Cairo

Looky who is taking a turn to blog!  It is Michael.  I stayed put so I could rest my weary body, especially my knees.  It seems as though one of the side effects of the antibiotic I was taking for my infected thumb can cause tendinitis   I don't know if that is why my knees hurt so bad, but the timing is suspicious.  So here it goes:

***

Well, it’s my (Michael) turn to shine as I escorted an all day excursion to Cairo while Beverly remained aboard the Quest to get a massage, play bridge (huh?) and tend to her aching knees.

Cairo hasn’t changed much since we were here three years ago, except maybe the Muslim Brotherhood is now in charge, Hosni Mubarak’s party’s building has been burned down, unemployment is up, illiteracy is up, and over one million Egyptians live in graveyards.  Such progress!!!

So, a little background first.  Cairo is s city of some 20 million people out the total Egyptian population of 85 million.  It is crowded, dirty and heavily polluted.  It is estimated to be the third most (after Mexico City and Beijing) polluted city in the world.  It is old, old, old.  In fact, Cairo is 1,000 years old, while Giza, right next door, is some 4,500 years old.  Politically, the place is a mess.  While Mohammed Morsi garnered a majority of the vote some eleven months ago, it is estimated today that if he ran now he would get about ten percent.  Believe it or not, most Egyptians wish for Hosni Mubarak to return.  Our tour guide put it most eloquently when he said the Egyptians traded in a corrupt (Mubarak) regime for a corrupt and inept (Morsi) Regime.  There were over 1,300 strikes in March of this year alone, and so hopefully the end of the Brotherhood is close.

Egypt derives the largest amount of its annual revenue from the Suez Canal (some $55 billion US annually), tourism and cotton, in that order.  However, tourism is off some 80%.  Three years ago there was one vendor at the Pyramids for every eight visitors.  Today it is one to one, and they have become super aggressive.  I had one woman on my bus who was groped by a vendor, to the surprise of absolutely no one.  Our guide, who is a university trained Egyptologist told us that this was his first assignment in over 18 months, and consequently he is having a very hard time surviving.  He voted for Morsi but now can’t wait for him to be removed from power.  Even while I was in Cairo, the Justice Minister resigned in protest and several vehicles were set on fire. Oh, did I mention I visited Tarir Square?  Believe it or not, the single biggest problem right now is the lack of diesel fuel.  Trucks, buses, etc. are lined up literally for days at the pump.

The city of Cairo is expanding in a most unusual way.  Just before Mubarak was overthrown, an enormous number of building projects were begun.  Today, they sit unfinished, while millions cannot find a place to live.  The new housing projects undertaken under Morsi are almost all illegal.  That is, they are built without permits, inspections, and so forth.  I am sure you have read that they also collapse from time to time with little notice or concern from the government.  And now the army is doing some very strange things.  For example, while I was at the pyramids, a big army helicopter landed a soldier on top of one of the pyramids so he could raise their flag.  This is totally illegal, but that means nothing.  Back to the city, the traffic is simply unbelievable.  Nothing moves, horns never stop honking, no laws are obeyed.  It is just a mess.

Nile River

Typical apartment buildings

Have they heard of sanitation?

City street

Your guess about what is going on is as good as mine!

Another interesting thing about new construction is that they virtually never finish anything on the outside.  The inside of a new apartment building may be fine, but the outside is poorly laid bricks, with no effort to finish the work at all.  For example, window frames abound, but there are no windows.  Nothing is painted or plastered over.  Did I mention the garbage?  The infrastructure in Cairo is so bad that they don’t even bother to get rid of the garbage.  They throw it in the canals around town, or just leave it on the street to be blown away by the wind. 

Unfinished construction abounds

Well, now for a little bit about the excursion itself, which I enjoyed very much.  Our first stop, after the two hour drive to Cairo from Sokhna where the ship was moored, was the Egyptian Museum of Antiquates, which is an antiquity itself, at 104 years ago.  It is a mess.  Dirty and totally falling apart, but housing some of the most priceless art in the entire world.  There are some 120,000 pieces on display, and all but one (a replica of the Rosetta Stone) is an original.  The high point of the museum is the King Tutankhamen exhibit which is frankly unbelievable.  It includes his 250 pound solid gold coffin, his 25 pound solid gold breast plate, and so forth.  The only thing more unbelievable than the treasures was the sloppy way in which these priceless pieces were kept.

