Convoy to Luxor

From the Red Sea town of Safaga to Luxor on the Nile river.

Tourism in Egypt has been decimated since the 2011 revolution. Media reports of social unrest coupled with western travel warnings have kept travelers away from most of the nation's famous destinations. As a result, revenues from ancient Egyptian monuments such as the pyramids have fallen by 95%. 

However, our Middle East trip on Windstar has been remarkably well run and very safe.

There are check points, like the one seen here, on every highway.

The watch towers are everywhere.

Security is very important here. No doubt because of the Egyptian government's efforts to control the wacko Muslim extremists.

There are local security guards at each crossroad.

Our 4 hour bus ride from the Red Sea to Luxor on the river Nile was guarded by these guys in body armor with M16's and side arms.

Our security detail trailed the bus caravan.  2 police cars, 2 pickup trucks with 3 armed guards each and an armed guard in each bus. We also had a spare bus in case of a break-down.

The Egyptian People.  
The culture and tradition of Egypt is like a melting pot with multiple cultures and ethnic traditions.

This new attitude is being displayed in Egyptians' friendly behavior toward the foreigners and tourists. 



















If asked, people of Egypt will always share their service and enthusiasm with the people whom hardly they know. 

Some people know how to use their head.>>

In Egypt, besides it's excellent travel attractions and cultural ambiance, the smiling faces of the locales are an added charm. 

Along the way, we saw numerous Bedouin camps. 

The Egyptian government built housing for these nomads, but they continue to live their tents. They use the houses to shelters their animals.

 Farming is the primary occupation for people living along the Nile. They use a lot of donkey carts.

Here's a couple of guys that got take-out chicken for lunch.  

  

  The sugar cane train.

Sugar cane is the main sugar crop in upper Egypt. About 90 percent of the yield is used for sugar extraction. Sugar beets also grow in large areas in the Nile delta, and contributes to the sugar industry in Egypt.

 View of the Nile from our hotel.

  River front in downtown Luxor.

 Don't drink the water? Yikes, don't swim in the water !

 

Trimming the palm trees is no small task.

Until next time....Bye, Bye.

Serene Salalah

Salalah is the capital and seat of the governor or Wali of the southern Omani province of Dhofar. The population of Salalah was 197,169 in 2009.Salalah is the second largest city in the Sultanate of Oman, and the largest city in the Dhofar Province. Salalah is the birthplace of the Sultan, Qaboos bin Said. Salalah attracts lots of people from other parts of Oman and GCC during the Khareef season, which starts from July to September.  The climate of the region and the monsoon allows the city to grow some vegetables and fruits like coconut.

Camels are everywhere, they wonder around at will. Most of the camels here are used as milk camels.  We were offered milk twice but declined.  Other camel facts from our guide: they cost $3-4000 each, a racing camel is $100 K, they have to be trained to be pack animals, they can carry 500 lbs.   

They grow a lot of fruit in Salalah and there are road-side stands selling all sorts of bananas, coconuts, pomegranates and a variety of vegetables.

In downtown Salalah you can see the grand mosque. this place holds 3000 people at a time. Oman is a progressive country, with enshrined human rights, ruled by an enlightened, British-educated Sultan, His Majesty Qaboos. Qaboos has been responsible for transforming one of the poorest countries in the region into one with a high standard of living, without sacrificing authenticity, since his rule began in 1970. 

Our guide Ali, took us around to all the highlights. Here we are in the local souk with a demo of how to use Frankincense. 

And here's where it comes from. A lone Frankincense tree in the dessert.

For lunch, we stopped at Ali's favorite restaurant for some Camel and rice. The fresh camel meat is seen here drying in the sun...yum yum.

Unlike beef, camel meat is rarely aged. Partly because there is no tradition of ageing meat in the Middle East and also because the meat would become too dry. It's a fairly tough animal, so camel meat benefits from slow-cooking.

Camel meat comes from the local meat market.

Here's an interesting bird. Not sure what it is, some kind of  humming bird.

 Job's tomb is probably the most important religious site in southern Oman. It is the mausoleum of Job of the Old Testament, known as the Prophet Ayub in the Koran. He is probably best known for the misquote "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." 

Both the Bible and the Koran say that he was an enormously rich man whose wealth was taken from him, and who was afflicted with a terrible skin disease, but he never despaired, remained loyal to God and was eventually rewarded by being made even richer and restored to full health. Hence the idiomatic expression, to be as patient as Job.







Taqah Castle is worth visiting if you are coming to Dhofar, it is nice and compact, and showcases a lot of exhibits illustrating the old Omani way of life. It is also worth noting that the late mother of Sultan Qaboos is also buried in the graveyard right next to the castle making this a significant site in terms of recent history.

Ahhhh, who doesn't like baby camels?

The fish market is a popular place for locals. Here's a guy who loves his job.

Here's a shot from high above the  beach town of Taqah. The darker areas of the water near the shore are schools of sardines. The locals dry these fish and feed them to the camels. 

