May 24 – AT SEA, Cruising the Indian Ocean

Weather – 28º

Steps – 7,046

Humidity – 70%

Sea depth – 4,500m

The weather is getting more and more pleasant as we move south. The best spots we could get at the pool were about 2/3 in the sun at first, but the shade only grew, so within about an hour we were totally in the shade. Not that this was all that cool, but it was pleasant in the shade. A few days ago, even in the shade it was still hot.

Throughout the morning, we watched gannets (a sea bird) dive bomb for flying fish. Where birds come from this far from land always amazes me.

All cruise the has been going fast. Fast for a cruise ship in my experience is anywhere near 20 knots. Today we are going 17 and have been hovering around the 17/18/19 mark all cruise. We have a lot of distance to cover. We’ve been in the Caribbean going 5 knots…just not that far to go there. We had 8 foot sea swells all day and those increased to 14 foot in the evening. We had our predinner cocktail at the “Observation Lounge” on deck 11 (the very top of the ship) and I could feel the differece from being up there to where we
came from which was a predinner show at the theatre on deck 4. Our room is on deck 6 (679) so we don’t get as much sway. We get motion, just not as much sway as up higher.

upon request only

Gorgio is the Observation Lounge baretender. Each of the last few nights when we've sat down our drinks are in front of us before we have to ask. I get a champagne, and Chris has an Italian Getaway. The Italian Getaway (Campari, grapefruit juice, and prosecco) is a drink that was on the Regent bar menu way, way back - Chris continues to order it. The bar staff will jokingly tell him it’s no longer on the menu, but of course anything is available. Good think we like these, can’t change our usuals now!?!

The ship has 2 ‘specialty’ restaurants – a steak place and a French place, where reservations are required and are limited. We typically visit these places each

Chris living his best life!

cruise, but aren’t hell-bent to get in. It seems like Compass Rose (the main dining room) is regarded by some as lower quality or less than…we totally disagree. Compass Rose has a different menu each night (the ‘specialty’ restaurants don’t) and has a livelier vibe.

I trade tonight’s show for some time on the balcony before turning in. Until today, it’s been a bit too hot and humid for a post-dinner, pre-bed sit. Tonight, it was perfect. The sky wasn’t clear enough to see many stars, but sitting in the dark, listening to, and watching the rush of the water in the ship’s wake was lovely.

It was another round of Name that Tune tonight. We were likely to go until we heard the theme was going to be hits of the 50s and 60s.

Apparently, some people have had gastro issues. Things that were once self serve like the water bottle filler in the gym, and the daily crossword and Mensa puzzles are now only available on request; the reuseable menus in the restaurant have been replaced by individual pages that are then pitched after one use and there is no more jigsaw puzzles. These measures have been done pretty half-assed, so I’m not really sure what’s what. Regent takes health issues seriously, so who know. All I know is that so far, we are AOK. We don’t do much socializing, so are probably less likely to catch…that’s what we hope.

 

May 23 – Mahe, Seychelles

Aldabra land tortoises

coco de mer

Weather – 30º

Steps – 8,630

Humidity – 75%

Arriving in Seychelles is our 88^th country!

Seychelles is the smallest country in Africa, an archipelago of 155 islands in the Indian Ocean just south of the equator. It is mountainous with beautiful beaches dotted with huge boulders similar to what we saw in British Virgin Islands. In fact, much of Seychelles reminded us of some of the Caribbean islands we’ve visited that are super mountainous, with narrow steep roads – Granada, Guadeloupe. Because of these narrow roads what was only a distance of about 2Km took us about 15 minutes to drive. There are very few traffic lights,

Aldabra land tortoises

mostly traffic circles. This was in Victoria, not everywhere on the island.

hanging ginger

Today’s tour started on small island busses
(capacity of about 20, 2 on one side 1 on the other.) We get a 2er, not on the wheel hump…fool me once. Not that we need to learn that we don’t want to be on the hump but know to look and sit elsewhere on tiny busses like these. What we did have the misfortune of sitting near were LOUD TALKERS. This grinds my gears, especially when the guide is explaining something. Today’s guide didn’t say a lot, but I still didn’t need to hear Harold telling his wife his thoughts on just about everything.

hibiscus

It was only a 15-minute ride to the Seychelles National Botanical Gardens where

starfruit

we followed our guide, Anika as she pointed out various plants and trees. The most interesting was Seychelles coco de mer. The coco de mer is endemic to Seychelles an has the largest seeds in the plant world. There is a male tree and a female tree- see the pic to determine which is which. This
was a very pleasant visit. The whole places smelled divine, there was beauty all around us, and the temperatures at this time of day was just perfect.

