Art Deco buildings along a curved beachfront, sometimes called the Queen's Necklace.

From Marine Drive we could see the tomb of the Muslim saint Haji Ali Dargah.

We visited the house Mahatma Ghandi would stay in when he came to Mumbai. It's a museum now. Margaret went in, but it was not wheelchair accessible, so I waited in the car and watched locals of various ages try to sell souvenirs to the tourists that came by. They were persistent, but not inordinately so.

Margaret got this shot of the Dhobi Ghats, a huge open air laundry where all the washing is done by men. And I got the next shot of Margaret about to be accosted by a souvenir salesman.

We saw homes from a fishing village in the heart of Mumbai, to a 10 story mansion for a billionaire who also owns 170 cars. Sorry, I didn't get a photo of that one, but here's the fishing vilage.

Time for lunch. We went to the Sea View Lounge at The Taj Hotel. The menu had at least 10 pages devoted to types of tea and chai you could get.

The Taj was opened in 1903 and is a fabulous example of British Colonial architecture. This is an atrium in the old part of the hotel. Then a view of the grand staircase.

Finally, here is a sort of side view of the Gateway to India built to commemorate the visit in 1911 by King George V and Queen Mary.

However, the air pollution was so bad that you could barely see buildings on the other part of the small bay where we docked fairly near The Taj. I could not identify either The Taj or the Gateway from on board the nxt day. Many passengrs with breathing problems couldn't leave the ship. Some who did came back with sore throats and burning eyes. I didn't have problems, but was in an air-conditioned car for a lot of the time.


March 21

There was a second day to our Mumbai visit, but that's Margaret's story. Most of what was left to do in our short time here involved places that Leviathan and I couldn't go -- like native markets. I sent Margaret back out with Nandini on the second day.

World cruise 34

March 22 (day 75!)

At sea headed for Dubai. Definitely in possible pirate territory now. In addition to the fire hoses manned and ready to blow boarders back off the rail, there is razor wire in place on the lower deck, and 4 LRADs manned and ready. Plus, of course, extra security staff on board, a close radar watch, regular contact with authorities, military vessels of various countries on pirate patrol in the relatively-near vicinity (i.e. Just over the horizon), etc. So we are an unlikely but well-prepared target. Here's a photo of the razor wire and readied fire hose.

This morning we had our first "anti-pirate drill." At the sighting of a suspicious boat/ship getting too close, there will be an announcement of a code word. Then we close curtains, get away from windows and/or open decks to any nearby interior hallway, and sit down since evasive maneuvers at top speed can be dangerous. At this morning's test, when they poured on all speed from all engines, this ship picked up her skirts and ran for it -- but without any sharp turns. Fun, huh?

Meanwhile, I'm spending much of the rest of the day trying to get this blog caught up. Having trouble uploading pictures again. *sigh* finally gave up and spent almost an hour's worth of minutes locating and downloading an app that may help. Fingers firmly crossed. If you get entries 31-34 and 29M1 and higher all at once, you'll know it worked.

March 23

Arrived at Dubai around noon having kept up a brisk pace of 18+ knots to deter pirates who generally have smaller, slower boats.

Margaret and I and Leviathan were immediately away on a tour to the neighboring Emirate of Sharjah. We had a really excellent tour guide named Kumar. He and his family are Indian although they have lived in the Dubai area since his grandparents moved there in the 1940s. Citizenship matters in the 7 emirates (think states) that make up the UAE are complicated to say the least. Mostly only members of the 6 emirati families can be citizens which is only about 15% of the 2.5 million residents of UAE. The rest are ex-pats from elsewhere.

Sharjah's Sheikh is particularly interested in all things cultural from art to opera to wildlife. In the city part of Sharjah we stopped to photograph the old original fort that is in the final stages of restoration after having been almost entirely semolished. It should be opened to the public in just a few months. It will serve as centerpiece with a future general restoration of the downtown area.

In addition to touring the city of Sharjah, we visited an aquarium and out in the country, a wildlife center. Both were quite new and architecturally interesting like this wavy sunshade at the aquarium.

