Salalah, Oman - May 7

forgot to include this yesterday

Today we are still in Oman, but now we are in Salalah. There has been a lot made by the ship’s team responsible for coordinating the land tours about how to dress on land. This morning was the most stringent. When we booked the tour we were initially told that shorts and skirts were fine as long as they were not skimpy – no problem…Chris and I left our ‘skimpy’ at home. However this all changed when we convened for the tour. At that point we were told that we needed long sleeves and long pants. Well I don’t have long pants so I did my best with my longest pants and brought a jacket. Chris put pants and a long sleeve shirt on. Normally this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but it was a bit hot at 35 degrees! Chris even broke a sweat. Anyway…we changed and were on the road. In the end it didn’t matter AT ALL! There were people on the tour with shorts and that was no problem. We were also told women would have to cover their heads and this was not required either - much ado about nothing.

blow hole (in the cliff)

rugged landscape

All was forgotten as I spotted the first camel. Camels in Oman are all domesticated, but they roam freely and head home at night. We eventually saw quite a few, some who we had to wait for as they walked down the middle of the road.

Our first stop this morning is at Mughsail Beach. This beach is about 2 miles of white sand with cliffs at both ends. When we visited, there were no other people in sight. It’s funny that for cultures so close to the sea, no one swims. The main attraction of this beach is blow holes. When the tide is high there are holes in the cliffs where the ocean blows through. This is quite impressive, especially with the sound the rushing water makes as it hits the cliffs.

Job's tomb

We next visit Job's Tomb. This is where (according to legend) the remains of the Old Testament prophet Job can be found. This was disappointing and quite underwhelming as can be seen from the photo. The drive was picturesque and interesting, but it took about an hour to get to for not so much. The tour ended with time at the local souq. One of Oman’s main products is frankincense. This and perfume was pretty much all to be found at the souk market. I came away with a box of frankincense.

at sea - May 6

Today was another uneventful, but welcome sea day.  I wasn't able to do any wildlife spotting as it was quite windy on the balcony.  We were at the pool for a while where the wind made it a bit cooler.

Muscat, Oman - May 5

waiting for the BEST TOUR EVER

Omani Yachts

From the first glimpse we got of the Monarchy of Muscat, Oman the landscape was interesting.  While still desolate like our last 2 ports, the coastline plunges right into the sea.

I don’t think anything EVER will top today’s tour in Muscat, Oman as the BEST TOUR EVER! We boarded a motor boat with the captain, a guide and 8 other passengers to look for dolphins in the Sea of Oman. It was made very clear to us that although we were likely to see some dolphins they of course aren’t ‘guaranteed.’

landmark 'Frankensence burner'

dolphins

Well…we saw so many spinner dolphins we couldn’t count them. It was truly UNBELIEVABLE! They were all around the boat, jumping and some of them spinning in the air. We made our way slowly through water as the spinners came and went for about an hour. I tried to get some photos of them, but dolphins are much faster than my camera. I took a bit of video that seems to capture them better, but I think the best place for them will have to be in my mind. We had to leave before the dolphins did as we had some snorkelling to do.

more dolphins

snorkelling

The captain took us to a bit of a beach area and anchored the boat. Even with the breeze from the speed of the boat we were still very hot and getting into the water was welcome although the water was warm. We were able see coral, multi coloured fish, sea cucumbers, sea turtles and a bunch of other unidentifiable creatures. After snorkelling for about an hour we had to move on to see a bit of the Omani coastline.

Omani landscape

The landscape of Oman as it was in Dubai and Fujairah is desolate and barren. The exception in Oman is that it seems a bit more rugged and mountainous and somehow the desolation is quite beautiful. Our captain was great. He gave us a bit of a thrill ride and takes us through holes in the rock where the mountains and the sea meet.

Oman's palace

Dubai - May 4

Burj al Arab through the haze

fountains and hotel complex

The cruise we are on is part of a world cruise that started in Fort Lauderdale on Dec 27 and is ending in London on June 7 (162 days.) The entire world cruise is made up of 6 segments (I think) – we are on 2 of these. Dubai is the end of one segment and the beginning of another. I don’t know how I would feel about being on the ship for 162 days! I’m feeling a bit captive after only 24 days.

