TRIP REPORT DUBAI 2009
(BY TOM BROWN)
We signed on to a COSTA cruise leaving from Dubai with the concept of visiting five different Arab countries or Sheikdoms, touring by day and with the comforts of the cruise ship by night. We added a two night stay at a hotel in Dubai before the cruise to effect a time adjustment and to interact with people outside of the cruise ship and tour environment. We made independent air and hotel arrangements with Lufthansa and Intercontinental Hotels using our status earned in the past where possible. It worked out very well as you will see.
The trip over was via Frankfurt. It was made nicer by the fact that Lufthansa has recently launched lie flat seats in business class and has invested in new "Senator" lounges in New York and Frankfurt. Reasonable food and drink en route, more personal and caring from Frankfurt to Dubai. We left New York at 10pm and landed at 11:30pm the next evening Dubai time which is 9 hours ahead of New York. We could not believe the size of the Dubai Airport and the size of the lines of people waiting to clear immigration. Then after clearing customs we were met by a representative of Intercontinental and were driven to the hotel in a hotel limousine and escorted directly to our suite which comes with my ambassador membership. The rooms were beautiful but we didn't get to sleep until a technician visited to turn off some of the high tech lights with motion detectors that did not function as intended!
The next morning we awoke to see the full glory of Dubai. Downtown with its high rises was in the distance and right below us was a marina on one of the inland waterways that connected to the sea. I went jogging and interacted with some local people on their day off. Then breakfast in the club. It was a little eerie that some of the guests were dressed extremely casually while others were dressed in their Arab best. Some of the women were showing only slits of their eyes and hands.
(BY TOM BROWN)
We signed on to a COSTA cruise leaving from Dubai with the concept of visiting five different Arab countries or Sheikdoms, touring by day and with the comforts of the cruise ship by night. We added a two night stay at a hotel in Dubai before the cruise to effect a time adjustment and to interact with people outside of the cruise ship and tour environment. We made independent air and hotel arrangements with Lufthansa and Intercontinental Hotels using our status earned in the past where possible. It worked out very well as you will see.
The trip over was via Frankfurt. It was made nicer by the fact that Lufthansa has recently launched lie flat seats in business class and has invested in new "Senator" lounges in New York and Frankfurt. Reasonable food and drink en route, more personal and caring from Frankfurt to Dubai. We left New York at 10pm and landed at 11:30pm the next evening Dubai time which is 9 hours ahead of New York. We could not believe the size of the Dubai Airport and the size of the lines of people waiting to clear immigration. Then after clearing customs we were met by a representative of Intercontinental and were driven to the hotel in a hotel limousine and escorted directly to our suite which comes with my ambassador membership. The rooms were beautiful but we didn't get to sleep until a technician visited to turn off some of the high tech lights with motion detectors that did not function as intended!
The next morning we awoke to see the full glory of Dubai. Downtown with its high rises was in the distance and right below us was a marina on one of the inland waterways that connected to the sea. I went jogging and interacted with some local people on their day off. Then breakfast in the club. It was a little eerie that some of the guests were dressed extremely casually while others were dressed in their Arab best. Some of the women were showing only slits of their eyes and hands.
The staff in the club recommended a bus tour where you could hop on and off as much as desired and we moseyed over to the shopping center to get our tickets. All the world retailing brands seem to be represented including Marks and Spencer, Carrefour and Ikea.
The trip was great. We saw downtown, the beach area including the Trump Atlantis Hotel, and a shopping center where they have installed skiing in a giant freezer. The ski operator rents clothing and equipment and people go sledding or skiing or just walk around in the cold on the snow.
If I were to give a short summary of Dubai it would be that it is a rich member of the emirates. It is highly developed and trying to develop more, though some projects now appear to be on hold. It has a freeway system and is even building mass transit. It is the regional tourism capital for both westerners and Arabs. And its population is 4 million but only 25 - 30 percent are citizens, the rest being workers who can stay as long as they have jobs, mostly from poorer Asian countries like India or the Philippines.
