17C Aqaba - Visiting the Dead Sea Via Jordan, not Israel.

Although the trip to the beach took over 3 hours, time seemed to pass
quickly. You forget that the holy land is not just in Israel but spreads
across to Jordan. It felt like stepping back into scripture class as
Ashraf, quoted stories from the bible and pointed to the significant
locations. From our panoramic lookout he pointed and said "there is
Bethlehem, in the middle is Jerusalem and over there is Jericho. Up there
is the River Jordan, where Jesus was Baptised by John the Baptist."
So we have all heard the story from the Bible of Lot, his wife, two
daughters and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now their city names alone
give you the impression that they were a touch unsavoury. Story goes on
that two angels visited Sodom and were invited to spend the night at Lot's
home. In return the angels warned Lot and his family of God's wrath upon
this wicked city and urged them to flee .. "and don't look back!!"
Off they fled to safety, and even after her husband's warnings, Mrs Lot just
couldn't help herself and turned to take one last look at home. Bam.. We all
saw that movie, remember, and she slowly turned to salt. Now she makes for
a great stop and photo opportunity. The mountains just behind, near the
ruins of an old Byzantium church, is where Lot and his daughters took refuge
in a cave. Moral to this story. "Listen to your husband!"
Pointing to another high point, Ashraf said it was up there that Herod had
John the Baptist beheaded. Why you ask?. Herod had John imprisoned but was
reluctant to kill him for fear of retribution from the gods. But alas a
young girl danced for him in such a pleasing way that he offered her
anything she wanted. Asking her mother "what should I request?" Hmmm "How
about John the Baptist's head on a platter!!" and being a man of his word,
her wish was his command. Wow all this scripture stuff is now so real!!
Having covered so much ground today we finally arrived back in Aqaba and
with a little time up our sleeve we were taken on a short tour of downtown
Aqaba to fulfil our shopping lists - Beer, dates, spices and haircuts were
all purchased, with a bonus tasting of Kanafeh, cardamom Tea and a thick
gritty coffee brewed using hot red sand.
Another wonderful Jordanian experience.
Keeping on Track 404,873 steps .. Nearly 100,000 over goal.
Tour Company : Via Jordan
info@viajordan.com

www.viajordan.com

Tell Hakam, Joanne sent you !!

Life at Sea - 4 Indians and a Balinese...

One of the fun things to do whilst on board is to source fairly inexpensive
dress ups.. We girls are looked pretty good even if I do say so myself.
Outfits were bought from the Galle Dutch Market area.

Life At Sea - "And the Winner is.... JOEY"

On World Cruises the photographic department runs a Photo Competition. You
are never really sure if they want it to be success as it is usually held in
secret :-0
It is never advertised anywhere until it is nearly over. We only realised
it was on by walking past the Photographic section and seeing a sign with a
couple of photos on display. So I thought Why Not!.... Tricky part was
picking a photo that could be cropped to 8 x 10 (difficult with a 16:9
aspect). Each sector has a theme. Sydney to Dubai was People, family and
friends. I picked my Stilt Fisherman of Sri Lanka.
I never got to see it on display as they took so long to print it and then
it was put away straight after the announcement. I won a bottle of
champagne and now in the running for the final vote at the end of the cruise
for a new digital Camera.
I was there for the announcement and I did end up with a Cameo in the next
morning's wake show.

Life at sea - Galley Tour

Giuseppe, our Maître de, has been wonderful and very supportive of our
Cruise Critic group. We have lunches organised once a week of which have
been having around 100 – 150 people turn up each time.
As a bonus Giuseppe also agreed to organise a special Galley tour for our
members. We had four groups that left at 30 min intervals and Giuseppe
guided each one. He was very informative and was able to answer every
question no matter how out there they were.
For a such a busy man, we really appreciate everything he is doing for us.

