January 31st - Dubai Day 2

Today we only had half a day in Dubai so we briefly went ashore to see what was going on in the cruise terminal and came back.  There wasn’t enough time to really do any exploration of the city and still guarantee coming back to the ship on time.  The shuttle only takes you to the mall and we had already seen that.

Today I’ll talk about Old Dubai.  We spent about half the tour yesterday in the old section of the city.  The map below shows you where we were in Dubai and its proximity to many of the famous sites of ‘new’ Dubai.

Dubai was a reasonably successful trading post for many years.  In the mid 1800’s it got a boost when the Persian Empire (Iran) imposed a tax on merchants and trading.  This caused many traders to cross the sea to Dubai and set up shop here.  Another boost came with the discovery of vast pearl beds offshore.  This was a thriving business for many decades, until the early 20^th century when Japan perfected the cultured pearl and the bottom fell out of the natural pearl market.  As I noted yesterday, oil was on the horizon so they didn’t suffer too long.

The Dubai Creek is a major feature of the city.  It really isn’t a creek anymore; it’s been dredged and widened over the years to its present size.  We took a traditional water taxi from one side to the other.  This is a very cheap commuter boat for locals, about 30 cents one way, and a fun thing for tourists to do.  The boats are very stable and we felt perfectly safe on it.   It was certainly an interesting way to get around.

The larger ships on the creek are trading boats still in use today. They come from Iran and other nearby locations like Qatar and Bahrain.  The UAE does trade with Iran although you are not allowed to transfer money to Iran’s banks.  They (UAE) pretty much get along with everyone in the area.  They don’t fear terrorism and as I mentioned yesterday there is very little crime.

Once across the creek we were able to explore the many Souks (markets) located here including the spice and textile markets.  Saffron is a spice that supposedly is more expensive per ounce then gold.  We couldn’t test that yesterday but in one window a shop had quite a display of the spice.

The Gold Souk is a major attraction here.  Lucky for us, I’m more of a silver person myself.

The more elaborate items are traditionally worn at weddings including the full breast plate ones.  Tags on the gold indicate its weight in troy ounces.  Inside each shop they list the current price for gold. You do the multiplication and that’s the starting point for the price.  Then the merchant adds on the cost of the workmanship.  This is where you can haggle and negotiate a lower price.  I wouldn’t think this is a good business model for most western buyers since we’re not used to haggling and we like to be able to pick up a piece and know the full price.  There were dozens of shops so business must be good.  The quality of the gold is supposed to be very good here as are the prices because of the competition.  We didn’t test that out.

Throughout the old area of the city you will see towers like the one below.  These are for natural air conditioning.  The breeze is forced down through the tower and into the home to keep it cool.  Our guide told us it works but since electricity is so cheap, most people just use mechanical air conditioners.  Electricity is cheap because of the presence of natural gas, abundance of solar power and nuclear power (we were surprised by that).  Also, if you wondered where all the fresh water comes from…it’s from desalination plants in the area.

As we went around the city we were once again reminded how lucky we are to natively speak the default language of the world.  English is everywhere.  All the signs in Dubai were in Arabic and English and both languages are taught in school.  This comes in handy when you’re looking for gelato…

Tomorrow we are in Muscat, Oman.  We’ve been there before so we will be on our own to explore the city.

January 30th - Dubai, UAE

We had a fabulous day in Dubai!  We went on a private tour with a guide I found through Tours with Locals and it turned out to be a great decision.  Our guide, Vinod, was great and we saw a lot of the city.  A little too much for one blog post so I’m talking about the highlights of ‘new’ Dubai today and I’ll do old Dubai tomorrow.

First some fun facts about our guide and the city…  

Vinod is from India.  He has been in Dubai for 22 years.  He can never become a citizen and every two years he has to reapply (and pay a fee) to stay here.  The native Dubaians are in the minority as most people here come from somewhere else.  Non-natives can only buy property in certain areas like the condos along the Palm development or at the Marina.  Natives can rent their homes to non-natives.  There is free medical for everyone legally permitted to be here.  When workers are brought in like for a new building project, they are provided a salary, a shared place to live, free medical and of course they pay no taxes although a 5% Value Added Tax was implemented for everyone just a couple of years ago.

