Oman is on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula to the NW of Yemen. Both countries front the Arabian Sea. It is along this coast and around the Horn of Africa that pirates operate. Tomorrow we have pirate drill. I think this involves all passengers being sent to their cabins whilst the captain and crew escape in lifeboats.
In Muscat I was introduced to Souks. These are bazaar like markets full of people, with smells of incense and other aromatic goods. To meld in with the locals I bought one of those full length white Arab Dashayas but I haven't been game to wear it yet.
900 passengers went on the trip to view the Zawawi Mosque. Somewhere along the line we lost our guide so I (literally) hot-footed it back to our air-conditioned bus.
Today we are in Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates. If ever you want to see reckless greed and ostentatious wealth - go to Dubai. The city is immersed in a cloud of pollution - even the mile high tallest building in the world is hard to see. Driving into Dubai and looking around I had the same vomitous feeling I used to get walking past Clint's Crazy bargains Stores, Luckily for me I forgot to take my credit card ashore - so I returned to the ship early with wallet unscathed.
Tonight we sail again after offloading 300 passengers and taking on 300 new ones. I presume the 300 departing passengers were able to make their own exit from the ship rather than in the ice containers.
We then spend 5 days passaging through these pirate riddled waters turning right into the Red Sea and onto our next stop at Safaga just south of the Suez Canal. From here, one of the tour highlights will be a trip to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.
There's prize for anyone who can identify what the last photo above depicts!
I'm guessing that the last pic is something like a Telly Tubby on holiday in the Middle East??
ReplyDeleteLOVE to see a photo of you in your Dashaya Dad.