A Magic Carpet, er Ship ride to Arabia.

[Pushka]

Off to read it. Roll call or general silversea boards?

s'ok. I found it. His humour is so dry it sounds like he's having the worst time of it! Interesting re Sharm el sheikh. The norkelling tour has been all booked out.

Jeddah. Not looking forward to this one. The immigration process sounds tedious and for minimal reward. It will happen Saturday after 3 sea days. We are without alcohol for around 12 hours, so by 7pm should be open again. We have chefs table booked for 7.30pm.

 

[drron]

General board.

 

[jase05]

s'ok. I found it. His humour is so dry it sounds like he's having the worst time of it! Interesting re Sharm el sheikh. The norkelling tour has been all booked out.

Jeddah. Not looking forward to this one. The immigration process sounds tedious and for minimal reward. It will happen Saturday after 3 sea days. We are without alcohol for around 12 hours, so by 7pm should be open again. We have chefs table booked for 7.30pm.

I’ve really enjoyed our visits to Jeddah. Mrs Jase loved it the first time which is why we have returned. I was very skeptical before our first visit

 

[TheRealTMA]

s'ok. I found it. His humour is so dry it sounds like he's having the worst time of it! Interesting re Sharm el sheikh. The norkelling tour has been all booked out.

Jeddah. Not looking forward to this one. The immigration process sounds tedious and for minimal reward. It will happen Saturday after 3 sea days. We are without alcohol for around 12 hours, so by 7pm should be open again. We have chefs table booked for 7.30pm.

"We are without alcohol for around 12 hours" !!!

 

[Pushka]

"We are without alcohol for around 12 hours" !!!

Well yes I say this because in drron s trip report the poster was in Saudi Arabia for 5 days!

@drron Moonng it? Lost the shorts? Where are the photos!

 

[Pushka]

Back to yesterday. After the waterfalls we drove back to the Fishing Village for a view. Which was overlooking another gorgeous white sandy beach.



The Mosque.


Oopsie.




As we pulled into these beaches we saw three Viking buses with passengers trudging their way through the long stretch of sand to get to the water edge. It was a hot day. They looked very hot. We had earlier driven to the waters edge in the car. This stop was the furthest the buses went, and the Wadi was about 30 minute drive longer.

 

[Pushka]

We then drove past another one of the Sultan Qaboos Palace. He has three in Salalah. Mohammed, our driver had so much praise for this Sultan as he did so much to raise the health, education and welfare of Oman people, plus developed infrastructure to modernise It completely. Near this palace is a huge overpass. The Suitan built this because he was driving on the old road with his friend and he had an accident with another car and which resulted in the death of his friend. The other driver was immediately arrested but the Sultan told the police it was his fault as he didn't look and to let the man go. Sultan Qaboos died just before Covid struck.

Just glimpse of the external gate.



And camels. Just roaming.

 

[love_the_life]

Some of the camels seem in very poor condition. Are they just wild ones wandering around?

 

[Guvner]

What’s the ship colour coding mean here? Red ships are armed, green ships are easy pickings?

 

[Pushka]

They are wild ones. It's at the end of the dry season but in a month everything brown will be green. The Climate here is actually very good for them, there are large wadis, lagoons everywhere in this area so there's always green around those.

It is so hot on the ship on the decks that they've just put huge ice chunks into the pool! But there's a breeze. The younger ones on the cruise are happy because there is always deck chairs available in the sunshine at the pool and now they've half closed the roof for extra shade. But most people are skulking inside in air conditioning.

Some of the camels seem in very poor condition. Are they just wild ones wandering around?

 

[Pushka]

View attachment 328159

Thankyou. That's great info. We are surrounded by tankers right now. Just about to start entering the Gulf of Aden. And it gets very narrow.

 

[Pushka]

Back to yesterday.

Our driver was Mohammed, born in 1985 with one wife and three children. Born the same year as our oldest. As he got to know us we asked him more about Islam and what it means to be a Muslim. It always amazes me just how close Islam is to Christianity. While he has some traditional values of husbands and wives roles, he was certainly prepared to accept my booking as a female and was happy to allow me to take the lead. He expects that things will gradually change as women want careers as well and now have full access to education and university. He was concerned about his English but it was exceptional for a second language. He said that some cultures correct him if they think he has mispronoun a word. A distinct racial group.

He then drove us around the city of Salalah offering to stop to let us shop but we declined.

