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Blogs from Middle East - page 901
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October 28th 2005
Came back from Olympos the day before yesterday on the night bus. Olympos is a great place. Highly reccomend it. We stayed in a little bungalow in this valley right near the sea. Beautiful. We really did not do a whole lot. Ate a lot of amazing food at Sabans where we stayed. The food was the best that I have had so far. Stuffed peppers, fresh trout, lots of eggplant, so tasty. And you got a free breakfast and dinner with stay. Awesome. Went for a hike and nearly died, well not really but we thought it was a leisurely saunter up some hill but it was a 5 hour trek up a big mountain. We did not have any food or water and I was dehydrated from the 3 liters of beer the night ... read more
Dubai Day 12: Of runway models and other mirages
Published: October 8th 2007Middle East » United Arab Emirates » Dubai
October 27th 2005
Edgar’s headed back to California; Ras is down in Abu Dhabi, so I found myself alone on Wednesday night. In all honesty, this shouldn’t have really phased me: I have enough work to do that I shouldn’t be out all night anyways. But still, work has been ramping up a bit for the last few days, and I wanted one night where I didn’t have pivot tables, database queries, and route configurations dancing through my head. Despite all warnings, I went to see if there were any clubs open. I went to a place called Oxygen which was highly recommended. As it’s attached to the hotel I ate at earlier in the week; I figured that if the club was a bust, I could check out the restaurants and bars in the area. Learning a lesson ... read more
October 27th 2005
hello all! I know I mentioned that I wanted to cover the rest of my time in london in detail, but I am fast running out of time to do so. I will get to it but if something is worth doing it is worth doing properly and it will take me considerable tıme to articulate the mind blowing week I spent in Datchet with the Andrew's family. Simon generously offered to take me to the airport last Friday morning for my 9.55 flight to Istanbul. After waiting on the tarmac for over 1 hr we fınally left. The flight was under 3 hrs so no drama at all. With the time difference I landed ın istanbul at about 4.45. I was met by a rep from imaginative traveler (the tour company I chose for Turkey) ... read more
October 26th 2005
Ok Ok So the last time I spoke to you all we were living on a boat in the mediteranean. Not bad, eh? We ended up taking a cruise along the Turqoise coast of Turkey for three days. We were accompanied by our crew, Camil (the cook) and Ilyas (our captain) and a great group of , Ausies, Americans and one german chick. Four 4 days and three nights all we did was cruise around in the boat, eat amazing meals and swim in little secluded bays along the coast. At night we would throw on some jams and rock out. This boat trip was amazing because we didn't have to think at all. Our food accomodations and trasportation were all taken care of. Simply beautiful. After the boat cruise Lloyd and I and ome of ... read more
October 25th 2005
After nearly a week in Istanbul, I opted to take a four day detour to see some other parts of Turkey. My first stop was the town of Goreme, in Turkey's central region of Capadoccia. Capadoccia is famed for its bizarre landscape, which I thought looked like a strange combination of the American West, the moon, and a Dr. Seuss book. The dominant feature is the "fairy chimney," a structure that forms when lava is eroded from around conical towers of volcanic ash. The Turks, not being quite so silly as whatever English-speaker came up with the name for these formations, call them kalelar (castles). The main draw in Goreme, apart from the landscape, is the Open Air Museum. Basically, the site consists of a grouping of churches and dwellings carved into the fairy chimneys like ... read more
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October 25th 2005
On the eastern wall of my hotel room, there is a painting (or rather, a print of a painting.) The style of the painting is somewhere between a half-hearted Hopper and an imbecile’s Impressionism. The scene features a rug (or a blanket) hanging on a clothesline in front of an adobe (or stone) villa (or pueblo.) I’m assuming the column of blotched green and yellow in the midground is either supposed to be a flowering bush or the aftermath of a chemical spill. It’s the sort of neutral composition you could hang in Santa Fe or Abu Dhabi to convey a generic sense of desert life. It was done with all of the precision and vibrancy of a wiring diagram. There’s absolutely no reason on the planet I’d ever hang something like this in my living ... read more
October 24th 2005
Hello hello I am the wonderful town of Olympos as the moment. Really different little town of maybe 2000 people with a ton of tree houses. Very chill place. I finished my cruise from Fetiyhe to Olympos yesterday. Incredible. I would reccomend it to anyone who comes to this part of the world. It was certainly a high light of the trip so far. Spent two nights on the boat in dock and three more whilst cruising around. Our crew was hilarious, Elyas and Camile. Brilliant turks, always up for a party and a good time. The people we were on the boat with were a good time too. One couple in particular, Steve and Emily from Texas were hilarious. Adam and I wanted to take Steve with us for the rest of our trip simply ... read more
October 23rd 2005
Jules just reminded me of some more crazy stuff from Dubai... OK, I'll explain Ramadan to you...Basically you cant eat during the sunshine hours so from 5am to 6pm, you are NOT allowed to eat or drink. Basically all day people are just lying around the streets all lethargic and pissed off. Even our taxi driver told us he was going crazy cos he couldnt eat all day and his wife live in India....don't know how the two related...but they did to him. Juliette had a bit of trouble at the markets on the first night, women over there are not supposed to show any skin, Jules was walking around in long shorts which was causing no end of attention from the locals. We couldnt figure out why these guys kept starting at her ankles...but when ... read more
Dubai Day Ten: Hookahs to Hookers, Part II
Published: September 20th 2007Middle East » United Arab Emirates » DubaiOctober 23rd 2005
Lynchburg, Tennessee: “Aw c’mon, Mr. Bedford! You can’t lay me off with the holidays coming!” “Sorry, Steve, but sales have been down lately, and we have to cut back on production.” Dublin, Ireland: “O’Hanrahan! Sales in the States are dropping like boat anchors! What the hell is going on?” “Sorry, boss, but sales in the Mid-Atlantic were nowhere near what we expected this month. It’s a mystery, I tell ya.” Fells Point, Maryland: “Funny, that’s the third bar to close this month. What’s going on here?” Meanwhile, over in Dubai: Week Two without drinking, and you know what? I feel great! I’m sleeping better, my memory is improving, and I’ve lost ten pounds. And I have time for new hobbies! You know, why should I be spending money on oriental rugs when I can make them ... read more
October 22nd 2005
After a loooooong sleep, which we woke from at 4am, wide awake...(damn body clock) we then ventured out in the morning to the mall across the road (called ,city centre, even though it isnt in the city centre (logic). Jules bought a pair of Gucci sunglasses which she had her eye on, I just wandered around aimlessly looking at all the amazing food places that were shut....that ramadan thing again...and got sprayed with after shaves all morning around the mall. They have this big promo thing on, every different part of the mall had a different flavoured purfume, so I left smelling like a cheap NY pimp. We then got into a gypsy cab and went out to Wild Wadi Fun Park! This was the whole reson for us stopping in Dubai, and it was soooo ... read more
