By Bob Van Leer

(DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, Wednesday, April 5, 2000) - Betty and I took a taxi downtown to look over the city today. There is a thriving commercial center selling everything from silk cloth to cutting-edge electronics. The stores are not large, but there a lot of them and they are jammed with merchandise. Betty found one that specialized in fancy buttons and was able to add dozens to her collection.

   While Dubai is thriving, it doesn't have much character. On one side of the street we found a few of the old Arab mud brick buildings. The new construction is modern and there are some spectacular new high-rise buildings. They don't look Arab, but they are probably more profitable.

   This morning departing passengers disembarked and a new group came aboard. The ship is on an around the world cruise. Passengers sign on for segments of about two weeks. We are on two segments. We talked to another person today that is on for three segments and there may be some passengers taking the whole cruise.

   The ship's crew does a remarkable job of getting more than a thousand persons and their luggage off the ship and on their way and taking aboard equally that many new passengers, all in the same day. The cruise director announced tonight there were 1500 aboard. That would be a hundred more than on the last leg of the cruise, but still not many for a ship that can hold 2000 passengers. I'll try to get exact figures later.

   Tonight we got underway for Muscat, Oman, 312 nautical miles away. The ship's speed is 23.3 knots, which must be about top speed, to cover the distance by 9:00 a.m.