Middle Eastern Perspectives

Welcome

2007-02-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have visited before you will notice a lot of changes. It is all explained in the first post. I will gradually be reposting all the content you saw before, but in a much more organized fashion, with lots of more details and photos. Check the site every couple of days.

For those visiting for the first time, welcome. If you are unfamiliar to blogs - and I know some of you are - then start by clicking at the first post by date on the right.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones that you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

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Friday, February 2nd - The Sultanate of Oman, Sohar to Muscat

2007-02-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Oman is spectacular.

Oman is not principally a land of deserts but rather a dramatic area of dry, jagged mountains with narrow river valleys (wadis) between. The evidence of Oman's tribal past is everywhere, with ruined forts commanding every important vantage point. Much of Oman remains hidden in remote valleys and there is a feeling of self-imposed isolation here at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

We spent the night in Sohar. This town was once much larger, being the centre of an empire stretching from Inda to Africa. This was where the legendary Sinbad the Sailor set out on his voyages. Today Sohar is a sleepy shadow of its former glory.

Our local guide is Masut. Finally - a native of one of the countries we visit! He's dressed in his traditional dishdash and a little cap (many photos to follow). This is his casual dress. When he goes to the office he must wear his head scarf, typical of what you see the Kuwaitis or Saudis where. Oman is a very large country of 309,000 square km. 15% is mountains, 82% is desert and 3% is coastal plain. Many bedu still live a nomadic life here. I believe I referred to them as bedouin in past posts. Indeed you see the word all the time. Bedouin, apparently according to Masut, is incorrect as it is a double plural. For example, he has five childrens.

The Sultan of Oman is His Majesty Qaboos. His father before him was a strict ruler. He even locked all the gates of the capital, Muscat, at sundown to keep out bad influences. In 1970 Qaboos initiated a coup and had his father exiled to Europe (a similar situation happened in one of the other countries we visited - can't remember which one).

Like many of the Arabian leaders, Qaboos is a kind and benevolent man. Each year he takes a 1 month tour of the country with all his ministers. Anyone who has any issue can bring it to his attention. If it involves a particular ministry, he summons the minister from another tent and it is dealt with. We think WE have a democracy! Unlike the other countries we visited, Oman is 75% Omani with only 25% expats. The country is tolerant of all religions. However life here is still reminiscent of the tribal days. Masut tells us that he his father had 4 wives, so Masut has 25 brothers and sisters. I ask about the relationship he has with the brothers and sisters that are his 'step brothers and sisters' or whatever you want to call them. He says there is no difference regardless of which wife they were born to. It's one big happy family. Family here is very important. They get together frequently and call each other every day...wow! If he calls one 'mother' the other will ask if he has spoken to his other mothers and why not. It's fascinating.

There are 300 tribes in Oman.

The Sultan had one wife only and divorced after a year. His will states who should succeed him. BUT, upon his death all his deputies get together for three days and decide who is going to take the throne ( a family member of course). Only if they can't decide, then his will is opened to pick the next Sultan. That's trust!

We arrive in beautiful, and I mean beautiful Muscat, the capital. It was voted the cleanest city in the world by the UN and I would support that designation. It is immaculate. All the streets are lined with beautiful flowers and palms. Unlike every other city we visited there are no sky scrapers here. All the buildings are whitewashed so it has a Greek Island feel and look. The city is long and sprawling and spans about 50 km along the Arabian Sea.

In the evening we visited the Muscat Festival which was wild. It was us and the locals - thousands of them. I still can't help staring at the beautiful arabic clothing. I have lots of photos which will later demonstrate this. To see a little kid of 10 in his dishdash and hat is adorable.

I come across a bunch of young Omani teenagers. Here, the greeting is a hoot. They rub noses a bunch of times and make kissing sounds. Let me tell you, this is not something you would see in Charlottetown. To see 10 teenage guys going through this process with all their friends is a fascinating site, not to say a long one.

The mother of these young Omani kids insisted I take their photo. She was very proud.

One of my favourite shots of the entire trip. This was in the Grand Qaboos Mosque. I am not sure if the four boys were brothers, but they walked hand-in-hand, without parents, for about an hour - taking in the sights of the mosque.

Young Arabs going to pray in the Qaboos Mosque.

Masut tells us of the greetings here. You have to ask all sorts of questions, how are you? How is the family? How is work? What is the news? This is everytime you meet someone so it all very short with the questions being flung back and forth at the same time to save time. Of course, if you sit for coffee, then you get the real news.

One thing I neglected to mention was some of the local customs of the entire Gulf region that can get you into trouble or confuse if you are not familiar with them.

If you see a woman with a baby and you go up and say goo goo what a beautiful baby etc. you MUST say marshalla three times or you will offend. It basically means "may allah bless this baby" otherwise the mother may think you are jealous and it gets messy. I learned that one the hard way.

Next, I couldn't figure out why the kids weren't jumping at my offer of chocolate bars. I would often be greeted with a polite 'la' (No). Well, it is impolite to take a gift on the first offer, so you have to offer it three times. Three seems to be a signifcant number here. Remember if you say "I divorce you three times", it's a done deal.

Under the category of having just enough information to be dangerous...

I can now have a basic conversation with someone in Arabic. I should point out too that thee is no standard way of writing the Arabic in english so you may see it written many different ways. A good example is the word for market (suk, sook, souk are all seen). Almost everything here is written in both english and arabic - even rural store signs.

As salam allaykoom (peace be with you)

They respond "wa allaykoom salam" ( and peace be with you)

Kayf Hallek ( How are You?)

Ma ismok (what's your name)

kam omroka (how old are you - remembering you are often conversing with kids as they are fascinated by us)

Ism Terry (my name is terry)

Tasharafna (nice to meet you)

Mimkum sura min fadlak (may I take you photo)

Hadiya- shikolat mim Canada ( a gift - chocolate from Canada).

