Dubai

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Eastern Time plus 9 hours

I am attempting to spend less time on the blog, so the entries will be shorter. The blog site has been having difficulties so Liz has asked me to keep the pictures to 30 or fewer, because she has to load the pictures one by one.

As we left the ship we were greeted by a musical group and this group of men that was waiting for the ship for some reason. Later we were told we were not to take pictures of men in white or women in black. I have to say that I was a little taken aback when I saw them. I knew we were really in an Arab country.

We passed the Gold Souk (Gold Market) as we left the port. Notice the neat building.

The architecture is outstanding.

They are doing a huge amount of building. We wondered who they think will live in all of these places. We heard that 30% of the world's building cranes are in Dubai and 50% of the tower cranes. It is very believable.

Our first stop was the famous Burj Al Arab Hotel. This is the hotel shaped like a sail. This was a very small ship tour . The hotel is all suites ranging from $2,400 to $15,300 per night plus 10% municipality fee and 10% service charge. You need special permission to enter this hotel, so we were on the Tea at the Burj shore excursion so we could enter. (We could have made private arrangements as Kazzie did, but we also wanted to do the boat tour around the Palm.) The building next to the Burj that is shaped like a wave is the Jumeirah Beach Residence Development. The grounds and beach were stunning. We walked over a bridge to get there (could have taken a little cart) and had great fun checking things out before it got too hot.

We were greeted at the door with these dates and a woman with rosewood scented water to wash with. Another woman walked around with incense.

The interior was stunning. This picture shows the fountains going up and some of the lower floors.

The view straight up

Looking down on the lobby

Mosaic floor bordering carpets

An upper lounge area

We went into the area they were serving tea, but no pics allowed. The tea was wonderful and the room spectacular.

After tea we could walk around the hotel. We tried to take the glass elevator up, but it was closed for something or other. We went up to the spa and pool and they let us in. (Beautiful infinity pool and outstanding decoration, but no pics allowed) We had a beautiful view. Next we went up to the Al Mahara Restaurant, but again no pics inside. We did take some of the view, but the there was a lot of haze. We were told the haze is a mixture of humid air and building dust.

Next we proceeded to the Marina to board a boat to view the Palm Jumeirah artificial island.

Three of these islands will be built in all. The diameter of the largest one will be 12 kilometers. This picture shows the shape of the island.

We went around the breakwater on the outside. The cruise was about 90 minutes long. If Liz has put a link on here, take some time to check it out. It is really outstanding. This picture is of the new Atlantis Resort (like in Nassau).

It is at the top of the tree on the breakwater ring.(see map) There will be 20 resorts on the breakwater. We also saw a desalination plant and sewage treatment plants. Very, very interesting.

The boat also took us over to see The World, a cluster of 300 islands built loosely in the shape of the world.

Then Jeff and I left the tour and walked over to the yacht club which was closed because it was Monday. The guard called a car to take us to Ski Dubai, the indoor artificial ski hill. This silver structure is the ski hill attached to a mall. This interior shot is only of a small section. The ski hill is in the rear and the tubing etc in the front of this shot.

One of the interesting things is that the chair lift is attached to the ceiling instead of the ground so there are no obstructions on the hill. The chair lift also turns a corner which is interesting construction. I hope I can get Jeff to blog about Dubai because he will have some interesting views on this place. The cost to ski for 2 hours was about $50 and included ski clothes.
On the way out of the port we had a last look at The World, the condo cruise ship.

Great day in Dubai!

Mumbai, India

Mumbai, India (moom bye) formerly Bombay
Currently cruising the Arabian Sea in over 10,000 ft of water
Eastern time plus 10 ½ hours

Mumbai is the capital of the Indian State of Maharashtra. The official population is 16 million, but the unofficial is more like 22 million. It is 1/3 the size of London with about 3 times the population.

Our private tour was set up by Liz, her friend Shri (from Mumbai) and Shri's brother, Krishna. We had a guide named Derrick, manager Shiv and driver Duhta. We were well taken care of to say the least. Shri's dad even called while we were on the tour to make sure everything was going smoothly. It was all much appreciated.

At the port we were greeted with roses, musicians and this neat “rug” made from colored sand that was probably 6 feet in diameter. We were picked up by Shiv and Duhta.

Liz and Ellen, don't look now, but we have a scarf alert going on here (family joke).

