Blogs from Middle East - page 890

A great highlight of Istanbul is the cats that surround you. THere are multitudes of cats of the street, they are sometimes dirty and thin, but often they are just as healthy as can be, and you often see them being fed by kindly benefactors. They tend to live in groups in parks, around mosques and markets, and have their own little territories. Children greet them with delight, but often the kitty is not as delighted with the child. They have their own business to attend to, but will usually stop and give a nice pose for a photo. There is no limit to their kindness, cuteness, or generosity.... read more

The serviced taxi ride from Damascus to Amman was looking to be a disaster. Picture a big-bellied driver, a big-bellied Jordanian riding shotgun, and me in the back riding thigh-to-thigh with two Jordanian men. Throw in a lack of AC in the Middle Eastern sun and a permanent stream of cigarette smoke, the next 3 hours of my life crossing into Jordan were 3 hours I would have paid to skip. The man in the front made no efforts to acknowledge my existence, the man to my right was thinner than me and also seemed glued to his cell phone. After some rather hopeless attempts at communication, I sort of just gave up and relinquished myself to misery until the man on my left busted out with some admirable English. At first glance he is the ... read more

Turkey 2008 was extremely cool. ... read more

Today I spent the day looking at real estate opportunities. One of the things that everyone says about Dubai is that 20% of the worlds cranes are in Dubai. There is so much construction and there are so many real-estate deals where people double and tripple their money in a relatively short period of time. North Americans are very skeptical because it seems too good to be true, an excellent return in North America is 20%. Dubai has a tremendous amount of investment for development, hence a termendous amount of opportunity. I spent the day reviewing real-estate opportunities at the Taktical Real Estate offices and driving around with Aamar. Aamar took me around to see the sites for the new projects and to provide me with a bit of the lay of the land for Dubai. ... read more

Tegnap megjöttünk a törökökhöz. Mindenki jofej es mindenki haver. Tudnak elni. A hostel a gitarboltok es hiradastechnikai alkatreszek szakuzleteinek paradicsomaban van. Zsombor kinezett maganak egy 5 fejes parabolaantennat. Tegnap megvolt az isztambuli kötelezö. (mecsetek, viztarozo, nagybazar). Zsombor lött egy sapkat maganak. Igor egy Prada börmokaszinnnal szemezett es hagyta arusitojat harmadarra alkudni, majd odebballt. Ma meglesz a topkapi szeraj meg talan a törökfürdö. Bar okosigor leforrazta magat a reggelinel es azota fenistilezik... 1 eleteröponttal kevesebb. -------------------------- Topkapit nem neztük meg, mer benaztunk. 2 szerencsepontot vesztettünk, amikor a kisköcsög anatoliai kipucolta a cipönket, es levett minket. Igor ugy döntött, nem lesz többet jofej, es nem szol többet a pucolosgyereknek, amikor az elejti seta közben a kefejet... read more