A SPECIAL LUNCH ON THE REGENT SEVEN SEAS EXPLORER

Just about everything is free on the Regent Seven Seas Explorer, even tours.  However, you can pay more for more expensive alcoholic drinks and even certain meals.  We each paid $179 for a special lunch with expensive wines and fine cuisine.  The menu.

It all started with a Kir Royale, followed by a Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from Malborough, New Zealand.  This is the wine that first made a world impression.  Now most of the really good white ones come from this region of the country.  We had a Tuna/Avocado Poke with this wine.

Then another breakthrough wine, a 2016 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay from Napa Valley, California.  The 1973 version in 1976 won the Paris Judgement, when nine French judges blind tasted white and red wines, and this Napa Valley wine came out with the highest score, red or white.  There was a 2008 film, Bottle Shock.  The reputation of California wines thereby made a spectacular leap.

Served with seared scallops.  Portions were small, thankfully.

A  2018 Louis Jabot Corton Pouget Grand Cru Pinot Noir from Cote de Beaune, Burgandy, France came next, paired with a Seared Barbary Duck Breast.  Excellent.

Not listed above was a shielded red wine, which turned out to be an Australian Shiraz, which was to me the best of all bottles.  Should you wish to have this wine at any meal, it would cost an extra $195/bottle.  Not surprising, for Penfolds annually releases the most expensive bottle of wine, and last year blended five vintages of their Grange, named Penfolds g5, and priced it at $3500/bottle.  One bottle of Penfolds Grange from 1951 recently sold for $142,131.

Next a 2015 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley came with Black Angus Beef Bulgogi.  This bottle can also be had at any meal for and extra $315.  No real reason to do this, as all their wines are quite good, for free.

Should you wish, you could have kept asking for more of any wine, and I ended up drinking at least 10 ounces of the Australian Shiraz, 5 oz I saved to take out to the trivia game competition.  Finally, a 2014 Far Niente Dolce from Napa, a late harvest wine, with Lemon Bavarian Cream and Fresh Berries.  A bottle of this would cost an additional $110.

Here is a photo of some of the wines that cost more, including a Caymus Cabernet for +$90.

All in all, it was worth $179/person for this meal.  In a few days, a similar lunch with champagne.  This will cost more than $200/person.

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WHAT ARE MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES DOING ABOUT A FUTURE WITHOUT OIL???

SORRY, BUT SATELLITE CONNECTION IN ARABIAN/INDIAN OCEAN WAS NONEXISTENT.  So today, two postings.

Two days ago, I shared some facts about petroleum, and how this resource would run out in less than 50 years.  Notice that President Joe Biden opened up oil trade again with Venezuela.  They only have more oil reserves than any other country, even more than Saudi Arabia.  So, anyway, what are countries of the Arabian Peninsula doing about the inevitability of running out of oil in less than half a century?

The United Arab Emirates is attempting to gain the travel interest of the world by building the biggest of almost everything.  They figure that people would want to visit a country with these attractions.  It seems to be working.

Dubai in particular began with pearls, shifted to oil, and quickly ran out of this resource, so turned to finances and tourism, through having:

• Ain Dubai, the world's largest Ferris Wheel, which opened last year.  From ground to top, 820 feet.  Each of its 48 carriages can hold 40 people, taking 38 minutes for a complete rotation.
• Of course by now you know that they have Burj Khalifa, which at 2717 feet is the tallest skyscraper, and still has the biggest shopping mall in terms of certain parameters.
• The largest picture from, the Dubai Frame, 492 meter high and 305 feet wide.
• 
  The Dubai Miracle Garden, which earned a Guinness World Record for the largest floral installation, the life-size model of an Emirates A380 Airbus, the plane we flew to Dubai from Bangkok.  Took 200 people to put together 5 million flowers.
• Has the world's deepest swimming pool for diving called Deep Dive Dubai...196 feet.
• The longest zipline, Ras Al-Khaimah, 9290 feet, reaching 93 miles/hour.

Oh, this is just the beginning for the UAE.  Just opened and to come are:

• Dubai Hills Mall with 650 shops with an 18-screen rooftop cinema. 

• 
  Palm Tower, only 787 feet high, but an infinity pool on the 50th floor, which will also house the second St. Regis Hotel in the city.
• Dubai Urban Tech District for 4000 jobs in green urban technology, education and training.

• 
  Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park, which has 1827 megawatts of solar energy, and will go up to 5000 MW by 2030, the largest in the world.  Cost?  $13.6 billion.
• Dubai Islands, five islands with everything you would want, including a golf course and 80 resorts/hotels.

• 
  AlJurf, a Riviera-style project between Abu Dhabi and Dubai with 293 ranch-like villas, 100,000 trees, sea turtles and other wildlife, plus hotels and prime waterfront real estate.
• Uptown Tower, only their 14th tallest tower at 1115 feet.
• Mohammed bin Rashid Library, seven floors with nine thematic libraries.