At this point they babble on to me and I remain with a stunned look on my face.
Anyway it is a great way to meet the locals and they really appreciate it. Anyway, a basic Terry with local conversation goes something like this:

A Bedu woman at the Muscat Festival. I bought something from her so she allowed me to take her photo.

Young Omani washing before prayer at the Qaboos Mosque.

Omani men showing the tradional way of drawing water...at the Muscat Festival.

Always working! Our Guides, Aili, and Masut making arrangements for later in the day.

This photo was actually taken in Salalah, Oman a few days after the rest of the photos. This young Omani boy was hearding his flock across the road and had one stubborn member of the flock!

Thursday, February 1 - Dubai to Oman

2007-02-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

We set out for our trip to our final country, Oman. We did another loop around Dubai and saw even more construction. The Burj Dubai is still under construction and already the tallest building in the world. It will be 160 floors. They are building two floors a week.. It will have about 30,000 apartments and there are 20,000 employed to build it. No on knows for sure how tall it will be. They keep those things pretty quiet. The top floor will be some sort of weird expandable thing so if someone in Abu Dhabi builds a taller one, they can trump that!

The largest property developer in the world is in Dubai. As I mentioned on an earlier post, they are building all these reclaimed Islands. Dubai has 74km of coastline naturally, but with all the reclamation, they will have 1600 km!!

The Emirates has the second busiest road system in the world, second only to Hong Kong, with 283 cars/km.

We swung by another camel track. Child jockeys have been officially outlawed as they used to be as young as 2 years old, with the then legal age being 5. The kids would be screaming their heads off and this would of course make the camels go faster. There is actually a law suit pending in the U.S. against the ruling Sheik on all of this. Hence the creation of the camel robot jockey that I discussed in a previous post. You can't bet on the camel races as gambling is forbidden in the Qu'ran.

The ruling Sheik here is the 5th wealthiest person in the world.

A geography lesson:

The entire Arabian penninsula (comprising Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait is 1 million square miles (the size of India) and has 40 million people. There are no permanent rivers or lakes and most of the region is classified as desert. It is 1/4 sand dunes. To the east the peninsula is separated by the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman with the Strait of Hormutz connecting the two. This is a very strategic part of the world as 40% of the world's oil comes through the strait. It is mainly controlled by Iran and is considered a real choke point. If Iran gets worked up and closes the strait we will be looking at $200 barrel oil. The red sea is to the West of Saudi Arabia. Check out the map on the bottom of the blog for more details and double click to make it larger.

Our drive continued through the Hajar mountains. We passed through the Emirate of Fujairah which borders Oman. We drove along the coast and saw the port in the town of Fujairah near the Omani border. This is where a lot of the oil is shipped out to the west. I have never seen a site like this in my life. I counted roughly 400 tankers waiting on the horizon, lines for miles and miles waiting their turn to gain their cargo. It really hits home where the petroleum comes from that we use back home. And this port only handles the oil from this area...most comes through the Persian Gulf.

Crossing the Omani border from the U.A.E. was one of the most authentic travel experiences I have ever had. The particular border crossing we travelled through is seldom used by foreigners. First you gave to get processed out of UAE. Then you go through a second stage exit crossing. It takes a while to process a bus of 17 people, so the impatient locals are getting out fo their cars to see what's up and if they can jump the queue.

Then you cross to no man's land and the Omani border lies ahead. This is where it got interesting. There seemed to be some trouble. There were many phone calls made, many agents showing up, and a very worried driver, Ishtar, and our guide Aili. Appartently, there was a problem with our driver's visa. They would not let him into Oman. No Ishtar, no bus, no entry to Oman.

Here is what I wrote during the long wait, caught between UAE and Oman.

STRANDED IN NO MAN'S LAND:

I write this as I sit in "no man's land' between Oman and the UAE. Ishtar has made the journey many times, but this time they are forbidding him to enter. We've been here now 3 hours. We are waiting for another bus and driver from the Omani side of the border to take us to Oman.

As I write this it is 7PM - a beautiful full moonlit night. I am sitting just feet away from the border post kiosk. The traffic is sporadic. Sometimes occassional, sometimes there is a line to cross. We are the only westerners here. The chief border agent is very apologetic and kind. There is the familiar smell of grain in the air (familiar to a farm boy such as myself) as truck loads of bagged grain pass across into Oman.

I sit between the two Omani checkpoints...not permitted out to UAE or into Oman....where vehicles are having their trunks inspected by guards. It is fascinating to see the locals get out of their vehicles to open their trunks for inspection, dressed in all manner of Arab guard...young and old. They just opened the second lane so I moved closer to the Omani border to get out of the way.

There was a football (soccer) game two nights ago between Oman and UAE so many cars drive by with Omani or Emirati flags hanging out of their window. Some have even painted their entire car in temporary paint with the flag of their favourite team.

Those passing through don't know exactly what to make of us sitting here...waiting endlessly.

Some on the tour are getting restless, but I am soaking up every moment, capturing the sites, sounds and smells of this once in a lifetime event.

The land is flat and barren to the east with the lights an oil refinery glowing in the distance. Immediately to our west is the Hajar Mountains, but a security fence separates us from them. We are not supposed to take pictures, but we do. It's a good thing as the site of us sitting on the ledge with barbed wire fence is priceless.

We are free to move about within no man's land. I offer the guard in his kiosk a Coffee Crisp during a lull in the traffic. The treats have been a big hit all trip...among local kids and Omani border guards! I have prepared a goodie bag for Ishtar for his 3 hour trip back to Dubai.

Heavy trucks are starting to cross now. The sound of gears and hydraulics interupts the quiet calm now and again.

A little boy of about 8 passes by, in his robe and scarf, and smiles.

An old man with a weathered face opens the trunk of his beat up Toyota. It is full of fishing nets.

There is a shift change and the border guards' Arabic is broken occasionaly by "Canada" as they explain this strange situation to their colleagues and why there is this gaggle of Westerners in the Omani no man's land.

Aili and Ishtar pace nervously as they await the bus from Oman. The head guard from the first shift just came back (I thought he had left) and says "No bus yet?" He says he only has one extra room or he'd have us all at his place for the night.