The police cars are Maserati’s, Lamborghini’s and the like.  We did not see one police car all day.  There is very little crime.  The city is spotless, no litter no graffiti.  If Disney World were a city it would be Dubai.  We did see plenty of expensive cars everywhere.  You name the expensive brand; we saw it today.  Some of their EMT’s use motorcycles to get around the city to provide immediate help to someone waiting for an ambulance.

This is the tallest building in the world, the Burg Khalifa at 162 stories.

It’s has a mixture of residences, office space, a hotel and restaurants.  You can go up to the observation deck on the 124^th floor or for a little more money up to the one on the 148^th floor.  We considered doing this but timing was a problem.  It’s not cheap at any time you go but during the morning and evening, when it would have been better for us, it is downright expensive.  People love to go up and see the sunrise and sunset.  We were happy just to see it.  Vinod got us to this area just in time to capture the fountain show that takes place near the building.  Lucky for us.

Everything in Dubai is the tallest, most expensive, best thing ever because they can afford it.  Although the area originally got its money from pearl diving it is oil that made this area rich and able to pretty much build whatever they want.  Oil was discovered in the 1960’s and since then there has been a building boom going on.  Below are pictures of the Marina area with the famous twisted building.  This area was nothing, desert, before 2003 and then they decided to develop it and in six years-built dozens of skyscrapers mostly condos and office space.  They manufactured the canal and made the marina.  Amazing stuff!

We visited the Mall of Emirates home to Ski Dubai.  We’ve seen pictures of this on TV of course but they never show the play areas at the base of the hill.  They have snow slides, plastic balls you get in and go down hill and other things to keep people entertained.  In case you’re wondering, the helmets, snow boots and jackets are included in the price of the ticket.  To give you an idea of the prices, 200 AED is about $55 USD.

The Jumeirah area is where you’ll find the world’s only 7-star hotel (at least according to them), the Burj al-Arab.  A beautiful hotel near the beaches.  If you want to stay here the best suites go for $15,000 a night.  On either side of the beach where we were standing more land reclamation work was being done to build additional hotels.  The land that the al-Arab is sitting on was reclaimed from the sea by filling it in. 

One of the more famous examples of land reclamation is the Palm Jumeirah. This is not my picture, just one I found.

We drove up the ‘trunk’ of the Palm and it was surprising how big the road was.  I don’t know what I was expecting but I certainly didn’t think a major highway was going down the center of this reclaimed area.  Off to the side are the branches with private homes, you’re not allowed down there.  Along the center road there are condos and along the crest of the palm are hotels, the biggest of which is the Atlantis.  This looks exactly like the Atlantis in the Bahamas.

 Vinod showed us where we were on google earth...

One thing I have to mention is the simple technology in all their parking garages that would make life easier for all of us if it were implemented around the world.  The garages have sensors over each parking space, when someone parks in a spot the sensor turns a little light red, meaning occupied.  Green is unoccupied.  This way you can look down a row of cars and see immediately where spaces are available.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  They also have indicators at the ends of the rows that tell you the number of spaces available.  Anyone who has driven up and down rows in a parking garage (and that would be most of us) would love to see this in all garages.

Our last stop of the day was the Dubai Mall, either the largest or second largest mall in the world (I know I heard it, I just don’t remember it).  It has over 1200 stores some unique others are brands famous all over the world.  It also has an aquarium and an ice rink.  It’s connected to the metro and has a huge garage attached with the neat technology I mentioned above (not that I’m obsessed with that or anything).  They even had an American Girl store!

There are hundreds of restaurants at the mall so I’m slightly embarrassed to say we ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  For those who don’t know this is an American chain restaurant usually found in upscale malls.  The nearest one to us back home is about 75 miles away so it’s a treat when we see one…we had to go even though I know it’s wrong…we might as well have eaten at McDonalds.

Before you get too tired of buildings (I know too late) we have The Frame.  This building is purpose built for tourism.  You go up to the top and walk across to see the view.  The floor of the walkway is glass so that adds a little fun to the exercise.  Our guide told us they used to let anyone over age 60 do it for free…but they forgot about cruisers coming to the port.  They are all over 60 so they had to revise the admission policy and it now costs some to get up there.

