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.