Istanbul to Dubai
October 31 - November 21, 2022
Mike and Judy Henderson
In this installment we depart Aqaba, go to Safaga, and cruise down the Red Sea. We'll visit Salalah, Oman as the last stop in this installment.
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11/11/2022 (Friday) We arrived at Safaga this morning. Judy and I had signed up for a tour to Luxor today. The tour is three and a half hours by bus to Luxor, a tour of the Temple of Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, and the Temple of Hatshepsut, then three and a half hours by bus back to the ship.
However, Judy is not feeling up to par and I don't want to do another 12-hour excursion without her. We visited all of those places when we did an Egypt tour with Uniworld in 2018. You can see that part of the Uniworld tour here (Temple of Luxor, about half way down the page) and here (for the Valley of the Kings).
Instead, we took it easy on the ship and played some of the games organized by the staff. I also worked on this blog, trying to catch up on the visit to Petra and Wadi Rum.
But it was mostly just a day of rest.
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11/12/2022 (Saturday) We're going on a desert excursion to a Bedouin camp this morning. Judy is feeling better and is ready to get out again.
When we left the ship, there were only a few buses waiting for people. Many guests had chosen to take an overnight stay in Luxor.
The bus we were on looked decent from the outside but was pretty tired inside - but it got us there.
It took almost an hour to reach the starting point for the tour, just south of Hurghada. At that location, there were panel-type trucks with seats in the rear. Thankfully, they only put three people in our truck - Judy, me, and another guest. Notice the man in the blue suit on the right side of the picture. He was a police officer who rode with us, armed with a pistol. Egypt seems to do that with tourists - when we were in Egypt with Uniworld, we always had an armed officer in civilian clothes with us.
The driver had us put on our seat belts, a preliminary warning of the rough ride ahead.
We headed out on the highway, toward the entrance to the desert. It was about a 15 minute drive.
We turned into a controlled entrance to the desert.
Then we drove for 35 minutes across the desert. We were bouncing around in the back of the truck, and I was trying to take pictures through the front windshield. The trucks were numbered (we were in truck 4) and they stayed in order on the ride. Our driver, however, left quite a bit of distance between us and the truck in front of us, so we did not get too much dust. This picture was taken in the early part of the drive, and he increased the distance as we drove along.
I could have straightened this picture in post processing, but left it to show how much we were bouncing around.
We seemed to be heading off to nowhere, but eventually we arrived at the Bedouin camp.
Our driver mugging for me.
A group of Bedouin musicians were there to greet us. I took a video of them and will try to post it after we get home.
They had camels waiting for us to ride.
Some of the female camel handlers were fully covered - just a slit for their eyes.
The camel Judy is going to ride, and its handler. Judy immediately went to a camel as soon as they said to do so (after a gentle nudge from Mike, who was ready with his camera).
Mounting up.
This is a sequence showing how a camel gets to its feet. First, it pushes forward with its back legs to get up on it's front knees. At this point, the rider goes backward.
Then up on the back legs, which tilts the rider forward, and finally up on his front legs, which throws you backward again. The rider is warned to be ready for a backwards tilt and then a forwards tilt, so hang on to the front and rear posts of the saddle.
Fully up.
Judy of Arabia!
Then I ran to a waiting camel, mounted. and chased after Judy.
The man handling my camel.
Judy has turned her camel around and taken off her mask.
This is the man handling Judy's camel, taking a picture of Judy with her camera. He took lots of pictures.
They led my camel over to Judy's. The two beasts were gentle, and they nuzzled. Old friends and desert survivors.
Then we went back to the starting point and dismounted. Here's Judy, the camel handler, and the camel.
And Judy and me with her camel.
I tipped the camel handler $5 and he was very happy. I think it was a lot more than he expected.
A few of the camel handlers.
I really liked this next shot.
After the camel rides we were led to a shop. This person makes colored sand patterns in a bottle.