We next had a very unmemorable lunch at the Hotel Meridian.  Fortunately, this was a brief stop as it was time to move on to the Pyramids, the last standing of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  Here we saw the Cheops Pyramid which is 480 feet tall.  It is made up of 2,300,000 individual blocks (twelve times the volume of the Empire State Building) and weighs in at 16.5 million tons.  It took 100,000 people over seven years to construct.  We also saw the Chephren and Mycerinus Pyramids which are right next door.  These three pyramids are over 4,500 years old. It truly boggles the imagination.  Finally, we stopped briefly at the Sphinx which is even more decrepit than the last time we were here.  They really need to fix this and soon.  Now it was time for the required stop at the souvenir shop followed by an agonizingly long trip back to Sokhna and home.

 

Cheops Pyramid (center) with brothers Chephren and Mycerinus

The sphinx taken at an angle with the great pyramid behind it

Sharm El Sheikh, or How to Go Nowhere

Here’s a riddle for you:  how far have you travelled if you were driving 60 mph in a bus for three hours?  The answer:  0 miles

It was a bad start to the day and that should have been a tip off about how the rest of the day was going to go.  For starters, the ship was supposed to tie up to a pier.  That didn’t happen.  Instead, we had to anchor out and then tender into the pier.  That took a bunch of time off an already short day.  Our tour to St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai desert was scheduled for 8.5 hours and the ship’s departure time was 5pm.

Secondly, we could not find the bus.  It seems that our bus driver was on the cheap side and did not pay the bribe to get into the port gate to pick us up.  So we had to haul ass out of the port and up the street to find our bus.  That took up more time.

We finally got on our way and about ½ hour in, the bus stops right in the middle of the road, and the driver gets out and comes back with a few bottles of drinking water.  Hum, what do engines and water have in common?  A radiator – in this case, a leaking radiator – and we are going into the Sinai desert, a barren, rocky and deserted place where bad things can happen.  Oh, and did I mention we had a security guy with a gun on board?  Why do we need one, I asked the guide?  That is to protect passengers from the Bedouin bad guys who like to capture and ransom AMERICANS.  Are you getting a warm fuzzy feeling? 

We continued on and the bus made terrible wheezing sounds as it barely made it up a hill.  Uh oh, this is not good.  We arrived at a gas station, the last bit of civilization before St. Catherine’s, and now the driver is bringing buckets of water.  We were wondering if there was enough water to get us to our destination, especially if all our drinking water would be used to keep the radiator full.  We even talked about filling up the empty bottles with our urine as the onboard toilet was full.  Hahaha.  This was not getting funny.  After much discussion, the driver called for another bus.  The bus was to meet us at St. Catherine’s.  Several of us were VERY uncomfortable with this scenario.  What if the bus didn’t make it to St. Catherine’s?  We would be stranded out in the middle of the Sinai desert.  In addition, so much time had elapsed that even if we did make it to St. Catherine’s, there would not be enough time to see anything; we would have to turn right around in order to make it back to the ship in time.

So I very vocally called out that I wanted to go back.  In the meantime, the bus company had sent two vans out to take us to St. Catherine’s.  No way, Jose.  Now six of us wanted to go back and 12 wanted to go on.  The large van only had room for 11.  What to do?  The group leader decided, after much loud discussion and disagreement, that we would all go back, and that we would wait for the replacement bus at the gas station. 

And that is what we did.  The guide felt really bad about the situation.  We returned to Sharm El Sheikh and had a little tour that consisted of taking pictures of a mosque, a church, and a brief stop at a market.  Then we tendered back to the ship where I spent a great deal of time trying to make my achy knees feel better.

The mosque

The church

Don't all parking lots have camel parking spaces?

You won't see this on Rodeo Drive!

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Channeling Lawrence of Arabia!  There were no bushes or trees to look under for signs of Lawrence.  But there were plenty of rocks!  Wadi Rum is the desert that Lawrence of Arabia transversed with his skirmishes during the great Arab revolt of 1917 against Turkey.

I’ll get to the description in a moment.  But first a word from our sponsor, the country of Jordan.  We were in Jordan a couple of years ago and went to see Petra, a most magical and mystic place.  So on this trip to Jordan, we decided to go to Wadi Rum.  Jordan doesn’t have much going for it except for these two spectacular places that time and nature have created.  The country of Jordan was established in 1921 and is ruled by a monarchy.  The landscape is harsh as 75% of this country is desert.  There is no oil or natural gas; but most important, there is no water.  Right now, there are over one million Syrian refugees and that is putting stress on this waterless country.  It is so bad, that they collect rainwater.  The median income is only $1,000 per month.  The majority of the population (92%) lives in the capital city of Amman.  Gas is very expensive at $1.50 per liter.  One final note:  Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab countries with a peace treaty with Israel. 