Everyone is telling stories of home and their travels of past. Some are reading, others are napping on the bus. I'm like a kid in a candy store taking it all in.

Ken from Louisville buys us all Pepsi from the sole vending machine. I've exhausted by Marlboro's so Ken's wife offers me one of hers - king size!!

My coffee crisps make the rounds and Lucy offers cheese balls. Three young Arabs just passed by and say "How are you?" to all of us. Friendly folk in this part of the world. They love to see Westerners.

Ishtar changes from his dress shoes to more comfortable sandals. And still no bus.

The bathroom facilities are rather unpleasant so most of the ladies pass on Ken's offer of Pepsi. No toilets...just a hole - common in these parts.

Dinner will be late tonight. Ahhh, it's prayer time....the sound of the Imam calling prayer can be heard in the distance from Oman. Lucy points out that "we've been here two prayers"! As much as I am enjoying this experience, I hope it doesn't last three prayers.........

Well, the bus did arrive to great cheers from the group. Aili kissed the bus upon arrival. There was no trailer attached, like our first one, just a luggage rack. The propects of having our luggage on the rooftop for the 45 mintute drive to Sur, Oman was not appealing especially given the way these folks drive. Alas, we opted to pile it in the back of the bus and cram together.

With a new driver we set on our way through the Omani border without incident, saying good-bye to Ishtar. Thankfully, the detention was just two prayers long!

January 30, Dubai

2007-02-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Today was our free day in Dubai. I slept in until 8:30 then headed for the Souk (market). I poked around the souk on this side of the river, did some shopping, and then took a boat to the other side to the older Souk. The boat ride cost 1 dirham, which is about thirty cents. It only takes 2 or 3 minutes.

I had a mission in the souk. I've had to abandon my very large suitcase as it weighs in at 38 kilos - too much shopping! The doormen are having a great time handling it! I need to lighten up for the internal flights within Oman. It is falling apart anyway. There are these great things here called rice bags. They are made from the same material as rice is shipped in so are strong. They have a zipper and handles and are feather-light. Aili said I could split my one suitcase into two smaller ones to meet the weight requirements. So...the previous day I was in the old souk and visited a shop and bought some stuff. The guys were a lot fun and had a Canadian flag on the shop window (no other, just Canada!). So I decided to return for their help to find these rice bags that are supposed to be everwhere. They remembered me and I received a warm greeting - I bought some more stuff to make them happy and asked about the bags. They sent a kid for the neighbouring shop to find the bags and he was back within 3 minutes with an array of bags.

The opening bid on the bags 150 dirham - $50 which was completely ridiculous, they cost just cents. I gave shop-keeper Zayn a knowing look and he knew I knew the true value. I gave him 20 dirham which is still a great profit for them - they need the money more than I do so no need to get greedy. I then did the hotel rooftop pool for a couple of hours.

At 3:30 a bunch of us set out for afternoon tea at the world famous Burj Al Arab hotel http://www.burj-al-arab.com/

We chose tea as dinner would be about $300 each. Tea was about $100, but well worth it. They present you with all sorts of wee sandwiches (even the proverbial cucumber sandwiches), scones, sweets etc. I could not be this close to probably the world's most famous hotel and not take it in. You can only enter the property with a room or meal reservation.

Needless to say, the place was spectacular. I then took a taxi to the Mall of the Emirates for some shopping. The taxi ride to the hotel took forever. The traffic here is very bad - like LA and the population is supposed to double or triple in the coming years. Yikes!

Tuesday, January 29: Home Base Dubai...day trip out three of the other Emirates

2007-01-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

Today we set out from the futuristic cities of the U.A.E to visit three more of the Emirates. These emirates are smaller, less wealthy and not as developed as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. There are no border crossings between each emirate, nor any real recognition that you have crossed from one to the other except that the architecture may change a bit or there are billboards with different Sheiks from the one you just left.

The seven Sheiks form the grand council of the U.A.E. and plan big picture stuff like foreign policy etc. But each Emirate or Sheikdom has diffeent local laws. It gets confusing what you can do and where. The seven Emirates forming the U.A.E are: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Umm Al Qaiwain, Ras Al Khaimah, Kuhawr Fakkan and Fujairah.

Ajman was our first stop and is the most conservative of all seven as it is influenced a lot by Saudi Arabi. Sharjah is the only Emirate where you can buy alcohol. Ras Al Khaimah is the bread basket of the Emirates and the Hajar mountains border it to the East. We will visit the other three the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow is a free day so I am going to the Mall of the Emirates and do some power shopping and then having lunch at the famous, seven star Burj Al Arab. La de dah. You can only get in to the hotel with a room or meal reservation.

In Ras Al Khaimah we climed a ridge to see the Queen of Sheba Palace which is basically a hole in the ground and there is no evidence that the Queen ever set foot on the place. Some didn't do the tough climb so stayed at the bus. When we came down from the ridge there were 6 local kids there (2 Mohammeds, 2 Achmeds, and 2 Hajans - weird) - they were fascinated with us foreigners as this really was a 'goat village' and this Emirate doesn't get a lot of tourists. I came prepared for such a situation and asked "Shikolat mim Canada?, (chocolate from Canada). The response was a hearty na'am (yes). I climbed aboard and emerged with a bag of Coffee Crisp and Smarties. I asked "Mimkin sura, min fadlak?" (Can I take your picture) and they were a bit hesitant but agreed. Maybe my accent was bad and they didn't understand. Anyhoo, one of the Hajan's came complete with a goat stick - very authentic and adorable.

Their English was basic. They asked where I was from and my name. I asked in English why they weren't in school and one of the Mohammeds replied "We pray". Sure enough as we drove away we could hear the Imams calling the prayers from the mosques. The kids weren't exactly high-tailing it to the mosques.

The kids from the small village near the "Sheba site". They were hiding their faces more for fun than anything cultural.