Their exhibits were very well done showing indigenous fish and other animals. At both, the people were indoors, in air conditioned areas while at the wildlife center the larger animals were outside in extensive natural enclosures and smaller ones (lots of kinds of vipers in the deserts) were displayed in small individual terreria. We weren't allowed to take photos in the wildlife center. We could have easily spent 2 or 3 times as long at each place.

In the evening on board there was a a folkloric show which included folk dances, belly dancing and a supposed "whirling dervish." The man certainly whirled a lot and was most entertaining, but I doubt that the original whirling dervishes had costumes that lit up with LED lights.

March 24

Margaret went on an all day tour to various parts of Abu Dabi the neighboring emirate and largest of the 7 emirates. I had a tour of "modern" Dubai.

The whole area is practically covered with tall buildings that are offices, hotels and apartments/condos almost exclusively occupied by ex-pats. The emirati mostly live in private villas of various sizes...some palatial and some quite modest. The Sheik of each emirate usually has 3 or 4 palaces in various parts of his territory.

Aside from some of the iconic buildings, most of the high rises are variations of sand-colored walls with a horizontal or vertical grid of dark windows like you see here.

The road we were on is Sheikh Zayed Drive which connects most of the emirates, is 6 lanes each way, and gets grid-locked at rush hour. I've been in some poor countries on poor buses on poor roads full of potholes. UAE has excellent roads and buses, but as many or more bumps on everything except Sheikh Zayed Drive because every 200 or so feet there is either a wicked speed bump or a raised pedestrian crossing. I think my vertebrae were squashed another inch!

Our first stop was at The Mall of the Emirates to see Ski Dubai, the indoor ski slope. Mike took my camera in while I stayed on the bus as it was quite a hike in and back out. He took a bunch of photos, but it was too early in the morning for it to be open, so there was really nothing much to see.

Next we went to Burj Al Arab for high tea. That's the hotel that looks like a ship's sail. Inside the place is blinged right up over the top with mosaics, fountains, fancy carpets, gold-colored everything (no idea if most was gold paint or brass or real gold), and glittery high-end shops.

We were escorted to the 27th floor to a private dining room with 3 tables, set with elegant china and goblets and a centerpiece of plates of food and its own window for the view. There were 4 kinds of sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and passionfruit jam, and 3 kinds of dessert. Yum!

Each table had its own waiter. Here's Mike talking to ours who is from Cochin, India.

Right in the middle of tea, a window washer in an automated cage type thing zipped up past our window. We all waved even though the windows are tinted and he couldn't see us, but none of the 8 of us thought to grab the cameras each of us had to snap a photo.

After tea, we went to see the Palm Jumeirah which is a huge artificial island in the shape of a palm tree. The elevated train that runs across the city even runs out the trunk of the Palm. Only the trunk of the Palm is open to the public. All the side "fronds" are private villas. Out at the end at the "crown" of the Palm is a huge Atlantis Hotel and entertainment complex owned by the same hotel chain as the one in the Bahamas. The space over the arch is all one suite.

The last stop was at Dubai Mall to see the very fancy fountain. Again, Mike took my camera to try to catch it as it "danced" to music. Two others and I sat this one out on the bus. But here are the fountain and the Burj Khalifa. "Burj" means "tower" and "Khalifa" is the name of the Sheikh of Abu Dabi who is automatically President of the UAE (the Sheikh of Dubai is automatically Premier of the UAE). I have other photos of the Burj Khalifa, but this one is best.

World cruise 32M2

From Margaret
Cochin, Kerala Province, India
Private tour

As Didi wasn't quite up for this expedition, my mission for the day in Cochin was to photograph things, experience things, and find a salwar kameez (if I could). India, however, apparently needs to make an eyeball match between actual face and passport face for everyone before anyone can disembark. Our poor private tour guide had to wait for 2 or 3 hours before I could get out and find him. After connecting with him, I learned that the day's main event was to be an excursion on a houseboat along the canals and shores of a seriously huge lake, the Alappuzha (Alleppey), in Kerala.

My late "arrival" must have put a bit of a kink in the planned schedule as the guide was anxious to get underway. So, into the car I hop ... errr ... well ... it is sort of hard to hop into anything when the driver and the guide are treating you like some kind of foreign dignitary.

