Blogs from Middle East - page 1078

İ tilfelle noen som er innom denne siden blir nysgjerrig nok til å få lyst til å lese mer lødige reiseskildringer fra regionen, bringer vi her en liste over de bøkene som vi har fått mest ut av etter hvert som avreisen nærmet seg: 1. Neal Ascherson: Svarta havet (orginalens tittel: The Black Sea) Prisbelønnet britisk journalist har her gått grundig til verks og oppsummert regionens kulturhistorie fra antikken og gjennom det 20. århundre. Her har alltid ulike folkeslag møttes, i både fredelig sameksistens og blodige perioder.Europas historie som kolonimakt startet faktisk her, etterhvert som de greske bystatene trengte større matproduksjon enn deres små omland kunne sørge for. Silkeveien begynte også her. 2. Knut Hamsun: I æventyrland (opplevet og drømt i Kaukasien) Trolig Hamsuns eneste bidrag til genren, og sikkert en av hans minst kjente bøker. ... read more

It takes 20 minutes for the minibus in Aqaba to fill: a few dour old women shuffle in with plastic shopping bags, a man in a red-checkered kuffiyah limps in with a gnarled wooden cane. He makes a few wisecracks clearly delivered at my expense. “Enjoy the ride, young American,” his wrinkled face suggests. “It is my sincerest wish that a goat’s foreskin finds its way into your morning coffee.” I take a seat in the back, beside two cocky young guys puffing on a pack of L&M’s. They look my way and then exchange a couple of signals with their eyebrows, the implications of which I can’t quite suss out as the driver whips us into oncoming traffic. We’ve hardly gone a mile before one of the guys offers me a smoke. He makes ... read more

Our adventure for the fall of 2006 was a trip to Petra and Wadi Rum in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. From Eilat we crossed the border to Aqaba and caught a taxi to Wadi Musa. We were hosted at the Petra Gate Hostel during our stay. This hostel is really a hotel, and for a very reasonable price we were treated more as family than as customers by the staff. Unlike the hostel of the same name at Jerusalem, this hostel is highly recommendable. Petra is absolutely fantastic, a must see. The Bedouin are very friendly and happy to share information that you won't find in the tourist guides. The manager of the Petra Gate Hostel, Naser, arranged our return to Aqaba, this trip including an afternoon exploring the desert around Wadi Rum and a ... read more

On this day we spent far too much time on the bus, but we first went to the Youth Village spnsered by Hadassah which is by Carmel, it was amazing. They started by serving troubled youth and now serve 250 youth in a boarding school type program that either are referred by social services or come from other countries and meager backgrounds wanting to move to Israel, as well as 300 youth from the area who are exceptional students who come as a day program---the school has a technical program, an agricultural program, and arts and performing arts program and a science program, they are winning awards all of the time and the students we met were truly exceptional! They havea much higher matriculation rate than the rest of the country and many students come back ... read more

Dubai…. One of severn emirates, together making up the United Arab Emirates, formed in 1971. Prosperous, growing quickly, building everywhere. Including on land ‘manufactured’, by dredging from the sea bed to make islands off the coast. An international financial and trading centre, a meeting point between east and west, as indeed it has been over the centuries. Very ‘oil rich’ and it shows! We have travelled 21500 miles so far and are continuing our way westward, and should complete our circumnavigation next week. Here in Dubai we have three days to catch up and relax. Not being on business it is our intent to see and to shop, the latter being one reason for visiting this city. After a good nights sleep and some superb omlettes for breakfast (best ever anywhere) we head for the ... read more