It was another lazy day at sea. Bill Crews presented his last lecture before he disembarked. His lecture on this day was a brief background of the construction of the Suez Canal and the subsequent challenges and wrestling for control over this strategic waterway. After several shut downs of the canal, it is now under the control of the Egyptian people, and they have recently invested billions of dollars to enlarge the canal. This new enlarged canal will allow ships to pass in opposite directions at the same time, allowing many more vessels to transit each day. This is expected to increase revenues by more than 100% annually.

For lunch we invited two of the young men who work in the shore excursions office to join us. Antonio is from Holland and Adriano is from Brazil. Antonio has worked on cruise ships for several years as a librarian and then in the shore excursions office. Adriano has worked for several cruise lines at both the front desk and then at the shore excursions office. They both love the opportunity to travel and see the world while working, but at the same time miss some of the things that are happening on land while they are away. They work seven days a week for six months and then have two months of vacation, so it is a busy life.

The afternoon lecture by Martyn Green included practical information on our upcoming port of Civitavecchia, Italy, not far from Rome. With so many things to see in Rome, he narrowed the list of best places to see to just twenty, not including Pompeii, the island of Capri and a few other locations nearby. We are only in port for one day so it will be difficult for people to choose what to see and do in such a short time.

For dinner we met our friends Kathy, Carol, Tom and the Italian entertainer, Marco Romano, for a special cellar master dinner in the Canaletto. The dinner consisted of a six-course meal accompanied by a glass of champagne, a white wine and two red wines. The meal was excellent and we had a wonderful time together.

After dinner we attended a variety show featuring Stephen Clark the flute player and Izabella Zebrowska the violinist. They put on another excellent show featuring songs from movies and musicals.

We sailed north in the Red Sea and the water was extremely calm and smooth. The temperature had cooled to the high 70’s making it more pleasant to be outside on deck.

The morning included a lecture by Bill Crews on the British legend, Lawrence of Arabia. He gave a detailed explanation of his life his military achievements and his influence on the Arab world. He was an officer in the British military stationed in Cairo early in the 20^th century when he befriended many leaders in the Arab world. He wore local clothing and was able to help unite the Arab world, allowing them to create self-governing regions that now make up Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan and Syria. He only lived to be 46 years old but his books continue to be popular to this day as is the movie Lawrence of Arabia.

For lunch we were invited for a delicious collector’s voyage lunch in the dining room. A collector’s voyage is when you travel multiple segments back to back on the same ship. In this case our voyage is broken into six smaller segments and guests have been embarking and disembarking at each of these segments.

The afternoon included a lecture by Martyn Green on an upcoming port of call, Naples, Italy. He gave an excellent presentation on things to see and do in and around Naples. Mark then attended the watercolor class where he created calendars and Kent went to the gym and sauna.

The evening was a gala night where they ask you to dress up for dinner and the show. The entertainment was the show called Iris by the Rotterdam singers and dancers. This was our third time to see this show this voyage but we still enjoyed it.

The morning included a lecture by Bill Crews on the decline of the great Islamic Empire. The empire grew very quickly from northern Africa, through the Middle East, reaching China and most of Indonesia. These areas are still mostly Muslim countries but the power that religious leaders have today has been greatly reduced from its height.

The afternoon included a lecture by Martyn Green on the history of the Suez Canal including the construction, current expansion and its future. He had a great number of slides in his presentation from the region including some satellite shots taken from space. In a week or so we will be transiting north through the canal into the Mediterranean Sea.

Mark finished one of the community puzzles and attended the watercolor class where he painted a scene from Oman. Kent had afternoon tea with Thomas and Martin to share info about San Diego for their possible future visit. Then Kent went to the gym and the sauna.

The after dinner entertainment was another performance by the finalist of Britain’s The Voice, Toni Warne. She has a wonderful voice and put on anther excellent show. Mark headed to bed and Kent went to the Crow’s Next to meet up with some of the cast singers and dancers…..the HAL ban on hard liquor was lifted for the crew today, so there were lots of crew/staff drinkers enjoying themselves in the bars.

Each night when we return to our cabin we find an animal of some type waiting for us on the bed. When the cabin stewards come to turn down the bed, change the towels and tidy up for the night they leave chocolates and a towel animal of some type. We have had monkeys, dogs, bears, frogs, fish, butterflies dinosaurs as well as some others.

Our cabin stewards are Badru and Endra from Indonesia and they do an excellent job. They are always available to get you anything that you may need and they make up our cabin once in the morning and again in the evening. When we see them in the hallway they always ask how we are and if everything is ok, or if they can get us anything.

