Istanbul Turkey November 1,2014. After a 9 hour nonstop on Turkish air from Boston we landed in Istanbul. It was nearly 4 PM by the time we got the luggage and boarded the train and then tram to get to the hotel Arrife Sultan in Sultanahmed. Already the sun was setting and darkness had come by 5 when we got off in front of the Blue Mosque to find the little 8 room converted Anatolian house where we spent the night. Dropped the bags and, despite no sleep for 2 days , went right back out. This is the heart of old Istanbul . The ancient side streets which are empty during the day suddenly sprout tables and chairs each night and become restaurants. One right after another with accompanying waiters enticing us to eat. Instead we walked back to the mosque arriving just as the call to prayers began. Standing between Hagia Sofia begun by Constantine and the enormous blue mosque from the 1600s it was loud and mysterious and enchanting. The mosques were lit up and against the black sky I watched the white doves soar over them. There was a large circular fountain which had dancing waters of many colors. Lots of families and young couples, the women with scarves and veils walking around. When it got too cold and fatigue took over we reluctantly returned to the Arrife to our minute but clean room overlooking the busy street and listened to the mid eastern music, a soothing rhythm reminiscent of the kind when you see belly dancers. Also cannot forget to mention the ubiquitous cats of Turkey.They are beloved. My kind of people. 

Israel. November 6,2014 Today we docked in Haifa Israel and joined 4 others for a 2 day tour of the country. Our guide is Dror Weitzmann a 40 something secular Jew who is knowledgable and frank about the problems facing Israel. He is also understandably proud of the accomplishments over the past 60 years. In Haifa we saw Mt Carmel home of Elijah the prophet as well as the headquarters of the Bahai faith. this is apparently an eastern religion of about 6 million which cannot be categorized as either Christian or Moslem or Jewish but more Buddhist , Taoist . They must give 1/7 of all their belongings to the faith. This has helped build a very beautiful shrine and hanging gardens. We then drove south about half way through Israel skirting the west,bank occupied area which is huge, the Palestinians live there . We continued through the Negev desert with its many kibbuttzes . In the northern part they have turned the desert green growing all kinds of fruit and vegetables and have planted cypress and date palm trees .  As we went further south there were more Bedouin villages. They are not as nomadic now and their camels have been supplanted by old subarus and hyundais. Our ultimate goal was Masada which is a high plateau used by King Herod as his winter palace. It was built around the time of Christ and is situated several thousand feet up and overlooking the Dead Sea.  A cable car takes you up. the real story here in the ruins is one of the more compelling in Jewish lore. Nearly 1000 men women and children lived atop the plateau and held off the roman army for 9 months. In the end they nearly all died though 2 women and 3 children were taken as roman slaves. Until 25 years ago Israeli soldiers took their oaths up on Masada but not today as the Israeli mindset has changed and moderated a bit. After touring the ruins we drove down to 450 feet below sea level, lowest point in the world, and went for a dip in the Dead Sea.  The salt it contains is magnesium so the water is slippery. I covered myself in the black mud and let it soak in and dry before rinsing.Felt so good and made my skin so soft. Was fun floating and actually difficult to stand up,as my feet kept floating to the surface. a beautiful day, not a cloud and around 73 degrees. The Judean desert is so stark with beige rocks and giant boulders. Kind of reminiscent of Death Valley. no surprise they are similar. Right across the Dead Sea we could see the country of Jordan. So close and so far especially for the Israelis. For the evening we are staying at the Addar hotel in west jerusalem. this was supposed to be the safest area however apparently some people were hurt or killed today and there are police everywhere. Lots of guns and rifles and security. I am not afraid. In fact we walked out in the dark to a rather sketchy area looking for food as we couldn't find a restaurant. In,the end we bought fruit and a beer from a local. they were very nice, Palestinian I think. Interesting day. tomorrow we tour the holy sites. as we entered the city the full moon rose and we stood on the mount of olives in the dark, site of Jesus ' entry on Palm Sunday. We could see all the lights and a large crowd of Spanish pilgrims joined us and sang songs of Jerusalem and hugged and cried in their joy at being here. So moving.