The native population is the Bedouins.  These are nomadic tribes that live in the desert, moving from place to place.  They are goat herders and camel traders, but today, are making a living from tourism.  Since they are specialists in desert life, they are guides for hikes, tours of Wadi Rum, etc.  This has lead to some stability for the tribes and now they live in villages provided by the government with services such as education and medical clinics, although many forego the education part.  Bedouins get vaccinated against scorpions and snakes with homemade vaccine.  They do this every 12 years in order to maintain immunity from these desert dwellers.

Today, the weather was absolutely perfect.  It was on the cool side but very sunny with an incredible blue sky.  I bet you can’t guess who forgot the sun block and came back with a shiny red nose (and it wasn’t me).  We had a one hour drive out to Wadi Rum.  Our guide was a fellow named Jehad (like in jihad) – that didn’t make me very comfortable – maybe he should use a different name with the Americans.  We drove on a good road through brown, barren and rocky mountains.  We saw an occasional Acacia tree, which camels like to nibble on.  On the way to the visitor center, we stopped to climb all over Lawrence of Arabia’s actual, real-life train. Michael got to play engineer and when he was done doing that, he took over the machine gun and sprayed a hail of bullets all over the bad guys.  The train sits on almost 100 year old tracks and is used to take groups of people on tours through Wadi Rum – and I will add that those that ride the train are wimps.  I will explain.

  

Lawrence of Arabia's train

Michael playing engineer

The Seven Pillars; Lawrence wrote a book with the title taken from this mountain

After a pit stop at the visitor center and a short video, we went out to mount our 4x4 vehicle.  And I bet you thought I was going to say a camel.  Well, I think mounting a camel would have been easier than what we got.  Do you know where old decrepit 4x4 small trucks go?  Right here in Wadi Rum.  Each truck looked worse than the next.  There were benches mounted on each side of the truck bed, with room for three people on each side.   We had to climb OVER the tailgate to get in the truck.  I wish I had a moving picture of us old farts climbing into that truck.  Some needed a push in the butt to get up and over, some needed help getting the leg over the tailgate.  It was not very pretty.  And the trucks were filthy dirty.  Ugh.

Our chariots

We sat and bumped around on these seats; no seat belts!!!

It was too windy to keep my hat on, so I fashioned a turban out of a shawl I brought along.  I thought I looked pretty chic.  I went native!  Maybe I can start a new fashion trend at home.

New fashion statement

The desert landscape is startling for its colors and rock formations that have been carved by erosion from wind and sand.  Moonscape comes to mind, but as we rode deeper into the desert, the colors and rock formations became more dramatic.  One cannot really see the scale of this place in a picture, it is so immense.   We bumped our way along on a sandy road and made our first stop at a steep sand dune, where we climbed up to the top.  The sand was quite deep and if going up a steep hill isn’t hard enough, try adding ankle deep sand.  The sand was a stunning red and was very fine.  But it was worth the struggle to get up to the top. It felt like being on top of the world.  The vistas were so grand, the colorful desert spread out as far as the eye could see.  I wished I had a container to fill with this beautiful sand.  It was time to go back to the truck and get our tushes back in it.  It still was not very graceful. 

Deep sand road

You can get an idea of the scale of the rock formations; that is Michael standing at the base

We continued our tour and whenever we wanted to stop, all we had to do was bang on the top of the cab for our driver to stop.  We saw goats and camels, but no other animal life.  At one point, one fellow’s hat blew off and we banged on the roof.  He saw the hat and backed the truck up to it and I thought he was going to get out to retrieve it.  But no, he kept the truck moving, opened the door, leaned out and scooped it up.  It was a very impressive move!

Goats grazing

Camel train

We came to a Bedouin camp and oohhhed and ahhhed over the camels.  Michael went over and sat on one, but declined the offer to ride it.  They charge $1 to get on, but $20 to get off.  He wasn’t taking any chances of being stranded on top.  

Bedouin camel herder

Michael sitting on the camel

We also saw ancient drawings of camels etched on the side of the mountain.  That was cool.

Camel etchings on side of mountain

So off we go again, and this time I was getting the hang of getting in and out of the truck.  We stopped for tea by a rock formation that was just stunning in color with an incredibly smooth face.  There was nothing here in the desert to make tea with to our inexperienced eye.  The guides collected dried leaves and made a fire pit with rocks they found nearby.  Then they used a piece of flint to start the fire.  Once the fire got going, they pulled out some well used teapots and brewed fresh tea.  We stood around waiting for it to brew and then enjoyed sipping our tea from throwaway cups.  