• 
  Natural History Museum to show the 13.8 billion-year journey through time and space, and into the future.
• Louvre Abu Dhabi Residences, only 400 apartments, but what an address.

• 
  Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will open in 2025, also designed by Frank Gehry.
• A lot more.  Read this.
• Want more?  Read this.
• Oh, one more.  Saudi Arabia will in a few years build a taller building than Burj Khalifa.  So, Dubai began construction of something even taller, the Dubai Creek Tower, which will be finished in 2025.

Saudi Arabia has their Vision 2030.

• A wide-ranging future involving defense, economy, technology and name it.
• Why?  The government is 75% dependent on oil exports, and it is running out.
• Wants to become the hub connecting Europe to Africa.

• 
  One big problem:  The Jamal Khashoggi murder influenced most prime U.S. companies like Google, Ford, JPMorgan Chase, New York Times, Fox Business Network and Huffington Post to back out.  And that's only the USA.  Richard Branson, for example, has also withdrawn.

• 
  World Wrestling Entertainment will enter, with female performers.
• American movie theater chains will be welcomed.
• Music festivals will feature the best.
• Formula One racing will come.
• Women's rights will be highlighted.
• Tourist visas will allow visitors from 49 countries to visit for up to 90 days for a fee of $80, and can be done on arrival.
• 
  Neom is city being built to incorporate smart technology and tourism at a cost of half a trillion dollars.
• $200 billion renewable energy projects.
• Grand Mosque of Mecca for $21.3 billion.
• And on and on.

In short, while they keep selling oil to the the world, the Arabian Peninsula is going green, with Egypt just hosting COP 27 and the UAE welcoming COP28 next year.  

• UAE in particular will cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 31% by 2030. Will invest $163 billion on clean energies by 2050.  This country is also home to the International Renewable Energy Agency, which was inaugurated in Masdar in 2015, and was the first Arab nation to pledge to reach net-zero domestic emissions by 2050, as now have Israel and Turkey.  

• 
  Saudi Arabia has stopped fighting global warming measures, and spearheads the Middle East Green Initiative to reduce carbon emissions by 60% with $186 billion.  They will take a particularly good look at methane.

• 
  Qatar will open an 800 MW solar site later this year.
• Because of so much sun, the Gulf states now have dropped the cost of solar electricity to 1 cent/kWh, even though the average for the world is closer to 5 cents/kWh.

• 
  Saudi Arabia and the UAE are jumping into green hydrogen. They hope to lead the world in exporting hydrogen by 2030, spearheaded by efforts in Neom. 
• Will plant 500 billion trees.
• What's driving these initiatives is the Ukraine War.  Oil prices haves jumped, and Saudi's Armco posted record earnings of $48.4 billion just in the second quarter of this year, a 90% increase from the same period in 2021.

• 
  For the whole region, renewable investments were below a billion in 2011, and jumped to $6.9 billion in 2021.  

So is the Arab world ready for their post-oil future?  Read this.

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THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

We departed Muscat and are sailing to Mumbai, India.  The Arabian Peninsula is a largely ignored part of the world by most visitors.  Under 1.25 million square miles are most of the world's oil.  It is relatively small compared to the USA, which has 3.8 msm and 335 million people.  The AP has a population of 86 million.

• Saudi Arabia  36.5 million
• Yeman  33.7 million
• UAE  9.4 million
• Oman  4.6 million
• Kuwait  4.3 million
• Qatar  2.7 million
• Bahrain  1.5 million

The cities with the two largest population are in Saudi Arabia:  Riyadh 7.5 million and Jeddah 4.8 million.

However, in 1950 the population was only 9.5 million, mostly Bedouins in the desert.  Then oil was discovered, first in Iran in 1908 by the British.  But the story of oil goes back to 600 BC, when the Chinese first found this liquid.  More recently, there was Colonel Edwin Drake's 1859 oil well in Pennsylvania, and within a decade came John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company.  Then in 1901, Spindletop in Texas.

But back to the Arabian Peninsula, going way back in time, human habitation has been confirmed as far back as 130,000 years ago.  Remember, we were hunters and gatherers until farming was only developed 10,000 years ago.

Of all the people, it was Winston Churchill, leading Britain's Royal Navy, who wanted to shift from coal to oil, that drove Great Britain into trying to control oil before World War I. To the left the first oil powered war ship.  They were the first to explore for petroleum in the Arabian Penisula.

In parallel, Standard Oil of California began exploring for oil in Saudi Arabia, and found giant fields in the late 1930's.  When Germany invaded Russia in WWII, Britain and the Soviet Union became allies, and took over the oil operations of Iran and Iraq.  After the war, Arabian Peninsula nationalism became a problem, so the West orchestrated coups and otherwise attempted to maintain control of this resource.  However, by 1961 Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and took back control.  I could say more, but there continues to be intrigue to this day.

