Day 1 (Clock Reset) - Dubai

 Dubai at sunrise

 Dubai Creek and our seaplane

 Our Pilot a native of Fiji

 Our ship Mariner of the Seas as seen from 1500'

 The "penguin" building (Google it) 

 The incredible city of Dubai

 Truly Amazing

 Palm Islands

 The World Islands

(where you live if you don't like neighbors)

 Our very soft landing

Taxing back to the dock

Borrowing from a Purple Haze, Dubai is a light blue haze, perhaps the only negative of this rapidly growing metropolis. Dubai has a population of about 1.7 million people, 85 % of which is made up of expatriates.

Because of my aversion to tall buildings I got a chance to see Dubai from a little different angle, that being from about 2000 feet overhead. I took a seaplane tour that left from an area called Dubai Creek, not an American creek by any stretch of the imagination.

To see places like Palm Tree Island, the World Islands and all of the tall, taller and tallest buildings from this lofty perch was indeed breathtaking. And the best part was no sweaty palms.

When you look out upon the vast city that continues to grow by leaps and bounds it is hard to imagine it just a pearling village a hundred years ago. It is now one of the world’s fastest growing cities. And just for good measure they have a shopping mall complete with its own ski area.

The Dubai port marks the completion of the second leg of the voyage, 5,050 nautical miles from Barcelona and 10,506 nautical miles from Galveston, Texas, all in thirty days. It really doesn’t seem that long at all.

Dubai also marks the start of the last leg of the cruise that will take us ultimately to Singapore. And with each day the temperature will increase, hopefully edging our way to Asia at the pace of 18 or 19 knots will allow for an easy acclimation. Who knows I may have to arrange to have my fur coat taken out of storage by the time I return to summer in St. Louis.

We will have two sea days before reaching our next stop in Goa, India on Friday. I will keep you posted of events at sea.