We finished the day with dinner in the club. We did get to chat with some Arab couples where the women showed all of their faces; one from Kuwait and the other from Abu Dhabi there for the weekend. They seemed very friendly and normal except for how they dressed. Perhaps you can guess where this is going....more later.
The next day, Saturday, was extremely lazy. Breakfast at 11am, then we took a long walk around the property and then got a taxi to the ship at mid afternoon. Check in was low key and easy and we boarded the ship right away. The only problem was that we couldn't get into our room until 8pm. At 630pm we decided to not watch our clocks any more and had a nice dinner in the buffet. We did get in the cabin shortly after 8pm and it was fine.
Sunday was orientation meetings by language group. English and Italian were the largest groups followed by German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. It was a nice relaxing day in the nice warm weather and then the first formal dinner. Except that only 5 percent of the guests dressed formally. Really an excellent dinner and great wines were available. Then a show and off to bed for an early start in Oman the next day.
Oman is on the Indian Ocean side, about 4 million people and very few expatriate workers. It is a very old country that was conquered by the Portuguese in 1550 and then defeated by the locals in 1650. It had no paved roads or any infrastructure in the 70s, until the son took power from his father, the King. Now it looks quite modern with all you would expect, at least in the capital, Muscat. We were told that the country has several provinces, some with Bedouins, some only with mining or pumping stations. We visited the #1 mosque in the country, a museum and a market area downtown The mosque was notable in that it accommodates 5000 worshipers and has a hand made one-piece carpet in each of the men's and women's sections. And it is air conditioned from concealed vents in the very elaborate columns. It was repeatedly mentioned on the visits that summer temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 Fahrenheit! We got a great deal on some dates, date syrup and a scarf for Alice. Then off to the ship, dinner and another show.
Tuesday was an early start for Fujaira, one of the emirates in the UAE. It looked poorer as we disembarked, and we learned that it is one of the poorer emirates, having had almost none of the tourist oriented development. The population is slightly more than 100,000. However being on the Indian Ocean side it is a strategic shipping point the UAE oil and mineral wealth, and an insurance policy should Iran decide to close the strait of Hormuz separating the peninsula and Iran. So it has oil terminal, bulk port and a container port. It has a peaceful quaintness about it. The women seemed to dress showing less here. We visited a museum showing artifacts from ancient days and exhibits of pre-oil discovery life. Then a fresh market where we saw an incredible variety of fish being offered and a produce market where I got some more dates at a great price. Then a humble replica of a pre-oil village, with houses built of palm fibers, and finally a 2000 year old reconstructed mosque and a fort that guarded it.
The captain's cocktail party for Costa Club members (past passengers) was an intimate event comparatively with champagne, a band and dancing, with the staff dancing with single women. We chatted for a while with some French people from the south of France who did not speak any English and then the captain made his appearance giving a moving speech about Costa four times and in four languages. We then drank a toast and then he chatted with each of us as we were photographed with him.
Wednesday was the Abu Dhabi tour, also early! Abu Dhabi, on the Persian Gulf side, is the richest emirate of the UAE, presumably with the most oil. It has recently been beautified and it is quite pretty, albeit much smaller than Dubai. We saw the Emirates Hotel owned by the government and with a special entrance for heads of state, the cultural center, and a more elaborate reconstructed village. Our guide was an expatriate who couldn't get over the fact that Abu Dhabi has no house numbers! There were some interesting very large sculptures along the streets and in the roundabouts.
The trip was great. We saw downtown, the beach area including the Trump Atlantis Hotel, and a shopping center where they have installed skiing in a giant freezer. The ski operator rents clothing and equipment and people go sledding or skiing or just walk around in the cold on the snow.