Jerusalem November 7, 2014 Our little group of 6 started before 8AM to beat the Friday "volcano" as Dror has described it. It seems since tensions have mounted again due to the Gaza trouble several months ago every Friday has had the potential for serious violence between the Moslem Palestinians and the Israeli police. All night I heard police cars and army trucks massing along the streets. As we drove to the Garden of Gethsemane we had to pass several checkpoints designed to deter the Moslems. Friday is their holy day and at 11:30 each week thousands gather at the Temple Mount ,their holy place ,to pray and chant. It is at this time that trouble can happen from some of the hot heads. the Temple Mount which is the golden dome you see in the pictures, is right next to the wailing wall. In the past agitators have thrown rocks down on the heads of the praying Jews .  Anyway we got early to the church which now covers the rock that Jesus prayed at and where Judas betrayed him. Outside are ancient olive trees , some so old they witnessed this incident. Inside a Mass was being celebrated and I was able to receive communion right at the rock. It was very special. We then drove around the city and parked near the Jaffa gate to begin our 6 hour tour on foot of this holy city where apparently none of the major religions seem to be able to get along. Much of the time was spent in the church of the holy sepulcher which is where Christ was crucified and buried. It is a mammoth structure which is subdivided into innumerable smaller churches each assigned to different Christian sects , none of which are Protestant. There were Armenian, Roman, Coptic, Ethiopian, and predominately Greek Orthodox chapels. they have worked out schedules for each of their daily rituals. we saw the spot of Jesus' tomb and where the cross was hung. We were able to light candles for our loved ones and touch the stone upon which His body was laid after he died. It was crowded with Asians,Russians and East Indian women in their beautiful colorful finest saris. So many unrecognizable languages in the air.  We also toured the Arab, Christian, Jewish and Armenian quarters . these are mainly along the Via Dolorosa, where Christ carried the cross and several spots commemorated in the stations of the cross are signposted. I left messages in the women's side of the wailing wall being careful to back away after paying respects. Everywhere we turned was history , all contained within a square mile. Also everywhere were the police and army,armed to the teeth with tear gas grenades, huge firearms and riot gear. When 12:30 came and there was no eruption from the Temple Mount you could see they stood down a little and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Now the Jews began to get ready for Shabat, their sabbath, which means everyone has to be home and have all work done by 5 PM. All public transportation stops , stores close and even no cooking allowed. We ate a late lunch of falafels and started the 100 mile drive back to Haifa to the mother ship.  I really felt I have gotten a much better idea of the issues of Israel and Palestine. I can see both sides but have to wonder how this will all go in the future.

Egypt. November 8-12.2014 When I booked this cruise 5 months ago Egypt was not on the itinerary but for some reason here I am again. It wasn't my favorite place the first time and has not moved up the list this time either. Since we had spent more than 2 weeks here just a few years ago we opted not to take the long drives from the different ports inland to the ancient tombs and temples and pyramids. In port said at the mouth of the Suez Canal I found a crumbling semi squalid city with hyper aggressive men hawkers who were extremely difficult to ignore. Much of this was leveled in 1967 and 1956 wars . Nevertheless we went off the ship to take a short ferry ride across the Suez Canal for something to do. the women were all covered head to toe in black robes and do not walk with men at all just with other women. I found them staring at my blond hair. I did dress in long sleeves and long pants so as not to offend.  The suez was built over 150 years ago to facilitate shipping between Europe and the Far East. There are no locks , just a 60 foot wide canal with sand on either side. Only one lane so it the ships must wait and go in convoy either north or south. One thing I liked about port said was the remaining older buildings with New Orleans style wrought iron balconies. they are in desperate shape but still beautiful in a faded glory way. I also love to listen to the Moslem call to prayers. This occurs 5 times a day starting at dawn . the various chanters all sound different, some more melodic than others, but still exotic and enchanting. While most of the passengers went by convoy to Cairo, a 3 hour drive, I spent the afternoon roaming on my own through the streets of port said. I was just itching to hand out trash bags and help clean the litter off the streets. also a plethora of cats . Funny how in South America the are so many stray dogs but the cats predominate in the Middle East. They are much scrawniness in Egypt than in Israel and Turkey. It did seem a little scary and the men were somewhat threatening but I just ignored and just raised my voice when they tried to touch me on the arm.  