The Wrap Up

Friday morning we had a 4:00 am pick up to transfer to the Abu Dhabi airport and our flights home.  Yep, that's right, 4:00 am!

Thursday was our last day on the ship and our last day in Abu Dhabi.  Other than taking a short walk around the pier area, we did nothing.  We thought that we might take the water taxi to the Louvre Museum but neither of us had much enthusiasm for it.  I think that it was a combination of a lack of interest in what was on exhibition there, a lack of interest in doing anything else in Abu Dhabi, and a general feeling of exhaustion, both physical and mental.  It's not easy getting old.  So we had an easy day on board and did some laundry so we'd go home with mostly clean clothes.

At this point, I am going to turn the blog post over to Linda for her insightful and observational thoughts about our time in the UAE and Qatar.

   - There seems to be haze over the cities at all times. I don't believe that it is dust from the desert.

   

  - Almost all cars and buildings are white or tan

  - Every time we left a cruise terminal to go into a city, our bags were scanned. They were scanned on the way in which you would expect but not on the way out.

   - The nighttime skyline in both Dubai and Doha are dazzling with lights, colors, and patterns.

   - The UAE has the cleanest cities I've ever seen. People are constantly cleaning and keeping floors polished.

   - In Sharjah, no matter what a man is doing on Friday, he stops when it is time to pray. Even a bus driver is allowed to stop his bus on the street, leave the keys in it and go pray.

   - At the food court in the mall in Dubai, a lady got up to pick up her food. She left her purse and packages sitting on the table. It seems that that is the norm. It is extremely safe and crime free throughout the region.

   - With unlimited resources and labor, anything is possible.

   - I need some time to process my feelings about the life that people live here.  It must be wonderful not to have to worry about crime, drugs, and guns. But at what price? How much does peace of mind cost you in freedom?

We'll be home now for over 2 months before our next trip - cruising from Seoul to Tokyo on March 9th.  Until then,

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry