ToewsTravels – Page 39 – every country or bust!

oman!

i got up really early in dubai, and made my way across town to catch my bus to muscat, oman, about a six hour drive to the east. at the border, an omani guy wearing coveralls meticulously scrounged through every last pocket and every piece of clothing in every bag on the bus – needless to say it took a while. then all the bags were lined up in a straight line on the ground, and for some reason it had to be a perfectly straight line, and a cute little dog was brought out to run back and forth about 80 times, sniffing for drugs i guess. once in muscat, i found myself an inexpensive hotel, the conditions of which i will not disparage you with. it is very hot here. i’m also dealing with the inevitable onset of gastrointestinal issues… but overall all is good. muscat is a very interesting city that is full of contrasts. on the way in, we passed some of the most impressive steel and glass luxury car dealerships that i’m sure exist on the face of the earth, but the downtown souks are basically no different than probably existed here a thousand years ago. there are over a million people living along a 50 km long strip known as greater muscat, but you’d never know it because its basically a bunch of little towns separated by huge rocky mountains, successfully making it seem like you’re out in the middle of nowhere arabia. i really like it. the buildings are all white and subtly arabesque, apparently because everyone here belongs to a form of islam that prohibits outward glamour in any form. i went to the fish market, where they bring in the freshly caught fish and barter for them. i also went to the sultan’s palace. intruigingly, there is this one part of town that is off-limits to visitors; it is inhabited by a secretive islamic sect that came here from iran. when one walks by there are big barriers so you can’t see down the streets and old men that sit there and glare at you until you leave. needless to say, oman is a very interesting place. tomorrow i’ll hang out some more, then take the afternoon bus back to dubai, spend the night at the airport, and fly out early in the morning to doha, qatar, and then nairobi!

uae slaves

i wish i could remember more of the arabic i was supposed to have learned in egypt. i’ve had some interesting convos with people here in dubai; many of the immigrants here are very interesting people.

there are slaves in dubai. rather than people actually owned by others, think laborers who are promised a good life and living if they come – only to have their passports taken away by their employer when they arrive and forced to toil in far less than ideal conditions for many years simply to earn enough to pay their employer back for their ticket and visa to come. for a very informative, albeit long perspective on some of dubai’s problems, read this: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html.

surely dubai is far from perfect. just wanted you human rights advocates out there to know that i know that. the human rights violations are often terrible and atrocious. on the other hand, the oft-held perspective that every laborer is a slave of sorts seems a little on the pessimistic side after walking the generally happy streets of the rougher parts of town – everyone is not depressed and oppressed and, after all, people choose to come to dubai for a reason – a lack of opportunity where they came from. there are people in america and canada too that are trapped in cycles of hardship – and alot of the time its not any one person’s fault. i think we would all do well to pray for the oppressed in this world, whether they are in dubai or anywhere else, and be thankful that we are lucky enough to have our freedom.

a day in abu dhabi

sheikh zayed grand mosque, abu dhabi, united arab emirates

i took a bus from dubai to abu dhabi (two hours away, but in the middle east that’s more like four), mostly to see the brand new, entirely marble sheikh zayed grand mosque, the largest mosque in the uae and one of the largest in the world. it was truly impressive, and air conditioned too! interestingly, the city of abu dhabi is on an island, and is developing almost as fast as dubai onto the islands around it, such as yas island, where they built a state of the art formula one racing complex. apparently, abu dhabi wants to avoid dubai’s rampant and some would argue unthoughtout development track, focusing instead on “culture” – like the world’s largest guggenheim museum and a new louvre museum, both of which are currently being constructed. a very interesting place. i then walked the entirety of the abu dhabi corniche (took some hours longer than i thought it would), ending at another fabulous mall. i love this country, if only for its malls!

everyone in the uae is from pakistan. or bangladesh

it’s great being back in the middle east – the sheesha smoke, the way everyone seems to be asleep at two in the afternoon but wide awake and out on the streets at two in the morning, the way buying anything or going anywhere invariably takes about ten times longer than it should, and of course, the heat. i love it!

carrying on from where we left off, the next day i decided that i needed an unobstructed view of the burj al-arab, dubai’s iconic and massive sail-shaped ultra-luxury hotel that sits on its own little island in the persian gulf. the problem is, such views can only be had from the beachfront of one of two other luxury hotels, which are very strictly “exclusively for guests.” and since being a “guest” for a night runs into four digit territory, i wasn’t going to be accessing these beaches the conventional way. i tried a side entrance first, but alas was rudely turned away after being asked for a room number. i then went to the front and, waiting for security to be adequately distracted, walked briskly through the lobby, trying to look as much as i could like an important but underdressed businessman who had just jumped off a flight and was late for an important meeting and would be very angry and possibly cause someone to loose their job if they tried stopping him. remarkably, it seemed to work! its amazing how much more respect one gets once inside an exclusive luxury hotel…

for those who may be questioning my morality, and i know you’re out there, i would like to relieve you in that i did not partake of the complimentary food and drink inside, nor did i actually use their beach. i just wanted a picture-perfect view of the beautiful building, and it did not disappoint.

