Blogs from Middle East - page 882

Independence Day in Kuwait. Not my first choice. I have a flight scheduled for tomorrow so I checked into the temporary billeting in Kuwait to get some much needed rest. I slept almost 8 hours catching up for the last 4 days. The base in Kuwait is much safer so it is a more relaxed environment. I put on my PT uniform and got out to explore what Independence Day activities that were being offered. Vanilla at best but one thing caught my eye. A hot dog eating contest. I had to go check this out. Hot dog gluttony in 120 degree heat. There were 10 contestants who ate about 6 dogs a piece -the winner took home a trophy with 8 and one half hotdogs. I felt a little queasy watching. Americans will bring their ... read more

Happy 4th of July to all my friends back in the States! Sophie and I slept in and then went to the club to swim. We ended up calling her friend Rosie from the States who is spending the summer with her family visiting her grandparents in Beyrouth (as they spell it around here), to come swimming with us. We had a fun day and Sophie ended up swimming for 6 hours! Later Eddie's friends Lena and Laudi brought dinner to our house that they had prepared all day. They brought kibbeh neighe (like steak tarar) especially for Sophie. She was in heaven. She was so excited that she had to take a picture of it! So even though she was very tired (dinner starts around 10 pm here!) she stayed up just for that! From ... read more

Not many (I doubt you really want to see 100 photos of tilework. The carets are the ones I ended up buying. And now, just as I'd finally gotten the hang of this blog . . . I've been asked to do a blog on gapyear.com. So, at least for the duration of my time in Japan, and possibly for the whole trip, my blog can be found here: New travel blog It's a pain, as I don't think you can subscribe to it, and i... read more

Hi Everyone, I am sorry it took me so long to get a proper post up, but I have not had more than a few minutes at a computer and wanted to try and at least do some justice to my experience here in Israel. This may be a bit of a long entry as I have so much to share. I will warn you right now, there is NO WAY I can come close to doing justice to this trip. But here goes: I really didn't know what to expect when I signed up for Taglit (Birthright Israel). Despite the fact that I was being offered a completely free 10-day trip to Israel and had heard so many great things about the program, I was actually extremely apprehensive about it. Not only did the idea ... read more

After two days spent in Kashan on the way back to Tehran I was ready to face the big smoke again. But it was not to be for as long as I imagined.... Kashan is famous for its traditional 'houses', clustered together on a few streets just outside the city centre. Many of these 19th century Qajar style palaces built by Kashan's great and good, are now empty and echoing, lit by delicate stained glass windows, the light hitting the faceted mirror decoration. Once large extended families as well as their legions of servants would have lived here. I visited the Khan-e Abbasin and the Khan-e Tabatabei. The houses are set round a series of courtyards, demarcating private and public spaces. The Khan-e Tabatabei was built by a rich carpet seller who used the public side ... read more