This is probably a good time to discuss the prayer schedule. There are five prayer times. The first call to prayer is at sunrise and you technically have 1 1/2 hours to to your thing for this first one. The prayer times are listed in the paper each day. There are mosques EVERYWHERE. At least every 1/2 km in a town or city so you get it in stereo. The prayers are broadcast from loud speaker from the minuret of the mosques. Each is 'live' so you get this weird mishmash of sound. It's quite nice and I like it. They publish the times because they are linked to sunrise so change a bit each day.

Most mosques are closed to non-muslims. A few larger ones are open to educate non-muslims or for tourism but they are few and far between.

I found my notebook on the bus, so here's what I missed....

In Qatar we visited the Sheiks Equestrian Club and stables. He has 4000 horses worldwide. I had some 'face-time" with his gold medal horse from the Asian Games. The stables are spectacular and immaculate. He even constructed a training pool for the horses. There are some photos on the Bahrain blog post.

About the weddings....the DJ at the women's part of the wedding in enclosed in a room and can't see the female party goers so has no idea what is going on....he just plays the music and hopes for the best.

The Emir of Abu Dhabi has 4 wives and 16 children. The Sheik of Kuwait (or maybe it was his father - this is all a blur and very confusing) has 12 wives and over 300 children. Each wife has their own palace.

Abu Dhabi has 10% of the world's oil. They produce 37 million barrels a day.

Dubai has 25% of the world's cranes working in the city (remember A.D and Dubai are both Emirates and also the name of their capital cities). You have never seen construction like this in your life. Absolutely insane.

The Emirs here in the U.A.E. can make whatever laws they want. (Emir basically means king). One of the Emirs of on of the Emirates lost his son in a car accident. He was hit by a truck. So the Emir banned trucks from the King Faisal Highway on which he was killed.

There are 119 nationalities in Abu Dhabi, 340 religions, but 90% of the population is Muslim.

We drove by the World's 4th largest Mosque in A.D. You aren't supposed to take pictures, but we did. It is still under construction. It has 84 domes, many are solid 24kt gold. It will hold 30,000. The two contractors who were building it got into some sort of dispute and delayed the progress so the Sheik said, "frig yuz" and started his own construction company.

It is mind-boggling when you think there really wasn't much here 30 years ago. Really, not much more than Charlottetown. Now they have these 'space cities' and growth shows no sign of slowing down - If I returned in two years, I am sure I would be amazed.

Dubai is building the largest airport in the world. Five times bigger than Charles de Gaulle in Paris.

All these countries have the largest male to female ratio in the world. 190 men for every 100 women. This is mainly because there are so many foreign construction and service workers, mostly from Asia. There are entire sections of the city that you would swear you were in Delhi or Bangkok.

That's it for today. Looking forward to my free day tomorrow...sleeping in! I have tonnes of pictures to upload but having some issues with the technology, internet, or maybe it is just me. It's a slow process.

Bye for now from this crazy spot. Here are some photos of the UAE.

This is how the guys greet each other in many parts of the region. Rub noses while making kissing sounds. Pretty funny.

We stopped here for the sign only. The actual crossing we used later was seldom used and had no signage.

The lobby of the Burj Al ArabHotel

In the interior of the UAE - near the Hajar Mountains

Camels and their trainers coming back from practice.

Locals gathering at the camel track- Toyota Landcruisers EVERYWHERE.

Monday, January 28th - Dubai

2007-01-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

Today we drove from Abu Dhabi to Dubai...the second wealthiest of the seven United Arab Emirates. Each Emirate is ruled by an Emir. They are all related somehow. You may know Dubai from the Burj Al Arab Hotel...seven stars, shaped like a sail. Also, from Palm Island as mentioned before.

Again, this country should be on another planet. Dubai and Abu Dhabi (both are cities in Emirates of the same name) compete with each other for the biggest and best of everything. Dubai currently has the world's tallest building, but is building another at a rate of a floor a week. No one knows for sure how tall it wil be....the top floor will be such that they can add to it to keep the record. Dubai is also home to the largest mall in the middle east.

So. We are in the Mall of the Emirates, minding our own business, watching the skiers at the 400m indoor ski hill when we heard this shreiking and saw this muslim veiled woman running after this Arab guy in the traditional dress. He -was going full steam, lifting his robe to get better speed. Of course, events such as this are rare so the entire mall is running after to see what is going on (similar to cars following fire trucks on PEI). We thought it was a purse snatching, but of course that rarely happens here so it wasn't that. Our local guide said the man was probably her husband and he may have just divorced her on the spot. If a husband says it 3 times it is done. Well she wasn't too impressed and high-tailed it after him..shreiking at the top of her lungs............meanwhile, she has left a toddler and baby in a stroller behind. All the locals don't seem to be too concerned or have left in pursuit to see what was going on. None of the locals who are left seem to be too concerned. Well, I can't have this! So, I go over and say in the best Arabic I can OK, No Problem.

Eventually security come and get the kids and there is still no sign of the wife....well, ex-wife, perhaps.

We then visited the showroom of the aforementioned Palm Island. Wait till you see the brochures! We also visited the construction site. So, since the guys from Abu Dhabi are building this Island to be bigger and better than Palm Island, the guys from Dubai are not going to let this go by so they are now building this place called Atlantis with under water villas with tropical fish outside your living room 'window'. Then there is a developement called "the World" which is a whole bunch of Islands that all come together to look like the globe. Rod Stewart bought the UK Island. The whole thing is ridiculous.

Oman will be a bit of relief to go more 'rural' and reasonable.

Dubai architecture

The world-famous, Burj Al Arab Hotel. Burj is arabic for tower.
The Burj Dubai. Still under construction, already the tallest building in the world.
Local gentleman in Dubai

Sunday, January 27th - Abu Dhabi

2007-01-29T09:52:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that I lost my notebook with all my notes and all these countries are starting to run together so my stories might be a bit out of sequence or mixed up, but you get the general idea.

OK. I thought Qatar was crazy.

