DUBAI--DAY 1

Sunday, April 21st
     We were sailing in the Persian Gulf this morning for our arrival into Dubai.  We sailed past many oil tankers of various sizes.  We went down to the Compass Rose restaurant for a Sunday breakfast with caviar.  After that at 10am we went to our interdenominational church service lead by our Cruise Director, Ray Solaire.  Then we went to the gym for our workout.  After returning to our suite I noticed we were approaching Dubai so went up on top deck to take a few photos.  Unfortunately, it is a very hazy day so not sure how the photos will come out.  Just now back from lunch and will be leaving soon as we have scheduled 4 hour tour, "Discover Dubai", that begins at 2:00pm.  It is 99 degrees right now so will be a warm afternoon.  The tour buses look to be very nice and will be air conditioned.  I will attach photos tonight.

                                                           Sailing into Dubai

                                            Hazy day so photos may not be that good.

                                  Burj Khalifa, 2722 feet high and tallest building in the world

                                       Again, Burj Khalifa, Khalifa Tower named after one of the Sheiks

                                            The new part of Dubai built in last 15 years.

QE II, Queen Elisabeth II, was to be tourist attraction here but fell through so may be moved to Singapore.

                                                 Liquefied petroleum gas ship

                                             There were lots of mosques in Dubai

                                The thing that impressed us most was the VERY clean streets.

 Burj al Arab (Tower of Arabs) is a 60 story hotel.  Cheapest room is $3000 per night.  You cannot go to the hotel unless you have a reservation for breakfast, lunch, tea, or dinner.  Breakfast costs $195 per person and dinner costs $295 per person.  You definitely won't see us there!

                       The guy who took our photo knows nothing about composition of photos.

                                                        Built to look like a sail.

                   Compared to the countries in Southeast Asia, the homes here are great.

                                                   Skyline photos of "new" Dubai.

                                                      Interesting museum

                                         Hotel guy hailing a cab in front of hotel.

                                                         Soug is a market

                                             Gold market with hundreds of jewelry shops

                                                   This corridor had souvenirs.

                                            Next few photos are of spice market shops.

     So it is now 10:30pm here on Sunday and we are back from dinner.  I got photos on blog prior to dinner and just now added the narrative so will publish today's posting.  We had a great day.  The thing that impressed us most is how clean Dubai is.  Bed time for Bonzo, that's me, so more tomorrow.

https://goo.gl/photos/TNRDqYMstkik8e4A8

CRUISING ARABIAN SEA--DAY 2

Saturday, April 20th

          Allow me to tell you a little about our next destination, Dubai, as I will be busy with touring once we arrive there tomorrow at 11am.  Forgive me, but I have copied some photos so you will know what I am talking about.  I will hopefully get my own photos of these sites in the next couple of days.
     Dubai is one of the 7 emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates and is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula.  The population is 2.1 million making it the most populous of the 7 emirates.  Dubai is the 22nd most expensive city in the world and most expensive city in the Middle East.  Historically, its economy is built on the oil industry, now its main revenues are derived from tourism, real estate, and financial services.  Now skyscrapers and high rise buildings dominate the city's skyline. .  Amazingly, only 17% of the people here are Emirati.  Most of the rest of the people were brought in from Southeast Asian countries to work for them in hotel services, construction, and other menial jobs.  Dubai was under the protection of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1971, when the United Arab Emirates was formed.  Oil was discovered here in 1966 and is projected to be exhausted within the next 20 years.  Dubai provided refueling bases to the allied forces during the Gulf War.  We are expecting the temperature to be in the mid 90's and humidity around 50% for our visit here.  Dubai has over 70 malls including the world's largest, Dubai Mall.  It is known as being "the shopping capital of the Middle East".  Hopefully, Rebecca will not read this until after we leave on Monday.  There is a snow skiing center in the new Mall of the Emirates so you can ski year round for about $60 for a two hour pass.

Pictured below is Burj Khalifa, (Khalifa Tower) which is the tallest building in the world at 2722 feet high.  Construction on it was completed in 2010.



