Victoria clock tower

Anika also pointed out fruit bats, which I thought were nocturnal. A quick google tells me fruit bats are in fact nocturnal, but these were very active at 10 in the morning.

coco de mer seeds

Our last stop in the garden was to see giant Aldabra land tortoises – also endemic to Seychelles. Although these can live to over 200, these were between
50 and 60, sounds familiar.

admiring the beauty

Any time a market is included on a tour I’m interested. Today’s market was one of the least interesting we’ve visited. It was bustling with locals, so that was interesting, but I was hoping for some interesting fruits and veg…not really – a lot of fish, and very typical fruits and veg – oranges, bananas, coconuts, bell peppers.

Indian Ocean!

Our last stop was at a beachside hotel for a drink and a dip in the Indian Ocean.

dipped in the Indian Ocean

We came prepared with towels and swim gear, but decided just to walk along the
edge only getting our legs in.

It’s always interesting to watch port activity. While not the most beautiful scenery, an

Sey Brew

interesting prohibition

active shipping port is always a hive of activity.

The bus today had the most interesting sign I’ve even seen on a bus…or maybe even anywhere!

another tortoise shot

May 22 – Mahe, Seychelles

Weather – 30º…interesting to note, the high is 30 and the low is 29, we’re not in Calgary anymore

Steps – 9,534

Humidity – 70%

It’s a sea day-ish. We arrive in Mahe, Seychelles at 5:30 tonight, so most of the day is at sea.

rain!!!!

I’ve been waiting for a day when we take advantage of our balcony, a large balcony off the back of the ship. We have a significant overhang that provides

ample shade despite the heat. Even first thing in the morning it is hot, especially in the sun, I do not linger ever in the sun! Today is the day for in-room luxuriating on the balcony.

I’m sore from 2 days in a row at the gym, so use that as an excuse to not leave the room until lunch!

I have an in-room DIY breakfast of the usual yogurt, espresso, and eventually a muffin Chris finds for me when we have to go change a tour when one of ours is cancelled.

lovely!

Saravanan finds us. We haven’t talked with him for a couple of days. We so low maintenance that we really don’t need anything from him. However, today we are

spending in the room. We still have the champagne we to drink that we received a few days ago. It doesn’t fit in the fridge. He mentioned when we got it to let him know when we wanted to drink it. As long as it’s cold, I can take it from there. I almost think he wants to chill and pour it for us…he is lovely, it is a nice chance to chat. Saravanan took the bottle for about 30 min, came back and it was perfectly chilled! He opened and poured for us…

crossing certs

completely unnecessary, but lovely. If only he could chill the air too, now that would be a butler task I would seek out!

At one point we passed through a rain shower…ahhhhh!

Then more reading, blogging, champagn-ing and it was time for lunch – thank goodness, I was wasting away.

We arrived in Victoria, on the island of Mahe in Seychelles around 5pm, so we went out for a wander. We knew the place wouldn’t be huge, and we were right. Victoria is the capital of Seychelles – pop. 26,500.

There were a few places we saw that we could maybe find a local beer (Sey

dance party

Brew), but they looked a little like ‘forcing it’. Forcing it is what we call doing something for the sake of doing it when it isn’t even pleasant – sitting on a patio in a parka, sitting on a patio sweltering, sitting for a beer at the side of a thoroughfare. We could have sat on the side of the road for a beer at a kind of BBQ places, but we decided against it.