Our second stop was to be Sharm al sheikh which was aborted at the last moment. The reason given was for security. It is located on the southern tip of the Sinai which is under a state of emergency due to a recent bomb attack. Too bad because it was the one port in Egypt I wanted, due to its famous reefs and snorkeling. Our final stop is the dusty small town of Safaga for 2 days which is the closest stop to Luxor and the valley of the kings, again a 3 hour drive inland via a police convoy. We instead took a shuttle bus to the local hotel district where entrepreneurs tried to shake us down to use their rather sad beaches for a few hours for 10 euros each. No thanks. So back we came to the cement plant dominated port. tomorrow we will attempt to find a cab to take us to another area to snorkel. this evening I am sitting on our veranda, the Luxor busses are not back yet. It is dark from 5 pm and I can hear the dolphins leaping from the water around us and the last call to prayers from the mosque minaret loud speakers. Best part of the day except for when I saw the guy racing his camel across the desert . Definitely looked fun. The weather has been warm now , 80 or 85, so that's good as well.  OK so today is our last day n Egypt and we rented a taxi and went in a south direction out along the desert coast to an isolated hotel coral garden and snorkeled. I saw fish I have never ever seen. It was awesome and the best day in Egypt. 

Petra, Jordan. November 13,2014 This is the stop I have been waiting for and the primary reason for this cruise . Few ships stop in Aqaba Jordan. It is understandable because of the unease over the volatility of the Middle East. this is such a shame because Jordan is a wonderful country which is very stable, progressive and fairly prosperous . the only port is Aqaba which is squeezed between the Sinai peninsula and Saudi Arabia with the port of Eilat Israel just a few miles to the west on the Red Sea. I had procured a private driver and we left at 7AM before all the ship's buses. Basem,our driver, made the 100 miles in about 2 hours. the weather was absolutely perfect , in the 70s with a light cloud cover to block the strong sun. the scenery on the way was very much like southern Utah with its red rocks and many hills and valleys. the valleys here are called wadis. The road was as modern as any in the USA, probably better. The only differences were the many camels, goat herds and bedouin villages we passed.  Petra is a city dating from before the time of Christ carved out of the walls of a canyon by the Nabateans . It was a secret city of up to 40,000 entered only via a kilometer long slot canyon called the Siq. The width of this siq varies from about 10 feet wide to about 20 feet. The height of the walls is around 100 feet high and the stone is striated with many colors of white, beige, black, pink, green and red. It was wondrous. As we walked along frequently the only sound was the clip clop of the horse drawn traps carrying some of the tourist who didn't want to walk the 45 minutes to the start of the city. while they Looked like they were having fun I think they missed out on an important aspect of the journey. As we neared the end we could see parts of the iconic treasury coming into view. This is the facade used in the Indiana jJones and the Crusaders movie where Harrison Ford and Seam Connery ride out on their horses. It is astounding to imagine the difficulty of trying to carve these buildings as the facades are so intricate. One mistake and it is ruined. In front of the treasury, besides the many tourists were jauntily dressed camels and donkeys which were offered continually by the Bedouin tribe which is now the proprietors of the different cafés and stalls along the route. they lived here in the caves until they were moved out by the government 30 years ago. they now have a village about a mile away. there are many different tribes in the Bedouin world and they are quite protective of their turf. It couldn't tell one tribe from the other but Basem assured me that he could. We walked for 4 hours through the city looking at the remains of the many tombs and caves and streets of columns. As the sun moved the colors of the rocks changed. we didn't use a guide, it was more fun to just imagine what it was like. I always forget most of the details anyway. We got as far as we could and then turned back. I think we covered around 5 miles total and it had gotten rather warm.  Basem was waiting for us at the entrance and we were off now towards Aqaba but this time to Wadi Rum. this is a protected area lived in by Bedouin and around 430 square miles of desert, and mountains. T E Lawrence of Lawrence of Arabia fame lived here for awhile and we saw a spring named for him. We transferred to a 4 wheel drive vehicle to travel in the sand and our driver was a Bedouin named Aouda . He was from a family of 34 children, his father has 3 wives, and he himself has just one wife so far with a 7th child on the way. they still do dowries of camels and such so I was teasing him that he was going to need a lot of camels. We drove through the desert admiring the ever changing hills and dunes , passing wild camels . the silence was amazing. As the sun set we sat on a hill watching it sink behind a mountain. Only a hour back to Aqaba and the mother ship.  Petra and Wadi Rum did not disappoint .They are now up there with Macchu Pichu and the Taj Majal and the golden palace in Bangkok for my favorite world sites. Jordan is a special place.I would definitely like to return here to see more. 

