The Arabian Sea

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Sunday evening, April 29, 2012. Nautica is now due south of the border between Pakistan and Iran in the Arabian Sea. The ship is headed due west toward Oman and the port of Salalah. I was up at dawn as usual for my hour’s walk on deck nine. The sun rose into a light blue sky over the Arabian Sea. The air is warm but the humidity is much lower than it was in India. It looks to be a beautiful day on calm seas. We are not due in Salalah until tomorrow morning. I love the days spent at sea. There are enrichment lectures to attend, books to read, interesting conversations over lunch and dinner and time to just sit and contemplate the good fortune to be where I am.



We attended a cocktail reception tonight in the Nautica Lounge with Captain Leo Strazicic and his general manager Carlo Gunetti. This was a thank you gesture for those of us who have traveled with Oceania before. This is my second Oceania cruise and Bill’s fourth. Of course the purpose is to convince us to continue using Oceania when we travel. I will likely take another Oceania cruise because I like the itineraries and the smaller size of its ships.



Tuesday evening, May 1, 2012. After a day in the port of Salalah, Oman, Nautica is now underway in the Gulf of Aden not far from the coast of Yemen. Somalia is not far to the south. We are very close to some of the most violent areas in the region. In two days we will pass into the Red Sea through a narrow passage off the coast of Somalia. Before leaving Mumbai a couple of days ago, Nautica took aboard a five member Isreali security team as an extra precaution. They are easy to spot on the ship because they are slim and trim, and about 40 years younger than most of the passengers. The ear pieces they wear are not hearing aids. I feel perfectly safe.



I just walked out onto my stateroom deck to look at the night sky. The ship is gliding through a glass calm sea under a three quarter moon. The stars seem so much brighter tonight because the ship has turned off most of the outside lights to reduce its visibility to pirates who operate in this area. There are no other ships or any other lights visible. It is peaceful and in a sense magical. Nautica sails serenely on through a troubled part of the world



Earlier today I set foot on the Arabian Peninsula for the first time. Salalah, Oman is a small, dusty city at the west end of Oman. It has a huge, and I mean huge, port facility. Here the world’s largest cantilever container ship cranes load and unload thousands of ships year round. I understand that the port has grown in importance because it makes for quicker and safer passage of goods into and out of other countries in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia to the north. The alternate shipping route is through the Straight of Hormuz at the east end of Oman and that area is very narrow and under constant threat of closure because of hostility between the United States and nearby Iran.



This is a very complex part of the world. Oman is predominately Sunni Muslim but it appears to be a progressive country at least in comparison to some of its neighbors. It has been ruled by the same sultan since 1970 and he has greatly modernized the country. Literacy is near 100%. We took a cab into the city on a beautiful four lane highway with ornate light poles all along the way. Though Oman is mostly desert, there are beautiful gardens, palm trees and meticulously maintained lawns along the way. The heat is intense but dry. There is a range of mountains to the north mostly obscured by a white haze of dust and sand in the air. There is a lot of construction going on with hundreds of high rise apartment blocks going up. The city center is bleak but absolutely clean. We are told that littering can land one in jail.



I visited the Grand Mosque in the city center. It was built by the sultan just two years ago. I had to remove my shoes to enter. The building has a huge tiled dome and is built entirely of marble. The main sanctuary under the dome is enormous and in the center hangs a gargantuan crystal chandelier. Only the men can worship in this part of the mosque. Woman gather in a separate area and apparently can watch and hear an imam’s sermon on a large video screen. In many parts of Arabia men and women don’t mingle to the extent that we do in the West. Devout Muslims stop everything, face Mecca and pray five times every day. Copies of the Holy Koran line the walls. It is a obviously a place of special significance to the local people much like St. James Cathedral in Seattle only far larger.



Later we drove by one of the sultan’s three palaces in Salalah. He has many more across the country and in the capital of Muscat several hundred kilometers to the north east. The one we saw is surrounded by high forbidding walls behind which is quite obviously be unbelievable luxury. He has his own private blue tiled mosque among other things. Rumor has it that he has anywhere from two to one hundred wives. Our guide said it was not to speculate. We then went to the local suq, which is what is know as a market in Arabic. Here we did a bit of shopping before returning to Nautica. I learned a couple of useful words in Arabic while here. “Salam wali kum” (peace be with you) a greeting often used by Arab speaking people. In return, an Arab will say “Wali kum salam.” (and to you peace). I felt like I was back at St. James in Seattle at Sunday Mass. These words are how I want to remember Salalah, Oman. May peace be with its people and to the rest of us as well.

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Photos

Nautica
the blue track just above the pool deck is where I walked for an hour each morning at dawn.

M/S Nautica
Nautica as seen from the distance at a prior stop in India