Blogs from Middle East - page 1051

The past 15 days In Turkey were more than what I could have asked for. Combining the history learned, the people met, the lessons grasped, and the experiences went through, I will need much more than two weeks to fully digest and appreciate. The past blogs were bombarded with the little history and social situation that I came across. This time I will attempt to highlight some quintessential Turkish experiences that every traveller should go through. Melevani Dervish It's much more than the mesmerizing twirling. Combining the rhythmic music, which is mainly drums and flute, with the rituals each Dervish goes through before, during, and after the prayer, it is a spiritual experience to say the least, even if you are not religious. Turkish Bath -Sit in a dry sauna for 20 minutes, or until ... read more

We finally went out and celebrated Jeremy getting a job on Thursday night. It has only taken us 3 weeks! Therefore a drink at a lovely bar was well overdue. So off we tripped to the emirates towers where we met up with another lovely kiwi couple to celebrate. Rod and Jess are newbies to Dubai as well and we have a couple of lovely drinks on the 51st floor of the Emirates towers over looking Dubai at night. The drinks were not all that cheap but the menu was enormous! We could hardly lift the drinks menu. Jess had a 88 dirham drink (which translates to roughly $40 dollars). In Dubai that is really quite expensive. The car shopping saga continued on the weekend as well. We test drove a hummer, and actually ended up ... read more

Imagine being in a sauna turned up to the max. Despite the marvellous sites to visit in south-western Iran, I was dying to the point that nicotine addiction didnt take effect, and locals (and tourists) were laughing at how beetroot red i'd become due to the scorching heat. I sadly don't tan due to my dad's genes, I just roast like a suckling pig. In the Persian language, '-stan' is translated to 'the place of'. Hence to this day, we have countries and provinces which used to be part of the humongous Persian Empire, ending with such (eg. Kurdistan - 'place of the kurds'...ok, you got me). My second trip to Iran focused on the west, where it seemed that majority of the provinces were called 'something-a-rather-stan'. Touring around national borders was absolutely fantabulous, as ... read more

I’ve made arrangements to be in Jerusalem by Friday afternoon, but like a Facts of Life reunion, it’s a plan that looks far better on paper once it’s whirred into grim, regrettable motion. On Friday morning, having lazily worked my way through some old emails and a Nescafe, I get to Abdali Station just in time for a taxi driver to look at his watch, shake his head, and explain that the King Hussein Bridge border crossing into Jerusalem closes at noon for the shabat. It’s a perilously stupid start to my Israeli odyssey, one that - if you’ve come to know me by now - is bound to take a few more turns for the moronic before all’s said and done. I check back into the Palace Hotel, with a few light-hearted barbs for ... read more

Markt in Selcuk Tijdens de Nomadensafari van gisteren hadden we vernomen dat er vandaag een textiel- en groentenmarkt is in Selcuk. Dus wij zot van die Turkse marktjes richting Selcuk, het was daar groot en ruim. Er was veel keuze uit grote en goed uitziende groenten van eigen kweek, je kon er ook terecht voor kruiden,olijven en noten. Op de markt kwamen we onze kennis van gisteren tegen Louis en nog een paar Belgen die een paar kamers voorbij ons logeerden. De rest van de dag hebben we ons gewoon goed geamuseerd... read more