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

[Fletcher]

Journal 5: South to Sur

Yesterday was lovely as all sea days are.   Conditions were totally neutral - flat sea, flat sky, a sort of doldrums.  We saw lots of dolphins and our group of Japanese squealed with delight, seeing potential plates of sushi.  There were many colossal tankers and container ships and also a speedboat which suddenly appeared aft, caught us up rapidly, the four men aboard waved, they did not fire machine guns and soon vanished.   One gnarled expedition team member thought they were either smugglers or police looking for smugglers.  We are merely looking for our next G&T.

 

Today we went to Sur, a typical Omani town, low-key and lacking high-rises, uniformly white, stretched around a deep bay, an agreeable vista.  In the post-Roman era, right up until the abolition of slavery and the opening of the Suez Canal, Sur was an important port on the trading route with Zanzibar and the Orient.  Shipbuilding was its speciality and remains so today.

 

We went ashore in zodiacs.  Awaiting us on the quay there was a small, Indian-looking man named Rishi  wearing a tight-fitting black suit jumping up and down shouting ‘Stop the small boats!’  With him was an elegantly suited Indian woman named Suella pointing to buses which said Kigali.  Our bus only took us to the fish market, then a restored fort, then a hotel for a  wee-wee, then the dhow shipyard which made the excursion worth doing.  I thought this particular shipyard was there for tourists but it was still interesting.  You climbed a ladder to find yourself looking inside the hull of an enormous half-finished dhow. It was like being inside the mouth of a baleen whale or the Cinecitta set for John Huston’s 1966 movie The Bible . . . in the beginning.  The timber comes from Burma.

We had a chatty Indian guide who told us lots of good stuff, such as the reason for the large houses.  Apparently couples routinely have 15 children or more and share the house with their own parents and their parents, a microcosm of the world’s massive over-population.  We are at plague proportions.  And our guide also answered the secret question on everyone’s lips - what do the men and women wear underneath?  It’s a question often asked in Scotland and not only of Ms Sturgeon.  Apparently the women of Oman wear t-shirts, jeans and M&S knickers under their burkas.  And the men wear some sort of white towel thing which doesn’t seem that secure. I thought they’d all be in M&S briefs.

 

The last stop on our excursion was Sur’s souk which wasn’t nearly as interesting as a Lidl in Cheam. We gave up on the souk after ten minutes and faced a choice between sitting on a rubbish strewn beach or back on the air-conditioned bus. Guess which one we chose.

 

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Fletcher

[lincslady]

Lovely - Rishi and Suella certainly get about a lot.

[spinnaker2]

Fletcher, the asparagus were delightful. 

Just as your posts.

Thank you.

 

[Fletcher]

Sorry to report I probably will not write again as the last posts took hours of trying to connect and this one is from the Photo Studio on a Norwegian keyboard. It took about 20 minutes to get through and log in.  Seabourn Internet last October was brilliant.  This is not. I am really sorry as I wanted to tell you about all sorts of things but things are what they are on this ship. Goodbye.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Fletcher

[lincslady]

That is a shame - please tell us more on your return.  (Guess you will not see this until you are back!)

[highplanesdrifters]

So sorry to hear about your  internet issues. Itnisnour loss. Hope you enjoy the rest of the trip.

[TLCOhio]

On 4/24/2023 at 7:12 AM, Fletcher said:

Journal 5: South to Sur

We saw lots of dolphins and our group of Japanese squealed with delight, seeing potential plates of sushi.  We had a chatty Indian guide who told us lots of good stuff, such as the reason for the large houses.  Apparently couples routinely have 15 children or more and share the house with their own parents and their parents, a microcosm of the world’s massive over-population. 

 

Appreciate these great details, background, visuals and follow-up.  Sorry on the Internet/technical challenges.  Keep it coming!!  Very interesting and informative.  Great historic perspectives about the changes in these areas.  Loved you comparison of Dubai versus Abu Dhabi, etc.

