Now enroute from Fujairah to Sri Lanka. This will take 5 days/6 nights.

I may not do a posting everyday as not much will be happening until we get to Colombo.

Today we had a “pirate” drill as we are in an at-risk area. We had to practice sitting in the corridor !

Skies are blue, temp is 23c

Pirate Drill

Today we are in Fujairah, one of the smallest of the United Arab Emirates.  It is on the Indian Ocean side of the straights of Hormuz.

The photo is at first sight not very interesting but it shows part of a huge oil terminal which ships oil which has been pumped 350kms from Abu Dhabi.  This means that if the straights were closed due to a war, the UAE could still export their oil.

No posting yesterday .  We boarded our ship in Dubai after checking out of the spectacular Atlantis Hotel.  A bit “Disney ” but exquisitely and tastefully done. The massive aquarium 3 floors high has 65,000 fishes in it.

After boarding the ship we sailed to Abu Dhabi where we are today. Just been shopping for the “essentials” — tonic water, limes etc !

We have a comfortable cabin, next door to the one we had last year.

Shopping Mall in Abu Dhabi with Arab lady.

An amazing day seeing the sights of Dubai. So much has changed in the 8/10 years since I was here.

Notable are the shopping malls, the metro and the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world at 820m) we went up it. The lift takes 1 minute and you don’t feel a thing excepyour ears pop.

Here’s a rather poor picture, but you get the idea.

26th Jan

may have started a new post when all I wanted to do was to add to the old one !

Anyhow, arrived safely in Dubai and whisked by limo to the Atlantis, Palm – a stunning Vegas-style hotel, or, a bit like the Lost City at Sun City.  Check it out on Google if you want.

This one taken last year in South America

Waiting to board our 747 to Dubai 11.50 on 25th Jan

Map of our trip. The numbers are ‘sea days’ between ports

This first posting is more in the nature of a test posting as I have only just registered my blog address with WordPress. The blog address — if that is the correct terminology is grandadsteve.com. Postings on the holiday will start on Saturday 25th or Sunday 26th January.  I will be glad of any comments or feedback so that I can improve my blogging skills.

Now trying to add a photo to this blog (inadvertently I started a new subject when I tried before)

We are now waiting to board our flight to Dubai 12.00 25th Jan 2014