Making tea

Sheer granite wall

Beautiful colors in the rock

Then it was time to mount up again.  I was starting to get the hang of how to get back in the truck by this time.  It’s all in the arms; once you get the foot up on the bumper, one has to hoist one’s derriere with a nice lunge as you grasp the tailgate and pull yourself up.  I would give my performance a 7.5 at this point in the excursion. 

King of Jordan during Lawrence's time

We stopped awhile later at a Bedouin camp that was really a touristy tea stop and store.  Not cool.  We completed our tour of Wadi Rum rumbling along dusty, rocky and sandy roads, and then made another tea stop.  I was glad to get back to the bus, but I was proud of myself as my final exit off the truck was a good one.  I scored a perfect 10 on that dismount!!

Luxor, Egypt

We are back in Egypt once again.  My thumb is on the mend, my right hand and finger is still swollen and hurts if I hit it or bend it.  The knees are working today and it is a good thing because we are off for many adventures on back-to-back days. 

After packing a suitcase last night, we were ready for our first overnight excursion off the ship.  Both Michael and I were escorts for our two day trip to Luxor but on different buses.   We arrived in the port city of Safaga and ¾ of the guests on the Quest were headed out to Luxor, many of them staying overnight.  It is a three hour drive over sometimes dirt, always bumpy and mostly jarring roads (they were doing road work).   Driving is not recommended for visitors:  traffic lights are only a suggestion, while the lane lines are just for decoration. 

As you know, I take notes on all excursions and here is what I wrote about the bus ride:  “miserable road through rocky, barren grey and brown hills.”  Yes, that sums it up.  We climbed up the mountains that separate the coast from the desert then descended down to the flat desert.  Egypt is 96% desert.  We ran the gauntlet of security checkpoints with their huge speed bumps. Speaking of security, we had an armed guard on the bus as did each of the buses.  Since I was the escort, I got to sit in the back of the bus – all the way in the back.  I had the entire back row to myself and spread all my junk out.  I brought my knitting and actually was able to do a few rows as I observed the countryside and wondered if my sitting in the last row would stop any bullets from reaching the other passengers.  However, Michael’s guide told him it was now safe to tour Egypt as all the people that were blowing up the buses were now in control of the government.   So I felt safe, and for miles and miles, there was nothing to see, except a cement plant and an occasional abandoned looking cement/brick/stone structures with rebar sticking out of the cement support columns or the miscellaneous camel.  The closer we got to the Nile, we saw fields green with tomato plants.  There were also sugar cane and banana trees.  Villages looked like ruins. 

Barren, rocky mountains

Unfinished building; this happens to be a nice looking one

We arrived in the town of Luxor.  Our first stop was to have lunch so we could be fortified for our visit to the temples.  It has only been three or four hours since our last meal.  Our hotel was the Sonesta St. George, located on the Nile River.  We were very lucky today as the weather was wonderful; it was warm and sunny, but not too hot.  I carried my trusty umbrella with me today but used it sparingly.  Our last visit here was unbearably hot, over 118°.

After lunch, we headed to Luxor Temple to explore the ruins.  It is awe inspiring to see such huge pieces still standing after 3,500 years.  The ruins were wonderful.  The Luxor Temple was for the wife (forgot which one) and the Karnack Temple was for the husband.  The avenue of the sphinx (2 miles long) connected the two temples.  Sphinx statues lined both side of the boulevard; what a beautiful sight.  Buildings were demolished so this site could be excavated.  There is excavation everywhere in the city of Luxor and we saw many statutes and sphinx that have recently been uncovered.

Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and I feel like I had been through a four year college course in Egyptology in just two days.  Whew…. I won’t bore you with facts and figures, but the stories he told were quite interesting.  There was the usual royal intrigue and who offed who to succeed to the throne, who married to forge alliances as well as incest to keep the royal blood lines pure.  Royal lineage was always passed down from the female because you don’t always know who your papa was.  My head was spinning.

Then it was back on the bus and off to Karnack Temple (we didn’t see Karnack the Magnificent, but we certainly felt his vibes).  This temple took over 2,000 years to build.  Add a wing here, add a wing there.  They were always tweaking it seems.  The excavation has been going on for 200 years.  The archeologists knew it was here.  So far, they have excavated only 63 out of 200 acres. 

