Jim’s Birthday Cruise, Part Uno

Qatar, Saudi, Bahrain

We all met at Heathrow and enjoyed the delights of the lounge, which mostly involved pre-flight alcohol. Before boarding I delivered the Paddy Holiday Quiz which Jimbo won. His prize was a $100 chip for Norwegian which fell out of my trousers when I returned from my last Norwegian cruise.

Once onboard, for the second BA flight in a row, the aircraft returned to the gate for some mechanical reason. We sat there for over two hours whilst the engineers tinkered. Luckily Jim and I were in business and the boys were in premium therefore the delay was slightly more palatable. But only slightly.

The delay meant that we didn’t reach our hotel in Doha until 2am. The five star Grand Regency was less than 50 quid so we had a room each.

The following morning I tried to pay for breakfast with Qatari money I’d kept from my last trip some 8 years ago only to discover that they had changed their banknotes. That’ll teach me to collect foreign currency.

We headed out in a taxi to the newly constructed Raffles Hotel. It’s in the shape of a horseshoe and makes quite the architectural statement. We walked inside as if we were guests and looked around. Very plush. Raffles is one side of the horseshoe and the Fairmont is on the other, but the Raffles was far nicer. Then we headed to a souk and looked around for a while. We weren’t hassled once which is very curious for a souk.

We boarded the ship late afternoon and drank beer. The Norwegians Sky is a relatively small ship with around 2000 passengers. We later found out that the ship is being sold to an Indian company in 2027. Cordelia Cruises currently has only one ship – the Cordelia Empress and hopes to expand cruising to the Indian market who will no doubt enjoy the luxury of western toilets.

Our first port of call was Saudi Arabia which had proved to be a real pain in the arse when attempting to get an e-visa. We weren’t alone. Hundreds of passengers ended up staying onboard. Not only was the immigration queue off-putting, the visa on arrival was around $180. There were no taxis outside and the only option was a one hour shuttle to some town which by all accounts was awful.

I wanted to get off, but first I needed to know how long immigration would take in the terminal building. I stood at the front of the ship and watched a woman in a mustard top go inside. She emerged 45 minutes later. What can I say. I had nothing better to do as it was a little cloudy in Saudi. I decided there was no way I was going to queue for 45 minutes, then pay one of the richest nations on earth $180 to enter, then sit on a shuttle bus for an hour to a shit town. I have drafted an email to the Saudi Minister of Tourism…with some tips. I may also write to Norwegian Cruise Lines who need to be more transparent about such matters.

Anyway, I needed to say I’d been to Saudi. The four of us got off and took photos standing next to the ship…and then got back on. Tick.

Saudi Arabia is by far the biggest country in the Middle East and the 12th largest country in the world. The founder and first king of Saudi Arabia was Ibn Saud who came to power in modern day Saudi in 1932. Oil was discovered in 1938. The prophet Muhammed, the founder of Islam, was born in Mecca in 570.

In the evening we watched as much of the Masters as we could before retiring. Go Rory.

On Monday we arrived in Manama, the capital of the island state of Bahrain – the third smallest country in Asia. Of the 1.5m people, over half are ex-pats. They gained their independence from the United Kingdom in 1971. The King of Bahrain has four wives and twelve children. It was an easy immigration process (Saudi take note). Bully stayed onboard so the three of us headed off with Ali Baba for a four hour taxi ride around some sights.

First up was the largest mosque in Bahrain, the Al Fateh Mosque. Simon was wearing shorts and had to borrow an outfit. Jim was trousered up and I had a sarong. Not bad but I’ve seen bigger and better. Jim and I both got a free version of the Koran…in English. Some bedtime reading!

Next was the Bahrain museum which had its moments. Not many though. The art on display perplexed me greatly.

Then to the fort, which was interesting and old, then a souk where we had some fun with a serious looking chap, before heading back to the ship.

The ship was surrounded by huge jellyfish which looked like hundreds of plastic bags floating in the water.