We were back to the ship for AC (we were pretty drenched when we returned), a shower, dinner, and the pool deck party. Usually, each cruise in warm weather a deck BBQ is held when we are in port

sailing in

over night. This cruise is just a dance party on the pool deck. That’s good with me. The BBQs are an extravaganza, but an extravaganza I’m not interested in. Basically, an elaborate buffet, thronging with people in the heat…nope not for me. We will go for a drink, to see the spectacle of the ice carvings

wind mills

and suckling pigs but then will go to one of the restaurants to actually eat.

It wasn’t hot at all for the pool party. It was only about 45 minutes due to port noise regulations. The band played, the ship’s singers sang and it was a lot of fun.

May 21 – AT SEA, Cruising the Indian Ocean

made it!

Weather – 30º, and not nearly as windy or humid

Steps – 5,928

Humidity – still humid

Sea depth

Morning started with a quick trip to the gym. Didn’t stay too long, as it was busier than yesterday. As I said yesterday, it’s not the biggest gym in the world so just a few extra people and it’s packed.

Chris found some of the last spots at the pool while I showered.

People are out for the 10:30 equator crossing (or crossing the line) ceremony. We didn’t officially cross until around 9PM tonight, but a daytime party for this is better. This is our fifth equator crossing (even that is hard to wrap my mind around!), so we were just onlookers. Basically, those who have never crossed the equator on the sea are invited to

King Neptune and his posse

cross by King Neptune and his wife Amphitrite. The polliwogs (those who are crossing for the first time) are baptised with sea water, kiss a fish, and take a shot (alcoholic and non- avail); they are then turned into shellbacks (those who have crossed the equator at sea. Throughout the half hour Neptune and Amphitrite comment on each of the polliwogs, while music blares.

Its a silly, but fun tradition. Apparently, other cruise lines do it a bit less ‘elegantly’. Callie assured everyone this would be fun and painless…it was,

mermaids

especially for us.

We sat on the sidelines, watched and laughed. A few staff were also crossing for the first time. These folks were thrown into the pool, then a whole bunch of staff were in the pool.

Music report during the crossing - started off with Despasito, followed by Achy Breaky Heart, Get Down on It, and then we had some Boot Scoot Boogie…it was already a celebration in my books.

There are always blue drinks passed around – we had one, vodka/blue curaçao. This was after we had a mimosa (Mexico style.) When we were in

getting baptized and kissing fish

Mexico recently, they would serve mimosas in big glasses with ice – at first this seemed weird, but in the end was brilliant! A few days ago, we shared this Mexican brilliance with Robert. When I went to the bar this morning Robert asked me: “mimosas, on ice in highball glasses?” Why yes, Robert, thanks!!

Robert doesn’t know our names, but if he did, I’m sure he’d call us by them. Regent staff has always been their absolute strongest link. Sure, there are missteps (like I witnessed at dinner last night, but it was kinda exacerbated by the dick-head passenger) but for the overwhelming majority of the time they are top-notch.

This trip, I’ve noticed more name recognition. On day 2 and I ran into Muhamed

staff tossed in

in a random hall…he called me by name, in a random hall, on DAY 2! I mentioned this to Callie when we had dinner. He said some passengers think staff study passenger pictures, he claimed they don’t, I’m not sure I buy it. When the restaurant staff take our orders there are tiny pictures of us on their devices where they put in the order, but still…this is just in the restaurants.

Today’s “Cool by the Pool” was brought to us by the ship’s sax player… nice chill music.

We (I) decided on lunch at Compass Rose (the main dining room.) It is more relaxed than the buffet. There are less choices, but we probably eat more. We

Singapore beer

have the usual 3 courses but certainly don’t have to. I had one of the best things I’ve eaten on this cruise (or ever anywhere even) – pretzle crusted goat cheese with roasted grapes. I love anything goat cheese, but these…delicious!

The rest of the afternoon was the usual. Napping and reading is also accompanied by the recorded onboard expert lectures that are played on the TV. We could go to these in the theatre when they are live, but we prefer to listen at our leisure in the room.

The magician played another pre-dinner show. I was going to pass while Chris went, he also passed.

Then it was a drink, a snack, and Wordle while Kelly played – I stuck with champagne tonight.

