Live from the Cloud - Sailing Arabia Deserta from Muscat to Athens

[Fletcher]

Journal 1: Salaam Alaikum

 

I am slightly astonished to say, here we are in Muscat, the low-key and low-rise capital of the Sultanate of Oman.  And not only that, we are staying Silversea’s Simply Hotel, the Shangri-La Al Husn Resort.  Our spacious room has a pool and ocean view, a lovely balcony and all the trimmings.  While the other two hotels of this huge resort area look rather like 3-star package blocks on the Costa Brava, the Al Husn has tried a little harder with a stunning lobby, courtyard and pool area.  The surrounding landscape is  deeply scarred rocky abrasions.

 

This is our starting point for a 25-day expedition cruise aboard the Silver Cloud which will take us around the Arabian peninsula, through the Suez Canal, to Athens.  I fancied this trip on the day it was announced because it was an unusual, possibly unique itinerary, visiting the little known African nation of Djibouti, followed by five ports in Saudi Arabia, then the Canal and across the eastern Med.

 

We dithered for a month or two before booking because, as keen gardeners, this is a bad time of year to be away.  Missing the English asparagus season was hard to bear.  But having secured the services of our neighbour, who will keep our tomatoes alive, we went ahead and booked it.   We thought, what the heck, we are saving thousands just by not turning the oven on to cook that asparagus. The fact that we will miss King Charles’s fancy dress parade and the rather less campy Eurovision Song Contest does not bother us in the slightest.

 

Another concern was the weather in Arabia.  In April and May, most denizens of this part of the world pack their Bentleys and Ferraris into containers and send them to Belgravia for a few months of tyre screeching around Harrods.   Meanwhile, mad Silversea people like us pack pith helmets and a grin-and-bear-it attitude and prepare to be roasted alive on the shifting sands, served with slivered almonds, plumptous dates and couscous.  A famous Noël Coward ditty springs to mind - ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen.’  You must remember that.

 

Since booking last November we have watched the itinerary undergo as many changes as a chameleon’s skin.   If you are itinerary driven like me, if you are a bit of a list ticker like me, if you have already worked out your fancy camera angles like me, even if you have written your blog in advance, you will come to dread another email from Barbara Muckermann saying sorry we are not going there anymore.  The last email was only four days ago.  While we think Silversea’s destinations department have made the best of an undoubtedly tricky situation by being genuinely creative with their excursion programme, we think the uncertainty might have forced some prospective passengers to jump ship. And maybe the lack of alcohol in Saudi waters might be a factor as well. We have been told there will only be 150 intrepid souls on board.

 

This is a fickle and dangerous part of the world, so that’s another deterrent if Captain Phillips gave you the jitters. We expect an armed escort at certain points along the way, possibly a British gunboat commanded by a descendent of Jack Hawkins, and while the war in Yemen seems now to be reaching a permanent ceasefire another war, in Sudan, has suddenly popped up to replace it.   From the pinch point on the accursed  Horn of Africa right up to the Egyptian border, we are sailing the gauntlet.  This Silversea cruise promises to be quite an adventure.  Stick around and I’ll tell you all about it on a roughly daily basis.

 

[spinnaker2]

Looking forward to hearing about your adventures. 

Also looking up your address so I can venture into your asparagus patch. I will keep it weeded.

:-))

 

 

[TLCOhio]

28 minutes ago, Fletcher said:

We expect an armed escort at certain points along the way, possibly a British gunboat commanded by a descendent of Jack Hawkins, and while the war in Yemen seems now to be reaching a permanent ceasefire another war, in Sudan, has suddenly popped up to replace it.   From the pinch point on the accursed  Horn of Africa right up to the Egyptian border, we are sailing the gauntlet.  This Silversea cruise promises to be quite an adventure.  Stick around and I’ll tell you all about it on a roughly daily basis.

 

Appreciate your great opening summary and comments regarding your upcoming Middle East "adventure".  Lots of new and unique ports and stops.  Looking forward to all of the details, visuals, impressions, etc.  