If I were to give a short summary of Dubai it would be that it is a rich member of the emirates. It is highly developed and trying to develop more, though some projects now appear to be on hold. It has a freeway system and is even building mass transit. It is the regional tourism capital for both westerners and Arabs. And its population is 4 million but only 25 - 30 percent are citizens, the rest being workers who can stay as long as they have jobs, mostly from poorer Asian countries like India or the Philippines.
We finished the day with dinner in the club. We did get to chat with some Arab couples where the women showed all of their faces; one from Kuwait and the other from Abu Dhabi there for the weekend. They seemed very friendly and normal except for how they dressed. Perhaps you can guess where this is going....more later.
The next day, Saturday, was extremely lazy. Breakfast at 11am, then we took a long walk around the property and then got a taxi to the ship at mid afternoon. Check in was low key and easy and we boarded the ship right away. The only problem was that we couldn't get into our room until 8pm. At 630pm we decided to not watch our clocks any more and had a nice dinner in the buffet. We did get in the cabin shortly after 8pm and it was fine.
Sunday was orientation meetings by language group. English and Italian were the largest groups followed by German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. It was a nice relaxing day in the nice warm weather and then the first formal dinner. Except that only 5 percent of the guests dressed formally. Really an excellent dinner and great wines were available. Then a show and off to bed for an early start in Oman the next day.
Oman is on the Indian Ocean side, about 4 million people and very few expatriate workers. It is a very old country that was conquered by the Portuguese in 1550 and then defeated by the locals in 1650. It had no paved roads or any infrastructure in the 70s, until the son took power from his father, the King. Now it looks quite modern with all you would expect, at least in the capital, Muscat. We were told that the country has several provinces, some with Bedouins, some only with mining or pumping stations. We visited the #1 mosque in the country, a museum and a market area downtown The mosque was notable in that it accommodates 5000 worshipers and has a hand made one-piece carpet in each of the men's and women's sections. And it is air conditioned from concealed vents in the very elaborate columns. It was repeatedly mentioned on the visits that summer temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 Fahrenheit! We got a great deal on some dates, date syrup and a scarf for Alice. Then off to the ship, dinner and another show.
Tuesday was an early start for Fujaira, one of the emirates in the UAE. It looked poorer as we disembarked, and we learned that it is one of the poorer emirates, having had almost none of the tourist oriented development. The population is slightly more than 100,000. However being on the Indian Ocean side it is a strategic shipping point the UAE oil and mineral wealth, and an insurance policy should Iran decide to close the strait of Hormuz separating the peninsula and Iran. So it has oil terminal, bulk port and a container port. It has a peaceful quaintness about it. The women seemed to dress showing less here. We visited a museum showing artifacts from ancient days and exhibits of pre-oil discovery life. Then a fresh market where we saw an incredible variety of fish being offered and a produce market where I got some more dates at a great price. Then a humble replica of a pre-oil village, with houses built of palm fibers, and finally a 2000 year old reconstructed mosque and a fort that guarded it.
The captain's cocktail party for Costa Club members (past passengers) was an intimate event comparatively with champagne, a band and dancing, with the staff dancing with single women. We chatted for a while with some French people from the south of France who did not speak any English and then the captain made his appearance giving a moving speech about Costa four times and in four languages. We then drank a toast and then he chatted with each of us as we were photographed with him.
Wednesday was the Abu Dhabi tour, also early! Abu Dhabi, on the Persian Gulf side, is the richest emirate of the UAE, presumably with the most oil. It has recently been beautified and it is quite pretty, albeit much smaller than Dubai. We saw the Emirates Hotel owned by the government and with a special entrance for heads of state, the cultural center, and a more elaborate reconstructed village. Our guide was an expatriate who couldn't get over the fact that Abu Dhabi has no house numbers! There were some interesting very large sculptures along the streets and in the roundabouts.
Then relaxation in the afternoon and a crew show in the evening. The show was much better than a talent show, quite coherent and themed.
