Meeting still more friends in Dubai.

On Friday we met up with Wajid, a friend from home who was on a nine hour flight stop over. Yet again, we’ve crossed paths with friends in the most unlikely of places.

Wajid, after overnight duties in England and then a nine hour flight was in need of sustenance so we popped to a local eatery for some breakfast.

Not having enough time to queue for a trip to the top of the Burj Khalifa we went instead to …………..

…….. the Aquarium in the Dubai Mall.  You can walk in a glass tube through the middle of the tank. The array of fish is amazing – all seeming to get along with each other!

The sharks probably get the most attention  ………..

…….. but the little Moray Eels are so cute!

Wajid and Doug in front of the feeding cage – no comments!

It was quite amazing to get so close to those teeth!

Talking of teeth – a whole tank of Pyrana.

Still more teeth – this time, the biggest crocodile you could ever imagine.  He used to live in Cairns, Australia but his nightly strolls into the local neighbourhood weren’t much appreciated by those who lived there.  They are now very grateful that the Dubai aquarium has given him a good home. He’s a salt water croc and at the moment he’s 35 – 40 years old and over 5 metres in length. Weighing in at between 750 and 800 kg we’re told he has the potential for much more growth over the next 50+ years of his life.  By the way, he’s happily married!

This morning (Saturday) the view from our hotel room window ……..

….. was rather marred by an awful plume of black smoke. Later we found out it was a fire in a Souk on the other side of The Creek.

Today we headed for The Creek, which divides Deira from Dubai and, on the way, found breakfast in a super little (only two tables!) eating house where we were warmly welcomed by the local artisans and workforce.  We enjoyed savoury and sweet pastries and very sweet coffee – the chap whose table we were invited to share proudly explaining the ingredients of each morsel.

Getting down The Creek, which is only 500 yards from the hotel, we found an exciting scene of mayhem with dozens of dhows carting locals and tourists back and forth across the river.  The fast flow of the river causes the incoming dhows to crash into the outgoing dhows – like this! Nobody cares – it’s all part of life’s pattern.

The dhows are built with very heavy timber (very necessary) and they have very large and noisy engines to help them against the flow of the river.  It was a terrific ride upstream to the Gold Souk where we crashed heavily into the jetty before being able to leap ashore. 

In the Gold Souk they have the world’s largest gold ring – weighing in at over 84 kg.  The jeweller’s shop was heavily manned but certainly not enough to guard 84 kg of gold we wouldn’t have thought! It looked superb but probably not the real thing.

Just occasionally this old part of the city throws up the most amazing buildings – this mosque is entirely covered in mosaic.

Later in the afternoon we made a visit to the Dubai Museum, which is directly opposite the hotel. The ancient Al Fahidi Fort forming part of the museum has been well restored and with a large and very clever series of exhibits housed underground the entrance fee of 3 dirham (£1) represented great value.

There’s a lovely reconstruction of a ancient fishing dhow (the are so many special names for the many different shapes and sizes) above the museum which we look out of from our hotel window.

The temperature has been in edging towards the high 20’s today and James has lost his sunglasses and cap (!) but there’s a fair degree of shade to be had so all’s not lost.  There’s so much more of Dubai to investigate ………

Now it’s Dubai, as we disembark QM2.

We left Khor Fakkal on Wednesday evening with the surrounding mountains looking absolutely splendid.

As an aside – we’ve been extoling the virtues of the wonderful Hazel Stewart, (Events manager) who’s done such a lot for us during our cruise – well here she is!  Definitely a rose between two thorns!

Waking up in Dubai on Thursday morning to a very hazy atmosphere there were two special points of reference for photos – firstly (in the distance) we could just make out the funnel and some of the superstructure of the beloved old QE2.  We’re informed she’s now just lingering in her berth with nothing happening to her.

Secondly, the futuristic and spectacular skyline of Dubai looking very dramatic through the haze.

Catching the shuttle from the cruise terminal and ending up in the Dubai Mall 45 minutes later we had a walk around until we realised we could carry on walking forever and not see it all.  Not being great shoppers (well Doug isn’t!) we quickly treated ourselves to an iPad in the sales and then rested up with a superb coffee. The gargantuan aquarium is quite spectacular and most of it can be seen from the shopping mall without paying to go in.

Next to the Dubai Mall is the vast area of water in front of the vast Burj Khalifa.  It’s the tallest building in the world and every single foot of it says so!  James thinks it’s the most beautiful building he’s ever seen – it’s sheer size and simplicity of design has just about reached perfection and you just can’t stop looking at it.

Other buildings surrounding “The Burj” are also very beautiful ……..

……….. and very inspiring.

Other construction around the lake is more traditional and much more on a human scale.

We are not quite sure of the timings but the dancing fountains in the lake started at 1:30pm.  The main performances take place after dark and and we’re looking forward to seeing them again.