'The World'

skyline

Our day in Dubai remedied my confined feelings a bit as we were free today to do our own thing. Not that we aren’t ever free to do what we like, but many of the ports we visited weren’t very conducive to ‘doing our own thing.’ Plus we have joined the ship’s excursions at each of the ports, so we haven’t had time do much else. All of that is terrific, but it just contributes to feeling a bit confined.

licence plate

Dubai is the end of one leg of the world cruise and the beginning of the next. We will be on until the end of this leg which ends in Rome. Because this was a transition day we were on our own. We choose to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world. It is also the tallest free-standing structure in the world although I don’t know the difference. There are 2 types of tickets for going up – one for ‘instant access’ (100 USD) and ‘pre-purchase’ (25 USD.) We were lucky to get pre-purchase ones as they are relatively limited and only had to wait about 30 minutes.




can you tell what the ad is for?

 We spent the 30 minutes walking around the mall that is connected to the Burj Khalifa. In fact the Burj Khalifa has a huge mall, hotel, apartments and offices surrounded by gardens and fountains. It is 828 meters tall. It has a Las Vegas feel about it without the drinking and gambling – huge brand-new hotel with fountains, gardens and a huge entrance area. Once we are up the tower there is really not that much to it other than the observation deck part of which is outside. Unfortunately it was a hazy day, so we couldn’t see too far and the photos aren’t great. It was interesting to see the desert in the distance beyond the city. It is very barren and desolate beyond the city.  We could see ‘The World’ islands Dubai has been constructing.  The progress on these islands has slowed over the past few years.  We couldn’t see the 2 ‘Palms’ islands.


On the streets of Dubai, in the mall and in the hotel where we had high tea, people wear both western and Arabic garb. There are many women entirely covered, some less covered and some in western clothing. There are men who also wear western and some who wear what I recognize as Middle East or Arabic garb. There are signs at the mall entrances with guidelines to cover knees and arms, not to display affection and the other usual no smoking etc guidelines.

Dubai - May 3



Burj Khalifa

metro station

Today’s emirate is Dubai and our tour visits the modern side of Dubai. We first start with a driving tour of various sites. The first thing I notice is how very modern it is. The streets and sidewalks seem to be only a few years old. Things are very clean and modern. As soon as we are only a few minutes from the port the huge modern buildings are in view. There is a main thoroughfare that runs through the middle of Dubai that is lined with tall building after tall building. This thoroughfare is at one point 7 lanes in each direction and there are cars everywhere.

more buildings

tea

The main attraction for this tour is high tea the Burj Al Arab Hotel. This hotel describes itself as 7 star and while I’m not an expert in hotels it is very opulent. It is built on an artificial island and designed to resemble the sail of a traditional Arabic dhow (boat). The tea experience was way OVER THE TOP. We had finger sandwiches, petit fours, salmon wellington, chocolates, Champagne, tea, scones, clotted cream and more that I am still too full to remember. This was a bit of an extravagance for us as this tour was not included as most of our others have been. The only way to access this hotel is to be a guest or to eat there. Everywhere you looked in the hotel and in the room where we had tea way up in the hotel was opulence.

more tea

Burg Dubai elevator

We then toured a modern version of a traditional souk (market) called the Madinat Souk, which is part of the famous Madinat Juemirah hotel complex. It is too bad we don’t have more time here – it is filled with small shops and restaurants that would be easy to spend time at. We wouldn’t be having a beer or glass of wine here thought…only hotels and very few other places if any serve alcohol in Dubai. In fact many passengers were going home from the ship in Dubai and are not allowed to take alcohol in their luggage. Lastly, we stopped for a photo of the Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world and passed the Mall of the Emirates (indoor ski dome.)



hotel Burg Dubai lobby

windy Dubai

 Dubai almost seems artificial.  Things are so new and sparkly that they hardly look real.  There is construction everywhere even though things have significantly slowed down in the last few years.