Dinner was in a sauna! I have been surprised with how cool the AC in our room

I'm proud of us

can get. Often, in these super hot places, the AC can’t keep up – in the room it certainly does. One place it doesn’t keep up is in the restaurant. WOW, I’m not sure if it’s just where we seem to sit each night (besides being by a window we sit in which ever section they put us) but I have been in a lather each night at dinner. Last night I saw our waiter, mopping his brow…so it’s not just me!

Dominic Ferris was tonight’s show. He is a young, British piano player. We missed his first show and heard it was a good one. I believe that, because

I had the branzinno

tonight he was great. The first 2 thirds of his show were his own selections and the last third was requests. Some of the requests were submitted ahead of the show but about half were shouted out during the show. He played snippets of 22 requests! WOW! And helped us break our Lady in Red drought! Most of the music was oldies, but they were requests, so if that’s what the people want then I’ll listen to Singin’ in the Rain.

The highlight of a day full of highlights, was placing third in Kelly’s “Name that Tune”. When we heard the theme was “Academy Award Winning” songs we thought we were doomed to failure…nope. Our small but mighty team of 2 got 25 out of 30 points. There can be teams of up to 6, but we didn’t bother teaming up. I’m pretty sure in the end, we wouldn’t have done better.

always available

When I Wish Upon a Star, we got the song, but not the movie (Pinocchio). Windmills of My Mind, from the Thomas Crown Affair – we missed both. I kicked myself on that one because I actually have this soundtrack, not the original, but the one with the Sting cover version and we’ve watched that move a bunch of times. We also missed Que Sera, Sera, from The Man Who Knew Too Much - got the song, not the movie. We also knew Chim Chim Cher-ee, but not that it was from Mary Poppins.

Funny fact from today…there was a lecture at the spa this afternoon about “how to lose weight”. I’ll tell you how…stop cruising!!

I included tonight’s menu. One side changes every day and the other is ‘always available’. You could have the same meal if you want EVERY night…we don’t, and rarely order off of the always avail side. 

Lori – yes, I think you are right! I didn’t think I was married to a perfectionist.

May 20 – AT SEA, Cruising the Arabian Sea

giving Somalia a pass

Weather – 30º, and very windy

I'll say!

Steps – 8,425

Humidity – still humid

Today is the third of 4 sea days. I’m always a fan of sea days – do as little or as much as you want. It you haven’t already figured, Regent isn’t the kind of cruise line that has climbing walls, go-kart tracks, or skating rinks, so activities are limited. Fine with us, a book at the pool and then some music and a show in the evening is plenty for us.

One benefit of a cruise line with go-karts is that the casino is busy, you get 3000 people on board as opposed to Regent’s 700 (this cruise 600) and it will inevitably be livelier. On Regent not so much. Nonetheless, Chris spent some time and money there tonight.

I finally stepped foot in the gym this morning. It’s small and hot, but I knew that going in. I did what I had to do and got out.

not a bad view for working out

While I showered, Chris found us some spots by the pool. It was soooo windy this morning he found a different spot from our usual, a bit out of the wind. It was still incredibly windy. I fought a losing battle with my hair! Even clipped up, I ate more than I care to mention. I knew we were there for a good time not a long time as we were going to a future cruise presentation at 11.

Bea, the future cruise consultant, discussed all things Regent, trying to lure more bookings to future bookings. She talked about itineraries and the new ship coming in 2027. She was incredible! She talked non-stop for about 55 minutes. Of course, this is her job, and she does it every cruise, but WOW, impressive. There was a draw for on board credit, but we were losers, we don’t have as much credit as we usually do this cruise, so could use some more. They plied us with booze; I had my first bellini of the cruise. It wouldn’t be my go-to drink, but it was very tasty – not sweet at all, that is my main criticism of Regent drinks…way too sweet.

loving life, despite the wind

Despite my love of all things cocktail, I tend to stick to champagne or French 75s on Regent – not a hardship, but I’d love to have a cocktail or 2.

We of course didn’t miss the 12:30 Cool by the Pool – today was again Duo Rubenesque, fine, but we want Kelly, we want Kelly!!