Perhaps a better pic. of The Burj Khalifa with a few palms thrown in to soften the edges.

Although we were spending our last night on QM2 on Thursday we popped in to check on the hotel which will be our home for next four nights. Now - due to a hiccup in communications we could not make contact with two canal boat friends who we knew we would overlap in Dubai for this one day.  Cosmic coincidence can be the only explanation why Ian and Irene (nb Free Spirit) walked through the hotel door within 5 minutes of us leaving to go back to the ship! Our shrieks of delight and surprise as the four of us spied each other brought stares from everyone in the hotel. Ian and Irene have been staying in the hotel for the last few days (just as we are doing) between their cruise and flying home. Our plans for the rest of the evening came to an abrupt end as all settled in for a drink and a long chat.

Another pic. (spot the difference!) just to capture the momentousness of the meeting.

Eventually getting back to our “home” for the very last night, we found QM2 (at last!) in the perfect position for a photo.  It couldn’t have been better, with the sunset behind and with her lights on she looked absolutely brilliant.  A few days ago we were very fortunate to get a ‘back of house’ tour of this fantastic liner.  There is another world, just as large as the one the passengers occupy, within this ship and it was an enormous privilege to be able to see so much behind the scenes. Just seeing lights behind the holes where the ropes disappear reminds us that we’ve been in that rope room!

Well, it’s au revoir QM2 – our home for the last month. After more than 6000 miles we leave her to continue her World Voyage as we look forward to a few more days in Dubai.

Muscat and Khor Fakkan.

Life on the ocean wave over the last few days has been great fun (as always) with much going on both inside and out on deck.

The Champagne / cocktail parties just don’t stop – here’s Doug, at the Cunard World Club cocktail party with Henry Wasserfall, Guest Services Manager who, with Hazel Stewart, has made a host of special things happen for us on this cruise.

We were invited by friends to visit them in one of the Royal Suits which have a great view at the front of the ship ………

……. and while we were there we had a good view of one of the very impressive vessels which form part of the security cover and keep us safe in the dangerous waters.

Socialising goes on well after midnight usually.  Here’s Doug with one of the most glamorous and gracious ladies on the ship – Glenda, from Texas, a spritely, fun loving lady heading towards a major birthday with a very high number. 

We’ve been taking part in a decathlon event over the last week at the end of which we enjoyed a Champagne fuelled presentation ceremony.  Here’s the winning team and surprisingly (as with the recent “Olympics” event) we were in it!

Even more Champagne (well, it’s rude not to accept the invitations!) – this time for elite Cunard travellers (a club to which we do not belong but we had an invitation none-the-less). We’re with Chris Hamilton, the very talented guest pianist on this leg of the cruise. 

After 10 days at sea we eventually managed to get our feet on terra firma when we arrived at Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman on Tuesday. We had a very pleasant and relaxed mooch about this ancient port ……

……. visiting the huge Souk was a great experience with the most amazing array of things on offer.

Like always, we enjoy wandering away from the tourist areas a bit and into the areas where the locals do their shopping.

There was a lot of interesting architecture in the old city and the colours of some of the buildings were really beautiful.

We spent the day in Muscat with George McGhee, the ship’s guest speaker on films and film stars.

Doug decided he’d like to look more like one of the locals – so he had a head dress fitted!

Afternoon tea – and here’s George with “a local?”

We met up with fellow passenger Patrick Anthony, now retired but well known for his early presentation of “Ready Steady Cook” and reading the news.  Here we are,  George, Patrick, some local resident of Muscat(!) and James on the roof terrace of the Marina Hotel ………

……… with a wonderful panorama view of the harbour and city.

Zooming in a bit we got a good view of the Sultan of Oman’s new yacht.  His old one (just as nice!) is still in the harbour. The yacht came out to sea to greet us this morning and escorted us into port. We guess the Sultan knew about it!

The skyline of the city from the Marina Hotel terrace ………

…….. and – it’s not really a local of Muscat, it’s Doug.

Today (Wednesday) we arrived in Khor Fakkan, UAE.  The emirate of Sharjah imposes a total ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol but that didn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves.  We climbed aboard a bus laid on by the Oceanic Hotel and, for a very reasonable fee, had full use of the pool facilities and their beach ………

…….. and a splendid buffet lunch.  Here’s our little group of cruising friends - Fran, Geoff, Glenn, Pam and Doug having an air-conditioned break from the heat outside.

As we’re learning, everything in the UAE seems to be cleaned and polished to perfection and very nice everything is too.  We had a great day getting a good tan in the sunshine and swimming in the warm waters of the sea and the pool before returning to the ship.

We’re coming to the end of our cruise as we’ll be berthing in Dubai tomorrow.  It’s been a month since we embarked in New York and a lot of water has passed under the hull since then.  Hopefully we haven’t put on any weight but we have four days in Dubai before being able to weigh ourselves back home!