We learned about the engineering feats of moving huge solid rock blocks up to the top of 67’ towers:   they would pile up sand and then building mud ramps at a 6° angle, wet it down to make it slippery and then oxen and men would pull them up.  The colors used in the cartouches and carvings were still quite brilliant.  They used minerals to get the color:  lapis, coral, limestone, soot, malachite and turquoise.  If the material to be painted was porous, they would apply a coating of beeswax, then paint the image, and then seal it with the wax.  Consider this:  the Sistine Chapel needed repainting after only 450 years; after 4,500 years, the Karnack Temple has never been touched up.  The artistry was quite incredible and very detailed.  Protruding reliefs were placed in the sun, and indented reliefs were placed in the shade so every image was seen at its finest.

Again, after running vendor alley, we made the usual customary stop at the government store to buy stuff.  And buy our people did (including me)!  We made it safely back albeit a few dollar shorter, to the bus for the return trip to the hotel where we freshened up and had dinner out on a pontoon platform on the Nile.  There was a gorgeous sunset and a light breeze.  It was a very cool and lovely evening; dinner was unfortunately, cold.  With dinner over, we got back on the bus.  I digress here because each up and down off the bus was a killer on my knees.  The steps are very steep.  I don’t think the bones in my knees are really the problem, it’s just the steps are too damn high.  Really, my tendons around the knee are very tight as I have not had my regular massages to keep them loosened up.  So why back on the bus after dark?  There was a light show at Karnack Temple and we went to see it.  The ruins are not well illuminated and the stones were uneven and broken, making walking quite hazardous.  The guide handed out the tickets and flashlights, and of course, ran out by the time it came to me.  Like the boy scouts motto says “be prepared,” I was.  I had my own flashlight! 

It was a star-filled night and we could see the western hills all lit up.   The temple itself was bathed in eerie light and then the light and sound show started.  Booming voices told of the history of Karnack.  We stood for 15 minutes, and then walked to the next station for another 15 minutes.  We then walked to the purification pool (where there were seats) and watched the rest of the show.  In all honesty, we did not expect much from this light show (friends told us about it), but at least I can say “I came, I saw.”  Our return trip to the bus had us walk on loose pea gravel that made walking difficult.  We walked a good three miles over uneven ground visiting Karnack two times in one day.  We were really exhausted after the long day and looked forward to sleeping in a real bed.

We were sleeping on a real bed, with really bad pillows, but at least we were sleeping.  The phone rang and Michael answered it thinking it was our wake-up call.  There were no clocks in the room, so I checked my iPad and saw it was around 1:45am!  I told Michael to check his iPad, and yes it was 1:45am!   Who the hell was calling?  He said someone spoke Arabic.   Well, that was the end of sleep for me.  Michael managed to get back to sleep and I managed to toss and turn, never really getting to sleep.  The real morning wake-up call never came.  But since I was already up, it didn’t matter.  I had to drag my sorry butt out of bed.

After a buffet breakfast, we boarded a water taxi from the hotel to the other side of the Nile where our bus was waiting for us.  This was an unexpected bonus.  This was my first time ON the Nile.  

Sonesta St. George Hotel on the Nile River

Water taxi on the Nile River

Back on the bus again for the visit to the Valley of the Kings, which was magnificent.  The pyramids were first used to bury pharaohs along with riches so they would have supplies for the journey to the next world.  But looters were able to get into the pyramids and remove the riches and destroy the mummified remains.  The pharaohs then decided to hide their bodies where no one could find them, thus the Valley of the Kings. It is located on the west side of the Nile and in ancient times, the regular folks were not allowed on this side of the river.  The west side was the necropolis, meaning only the dead lived there; the east side was for the living.  This was a great ploy to keep the riffraff away from looting the tombs.  In addition, this location was chosen for four reasons:  (1) crooked roads we designed to deceive the looters; (2) it was on high ground so there was no chance of flooding from the Nile River; (3) there was good quality limestone; and (4) the top of the tallest peak on the mountain looked like a pyramid.  

There have been 63 tombs discovered so far.  I toured the tomb of Ramses IV and I have got to say WOW!  They are now charging an additional fee of $20 to view King Tut’s tomb; since he was a minor ruler, his tomb was not as grand as some of the others. Ramses IV’s tomb was FABULOUS.  The etchings, carvings, drawings, paintings, hieroglyphics were pretty much still intact and the colors were just as rich as when they were originally done.  We were not allowed to take pictures; we had to leave the camera in the bus.  Michael had more energy and toured a few other tombs (Ramses III and IX).  The weather was soooo much different from last time.   I didn’t even break a sweat, how sweet is that?  We then returned to the bus but first had to run through the annoying group of pesky vendors.   About the only Arabic we know is “la shock ron,” but it is very important.  It means “NO” and it generally seems to work.