I'll close my petroleum commentary with the following

#Country                   Oil Reserves     World Share
                                (barrels) in 2016 

1    Venezuela             299,953,000,000     18.2% 

2    Saudi Arabia         266,578,000,000     16.2% 

3    Canada                  170,863,000,000     10.4% 

4    Iran                         157,530,000,000      9.5% 

5    Iraq                         143,069,000,000      8.7% 

6    Kuwait                    101,500,000,000      6.1% 

7    UAE                          97,800,000,000       5.9% 

8    Russia                      80,000,000,000      4.8% 

9    Libya                         48,363,000,000      2.9% 

10  Nigeria                      37,070,000,000      2.2% 

11  United States            35,230,000,000      2.1% 

In other words:

• Venezuela is very important.
• Canada has five times more oil than the U.S.   Hmmm...annexation.
• The Arabian Peninsula still dominates.
• Qatar is #13, China #14, Mexico #14, Oman #21, Norway #22, India #24, Yemen #29, UK (yes, UK) #30, Australia #38, Brunei #39, Pakistan #52, Bahrain #67, Japan #78.
• 
  I might finally add that the above tally was taken in 2016, six years ago.  A more recent summary shows the following:
• Venezuela is still #1, but with a current reserve of 304 million barrels, an increase.
• Saudi Arabia is #2 with 290 million barrels.
• The USA has jumped to #9 with 69 million barrels, or almost twice what was guessed in 2016...because of fracking.
• The World uses 35.4 million barrels/year.
• The World has proven oil reserves of 1.65 billion barrels, or, at current usage, just less than 50 years of oil left.

In short, we have spent a whole week in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, which has been an educational experience.  I can further go into the history, culture and other highlights, but will instead end with a few somewhat more humorous insights.:

• 
  Let me say a few things about the national bird of the UAE, the falcon,
• 28,000 of them have passports, and hang out blindfolded in first class when transported.
• A top bird can sell for a million dollars.
• Falcons go to spas for pedicures and grooming.
• 
  The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital only treats these birds.
• The very best falcons come for the annual Fazza Championships in Ruwayyah.  Once a hunting tool for desert nomads, they are today tested in royal hobby shows.  
•  But in addition, there is an annual beauty pageant for them.  Competition is fierce.  The shape of the talons and beaks come into play, and, of course the feathers.
• 
  Camels too participate in beauty pageants.  Cosmetic surgery is practiced, but botox is illegal.  40,000 camels come from throughout the Arabian Peninsula go too Liwa, UAE for the Al Dhafra Festival.  Only females are eligible, but this is so because males fight too much.  The category awards only go up to $13,600, but this where buyers come, and the most beautiful has sold for $66 million.  Camels are not used much these days, but they are also raced and provide milk and meat.  Incidentally when raced, robots have replaced human jockeys.
• 
  About the United Arab Emirates:
• There are no permanent rivers.
• There is a government Ministry for Artificial Intelligence.
• There is another Ministry for Happiness.

• 
  About Dubai.

• Was founded in 1822 with a population of 800, reached 20,000 in the 1930's, and is now up to 3.5 million.
• Had 13 registered cars in 1968.  Now up to 3 million.
• There are 2.3 males to every female.
• Has a driverless metro system of 46 miles, longest in the world.
• Visitors have been prosecuted and jailed in Dubai for public displays of affection.
• Has the largest picture frame:  492 feet tall and 305 feet wide.
• In 1991 had one skyscraper.  Today?  215.
• 
  The JW Marriott Marquis is the tallest 5-star hotel in the world with a height of 1165 feet.
• Reached a high of 125.8 F in 2002.
• 40% of the world's gold comes through this country.
• 
  Gasoline costs about same as water.
• At the peak of construction in 2006, 24% of the world's construction cranes were operating here.
• 
  Police cars can get up to 254 miles per hour.
• Has received more than 130 Guinness World Records.

Tomorrow, I delve into what the Arabian Peninsula is doing for their future when petroleum reserves disappear.  To end, what are the best airlines? Condé Nast just released their ranking:

• #1    Singapore Airlines.  
• They've held this position now for three decades
• They have the longest flight:  19 hours between New York City and Changi Airport in Airbus 350s,
• We are not on one of their flights on this trip, but will spend a night in Changi Airport to look around, then fly ANA to Tokyo for long stop, then back to Honolulu.
• 
  #2    Turkish Airlines
• Their new airport was recently opened.
• I've used this airline a couple of times as a partner with Star Alliance.  Hated it, for their computer system regularly screwed up my schedule.  They must have overcome this problem.
• #3    Qatar Airways.
• 
  #4   Emirates (Dubai). 
• Just flew from Bangkok to Dubai in First Class, and it was wonderful.
• 5000 films and series.
• #5    Etihad (Abu Dhabi).   Plants a mangrove tree for each passenger in economy class.
• #6    ANA.  Their lounges are terrific.
• Don't see United in the top 15. 
• Notice how those countries in the Middle East are now dominating.
• The new airport in Istanbul is now #1.
• Dubai also says it has the largest airport in the world.

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