 

As to what is upcoming in the Saudi areas you will be visiting, a key travel website (The Points Guy) today had these details about what is coming for that rich and aspiring nation: "Saudi Arabia plans to spend $1 trillion on tourism infrastructure within the next decade – including major new airports, cruise hubs and resort developments along its coasts – with the goal of attracting more than 100 million travelers in the same period. It’s even opening its coastline to cruising for the first time with a new terminal at the Jeddah Islamic Port. The kingdom is also planning to add 500,000 hotel rooms, open an archeological attraction and launch a new airline, Riyadh Air, with the purchase of 39 new Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with the option for 33 more."

More on future travel trends at: 

https://thepointsguy.global.ssl.fastly.net/cdn/tpg-travel-trends-2023.pdf

 

THANKS for your patience and skill!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

[WesW]

Fletcher, thanks so much for you prevous superb posts.  Sorry to hear about the connection challenges. Enjoy the rest of your Expedtion cruise.

[Fletcher]

Thanks to Terry from Ohio, I seem to have regained a connection, so here’s whatwe did yesterday!

 

Journal 6: Desert Island Dismay

I was looking on CruiseMapper and saw that there isn’t a cruise ship within a 1000 miles or more of us.  This is highly unusual in this region and I think it’s because cruise seasons are being stretched, especially in Antarctica.  People go there earlier and later than they used to which explains why we are in Arabia a month or so later than desirable. Perhaps this is why our weather has been slightly disappointing so far. Yes, it’s been hot but also very hazy, sometimes foggy, bad for photos. And last night we had torrential rain and a lightning storm which lasted for several hours.

 

Another thing I looked at was the Daily Mail so you know that what I am about to say is totally, irrevocably, unutterably the truth.  They had a map of the Red Sea like it was World War Two.  Big red arrow graphics to the north and south, from left at Port Sudan to Jeddah, on the right.   Graphics of battleships, submarines, choppers, troopers, all like a Roland Emmerich picture. And here we are on the piddling Cloud sailing into the inferno.  Well, reader, I tell yah, something needs to perk this cruise up a bit.

 

We spent today on an island called Masirah.  It belongs to Oman. When this itinerary was announced I did my usual thing and did some deep-dish research.  I could not fathom why Silversea wanted to take us to Masirah.  I have now been there.  And I still don’t know why we went.

 

It was our first and only wet landing and it was at 6.30am sharp. There is a big pier here but I think they needed a wet landing to prove this is an expedition cruise.  The island is long and narrow and they amazingly had the same buses and guides we had in Sur.  The landscape is basically coastal desert scrub, with distant mountains, roaming camels, goats and sheep, and sparse human settlements.  Houses are haphazardly placed, with a pen for animals, landscaping is non-existent.  There are dozens of tiny mosques and a vast new police station to keep everyone in line.  We went to see a house with a skeleton of a humpback whale in the front garden.  Next was an hour’s drive to the southern tip of the island.  There was absolutely nothing to see.  But we can now boast we have been to the southernmost tip of Masirah.  You say you’ve been to the Taj Mahal or Iguassu?  That’s pathetic to what we achieved today.

 

Our  guide felt he had to talk every second of the way.  When he started pointing out Toyota pick-up trucks you knew he was getting desperate. Our Silversea videographer started photographing camels so he was getting desperate as well.  We visited some ancient graves but no one knew quite how ancient they were.  Then we stopped at a scrap metal yard where old ferries were being dismantled.  Finally a stark new hotel which served us brunch.  I say brunch because they served spaghetti with chocolate muffins.  By this time, after five hours, I sensed most people had by been thoroughly sated by Masirah’s charms. Getting back was very wet, made all the wetter because a passenger on our zodiac sent his shoes overboard so we had to go back for them causing a brief tsunami over everyone.   

 

Masirah Island, jewel of Arabia Felix?  Eat your heart out Bora Bora.