The Abu Dhabi skyline is completely ridiculous. If Qatar was from a space movie, this one is from another universe. I really can't believe these places exist. This is not the Middle East you are seeing on the news. There is NO crime. NO unemployment. In Abu Dhabi if two people are having a fist fight on the street, the police don't care who started it. Both are deported within 12 hours and not permitted to ever return. That pretty well keeps things under control. Of course you can't drink, partake in drugs etc. Of course, things differ from country to country, even within the seven Emirates. But without exception there is very little crime...next to none. In Abu Dhabi if you are a foreigner and out of work for more than an month, you are asked to leave. Of course, there is work everywhere here. Tourism is really just starting and they are crying for people at the management level or even things like tour guides. The tourism potential in enormous. Locals all have jobs courtesy of the government...or don't work because they are from the ruling family.

Our tour guide for the day was Mohamed. A unique fellow to say the least. He'd be about 25 and was stylin'. He was quite a hoot. He took us to this Island that they are developing to be bigger and better than Palm Island in Dubai.

Here is the Palm Island website.

http://www.palmsales.ca/

The plans are, again...out of this world. I can't quite accept what I am seeing. They are building complete cities within cities. Each country gets more and more 'out of this world'. Sorry to keep saying that, but it is the truth. There is no need to go to Mars or to the future. The future is here!!!!

Mohamad, our guide in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi skyline.

Saturday, January 27th - Qatar

2007-01-29T09:28:00.000-08:00

"This is what travel is about. We strain to renew our capacity for wonder, to shock ourselves into astonishment once again."
- Shana Alexander

Today we continued our tour of Qatar.

The Altani tribe are the ruling family with about 3500 family members. Qatari citizens receive a cheque every month from birth. The amount is not wrtten down anywhere so the only way to know how much they receive is to be close to one of the familyand hope they take you into their confidence. Everything, like education is paid by the state, including university - even if they go to an Ivy League school in the U.S. their tuiton, airfare, accomodations etc is paid.

It has been a cold winter here with nighttime temps during December going down to 6 degrees, where eleven would normally be the coldest. They also had a lot of rain. Things have returned to normal now. Summer hits 45 easy with 100% humidity.

The drivers here are completely nuts. There are about 350 deaths here every year for about the same population of Nova Scotia. No one wears a seatbelt and car seats for babies is unheard of. Similar to the other Gulf States, the actual citizens make up only 20% of the population with foreign workers making up the rest.

Inflation is at about 12%. The government just gave all Qataris (not foreigners) a 40% raise. A villa with 3 1/2 baths and four bedrooms is about $8000 US a month!

Last month Qatar hosted the Asian games, second only to size to the summer Olympics. Sport here is very important. The Qatari's steal athletes from other nationalities, give them a passport and then take back the passport after the event or when the athlete's sport life is over...along with a huge cheque. Money can buy absolutley anything here.

The most popular sport at the games was women's volleyball with all the Qatari men sitting in the stands watching the bikini clad players. Quite a difference from their veiled wives. There were 45 counties competing with 10,500 athletes and 39 sports.

Our guide for the day was French. She lives in a local neighbourhood (not a compound) so had lots of interesting stories about life in Qatar. She told the story of the wedding of the heir apparent to the throne, Sheik somebody. No expense is spared. The family flew to Paris to pick out, among other things, table clothes. They had custom made Channel table clothes at $500 each. As it turns out they didnt' like them so had the table clothes made into aprons for the servers.

The men and women (including bride and groom) never mingle on the wedding day. We saw a bedouin tent being sent up in the desert for an upcoming wedding with persian carpets etc. Most weddings are arranged.. There is no ceremony per se, it's all done on paper beforehand. Everyone arrives in their Toyota Land Cruisers (with the plastic still on the seats!!) and park helter skelter. It's quite a sight as you can imagine.

Then we visited the camel race track. Well. You have never seen anything like this in your life. They stil use some jockeys. They used to use children, but that wasn't cool as the area opened up to the west so now they use robots on the camel backs about the size of a small backpack. I'll try to upload a picture later. Then....wait for this....the owners drive around another oval outside the track....in their Toyota Land Cruisers with the remote control for the robot. It's out of this world. They are probably talking on their cell phone at the same time.

You really can't imagine the wealth here. Qatar is going nuts building. You have to remember that 25 years ago there was nothing here....NOTHING, except a village or some tents. The skyline looks like something from a space movie. I'll post some pictures of the architecture later. There are cranes everwhere. If they don't like a buillding they demolish it. There was one ten story hotel that was 5 years old and they wanted the land for a larger development so the Sheik who wanted the land for his development talked to his cousin the Sheik who owned the hotel and he agreed to pay him the equivalent of 30 year, full occupancy at the the rack rate. They had a deal!

License plates are issued in sequence...so the royal family has the low numbers with the ruling Sheik with #1. Some guy offered hime $300 million for his plate for the right to be #1. The Sheik kindly said...no thanks.

Tonight we flew to the Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest of the seven United Arab Emirates.

PHOTOS OF QATAR:

Sample of architecture in Qatar.

Falcons at the Souk.

This is the robot that sits on the camels during races. These have replaced child jockeys due to public outcry, mainly from the West. It's about the size of a small backpack.

Camel trainer at the track.

Typical Qatari dress for men. I think these were camel owners watching their camels practice.

Qatari kids learning to skate in a mall in Doha, Qatar. Canadians play here every Friday against local teams. Canadians usually win!

Setting up for a wedding. Notice the large, beautiful carpets. Men and women have separate tents. Later in the evening there will be many, many Toyota Land Cruisers parked helter-skelter.

Zig Zag building.

With the Sheik's gold medal winning horse from the Asian Games, held in Doha, Qatar.

Training swimming pool at the equestrian club (for the horses!).

Spices and such at the souk.

Friday, January 26 - Bahrain, onward to Qatar

2007-01-27T09:34:00.000-08:00

Today we visited a couple of traditional Bahrainian homes. It is very interesting to see how they lived (these are older traditional, not current). Most were walled, forming an interior courtyard, with rooms along the interior of the wall and then open to the courtyard. The courtyard allows for the ladies to go about their daily business and be outside without having to worry about being seen without their abiya or veil. Often a camel would be tethred as a pet, and perhaps wool or milk.

