Blogs from Middle East - page 1037

ABQ to AMMANReevesMy loyal blog readers and lovely benefactors, I am now 24 hours away from the beginning of my long journey. With my internal frame backpack stuffed with inconspicuous clothing and a hair dryer (they say that going outside with wet hair in Jordan is inviting sexual relations :o ), I will depart Taos tomorrow morning to catch a noonish flight. So begins my intense ABQ-Chicago-London-Istanbul-Amman trip; over 30 hours of the recirculated airport air. Whoo hoo! A little background info for those of you reading this with raised eyebrows: From June 29th to July 23rd I will be traveling minus the family through the Kingdom of Jordan. The trip is what we UWC students call a summer project. There are several of these projects organized for this summer heading to all regions of the ... read more

June 28th, 2007 Today I went on a tour to Zichron Ya’akov with my program from the Jewish Agency. It’s not much of a program really. We never see each other ever except for the rare event or tour, and this was my first one. I met some cool people, but I’ll probably only hang out with very few of them outside of the program. Zichron Ya’akov is a nice little town in the Carmel Mountain area of Israel. It’s up in the north by Haifa. It was the center of the NILI organization, which was the Israeli group that spied on the Ottoman’s for the Brits, and pretty much guaranteed Allenby a victory in Palestine. Read all about it here. The town was basically funded by the French Baron de Rothschild, who named it ... read more

Saklikent Gorge and on to the Beach Well, the “Tree Houses” was a bust. Some of our group went “Canyoning,” billed as a cool hike up a canyon, with swimming and the opportunity to be cooler in this 110 F. degree weather, it turned out to be a fairly short hike. I planned to go sea kayaking, but the projected heat wave discouraged anyone else from signing up, so it was first delayed from 10 am to 4 pm, then canceled. There was also the opportunity for a hike to the top of Mt. Olympos to see the natural flames which have been burning “since eternity”, but again the expected heat and the prospect of a 2400 foot climb in the heat discouraged anyone from going. This hard to reach canyon is filled with small ... read more

November 26-28, 2006 Sunday, November 26 Istanbul is a big city. Arriving at the Sirkeci train station bleary-eyed in the mid-morning after our long rail journey the size of the city was immediately evident. At first blush it seemed remarkably familiar. A tram ran by the McDonald’s across the street, bakery-cafes were visible in every direction, traffic was hectic, and the sidewalks jammed with seemingly half of the city’s 16 million people. It felt very European and we have to admit it was oddly pleasant to see people in suits again. As we fumbled our way to the nearby tram stop for our ride to the tourist-friendly and convenient lodgings of the Sultanahmet district a call to prayer went out that signaled, western though it may look, we were not in Europe anymore. There is ... read more

Border Patrol “Lets go to Oman, the borders just down this road. We can take some more shots; it’ll be great”…an inspired idea Ficks; so simple, so easy, just themselves and their passports in a white peugeout 205 hire car, hardly any money, phones that don’t work on the network in Oman. Perfect. So they drive down the road towards the border patrol, they pass through the first and show their passports, they drive through No Mans Land..too late to turn back now. They stop at the Oman border, show their passports, are asked to park the car and get out, walk to an immigration centre, get interrogated by an Oman soldier..an unhappy Oman soldier, fill out paperwork, have their passports taken, try to remain calm, sit and wait…wait some more…try to remain calm, start ... read more