Tuesday 27th January – Muscat, Oman. United Arab Emirates The Captain managed to dock successfully and we set foot on dry land for the first time in 10 days! We had to meet up at 8-40am for our booked tour to Nakhl and the Hot Springs – found it was a bit strange having to meet deadlines when we are so used to pleasing ourselves! We were given our Oman visa and off we set. The hot springs were more of a warm stream and had those little fish that eat dead skin off your feet. We gave paddling and fish-feeding a miss but several passengers, the guide and lots of local tourists were in the water. Apparently this is where Omanis (?) come to chill and picnic away from the city. We photographed a family (with their permission) and then met them again at our second stop – The Fort. If we’re able to find Wi-Fi that’s good (and cheap) enough to upload some pictures, you will see what we mean when we say that it looked like a sand castle. Lunch was at a “resort hotel” which was like a luxurious Butlins. There are no holiday makers here at the moment – as it is the middle of winter and the temperature today was only 26 degrees. We then drove through the mountains back towards the port, stopping off at The Grand Mosque for a photo-opportunity. It was actually quite impressive even though we couldn’t go inside. Back to the ship and up to the “sail away” party with music provided by “Vibz” on deck 8. Had a bit of supper in Kings Court and then popped in to see The Spinettes. They are three girls who met when in various West End musicals who now make their living doing mainly 40’s and 50’s standards. Not really our scene but thought we’d go as it is their only show. They were supposed to get on at Aqaba and have spent the last few days chasing the ship around the Middle East! They get off in Dubai…. Wednesday 28th January – Khor Fakkan, UAE A bit more time this morning as we didn’t have to “muster” until 9-10am! We did a tour around Fujairah which is one of the seven Emirates (Principalities) that make up the United Arab Emirates. We were promised a “quaint market” a “sleepy fishing village” and a trip to a fish market…. The market was on the side of a dual carriageway, the fishing village was a big town and the fish market was shut! To top it all, coachloads of westerners drawing up outside the most important mosque just as the call to prayers was happening was perhaps at best bad timing, at worst a little insensitive. The trip was worth doing though – really interesting country. Our guide was Serbian and our driver Indian. There are just under one million “Emiratis” (?) and nearly five million foreign workers now in UAE. Locals own the land and do “professional” jobs like banking whereas the foreigners do the service type jobs like nursing… (Honest) The Sheiks of the seven Emirates have apparently decided that by giving their people free education, healthcare and no taxes is a good way to prevent any chance of an “Arab Spring” happening. Although the foreigners don’t get the free schooling or healthcare they too do not pay any kind of tax and so are better off than where they came from (as long as they have a job) If they cannot work – they are deported! We were all back on board by 4pm but once again the bunkering has been slower than expected so we are still in port now at 8pm when I’m writing this. Still, Dubai is only one and a half hours by road from here (although it’s further by sea as we have to go “round the pointy bit” as the Captain said) so we should have little problem in reaching Dubai tomorrow.