At the end of the day, we had some time to visit the beach. 

Ali made tea and we chatted about the politics of the Middle East and the Western world.

so until next time, look out for camels......

Man Oh Man Oman

As usual, day one on a cruise ship means a life boat drill. 

It's often more of an ice-breaker as we stand around and chat with our life boat partners. 

While we wave bye-bye Dubai, it's time for cocktails on the fantail. The haze is not smog but sand in the atmosphere from the surrounding deserts.

First stop is Khasab, a city in an exclave of Oman bordering the United Arab Emirates. It is the local capital of the Musandam peninsula and is dubbed the "Norway of Arabia". 

The Sultanate of Oman is the second largest country on the Arabian Peninsula, lying along its southeast corner. It has a total land area of 300,000 square kilometres and a population of over two million.

The Musandam, separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates, is the northernmost part of the Sultanate.

Due to its geographical position and mountainous terrain it was isolated from the rest of Oman and the region developed at its own pace. Graded roads cut across the mountains have now made it more accessible. The grandeur of Musandam can best be explored by sea.

A popular activity in Khasab is a Dhow boat tour. A Dhow is a unique Arab boat as seen here.  

The Dhow tours go into the Omanian fiords ( looks nothing like Norway or New Zealand), but they are deep inlets of turquoise water surrounded by white limestone cliffs.  And, you get to see a lot of dolphins.  The best part was the hour we had to swim in the almost 100% buoyant salt water.  It was near 100 degrees, but the breeze from the moving Dhow and the cool water made it all more tolerable.  

The Dhow is covered with carpets and pillows and all the guests sit on the floor.

Deep into the fiords, we came upon a school of dolphins. They like riding the bow wave of the boat.

It was very hazy in the fiord. Sand storms in the near-by desert creates a smog-like cover over the area. 

We had groups from all over on our trip. France, England, USA and these folks from the Middle East.

Lynne's favorite part of the tour was the swimming break. And for good reason, it was frigging HOT out there.

The Star Pride, our ship, fully air conditioned, waiting for us.

Here's Ahab the Arab ( aka Bill el Sha Willi Baba) in the spice souk in Dubai- dressing Bill up was a way of drawing us into their stall- and it worked!!

As we left Khasab, we sailed thought the Straits of Hormuz looking east to Iran and hoping to see a USN aircraft carrier. 

Instead we watched a school of dolphin fishing, that was pretty cool too.

The next 2 days will be at sea full of lectures about the middle east and other typical ship games and activities. 

Dubai Highlights & Hotspots

I think Dubai has a Napoleon Complex. They want to have the world's biggest and best of just about everything. Tallest building, tallest hotel, only 7 start hotel, soon they will have a London Eye type of Ferris wheel, bigger of course.

9 Interesting facts about Burj Al Arab – world’s tallest, most luxurious hotel

• It is world’s tallest and first hotel to surpass 1000 ft (305 m) in height.
• It took three years to reclaim the land from the sea, and less than three years to construct the building itself.
• It is world’s tallest structure with a membrane façade and world’s tallest hotel (not including buildings with mixed use)
• The total cost to construct the hotel was $650 million.
• Burj al Arab is one of the most expensive hotels in the world to stay in. The cost of staying in a suite begins at $1,000 per night and increases to over $15,000 per night; the Royal Suite is the most expensive, at $28,000 per night.
• The building contains over 70,000 cubic meters of concrete and 9,000 tons of steel.
• Despite its size, the Burj al-Arab holds only 28 double-storey floors which accommodate 202 bedroom suites.
• The smallest suite of the hotel Burj al Arab occupies an area of 169 square meters (1,819 square feet), the largest covers 780 square meters (8,396 square feet).
• The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed 280 meters offshore. To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 40-meter long concrete piles into the sand. The foundation is held in place not by bedrock, but by the friction of the sand and silt along the length of the piles.
• Burj al Arab has a 24 meter (79 feet ) wide helipad which is 210 meters above the ground.

The government is in charge of building the mosques in Dubai. They also hire all the imams. If an imam preaches any radical jihad stuff, they are deported. That's what we should do everywhere. 

Dubai built 375 mosques in five years.

Almost 400 mosques were built in Dubai between 2008 and 2012.

As of the middle of last year, there were 1,418 mosques in the emirate, up from 1,043 in 2008.

There are few mosque designs. They a small, plain looking buildings. The reason for so many mosques: the government doesn't want you to walk more than 500 meters to a mosque.

Aside from all the mosques, there are constant reminders that you are in a Muslim country. Check out rule number 2 on the so-called Courtesy Policy. Holding hands can get you arrested. 

Dubai is a very hot place. It can get to over 110 degrees in the summer. To encourage the use of public transit, the government provides air-conditioned bus stops. 

 Here's a local flower that we see everywhere. not sure what it is, but is pretty.

If you need to use the facilities, make sure you pick the right door. Here's a helpful guide.