We relinquished the spot Chris originally got for us when we went to see Bea’s talk. I’m happy to save a spot at the pool for a bit, but for over an hour, nope…many people do it, but not us – we’re a respectful sort. Plus, the spot wasn’t primo anyway…too damn windy today.

There’s always a spot at the pool bar or at a table meant for eating…I wasn’t worried. We needed a drink anyway, so we went to see Robert at the pool bar for a couple of margaritas. As soon as he made them, he spotted 2 loungers open up and alerted us to them! WOW, thanks Robert! The margaritas were disappointingly sweet and not nearly limey enough, oh well.

pretty sweet

Just when we thought the day was going as expected, we returned to the room after lunch to a bottle of champagne, a box of chocolates, flowers, notes, and new room cards. This cruise we are crossing the 400 days sailed with Regent mark. Regent’s loyalty program has a step up at 400 days. To us, this is more for the charm of knowing we’ve sail 400 nights than much else. At this new level we get included dry cleaning and private transportation per and post cruise…that is nice. We got our own private transfer to the ship in Dubai, in the form of an Uber…a fancier car will be…fancier (and free.) I'm obviously not the photogenic...Chris took approximately 1 million shots of me to get one right!

Today is the day for the classic Regent block party! At 6:00 Callie, the cruise director comes on the PA to say it’s block part time! He tells us all to come as we are and spill into the hall with an empty wine glass to be filled by room stewards. The ship’s bell is rung and that’s usually it. Today we also have Tom Jones belting out Quando, Quando, Quando. We love it and start a little pre block party dance party of our own in our room. Tom Jones’ Quando, Quando, Quando isn’t exactly new, but it’s great. I don’t need only new music…AT ALL, just a variety, that’s all I’m asking.

Chris' photography

We met our neighbors, some of whom are ship’s performers and staff. We have a singer and a jewellery seller in our hall. The rooms we tend to chose are usually the lowest category (this cruise is different with the room off the back), which means the guest entertainers and other guest staff get put up near us. That makes meeting people interesting. Today we met Kayleen, a young South African woman who is the onboard jewellery rep living a couple of doors away from us.

so well taken care of

Drinks and dinner were the usual and then it was the show. I asked for a gimlet tonight, expecting it to be too sweet, but having my fingers crossed…yup, too sweet. This way I don’t have 2 I guess. The show was Jenny Williams, a young British singer. We saw her a few nights ago, she was again good.

After the show, the casino had enough of a vibe to it that Chris sat down at the Blackjack table and I went back to read. I read about 25 words before I passed out hard…seems to be a theme!

This was not before I was touched by the attention the Muhamed pays to taking care of our room. Even the Kleenex and power cords were made to look beautiful.

Lori – ballet barre, YES! You should!!! In this part of the world, it’s kinda like hot ballet barre…AC can only do so much when faced with equatorial heat!

Shayne – thanks for reading, as always!! Hope you had a good birthday.

Jean – I think I’m finally catching up, but will still take a nap just to be sure.

May 19 – AT SEA, Cruising the Arabian Sea

Coffee Nelson

Weather – 34º

Steps – 5,245

finished

Humidity – lower than yesterday, but still sticky

The ship was very, very rocky and rolling last night and today – we were told to expect it. I think I’m a bit queasy because of it – not too bad, but definitely noticeable. Another thing that is noticeable, is that both Chris and I are so sleepy. Apparently, this is a symptom of sea sickness. I’m familiar with post lunch, or post cocktail sleepiness…this is different. We have nothing much to do today, so it doesn’t exactly dampen our fun, but it’s there.

This morning was just like yesterday morning…light breakfast at the pool of a fresh-pressed juice, and yogurt with nuts and fruit. Then it was reading (I finished the Misty Copeland biography), blogging, chilling and listening to ‘Cool by the Pool’. Today was the Duo Rubenesque, we were disappointed it wasn’t Kelly.

