Blogs from Middle East - page 919

The Thrills of Dubai Practically all the tourists to Dubai go on a Desert Safari a.k.a. Dune-Bashing , but generally they go only once. Nobody wants to repeat the experience. This attraction is in the same category as climbing the ‘Jhulta Minar’ in Ahmedabad, or going into the dark, narrow caverns at Mawsmai, Shillong without a guide. You do them once and thank your stars that you came out of those adventures intact. You do NOT do it a second time. Our Desert Safari was made livelier by the presence of two school-going kids in the party. Whether it is a circus, a Desert Safari, a water-park or a roller-coaster ride, kids are an essential ingredient to having fun. Adults’ enjoyment is more in watching the kids having fun rather than having fun themselves. The tour ... read more

The bustling border crossing at Hopa was nothing like the sleepy, rural, countryside post I had crossed to enter Georgia two days earlier. Tractor trailers, vacationing Russians, and a much more official (border-ish) mood filled the air, and made it rather unpleasant. To the left, handsome tall green Turkish mountains rose up to towering heights. To the right, the Black Sea stretched out coldly under an ominous, cloudy, late evening sky. We were routed between barbed wire and chain-link fencing, as the crossing is under heavy construction. Presumably, this means trade between Turkey and the Caucasus countries - 2 outta 3, that is - is enjoying healthy growth, and that the border is being expanded to accommodate the resulting traffic. It was a push-your-way-to-the-makeshift-kiosk type of queue for immigration. With a few questions in Turkish and ... read more

Dubai Visit - Introduction The Gulf Countries invoke an image of oil-rich, arid, desert countries populated by traditional, Muslim people. Mostly this image is true, but Dubai is an exception. It is NOT oil-rich and the society is the most cosmopolitan that I have seen, and the desert is enlivened not only by the short date palms but also by tall, chrome-and-glass skyscraper buildings which are tantamount to Prosperity. (Dubai is clean but not very green. I could not find a single tree more that 20 feet in height, whereas in India, trees more that 50-60 feet high are fairly common. The world’s tallest trees are, of course, the Redwood trees of California.) This prosperity is the result of the ruling Maktoum family’s unbroken bloodline of capable leaders. They had the vision and the ability ... read more

Boy was Day 5 a big day. This was the Petra day and our tour guide got us up rather nice and early so that we could get into Petra before all the crowds arrived. I have to say that if we were getting there before all the crowds I would hate to see what it would be like with crowds. We were staying in the Petra Palace hotel (yes that is right it was actually called the Petra Palace) which is just up the road from Petra. So bright and early in the morning we all got up and walked on down to the entrance to Petra. The walk to the beginning of Petra is approximatley 2km and it is possible to ride a horse or to even site behind a horse in a ... read more

On the road to Petra Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. The approach through a kilometer long, cool, and gloom chasm (or Siq) a long narrow gorge whose steeply rising sides all but obliterate the sun, provides a dramatic contrast with the magic to come. Suddenly the gorge opens into a natural square dominated by Petra's most famous monument, The Treasury (El-Khazneh), whose intricately carved facade glows in the dazzling sun. Make sure to visit the Khazneh in the morning around 9am (the way the morning sun hits the building is marvelous). The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time." In 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site. Excavations have demonstrated that ... read more