 

Loved Muscat and Oman from when we visited there in late 2018.  During our sailing then, we passed through these "challenged" areas and had on our ship what our Captain called "specialists" to handle certain "duties".  These folks carried special equipment, but the details were not revealed.  Clearly this is a changing and unique part of the world.  Sorry on your English gardens.  I will leave that to Spins for her expert care and supervision.  

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

From late 2018, see “Holy Lands, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Dubai, Greece, etc.”, with many visuals, details and ideas for the historic and scenic Middle East. Now at 21,764 views.  Connect at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2607054-livenautica-greece-holy-lands-egypt-dubai-terrypix’s/

[WesW]

Fletcher and Mrs. Fletcher; sincere wishes for Fair Winds and Following Seas.  Know the Cloud Expedition team led by Expedition Leader (EL), Schalk and (Assistant) AEL, Gert will work hard to help meet and even exceed your voyage expections.  Look forward to enjoying more of your eloquent posts.

[Silver Spectre]

Good luck with Djibouti, we were meant to go there years ago and then the Seabourn ship got hit by pirates and it got canned. Will be very interested to hear what it is like. As long as you are not fussed by the alcohol restrictions both Jeddah and Yanbu are interesting destinations and if the trip to St Catherine’s Monastery is offered in Sharm, it is well worth the long bus ride. Enjoy!

[RachelG]

Wow, Fletcher, I will be following along.  Looks to be a very interesting voyage. 

[HappyCamper777]

38 minutes ago, WesW said:

Know the Cloud Expedition team led by Expedition Leader (EL), Schalk and (Assistant) AEL, Gert will work hard to help meet and even exceed your voyage expections.

Good to see you're still alive!  When your Cape to Cape topic was deleted, I assumed the worst as I've never seen a forum topic disappear before.  So, do you know what happened to it?  Also, how was your Meet & Greet over in Africa?  How many attended and what does Silversea provide these days for these little events?

[WesW]

Thanks for your kind words Happy Camper 777.  We had a nice Meet & Greet (about 15 fellow guests) on the day after we left Capetown (March 29th), pls see photo.  We had drinks served by the Panorama wait staff.  Ida and I met at least a half dozen of these guests on Excursions, in the Explorer Lounge, and even  treading water (last Friday April 14th)  in one of the World's most renown beautiful beaches (Anse Lazio, in on the island of Praslin, Seychelles). 

Edited April 19, 2023 by WesW

[jpalbny]

Nice itinerary! Looking forward to your updates. 

[highplanesdrifters]

16 hours ago, WesW said:

Thanks for your kind words Happy Camper 777.  We had a nice Meet & Greet (about 15 fellow guests) on the day after we left Capetown (March 29th), pls see photo.  We had drinks served by the Panorama wait staff.  Ida and I met at least a half dozen of these guests on Excursions, in the Explorer Lounge, and even  treading water (last Friday April 14th)  in one of the World's most renown beautiful beaches (Anse Lazio, in on the island of Praslin, Seychelles). 

Ditto @HappyCamper777 sentiments. Please tell us more on another thread.

 

Sorry about the hijack Fletcher. Will be on the edge of our seats reading your much anticipated musings.

[Fletcher]

Journal 2: Embarkation Day

I was up early this morning because a photo was waiting for me.  There was a nice  symmetrical alignment at the hotel of an ornamental pool, an Arabian archway, the swimming pool and the sea beyond.  I wanted to get the Silver Cloud bang in the middle as it moseys into Muscat all the way from Mahé in the Seychelles.  One click and I got it, but only just, as the Cloud was  too far offshore to be seen in any detail.  Anyway, I thought I would show it to you.

 

I should mention that we arrived in Muscat at the end of Ramadan.  This is a time of fasting and devotion and also of celebration.  Muslims cannot eat or drink - not even water - between the sun’s daily rising and setting. Smoking is forbidden and public places like hotels cannot play music which is a blessings-be-upon-him.  For the heathen tourist, Ramadan is both culturally interesting and a minor inconvenience.  Dinner was rather strange.  At 6.30pm the hotel organised a cocktail gathering, free to all guests.  We arrived to find that everyone had to be seated at regular restaurant tables.   There was no mingling.  Wine was served and filled up at regular intervals until at 7.30pm they ceased.  There was then a 30-minute lacuna until they started serving dinner.  While those seated inside could buy alcoholic drinks to go with their food, those seated outside, on the very table where they quaffed free pinot grigio, could only drink water or fruit juice.   It was the Moslem version of what we call a Very British Compromise.