On the Red Sea. November 14-17,2014 We are now to travel for 4 days down the length of the Red Sea passing Eritrea , Djibouti and Somalia on the west and Saudi Arabia and Yemen on the east. It is about 1800 miles to Salalah our next port in Oman. This is also the area of the many Somali pirate attacks which have been occurring over the past several years. Accordingly water cannons and electronic alarms have been set up along the ship sides. There are guards standing watch day and night watching for the small pirate boats. We even had to have a drill where we had to listen to an alarm and go stand in the hallways of the ship until an all clear signal. Reminded of when I was a kid in school and we had those air raid attack drills in the 50s. where we had to stand in Cure of Ars' halls with our coats over our heads.  I pass the days reading and attending lectures and talking with new friends. I have learned so much about Arab culture and feel I have a better understanding of it. Interestingly enough I have learned that this ship , the Oceania Nautica was one of the only 2 cruise ships attacked in the past. Apparently the captain gunned the engines and they were able to out run the pirates. good to know. Actually I think it would be kind of exciting and a great story to tell. as long as no one got hurt, of course.

Salalah, Oman, November 18,2014 Today I landed in camel heaven. For some reason I have always found watching camels absolutely riveting. I know they can be a bit nasty and argumentative but they have such distinct personalities . I love the groaning sounds they make as they lift their loads or talk to each other. The black ones are just beautiful. The babies are the cutest things. Anyway Salalah is a small city of about 80,000 on the Arabian gulf just west of Yemen . It is the capital of the Omani province of Dhofar and has been around for thousands of years as a stop on the Silk Road between the Mediterranean and China . The land along the Sea is flat for about 3-4 miles inland and then it rises abruptly up to 5000 foot mountains. The winds from Africa bring rains called the Khalief from May to September which turns the area green, otherwise it is a dry desert which is pretty much what we saw.  We went with another couple , Bill and Mary Estelle Amgen for a tour with Mohammed , our 49 year old driver. He has 6 daughters and now a baby son. He has 2 grandchildren already ,all living with him and his wife. the houses we saw as we drove east along the coast were quite large, made of cement blocks , somewhat ornate but totally devoid of any outside planting or shrubs, just sand or dust. It looked so odd , as though they were in an unfinished subdivision. Even odder were the multitudes of wandering camels just walking along the roadsides. I guess they are branded but they just seemed to go where the wind blew them. Mohammed would stop the car and call to them with a certain song which made them prick up their ears and wander over. In Oman they eat the camels and drink their milk. They also race them. I would guess we saw over a thousand camels .Until 1970 there almost no roads and only 3 elementary schools in the whole country. The very conservative Sultan was deposed and his son , the present Sultan, whose 74th birthday was being celebrated today as a national holiday, commenced an era of building and progression. Today the roads are excellent, women are educated , people seem somewhat prosperous. Gas is cheap at 50 cents a gallon .They have some oil reserves. All the men we saw wore the long white robes called a dishdasha. I saw no women at all though we drove for 5 hours but I do know they wear abayas and cover completely. We visited Ayn Razat a swimming hole and park at the foot of the mountains, Khor Rori which was now a ruin but formerly a frankincense trading port. The Queen of Sheba had also lived here. Taqa and Mirbat were old fishing villages with ancient houses.  It was such an interesting day . Of course the camels were almost the best part. I am a little ashamed at how many pictures I took of them.