Here he is explaining to us about the use of Francincense.



The main mosque in Salalah. It was closed being 1pm.






We got back to the ship just as the buffet was closing. Again, was surprised to see Pork, in this case a complete suckling pig, as the meat dish.

We decided as no one was there, that we would use the infinity pool at the stern but the view of the working port, wasn't the best. So we captured the flag. Much care taken not to drop the iPhone as the pool is over 6' deep and I can't touch the bottom.


Whiled the time away watching all the sealife as we headed towards Aden. And another sunset.


And one of our protectors.

 

[Pushka]

Trying to find the British protectors. No Luck. Suspect the night is the time. We are barreling along.

Aft.



Starboard.


Port side.


There is always maintenance being done. The ship is less than a year old but all timber surfaces have been repainted. Varnished or whatever.


View down at the pool with roof half closed.

 

[RooFlyer]

I hope the visit to Jeddah goes well for you. When I visited it, it was too many years ago to be relevant now, but then it was a very interesting city, although of course I am male and had complete discretion to wander around.

If you go along it, it would be good to see some photos of the sea-side Corniche. Back then there were very many bits of modern sculpture along it, including some I’m certain would not be able to be there today. I wonder what's left?

See pics in posts 1, 10 and 15 here:

A trip (report) down memory lane - Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the 90s!

One of my most favourite trips was one for work to Saudi Arabia and Egypt in 1994. I've just gotten around to getting my 35mm slides scanned (hat tip to flyboyal) and I thought I'd share some of those memories here. It was certainly an unusual trip - actually two, which I'll combine into one...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Pushka]

W

I hope the visit to Jeddah goes well for you. When I visited it, it was too many years ago to be relevant now, but then it was a very interesting city, although of course I am male and had complete discretion to wander around.

If you go along it, it would be good to see some photos of the sea-side Corniche. Back then there were very many bits of modern sculpture along it, including some I’m certain would not be able to be there today. I wonder what's left?

See pics in posts 1, 10 and 15 here:

A trip (report) down memory lane - Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the 90s!

One of my most favourite trips was one for work to Saudi Arabia and Egypt in 1994. I've just gotten around to getting my 35mm slides scanned (hat tip to flyboyal) and I thought I'd share some of those memories here. It was certainly an unusual trip - actually two, which I'll combine into one...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Will do. Have to get value out of the $250 visa cost. Talking tonight, many Americans angry about stopping here and referencing the journalist who was killed. We can Tour on our own a bit. MrP and I are doing separate tours. Just face timed the son on UK. Gotta love technology

 

[Pushka]

Well, we made it through the night. The ship was in total darkness so the security could see out more clearly. For the third time we gain an extra hour last night. We haven't slept in past 6am so far because of it.

Still haven't passed through the most narrow part of the gulf of Aden. Aden the port is starboard and Djibouti will shortly be Portside. We are still near Somalia. We expect to see land on both sides in about 5 hours or so. We collect our passports later today as Saudi requires face to face checks. Visa etc. We visit there Saturday.

We ate in the restaurant last night for a change. My entree of spring rolls was nice and spicy but the lamb chops were inedible. I'd heard great things about their lamb chops so was very disappointed. I did however discover a wonderful Italian red wine.

We saw a huge pod of dolphins while at dinner and they were tail walking, surfing the wake and diving right in front of us. Apparently even more to be seen in the Red Sea which will be tomorrow. Probably not much more of interest to post today. We are doing a cooking class tomorrow. Very lucky to grab a spot.

 

[Guvner]

Hopefully the lamb chop guy isn’t running your cooking class.

 

[Anna]

There will be a piracy drill tomorrow as to what we need to do.

What was said in the piracy drill?

 

[bPeteb]

Loving the report Pushka. Oman looked amazing

 

[Pushka]

What was said in the piracy drill?

Just the usual. . If alarm sounds then get out of rooms and wait in corridor. Every cabin has a balcony so I guess they don’t want us to see any collateral damage. One tactic cruise ships can do is weave left and right to create swells. Which of course swamps the small boats. I think Seabourn had to do this a few years ago. There are so many tankers near us now. We are on a strict schedule to make the allocated slot for Suez transit in a few days. They could cut out Saudi Arabia slot and no one would care. We seem to be leaving ports at least an hour early. Stopping the shuttles 90 minutes before tends to restrict movements. Clever.