 

This morning we went back to the same restaurant and ate an absolutely historic breakfast.   We asked if we could take the whole buffet with us on the Cloud because no way could they match it.   We then inspected the hotel’s rather beautiful planting schemes as well as their attractive private beach which overlooked a rock formation called the Bandar-al-Jissah Arch.   We think this adults only hotel is somewhere we could happily return to.

 

We got aboard the ship in time for lunch.  Departure from the hotel to arrival in your cabin where our cases awaited us was a masterclass in organisation. Apparently there are 42 passengers who boarded as long ago and as far away as Puerto Williams and have already knocked off South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros and the Seychelles.  We have already discovered that they welcome us to break their tedium and they do not regard us as hostiles.  This evening there was a briefing, which was anything but brief, at which we learned there are only 15 Brits aboard and some 'seventy odd Americans.'  All of them odd?  Isn’t one of them normal?

 

We have been on the Cloud before, when we cruised the Côte d’Ordure, otherwise known as the coast of West Africa, but that was before the ship was reconfigured as an expedition vessel.  It’s old school with classical lines and shockingly small compared to the last ship were on, Seabourn Sojourn. There is one other ship here in Muscat, the MSC Poesia, and I think that is the only cruise ship we will encounter until we get into Piraeus on 15 May.   That seems a lifetime away but I know it will pass by in a flash.

 

  

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Fletcher

[TLCOhio]

1 hour ago, Fletcher said:

I was up early this morning because a photo was waiting for me.  There was a nice  symmetrical alignment at the hotel of an ornamental pool, an Arabian archway, the swimming pool and the sea beyond. We have been on the Cloud before, when we cruised the Côte d’Ordure, otherwise known as the coast of West Africa, but that was before the ship was reconfigured as an expedition vessel.  It’s old school with classical lines and shockingly small compared to the last ship were on, Seabourn Sojourn.

 

Great, classy visual.  Well worth the effort to get and post here.  Keep up the excellent sharing.  Wanting more!!  And MORE!!

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

[ronrick1943]

Look forward to reading more, thank you for taking the time to write and taking us along with you.

[RachelG]

Nice picture, Fletcher.  It is the sort I am often trying for and usually miss. 

[Daveywavey70]

8 hours ago, Fletcher said:

Journal 2: Embarkation Day

I was up early this morning because a photo was waiting for me.  There was a nice  symmetrical alignment at the hotel of an ornamental pool, an Arabian archway, the swimming pool and the sea beyond.  I wanted to get the Silver Cloud bang in the middle as it moseys into Muscat all the way from Mahé in the Seychelles.  One click and I got it, but only just, as the Cloud was  too far offshore to be seen in any detail.  Anyway, I thought I would show it to you.

 

I should mention that we arrived in Muscat at the end of Ramadan.  This is a time of fasting and devotion and also of celebration.  Muslims cannot eat or drink - not even water - between the sun’s daily rising and setting. Smoking is forbidden and public places like hotels cannot play music which is a blessings-be-upon-him.  For the heathen tourist, Ramadan is both culturally interesting and a minor inconvenience.  Dinner was rather strange.  At 6.30pm the hotel organised a cocktail gathering, free to all guests.  We arrived to find that everyone had to be seated at regular restaurant tables.   There was no mingling.  Wine was served and filled up at regular intervals until at 7.30pm they ceased.  There was then a 30-minute lacuna until they started serving dinner.  While those seated inside could buy alcoholic drinks to go with their food, those seated outside, on the very table where they quaffed free pinot grigio, could only drink water or fruit juice.   It was the Moslem version of what we call a Very British Compromise.

 

This morning we went back to the same restaurant and ate an absolutely historic breakfast.   We asked if we could take the whole buffet with us on the Cloud because no way could they match it.   We then inspected the hotel’s rather beautiful planting schemes as well as their attractive private beach which overlooked a rock formation called the Bandar-al-Jissah Arch.   We think this adults only hotel is somewhere we could happily return to.