Next, we went to a place were two women were making flat bread. One was rolling out the dough, and the other was cooking it on a piece of steel. The fire was fed with camel dung.
We took a taste of the bread. It was okay, kind of chewy. Here's the woman rolling out the dough.
This woman used a metal skewer to turn the bread, and to pick it up when cooked.
Next to the bread baker was a stand selling various herbs. Each has a medicinal benefit, as explained by our guide.
Our next stop was the weaver. He wove a very long strip of fabric, which was quite rough, but left unwoven strands between each woven area. Later he would cut each woven part and combine two of the sections to make a purse with tassle-strands. The weaving was fairly crude.
From here we went to see the camp's water well. The hole outside the enclosure was a dry hole - they hit a rock they couldn't dig through. The active well is within the enclosure and is 40 meters deep.
Then we went to a shelter where the Bedouins served us tea. The band was playing. The goblet shaped drum is an ancient instrument called a Darbuka, and the stringed instrument is a Raba.
There were two dancers spinning a cloth that opened to an umbrella shape when they spun it, similar to the circles of the Sufi dancers. I think they called it Tanoura.
Here's the other dancer spinning the cloth over Judy.
Here's a close-up of that dancer. Note his light-colored eyes, unusual in Bedouins.
The Raba player let Judy try the instrument (sometimes spelled Rababa). Judy played it like a cello, with position reversed from the Bedouin player (right hand bow, left hand fingering). The band was surprised enough that they stopped playing to listen for a moment.
Then he posed for this picture with Judy.
That was the end of our visit. As we walked back to the bus, I took this picture of two of the guys saying "Good-by" to us. I'm sure they get lots of tourists but they were always friendly and upbeat toward us. They seemed happy to have us visit.
We got back into the trucks for the 35-minute ride across the desert to the bus.
Then we transferred to the bus for the ride back to the ship. I took this picture of some of the drivers and our "security man" at the transfer point. Back in the desert, I had noticed a gun on his left hip, under his coat. The only thing he could protect us from was crime. A pistol would not stop any terrorist attack.
We got back to the ship about 2pm and showered the desert dust from our bodies. The ship did not depart until 9pm, after all the people who had gone to Luxor returned.
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11/13/2022 (Sunday) We're sailing on the Red Sea today and it's a big day - Judy's Birthday!
Since there are no excursions today - it's a sea day - we slept late. I had a couple of birthday cards for Judy, one from me and one from Annie and Lizzie.
And that's an excuse to put a picture of Annie (left) and Lizzie (right) on the blog. Annie is the beautiful one, but Lizzie is the lover. They are such cute girls and so thoughtful, especially of mom.
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They even sent pictures today to let mom know they were celebrating her birthday. Thank you Daddy Greg!
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We didn't do a whole lot during the day. But for dinner this evening we had a reservation at the Prime 7 Restaurant for Judy's birthday.
Now, a back story. When we got married, Judy and I agreed that we wouldn't give each other gifts on holidays and events (such as birthdays) - at our age, we just didn't need anymore "stuff". But this is a special birthday that needed something special so I set about finding a gift. I contacted our friend, Lynn, (who lives in our guest house) and asked for her help - what do I know about purchasing a gift for a woman?
Lynn did some thinking and one day contacted me about jewelry (Lynn loves to shop). She sent me some pictures of various items and we agreed on a topaz necklace. In order to keep Judy from being aware of the purchase, I took cash out of my bank account and gave it to Lynn, who purchased the necklace and wrapped it.
Then I had to hide it until we left, and when we packed, I had to hide it in my carry-on, and keep it hidden in the hotel and ship's cabin.
I wanted to present it to her at dinner, but I couldn't carry it to dinner - she'd notice it and want to know what I had in the bag. So, I went to the concierge and asked for help. She put me in touch with the dining room manager and we worked it out this way: When we had finished the main part of dinner - before dessert - I'd excuse myself and go to the cabin and get the present. When I returned to the restaurant, I'd give it to the maître'd who would then present it when they brought Judy a cake.
