Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Salahlah, Oman; Luxor, Egypt; & The Suez Canal - Posted 4/24/2008
Still full of excitement after our adventurous six days in India, we sailed from Mumbai at sunset on March 28. It was good to be back on the ship at a more relaxed pace and in comfortable surroundings. After winding down a bit, it was a full day later that we started looking at the huge world map on our cabin wall to continue plotting our around-the-world progress. We suddenly came to the sobering realization that we were in the “hottest spots” of the world where we had never really considered being! Leaving India we sailed in the Arabian Sea along the coasts of Pakistan and Iran (we saw lights on shore at night!); into the Persian Gulf to our port of Dubai, UAE, then back out through the Arabian Sea along the coast of Oman; through the Gulf of Aden with Yemen on one side and Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea on the other; into the Red Sea with Sudan and Egypt on the west and Saudi Arabia on the east before entering the Suez Canal between Egypt and the Sinai peninsula. Whoa!!! Needless to say, the ship’s security was on the highest level of alert, and the Captain, to put at ease the minds of those watching their maps, reassured us through a rare loudspeaker announcement. We saw a Canadian warship on patrol sailing past us one day, and an American destroyer in the Suez Canal. Very nice sights to see!
On March 31st we safely docked in the Passenger Terminal (instead of the usual container port) at Dubai, United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf. Everything here is on a BIG scale. Or in other words, it would make all Texans feel like they were living in Rhode Island. Dubai is completing the tallest building in the world (Burj Dubai - over 110 stories), they have created man-made resort islands in the shapes of palm trees and the world globe (visible from the space station), the tallest hotel in the world (Burj Al Arab in the shape of a sail, where a room will set you back at least $6,000 a night and afternoon tea is a mere $100 per person plus tip), and a tall INDOOR ski slope (a cool contrast to outdoor summer temperatures in excess of 130 degrees). Under construction are a 30-story condo building which will rotate a full 360 degrees each month, the longest monorail in the world, the largest theme park and on and on until the oil money runs out. Here we toured around the city in “The Big Bus,” a double-decker open-air bus from which we could hop on and off. We also visited the historical museum, did a guided walking tour and short boat ride on the river to some of the market areas (souks). Dubai has been the crossroads of east/west trade routes for over a thousand years and continues to be a bustling trading center for everything imaginable, especially gorgeous fabrics, spices, gold, jewelry and now, electronics. A fascinating place to visit for a day but can’t imagine spending all that money to stay in such a superficial place (in our opinion).
Next we sailed back into the Arabian Sea and stopped in Salalah, Oman, known as the perfume and frankincense capital of Arabia. We were excited to visit this ancient land and travel into the mountains to see the traditional Tomb of Job. We said prayers at the ruins of the legendary wall where Job is said to have prayed. It was easy to imagine ancient Biblical times from this mountaintop site overlooking desert mountain terrain sprinkled with wells and camels loping about. This area is also famous for the frankincense trade and we saw how they take the sap out of the trees to harden for subsequent aromatic burning. We purchased our frankincense and perfume plus burning pots. In addition to Job’s Tomb, we visited the ruins of an ancient cliff-top city, fortress/museum, the traditional tomb of the Virgin Mary’s father, the smelly fish market and camel-rendering (yucky) market. The Queen Victoria smelled exceptionally good when we got back on at the end of an exotic day of sightseeing.
We continued along the coast of Yemen and proceeded into the Red Sea to Safaga, the port city for Luxor, Egypt. Here we took a Cunard-organized tour inland to Luxor. It was a 16-hour day which included a bus ride of 4 hours each way. There were 65 buses in a motorcade (including 25 from the Queen Victoria) which proceeded with police blocking all of the roads coming into the highway to ensure our “safe and expedient” travel. It was an amazing sight to see this huge bus caravan with no other traffic on our road, and to see the local people waiting for us to pass by (very friendly, smiling and waving). The land was lushly agricultural, bountifully irrigated by canals from the Nile River—lots of sugar cane, even rice fields, as well as hay. Many, many donkeys pulling carts piled high with produce, reminiscent of what we saw in India. Outside Luxor In the Valley of the Kings we visited the tombs of the Pharaohs, including Ramses and Tut, all of which were awesomely impressive. The paintings and carvings on the walls literally took our breath away as we saw them in situ, as opposed to just a few panels on the wall of a museum. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures, but the magnitude of the rooms could not possibly be captured through photos or even videos.