Pictured above is the Burj al Arab (Tower of the Arabs).  It's construction was completed in 1999 and bills itself as the world's only 7-star hotel.  It was constructed to appear like the sail of a Dhow, a type of Arabian sailing vessel.  It is built on a man-made island 900 feet off shore.  Very expensive hotel with Royal Suite going for $28,000 per night.  Our tour will be making a photo stop here tomorrow.  You cannot go to the hotel itself unless you have a hotel or dinner reservation there.

     Now for what is happening today.  It is now 1230pm and Captain on noon report said it was 81 degrees outside today with a very hazy, sunny day.  A naval patrol ship just past us heading opposite direction about two miles out on port side.  I found out last night that, although it has not been announced, we do have some ex-Israeli commandos on board.  We had a team of 4 when going around Africa in 2010 on our world cruise.  We have finished our workout and now waiting for our chicken caesar salads from room service for lunch.
     Last night we had a wonderful dinner with Goren, Food & Beverage Manager.  He had also invited Anna, the head of housekeeping to join the table.  The spouses of the other two couples were sick so staying in their suites.  We both had prime rib that was probably the best I have ever had.  After dinner we sat on the front row for the wonderful production show.  This is third time we have seen this show since Beijing but love the dancers and singers.

                      Dinner last night:  L to R--Kalman, Anna, me, Carol, Goren, & Rebecca.

Food & Beverage manager, Goren, with Rebecca

                                      Crina, Asst F&B mgr, and Anna, head of housekeeping

                                                Dennis, one of our favorite waiters.
     This evening is another "block party" in our hallway outside our door.  Will meet our new neighbors on this hall.  I just opened the balcony door to go out and take a photo of a military helicopter flying over the ship and our smoke detector went off due to the high humidity coming in the room.  I called and asked the bridge to reset it.  We had reservations this evening at the steakhouse, Prime 7.  Our friends, Joe & Allison, (who are now in a suite directly below us) called and asked us to join them and Katja, the head of the ship's tour department, for dinner in Sette Mari.  I initially said no due to Prime 7 reservations but called them back and accepted.  At noon I got our Prime 7 cancelled and a new one made for 22nd.
     Swells not as bad this afternoon so not a bad ride again.  At about 4am tomorrow we will be passing through the Strait of Hormuz (red arrow).  20% of the world's oil supply passes through here making it a highly important strategic location for international trade.  Iran, lately, has been threatening shipping through it.  Because it is so narrow and there are a lot of ships passing through it, the is a "Traffic Separation Scheme".  There is a 2 mile wide lane for in coming traffic and a 2 mile lane for outgoing traffic.  We will be in the Persian Gulf until next Wednesday evening visiting Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi.


https://goo.gl/photos/DbbHcT86d9MwZiRD6

CRUISING ARABIAN SEA--DAY 1

Friday, April 19th
     I added two new postings today:  Mumbai-Day 2 and this one.  I am caught up again.

