My two sisters and I are enthusiastic cruisers, but we don’t often cruise together. This is because we represent the different reasons that people cruise. My youngest sister, Judy, cruises mostly with her family out to the South Pacific and always from Sydney. For Judy the onboard experience is why she cruises. She will happily not get off the ship at all. Cruising is a relaxing holiday for her. My middle sister, Anne, was a latecomer to cruising. She prefers one company – Royal Caribbean, over the others and has a preferred ship among the fleet. She, too, will only cruise within Australia and the Pacific, but she also uses cruising to see as much of Australia as she can. For me, the priority with cruising is the ports. I go on cruises to see places that I wouldn’t otherwise get to – and the ship is secondary. Not to say that I don’t enjoy the onboard life, but I’m happy to fly anywhere to get on a ship that’s going to interesting places. Sometimes that means putting up with a ship where the food isn’t as good, or where the service is a bit iffy. Sometimes it means travelling with someone who feels the same way – but who drives you a bit crazy.
So, that sets the scene on my recent cruise. Marie and I have travelled together before. I am a very independent person and she’s one of those people who jumps in and “helps” you way before you need help. One who doesn’t have the personal barriers that most people have. She once reached over when I was at an ATM and pushed a button for me when I hesitated for a second... I could write a book... Every time i travel with her, I say “Never again”. But then I do, because it’s too expensive to go on cruises solo, and she’s happy to fly anywhere, and cruise anywhere. This time – when she attempted to remove some loose cotton on my nightie (while I was wearing it) I had words. She doesn’t mean any harm and said “I’m just trying to help” and I explained that when I want help I ask for it. And then “DON’T HELP” a few more times.
We flew to Dubai. Dubai is a bit like an enormous Disneyland. Over here is Shopping-Mall Land – the Dubai Mall has an ice-rink, an indoor waterfall, an aquarium in the walls (complete with sharks and stingrays etc) and is the largest Mall in the world, and the Mall of the Emirates comes compete with an indoor ski-slope (yes, SNOW). Campbelltown Mall, eat your heart out! Over there is Fantasy Land – 6 star hotels and the highest building in the world and hotels for the rich and famous. We visited a place called The Miracle Gardens, which are a miracle because Dubai is built on a desert. It is surrounded by housing estates where there are few trees or vegetation but they have somehow found the water to constantly water all the flowers and topiary. It was all amazing, but everything was bigger and newer as if it was showing off somehow.
In Dubai, we boarded the MSC “Lirica”, for our cruise around the Persian Gulf. Our next stop was Abu Dhabi, which apparently is the richest of the Emirates. Highlight for me there was the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. All white marble and domes, and walls inlayed with semi-precious stones and the beautiful geometric Islamic architecture. The dress code for women was head covering, and arms and legs covered. I had to borrow an abaya – or full length black dress that I put over my clothes, and a black headscarf to match, in order to get in. Which I was happy to do. Later I posted a picture on Facebook and one of my friends said “That’s what they want us all to wear”. I pointed out that i chose to wear that and it was worth it because the mosque was stunning. And in fact, this was the only place where these strict dress code was required in the whole Gulf area. Mosques required a head scarf – in the way that Catholic Cathedrals used to require a hat.
From Abu Dhabi we went to Bahrain and Qatar. We were surprised at how multi-cultural these places are – so many western companies have big offices with many expat employees. On the other end of the spectrum, there are large numbers of people from third world countries who work in these countries and are able to support their families back home. In some countries the expats outnumber the local people. And the governments build massive high-rise apartment buildings to house the expats, who are vital to their economies. Each new place had a mosque to visit, and a souk (or market). In Bahrain we visited a camel farm – I was not impressed that the camels all seemed to be chained up (to stop the males fighting apparently. Now there’s a thought...). It didn’t seem much of a life for a camel, but they all looked healthy, and maybe they were just chained up while we were there.
In Qatar we were taken to see the “Dove Houses” -giant constructions to house doves and to collect their droppings for fertilizer. And we learned that the Qatari government is going to use Cruise Ships to house the players when they have the World Cup. (You know – the one we were supposed to have!)
My favourite place on the trip was Oman. We visited the capital – Muscat, and the area called Khasab, on the point of the Straits of Homuz. In Khasab we saw a bit of “Old Arabia”, with stone fortresses and ruined villages. And, while waiting for the tour bus in the centre of a small town we were amazed to see two men in Bedouin dress, arrive on their camels. These camels looked as if they had a real camel life – beautifully groomed and decorated. Lovely photo op!
Muscat was the friendliest place of all, with people stopping us on the street or approaching us in the souk to ask where we were from, and to welcome us. They brought their children over to practise their English (they all learn at school). Nowhere on this trip did we encounter any negativity towards us as westerners. We never felt threatened or unsafe.
All in all, it was a trip worth doing – although I should have done it five years ago when my knees worked better. Walking, and getting on an off various modes of transport made me realize that I’m getting older, and my travelling days may be coming to an end. A twelve hour wait at Dubai airport and a fourteen hour flight – and two weeks before the jetlag subsided added to that thought.
And then, this morning... I found myself pouring over the Travel sections of the Sunday papers. A cruise caught my eye – From Mauritius to the Seychelles, and on up through the Suez Canal...
Will I ever learn? Lucky I can’t afford it. Hmm. Let me think about it...