 

We got aboard the ship in time for lunch.  Departure from the hotel to arrival in your cabin where our cases awaited us was a masterclass in organisation. Apparently there are 42 passengers who boarded as long ago and as far away as Puerto Williams and have already knocked off South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros and the Seychelles.  We have already discovered that they welcome us to break their tedium and they do not regard us as hostiles.  This evening there was a briefing, which was anything but brief, at which we learned there are only 15 Brits aboard and some 'seventy odd Americans.'  All of them odd?  Isn’t one of them normal?

 

We have been on the Cloud before, when we cruised the Côte d’Ordure, otherwise known as the coast of West Africa, but that was before the ship was reconfigured as an expedition vessel.  It’s old school with classical lines and shockingly small compared to the last ship were on, Seabourn Sojourn. There is one other ship here in Muscat, the MSC Poesia, and I think that is the only cruise ship we will encounter until we get into Piraeus on 15 May.   That seems a lifetime away but I know it will pass by in a flash.

 

  

 

Shame you missed out on that perfectly symmetrical shot, it wasn’t far off though. Looking forward to following along. 

[irvington]

Such an interesting itinerary. Look forward to following along.

[Stumblefoot]

11 hours ago, Fletcher said:

Muslims celebrate Ramadan with a bunny like Christians celebrate Easter?

[Fletcher]

6 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

Muslims celebrate Ramadan with a bunny like Christians celebrate Easter?

It's actually an ibex.  The hotel has several of these sculptures dotted around.  

[Fletcher]

Journal 3:  Dibba-di-do-da

 

Today the Cloud is standing off a place called Dibba Al-Baya, some 200 miles north of Muscat.  We are told this is Dibba’s first ever visit from a cruise ship.  Separated from the bulk of Oman by a border with two Emirates, Sharjah and Fujairah, it’s part of the Omani-run enclave of Musandam Peninsula.  All this dates back to messy historic skirmishes, rival brigands, British diplomacy and a few slapped wrists.

 

The excursion today was a zodiac ride to a pier and then an hour ’s 4X4 drive to a viewpoint and an hour back. Describing the viewpoint, our Expedition Leader conjoined two words - ‘grand’ and ‘canyon.’ People always do that. We were warned the road was bumpy and pot-holed all the way.  That sounded just like the roads in the UK so we decided to preserve our remaining cartilage by staying on the ship, have a dip in the pool, have a nice lunch, get into our novels, jettison the jet-lag.   And that is exactly what we did, so nothing much to talk about today.

 

The excursioneers got back around noon.  Reports reached us of ruptured spleens, sore backs and pummelled kidneys.  Everyone left gold fillings behind.  There were one or two tricky moments because rest room facilities did not exist and ablutions in public cannot be performed during Ramadan which is lasting two days longer here than in other parts of the Moslem world.  Offshore on the Cloud alcohol is abundant as is crispy piggy bacon for breakfast.  That will change in 10 days or so, though no seems to have told our butler who said we could always drink on the ship. I asked a sommelier in La Terrazza what he would be doing on his week’s enforced sabbatical in Jeddah and he said he would be hitting the electronics shops.  This is the same sommelier who asks, ‘May I bring your wine glass up to date?’ and fills you up with a wine called Blanc which rhymes with Plonk.

 

At last night’s interminable briefing we were introduced to the 21-strong expedition team.  They all look keen and strapping.  The executive chef from India also took a bow to thunderous applause which struck me as odd since new arrivals had yet to sample his food.  I hope he didn’t get a false sense of security.  Tonight it was the Captain’s turn and all those other people who make the wheels go round.

 

Tomorrow we are in Khasab and will be taking a dhow tour in the Fjords.  The word ‘Norway’ was mentioned at the briefing.  Probably not a reindeer in sight.

 

[Fletcher]

Journal 4:  Threads of the crocus

 

Our first ever long-haul flight was in 1982 when we flew from London to the Seychelles.  The British Airways plane touched down in Bahrain to take a deep drink of cheap fuel.  Passengers did exactly the same in the duty free shops.  That was what the Gulf was all about in those days, a quick splash and dash, a lot of sand, and a mosque in the middle of nowhere.  My word, how that has changed.