i then went to another large mall, the mall of the emirates, which is famous for its indoor ski hill and resort. i spent the better part of the next day searching for the oman national transportation company office where i could buy some bus tickets to oman (the best directions i could find online as to its whereabouts were rather vague). i finally found it in a run-down part of town, cleverly disguised on the outside as a stationary store. i then explored a few more – you guessed it – luxury malls! i also watched the new movie avatar in 3d, because i really wanted to see it.

hi from dubai!

i arrived in dubai in the middle of the night. they have a brand new metro system, so i figured i’d just take that into the city from the airport. but the airport station was still under construction, and i couldn’t find a bus stop or anything, and no one seemed very keen on answering any questions. i didn’t really know where i was going, so after storing my large backpack i figured i’d just start walking, as i’d rather walk aimlessly for the rest of the night than get ripped off by a taxi driver and then walk around aimlessly for the rest of the night. so i set off down the freeway from the airport (there was a little sidewalk alongside), and into the wonderful world of dubai! after a while i found a bus stop, and figured out the bus to take and everything, but then that bus came zooming by without stopping or acknowledging me in any way, so i gave up on that idea. i followed to road signs for the part of the city where my hotel was – they took me through a huge interchange – but you know how sometimes on those interchanges the roads do big loops and figure eights and whatnot? well, needless to say after 45 minutes of walking i found myself back to basically where i had started. and the same thing happened later that night (different place obviously) when i went back to the airport to get my bag and had to find my way from one terminal to another. anyway, i eventually i found a metro station that was open, and it was the most impressive thing ever. a brand new, fully automated (the longest in the world) metro system! i later learned that there was a station open at another terminal at the airport.

i then went to deira, the part of town where my hotel was, to look for it. but i didn’t know where it was. the best i had was a memory of its general location amongst a tangle of streets with arabic names. i searched the chaotic streets and souks of deira for a couple hours looking for it, which was rather fun! deira has a similar vibe to cairo, ie, a lot dirtier and chaotic than i ever imagined dubai would be. i finally found the hotel, a seedy little place that seems to be popular among africans but no one else. the entirety of this part of town has many poor arabs, indians, southeast asians and africans, but no caucasians or emiratis (the only actual citizens of the united arab emirates, who wear these huge white flowing sheets for hats, tied up with camel hair, and gracefully walk around like they own the place [they actually do]). from what i’ve seen, all the emiratis and white folks hang out in the gourmet restaurants and the malls. and they love their malls! i found that out when i then went to dubai mall, the brand new and extremely opulent largest mall in the world, which includes an aquarium and huge skating rink among many other things. the best part is that it is built at the base of the brand new tallest building in the world, the burj khalifa! it is probably the most beautiful building i have ever seen. it was so tall that i had to walk about three miles away just to take a picture that would include the whole thing! then, in the evening, there was a water and light show set to arabic music on the huge lake that partially surrounds the complex. when the fountains reach their climax, it is the tallest fountain in the world, shooting water 500 ft in the air! i then went back to the airport to get my bag, getting lost again as previously mentioned, and then finally, after being awake for 45 hours and on my feet for the past 20, got to sleep.

world’s largest indoor ski hill, dubai mall

last day in london

on my last day in london i went down to greenwich to see the prime meridian. i also went to the maritime museum. the great thing about london is that all the big museums are free! on the way, i stopped at canary wharf, which is a huge development where all the big banks are based. it is probably the closest thing europe has to an american downtown. it was foggy and all the skyscrapers were cloaked in fog – beautiful. then that evening i went to camden town. this is the place one would gravitate toward if one had a tattoo of a welsh dragon tattooed across one’s face, a fluorescent red show-hawk to show off, a studded dog collar around your neck that is a few sizes too small, a disturbing sexual fetish, or perhaps an urgent need for some hard drugs. you get the picture. of course, you can go there if you follow a more normal lifestyle as well, and just do some shopping for a ramones t-shirt or something. truly an eclectic place.

the next day i took the train to gatwick, and left london 🙁
i flew on airbaltic, a latvian low cost airline, to riga, latvia. i navigated the riga airport with a british couple who were on a quest to watch an ice hockey game in every country where it is played. for some reason the diminutive airport seemed a lot more complicated than it should have been – we needed to take three different buses between terminals before finding the right place. despite the fact that the whole airport only had about ten gates. i bought a stale sandwich containing lots of butter and a few thin slices of pickle which the wrapper claimed to be the best latvia has to offer – i sure hope its wrong. i’m sure it is. then i flew to dubai!