     Good to be back at sea after several days in Sri Lankan and Indian ports.  You kind of get burnt out on taking tours every day.  So as you see we are in the Arabian Sea now heading for Dubai and are scheduled to arrive there at 11am on Sunday.  It is another smooth day sailing today.  We have really been fortunate so far with the sea conditions and weather.  Only one rainy day so far and rest sunny but pretty warm.  In today's posting I want to give you some impressions of our cruise so far and talk about the ship's security precautions for the part of the world we are entering now.
IMPRESSIONS:  Nothing is perfect but Regent is about as close as a cruise line can get.  The Voyager is much smaller than the "mega" ships of the more traditional cruise lines, ie, Princess, RCL.  There are 700 passengers and a crew of 450 so it is more intimate.  We try to call the crew members we see often by their names as they seem to know us.  For a long time I could not figure out how crew members that we had not met knew our names.  Then someone told me.  If you are nice and treat the crew with respect, they will go to screens down in crew area and look up your names by our photos.  (We are photographed when we initially board so security can check us every time we reboard the ship when in ports.  They swipe our room key card and our photo appears.)  On other cruise lines you are rarely called by name.  We have sailed with many of the crew on our other cruises with Regent and they always remember us, just as we also remember them.  Guess what I am trying to say is we feel at home here.  Same with some passengers who we know from previous cruises.  We just last night ran into a couple who just boarded yesterday that was on our South America cruise last year.  I would say we know 30 or more couples now aboard who we have cruised previously with.  We tend to socialize with this group but add others as we meet interesting people.  For example we knew everyone on our tour bus yesterday in Mumbai as we arranged with the ship's tour person to be on it together.  Now for my thoughts on Sri Lanka and India.  Sorry if I am blunt.  Ok, about the only good thing I can say is the people there were very friendly.  They are dirty countries.  Trash on the streets, in the rivers, everywhere.  I never saw one attractive woman in those countries.  I now know why they wear saris, it's to cover their big, ugly bellies.  Rebecca says that is due to their high carbs diet.  They eat very little protein.  Glad to see the countries once but we have no desire to return.  New guests keep asking us what our favorite port has been so far.  This is very difficult to answer as each one is so different.  If I had to pick just one, I would have to say Beijing.  Seeing and standing on the Great Wall was incredible.  Other notable ports were: Shanghai, Bangkok, Halong Bay in Vietnam, and Phuket.  I think Thailand is my favorite country in Southeast Asia.  Daily life aboard the ship when at sea is very simple for us.  We always go to the gym for an hour workout.  Sandra Bowern usually has an hour lecture on the part of the world we are about to be visiting.  She is EXCELLENT and I call her a walking encyclopedia.  Today's lecture and slide show was on the magnificent buildings we will be seeing in the Mideast.  Can't wait to photograph them for you.  We have lately been having room service bring us a salad for lunch.  Going up to the buffet is just too tempting and I eat more than I need.  Besides I can work on the blog during lunch.  There are tons of scheduled activities for all interests during sea days but we just enjoy relaxing.  When not in ports the shops and casino are open also.
SHIP'S SECURITY:  We have entered an area known as a "High Risk Area" (HRA) for piracy here in the north Arabian Sea.  There have only been 4 acts of attempted piracy this year, way down from over 100 for each of the past two years.  Still, Regent and our Captain is taking no chances.  Cruise ships are not a prime target for the pirates, because of their high sides (from water level to promenade deck) and the high speed cruise ships can do.  The US and British navy patrol ships know our exact position at all times and are ready to send assets if needed.  At 10am we first had a 30 minute security drill followed by the normal life boat/emergency drill.  The Captain described over the PA as the drill progressed what steps were being taken by the crew.  If an unidentified ship comes with 3 miles of us the we will go on "yellow" alert.  It was very reassuring knowing all the steps that are being taken with each stage.  If they cannot contact the unidentified boat, we will alter our course to see if the come after us.  If so, we will go to "orange" level and Coalition forces will be notified that we have a definite threat.  If they continue to close on us we will go to "red".  All passengers and crew, except those assigned to defend the ship, will go to interior hallways and lie down.  Our ship will be doing evasive maneuvers and standing will be almost impossible.  They want us in interior spaces in case of breaking windows from bullets or rockets.  As I showed you, we have water cannons on both sides of our ship.  In addition on the rear of the ship there is a "LRAD", high frequency noise producing radar-like piece of equipment that can render anyone approaching us in a boat unable to fight.  I just went back and took some photos of our defensive devices.

                  LRAD, high frequency noise beam can be emitted to render bad guys useless.

                                            This will be manned if a threat is detected.

                     A crew member was testing the water cannon mounted on back of the ship.

One of ship's security personnel stationed on back of ship to keep watch.  They will be there day and night for next couple of weeks.

While I was there he spotted a small boat in distance and radioed the bridge.  At our speed it was not a threat.

                                                 Ship's wake.  Our speed today is 18 kts.
With all these plans and procedures we feel completely safe.  Much safer than if we were in Boston or West.  Even an Indian yesterday was talking to me and said he was so sorry for what was happening in Boston.  There was a bombing at train station by terrorists in Bombay back in 2008, you may recall.
     I better go workout.  Tonight is Captain's Welcome aboard party and dinner again for the new guests (and us of course).  It is again a formal night so got to pull out the tux.  We have been invited to dine at the Food & Beverage Manager's table.  Always fun to get together with our friend, Goren.

https://goo.gl/photos/3urvE8CJpteVCvet6