Tomorrow we have half a day in Dubai, all aboard is 12:30 and that doesn’t give you a lot of time given the traffic in the area.  We may stay close to the port.  Tomorrow I’ll write about old Dubai.

January 27-29 Lots going on at sea

We’ve had an interesting few days at sea starting with Monday evening around 10:30 PM with an announcement from the Captain that we had a medical emergency on board and the patient needed to be evacuated.  The navigation channel showed the route we took.

Luckily for us and most importantly for the patient we were nearing the coast of Oman and the port of Salalah.  Salalah is the second biggest city in Oman and a popular cruise port.  We rendezvoused with a vessel from the port and transferred the patient around 3:30 AM.  Hopefully all will be well with them.  It must be a scary ordeal.

Last night we had a wonderful dinner with friends we first met on the 2018 South American cruise.  They boarded in Southampton and spotted us on their first sea day.  It’s been great to catch up and we had a wonderful time at our last dinner together.  Unfortunately for us, they are leaving the ship in Dubai on Thursday and will spend a few days there before going home to England.  We will miss them.  You meet people all the time on these cruises but it’s not often you feel so comfortable so quickly, like we’ve known them for years and years.  We’re so happy we got to see them again.  Here is our picture from 2018 aboard the Queen Victoria, and last night’s photo here on the QM2.  Who knows in two years we might be on the same ship again!

Today we were visited by the gun boat that lent (rented?) us some weapons a few days ago when we entered the high piracy area.  They wanted their guns back.  This was a different ship of course but like the first time; they came along side to get the weapons.  In one of the pictures you can see the rope that was used to lower them down one at a time.  We lost count of the cases but we are guessing there were about 8-10.  The weapons transfer took place right below our cabin balcony and so we got good pictures.

There has been a huge increase in ship traffic in this area, we haven’t seen this many ships since we were waiting to enter the Suez Canal.  In the distance there has been a persistent haze on the horizon, we haven’t thought to much about it but the Captain told us it is sandstorms that are kicked up this time of year by the wind. 

As I was writing this blog entry the Captain came over the speaker with an announcement.  Based on advice from the CDC and WHO (World Health Organization) we are not going to Hong Kong or Bitung Indonesia because of the Coronavirus.  Not going to Hong Kong will be a major disappointment for many on board.  It’s always a highlight of a world cruise.  Fred and I have been there before so it’s not so bad for us, but we did have plans to see parts of the old city we hadn’t seen before. 

They are replacing Hong Kong with a return trip to Singapore; now that is a major disappointment for us.  Not only have we been to Singapore before for two days but now we’ll be doing two two-day stretches there about a week apart.  I’m sure Singapore was chosen for ease of transport since a lot of passengers were leaving us in Hong Kong and more coming on board.  Moving all those transfers to Singapore will be easier for the cruise line but that’s a lot of days in Singapore for us!

The stop in Bitung will be changed to Bali, Indonesia.  Honestly, we had no strong feelings for Bitung so this change doesn’t bother us.  I’m sure Bali will be great.

The Captain also told us we would have a visit from a Royal Navy Frigate today around 5PM.  Fred and I decided to stay in our cabin in the hope the ship would sail right by us at least once.  Boy did we luck out!  The ship came along side and stayed on our side of the ship. 

We heard the helicopter first and it performed various maneuvers back and forth right in front of us.  We got some great pictures and it made for some exciting pre-dinner entertainment.  We’re sure this was to reassure the passengers as we enter the Straits of Hormuz.  We really enjoyed seeing the ship and crew.

Tomorrow we are in Dubai for the entire day and overnight.  We have a private tour and we’re looking forward to seeing the city for the first time.  A beautiful sunset...

January 25th - Another interesting day in the Red Sea

Today we had a briefing by the Royal Naval Commander Liaison Officer assigned to our ship.  He, and the Cunard Security staff and the private security team presented information about piracy but also touched on terrorism to some degree as well.  I took pictures of all the slides but since some of them discuss the response mechanism in case of emergency, I won’t post them all.  We weren’t told they were secret but it doesn’t seem like a good idea to post them either.

