Blogs from Middle East - page 1170

Hello again. Since last speaking with you from Eilat (southernmost point in Israel), we began driving north through the Negev desert, stopping in Mitzpe Ramon, a city that sits on the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the Ramon crater, a deep bowl in the desert whose rocks contain fish fossils, since the crater was underneath the sea millions of years ago. Then we drove towards Beer Sheva and spent a few days living with a bedouin family who now live in a city with homes and streets. Almost every home has a tent outside where the men sit every evening, drink bedouin tea and coffee, and smoke tobacco in the nargila. The father is the principal of a school for blind bedouins, and the wife stays home and prepares food for the family, consisting of ... read more

Geo: 39.1452, 35.2123Back in the mini-bus we hit the road for Goreme. On the way we made a stop at a school that likes tourists to come and visit. The kids were very excited that we had arrived. Some of them dressed up in traditional clothing and did some singing and dancing for us. Part of the classroom was set up as a traditional Turkish house. Spent the rest of the day driving. Was looking forward to the next hotel, as Hussein told us that the rooms were caves! I found out later on that my room was nothing to get excited about. The hotel is on the side of a hill and all the rooms are caves. The room that I was given was horrible. It stank mouldy, had a tiny little window and was ... read more

Geo: 37.4213, 38.366This morning we all met in the lobby at 9am, packed and ready to go to Turkey. Fahad has left Aleppo, but made sure that the next tour guide would be here ready to meet us. According to our itinerary, there would be taxi's picking us up and taking us over the border. We soon got a phone call to say that we would not be taking the taxi's over the border, instead a bus will soon be there and we would all travel together with the guide over the border. Okay, so we waited at the hotel as he said he would be here soon. Waiting, waiting, waiting, got another phone call to say he won't be long. We continued to wait and we were starting to get impatient. This was wasting our ... read more

Today we went to the Al-Areen Wildlife Park and Reserve and also the beach! :) It was hot and sunny again... around 95 degrees. On the drive out (maybe 25 mins.) we passed the Formula One circuit race track, the horse race track, the king's palace, and ancient burial grounds. At the wildlife park, before taking the bus tour, we walked around the entrance grounds and looked at various ducks, flamingos, and goats. The tour bus took as on a loop around the refuge. We saw ostriches, numerous goats, deer, and gazelles, as well as giraffe. I think they were all from Bahrain, the Middle East, or Africa. In the middle of the tour we stopped by a bird park. We saw more ducks, swan, and other birds. In particular were two large (blue?) herons, maybe ... read more

Some more of the nations establishments. I've added a few more shots of things seen out and about.... read more