DAY 24 Safaga, Egypt

The show last night was excellent, he was an English Comedian who also juggled things like knives, axes etc.  He really was hilarious and had the whole theatre in fits of laughter.  Must say the shows on here have been excellent ever since we left New Orleans….which feels like years ago J

We docked at 6.00am so as to get the people for their visit to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.  It’s a good 3 hour drive from Safaga.  We are sharing the port today with Oceana Cruises, Nautica plus two Saudi Arabian Ferries. They both arrived carrying heaps of people. When they disembarked the containers in them was baggage and bundles wrapped in cloth.  Roy spoke to someone who in broken English said they are arriving from Saudi Arabia to live in Egypt.  The port was a flurry with people everywhere, we happened to be walking through when all these people in the droves disembarked the two ferries. So we assume they are refugees. Arabs sound as if they’re yelling all the time, but they’re not, it’s just the language and to us it’s seems everyone is talking but no-one is listening. It was quite an experience to say the least walking amongst all the chaos of their arrival.

We wandered back to the ship in time for lunch as there isn’t really much in and around the port of Safaga, only one Duty Free Shop which we had a look at, and all bought something we really didn’t need J.

This afternoon we are continuing with our Olympic sports challenge between Roy and I, Wayne and Linda and Brian and Margaret.  This afternoon’s challenge is Shuffleboard. We are adding the individual scores from each challenge.  Wayne is in the lead from the last Golf challenge and I’m only one point behind him so this afternoon I’m out to try and take the lead.  J

We don’t sail until 11.00pm tonight and now we will have six days at sea before our arrival in Dubai. It’ll be nice to have a few rest days on the ship as it has been quite busy this past week with all the busy ports of call.

Apologies for not being able to reply to the many questions I've been asked.  Sometimes it's too difficult to respond due to the slow speed of the internet at times.

I an answer one question for those joining us in Dubai.  There will be three Formal nights between Dubai and Singapore. 

DAY 23 in Aqaba, Jordan

As we cruised toward the port of Aqaba this morning the surrounding hills reflected the early morning sun.  They are rugged and baron, not a tree or blade of grass to be seen but just as I imagined in this part of the world. Jordan is landlocked between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Aqaba being the only city in Jordan situated by the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia and Israel are both less than 2 kilometres from Aqaba itself. We took the shuttle from the port into the town centre which only took 10 minutes. This is a clean town with lots of cafes, shops and bazaars. Like all the countries of the East we have visited everyone smokes everywhere, however it’s interesting to see the locals smoking their pipes while they drink their mint tea (Shay) and coffee (qahwa) that is so strong it looks like black syrup.

Bartering is normal here but thankfully they’re not as aggressive as they were in Alexandria and Cairo.  Here they are happy for you to ‘browse’ and don’t push to sell. Prices are very reasonable, having bartered the price down we were very happy with our purchases.  Shoes were excellent quality and as some of you know I love shoes so we came back with four pair…..that includes a pair for you Donna and a pair for you Chris.  J The jewellery is beautiful, very elegant and feminine.  Silver and gold is very reasonable and you only pay for the weight of the silver/gold in the piece based on the price of gold/silver price of the day. I bought a beautiful silver bracelet which I am absolutely thrilled with.

The Jordanians are delightful people; the locals said ‘welcome to Aqaba’ as we passed them in the street and greeted us with welcoming smiles. They speak Arabic but most speak English very well and love to chat. They love to explain their style and dress when talking in their shops. The temperature today was around 33C which is Spring weather here and many were still wearing their Winter clothes.  During their summer the temperatures can reach up to 50C so we were told.

The spices they sell smell lovely.  They use spices to make their home smell nice…. None of that Ambi Pure stuff for them, theirs is much nicer.  I would have loved to of purchased some but I know I wouldn’t be able to take it home. I was given a handful which I carried around with me in my hand for a while. The aroma is unusual but absolutely gorgeous. Roy was given some Sesame seeds which were not like ours at home as these had a more pungent smell but nice. We both had the nicest smelling hands this afternoon. J

Alcohol can be purchased freely; we saw many liquor stores around the city. Arak is the most popular drink; it is an Anise flavoured liquor served with water and ice and accompanies traditional Arabic dishes. They also have a local beer, unfortunately we ran out of time to stop and try one.  Roy has been trying local’s beers in every port and has liked them all so far….. J  To be honest I’ve yet to ever hear him say he doesn’t like a beer…..except if it’s not chilled.

We didn’t take the tour to Petra today.  Many have and we look forward to hearing all about it on their return in an hour or so.  The walk down into Petra is quite long and consists of rough terrain and as Roy has a problem with his knees it was not recommended for him. When he has new knees, we’ll be very happy visit Aqaba and Jordan again…. A lovely spot in the world and it’s easy to understand why the locals are so proud of Aqaba and proud to be Jordanian.

Safaga, Egypt tomorrow.

PS. The other four who sit out our dining table, Wayne and Linda, Margaret an Brian returned  from their Petra tour just before dinner absolutely exhausted but really excited about the experiences of the day.  It is apparently a most amazing place to visit and well worth the 1 ½ hour walk each way through the rocks, stones and sand to get there. They showed us some amazing photos. They were telling us along the way one person fell and cracked their head and needed stitches, another tripped and broke their leg, and another suffered a heart attack. Some people ignored the warnings that you needed to be fit and not have any physical difficulties before undertaking the tour.  Sadly some ignored the warnings and went anyway. On Brian and Margaret’s coach they had 46 people and only 10 of them including Brian and Margaret managed to do the whole walk to the Treasury and the other sites to be viewed. The others had to turn back because it was too much for them.  It was also a very hot day there, around 34C.