The Middle Easterners do not have dogs or cats as they consider them unclean and there may be something in the Qu'ran about dogs, but I am not sure.

In the late afternoon we flew to Qatar (pronounced Cutter). An interesting question arose among our group about the veiled Muslim women and their passport photos and security. Here's the deal. There is a separate room for women to disrobe if necessary. Also, there are separate passport lines denoting "Femal Passport Verification". These are sheilded from the other lanes and staffed by female agents and the women will unveil themselves for the agents.

All in all, the air system here is quite efficient. Security is about the same as home except none of this crazy gel/liquid situation. Passport verification is done with great diligence.

Qatar borders Saudi Arabia. It has about 900,000 people. Only 240,000 are Qatari. The rest are imported workers, mostly Asian like the rest of the region. The Altani are the ruling 'Tribe'. I will leave the rest of Qatar for tomorrow. Get ready for camel racing and falcons.

All in all, this is an unbelievable region. It is totally misunderstood by us westerners. The people are so happy to see us...even the Americans! Each country get crazier and crazier. The wealth is unimaginable and I will write about that in future posts.

Thursday, January 24 - The Kingdom of Bahrain

2007-01-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

Our VIP treatment continued today. We were met at the hotel by a TV crew from Bahranian National TV. They followed us around all day. Everywhere we went the locals didn't know what to make of us. There was a group of school kids at the Bahranian Natonal Museum and the film crew filmed us getting off the bus and the kids asked..."Are you famous?". Cute. Oh yeah, we made the paper too as a result of our photo shoot on arrival. I have a copy of the paper to show all when we return. The TV crew interviewed me too. All in a days work.

We started today visiting the Grand Mosque. It was built in 1988 for $20 million. Today's cost would be about $60 million. A volunteer gave us a great talk on Islam. I had gotten a lot of the background on Islam when I visited Egypt a few years ago, but this was much more in depth. It was a great overview of the religion and he explain how Jews, Christians and Muslims were all really one religion until the time of Moses, when the first spit occurred. I think I got that right. Too much detail to go into, but very enlightening. It really focussed on how we are more similar than different. Jesus is a prophet in Islam and Mary is held in very high esteem in Islam as well.

There has been a lot of disussion on the tour of the Muslim dress for women which I will try to go into more detail later. We also learned the difference between Shia and Sunni which is very interesting and relevant given all that is going on in the "rest of the Middle East". Bottom line is that they are historical/political differences, not religious. Bahrain is 60% shia.

The mosque holds 5000 people and Friday is their day of worship. Most things are closed on Fridays in the Middle East. Almost everything closes between 1pm and 4pm and then everyone returns to work. They go home, eat, pray and have a nap. In the summer temperatures can reach 50 to 60 degrees celcius, so taking those hot hours off is welcomed. Most muslims, even if they don't speak English, know the Qu'ran by heart - cover to cover....even older kids. Wow. I still wonder if I understood that correctly.

We then visited the Bahrain National Museum. It helped inform us of the history of the region and Island. It was the best museum I have ever been in. It is the second largest in the Middle East. The interesting thing in the region is that each Gulf Country tries to out do the next for the biggest this, the tallest that. They have the money to do so, so it gets ridiculous.

We then went across the King Fahd Causeway to the Saudi Arabian border. We couldn't enter because it is next to impossible to get in and they don't really even issue tourist visas. The causeway was built in 1986 for $1 billion US. Oh, gas is ten cents a litre here.

The Grand Mosque

My tour harem preparing to go into the Grand Mosque - a great group of ladies.

Our wonderful guide, Aili.

Our TV crew interviewing a sweet shop owner that we visited. This guy was actually on the cover of one of the big international travel magazines. He showed it to us and was very proud, as he should be.

This is as close as we got to Saudi (except that I will touch down there on my way home, but we won't be able to get off the aircraft.

At the Sheiks camel farm. White, black and brown juvenile camels.

Young camels frolicking.

Wednesday, January 24 - 6PM Gulf Time - Bahrain

2007-01-24T07:08:00.000-08:00

Today we flew from Kuwait City to the tiny island Kingdom of Bahrain, situated in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain is frequently called the Pearl of the Arabian Gulf and is an archipelago of 33 low lying Islands in the heart of the Gulf, offering a blend of ancient and modern. Bahrain is connected to Saudi Arabia a 25 km causeway - both a symbolic and virtual link between Saudi and Bahrain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain

I thought Kuwait City was something.

Bahrain is even more spectacular. Bahrain was the first of the Gulf States to discover oil - in 1938. The City is very modern. There is construction everywhere - the same was the case in Kuwait City. One difference though is that you wouldn't see many Kuwaitis working, except in cushy government jobs. Here, Bahrainians seem to actually have jobs. You might even find one driving your taxi. That would NOT happen in Kuwait.

The city has one of the most spectacular skylines I have ever seen. There's no such thing as a basic skyscraper. The designs are creative and unusual. The most spectacular are two 60 story triangular shaped buildings - still under construction - that were designed so that they harness the winds off the gulf. There are three "bridges" that connect the two towers. Then, they will place wind turbines on each bridge to generate power and the buildings will be self-sufficient for power. I've never seen anything like it. They have it all figured out over here.

Bahrain is growing, literally. They dredge sand from the gulf and replace it to enlarge the Island through land reclamation. They are building an entire financial district using this method.

Tonight we meet up with 8 more on the tour who were not on the Kuwait extension. We have a Moroccan dinner tonight. Last night we ate Lebanese at a favourite restaurant of the Kuwaitis. It was neat to eat where the locals hang out. There, locals might be distant relatives of the Royal Family. About 80% of the patrons were in their traditional dress with the rest decked out in their designer clothes. We were joined for dinner by one of the directors of the tour company here locally, Sleeman.