Next, we visited the 3,500 year old palace of Hatshepsut, a queen who masqueraded as a man so she could be ruler.  Intrigue, murder, incest.  These folks made for some really good stories and gossip.  It was supposed to be a photo stop, but no, we walked on, climbing many stairs going higher and higher up the mountain.  I am the escort, so I have to go where the group goes.  It was getting warm and I was dead tired.

We took the water taxi back across the Nile to the hotel.  There was time for a shower, buffet lunch, and then it was back on the bus for the three hour ride back to the ship.  I didn’t think this ride could be any bumpier than the trip coming, but it was.  It was so bumpy – how bumpy was it? – it was so bumpy, I couldn’t even knit!  Besides, I was worn out from lots of walking, climbing stairs, romping over ruins, and lack of sleep. 

The crew was out on the dock welcoming the weary traveler’s home with cold towels, a drink, and loud music.  Michael’s bus was the last one in.  Since he is an escort, he was the last off the bus.  Last off the bus, last one to check back on the ship.  The crew pulled in the gear, the captain started the engines, and off we took toward Jordan.

I must get some sleep for tomorrow we have another adventure.

Sailing through Pirate Alley

We have picked up four security personnel (ex-special services) to accompany us through the four sea days through the Gulf of Aden, aka Pirate Alley.  These guys will be armed!  After we left our last port in Oman, a ship rendezvoused with our ship to load the “equipment” these guys need.  We will offload the “equipment” before we reach Egyptian waters.

"Foxy" wouldn't let me hold it; but I could touch it!

Tonight, after bridge, we sat on the pool deck and watched as our wonderful security guys scouted the ocean deep for pirates.  We saw lots of cargo ships and as I was talking with "Foxy," he got a call on the radio.  Suspicious inflatable boats were seen off the starboard bow.  There were three of them cruising around at high speed.  And then there were six of them!  They came close but I bet our guys showed them what we had.  They backed off and went away.  Yes, folks, those dimwits are out there just waiting to try and take another ship.  They would be bigger idiots if they tried to mess with us.  Another Seabourn ship had been fired on a while ago, but the pirates were chased away.  You may not recently hear about pirates in the news, but I am here to tell you they are here.  All is well as our guys are on the job 24/7.

In other news, you may recall that my right hand has been bothering me.  It is still swollen and my two middle fingers hurt so I have to be careful how I use my hand.  If that wasn’t enough, I woke up this morning with a red, throbbing and painful thumb on my left hand.  I went to see the doctor and I am on antibiotics for an infection.  He cannot inject the right hand while I am on antibiotics.  So both my hands are hurting.  In all the years I have been cruising up until now, I have never had to see a doctor.  I hope I can make it home in one piece!

I am praying that my knees hold up for the arduous journeys ahead.  

Oman

We have had three stops in Oman.  What a difference between the northern, middle and southern parts of the country.  For a country that was so progressive in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, ruling the seas, Oman found itself in a 20th-century descent into international oblivion, under Sultan Said bin Taimur.  The country remained resolutely locked and bolted against the inevitable encroachments of the outside world until 1970.  Under the auspices of a progressive leader, Sultan Qaboos, the country has started to modernize.  Hospital beds increased from 12 to 3,000; children in school went from 900 to a quarter of a million; there were only six miles of paved roads in the entire country and now there are thousands.  Can you believe in the modern age that this can be???  This Sultan is beloved by the people.  He has given them education, electricity and roads to link the cities to each other and to the UAE.  As living conditions improved, so did the economy. 

The population of Oman is about three million people.  Oil is the main income, but it is a small producer compared to other gulf states.  They also have natural gas and make cement.  Fishing is still the primary business for the coastal cities; they grow dates (120 varieties), figs and olives inland.  Villagers get subsidies from the government to stay in the village, rather than crowd the cities with unskilled people. 

There are beautiful beaches and Oman is just getting into the resort and tourism business.  There was a Hilton and Crown Plaza; you can have alcohol here at the resort places, but nowhere else.  Locals don’t really go to the beach, and if they do, women have to swim fully covered up.  What a drag.  Most of the houses we saw were khaki in color – to blend in with the dirt.    There are high walls around the houses so the women can go outside without having to put on the abaya and hijab – how nice is that!   According to one guide, women don’t have to worry about anything but taking care of the kids and hubby.  A male relative or husband is responsible for her.  Grrrrr…….

There is no income tax, education is free, and most people work for the government (you know – security, high salary).  Families live in multi-generational houses, and each family has on average six kids.  Women in the north don’t have to cover their faces while women in the south do.  Starting in 5^th grade, the girls and boys are separated in school.  Water is obtained from desalinization plants. 

