The evening before arriving in Muscat it was the final 'formal' night and once again the Captain made an appearance in the theatre with his senior officers before the show.The show was the best yet and was an array of glitter and colour. It was called ‘Spirit of the Dance’. It was a mix of Riverdance meets a satanic phantom of the opera. The beast of the moment was a pale-faced demon with curly horns that fancied himself as a bit of a Paul Dan...

The sun is shining. It's going to be at least 32 degrees celcius today. Got up, had breakfast…oh! I forgot, you don’t want to read about that!!The ship has arrived in Salalah in Oman. Salalah is Oman’s immortal second city and is the capital of the Dhofar region. Salalah means 'shining’. ’The guidebook states that the beautiful unspoilt countryside boasts, amongst other things, baobab trees. Now as most people (including myse...

This is our 4th day at sea. Rather than give a day-by-day account of our activity, which would be rather repetitive (i.e. got up, had breakfast, laid out in the sun for a bit, came indoors, had some dinner etc… I'm sure you get the picture), I will just outline some of the highlights and observations of 'goings on’ whilst we head ever closer to our next stop - Salalah in Oman.Whilst walking on the promenade deck 6, past our muster station, Ro...

Today we arrived in Aqaba. Aqaba is Jordan's only port and is at the top of the Gulf of Aqaba. If you picture the red sea with 2 prongs at the top, we have just come through the Suez Canal in to the left prong (the Gulf of Suez) then made a sharp left turn into the right prong!! Aqaba lies at the very end of this prong. 4 countries converge on Aqaba. Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. In fact the ship passed the popular Egyptian resort of Sharm El Shiekh. The dai...

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday dark clouds, today brilliant sunshine! We have now left Crete well behind. It's like we have entered another dimension. Everybody is walking around with smiles on their faces. Not only is there plenty of sun to go around but also there are ample sun beds. It gets better because they are completely free!!!Our route seems to be taking us through a busy shipping lane. I can’t understand why, when there is so much oc...