They also mentioned that we would get a delivery of weapons, by ship, later today.  Strange we didn’t pick them up in Aqaba and stranger still there is a ship roaming around here delivering weapons.  I was able to get some pictures (posted at the bottom).

After they talked about the measures put in place to protect us and the ship, the floor was open to questions and some of the passengers had some good ones.

One person asked, with all the precautions in place, how did that UK tanker run afoul of the Iranians a few weeks ago.  Good question…the Naval Commander said they strayed too close to an island that is in dispute between Iran and the UAE.  He said it was the tankers fault… they were in the wrong place.

Another person asked about refugees and what would happen if we came upon some (I never would have thought of this).  Well Cunard has a plan in place for that.  They’ve actually assisted with refugee boats in the past.  If we did come upon a boat, we would send a tender over to investigate.  If it was determined they were indeed refugees, we would render aid in the form of food, water and medical help.  We would generally leave it to ships from the international coalition to take them aboard but if we did have to take them on, they would be quarantined from the other passengers until they could be safely put ashore.

There was also a question about the new international virus in the news.  The chief of security said he knows no more then any of the passengers but headquarters is indeed monitoring the situation.  We are stopping in Hong Kong and taking on new passengers, might they be quarantined asked the questioner.  The security chief had no answer for that saying it was too soon to make any determination.

Another questioner (an American) asked if we were harassed by an Iranian vessel would we consider ramming it???  Yikes, that got a reaction.  The Security Chief, from the UK said something I didn’t pick up and then said his grandchildren were American and they were ‘nutters’ too.  This got a big laugh and I think the Americans in the audience laughed the loudest.  Fred says that not even a Naval vessel would ram another ship, it’s just too dangerous.

So later in the day we slowed down and this ship came along side.  A smaller vessel then came toward us, made the delivery and they were gone.  I didn’t see the actual delivery; we know it’s a weapon(s) but who knows what.  We’ll have a look around the ship tomorrow and see what we can see.

With all this, the chance of a passenger vehicle being attacked is slim to none.  We can go faster and the sides of our ship are too tall but they certainly have to take precautions.  There was of course one cruise ship taken by terrorists, the Aquille Lauro back in the 1980’s, I think.  An American in a wheelchair was thrown overboard, the only fatality.  The Naval Officer pointed out that the ship was not the target of the terrorists, they were just using the ship to get to Israel but a room steward came upon their weapons.  Then the ship was taken.

More days at sea ahead of us before we get to Dubai on Thursday.

January 24th - Anti-Piracy Drill

Yesterday I called it a terrorism readiness drill but the Captain called it an Anti-Piracy drill, so we’ll go with that.

The drill was primarily for the crew but the passengers were asked to participate.  At the sound of a coded call over the intercom we were to return to our cabins.  If you are in an inside cabin then you could stay in your room.  For those of us on the outside, we had to go into the corridor outside our room for the duration of the drill.  We had a nice chat with our neighbors.

The whole drill took about 15-20 minutes after which time we were free to go about our business.  The Captain told us that a British Naval Officer and three sharpshooters came aboard in Aqaba and will be with us until Dubai.  During that time, we will be running on reduced outside lighting and passengers will not be allowed on the promenade deck between dusk and dawn.

There are already spotters on deck 7, where the promenade deck is.  They are watching out to sea with binoculars.  The ship has also set up water cannons along the outside deck.  This was not mentioned by the Captain and maybe many of the passengers won’t even notice them.  We only did because we saw them on the Holland America Amsterdam when we were in this same area three years ago. 

The chance of a passenger ship coming under attack by pirates is not likely but they have to be prepared.  We are also traveling in an internationally recommended transit corridor and will be under the protection of an International Task Force assigned by a United Nation’s mandate to protect ships from the piracy threat.  The threat of piracy was far higher three years ago when we went through here and I don’t get the feeling that anyone is really worried about it.

Today was the first truly warm, sunny day we’ve had on this trip.  We were able to walk the promenade without a jacket or sweater.  It should only get warmer from here.  Five more sea days to Dubai!