Our first stop was the Royal Bombay Yacht Club. The office wasn't open yet, but Jeff showed his various Yacht Club and Sailing membership cards and they let us in to check it out. Good thing Carl and Carla weren't there or we would probably have missed our day of touring like at Waikiki Yacht Club! J

Next stop was the Taj ( Tajmahal Palace and Towers, Mumbai,) a luxury hotel with old and new sections. This is where we met our guide.The Taj is near the Gateway of India. I didn't get a good picture because it was covered by scaffolding and net. It is being worked on. I did take a picture of a post card, so maybe this helps. This triumphal archway was built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to India in 1911. It is Mumbai's most prominent landmark.

The Gateway of India is on the water and there were lots of boats moored there.

Our favorite was the main railway station now known as Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, formerly Victoria Terminus. The picture didn't turn out. The building was shaded due to the early hour. Here is another picture of a postcard. The India railway system is the largest employer in the world with 25 million employees.

There are many beautiful old Victorian buildings. The goal for Mumbai is green and clean and there are large trees everywhere. They are beautiful, but make picture taking a little hard!

We drove along the water and saw the city beach. The beach is clean, but the water is polluted so people don't swim there. They prefer to swim at the beaches in the suburbs.

The next area we visited was Malabar Hill. This area is up high and gets the water breeze which makes it very desirable. There were many nice homes here.

We went to a garden area with a lot of sculptures and flowers. These women were walking for exercise as were several others.

Adjacent to the garden is an area called the seven Dokhmas or towers of silence. This is an area where the Parsees take their dead and hang them out for vultures to eat. They do this so that the bodies will not pollute the land or water. Now the area is covered, but used to be open. When bodies are in there, the vultures are let out so they can eat the bodies, but are contained in this area so they cannot spread disease and “body bits”. I am not positive I have all of that right, but I think so.

Malabar Hill is also the home of the Hanging Gardens (Pherozeshah Mehta Gardens). I am not sure if the sculpture garden was part of this or not, but they were very near each other. The gardens were built in 1880 and renovated in 1921. The gardens are built on a hill over a reservoir and there is a great view.

This “Shoe” is in the park for children to play on. There were about 75 kids from this Bo Peep Nursery School. This is a school for rich kids so they were accompanied by teachers and servants. Check out the little girl's Florida hat! The children were really good listeners. When told to “make a train” all hands went on the shoulders in front of them. This woman was sweeping the park. Where ever we went in India we saw women using this type broom to sweep inside and outside, including using them to sweep up fallen leaves.The next stop was Dhobi Ghaat or the common man's laundry. The traditional method of hand washing clothes is still widely accepted in Mumbai today for the middle class man. This area was absolutely immense. They soap the clothes on a table, then beat them in these little pools and then hang them to dry. The water looked dirty, but the clothes were very white when finished. Jeff asked why so many looked the same and was told they are uniforms. This is a job for these people, not their private laundry. They must live in those covered areas underneath the hanging laundry.

This is a commuter train. We saw this train about 10 AM so this was the end of rush hour. About 6 ½ million commute to work by train each day and 2 million by car. Tax on buying a foreign car is 260%.

We told Derrick we had read a National Geographic article about the Dharavi Slum. He said we could go through it on our way to the suburbs. He said that the slums are now being phased out with the help of the World Bank. They are helping to reclaim the slums and build housing there. I can't figure out my notes, but they seem to say that there were about 7000,000 in the slum and now 300,000 are doing well. I know he said the numbers have been reduced. The pictures don't do it justice.

Derrick said one type business they have way back in the alleys of the slum is leather business. This is a sign we saw right after he told us that. The sign was really impressive in the midst of all of the poverty.

We headed to the Banda/Kurla area which is two different suburbs. In the suburbs they have Tuk Tuks , but here they call them Rickshaws.

They have 65,000 regular Taxis in the city, but no Rickshaws are allowed.

One of the places we stopped was Juhu Beach. Notice the trash cans on the beach and this man was doing beach cleanup pulling this saucer type thing. I think we need to keep it in mind for Adopt a Shore.

We stopped at the Marriott to use the bathroom. First step was to get checked under the hood for bombs, something new to us. The place was so beautiful that we decided to stay for lunch. We had a sandwich but they had a big buffet. I liked this idea for serving bite sized desserts!

After lunch we visited Mani Bhavan, Mahatma Ghandi's home in Mumbai from 1917 to 1934. Very interesting, I will have to do some reading about all of this when we return home.
We did more sightseeing on the streets and then went shopping.

We finally bumped into Darlene's friend Al in a store. I never did see him on the ship. Later we saw him driving down the street and he waved and said to say hi to Darlene.

We got back to the ship after 9 hours of touring, time for a nap before sail away. Next stop is Dubai, which should be a much different experience.