And that's what they did. Here's the presentation of the cake with a candle.
And shortly before, the presentation of the gift. He has it under a glass dome.
The only problem was that Judy thought it was a birthday gift from Regent! So I had to tell her the story about how it got there. Here she is wearing the necklace with the blue topaz stone. I think she was quite surprised.
That was the end of our day.
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11/14/2022 (Monday) For the next few days, until November 17th, we're sailing in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, so there's not a lot to report. I'll take this time to talk a bit about the ship and Regent.
We haven't done a whole lot of cruising - we took a Carnival cruise through the Panama Canal, a Tauck cruise around Iceland (on the Ponant L'Austral), a Vantage cruise around Spain (on the Variety Voyager), two Silverseas cruises, one to the Galapagos and one to Antarctica, and three Regent cruises (South America, the Baltic, and now the Middle East).
The Carnival ship was a big ship - 2,100 passengers. The big ships are less expensive because of the number of passengers, but we decided that we didn't like the big ships. The Ponant L'Austral was 264 passengers, and was a good experience. It did rock and roll quite a bit in rough weather.
The Vantage cruise was a small ship, about 70 passengers, but Vantage is an economy cruise line and we decided we'd like a bit more. It also rocked and rolled a LOT in rough weather. The Silversea cruise to the Galapagos was 100 passengers and was a great ship - new, stable and a wonderful cabin. The Silversea ship to the Antarctica was 296 passengers, a fairly small ship. We had to cross the Drake Passage which can be quite rough, but the ship was reasonably stable and the cabin was very comfortable.
Regent has some nice ships, all about 750 passengers, although the Mariner, which we took around South America was a bit smaller. Regent is "all inclusive" - everything is included, including basic excursions, tips and liquor, and they provide business class air travel for cruises outside the United States.
However, some excursions cost extra, and if you want custom air routing (such as non-stop flights) you have to pay extra. For example, on this cruise they wanted to give us a three-leg routing to return to the US from Dubai. That would have been a killer and almost assure lost luggage. We paid more for a non-stop flight on Emirates from Dubai to LAX.
The Regent Mariner was a good ship. The cabin was nice, and the walk-in closet was a pleasant surprise. It's one of the early Regent ships.
The Regent Splendor, which we took to the Baltic, is the newest Regent ship and is really nice. The bathroom has both a tub and a shower and TWO sinks. The cabin is adequately large for us - 340 sq feet including the balcony.
The Regent Explorer, which we're on now, is a sister ship to the Splendor and has essentially the same layout and cabins.
Regarding cruise ships, our attitude is that the ship is a way to get between excursions. On many cruises you have excursions every day, so you leave early in the morning and then return in the late afternoon. For us, that means we go to dinner after cleaning up, and then to bed after dinner, to prepare for an early morning the next day. Evening activities, such as gambling, shows, etc. are just not used by us. What's important to us is the cabin because that's where we spend most of our on-ship time.
The quality of the service and the attitude of the staff are important, and Regent and Silversea both do well there. Both provide decent Internet access, but Silversea does a bit better there, especially the priority access.
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But that's enough discussion for today. We slept late and played games. The entertainment people set up various games during the day. For example, dart throwing of magnetic darts at a metal-type target. To make things simple, they divide the group into two teams, and each person throws four darts. The team's total score is compared to the other team. The team with the highest score gets a 3-point card, and the losing team gets a 2-point card. If you get enough points, you can exchange them for Regent items at th end of the cruise, such as a T-shirt, a baseball cap, and a few other things.
Judy and I combine our points in the hope that we can get something. We might make it to 100 points by the time the cruise ends.
On a more exciting note, the Captain came on the ship's loudspeakers to tell us about the dangers of piracy in the area of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Arabian Sea. We're asked to close our curtains at night and not show any lights. The ship will extinguish all its outside lights at night while sailing through this area.
Here's another link about the piracy.
[Update: I'm happy to report that we made it through the area without incident.]