This was the first of four days at sea on our way to the port of Aqaba or Al’ Aqaba in Jordan. We had an escort military ship near us as we head through the waters known for having pirates in the past.

We had a lecture by our location guide David regarding Aqaba as well as a more detailed lecture by a new guest speaker by the name of Martyn Green. Bill Crews gave a lecture on the origins of Islam and how it spread across most of the globe. His lectures are very good but they are filled with so many facts, figures and dates that it is overwhelming.

In the afternoon Mark attended the watercolor class while Kent went to the gym and the sauna. The evening entertainer was a violinist by the name of Izabella Zebrowska from Poland. She played a wide variety of music from classical to modern.

Salalah, Oman – Frankincense Tree

Salalah, Oman – Mughsail Beach

Salalah, Oman – Sumhuram

Salalah, Oman – Taqah Castle

Salalah is located in southern Oman on the Arabian Sea and has a population of about 250,000 inhabitants. This area was once known for its frankincense and silk trades, but today is heavily dependent on its dwindling oil resources. It was the main trading port on what was called the Frankincense Trail, the trading route for the highly prized aromatic resin used in religious rituals and healing. Frankincense trees are grown only in this region of the world.

The area around Salalah at this time of year is very warm, very humid and very barren. There is a stretch of flat land between the mountains and the ocean where the town is built. The majority of the homes and businesses have been built fairly recently but it is almost like a ghost town in that there is almost no vegetation or landscaping anywhere….only tumbleweeds are missing. The ground is mostly sand and gravel, although they do get a fair amount of moisture in the summer that makes the mountains green and the creeks and rivers flow with fresh water. The streets and roads are in excellent condition and they utilize a lot of roundabouts rather than traffic signals. The city is spread out and there is little traffic to speak of. The locals are Muslim and tend to wear traditional clothing. For the men, mostly white robes from the neck to the ankle with long sleeves, a hat and or scarf that is wrapped around the head and sandals on the feet. The women are typically covered from head to toe, with some wearing the black burka covering all but a slit for the eyes. Most places we went we only saw men and very few women. Most of the women stay home to tend to the family and housework.

Our guide was named Salim and was about 45 years of age. He has two wives, as God has given men permission to have as many as four wives. His first wife has five children and his second wife has two children with a third on the way. The wives each have a home of their own about 10 minutes apart from each other. The husband spends time with each family on alternating days….he said he is not “tired.”

Our tour was titled The Best of Salalah and was a full eight-hour tour due to the distances between the local highlights. Our first stop was at the Al Husn Palace, the Sultan’s summer palace for a photo of the exterior. There is not much that you can see from the street other than a large walled compound with the dome and minaret of the mosque rising above the wall.

We then visited the Hafa Souk, or market, where stall after stall was filled with perfumes and frankincense. They explained how they cut the frankincense tree bark to make the tree naturally create a sap or resin. The tree heals the bark’s wound. After several months the resin is scraped from the tree, dried in the sun and then sold for its fragrance when burned. They sell a variety of decorative burners similar to something you might think of for burning incense. Most of these burners use charcoal and then the pellets of frankincense are added to the charcoal permeating the room with a sweet aroma. The scent is unique unto itself unlike a spice, not bad, just unique.

Our next stop was at the Taqah Castle, once the governor’s residence and now a museum. They call it a castle but don’t think of a castle you might find in Europe, this is much different. This castle is more like a two story home with a central interior courtyard. Surrounding the courtyard was an outdoor kitchen, several rooms used for food storage, several bedrooms, a main living room and a roof top observation deck. They had furnished it although most of the furniture consisted of throw pillows on the floor to sit on. There were western style beds in the bedrooms but no other furniture to speak of.

From here we headed to the Khor Rori Creek, believed to be the ruined city of Sumhuram. They believe that this was once the ancient capital of Arabia’s frankincense trade. Excavations at this site provide evidence of a city that traded with Far Eastern ports and Greece. The locals believe that this was the site of the Queen of Sheba’s Palace. Students from a university in Muscat continue to provide labor for the ongoing excavation of this site located on a plateau above the ocean. Some of the walls of the site have been exposed, so you can walk into the large complex to get an idea of where shops, a temple, storage rooms and living quarters may have existed. The views over the creek out to the ocean are incredibly picturesque.

A buffet lunch was included at a Crowne Plaza Hotel in Salalah, located on the ocean. The lunch included salads, hummus, babaganous, pasta, a fish dish, meats and desserts. The beach was very clean with white sand, and they had two nice swimming pools. Several European guests were around the pool.