 

 

[clarky]

Glad we missed this Fletcher.  I thought Salalah was boring when we visited many years ago but this may take the cake.  We board in Jeddah and are on until Dublin so hopefully we will meet you onboard.

[MuseCruiser]

Glad we decided to sleep in yesterday and stay on board for the absolutely delightful Indian buffet lunch by the pool. 😎😂 Somehow a 6:30am zodiac wasn’t calling us. 
 

We got to meet Fletcher yesterday in the computer center—it was an honour. I’ve not experienced computer issues and offered my beaten up older MacBookPro to Fletcher but I see he has things straightened out. (I’m posting this via my iPhone).
 

We were invited to the Hotel Manager’s table last night and so interesting to hear Michelle’s (Hotel Manager) history with the company spanning many years. Turns out we think we were all were on the same cruise from Rio to Cape Town years ago. Also got to meet many interesting people at the table. 
 

I’ve always said (metaphorically) that to be on Silversea you have to have an interesting story to tell and it was fun hearing everyone’s stories last night. 
 

We woke up late this morning and went to the pool. The server there recited my beverage order for the start of the day by heart (English breakfast tea, milk, honey on the side). Nice contrast to my regular workday when I’m in nyc haha. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by MuseCruiser

[WesW]

Thanks for sharing your Expedtion adventures with us Muse Cruiser and Fletcher. 

 

Fletcher; thanks for sharing your Masirah excursion with us warts and all.

 

Wil, we really enjoyed have Michelle as our HD, please (if you get a chance, pass her Ida and my warm regards).  She was the first HD we've seen that earned an Excellence award (voted by the Crew) just before arriving in Capetown (her hometown) late last month.

[Fletcher]

Journal 7: Gina Lollobrigida slept here, maybe

 

Lots to get through today so pay attention at the back!

 

We were clambering ancient ruins this afternoon where, according to legend, a man encountered this alluring but standoffish woman outside his shop, a sort of Occitane of the day, specialising in frankincense.  He said, ‘Come inside and sample my precious oils, smell my fluids.’  She gave him a sneer.  ’Who do you think you are,’ he said, ‘the bloody Queen of Sheba?’ And she replied, ‘Yes, that’s me, creep.’  She walked away pouting, looking for Yul Brynner.  This afternoon we were deep into her epoch.

 

We started the day steaming down the coast of Oman, slightly off the main shipping lanes so there were no lights or shadowy bulks of container ships to be seen.  By dawn the coast off the starboard side was dramatic, with a long high escarpment and several jagged peaks right down on the shoreline.  We were accompanied by masked boobies, petrels and an enormous orange-looking turtle which seemed to be sucked under our vessel.

 

Today might have been a different tale had it not been for another turtle.  Maybe it was the same one.  We were having an early lunch outside on the back deck when the call came - “Man overboard! Man overboard! Man overboard!” The call came from the port side below us.  Everyone rushed to the rail to see.  The Cloud sounded three horns, came to a halt and turned around.  The Captain ordered spotters on deck.  Bang goes our excursion I thought.  We paddled about a bit until the Captain and others agreed that it was not a human being overboard, just another turtle.  Panic over, mango ice-cream and espresso to follow.

 

We came alongside at Salalah, a large town with proper infrastructure.  The Sultan’s family came from here so the place is uniquely favoured. A load of money is being showered upon the city to develop its tourism business.  There are already several hotels, including an upscale Anantara Resort, and old neighbourhoods are being flattened to make way for shopping malls.  The port itself is vast and includes a monumental gas pipeline and also emergency pipelines to enable Gulf States to send oil through in the event that Iran closes the Straits of Hormuz.  The place is buzzing.  It will never be Dubai, thanks be to Allah, but it will be a nice place to visit.  It probably is right now.

 

Much of the hinterland hereabouts is a UNESCO World Heritage site called Land of Frankincense.   This combines ancient cities, wadis and groves of the trees from which the precious resin is obtained.  There were quite a few of these faddish trading routes in ancient times - frankincense, tulips, nutmeg, cloves, silk and so on.  You wonder what the trade is in today.

