World Cruise - Day 96 - Apr 17 - At Sea

Sunrise was close to being at the horizon today (closer than it has been in awhile), although not right at the horizon:

You can see the vapor trail of our ship in the left of the photo, which was taken off the back of the ship on the 9^th deck (off the lido), so we are heading pretty much straight east.

So back to last night and the Arabian Nights deck party.  First of all, there are a couple of backstories, both of which involve the rabbi onboard, David Kopstein.  I had not met him in person until yesterday on our famous bribe-the-shuttle-driver excursion to Hilton Hotel.  Actually, I met him one other time, but I didn’t know he was the rabbi.  I didn’t even know he was a passenger.  As we got back onboard in Bahrain, there was a guy in Arab garb and sunglasses greeting us, hands folded, as we came back onboard saying, “Thank you for visiting my country!” with a slight accent.  I thought it was a local official or perhaps someone from the visitor bureau.  I found out later it was the rabbi.  Last night at the deck party, he was wearing the same outfit, so he did the same pose for me:

He looks all serious in that pose, but he’s actually a pretty funny guy.  Yesterday, in the bribe-the-shuttle-driver excursion, the rabbi was the only person not going into Salalah.  He just wanted to go for a long walk outside the port gate, doing the walk for the cure.  So he ended up walking the four miles back from the Hilton Hotel to the port gate, then another mile to the point at which the shuttles came through.  Then he hitched a ride with the Indian Navy shuttle coming back through the port gate back to the ship, so he was the only one who actually rode on the Indian Army shuttle.  He gets involved in all of the activities on the ship.  Our onboard resident belly dancer (yes, we have one, her name is Frederique Herel) gave a belly dancing lesson and rabbi was one of only two men to join in:

That’s Frederique top left and the rabbi is dancing bottom right.  Speaking of Frederique, the rabbi said that he thought Krissie and Frederique looked like stunt doubles, so he introduced them.  They did some dancing to the music under the stars:

We had a lot of fun at the deck party, stayed up until almost midnight (pretty rare for us, we’re in bed around 10 most nights).  Krissie was her usual freespirited self on the dance floor, wrapping herself in the streamers:

She also danced again with Noemi:

It was nice to see Sergio up and about.  He and Noemi went out touring yesterday with Dan.  Krissie and I also danced with Emmanuelle:

I think I mentioned it previously, Emmanuelle got her opportunity to swim with the dolphins at Atlantis in Dubai.  She loved it! 

Since it was a deck party, there was also plenty of food available:

I think the one above is a mosque, although it looks a lot like the Taj Mahal from our last deck party.  Camels seemed to be a recurring theme:

Cheese and fruit in the shape of a turkey:

This ice sculpture in the shape of a camel melted pretty quickly in the hot Arabian evening, by the time the evening was over, his head had almost completely melted away (note that I caught a drop of water dripping from the chin):

So this pic is for Susie, Patti and Julie.  Tell me if you recognize someone we know in this pic?

I had to do a real double-take.  Yes, very, very similar.  And she’s about 5’ tall as well.  Straight on from the front you can tell the difference, but not much.  From the back, it’s stunt double time.

Julie, spinner dolphins are a type of dolphin.  They get their name from their tendency to spin like a corkscrew through the air when they jump.  They put on quite a show for us a couple nights ago.  Interesting thing about the sultan, apparently no one (at least none of the general population) knows if he is married and, if so, to how many women, or if he has children.  I guess when he dies it will be made known as others position for succession.  And Krissie was the one who suggested asking the Indian Navy for a ride on their shuttle, although she wasn’t brave enough (or crazy enough) to do it herself, she left that part to me.  The really good incense has a sweeter smell than what I remembered from growing up in the Catholic church.  I asked about it and the guy said that the Catholics buy lots of it in bulk, but he said it’s the lower quality frankincense.  Not sure if that was true or just a way to upsell the more expensive stuff.

Here are a few more pics from Salalah that didn’t make it into yesterday’s blog posting.  View from the harbor with some medium-sized boats (not sure what they are—maybe large fishing boats?) in the foreground and the oil refinery in the background:

View of fisherman motoring out in the morning with Salalah in the background:

This is one of the guys with weapons on the Indian Navy vessel that I boarded later that morning:

Three locals outside the ship as we came up to the dock:

Krissie plans to go to her belly dancing classes onboard from today forward.  I went to watch them briefly and I think I might join them starting tomorrow.  I would need to give up ping pong (it’s at the same time), but it might be a nice change of pace.  Although I think the class is all women, so maybe they won’t want a guy in the class.  Zumba is mainly women, but there are usually 2 or 3 or 4 guys in each class.

We won at trivia this morning with 17 out of 20 after a long dry spell since our last win.  Here are the questions we got wrong: Which of Christopher Columbus’ three ships wrecked off Haiti in 1492?  Santa Maria (we said Pinta).  What country converted its currency from the pound to the dollar in 1966?  Australia (we said Hong Kong).  What disease gets the name “65 roses” because its young victims found its name too difficult to pronounce?  Cystic fibrosis (we said rosella).  Other tough questions:  What 1941 miracle drug was first administered to a police officer?  Penicillin.  What playwright penned the line: “First thing we do, we kill all the lawyers.”?  William Shakespeare.  Which poet wrote the words to Auld Lang Syne?  Robert Burns.  What disease got its name from Latin for bad air?  Malaria.  What communist country finally got a seat at the UN in 1971?  People’s Republic of China.  What did Yul Brenner perform in the circus until he took a nasty fall?  Trapeze.  In 1955, what was the first company to post $1B in earnings?  General Motors.  What holiday is celebrated by the most countries?  New Year’s Day.  Are camels born with humps?  No.  What year did Adolf Hitler come to power in Germany?  1933.

We had a nice sunset this evening:

Tonight the entertainment was Jimmy Tamley, a very talented ventriloquist:

He is probably the most talented ventriloquist we’ve ever seen.  Very good at his art (cannot see his lips move, can do multiple voices at the same time, the drinking water while talking bit as well) and very funny.  He also got Jackie Eckstein (our friend from Victoria) up on stage along with Phil from Manitoba:

Tomorrow is sea day #2 of 4 on our way to Aqaba, Jordan.  And tomorrow is probably our most likely day to see pirates, since we will be rounding the turn into the Red Sea, just off the coast of both Yemen and Somalia.