After lunch at the Winter Palace, a beautiful historical hotel in the city of Luxor, we tried to comprehend the magnificence of the temples of Karnak and Luxor. Again, these structures were unbelievable in their size and majesty and hard to comprehend that they were constructed almost four thousand years ago. We saw sunset over the Nile River and then, once again all the tour buses in Luxor were formed into an escorted caravan for the trip back to the port. With the headlights of 65 buses winding through the remote agricultural plains, it looked like long strands of glittering jewels snaking through the total darkness. We were glad to arrive safely “home” on the Queen Victoria at 10 PM. Unfortunately, Don somehow contracted the “Mummy Tummy” (the Egyptian strain of “Delhi Belly?”) and was down for the count the next day.
On April 9th we transited the Suez Canal. We completed our transit in eleven hours, entering the Canal from the Red Sea about 5:00 AM, and exiting into the Mediterranean about 4:00 PM. This 101-mile “ditch” is truly amazing in that it was opened in 1869 and is still in operation today. Unlike the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal has no locks since there is only a minor difference in sea levels at each end. The west side has fertile fields irrigated via canals from the Nile River, while the East side is mainly desert with military camps and of war memorials commemorating the Egypt/ Israel conflicts of the 1960-1970’s (during which the canal was actually closed for 6 months). In order to pass from one side to the other, there are car ferries which run during canal traffic, as well as a large steel swing bridge which can rotate on either side to meet in the middle of the span. There are also floating pontoon platforms which can be assembled quickly to form a bridge after the daily ship traffic has cleared out. There is one permanent bridge in the entire canal which was funded by the Japanese and is called “The Peace Bridge.” This bridge was under construction during our first transit of the Suez in March, 2000, and it was wonderful to see the new graceful but imposing suspension bridge in all its glory. As we were exiting the canal we noticed a small cruise ship entering. We found out later that it was no cruise ship, but rather the private yacht of the Sultan of Oman
We are now sailing through the sometimes stormy, sometimes calm Mediterranean for the European part of our cruise. We recall from our last world cruise that we encountered our roughest seas in this part of the world, and it seems to be true this time as well. We are quickly closing in on Southampton, England where we will be transferred to the Queen Mary 2 for our transatlantic passage back to New York. Stay tuned for the final blog of our 2008 World Cruise!
Still full of excitement after our adventurous six days in India, we sailed from Mumbai at sunset on March 28. It was good to be back on the ship at a more relaxed pace and in comfortable surroundings. After winding down a bit, it was a full day later that we started looking at the huge world map on our cabin wall to continue plotting our around-the-world progress. We suddenly came to the sobering realization that we were in the “hottest spots” of the world where we had never really considered being! Leaving India we sailed in the Arabian Sea along the coasts of Pakistan and Iran (we saw lights on shore at night!); into the Persian Gulf to our port of Dubai, UAE, then back out through the Arabian Sea along the coast of Oman; through the Gulf of Aden with Yemen on one side and Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea on the other; into the Red Sea with Sudan and Egypt on the west and Saudi Arabia on the east before entering the Suez Canal between Egypt and the Sinai peninsula. Whoa!!! Needless to say, the ship’s security was on the highest level of alert, and the Captain, to put at ease the minds of those watching their maps, reassured us through a rare loudspeaker announcement. We saw a Canadian warship on patrol sailing past us one day, and an American destroyer in the Suez Canal. Very nice sights to see!
On March 31st we safely docked in the Passenger Terminal (instead of the usual container port) at Dubai, United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf. Everything here is on a BIG scale. Or in other words, it would make all Texans feel like they were living in Rhode Island. Dubai is completing the tallest building in the world (Burj Dubai - over 110 stories), they have created man-made resort islands in the shapes of palm trees and the world globe (visible from the space station), the tallest hotel in the world (Burj Al Arab in the shape of a sail, where a room will set you back at least $6,000 a night and afternoon tea is a mere $100 per person plus tip), and a tall INDOOR ski slope (a cool contrast to outdoor summer temperatures in excess of 130 degrees). Under construction are a 30-story condo building which will rotate a full 360 degrees each month, the longest monorail in the world, the largest theme park and on and on until the oil money runs out. Here we toured around the city in “The Big Bus,” a double-decker open-air bus from which we could hop on and off. We also visited the historical museum, did a guided walking tour and short boat ride on the river to some of the market areas (souks). Dubai has been the crossroads of east/west trade routes for over a thousand years and continues to be a bustling trading center for everything imaginable, especially gorgeous fabrics, spices, gold, jewelry and now, electronics. A fascinating place to visit for a day but can’t imagine spending all that money to stay in such a superficial place (in our opinion).