daytrip to oxford

i took a day trip from london to oxford. it is a nice little town/city northwest of london that is uber famous as you likely know. apparently twenty-something prime ministers of the united kingdom have gone to school there, as well as some other notables such as benazir bhutto, indira gandhi and many others! i learned some interesting things – there are a large number of “colleges” spread about the town (actually there are so many that the town is basically filling the little gaps between them) – when combined they make up oxford university. i basically just walked around there the entire day. oh yes, i also climbed the spire of a little church for a fantastic view. the bus to get there ended up taking three times as long as it should have because the freeway was backed up. this is because it snowed again last night. all people here can talk about is the weather, and its not even very cold. i take that back, it is rather cold (considering i didn’t bring a coat).

london!

hooray, i’m in london! i got in rather late on friday, and made my way, with very large backpack on back and smaller one in front down the piccadilly line to these wonderful people’s house that i am staying at. i was careful to “mind the gap” as i “alighted” (brits and their phrases and fancy verbs). on saturday i saw a ton of stuff – piccadilly circus, big ben, parliament, the london eye, st. paul’s cathedral, westminster abbey, and got lost a bunch, which was great. and of course i also had some fish and chips. it started getting really cold (there’s snow on the ground, which apparently never happens here), so i stepped into the tate modern for a couple hours and appreciated some modern art. apparently its so cold that kids aren’t even going to school. sunday i went to a baptist church just around the corner; i am staying with the pastor. he had a fantastic sermon! and everyone was, rather surprisingly, very friendly, although with all their accent and british mutterings and whatnot i had to truly focus to comprehend. and then after church i was invited for lunch which was brilliant! it was some older people from the church that were over at the pastor’s house for lunch, and i must say that it was quite the prim and proper ordeal! lunch followed by these fantastically ornate traditional desserts and then orders for tea; stretching on into the late afternoon.

then i went back into london, and saw some more things like the tower bridge. after which i fled from an altercation with a drunk bloke outside a pub (i did nothing wrong, i assure you). the next day i went down to trafalgar square, feasted my eyes upon the overrated beauty that is buckingham palace, and then got lost searching for this massive department store that i have heard so much about called harrods. when i finally found it it did not disappoint! absolutely everything one could ever want in one building, and the best brands and all out luxury at that. also varieties of cheese that apparently can be found nowhere else. not that i was prepared to buy anything, buts it was fantastic! then i went to the british museum for the entire afternoon, and gazed upon such objects as the rosetta stone!

the next day i went to the american embassy to get some pages added to my passport. after going through all the craziness just to get in, i had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, but i had forgotten some info, so that must have got them suspicious. the guy asked me probably 50 detailed questions about my life before acknowledging that i might be who i said i was. but then as i was waiting he got talking to his colleague, and they started pointing at me and getting all concerned looking. then he called me up again and got all up in my grill, asking all these involved questions like why this and why that and then why are you doing this that way and not that other way like we think a person in your situation would naturally do this thing. my goodness. finally i escaped and walked in a general direction for basically the rest of the afternoon, ending at the new british library where i peered at the magna carta. it was a successful day.

tell you what, food is expensive here! i have basically just been eating kebab sandwiches (because they seem to be the cheapest food ) whenever i get hungry at the arab eateries that are ubiquitous in the less glamorous parts of town. it is great because it reminds me of egypt.

iceland!

iceland is a wonderful place! i flew out of jfk on thursday night, and arrived at keflavik the next morning. after waiting in line for an extended period of time at customs i took the bus into reykjavik, arriving at around 8 am, and everyone was still sleeping! i wandered about aimlessly looking for some substinance, finally finding a subway restaurant that was open where i inhaled a turkey sub. it was still pitch black; and didn’t become daylight until 11 am! no one came out unto the streets until that time either, and all the stores were closed too. after getting lost on some dark backstreets, i found my way downtown and chanced upon the althingi, the icelandic parliament (according to the icelanders, theirs was the first democracy in the world). there is a wonderful frozen lake in the middle of town, as well as a huge opera house on the harbor that is “under construction” – perhaps to remain that way forever – it was being financed by a huge icelandic bank that lost all of its extensive european assets as that big 2008 financial bubble burst. found myself what turned out to be an excessively small coffee (may have been made up for by the fact that the young lady serving it may have been excessively attractive, a trait seemingly shared by all icelanders). then i climbed a huge hill to a massive cement church that overlooks reykjavik for a fantastic view. across the bay is a very intimidating mountain range called esja that is perpetually clothed in a blanket of luscious fog. i then proceeded to follow a road that i thought might lead somewhere, and it turned into a major freeway that was quite unexpected and impressive, as i had been previously unaware that there were enough people around to warrant such infrastructure. apparently there weren’t enough walkers to warrant a sidewalk however, and i found myself wading through salty slush up a large hill for far too long, jumping off the road each time a truck approached. anyway, when i reached the top there was another great view, and i found a geothermal pool to sit beside that was emanating heat, as well as a couple attractions that happened to be closed (like a lot things seemed to be). then i had to head back to the airport. despite the fact that there are only a couple hours of daylight (which were still rather dim), iceland was a great place even in the winter. actually, it wasn’t even very cold (maybe two degrees celcius), because of the moderating ocean currents.

budapest

my dad and i stopped in budapest, hungary while riding trains around europe.