Sleeman is Lebanese but has worked all over the world. We had a great chat about the tourism industry in the region. In addition to providing in-bound travel services to folks like us, he books travels for the local Kuwaitis. Even having done that for several years, he still speaks with amazement about their travel habits. One client paid $200,000 US for 30 days in London. I asked about the planning cycle for travel and he said it was 'short'. Clients often call him from the airport to book a month somewhere. He also books school travel trips for Kuwaiti kids. When Kuwaiti school kids fly...they fly business class.

A few other things that I forgot to tell you about Kuwait. The retrieval of my luggage was no big deal. The hotel drove me to and from the Airport to collect my bag so it was not nearly the adventure of the previous evening. Also, I had the opportunity to use an Arabic phrase that I had learned to throw at my taxi driver of my arrival night. "La hawla wala quwwata illa billa". It translates to "There is no power, but that of Allah". It is used at the arrival of the unforseen and to help defeat feelings of frustration. It seemed appropriate for the circumstances and he appreciated the gesture.

I awoke my first morning in Kuwait to see on the front page of the Kuwait Times a photo of an American who had been arrested for selling drugs. He was on his knees, with his hands tied behind his back and was in front of a large banner of the Justice Ministry. All the seized drugs were spread out in front of him in the foreground. The whole thing had shades of those terrorist/hostage videos/photos. He will be executed. Maybe hung in the park next to the Sheraton - that's where they used to do it. They sure don't fool around here.

Kuwait is a dry country, both literally and figuratively. There are no natural water sources. All water comes from the Arabian Gulf and is desalinated in huge facilities. Also, alcohol is illegal. Our local guide, Eddie, who has lived in Kuwait all his life and is Catholic said he has a well stocked bar. As long as he keeps it in the house and keeps things quiet he gets no trouble. I didn't ask who his dealer was, but he seems to have a reliable source! Although he has lived in Kuwait all his life (he is of Indian and Portugese heritage), he's not a Kuwaiti and never will be. From what I can figure out, only those connected to the Royal Family are Kuwaiti and can have citizenship. Most have at least 4 houses in Kuwait alone - not including vacation homes around the world- and 3 or 4 cars and a bevy of foreign help.

We also drove by a huge oil refinery complex. I mean HUGE. It went for miles. It was destroyed by the Iraqis as they retreated when the Americans came to liberate Kuwait.

Back to Bahrain. Today was a free day so I walked around the city and along the waterfront. Bahrain isn't dry and many Saudis come over the causeway to "party" and do stuff they can't in Saudi Arabia - like drink and go to movies. Our hotel is a hotspot for Saudis with 7 bars and dance clubs. Our guide for the whole tour, Aili, is from Vancouver and said we should check it out as it is quite a spectacle to see the Saudis let loose.

I guess I neglected to mention our unusual arrival to the Kingdom of Bahrain. Aili said that there would be a surprise for us upon arrival. We were met my some Sheikish looking guy in his white dishdash (robe) and headscarf. He was from the Ministry of Information. They were doing some filming for tourism promotion and we were the eye-candy. They gave us a VIP reception and a photographer from the local paper was there - again, some guy, kid actually, in a white dishdash and red headscarf. We will be in the paper! Flying into the Island I saw the US carrier group that have been stationed in the Gulf to piss off the Iranians. I assumed it was US as there was a large aicraft carrier and I don't think these countries' navys have them.

So far I have been diligent in respecting the Muslim custom of 'not showing too much skin'. It wasn't an issue in Kuwait as it was only 20 degrees or so. It is much warmer here in Bahrain and I'm not sure I am going to be able to keep it up. I've seen a lot more westerners here - many wearing shorts and t-shirts so things here seem to be a bit more relaxed.

Today on the waterfront I saw a woman jogging in her black Abaya and veiled. Only her sunglasses and Nikes showing. Crazy.

Well, the Internet cafe I am in has little booths with curtains and is creeping me out a bit so think I will go back to the hotel and get ready for dinner.

This picture doesn't really do justice to the buildings.

A closer look. Notice the propeller mount on the bottom bridge.

Part of the new financial island. Notice the three Sheiks waving from the building on the left.

Greetings From the Middle East

2007-01-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, January 23rd - 6:00pm Gulf Time (Kuwait City)

Hello from the Persian Gulf and welcome to my travel blog. I never thought I would have a blog, but it seems the best way to keep everyone informed of what is going on in my world these days.

The above map shows the countries I will be visiting with a rough itinerary mapped out. Double click on the map or any image to enlarge.

A few housekeeping notes. The blog was written while on the road during my three week adventure. I have now returned and have begun to revise and improve, putting more images and cleaning up all the errors made in typing and facts while trying to first find internet access and have the time then to record my experiences. I feel what I wrote on the while on the road only began to describe my adventures.

I write this now after returning to Prince Edward Island and have now been home for 24 hours. It is actually February 11 as I rewrite the beginning of this first post. Over the next two weeks I will be gradually updating the blog, starting at the beginning. So if you check back each day or two, you will see many changes including many, many, many more photos.

Thanks to everyone for your comments about the blog. Sharing my adventures in the Arabian Peninsula has been as fun as the actual experience.

Thanks also to everyone on the trip. This includes the tour gang and especially Aili for leading us, as well as some of the phenomenal people we met along the way - many of whom I hope will get a chance to see this and participate by commenting or sending an e-mail.

Also, some of the description on the blog (anything italicized) is taken from Adventures Abroad materials. This is the tour group I went with. I just couldn't improve on their description, nor can I say enough about them. Here is their website and anyone wishing to travel to this region would be 100% satisfied to choose them.

http://www.adventures-abroad.com/newweb/

Finally, this was a whirlwind trip through five countries that have many similarities as well as many differences so I have tried to keep the facts straight. Just e-mail or comment on any errors and I will correct immediately.

I hope everyone enjoys this blog and I help introduce you to this magical, mysterious, sometimes crazy, and often much-misunderstood part of the world.