Fujairah - May 2

Today we woke up in the United Arab Emirates – specifically Fujairah, one of the 7 emirates that make up the UAE. What a huge contrast from India. Here people drive on the same side of the road as we do on roads that rival the best ones at home, there are very few people not in cars, there is next to no trash, no one is begging or trying to sell me something – in fact is was so ‘non-touristy’ that it was virtually impossible to buy anything. Something that is the same is the heat – it is still very hot.

mosque

Masafi Pass

We started the tour at a mosque, but only for a photo stop. Then we drove quite a while along the east coast of the UAE. This area is known for the beaches on one side of the road and the Hajjar Mountain range on the other. We finally make it to what is called the Friday Market. This is the opposite of touristy. It is very local with the merchants selling mostly vegetables (imported), clay pots, rugs and bedding – interesting combination.

oasis in the desert

goats in the oasis

The Fujairah Fort is next on the itinerary. This fort is a 300 years old, but we only make a photo stop here as it is under renovation. I don’t exactly know what it means to reno a fort…however…we were not getting in. This tour is full of photo stops and the next one is at the Oasis in Bithna. This is an area in the middle of the desert made lush because of a natural spring.

Fujairah Fort

Our last photo stop is at Masafi Pass which is high in the mountains. The lack of humidity is very noticeable when we get off the bus here. It is still very hot, but not humid.


Our last stop was at a museum depicting the way people in the area lived in the past. It was interesting to visit Fujairah, but there was really very little to it - 40 years ago there was little here.

at sea - May 1

Today is basically a copy of yesterday with Alan Thicke’s lecture #2.  The difference was that he and his wife sat right next to us at the pool for the afternoon.  He wasn’t at all chatty, but she certainly was.  She lent me a magazine with their address on it if anyone wants to check them out!!  A bizarre experience.  He’s hardly a huge celebrity, but just the fact that he is completely recognizable makes it bizarre to be sitting next to him while he eats pizza and drinks a mud slide.  His lectures weren’t very well attended – most people we talked to other than a few Canadians didn’t know who he was.

at sea...April 30

Today was an uneventful day at sea. We did go to the Alan Thicke’s lecture. He basically spoke about celebrity and current gossip – interesting more than anything is that he is travelling on this cruise just like any other guest.

Once exciting thing that happened today was another dolphin sighting. Unlike the monkeys, I still marvel every time I see a dolphin. This time it was right next to the ship, right next to our balcony and it was jumping and flipping like crazy! WOW!!!

Mumbai - April 29

should be called Monkey Island

Gateway to India with the Taj behind

Today we visited Elephanta Caves on Gharapuri Island (another World Heritage Site.) This island is one of many in Mumbai’s harbour. It is 10K across the harbour and takes about an hour each way by boat. We get the boat from the “Gateway of India” which is an arch built as a monument visitors arriving by boat would have first seen in the city of Bombay years ago. Right next to this is also the Taj hotel that was bombed a few years ago. 

shows the scale of the caves

These caves are a collection of huge shrines with stone sculptures and reliefs of Hindu Gods and Goddesses.  The size of the carvings is hard to tell from the photos because there are very few people in any of them.  The caves have nothing to do with elephants; there are none on the island, but when explorers first arrived on the island they found a carving of an elephant.  Many of the sculptures were damaged by the explorers who found them, but they are still wonderful to see.

Once we get to the island we have to walk about half way up the island to get to the caves. The walk was relatively strenuous up the 120 steps – it was so humid here that by the time we got to the top I was DRENCHED! The entire way up the stairs are lined with tiny shops and stalls – big surprise!  There are also a ton of monkeys on the island which pay little attention to visitors.  Monkeys I hate to say it have become so commonplace in India that I don’t pay them much attention anymore.

The afternoon was filled with little other than laundry and the royal wedding. I’m not a royal watcher in the least, but I probably watched most of it. Fortunately it was on in the afternoon India-time and I didn’t have to get up in the middle of the night like I vaguely remember doing with my mom for the last royal wedding.  The wedding was a pretty big deal on the ship. They were serving canapés and dinner menu items that were on the wedding menu and showed the CNN feed on a huge screen in the ship’s theatre. They even planned a ‘disco’ night in one of the lounges based on the wedding playlist.

Mumbai - April 28

marble inlay artisans

Mumbai trash collection

The last thing we did before we left Agra was to visit a marble inlay shop. The Taj Mahal has marble inlay flowers on much of it. On first glance it seems like the flowers are painted, but they are in fact comprised of many small pieces of marble puzzled together to make the flowers. It is amazingly detailed work that takes years and years to learn.