 

Our tour started at 2.30pm with an hour’s coach ride to the archaeological site of Sumhuram, once a great port on the Egypt to Indian trading route.  Dating from millennia ago, but mainly from the 4th century BC, the ruins are an archaeological palimpsest, difficult for the amateur to disentangle but compelling and evocative.  While they just look like drystone walls, you can easily work out the layout of the fortified trading post on the hill.  The lagoon below and the ocean adds to the allure of the place.  We loved it on sight.  It is not known if the Queen of Sheba ever really came here.  We like to think that she did.

 

We got back to the ship at 6.30pm.  Dinner was at The Grill in the pouring rain.  At 9.30pm we heard the Captain say, “Set leads and braces. Make way for the Horn of Africa."  That’s our next stop in two days’ time.  Djibouti.  Flippin’ heck!

Edited April 26, 2023 by Fletcher

[RachelG]

Fletcher, I am glad you got posting again, as I want to hear about all the adventures in real time!

[Fletcher]

Journal 8: In the Gulf of Aden

Today was a sea day and I love sea days.  Time to get your snaps in order; time to trim those toe-nails which grow so fast in warm weather; time to visit the laundry; time to finish off that novel, either the one you are reading or writing; time to attend some extra-mural events, though probably not the Arab fancy dress party which wouldn’t pass a woke tribunal. at the BBC or the Labour Party.  Time to take part in water polo or Hubert’s Fashion Show and wonder if the Cloud has been taken over by Costa Cruises.

 

And time to simply stare at the far horizon, the sinking of the sun, best viewed from the Bridge, and ask yourself what the sum total of your life represents. What difference your being there at any time made to anything. Hardly made any difference at all, really, particularly in comparison with other men’s careers. I don’t know whether that kind of thinking’s very healthy.  But I must admit I’ve had some thoughts on those lines from time to time.

 

There was a talk called Journey Through Words.  Anyone who talks of a journey needs to think again.  Such a cliché.  Tony Blair called his autobiography A Journey.   I thought, come on Tony, conqueror of Iraq, you can do better than that.  Anyway, I went to this talk which was a sort of mumsy tutorial on how to write a diary or a blog about where you have been and what you have seen.  Something loftier than, say, “We went to London.  We went to Trafalgar Square.  We had dinner.  It was nice. We went to bed.”  In an earlier life I was a professional writer and the only lesson I ever had was from one of my editors on the London Times who told me not to use the word ‘but’ in the middle of a sentence.  So I went to this talk on the Cloud not expecting to learn anything but to my amazement I did.

 

My wife attended a talk about life, culture and art in Oman and Saudi Arabia. She was enthralled. She came back and said that places like banks, shops and McDonalds have separate areas for men and women, just like mosques.  Lots of other stuff, too, which made me wonder why we are going there.  Of course, it is all to do with religious repression and fear.  Fear of the fall of a feudal system.   Cracks are appearing, though, and we on the Cloud are evidence of that.   My own view is that religion, like flared trousers and Betamax, has had its day; in fact, its plausibility became shaky in the Victorian age of Darwin & Co and becomes shakier by the day.  For instance, this new spaceship heading for Jupiter’s moons, if they find microbes there did God create them as well? All religion, it seems to me, was just a salve for primitive and superstitious societies and the more knowledgeable and sophisticated we become the less justification there is for it. It should be an outmoded concept.  I find it fascinating that some countries are still in thrall to it.

 

There was also a talk on manta rays, one of the most beautiful creatures of the sea.  Whenever I think of mantas I also think of Bora Bora where we first went in the early 1990s.  In those days you stayed at the fabled Hotel Bora Bora on Point Matira and at night, from the pier or from the deck of your overwater bungalow,  you could attend a sort of pelagic version of the Bolshoi Ballet when several mantas would glide up from the deep and perform cartwheels for you.  That was one of life’s most magical experiences and of course the hotel no longer exists and neither does the Bora Bora of our memories or our dreams.