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11/15/2022 (Tuesday) Another sea day. We slept late and did games. One strange thing I noticed is that I could not get a position on my Google Maps. The GPS signals from the satellites are very weak, which makes it easy to block the signals with a terrestrial transmitter operating on the same frequency. I assume someone in this area is transmitting to block GPS, but I don't know why.
Still on piracy alert.
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11/16/2022 (Wednesday) The crew is preparing a "Country Fair" today. On the pool deck, each staff area will set up a game that the guests can play and win a raffle ticket.
Here's what it looked like from the deck above.
A few examples of the games. In this one you guessed "high" or "low" and then rolled two dice. If your guess was correct, you got two raffle tickets. If wrong , you got one. I got one.
At this station, they had a wheel with four colors. You guessed a color and then spun the wheel. If your color came up, you got a bonus raffle ticket. If not, you got one. I got one.
At this station, you threw a water balloon at the target which had a lot of nails on it. No bonus, everyone got one ticket. There is a brave and tolerant crew member behind the "shield".
There were many more games. The events lasted for a half hour, and then there was a drawing for prizes. We didn't win anything, but it was a fun and noisy event. Dru, the Cruise Director, is dressed as a ring-leader, and he called out the winning raffle ticket numbers.
That was our big excitement for the day. Each evening at dinner Miguel and Christina took very good care of us. Tonight I took a picture of us. It turned out to be a good decision because Miguel came down with Covid soon after this and went into isolation. We didn't see him again on the cruise.
Tomorrow we arrive in Salalah, Oman for an excursion.
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11/17/2022 (Thursday) We arrived in Salalah this morning. We've had four sequential sea days and have one more before we reach the UAE. I suspect this stop in Salalah may be more to break up the sequence of sea days than that there's something interesting to see in Oman.
In the morning, the buses were waiting for us.
They first took us to the Sultan Qaboos Mosque. Here's a picture of the mosque from the web. We were not far enough from the mosque to get a picture of the whole front.
Here are my photos.
The entrance to the mosque.
Before a Muslim enters a mosque, they must perform Wudu, a ritual cleansing. There was a Wudu area on either side of the entrance, before you enter the courtyard. One side was for men, and the other for women.
Looking up to the dome in the entrance hall. There's a chandelier hanging from the center, right over my head.
A view across the courtyard to the mosque.
One of the minarets. There are two on this mosque.
A view of the mosque from the courtyard.
The interior of the mosque. It had some really ugly carpet with lines on it for the people to align to for prayer.
A view towards the front of the mosque (pointing towards Mecca), showing the Mihrab and the Minbar.
A closer view of the Mihrab and Minbar.
A view upward showing the interior of the dome and the chandelier.
Some woodwork in the mosque.
Looking down one of the colonnades.
After leaving the mosque we stopped at a roadside fruit stand.
Everyone was offered a coconut with the top cut off so that we could drink the coconut milk. I tried it, but the milk did not have a good taste. I think the coconuts were too green.
Judy at the fruit stand.
Then they took us to an outdoor shopping mall for about 30 minutes. There was nothing there that anyone seemed interested in - mostly just souvenir stuff. This picture only shows a small part of the shopping area. Several parallel streets were about one block long, each lined with small shops that seemed to duplicate at least a dozen identical shops on the other streets, full of tourist items and incense.
After this, they took us to the Museum of the Frankincense Land.
This is a Frankincense tree, planted in the courtyard of the museum. They incise the bark and collect the resin that the tree exudes.
There wasn't much worth talking about in the museum. I took a few pictures but I won't bore you with them.
Here's a picture of the grove of Frankincense trees just outside the museum.
Oman also produces Myrrh, but we didn't see any plants.
With that, we headed back to the ship, and arrived about noon. The ship departed Salalah about 3pm. Tomorrow is a sea day, as we head along the Arabian Sea, and into the Gulf of Oman, toward our next stop, Fujairah, UAE, just before the famous Strait of Hormuz.