The last tour day was In Bahrain, up north and close to Iraq and Kuwait. We had a 25 year old Arab man who was a cool cat with full Arab dress and signature sunglasses as our guide. We visited a very elaborate museum, a mosque (this one accommodates 7000 worshipers) where we got a lecture on Islam and a tour, an ancient fort rebuilt again and again by successive conquerors of Bahrain, ancient burial mounds that have not been disturbed and a camel park where one can mingle with and pet camels. A camel costs $25,000 these days so it is not a cheap hobby. The camels were very friendly!
The last tour day was In Bahrain, up north and close to Iraq and Kuwait. We had a 25 year old Arab man who was a cool cat with full Arab dress and signature sunglasses as our guide. We visited a very elaborate museum, a mosque (this one accommodates 7000 worshipers) where we got a lecture on Islam and a tour, an ancient fort rebuilt again and again by successive conquerors of Bahrain, ancient burial mounds that have not been disturbed and a camel park where one can mingle with and pet camels. A camel costs $25,000 these days so it is not a cheap hobby. The camels were very friendly!
But to be more serious, Bahrain is a much different country from the others. It has much lower reserves of oil; its first recorded inhabitants were 5000 years ago (The Dilman civilization) but it has no continuity over centuries of residents, because it has been conquered and the old residents wiped out many, many times. It was a republic that went bad and then had 25 years of martial law, emerging from this in 2002 as a constitutional monarchy. It only has 1/3 of its population as expatriates. It is arguably the most modern Arab society we visited in terms of individual freedoms. And it has lots of tourism and Formula One auto racing. Yet our guide was about to go into an arranged marriage and his wife to be will only show her face when she goes out!
Friday was our day of relaxation before the trip home. A perfect sunny day and not too hot. The ship arrived back in Dubai at 1pm.
Saturday was the day of departure. Our reservation with Lufthansa was for a 7am flight. We left our room at 4:30am hoping that we would find a taxi at the pier. We did find several. The big surprise was the line to pick up our passports at 4:30am! Our flight turned out to be on a business class only flight using a 737 aircraft fitted with approximately 44 lie flat seats. They take them across the Atlantic from Germany nowadays. Nice flight as was the 747 flight from Frankfurt. Home by 11pm. Great trip!
It seemed appropriate to make some overall comments about the part of the Arab middle east that we saw, including Kuwait which I had seen on an earlier trip. Needless to say we did not see Iraq or Saudi Arabia. One can argue that the countries we visited are the moderate Arab states. In all of them we saw:
--rising prosperity and numbers of the middle class
--rising contribution of women to the economic and political life even as they continue to wear very conservative, traditional dress outside the home
--good views of the US
--relative absence of ghettos
--general absence of terrorist groups
--some democracy coupled with some form of monarchy
--definite government sponsorship of the Islamic faith, including building the mosques, while tolerating other faiths but not allowing conversions from Islam to them
Friday was our day of relaxation before the trip home. A perfect sunny day and not too hot. The ship arrived back in Dubai at 1pm.
Saturday was the day of departure. Our reservation with Lufthansa was for a 7am flight. We left our room at 4:30am hoping that we would find a taxi at the pier. We did find several. The big surprise was the line to pick up our passports at 4:30am! Our flight turned out to be on a business class only flight using a 737 aircraft fitted with approximately 44 lie flat seats. They take them across the Atlantic from Germany nowadays. Nice flight as was the 747 flight from Frankfurt. Home by 11pm. Great trip!
It seemed appropriate to make some overall comments about the part of the Arab middle east that we saw, including Kuwait which I had seen on an earlier trip. Needless to say we did not see Iraq or Saudi Arabia. One can argue that the countries we visited are the moderate Arab states. In all of them we saw:
--rising prosperity and numbers of the middle class
--rising contribution of women to the economic and political life even as they continue to wear very conservative, traditional dress outside the home
--good views of the US
--relative absence of ghettos
--general absence of terrorist groups
--some democracy coupled with some form of monarchy
--definite government sponsorship of the Islamic faith, including building the mosques, while tolerating other faiths but not allowing conversions from Islam to them
Also there is preoccupation with what to do after the oil is gone.
