A Life on the Ocean Wave: Salalah
Created | Updated Mar 23, 2010
Hello. My name is Emma and I go on cruises. Mostly, so far on P&O ships out of Southampton, but other perfectly good cruise companies are available. ;-) When I can, I con my parents into paying for my ticket.
When I travel, I blog. If you would like to read it all, it can be found at my PS. The Post have asked me to proffer some edited highlights of my ramblings, which I shall now inflict on you forthwith. Enjoy.
Salalah
It may have been 26 degrees but it absolutely fell down with rain. Marvellous.
My friends who went on a morning tour and were going to accompany me into town in the afternoon (parents decided not to get off) were delayed and got back two hours late, which meant that by the time they had eaten something, there was no time left to go back into town. Of course, it would have been easier if we hadn't been moored over half an hour's drive from town. P&O's obsession with dumping us in container ports is starting to have negative effects on our overall experience. Delightfully timed, however, as the end of leg customer satisfaction questionnaire arrived today. Mwahahahaha...
To be fair, though, Salalah is always a bit of a non-event. There's nothing there. It's just a container and commodities port. Last time we were here, I did manage to buy a t-shirt from a shop outside a resort hotel1 and the man who owned the t-shirt shop did offer my dad one hundred camels for me, but the town has no culture, no history and hardly any shops, either. I believe there is a souk, but, thanks to the rain and P&O, I can still neither confirm nor deny the quality or, indeed, very existence, of that experience.
And so another sea day. We are out of pirate country, so the decks have reopened, so, provided I can summon the energy (earache is VERY draining!), I'll try and do the mile again today. Don't hold your breath though...
Thursday 21 Jan
Oh, I am a bad person. And yet, huzzah to me for memorising my credit card number. Have now succeeded in pushing my indecisive parents into booking the next cruise (although next cruise by one for them cos they're going to the Black Sea in September). Alaska, here we come! The shilly-shallying was really starting to get on my nerves, so I went with dad to the future cruise desk and tipped them over the edge into committing. They'd been back and forth and asked so many questions, and wasted so much time, that cabins were running out. But now we are finally booked, and I've paid the deposit on my credit card, so they can't get out of it now! Ha! So tata, people, I won't be around in April, May and June 2011. Try not to miss me too much. Should be back in time for Latitude, though, let's not be silly. No point in cutting off the nose to spite the face or whatever. This is getting a little incoherent. Blame low blood sugar, stop typing and go to dinner, girl. It's the Chaine de Rotisseurs2 dinner tonight. Too much, too rich, too good. *sigh* it's a hard life, you know. Oy, Denise! Keep the 12th and 13th of June 2011 free!
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