January 23rd - Aqaba, Jordan

We had a beautiful sunny and cool day here in Jordan.  It was so nice to be on land in the sun for a change!

Aqaba is the only port in Jordan and is popular with cruise ships because it’s the gateway to Petra, one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world and on most people’s bucket list.  We spent two days in Jordan a few years ago and saw Petra along with some of the rest of the country.  Today there were 29 buses lined up on the pier to take passengers to Petra.  That’s a lot of people going to the same place.  Other tours were to snorkel locations and to a resort area to use their beach.  I don’t know if anyone took them up on those last two…

We decided to take an excursion to Wadi Rum a well-known desert area near Aqaba also known as the Valley of the Moon because of its resemblance to the moon’s surface.  A Wadi is a valley.

It’s famous as a filming location.  First, and perhaps most notably for Lawrence of Arabia.  T.E Lawrence was a British Colonel who led the Arabs in a revolt against the Turks.  He actually led battles in this area. It’s an interesting story to say the least.  The picture at the top of this entry is of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which was also the title of Lawrence’ autobiography.

We drove through downtown Aqaba and it’s a very nice city, lots of stores and people around.  We didn’t get to explore the city last time and really didn’t get to see much this time either, but it looks like a nice enough place to walk around.

The Seven Pillars are at a newly constructed visitor center.  It’s so new the parking lot isn’t completed but we got in okay.  The buildings are the same adobe style structures you would see in most desert locations.  This is the starting place for 4-wheel drive tours of the entire Wadi.  Many people come here for rock climbing and star gazing.  As you can imagine a high desert like this, with no other light is great for looking at the stars. 

Huts, like the ones pictured below are rented out for about $250 a night so people can see the stars.  They make good use of solar power here and our guide told us they have air conditioning and all the modern conveniences.  Speaking of modern conveniences…and maybe this isn’t important to everyone, but the public bathrooms we used in Jordan were great.  I say this because it’s in stark contrast to Israel where no bathrooms we used (all at tourist areas) had toilet paper.  Most didn’t even have a place to put toilet paper had they had it.  Sometimes no sinks, never any soap.  Thankfully, years of travel have taught me never to be unprepared for just such a circumstance!  Anyway…loved Jordan’s bathrooms.

After seeing the Wadi, we went to a Bedouin camp to have lunch.  Now, we were under no illusions, this camp is set up to service tourists but it is actually run by the Bedouins or Nomads as our guide referred to them.  The pictures below show some of the reception and lunch area.

The food was great.  I’m not entirely sure what I had but it all tasted great.  They made a fresh bread, kind of like pita but on this rounded hot stove.  They took it off and tore off pieces to hand you, it was delicious. 

After lunch we were on our way to a souvenir store.  This was kind of controversial because it wasn’t on the itinerary and it was put to a vote.  About a third of the people wanted to go (including us) so it was decided that was enough and we went.  The shop was very much like ones we saw the last time we were in Jordan.  They had a lot of nice stuff and the exchange rate for $$ was right on the money (no pun intended) believe me I checked.  We bought a sand art bottle.  They are done by locals and it kind of shows but I liked it.

We enjoyed the tour well enough; it wasn’t the most exciting scenery but interesting nonetheless.  Our guide’s English took some getting used to and he was quite a talker but you get used to that on these tours, you just have to concentrate a little harder.  After that we were on our way back to the ship and got in around 3PM.  We could have gone back into town but gave it a pass.

Later on, those 29 buses starting coming back from Petra and the ship pulled out all the stops for their return.  They set up waiters with trays of champagne to wait for the buses and a number of officers were down there as well.  The bus would pull up, the crowd would disembark and they were be surrounded by waiters with champagne.  Fred and I watched the goings on for a while from above.  I guess those of us on the Wadi Rum excursion didn’t make the cut!  The Petra trip cost $210 per person, I guess for that the ship thought they could part with a little champagne.

We now have 6 days at sea until Dubai!  Yikes, that’s a lot of days.  We have a terrorism readiness drill tomorrow so I’ll wait to see how that goes before writing about the precautions being taken.