The cemeteries were quite unusual.  They were nothing but rocky hills, with a large rock protruding upward to indicate a grave.  The dead are buried within 3-4 hours and women are not allowed at the gravesite.  They body is turned so that it faces Mecca.

Cemetery

Khasab

This harsh landscape of barren rocks and chiseled limestone mountains made me feel like I was on the moon.   How in the world can anything or anyone exists in this hot and desolate region?  Summer temperatures range from 113° to 125°.

Desolate landscape

Living in the middle of nowhere

Khasab is a city in an exclave of Oman and is dubbed the "Norway of Arabia."  This tiny area on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula is not connected to the rest of the country.  When the UAE was created, this area was given the choice to go with the UAE or with Oman.  They chose Oman.  The Portuguese built Khasab at the beginning of the 17th century at the height of their naval presence in the region. The natural harbor gave shelter from tough seas. Unlike many forts, which were built on high ground for defensive purposes, Khasab was designed as a supply point for dates and water for Portuguese ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.   We visited this restored fort.

Restored fort we visited

Access to the area by land was virtually impossible due to the mountainous geography until a modern coast road was built and completed in 2001.  It took five years to build and all the guys on the tour were oooohing and aaaahing over it.  The curvy road twists up and down the side of mountains and along the sea.  I have to admit that it was definitely an engineering marvel.

The wild and twisty new road

Khasab has an interesting trading position, which hinges on its proximity to Iran, which is just 31 miles across the Strait of Hormuz.  Iranians import sheep and goats into the local port, where the animals are dispatched to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in trucks. On their return trip to the Islamic Republic, the sailors load their boats up with electronic goods and American cigarettes, arriving in Khasab after sunrise and leaving before sunset to conform to Omani immigration laws. Since the trading is illegal under Iranian law, they must avoid the Islamic Republic's coast guard as well as all other shipping in the busy waters of the Strait of Hormuz. The 2-hour crossing is hazardous since the vessels, piled high either with livestock or with numerous boxes must avoid the path of the scores of oil-tankers which pass through the Strait in a transverse direction daily.  This is called smuggling, but is tolerated by the Omanis as it produces revenue.

We then travelled back along the twisty road and went to see another old Portuguese fort near the city center, the Bukha Fort, that dated from 1624.  They had turned this fort into a museum representing life before 1970.   It was quite warm today, but not too uncomfortable.  I got my hackles up when discussing the treatment of women and girls.  I cannot fathom having to wear a black sack over myself just to keep men from “unpure thoughts.”  I was wearing shorts, and although I’m not great looking in shorts, Michael said the men were leering at us women.  It was a very uncomfortable feeling.  Women pray separately from men because if a man was facing a woman’s backside when they get down to pray, how could that man have pure thoughts to pray?  I think the men are sexually perverted if everything about a woman reminds them of “unpure thoughts.”  Just saying.  Plus, they are allowed to take four wives.  I would think that one would be enough trouble to deal with!

Bukha Fort

Bukha Fort

Summer House

The place to keep prisoners; me with my trusty notebook

We had a short ride around town, and there was nothing to see.  So back to the ship for a dip in the pool.

Muscat

Day 2 of our stop in Oman was to the capital of the country, Muscat.  This is a very attractive looking town hemmed in by mountains and the Arabian Sea. 

By the beginning of the 16th century, Muscat was a trading port used by merchant ships bound for India.  The Portuguese conquered the town in 1507.  City walls were constructed at this time but neither they nor the two Portuguese forts of Mirani and Jalali could prevent the Omani reconquest of the town in 1650. Muscat became the capital of Oman in 1793.  The wall stands today and its four gates are used to regulate traffic.

Fort over the city

We had been here about three years ago and I remember the souk, and the time and temperature sign.  Last time the temperature was a toasty 119° at 10:30 am.  Today it was only a cool 95° at 11 am.  We did not take any excursions and elected to take the shuttle into town for a walk-about (so many Aussies on board) and go to the Mutrah Souk.  The souk has narrow walkways with small stores on each side brimming with pashmina shawls and beaded jewelry.  Vendors try to “entice” you into their stores by shoving a shawl in your face.  At least they didn’t follow us and got the message that I was not interested.  There wasn’t much I was interested in buying and Michael was happy to get out of there.  

