Dubai

3/30. Dubai yesterday: a beautiful modern place that seems stopped in time right now - with many huge construction project cranes sitting still. Towers half built, islands in the making, roadway work suspended. Apparently 300,000 people were laid off and presumably sent home to their countries. Of course, there’s still evidence of vast fortunes. [Another surprise - for them and us - it rained.]

The world’s engines have slowed down affecting everyone - from tourism in Mumbai to towers in Dubai, from unusually still container ports in Nagasaki to closed companies in Saipan.

I’ve seen so much. At this point my mind is just recording what I see and hear. What it all means will have to become evident as time passes. There are five days at sea now, good for thinking time if we don’t have any pirate excitement, but after that the ports will come quickly one after another In one case there are four days in a row without a sea day in between - Ephesus, Istanbul, Mykonos, Athens.

All in all I will have visited 37 ports in 25 countries since January 10th. When I say this is mindbending, I am not overstating the case!