Superyacht anchors in front of super luxury hotel
A coup, war, economic fluctuations, palace plots, international crises and a superyacht… This is roughly our story…
There was a palace coup and the line of the crown prince changed. Saudi King Salman, who is over 80, removed his nephew, Interior Minister Muhammad bin Nayef, and declared his 32-year-old son, Defense Minister Muhammad bin Salman, as the crown prince.
While the former crown prince took the oath of loyalty and stepped down, we still do not know whether or not he is at house arrest in his palace… His thoughts are most likely, “Well, let me save my head, the rest is easy…”
The new crown prince is an original character. He is being portrayed as Western-minded individual, against jihadist groups and a warrior-type personality… He is the leader of the army and is conducting the ongoing war with the Houthis on the border with Yemen.
It is claimed he is the architect or one of the architects of the blockade decision on Qatar. He is absolutely in line with U.S. policies in the region.
He is not only in the army but he is also influential with a source of money and energy, in other words, Aramco. He asked for privatization; he suggested changing energy laws.
I don’t know what his situation is with Turkey or his opinion of Turkey, but according to the “backstage information” journalist Zeynep Gürcanlı has shared with daily Sözcü, Muhammad bin Salman had been invited to Ankara for 18 months but never responded…
The economic situation in Saudi Arabia is rather unstable these days… Oil prices have not been following a desired course. Last year they loaned $10 billion to the banks and there were headlines reading that “Saudi Arabia searching for urgent loans…”
Now…
There is a coup, there are all kinds of tricks and fraud taking place at the palace, the war is ongoing, a crisis is on the pipeline that would deeply affect the region, the economy is not well…
When the situation is like this, those who have taken their turn in the “queue of submission” in front of the new crown prince at the Saudi palace, which would not come to an end for three days, deserve some holiday.
The other day, some Saudi princes and princesses came to Bodrum’s Torba Bay in their 74-meter long “Mogambo” yacht. They anchored it at the Zeytinli Kahve locality. This vessel was built in the Nobiskrug shipyard in North Germany where the best superyachts of the world are built. It is worth $160 million. The 74-meter long Mogambo is designed to accommodate 12 people except the crew.
I don’t need to count its luxury features, as you can easily guess them. But to be fair, it’s very chic and designed in simplicity when compared to others similar to it. It had a makeover in 2016.
The owner of the yacht is thought to be Waleed bin Ibrahim – estimated to have a personal fortune of $3 billion – is actually wandering around with a modest yacht. His family owns the longest yacht in the world, the 180-meter long Azzam, for instance. Its annual cruise cost is $60 million.
Ordinary people can also rent the yacht for 650,000 euros for a week, plus the costs.
There is also the luxury chain hotel at Torba’s Zeytinli Kahve locality where our statesmen spend their vacations. It used to be open to the public but it is not anymore, as far as I know. Anyway what are we ordinary people doing at a venue good for princes, kings and shahs?