16 Dubai - Old Souk, Gold Souk..... lets call the whole thing off!!

There ended up being a change in our plans for our second day in Dubai. Now
that we had a free day we decided to go back and rediscover old Dubai at a
slower place. I managed to download a small walking map of the area that we
wanted to visit. Our first challenge was getting to our start point. You
wouldn't think it would be that hard if you say to a taxi driver. "Please
take us to the Heritage Village Museum". That blank look should have been
our first warning. Showing him a picture of what we wanted to see, it
seemed like the penny had dropped. We did also say that this area was close
to the Old Souk . well that was probably where the misunderstanding started.
"old souk, yes old souk" so off we went.
According my Maps Me app it should take 4 min by car. We were now close to
20 min and our satellite position on the map was way past where we wanted to
go. We asked "where are you taking us . the old souk, right" . "yes this
way." Suddenly we are going over a bridge."hey where are we going, this
isn't right" Well to cut a long taxi ride short, he was taking us to the
Gold Souk!! After a few stern words, we said "just drop us off at the Gold
Souk" . we will just have a different starting point. Hang on . why are
heading back over the bridge!!... well he decided to take us back to the
original destination.. Grrrr.. Just as well he turned the meter off at 55
dirhams, as we certainly were not going to pay him anymore!!
We finally started our adventure around the Heritage Village. A lovely area
that has been rebuilt to take you back in time. Sandstone coloured homes
complete with shafts built on top that strategically capture the cool breeze
and serves as the first form of air-conditioning. But alas I am sure there
are units hidden somewhere. We walked along the waterfront watching the
small boats darting from one side of the creek to the other, as we made our
way towards the Textile Souk.

16 a Dubai - Riding the abra

Riding the Abra’s

16b Dubai "Come into my shop, looking is free"

Entering the Souks

16 bb Dubai "Come into my shop, looking is free"

You forget how aggressive some of these stall holders can be, but yet it is
fun wandering down the covered lane ways with stalls selling, clothes,
chocolates, spices and souvenirs of all shapes and sizes. Haggling is the
fun part of visiting these parts, even if you are not sure if want what you
are bargaining for, it's the challenge that gets you in. "where are you
from?", "Come into my shop, I have more colours inside", "Good quality
pashminas". Everyone's tactics are the same, even draping items over your
shoulder and not making it easy to give them back.
After leaving the old souk, we walked back to the water front and for 1
dirham caught a ride on an Abra across the creek to the Spice Souk. Here the
same scene was played out again as we passed each store. Mesmerising are
the displays of the spices, intricately decorated plates and beaded kaftans
of every colour. Gold trays of valuable saffron on display behind lock and
key, make for beautiful photo opportunities.
As one souk leads to another we wove our way to the famous Dubai gold souk.
Brilliant displays of gold jewellery hang in every window as each shop tries
to compete for your custom. Magnificent designs and different shades of gold
depending on its Carat rating.

16c Dubai - Riding the Metro

The heat and the hours of walking was now starting to wear us down. Wanting
to test out the trains, we made our way to the closest Metro, Al Ras. In
Dubai there are 2 lines, red and green. The red is the most basic. A
straight line that follows the coast and stops at all the major malls. The
green covers the old area around the creek and is also the line that will
take you to the airport.
Al Ras is on the green line so we had to get to one of the interchange
stations so we could join the red line in order for us to return to the
Dubai Mall, as we wanted to catch at least one showing of the Dancing Waters
before heading back to the ship. The interior of the underground stations
have a modern feel covered with tiles, artwork and the mood lighting. The
above ground stations look like hedge hogs making their way along the
tracks.
Thinking that our major walking was done for the day we didn't expect the 20
min trek from the platform to the entrance of the mall. Luckily moving
walkways and air-conditioned tunnels made it bearable.

16d Dubai - ending the day at the mall

We were exhausted after 9 hours on our feet and we only made it to the 6pm
fountain show before heading back to the ship. Luckily, we ran into Marie
who ensured we caught the correct taxi back. Being so tired we would not
have paid attention. Firstly we were directed to one of the private unmarked
taxis."Yes madam it is metered", it is not about the meter but the rate (
friends were stung the previous night when their fare of 120 dirhams ). We
would only accept a cream and red taxi where it only cost us 46 dirhams to
return to the ship.
With just enough energy to shower and eat in the Horizon Court, we took one
last promenade around the ship to the dulcet tones of a call to pray from a
local mosque before heading down to a well-deserved sleep.

Today's step count was 21,992.. wow I don't even have to get out of bed
tomorrow!!