DUBAI IS A CITY OUT OF THE FUTURE
We happened to be up early the morning the Queen Victoria eased into one of Dubai's modern container ports and were particularly lucky to catch this photo of the sun rising and a plane landing. Good morning Dubai.

The United Arab Emirates is the result of 6 or 7 Sultan heads of indivisual city states called Emirates, agreeing in the 70's (I think) to form one UAE country. It has been a remarkable success and is a place we would like to return to some day and we recommend it highly for anyone looking for a new and interesting place to visit. They claim that only Shanghai might have more construction cranes in use than they do. An effort to count the cranes failed when we reached 30.

When our tour bus drove down the six lane main highway in Dubai, it reminded us of a Futurama display you would see at a World's Fair..it is a city from Disney! Every thing the eye can see for miles around was built in the last 10 years or is being built right now. Of course they are building the tallest skyscraper in the world. See the cranes on top? It is now 600 meters tall and they won't say how much higher it is going for fear of someone else trying to outdo them!

The sand on this beach was the softest we had ever seen and believe us, the visitors and citizens take the Keep Dubai Clean sign seriously.

We found a new site for the Connelly family vacation next winter at this 7-Star Burj al Arab Hotel. We were allowed only to take pictures from a distance on our tour as they charge $100 just to visit the lobby!! But we figure the $15,000 per day Presidential Suite is right for us because it has 5 bedrooms and a Butler for each family... Look closely at the top left of the 54 story hotel and you will realize it is a helicopter pad where Tiger Woods and Matt Lauer drove golf balls into the ocean on the Today Show. AND we actually know a couple who have spent a couple of nights there!! Imagine!

On our tour of the city of Dubai, our bus passed a huge building by any standards, that has this large tubular shaped construction coming out of its roof! We were advised that the large structure contained the Dubai Winter Ski Resort inside The Mall of the Emirates, which like everything else in the city is the "biggest."

We were getting hungry at the end of our tour of Dubai and we wanted to see the ski resort inside the Mall of the Emirates so we were really lucky when we walked into a nice restaurant and unexpectadly were taken to a table that looked out over the entire resort.

Dubai has the neatest Museum depicting typical Arabian living and Barry took the opportunity to discuss the US Democrat Primary with this guy who has Obama handicapped as a 5-3 shot to beat Clinton.

While walking through the Mall of the Emirates in awe of the number and variety of stores, Phyllis met her new best friend, Mohammed (no kidding!) but we'll let her show you "The rest of the story!" as Paul Harvey would say.

Bombay Is Now Called Mumbai
From the very beginning of this trip, we have been exposed to what had been the Great British Empire..it must have really been somethig in its heyday and nothing thus far has demonstrated that power more than our visit to India and particularly to Mumbai (Bombay). This is the Gateway to India built in the early 20th century in honor of the arrival of one of the King George's. Mumbai is an interesting mix of Indian and British architecture but generally speaking it appeared to be quite well off.

This is probably the most famous hotel in India called the Taj Mahal. It's story is like the Houston Hotel story in the movie Giant.... in this case a wealthy Indian was denied access to a British hotel and he vowed to build a much better one than the one he was denied entrance. He did it and we had lunch in the Indian cuisine dining room.

This laundry service is an incredible service offered in Mumbai. The workers are all men who come to your apartment once a week and pick up your laundry; bring it to this wash and dry site and deliver the finished product in 7 days.

Look close at the men and tubs where they do the washing..and yes, they live there also.

The visit we made to the museum home of Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most interesting stops we made in all of India. Gandhi was preaching peaceful protest and revolution long before MLK or Mandella and he is loved to this day by the Indian people as the father of independent and free India.

The government has built a lot of high rise apartments for the common people but some two story condos like this one still exist.

It's difficult to ignore these begging faces and believe us when we say these kids have the process down to a science.

We call this useing your head in city center Mumbai if your job is to deliver stuff around town.

This was the welcoming party at the Port in Bombay.

Cochin India A Pleasant Surprise

Cochin India in the state of Kerala was a welcome surprise after seeing Chennai. The city didn't have great tourist sites but we readily could see that it was clean and the people wore nice clothes and all looked happy.

Our guide was so appreciative that Queen Victoria ship stopped for the day and he knew what it meant to the town financially.

We took this taxi to the Hotel Malabar for a great lunch on the main water way of the harbor. Our guide told us there is NO illiteracy and this was India's wealthiest state because every family had a least one member in a western city like Dubai, London or the US, working and sending support money back home.


Check out the guys mowing the church lawn with hand clippers!!!

Chennai/Madras India Eye Opener

Unfortunately our first exposure to India was on Easter Sunday at the port of Chennai in the southeastern part of India. We were warned to expect to see poor living and to encounter a lot of begging. We got all of that but it was the litter and dirt that really got to most of the people. In truth we have seen as bad in China and Mexico but it is not a stop Cunard ships will make again.

The one tourist redeeming site was the Tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle who had come to India to convert people to Christianity and lost his life in Chennai. The cathedral was built over the place of his tomb, similar to St. Peter's in the Vatican.