 

In 2012 we did an interesting trip.  We flew into Abu Dhabi, rented a car and drove all seven of the United Arab Emirates.  I wrote about that trip and it seemed that hardly anyone had done it before us.  Or wanted to do it.  For most people the UAE just meant flopping and shopping, mainly in Dubai, increasingly in Abu Dhabi.

 

That trip was quite an eye-opener for the UAE is culturally and economically diverse.  Abu Dhabi is immensely rich yet still tasteful; Dubai is Instagram central; Sharjah is deeply conservative and shuns tourism; Ajman was full of foul-mannered Russians; Ras-Al-Khaimah was developing fast as a resort; Fujairah was remote and discreet; and then there was Umm-al-Quywayn, the backward child, scruffy and impoverished, the home of migrant workers who work in the luxury hotels and shopping malls of Dubai.

 

From Ras-Al-Khaimah we ventured across the Omani border to Khasab for a dhow trip on the Musandam Peninsula, that rocky exclave separated from Oman by Fujairah and Sharjah which I told you about yesterday.   That was a great trip - the dhow itself was fun, the scenery was grand, we met some nice folk including an American woman who was writing a book on Arabian cookery, and from the dhow’s skipper we bought some saffron from Iran.  Apparently that was a great trade -  then as now Iranians sail across the Dire Straits of Hormuz laden with saffron along with goats, cheap diesel and drugs and they take away TV sets and used cars in return.  The used cars, by the way, come from Dubai and they are less than three months old. We always fancied doing that dhow trip again so here we are on another dhow, departing once again from Khasab, where the Cloud has docked for the day.

 

There was 35 of us aboard the dhow, a traditional vessel with lots of brightly coloured cushions.  They served bananas, dates and cardamon-scented coffee. Almost from the off we came across a pod of dolphins who we played with for a while before heading for the deep fjord.  The light was hazy and blinding, the scenery brutal,  unforgiving and spectacular, towering limestone walls scarred by millennia of wind erosion.   A few stunted trees cling on for life. There are some fishing villages, accessible only by boat, and lacking every amenity except electricity.  Water is taken to them by tankers and children are taken by speedboat each day to attend school in Khasab.

 

Dolphins accompanied us to Telegraph Island, deep inside the fjord, where the Victorians had built a repeater station as part of the London to Karachi telegraph service. Men stationed in this terrible place spoke of going round the bend, geographically speaking, which became a euphemism for madness.  Or so the legend goes.

 

There were quite a few seasonal jellyfish but not of the stinging variety so many of our group swam and snorkelled.  When we were here in 2012 there was just the one dhow. Today, the last day of Ramadan, there were at least a dozen, most of them filled with Indians who had come here for the day from the UAE.  The days of buying saffron on these dhows were long gone so once I got back to Khasab I took the shuttle bus to Lulu’s supermarket and bought 4.5 grams of premium Iranian saffron for a fraction of the price you pay in the UK.

 

Buying saffron was my main mission on this holiday so I could have gone to the airport and flown home.  But I was drawn back to the Cloud where my wife was having a cup of tea on the back deck.  The sun was going down, the light on the mountains was tinged with pink, and the sounds of muezzin filled the air.

 

Goodnight possums! (Barry Humphries 1934-2023)

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Fletcher

[highplanesdrifters]

Saffron arbitrage. I'm in.

[Stumblefoot]

10 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Saffron arbitrage. I'm in.

Wait until Terry reads this. 🤯

[MuseCruiser]

I’m on the same cruise and I’d like to say two things. First how accurate I find your postings—I couldn’t agree more with all your observations; and 2) how much I’m learning from your posts!  Keep them coming!

[WesW]

Wonderful to see you posting here Wil/Muse Cruiser.  Hope y'all are having a blast on board the Cloud.  Next time y'all are in Dolce Vita for cocktails at Dinner pre/post recap, please give a hug to superstar waitresses Melissa and Karen.  Enrique the DV bartendar will make any libation you desire--and quickly.

 

And absolutely we all are learning from Fletcher's poignant posts.

Edited April 23, 2023 by WesW

[sanne]

Thank you so much Fletcher…love reading your posts. Some of the best on this site. You make everything come alive with your descriptions and humour.