After lunch we visited the Frankincense Land Museum where they have a beautiful collection of the country’s history in a very modern museum. The exhibits were first class, with both Arabic and English descriptions, and it was air-conditioned. They have artifacts from several archaeological sites around the country, model ships from their country’s past and a variety of positive exhibits about the current Sultan Qaboos. Outside the museum they have a number of frankincense trees planted so we were able to see them close up. The trees have trunks similar to a birch tree with paper-thin layers of bark that easily peel off. The foliage is bright green with few leaves and clusters of white flowers.

Our next stop was at Mughsail Beach where there is a beautiful two-mile long white sand beach with natural blowholes in the rocks at the base of some high cliffs. Depending on the tide, the spray coming from the blowholes can reach a height of 45 feet. The cliffs above the blowholes are called the Marneef Caves although the caves are not what we might think of as caves. They were very large open caves where the rock formations jutted out from the hillside creating an awning effect.

The evening’s entertainer was an Italian vocalist by the name of Marco Romano. He has performed in many theater productions in his homeland. He sang a wide variety of music from opera to pop and everything in between. He had a lot of energy but there was not much connection with the audience for some reason.

This day we had a quiet morning of breakfast in the dining room, reading and working on the community puzzle. The afternoon included a lecture by Bill Crews on the recent history of Oman and the major improvements that they have achieved in the last 50 years. Prior to 1970 they had only one school, not much in the way of paved roads, running water or electricity. The life expectancy was only 47 but has now risen to 72 in just this short amount of time. With help from the discovery of oil, the infrastructure has been dramatically improved for its citizens. The current Sultan who overthrew his father in the 1970’s is now aging but no one in the country knows anything about his personal life and is unaware of the succession plan. Rumor has it that he may be gay but no one really knows. Mark attended his watercolor class while Kent rested in the cabin.

Dinner was enjoyed with friends in the specialty Italian restaurant called the Canaletto. We invited two of the Rotterdam singers, Wesley and Charlie, to join us for dinner, along with Joey and Michael, Dennis and Robert……. Brian treated us all. The entertainment was a virtuoso flutist by the name of Stephen Clark.

A relaxing sea day, after two very busy days in Mumbai, was a relief. We attended a shore excursion lecture about the next two ports of call as well as the location guide’s lecture on Salalah, Oman. For lunch they had a special Asian noodle bar set up with a variety of noodle dishes from different countries.

In the afternoon we attended a lecture by Bill Crews on Raiders, Submarines and Flying Boats during WWII. The lecture focused on the Indian Ocean and the battles between the British and the Japanese during this time. The British had more ships but they were older and less effective than those of the Japanese.

Afternoon tea in the dining room was a special Indian themed tea with sweets and savories from India. The tea was very sweet and had some type of milk in it. The savories included some very spicy chili sauce, while the sweets ranged from honey laden to something resembling peanut brittle. Willem, the manager of the Merabella Jewelry shop onboard joined us for tea. He is from South Africa and has only been working on ships for about a year but has had an interesting life. His goal is to open a specialty coffee shop back home in an old historic residence, complete with beauty salon, pastries, tea and unique coffees.

Mark had dinner with Tom and his Australian friends while Kent attended the early show and chatted with cast members at the Sari Dance Party in the Crow’s Nest.

The night’s entertainer by the name of Toni Warne was a finalist on BBC’s The Voice. She has performed at the London Palladium, Gorky Park Stadium in Moscow and in the heart of London’s West End. She has a superb voice and the audience loved her.

Mumbai, India – Lunch

Mumbai, India – Taj Mahal Hotel

Mumbai, India – Train Station

Our second day in Mumbai, we headed out on foot with Canadian friends Michael and Joey to see the Dabba-Wallahs or lunch box delivery boys at the Church Gate Train Station. Every day 4,000 intrepid men of all ages deliver fresh, home cooked meals from 100,000 suburban kitchens to offices in the downtown area. Each lunch is prepared by a loving wife or mother, and packed into a set of stackable aluminum boxes within a cloth bag ready for delivery. The meals are then carried, dangled from shoulder-poles, bicycles or stacked on handcarts, to be delivered to their hungry recipients. Each lunch bag has a sequence of letters and numbers to assure that the multiple deliverymen who transfer the lunches from location to location know exactly where it goes. They are so efficient and accurate in the delivery that they only make one mistake in every 6-million lunch deliveries. The cost of this service is only $20 a month. This train station location is where lunches from all over are brought to be reassigned to the final delivery person in the city.

