I dreamed about this cruise when I had never been to Emirates, but the price stopped me. After a trip to Sharjah five years ago, I forgot about the cruise. But chance decided everything. Three years ago my friend and I cancelled a wonderful cruise “Western Europe” because of the pandemic. Last year we were offered a cruise on the Persian Gulf for our advance payment, and the prices were suitable in February. But my friend did not express her desire, in December we still thought: “Maybe Europe will open…”. And this autumn we on this advance payment has already given up: the prices for plane tickets to UAE have soared to heaven. When I told Anya about it, she said that she could go with me on a cruise on the Persian Gulf, but the flight would have to be from Astana. She found cheap tickets and booked inexpensive hotels in the UAE. It was only thanks to Anya that this trip took place.
We arrived from Astana to Abu Dhabi late in the evening. Having overnighted in hotel and had breakfast (Anya also had time to swim in swimming pool), we took taxi to cruise port. After all formalities we check in our modest but cosy cabin on 9 deck.
Only one night during the cruise there was no show in theatre, but so every day we were entertained. There were also numerous bars also playing and singing.
The next morning I had an early rise and excursion to Muscat. At first, I and Anya wanted to walk around the city on their own, but I still decided to take a tour. First time in a new country, in a new city, the capital of the country. I was afraid to miss something, I don’t plan to go to these places for the second time. I will tell about interesting and informative excursion around Muscat separately.
The next day we had our first stop – the island of Sir Bani Yas. This island was once inhabited by people and there are traces of their activity. Then the fresh water ran out and the population left the island. 50 years ago, Sheikh Zayed, the first president of the UAE, decided to create a National Wildlife Park here. And his idea was realised. The island has no fresh water, using imported water, an irrigation system was made and millions of trees were planted.
In the morning, the next town in Oman is Khasab. Here I have bought a tour of the fjords. I was once lucky enough to see the Norwegian fjords. Let’s see what fjords are like here.
We were led along the promenade to the neighbouring pier, from where our Opera was visible.
Along the way we were shown plants and fish on the bottom. Then dolphins appeared. But they did not jump out of the water, and we could only see their tails and fins. Once five dolphins swam up at once. It is interesting that they came to whistle, to socialise.
I visited aquarium of Dubai Mall, besides I listened to information about city on audio guide. The bus of the same company brought me then to the cruise port. I will write a separate story about Dubai, besides these two days we spent in this city three more days after the cruise. After two days mooring in Dubai, our ship went to Abu Dhabi, where our cruise ended, but the journey continued.