You will notice that from here on in there will a mixture of writing style. Some was written during the trip. Other parts were added later.

_______

Let's start at the beginning. Almost without exception when I told anyone to where I was travelling I received the same response - a look of astonishment with... "Are you crazy...why would you want to go there?".

Why not? Life is an adventure.

The region has always fascinated me so I decided to see it for myself. In the days ahead I hope to share some of what I see and experience.

To begin, I arrived safely. I wish I could say the same of my luggage, but I will detail that later. My flight from Frankfurt to Kuwait City was full of wealthy Kuwaiti kids returning from a weekend romp in Europe and US soldiers being mustered in Kuwait to move into Iraq. It was quite a contrast. Before leaving I wondered if we would fly over Iraq. Indeed we did - right over Baghdad according to the map on the screen of the aircraft.

I found me a taxi and set off for my hotel....or so I thought. The very elderly Bedu gentleman spoke no English and, somewhere, something got lost in the translation and we ended up at the wrong hotel By the way, to get into this hotel compound we had to go through a checkpoint, pop the trunk and hood, while soldiers with mirrors looked under the car for anything unusual.

As the driver pulled up to the hotel, I said "La" (Arabic for "No!") and showed him my hotel name from my reservation. He couldn't read english so this was of no use. Fortunately I had the hotel phone number. Fortunately again, before leaving Canada, I learned my arabic numbers. Well, the titling of numbers is a long story because arabic numerals are really the ones we use in the west. Check out this site for an amazing and fascinating discussion on this.

hhtp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals

So I transcribed the phone number for him into "Arabic" . He called on his cell and we were in business. Oh yeah, my luggage didn't arrive. It didn't make the Frankfurt connection. I would have to RETURN to the hotel the next night. I was really looking forward to that.

The next day (Sunday) I slept until 1pm, explored a bit and then met up with the group for dinner. All Canadians and Americans. There will be 15 of us by the time we reach Bahrain tomorrow evening.

So, Kuwait. During the Iraqi invasion, Kuwait City was extensively bombed and damaged. Buildings were fired upon, set alight, and demolished; roads and bridge links were the target of explosives, and landmarks were defaced. After the invasion, foreign investors and the Kuwaiti government are actively involved in modernizing the city and transforming it into a world-class, state-of-the-art business hub. Today virtually all traces of the invasion have been cleared, and consstruction cranes dot the skylline. Quite remarkable when you think that eighty percent of the city was destroyed during the Iraq invasion of 1990.

Three excellent sites to tell you anything you want to know about Iraq, from its fascinating history to all sorts of stats, can be found at:

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ku.html

www.arab.net/kuwait/index.html

The population of Kuwait is 2.5 million with about 80% being foreigners, mostly Asian, who work in the service industry. Kuwait City is quite large, but only has a permanent population of 50,000 as everyone lives outside the city.

The city is a strange mix of tradional and modern culture. It is not uncommon to see two young Kuwaiti friends walking together. One in the tradional dress and the other in blue jeans. Similar with the women. Everywhere you see women dressed and veiled in black with only their eyes exposed. You will also see women who look like they just stepped off a Paris fashion runway. It's a surreal mix, but seems to work for everyone.

Today we visited three museums which gave a nice background and history of the country and region. One museum, the Tareq Rajab Museum - a private collection of the Rajab family - had an unbelievable collection of ancient Islamic art. Here is their website http://www.trmkt.com/startmain.htm

This particular museum is tucked away and is mostly underground. During the Iraqi invasion, the soldiers came and said they were going to take everything, even though the Kuwaitis had put up false walls to fool them and protect the priceless antiquities. They were smarter than that and knocked down the wall. The commander, however, was an educated, cultured man and it is thought that he prevented the looting by his soldiers.

We visited the Kuwaiti towers and went up the 180m largest tower of the three. These were also badly damaged by the Iraqis when they pulled out. Most of the damage was interior. They used the towers as a command post because of the 360 degree view of the city.

We also visited the fish market/auction and a souk (market). That was/is day one and we are having dinner tonight and then flying to Bahrain, an Island state in the Persian Gulf.

PHOTOS OF KUWAIT:

Bedu tents on the outskirts of Kuwait City. We drove out of the city to see the Islamic museum that was saved from looting my an Iraqi and the oil refineries.

One of the oil refineries on the Persian Gulf on the outskirts of Kuwait. Along the way we saw many beautiful villas. This is where we got to know our local guide, Eddie Fernandez, and took the opportunity to grill him on life in Kuwait. The first of many guides and drivers that we bombarded with questions.

Fish vendor at the Fish Market in Kuwait

These are photos of pictures that were inside the observation level of the Kuwait Tower. They show the destruction the Iraqis did before trying to flee from the U.S. Military during the liberation of Kuwait. The quotes on the plaques were amusing as the wording was a bit humerous and with considerable passion. Wording like 'total destruction' and 'shameless attack"

Date vendor in Souk. This was the first picture I took of a local in the region. I offered him a small tip to say thank you but he would not take it. The first of many to decline a gift.

This was the view from my hotel room in Kuwait City. We were in the business district. A nice hotel. This was taken the morning we left to fly to Bahrain. I often would go down to ground floor to have a cigarette so I got to know the 'door kids'. They were all Indian and Bangladeshi. Amir was the brightest guy of the bunch and very warm and kind. I think their boss up in the reception area (I guess the equivalent to me at the Centre) was a bit of tyrant. This resulted in an incident surrounding the ordering of the car to take me to the airport the second night to get my luggage. I was waiting in the reception for Amir to get things sorted out and there was as some sort of weird phone call between boss guy and Amir, then boss guy yells "Come up here". Then Amir was in his office for 10 to 15 minutes with the door shut. Anyway I would have great chats with Amir and his friends about their live here and their families back on the Indian continent. Thise was the first of many interesting encounters I had with the people living (both foreigners and natives) in this crazy part of the world. I tipped the door kids well. A few bucks was worth more to them than it was to me.

At the Kuwait Towers. First day of organized touring.