From here we walked to the waterfront for coke floats at a local seaside restaurant. Then we took a taxi to a nearby street called the garment district. Here for block after block is one stall after another (about 500) filled with clothing of all sorts. Our next stop was the local shop called Fab India where they had an extensive collection of local clothing from ladies Sari’s to men’s wedding coats. The bright colors and fabrics were very nice and the prices seemed reasonable. As usual we purchased nothing but it was fun to look. It was then over to the Colaba market district popular with tourists. Here we found shop after shop packed with huge amounts of inventory of costume jewelry, clothing and souvenirs. Not much in the way of quality, just volume.

Our next stop was a visit into the exquisite Taj Mahal hotel. This is the hotel where there was a tourist attack in 2008 so security is very tight still today. Cars coming into the portico are required to open their trunks before entering and security guards use mirrors to check under the vehicles before granting access to the hotel grounds. The hotel has a beautiful lobby with tons of fresh flowers, the pool is situated in a lushly landscaped courtyard and there were many high-end gift shops.

Overall, I found Mumbai to be much cleaner than I had expected although the traffic is extraordinary. Drivers drive on every bit of roadway as pedestrians fearlessly fight their way across the streets. The British colonial buildings are truly breathtaking while most of the other buildings are in desperate need of paint and restoration. The people were very friendly in general, but the salespeople are quite aggressive in trying to make a sale. We did see a few cows in the street, but they were very scarce in the city.

The evening’s entertainment was a show by the B.B. King’s All Stars group who normally performs three shows a night in the crow’s nest. They performed a variety of songs made famous in Memphis.

Mumbai, India – University

Mumbai, India – Street Scene

Mumbai, India – Dhobi Ghat

Mumbai, India – Gateway India

Mumbai is the capital city, wealthiest and most populous city (18 to 22 million inhabitants depending on who you believe) in India. It is located on the central west coast of India on the Arabian Sea. Mumbai was comprised of seven islands until 1845 when a large-scale land reclamation project coalesced the islands into a single land mass. In 1661 King Charles II married Portuguese Catherine of Braganza (whose father was the King of Portugal) and as part of her dowry Charles received Tangier and the seven islands of Bombay.

Today, Mumbai is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India. The city is home to numerous financial institutions, headquarters of many Indian companies, and home to India’s Bollywood and Marathi film and television industry.

Mark had booked a private tour online before we left home for us, and our friends Robert and Dennis from Cambria, California. Our guide for the day was Pranav, a 32-year-old young man with a company called Grand Mumbai Tours. Pranav met us at the port gate with a car and driver to show us the heart of Mumbai.

Our first stop was the famous Indo-Saracenic archway called the Gateway of India, built in 1911 for the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary. This gate greeted many steamship passengers over the years and served as the final point of departure for the British troops leaving in 1947. Next to the Gateway is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel built by Tata after he was refused entry into another once famous local hotel called the Watson Hotel. The Taj was hit by a terrorist attack in 2008. We did see the nearby Watson hotel, which today is a rundown building housing attorneys offices and where homeless were sleeping in the lobby.

We then walked around the Mumbai University buildings, the Bombay High Court and the Rajabai Clock Towers. These buildings were built during the British Rule in the colonial style and are absolutely stunning buildings. The exquisite stone buildings have intricate ornamentation and gargoyle downspouts, not to mention the beautifully landscaped grounds.

Across from the courthouse is an enormous Oval Maiden park area where thousands of men were playing cricket this Sunday morning. Cricket is an obsession in India and every square inch of this huge field was filled with different games crisscrossing into each other’s field of play. It was difficult for us to see which players belonged to which team and where one game ended and the next began. Pranav explained how cricket is played and how it is similar to baseball and the locals were very friendly to us. They wanted us to have a try at cricket but we none of us were that interested in embarrassing ourselves. They wanted pictures with us and we obliged.

Our next stop was the Victoria Terminus Train Station, built in 1887, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Here millions of commuters arrive and depart each day on trains packed with passengers. It is another incredible building constructed during the British rule and has withstood the test of time. The interior is not much to look at but the exterior architecture is gorgeous. From here we headed to the Crawford Market where we found people selling just about anything you might need. What we found interesting here was the type of shopping carts they use in the market. At home we have carts with wheels that you push around the market. Here they have men with large round baskets on their heads. If you have money, you would hire one of these men with a basket to follow you around the market. As you make purchases, the man would place them in the basket until you had finished your shopping and then help you to your taxi, tuk-tuk or driver’s car for the trip home. Also of interest was the large number of animals available in the market. They were selling kittens, puppies, birds, fish, chickens, guinea pigs and a variety of pets. Pranav purchased a variety of cashews with dried chili’s, garlic and other herbs on them for us to try.