Riding in a car in Cochin is bit like being a passenger in a demolition derby car – only the cars/trucks are going in all directions and going fast. The guide and driver weren't in the least phased by it, so I figured that the vehicles we were dashing head-on toward would either swerve out of our way or we out of theirs. Must have worked as I am still here.

The long drive to the houseboat dock, gave us time for quite a conversation. Cochin is an amazing poly-culture, where everyone seems to get along. There are as many Christians as Hindus, a good sized Muslim population, and any number of smaller religious groups. English is the lingua franca, and many of the shop signs are in both English and Hindi. My guide spoke several languages.

The economic incongruities are obvious. Homes that reflect serious wealth and equally serious poverty sit side by side. There were fences of one sort or another dividing them but not always.

My guide seemed to have wide-ranging interests – nice. He knew about Vandana Shiva, an activist working to improve the lot of the small farmers across India and to ensure that ownership of indigeneous crops, especially rice varieties, is retained by the small farmers who have developed them. He also knew of another activist like Dr. Shiva. I will have to try to find out who that is. Kerala produces a lot of its own food, but not near enough – as best I could find out.

While riding through Cochin, I noticed a hammer and sickle logo on a couple of signboards. I wish I had been able to get a photograph. The guide told me that it was the symbol of the local communist party and how much good that party had done Kerala – improving education, economic opportunities, health care, etc. In fact, Kerala currently has a 99% literacy rate and is apparently in better economic shape than other parts of India. Schools, both government sponsored and church sponsored (there were more of the latter), were all over the place. The guide said that generally people preferred to send their children to a school sponsored by their own religion.

A "houseboat ride on the Alappuzha" doesn't even begin to convey the reality. When I quite literally hopped from the little motor boat that conveyed us from the dock to the houseboat, I entered something so utterly elegant and comfortable it was stunning.

Built on the traditional Indian longboat base, the rattan frame and intricately woven thatch superstructure hid the elegance inside. Nor did the external view give you any indication that the boat came equipped with the captain/driver shown here and 2 crew (one a superb cook) whose job is to make everything wonderful and pleasant for their passengers.

The front section is furnished with comfortable chairs, couch, and other bits of elegant teak furniture. It is entirely open so that you can see everything in front. The wide glass side windows give a clear view of the canal banks and the activities along them. Behind the front section (designed for general socializing) are a beautifully appointed and air conditioned dining room and bedroom with a private modern bathroom. The kitchen and other work areas are at the back of the boat.

All of the interior is clearly designed and furnished for the tastes of upscale people. My understanding is that wealthy Indians, Malaysians, and Singaporeans rent these houseboats by the week or for several weeks. The guide kept saying that we should come and stay on the boat for two weeks and get completely relaxed.

One can see why this area is called the Venice of India. Water seems to be the primary mode of transportation and revenue. Out on the lake itself, fishermen were hauling in their catch.

The canals were faced with stone walls. Most of the homes on the canal banks were shacks but mixed in with these were extremely fine ones – that incongruous mix of wealth and poverty. The Keralan government, however, has put in access to clean potable water, I think throughout entire the state/province.

Lunch was entirely Indian cuisine and seriously good tasting – no chili thankfully. There were at least six different dishes and two different desserts followed by what I thought the guide said was "sprouted" pineapple. Other than being a bit more acidic than I am used to, it seemed like fresh pineapple to me.

Here I am thanking the crew as the guide and I left after lunch.

I had told the guide that if it were possible, I wanted to find a salwar kameez and maybe some Indian spices. So, after we got back to Cochin from the houseboat ride, we went through a maze of narrow winding streets to a Ladies Cooperative store. It was sensory overload. A huge and fragrant array of packaged spices and other goods met the eyes and nose as we entered. I picked out three spices, and then the "lady-in-charge"(??) took me upstairs to look at the women's clothing, jewelry, etc. More sensory overload. I did find the salwar kameez (a matched set of top, loose pants and long scarf which, in the photo is doubled and laid across the top), a couple of shirts, and a skirt. And then I managed to escape without buying jewelry and other Indian keepsakes that the solicitous proprietress was urging on me.

Back to the ship to regain my senses!!

As we sailed away from Cochin, we passed the giant, tent-like Chinese fishing nets that have come to symbolize the city.