Arabian Gulf - January 6, 2018

The daily Celebrity Constellation Today reminded us today is January 6; it is our fifth day on board. Keeping track of the day of the week is a challenge especially when there are absolutely no "must-do" activities and not a single responsibility. The brain has a tendency to give up all its organizational, planning and time-keeping responsibilities that usually fill one's day and to simply go to sleep or at least slip into flat-line activity. The weather is pleasant; food and drink is plentiful, a nice variety of entertainment is available almost all the time and there are fellow passengers from all parts of the world who make great people-watching fodder or even better, great conversationalists. We have nightly dinner with a group of people from England and from Scotland. We all hit it off immediately and became compadres attending shows together and on one occasion shutting down the martini bar together very late one evening.

So far, we have visited only two ports, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Muscat, Oman. Abu Dhabi, once only a fresh water oasis on the desert coast is now the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The Emirati people are descendants of the original seven Arab tribes who formed the emirates union in the 1971 after oil was discovered in the 1950's. Prior to that time, pearling and fishing was its primary industry. About a million people make Abu Dhabi their home but only about 40% are Emiratis; all others are ex-pats. Expats are the peoples who do all the professional and common work there and they will never be granted citizenship. Emiratis have great wealth and great privilege by birthright.

Situated between the Persian Gulf and miles of rolling desert sand dunes, Abu Dhabi boasts many, many luxurious hotels, mosques of all sizes, banking centers and markets offering textiles, rugs and unimaginable, colorful and glittery stuff. The city's primary attraction is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, one of the largest in the world and certainly the most grand, costing over 11 billion dollars when it was built in 1993. The mosque is stark white marble and features many domes supported by 89 columns as I recall, each one decorated with vines and flowers made from semi-precious stones inlaid into the white marble columns and floors. The dazzling main prayer room has the largest carpet and the largest chandelier in the world. The carpet is a single tremendous silk and wool rug woven exclusively for the mosque by 1200 Iranian women working in shifts around the clock for three continuous years. End to end, the carpet runs probably 200 yards long. It has almost invisible lines about three feet apart that run north and south through the length of carpet. At prayer time, rows of men kneel at each line, shoulder to shoulder facing east giving straight line order to the thousands of souls who come to pray. The huge colorful center chandelier is made of Murano glass and glittering Swavorski crystal. Two similar but smaller ones hang from domes at the north and south ends of the mosque. The tops of columns inside the mosque are meant to represent palms and are 24Karat gold. The interior of the mosque was completely awe inspiring. The beauty, serenity and wealth represented there is almost unfathomable.

I cannot close without saying that this very religious place has strict regulations regarding visitors' dress. No white or see-through (anywhere) clothing is allowed; knees, ankles and wrists are not to be seen and women must wear a scarf to cover their hair. Each person is inspected before granted mosque entry. I wore a long skirt and a long-sleeve jacket zipped to the neck. I also wore the required scarf. I fought with that scarf the entire time of our tour. Mine just kept slipping. I tied it and re-tied it again and again. I added pins to attach it to my hair. Still it would manage to come undone. I was terrified that I would be pulled aside and kicked out of this very sanctimonious place. Some ladies in our group wore pants that were too tight; one wore a long skirt with a short slit on one side. They did not pass inspection and had to purchase expensive black caftans to cover their clothing in order to be allowed in.

On day 3, we visited Muscat, Oman. The Sultanate of Oman covers an area of 120,000 square miles on the Arabian Gulf. As we viewed the city from the port, two things presented urgently themselves. First were the two magnificent yachts in the harbor that are owned by Oman's Sultan. He once owned only the smaller one which we guessed has 5 decks and probably 40 staterooms. We were told he recently added the larger one. The new one probably has ten decks and 100 staterooms. Both yachts were white and bore the gold emblem of the Sultan. The other notable site was the sky and terrain. The air was hazy and the coastline was dusty, craggy, dead-looking hills. Not inviting at all. Caves could be seen in the walls of the hills which made us wonder if people once or even still live in them. We didn't have time to do a deep tour of the area but I have a feeling we didn't miss a lot except one or two of the Sultan's many palaces and perhaps a tour of one of the forts near the city. We spent our time in Muscat touring the fantastic, maze-like Muttrah Souk market where men reached out to encourage shoppers to simply touch and feel the soft cashmere and camel-hair scarves they sold. The air was pungent with stall after stall of fragrant oils and smoke from frankincense nuggets burning in decorative pots. Shoppers were tempted by stalls of wooden boxes and trunks decorated with inlaid mother of pearl and silver. Other market stalls offered handmade jewelry, decorated silver chalices, and fancy bottles for storing scented oils. Each aisle was packed floor to ceiling with opulently decorated items that dazzle the eye and temp the pocket-book but as we have learned from experience often look strangely out of place once they make it to our home.

One of the most pleasant experiences we had in Muscat was having a chat with owners of two shops off the main shopping stream who gladly passed their idle time talking with us. They boasted about their law-abiding, safe country and how ladies can walk a road at midnight with no fear. They told us about their Sultan and asked us about ours. And just as we love learning about what life might be like under the rule of a Sultan, people even in exotic cities like Muscat, Oman seem to know of our curious president and is eager to hear what American citizens think of him.

Still, no camel.