We then drove along Marine Drive and Chowpatty Beach known as the Queen’s Necklace. The water is not particularly clean so the locals do not swim here and they prefer light skin to darker skin so they prefer not to sunbathe. In the evening, however, the promenade is filled with locals who come out for a seaside stroll and to eat at one of the many food stalls at Chowpatty Beach. The beach is picturesque in the shape of a semicircle with the high-rise skyline behind and at night is illuminated creating the look of a necklace.

We visited the Iskon Hare Rama Hare Krishna temple built in 1987 by a wealthy Jewish family. On this day there were many families here praying and enjoying food that had been provided by a local family. The main sanctuary was located on the second floor with beautiful paintings, an altar and elaborately carved wooden ornamentation. The parishioners sit on the floor as there are no chairs. Many were lying face down on the floor perpendicular to the altar to give thanks. This assures that their feet are not facing the altar, which would be disgraceful. This is one of the most visited temples in Mumbai and on Sundays the temple has about 10,000 visitors.

For lunch, Pranav took us to a local restaurant where we had a delicious vegetarian lunch. Each place at the table had a large stainless steel tray with about 7 smaller dishes inside of it and two dishes on the table next to it. The servers would come to each table with a unique serving dish with four compartments. From each compartment they would dish up a curry, vegetable, or dessert like dish. The main dish would be filled with rice, three kinds of breads and several spicy sauces. By the time they had filled your plate you had about 18 or 20 different items to eat. Like an all you can eat buffet, you could have as much of any of these items as you would like. It was all very good but too much food to eat.

We then visited the hanging gardens where a local religion believes that a proper burial is to have the body hung up for birds, vultures and nature to finish the body off. The vulture population is gone today but this strange practice is still done. Next to the area where this practice is done there were once open reservoirs that the vultures would drop flesh into and thus contaminated the water. So during the British rule, the reservoirs were covered over and a lovely garden was planted here. This area includes many high-end residential housing towers that overlook the park.

Pranav took us for a drive through the red light district where prostitution is legal. Similar to what you see in Amsterdam, the woman have very small rooms along the street and they are mostly dressed in Sari’s out in front for you to see them. We were there in the afternoon when things were quiet but we were told that it is much busier at night. You can get a woman for about $3.00. Yep!

We then visited the Dhobi Ghat or main laundry of Mumbai. Here in a small valley, many people are employed to soap, soak, boil and beat the laundry before it is dried on rope clotheslines (without clothespines) and then ironed before being returned. Most of the hotels, uniforms and laundry of Mumbai is processed here making for a colorful photo stop.

From here we took a local train at the cost of 5 Rupees (Local exchange rate today was 64 Rupees to the US Dollar) a few stops across town so we could experience the local train. Being a Sunday, the train was not so busy which was a blessing since there are no door or windows and no air conditioning on the trains.

Pranav then took us to him home that his family has lived in for the last 70 years. Here he lives with his mother and father and aunt and uncle in a small apartment located in a complex of about 300 units. They had a small living room, a decent sized kitchen and three small bedrooms. Pranav’s room had a small desk and chair but no bed or other furniture. His bed is a thin mat that you roll out on the floor. He rolled up the mat and placed a brightly colored piece of fabric on the floor for us to sit on. Pranav said that he comes from the Brahmin cast, which is the highest cast in the country, and that this was an upper class neighborhood, but it was very modest by our standards.

Back onboard the ship we enjoyed a local show called the Magic of Bollywood. India is the largest producer of films in the world and the Bollywood films are very popular here. The typical movie includes boy meets girl, they fall in love, a villain creates a problem for the relationship before all is resolved and they live happily ever after. This live stage show included elaborate and colorful costumes and many local dances like you might experience in a Bollywood film.

The afternoon included a lecture by Bill Crews on The Religious Divide in India after their independence in 1947 and the partition to form Pakistan. Pakistan was split off from India and was divided along religion lines into multiple states. This breakup caused millions of people to move from their homes to a state that had similar beliefs to their own. During this time there were religious wars that broke out and many people lost their lives. Later eastern Pakistan was split again into what we know today as Bangladesh. It is a sad history, but not unlike some of the things happening in the world today.

Mark went to the watercolor class and worked on the community puzzle to pass the time, while Kent went to the gym.

The evening entertainer was a gentleman from the UK by the name of Glenn MacNamara. He is a wonderful vocalist who same songs from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole.