Blogs from Middle East - page 26

I’ll admit that Cyprus had never been that high on my list of places to visit. I associated the island with package holidays and imagined lots of pink Brits wandering around “tavernas” looking for a full English at 8am with a pint of Carling. Turns out, parts of the island are like that, but a lot of it isn’t. I didn’t go for long, under a week, mostly to complete the nitrox diving course somewhere that would still have good weather in late October, not too far from home (currently the Netherlands), easy to visit covid-restrictions-wise, and would be somewhere new after so long of very restricted travelling. Cyprus ticked all the boxes. It had also become recently more appealing after I read Victoria Hislop’s novel, The Sunrise, set in Famagusta during the Cypriot coup and ... read more

I decided to spend my last full day in UAE visiting Abu Dhabi. It is about a 1.5 hour drive from Dubai. The roads were great and the traffic was pretty light. Abu Dhabi is the political capital and makes up 87% of the land area of UAE. Their population is 2.2 million. No surprise that oil is over 50% of their GDP followed by construction. Our first stop was the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,100 worshippers at one time. The carpet in the hall is considered to be the world's largest carpet. It took 1200 carpet knotters 2 years to complete it and it weights 35 tons. All of the white marble and the inlaid jewels for the flowers definitely reminded me of the Taj Mahal. Though it ... read more

Saudi Arabia is known for the largest sand desert in the world. Not to get too technical, but don't get hung up on the word "desert" here as many locations in the world have deserts. But....Saudi Arabia has both a desert and the requisite sand. And that is what most people think of when they think of a desert. For contrast, Antarctica is technically a desert....but most do not think of it that way. Meanwhile..... Our trip continued to take us deeper into the desert. We are traveling by bus and our time driving down the highways give us time to have deeper discussions and ask questions we may not want to ask in a public area. As we are a small group, this better facilitates such discussions. Our local guide Saad continues to give us ... read more

I was up early on Monday to explore the city. I started in the historic district with breakfast at a picturesque cafe and then wandered the streets and souks. Walking down the narrow streets that lead to mosques as well a small markets was lovely to explore. It was a short time that you didn't feel you were in a huge city. I was able to find the metro to head to the worlds biggest mall. I quickly explored the gigantic mall complete with 1200 stores and an aquarium that you can scuba dive in. It is something to be seen, but talk about over the top compared to Uganda. Just outside is the world’s tallest building; It’s so tall that it gets hazy at the top. I opted to not go to the top as ... read more

It was back in 2008 when we had our first experience in the Middle East. We came through Dubai for a few days on our way as we traveled west towards the United States at the end of many months. Since that time, we’ve have the good fortune to visit Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Israel. The Middle East has a stark beauty and a unique culture that continues to call us back. We have always felt that by getting to know cultures unlike our own that we become better citizens of the world. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on world travelers. It's been painful and somewhat tortuous for those who long to wander the planet. We read an article recently that described people who are COVID weary as fatigued, frustrated and frazzled by the five surges ... read more