Then we should make some comments about Islam.
At its core, as we were repeatedly assured, it is very much like Christianity and Judaism and a peaceful religion respectful of and tolerant of other faiths. Nonetheless it is fundamentalist in our view in that it considers the Koran to be specifically to be followed in today's life, and it is demanding of considerable very specific rituals of observance. It is universally a state religion where we visited. And it seems to us that it is easy for the religion to mutate to an anti-western fundamentalism, as it has done in countries other than the ones we have visited on this trip.
We have heard westerners calling for not buying oil from the Arabs so as to not encourage them to be anti western. It can only be said to this that the Arabs are trying to evolve their lives in the face of a lot of tradition and religious and practical obstacles. The move away from oil is coming and the Arabs know it. We should let it play out peacefully and not do anything disruptive.
And finally some comments about Costa Cruises.
Generally we had an excellent experience. The ship was comfortable, the food very good to excellent, the wine list robust and reasonable and the entertainment generally excellent. The maitre d' was very helpful with two table changes so we could get the best table for us. Costa is comparable to Princess in that it has a medium level of service and excellent value for the money spent. The entertainment was mostly themed shows of song and dance going around the world, very well executed. They also had an excellent marionette artist and a woman who did acrobatics. The crew show was also a themed show and excellent.
There were a variety of languages represented and that was handled very well, including information meetings by language group with an assigned counselor for each group. The English speaking and Italian speaking groups were each about 500 people; then German and French groups of half the size; then a smaller Spanish group and finally a very small Portuguese group. Most but not all people spoke some English so there was a lot of interaction at that level, and we managed a few conversations in French and Italian.
The ship generally had a good layout. We thought our cabin was a little small, though with lots of storage and a spacious balcony. The tours were offered in most languages and were excellent.
So to sum up, the trip was comfortable, informative, entertaining and thought provoking. It somewhat changed our view of the Arab world. I guess you couldn't ask for much more!
Then we should make some comments about Islam.
At its core, as we were repeatedly assured, it is very much like Christianity and Judaism and a peaceful religion respectful of and tolerant of other faiths. Nonetheless it is fundamentalist in our view in that it considers the Koran to be specifically to be followed in today's life, and it is demanding of considerable very specific rituals of observance. It is universally a state religion where we visited. And it seems to us that it is easy for the religion to mutate to an anti-western fundamentalism, as it has done in countries other than the ones we have visited on this trip.
We have heard westerners calling for not buying oil from the Arabs so as to not encourage them to be anti western. It can only be said to this that the Arabs are trying to evolve their lives in the face of a lot of tradition and religious and practical obstacles. The move away from oil is coming and the Arabs know it. We should let it play out peacefully and not do anything disruptive.
And finally some comments about Costa Cruises.
Generally we had an excellent experience. The ship was comfortable, the food very good to excellent, the wine list robust and reasonable and the entertainment generally excellent. The maitre d' was very helpful with two table changes so we could get the best table for us. Costa is comparable to Princess in that it has a medium level of service and excellent value for the money spent. The entertainment was mostly themed shows of song and dance going around the world, very well executed. They also had an excellent marionette artist and a woman who did acrobatics. The crew show was also a themed show and excellent.
There were a variety of languages represented and that was handled very well, including information meetings by language group with an assigned counselor for each group. The English speaking and Italian speaking groups were each about 500 people; then German and French groups of half the size; then a smaller Spanish group and finally a very small Portuguese group. Most but not all people spoke some English so there was a lot of interaction at that level, and we managed a few conversations in French and Italian.
The ship generally had a good layout. We thought our cabin was a little small, though with lots of storage and a spacious balcony. The tours were offered in most languages and were excellent.
So to sum up, the trip was comfortable, informative, entertaining and thought provoking. It somewhat changed our view of the Arab world. I guess you couldn't ask for much more!