Usually, we have a late lunch around 1:30, but today I wanted to go to a Ballet Barre class at 1:45, so we ate earlier.

today's program

The barre class was instructed by Abby, one of the entertainment team’s dancers. She took 5 of us through a half hour ballet-based class, it could have been longer for me, but things like this on the ship are more for fun and less for exercise. It was a good thing we had barres to hang onto given all the ship’s movement.

today's program

After that, I met Chris at the Coffee Connection for a couple of Coffee Nelsons (I get mine iced) and a cookie – there is no end to the onboard cookies! Then back to the room for a couple of hour’s nap. I set an alarm for about an hour, but when I woke up, I was still so out of it, I set it for another hour. As I said, we have nothing to do and no where to be, so it’s fine to sleep.

There was a pre-dinner show put on by one of the ship’s guest performers a ‘comedic magician’. These shows are not my cup of tea – Chris liked it more than I did.

Next was up to the 11^th floor ‘Observation’ lounge to listen to Kelly.

For dinner I had a lamb curry and Chris had chicken parmigiana. I was too sleepy for the post-dinner show, so we had an early night. Chris considered making a donation to the casino, but it was deadsville, so he passed.

Back at the room by 9:30, asleep by 9:31!

Thanks for all of the comments and messages, we love knowing you are ‘with’ us. I’m not sure if responding to the comment in the comments is the best way to go so…

- I’m familiar with “Smoke Gets in Your Eye”, or should I say the version my dad sang, in that one I seem to remember something about racoon excrement.

- Yes, ahhh, Mary. I think she may have actually gone to school with Glenn Miller

-   

May 18 – AT SEA, Cruising the Gulf of Oman

Weather – 38º

Steps – 6,387

Vietnamese beer

Humidity – high

CAVIAR SUNDAY!!! Regent serves caviar for breakfast every Sunday. For us to participate, Sunday pretty much has to be a sea day. If we are in port for an excursion, we (I) opt for a quick breakfast in the room. Caviar Sunday isn’t really as extravagant as it sounds…we have 2 plates each of 2 kinds of caviar served on blinis and toasts accompanied by the classic toppings…

hard boiled egg, chives, sour cream, and red onion. Then it is a kind of DIY situation, where you add any or none of the toppings to the caviar – I had one naked and one with sour cream. Tonight, there was a caviar appetizer on the dinner menu which I got – somehow, I couldn’t fine any at lunch.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon were spent at the pool. It was hot…a bit hotter and I would have bailed. I found a couple of excuses to go inside to cool off at a few points.

At the pool, we read, blogged, had an Aperol Spritz, beat the heat with a cooled off with a cool towel, and listened to ‘Cool by the Pool’. We plan our days around entertainment on the ship. ‘Cool by the Pool’ was a 45 min set done by the onboard pianist, Kelly. We’ve sailed with Kelly before and were thrilled to learn she was here.

cool towels

We are always on the hunt for new (ideally, local) beers. The ship was recently in Viet Nam and brough on Bia Saigon – it was a very typical lager, these beers (including the Canadian ones) are always a bit on the sweet side for me.

We knew we had an early start to the evening, so right after lunch it was naptime back at the room.

The evenings festivities started with the Captain’s welcome reception, followed by dinner with Callie, the cruise director. Callie is new to Regent in the last year and is from South Africa. It is always interesting chatting with ship’s staff – they always have interesting stories.

Then it was on to tonight’s show “Rockin’ Soul’ – it was fine. We had the pleasure of sitting in front of a group of chatty singers – so annoying!

Lastly, was a game of Name That Tune. The theme was 60s and 70s. We teamed up with a couple of Brits that were about our age and Mary, a woman that was significantly older. Mary wasn’t too familiar with most (any) of the songs and at one point mentioned that she was hoping for an Elvis tune. We actually had an Elvis song, but…Mary didn’t get that one either. Then she lamented where Glenn Miller had gone…good grief, Mary!

I have a tendency to criticize the age of the musical selections on Regent and have no intention of stopping. I thought songs of the 40’s and 50’s were as old as it would get…nope. We broke a record this cruise listing to “Smoke Gets in your Eyes” – any idea how old that baby is? 92 YEARS OLD!!! It was recorded in 1933!!!!!

May 17 – Khasab, Oman

Weather – 37º, or so the weather app said – it was HOT

Steps – 7,103

Humidity – thankfully, little

Praise the lord, we didn’t get up before the sun. Chris said when he woke up and saw the sun through the curtains, he was thrilled! It was still only 6am, but we’re making progress.