Victoria Station

We arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) to a city that is much cleaner and more organized than we expected. This is much more a ‘normal’ big city if an Indian city can be called normal. What I mean by normal is that there are sidewalks (the first we’ve seen of these since arriving in India), much, much less garbage in the streets (I even saw someone collecting it) and no cows (there are laws regulating cows in the streets) and buildings and other things that are the marks of big cities.


Once we arrived at the ship we ate a quick room service dinner and were out again for a ‘Bombay by Lights’ evening tour. First we saw a Bollywood movie in a typical Indian movie theatre. Indian movie theatres are similar to ones at home except that seating is assigned and that there is a person who will take food orders. Of course we couldn’t understand the words to the movie, but the story still wasn’t hard to follow. This was a very interesting experience.


Next was a visit to Mumbai’s market. This is a labyrinth of stall set up in the street selling all sorts of things – you name it you would be able to find it someplace. It is VERy crowded here. Before we get off of the bus our guide told us to take NOTHING – no camera, no bag…nothing. OK…I get that, so with nothing we take to the streets. Everywhere you turned there were people, animals and vehicles. There is no rhyme or reason to this market and when a motor cycle needs to get by you it just honks until you move. Normally when we are on tour in India there are 3 local people with us – a guide, a driver and a ‘helper’. Tonight there are an additional 5 ‘handlers’ to accompany us. These handlers usher us through the streets making sure no one gets lost or ‘in trouble’. The guide tells us that double the amount of people are here in the daytime – WOW.


Our last stop is to a bar for a drink and a snack. This is a very ‘regular’ bar by our standards. One thing that I noticed and have noticed from being on vacation in the past is how much I miss ‘regular’ music. This bar was playing regular pop music that I am so accustomed to hearing every day. On vacation unless I listen to my iPod (which I very rarely do) we never hear regular music. Sure there is plenty of music on the ship, but it is a pianist or band or singer, which is all great but I miss regular pop music every once in a while.


Alan Thicke came with us on this tour - he is a ‘celebrity’ lecturer on the cruise.

Agra special edition

my Indian family

'it's my lucky day'

I experienced the absolute highlight of the trip during our sunset visit to the Taj. As we had visited all of the structures in the morning and took a ton of pictures our plan was just to soak in the Taj – plus there were quite a few people here which I have to admit I don’t love. We were just sitting on a bench looking at the Taj when a couple of kids approached a woman from our group who was hanging out on a bench next to ours and asked her for a photo. Their parents wanted them to pose with her for a photo. Chris and I found this cute and amazing as it seemed that they were fascinated with her ‘whiteness’ and ‘foreignness’. Initially I was sceptical thinking they ‘wanted’ something from her. Unfortunately most of what we experience of the Indian people being as insulated on this tour is the beggars and hawkers that swarm us as we get off buses. All they wanted was for her to pose for a photo with them. So, they snuggled in around her and their parents took photos of them and her, and she gave them her camera and the parents took the same photos with her camera. This went on with various combinations of the kids for 10 minutes or so.

Then…they wanted photos with Chris and me. Really it seemed that they wanted me and weren’t interested in Chris. The boy of the family who seemed about 8 approached me and asked ‘hi auntie, one photo?’ By now my suspicions had faded and I was happy to pose for the photos. Chris and I posed at first, but then it was obvious that they weren’t interested in Chris so he became the photographer. I must have posed for 20 photos with the kids when the 3 adult women with the group wanted their photos taken. OK…no problem…more photos were taken. Other than ‘auntie, one photo?’ there was really no language communication. They were fascinated to see themselves on my digital camera. It was pretty obvious that they had never seen a digital camera. It also didn’t seem like they had much experience with photos at all. They never smiled in any of them until I asked them to. I compare them to North American kids of even 3 years who will ham it up for the camera. I took a ton of photos of them and showed them after each one – it was so much fun. Then a boy and girl of about 15 asked if they could have a photo and the boy sat with me. I put my hand on his shoulder for the photo and he responded with: ‘This is my lucky day!’ That caused me to laugh and laugh and laugh. This was the best experience of our entire cruise and to be honest one of the best experiences of my entire travelling life.