The Middle East: A Different Travel Experience

We returned a couple of weeks ago from a 20 day cruise throughout the Middle East.  We flew to Dubai and were treated royally by two former students, Adam, and Anthony, who live there.  We went a few days early and were hosted by Adam and his family in his home. Anthony was a magnificent tour guide who had lived in Dubai for seven years--Adam has been teaching in Abu Dhabi for almost four years.  It was wonderful seeing Dubai and Abu Dhabi through their eyes.

Dubai is definitely not our cup of tea.  My mantra during the entire time there was :fake, fake, fake.” It is as if they transformed the desert into the most “un desert like place possible. Who needs a ski lift inside of a shopping center?  We did not even bother to see it. The entire city was far too much excess for our taste.  The workers, of course, are on the low end--many live in camps, and are brought to Dubai just to serve.  If we had flown to Dubai and that was our destination, I would not have been happy.

Our cruise began there, and it was probably one of the most interesting trips we have taken.  We visited, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Oman, Fuijarah, went through the Suez Canal, Saw the Red Sea, I think we were in nine cities in various countries.  Loved being in the Muslim world, and seeing it for myself. Wore my abaya in the Grand Mosque, and observed the culture of the Muslim countries.

Enjoyed seeing Jerusalem, Sea of Galilee, River Jordan, and other parts of the Holy Land.  Did not like seeing the barbed wire topped wall which separated Palestine, but that is a story for another time.

I loved the sounds of the minarets, loved talking to the people, was not frightened when we had a machine gun toting security guard on our tour bus, did not mind having to have our passports with us in Egypt and Israel, never felt threatened, even when we went to Sharm El Sheik only accompanied by a young Egyptian cab driver, loved Oman--loved finding out that they are descendants of Ethiopians.

Loved not hearing the name of the occupier of the White House the entire time.  When My President was elected, and we travelled, everyone wanted to talk about him. We were very close to Syria when he made one of his pronouncements (I have deleted it from my head).

We also went to Dubrovnik (we had already been there, and walked the wall), Crete, and Venice--we did get off the ship and it rained, just as it did when we were there before.  However, it is still a fascinating place and the ship was there overnight (as it was in other places).  Crete was nice, but nothing beats Santorini (which we visited before).  We flew from Venice to Dublin, just because it was an option.  Spent the night there--arrived, took a hop on hop on bus for over two hours, went to a pub for dinner--souvenirs for the grands and back to the hotel--a real whirlwind.  Loved it--very green, more pubs than churches, informative cab drivers, both of whom love living there.

I had a running commentary on Facebook, and have probably forgotten so many details.  So glad that we went when we did--glad we did it from a cruise ship.  An interesting, but not for the inexperienced traveler, IMHO.