Saravanan delivered on all of our requests…including the FLAX! Because I had

smuggling operation

yogurt, flax, and kiwi breakfast was an in-room DIY affair. Our excursion wasn’t until the afternoon, so we were able to lazily enjoy our first morning on the ship.

settled in for the dhow ride

Enjoying our room also included enjoying our enormous balcony. It was already too hot to stay out there for too long, but long enough to catch our first glimpses of the Oman/Iran smuggling operation. The first thing I noticed was the endless stream of small speed boats unloading an equally endless stream of sheep! Boats that didn’t appear to be full of anything at all suddenly had a couple of guys launching the sheep out. Each boat probably held about 20 sheep. After disembarking the boats, they were then herded onto pickup trucks.

just like our dhow

Empty boats also arrived in port to take on items such as cigarettes, iPhones, flat screen TVs, cosmetics, and basically anything Iran can’t get due to sanctions and embargos.

500 of these tiny boats (staffed mainly by teenagers, who earn $40 a day for this work) make the 60 Km, 40 minute trip across the Straight of Hormuz 3 times a

chilling on the dhow

day, 7 days a week taking goods back to Iran to be sold on the black market. The route these smugglers take crosses a busy shipping lane between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. At one point when we were on our own boat tour, we saw one of these boats being ‘chased’ by a Omani police boat. There’s a warehouse somewhere here in Khasab where all of the contraband is stored. 

Oman doesn’t care about any of this because as far as they are concerned it is just shipping. Nothing is illegal until the goods enter Irani waters.

more like relaxing, not at all chilly

The sheep come from Iran to Oman and from here will be distributed across the Middle East. All of this went on from first thing in the morning until after we left – probably during daylight.

Something more about the weather…in Dubai and here in Oman, we experienced what we call hair dryer wind. The wind is actually hot, exactly like what you would feel from a hair dryer – if I had the choice, I’d pick this over humidity!

same as the one we're on

Today’s tour was titled “OMANI FJORDS - Delve into Oman’s longest fjord in a dhow (a traditional Middle Eastern wooden boat), taking in the hauntingly rugged scenery, which is dotted with fishing villages and a tiny island where you might choose to swim.” Yup, that basically summed it up. We wore swim gear under our ‘conservative’ clothes. We wondered how conservative we had to be. The tour description said we should have knees and shoulders covered which we had, but it wasn’t really necessary. The dhow we boarded was a 15 min walk from our ship, so we weren’t really mingling with any locals other than the guides.

floating!

Once abord the dhow we found our seats. All seating was on the ground on cushions, it was very comfortable for us, but I’m not sure all of the mostly older passengers felt the same. A woman actually FELL ON ME getting to the ground. It was a soft fall, so neither of us were damaged, but a fall nonetheless! Had she not wanted to sit RIGHT NEXT TO ME she would have just fallen on the cushions. There was a TON of space, and somehow, she chose the spot RIGHT NEXT TO ME! Thankfully, the boat was covered with plenty to shade.

Anywho, at this point I was in a lather, but as soon as the boat got going the breeze cooled things off a bit. We were offered water, Pepsi, 7-Up, dates, fruit, and Omani coffee – a

dhow with the Voyager in the distance

strong, unsweetened coffee flavoured with cardamom – notice, no booze, we’re still in a Muslim country.

We sailed through Khawr Shamm, Oman’s longest fjord in and amongst

at 5:00!

rugged cliffs for about 3 hours, stopping at a couple of points to search for dolphins! We only saw a handful, but it was thrilling. We are a bit spoiled for Omani dolphins - when we were here in 2011, we did a dolphin watching tour and saw an enormous number of dolphins. Today wasn’t at all the same but still thrilling.

Then we found a swimming spot. I not always up for a dip…to me getting wet is a commitment, but when it is this hot I get in. Most people chose to use life jackets – I wasn’t going to go in without. It made for a lovely experience just floating around. The boat even had a freshwater shower to get the salt off – salty skin is also a impediment to me getting in the water.

Our journey was narrated and accompanied by Malala our guide.