 

On sea days a ship shows its full colours and I wonder why a ship capable of taking 250 passengers has only 14 seats on an outside deck.  Yes, there is the pool deck which isn’t our favourite place on this ship, or any ship.  Yet this 14-seater space on the back deck, our favourite spot on the ship, is usually empty and we can only assume that most people don’t know about it.  In this regard, we got some bad news the other day - in Jeddah our numbers will increase from 150 pax to 220.  This might make the Cloud seem rather crowded.

 

Tomorrow it’s another sea day and then it’s still Djibouti - yikes! - and we have a big outing.  BIG outing.  HUGE.  If I survive I’ll tell you all about it.  I have decided to give you the day off tomorrow.

[WesW]

I like Sea Days on the Silver Cloud when Fletcher is on board because we get to enjoy more of his entralling posts on this superb live thread.

[jpalbny]

4 hours ago, Fletcher said:

In an earlier life I was a professional writer and the only lesson I ever had was from one of my editors on the London Times who told me not to use the word ‘but’ in the middle of a sentence.  So I went to this talk on the Cloud not expecting to learn anything but to my amazement I did.

 

I see what you did there but in spite of it, I enjoyed your post! Have another restful sea day tomorrow and eagerly awaiting your update post-Djibouti!

Edited April 27, 2023 by jpalbny

[TLCOhio]

18 hours ago, Fletcher said:

Journal 8: In the Gulf of Aden

Today was a sea day and I love sea days.  Time to get your snaps in order  And time to simply stare at the far horizon, the sinking of the sun, best viewed from the Bridge, and ask yourself what the sum total of your life represents. There was a talk called Journey My wife attended a talk about life, culture and art in Oman and Saudi Arabia. She was enthralled. She came back and said that places like banks, shops and McDonalds have separate areas for men and women, just like mosques. Whenever I think of mantas I also think of Bora Bora where we first went in the early 1990s. Tomorrow it’s another sea day and then it’s still Djibouti - yikes! - and we have a big outing.  BIG outing.  HUGE.  If I survive I’ll tell you all about it.  I have decided to give you the day off tomorrow.

 

No!  NO!!  We want more!!  Don't take the day off from posting.  Your posting was absolutely wonderful.  Great insights, thoughts and observations.  Loved it all.  Especially enjoyed you comparisons to Bora Bora and the amazing mantas, etc.  

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

[RachelG]

Don't use the word "but" in the middle of a sentence.  I will have to remember that one. One of the biggest complements I ever received (outside of "you are a wonderful surgeon, you saved my life, blah, blah, etc.") was from a friend who used to be an editor for the LA TImes and who reads my reports here.  He told me that if I wanted a job writing, he would hire me.  BUT I didn't know about the prohibition of using the word "but" in the middle of a sentence. 

[lincslady]

I don't think you are supposed to use it at the beginning of a sentence either?  A bit like 'and'. which I often do, deliberately.  So, is it allowed anywhere?   And if not, what do you say instead - 'however', maybe.  I like 'and' at the beginning, as you can see,  I think it gives emphasis.

 

We all have our own idiosyncratic styles of writing; I have to cure myself of semi-colons, I think.  And maybe exclamation marks!

 

Lola

[Fletcher]

Journal 9: The sun’s anvil

 

We got into Djibouti and found a rather awkward berth, next to a French gunship.  At 7.30am we were off on our excursion, a 60-mile drive to Lac Assal, apparently the lowest point on the continent of Africa, a continent with an abundance of low points to choose from.

 

I had been told by David Stanley, a Silversea regular, not to bother with Djibouti because it was just a rubbish tip.  And you know what?  David was quite right.  Djibouti was my 122nd sovereign state and I have seen quite a lot of poverty and slums in my time.  Take Cambodia for instance.   We went there in 1992, shortly after the war and the genocide of Pol Pot, and the country was on its knees.  But there was an optimism about it, a passion, a ravishing beauty, that was quite touching. I cried when I left.