So we came out a back entrance and found ourselves on a street that makes custom dresses and dishdashas (the long nightshirts the men wear).  We kept on walking, hoping to find the sultan’s palace, which the local rep who came on board said was “only a 30 minute walk.”  Again, DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE WHO SAYS IT IS ONLY A……. We walked and walked and it got hotter and hotter, and I said who cares about seeing a palace, I AM DONE.  So we walked back to the shuttle, dripping wet, and did the only sane thing…. Jumped in the pool.  BTW, the palace was probably four or five miles from where we started!

Salalah

This was the most interesting of the three stops in Oman.  It is in the extreme south of the country, near Yemen on the Arabian Sea.  The coastal landscape is flat, colored in shades of beige, grey and brown.  Between towns or villages, there was vast nothingness except for camels.  There was a lot of building going on, but many of the buildings of Moorish or Arabian architecture and walkways looked like they were crumbling.  Mountains rise sharply up from the flatlands, and are covered in trees and brush that look dead.  Our guide said that when the monsoons come in the summer (June – Sept), the mountains turn green.  The temperatures in summer range in the 125° plus range in the desert, while the mountains are a cool 80° with rain. 

Vast emptiness between towns

Buildings that are partially completed

Trees and bushes look dead or burned

There are different customs in the coastal and mountain areas.  Marriages are arranged in the coastal areas because in the cities, men cannot meet women so they need a mom or sister to introduce them to a friend.  The girl’s family will invite the man’s family to meet each other, but the man cannot see the girl’s face but they can talk.  If she likes the man, she smiles and then they get married.  How would you like it if your sister said I have a great girlfriend for you to meet, but secretly she looks like Dracula.  Cool joke if you hate your brother!  In the mountains, everyone knows everyone. 

Coastal people fish and mountain people raise camels, goats, and cows.  They also farm coconuts, bananas, and papayas.  The big crop is Frankincense, which is very popular here and is considered a most precious gift.  In ancient times, it was one of the highest tributes one could offer.  It comes from the Dhofar region.  The gummy sap flows from incisions cut in the tree trunks; it hardens into dark amber or golden color lumps which burn easily thanks to their high oil content.  It is used in perfumes, for embalming, in religious rites, to keep mosquitoes away and to freshen the air (although I think it stinks).  We stopped at a souk that sold nothing but Frankincense and the hats that the men wear. 

Frankincense Souk

We began our journey on a nice freeway that had camels near the road, on the road, and along the side of the road as we climbed up a steep and windy road into the mountains (the bus could barely make it up – I thought we might have to get out and push).  These are domesticated camels, like our cows.  If you hit a camel on the road during the daytime, you have to pay for it; so do it at night and you get off scott free.  As a matter of fact, there are just too many camels here and they are trying to get rid of them because they are destroying the land; they eat them, they sell them and ship them to other countries like Australia and Saudi Arabia. 

The plan was to have lunch at a camel ranch in the mountains.  The weather was pleasant.  The first thing everyone did after alighting from the bus was to get pictures of the camels.  You would have thought that we had never seen one.  They were very close.  We had to be very careful where we walked because the camels are not very fussy about where they poop, which was everywhere.  After grabbing some shots, we were ready to eat lunch.

Camels on side of the road

Camels at Camp Camelpoop were pretty tame

Isn't she cute!

Lunch was provided and consisted of samposa, chicken and rice, fresh fruit, hummus, bananas, and a mushroom dish.  Since we didn’t know what to expect before we left, we packed a lunch.  I was a little worried about eating something that I didn’t know how and under what conditions it was prepared (it actually came out of a cooler in the back of the guide’s car).  Well, we did imbibe and I must say it was DELICIOUS. 

Lunch at Camp Camelpoop

We called this LUNCH AT CAMP CAMELPOOP.

Morry decided to eat by himself on a log with his own food.  A curious cow came by and decided to share his lunch.  The cow got a bit demanding and Morry took off, leaving his bag there.  Well, old Bessie got her nose in the bag and rooted around before the guide shooed her off.  Hope she enjoyed her snack.

After lunch, we headed back down the hill and went to the Sumhuram archeological site, a UNESCO heritage site.  This ancient port city was constructed around 300BC and was important because the Frankincense was loaded here for export to Damascus, Egypt and Jerusalem.   

Ruins

Looking out over the silted entrance to the harbor

Who lived in this room?

View of beachside resort

We then drove to town and stopped at a Bed and Breakfast that was owned by the man who brought our lunch.  It was located right on a beautiful beach.  This was for a refreshment stop that consisted of instant coffee or instant tea.  I was really hoping to have some local sweet treat to try.

We drove by the sultan’s palace and spent some time at the Frankincense souk before returning, exhausted, to the ship.

Gate to Sultan's Palace; he did not invite us in