Next we sailed back into the Arabian Sea and stopped in Salalah, Oman, known as the perfume and frankincense capital of Arabia. We were excited to visit this ancient land and travel into the mountains to see the traditional Tomb of Job. We said prayers at the ruins of the legendary wall where Job is said to have prayed. It was easy to imagine ancient Biblical times from this mountaintop site overlooking desert mountain terrain sprinkled with wells and camels loping about. This area is also famous for the frankincense trade and we saw how they take the sap out of the trees to harden for subsequent aromatic burning. We purchased our frankincense and perfume plus burning pots. In addition to Job’s Tomb, we visited the ruins of an ancient cliff-top city, fortress/museum, the traditional tomb of the Virgin Mary’s father, the smelly fish market and camel-rendering (yucky) market. The Queen Victoria smelled exceptionally good when we got back on at the end of an exotic day of sightseeing.
We continued along the coast of Yemen and proceeded into the Red Sea to Safaga, the port city for Luxor, Egypt. Here we took a Cunard-organized tour inland to Luxor. It was a 16-hour day which included a bus ride of 4 hours each way. There were 65 buses in a motorcade (including 25 from the Queen Victoria) which proceeded with police blocking all of the roads coming into the highway to ensure our “safe and expedient” travel. It was an amazing sight to see this huge bus caravan with no other traffic on our road, and to see the local people waiting for us to pass by (very friendly, smiling and waving). The land was lushly agricultural, bountifully irrigated by canals from the Nile River—lots of sugar cane, even rice fields, as well as hay. Many, many donkeys pulling carts piled high with produce, reminiscent of what we saw in India. Outside Luxor In the Valley of the Kings we visited the tombs of the Pharaohs, including Ramses and Tut, all of which were awesomely impressive. The paintings and carvings on the walls literally took our breath away as we saw them in situ, as opposed to just a few panels on the wall of a museum. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures, but the magnitude of the rooms could not possibly be captured through photos or even videos.
After lunch at the Winter Palace, a beautiful historical hotel in the city of Luxor, we tried to comprehend the magnificence of the temples of Karnak and Luxor. Again, these structures were unbelievable in their size and majesty and hard to comprehend that they were constructed almost four thousand years ago. We saw sunset over the Nile River and then, once again all the tour buses in Luxor were formed into an escorted caravan for the trip back to the port. With the headlights of 65 buses winding through the remote agricultural plains, it looked like long strands of glittering jewels snaking through the total darkness. We were glad to arrive safely “home” on the Queen Victoria at 10 PM. Unfortunately, Don somehow contracted the “Mummy Tummy” (the Egyptian strain of “Delhi Belly?”) and was down for the count the next day.
On April 9th we transited the Suez Canal. We completed our transit in eleven hours, entering the Canal from the Red Sea about 5:00 AM, and exiting into the Mediterranean about 4:00 PM. This 101-mile “ditch” is truly amazing in that it was opened in 1869 and is still in operation today. Unlike the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal has no locks since there is only a minor difference in sea levels at each end. The west side has fertile fields irrigated via canals from the Nile River, while the East side is mainly desert with military camps and of war memorials commemorating the Egypt/ Israel conflicts of the 1960-1970’s (during which the canal was actually closed for 6 months). In order to pass from one side to the other, there are car ferries which run during canal traffic, as well as a large steel swing bridge which can rotate on either side to meet in the middle of the span. There are also floating pontoon platforms which can be assembled quickly to form a bridge after the daily ship traffic has cleared out. There is one permanent bridge in the entire canal which was funded by the Japanese and is called “The Peace Bridge.” This bridge was under construction during our first transit of the Suez in March, 2000, and it was wonderful to see the new graceful but imposing suspension bridge in all its glory. As we were exiting the canal we noticed a small cruise ship entering. We found out later that it was no cruise ship, but rather the private yacht of the Sultan of Oman
We are now sailing through the sometimes stormy, sometimes calm Mediterranean for the European part of our cruise. We recall from our last world cruise that we encountered our roughest seas in this part of the world, and it seems to be true this time as well. We are quickly closing in on Southampton, England where we will be transferred to the Queen Mary 2 for our transatlantic passage back to New York. Stay tuned for the final blog of our 2008 World Cruise!
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