 

Nothing like that in Djibouti.  The landscape is sort of planetary, desperately unkind, a sea of basalt rock, other sorts of geological rubble, razor-sharp lava fields and thorny scrub where goats, camels and even a few baboons scrape an existence along with the humans.   We passed many nomad camps where people live in tents, shacks and shelters built of whatever they can scrounge from the mountains of rubbish.  There is seemingly no attempt to control it or bury or burn it. The bottles, cardboard, paint cans, corrugated iron, crashed cars and lorries, are just part of the vast landscape of litter.  And then you have the heat, well into the 90s with horrendous humidity.  This is the sun’s anvil.

 

The road out of Djibouti was the main road to Ethiopia and to Addis.  Almost everything that arrives at the port of Djibouti is destined for Addis and the road was full of enormous trucks.  Consequently we had a police escort to ease our way.     I have no idea which side of the road they drive on.  Our guide kept up quite a repartee and he used to pronounce the word Ethiopia as Utopia which was not on offer today because it was most definitely dystopia.

 

We also learned from our guide about Djibouti’s severe migration crisis.  Which country does not have one right now?  Djibouti used to get migrants from Somalia and Eritrea and now they come in their tens of thousands from Yemen.  They have no means of processing them or feeding them so they are in the hands of the World Food Programme which has built huge grain silos on the edge of town.  Looking at this for hours on end from the window of a bus I’d say everyone’s prospects here are less than zero.

 

It seems that China is building all the big stuff, from a train to Addis, to a water pipeline from Utopia, to a salt processing plant on the lake we were driving to.   China has the biggest naval base here.  It has built the biggest tech centre in Africa here.  China is buying up entire countries like a Monopoly player.   And what are we doing?  Standing by and watching.

 

We got to the lake in about three hours.  I had seen some photos which made it look like a version of paradise.  It wasn’t.  Maybe it was the hazy light.  I got one or two nice pictures and also some pictures of camels which carry heavy bags of salt for many miles for just a couple of dollars.  We stood around in the furnace for half an hour or so.   Some of our number paddled in the salty water, even saltier than the Dead Sea.   My wife took the photo today.   

 

We were being offered lunch on a beach about an hour’s drive away.  It was a rather squalid place down the most arduous of tracks.  The big coach never made it and it was peremptorily abandoned.   I’m sure you could go back in ten years and that coach would still be there, stripped of engine and seats, and just a rusting carcass left behind.   It was a two-hour drive back, past the same squalor,  and we fell into La Terrazza for afternoon tea.

 

This was an extraordinary day out in a weird country which I doubt Silversea will ever return to.  The trip was exciting, thrilling, depressing, appalling, exhausting.   The coaches were chronically uncomfortable. It was an absolute killer and I ache all over.  I’ve done it so that you don’t need to.

  

 

[highplanesdrifters]

Friggin Djibouti!

[jpalbny]

Thanks for taking one for the team, Fletcher! I've heard great things from people who have visited "Utopia" so maybe I'll heed your advice.

[Fletcher]

post deleted

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Fletcher

[MuseCruiser]

Once again Fletcher nails it on the head! I went on the “Cultural Highlights of Djibouti” tour. We stopped at a fish market and were supposed to have a tour but we somehow didn’t get the ok to go in so after 20 minutes of milling around it was back on the bus. We then went to the African market and walked along the different shops. We even saw a make believe Gucci store so every imaginary need could be met! Next was a “gentle drive through Djibouti” which wasn’t entirely gentle given the gravel dirt roads but was just as Fletcher described his scenery. 
 

The tour was scheduled to last approximately 5 hours. It lasted 3 hours and no one complained to my knowledge. 🙂. It was interesting and I’m glad I went. No need to return. 
 

See a few pics I took.